awesome.

The latest addition to my bedroom.
Sometimes you just need a reminder.

find it here.

hard times.

I was listening to the latest Gillian Welch album on the way to work this morning and this song sort of punched me in the face.

I haven't been able to stop listening to it since.



Hard times ain't gonna rule my mind.

needs more mud.

In early July I ran the Dirty Dash and I don't know what came over me when I decided to sign up for it  because:

1. I don't like to run
2. I also dislike being dirty

So, it makes perfect sense that I would sign up for a 10k run (which could not have been more than a 5k based on the lack of time it took us) where I had to crawl through mud and other obstacles, right? Right. That's the power of Groupon, folks. Groupon and Natalie telling me that if it ever came to Seattle I needed to do it.

Of course I was totally nervous leading up to it and I informed my teammates on the car ride down that should I end up stuck in a mud pit somewhere, they should just leave me behind. Save yourselves! They reassured me that I would not die during this race.

Here we are pre-race (minus LH). Yes, I know I'm standing awkwardly far away from CK. I blame the nerves.

The race started with us running up a dirt mound and sliding down the other side. Insta-dirty. Other obstacles included rolling through muddy water under some tubes, climbing over wooden walls, jumping over massive tires, more mud pits, more wooden walls, crawling through tubes on our hands and knees, sliding down a massive blow up slide and finally wading through a knee deep "pond" to cross the finish line.

Blow up slide.

I won't deny the fact that I had to talk myself into getting dirty at first. My natural instinct was to run around the pit of muddy water instead of rolling through it. It's just something I usually avoid. But that was half the fun of it, so we did what we had to to makes sure we were covered in mud.

Our group post blow up slide, pre-wading through the final pond.

Notice how I'm just slightly less dirty than CK? No matter how hard I tried I couldn't convince myself that I wanted mud on my face. Maybe next time.

Official Dirty Dash photo. Post-race.

I only ended up bleeding in two places, but the next day when I went to get in the shower I found some of the worst bruises on my ribs and hip bones that I've ever had. Remember that tiny, baby moment when I thought there was internal bleeding? Yeah.

I guess it's not as fun if you don't have battle wounds to show for it.

the time utah almost convinced me to move back.

I spent last weekend in Utah, and had the most fun I've had there in a long time. I don't know if it was my mental state prior to arrival or the fact that Seattle hasn't gotten the memo about summer or if it was something else, but it was a perfect weekend. There's nothing about it I would have changed.

The weekend involved the following:

• Staying at Em's house. She loves robots and the number five and is a great hostess.
• A four(ish) hour visit with one of my college roommates, Audrey. She has three adorable children, including one that I met for the first time. I wasn't feeling 100% while I was there and stopped in the middle of our conversation and said, "I just need to lie on the floor". She thought nothing of it and we just kept chatting away - her on the couch and me on the floor.
• Two things as a follow-up to that 1) I love how there are people who you always feel comfortable with even after not seeing each other for a while and 2) I love that I have people in my life who love me for me and don't bat an eye at the fact that I stopped our conversation and crawled onto the floor.
• I bought eye patches for my nephew's third birthday pirate party.
• Ate at Cafe Rio.
• Bought my nephew a sweet dino toy that he called a dragon. To be fair, it was only a "dragon" when it had armor on but when he removed the armor it was a dinosaur. It was a hit.

• Attended the aforementioned pirate party dressed in my best pirate gear, which was really just an eye patch.

• I had my first experience with a dance game on the Kinect. The highlight was my nephew dancing to "Hey Mami, You Sexy", to which he did surprisingly well, and then afterward walking up to his mom and repeating the words to the song. Except his version sounded more like "Hey Mami,  you lexy".
• Shopping in Park City.
• Buying a 1 Terabyte external hard drive. That should do it.
• Chips, salsa, Diet Coke and molten lava cake from Chili's. Dinner of champions.
• Seeing The Help. It's worth it. I cried at least four times - as in wiping away tears, not just getting misty-eyed.
• Nightly midnight snack of the fry/frosty combo.
• Attending church with the family while wearing a dress with the zipper halfway open. The zipper got stuck and there was no fixing it.What's a girl to do?
• Falling in love with my nephew, Bruiser. (Is that still what we're calling him on the internets?) He is SO, SO adorable. Just imagine this: a nearly one year old, blue-eyed, smiling, chubby-cheeked, middle two finger sucking baby. With pirate tattoos. Ugh. Love him.
• I attended my first concert at Red Butte. It was the perfect summer evening: Stars. Crickets. Live music (Brandi Carlile). A crowd that danced and sang along. Good friends/family. 

•  Stopping to see Tatum and her family on my way to the airport. It was rushed, but it's always so good to see them.
• Nearly missing my flight due to a crazy security line. But even being nearly the last person on the plane, I still got an aisle seat. High five.

It was a much needed and perfectly timed break from life.

conversation of the day.

Scott: Camping and hiking is with you.
Me: Oh, right! I have doubts that will actually happen.
Scott: Why?
Me: I don't know...do you have a time frame in mind?
Scott: Not yet.
Scott: Are you getting married anytime soon?
Me: No.
Me: Thanks for pointing it out.

star wars.

My computer's hard drive has been full for quite some time.
And it's been causing me stress for quite some time.
I'm sure you all think that's ridiculous since external hard drives are cheap and blah, blah, blah, but believe me when I tell you it's been complicated.

That and I'm sort of technologically slow. Oh, and stubborn.

Anyway, the good news is that there is now space! Which means I've loaded oodles (yes, oodles) of photos from several cameras and SD cards and my phone going back to early Q2 (yes, I'm speaking in quarters).

Here are some fun ones I discovered from my visit to the Star Wars exhibit (yes, Star Wars) in April.

Double date.

I was trying to appear tough. But that will never happen.

Do I know anything about Star Wars? Not really.
Have I ever even seen a Star Wars film in its entirety? Possibly the first one. Which is actually the fourth or something. Who knows.

But TN was moving soon and he wanted to go and sometimes you do things because your people are excited about it. And I have to admit, I had a good time.

However, you still probably won't catch me watching Star Wars on my own just for funsies.

want.

Isn't this darling?
I'm convincing myself I don't need it.
But I sure do want it.

find it here.

sounds about right.

find it here.

be careful with me.

First of all, I decided today that I want to be Patty Griffin. She's adorable. She has great style. She sings beautiful songs. What else is there?

Second, this song is my new obsession.
I mean, that chorus? YES to all of it.

Be careful how you bend me
Be careful where you send me
Careful how you end me
Be careful with me



It's true all the time, but especially lately I feel like I just need to play this song before interacting with anyone -- half as fair warning and half as some sort of contract.

All the girls working overtime
Telling you everything is fine

Right? Right.

conversation of the day.

Me: I'm going to have a breakdown when I turn 30.
CC: Really? Mine's going to happen at 29.
Me: Why, because your planets aren't aligned? Something is in retrograde?
CC: Well, Mercury is in retrograde right now. But I'll be coming out of a Saturn return.
Me: I don't even know what this means.
CC: Google that sh#!.

and when the 'mallow's flamin'...

Attention Internet: It has come to my attention that today is National S'mores Day.

If you know me, you know I love a good s'more. In fact, in an effort to more readily enjoy them, I have perfected the art of the microwave s'more. (For those who are wondering, 11 seconds for one marshmallow. You're welcome.)

But now I know there is an entire day dedicated to expressing our love for this delicious treat. You'd better believe I'll be celebrating tonight.

Below is the only picture I could find of me enjoying a good s'more. I'll have to remedy that.
(PS - Short hair!!)

married is married is married. is married.

Well, folks, it happened. L&P got themselves married last weekend.

Everything went smoothly. They day was beautiful (despite some clouds early on). The bride was beautiful. They were happy. And I was glad to be a part of it.

Of course LL LB was keeping things classy with her bedazzled bouquet and borderline inappropriate cake topper.

Brother Jared snapped some photos while we were all waiting our turn with the official photographer. This might be one of my favorites ever.

THE POINT.

Speaking of this lady, I was fortunate enough to spend the weekend with her. It's always a pleasure. There's never a dull moment and we're never short on laughter. Please see exhibit A below (don't be mad, Em).

Congrats to the happy couple!
Here's to hoping the next roommate I have for six years is a man. A man that I'm married to.

conversation of the day.

While having a discussion about Shark Week (as well as discussing hopes and dreams of one day seeing Bear Week come to fruition) and whether we'd rather die by shark or bear, the following took place:

Me: Don't get eaten in the ocean Tom. I'd be pissed.
TN: If I do, just know that I went down fighting.
TN: Like a man.
TN: A man being eaten alive.

There would be no doubt.