fully

don't you love camp jewelry?

i got really scared about a year ago that i would die before my life was fully lived.

so this is what the "saying yes" to stuff thing is all about.

today i chaperoned some kids at a day camp for much of the day.  i was bummed at missing so much work time, and SUPER bummed that i had to wear jeans and a t-shirt (i found some snakeskin jeggings and lula loaned me her beloved chewbaca tee, so it worked out okay, but not good enough for a blog pic, my kids informed me.)

canoeing skillz

up in the canyon, i watched the campers scream and play and delight in dumb little games and camp songs and the antics of cute the teen counselors, and tried not to worry about all the work waiting for me at home.

why is recreation so hard?  or is it just me?

i also hung out and chatted with the three other chaperones, really cool women from my neighborhood who i could talk to several times a week, but i don't.  i get so thickly wrapped up in cotton worries and stop getting out, emotionally and physically.

i really enjoyed getting to know these women better.  so why not do it more often?

a year ago i made the decision  to live more fully in the world.  i've made some progress in this direction, but there's a long, long way to go

and hopefully

i'll get there before i die. . . .

a break/through?

ingrid's key lime pie, garnished by anna

i was lamenting to julie about last week's boredom.  no drilling company, shakespeare in the parking lot, no plethora of coffee shops, no unbelievable numbers of creative music concerts or experimental theatre festivals here, like julie turley has in just a ten block radius from her apartment.

but then i somehow got to a place where i could chill and enjoy what i have right now a little better and have had a fantastic weekend so far.

we spent the day up in woodland, utah with my cousin brent touring his farm, where last year they won first place in the world cheese competition for their smoked cheddar.  we canoed, collected eggs, rode the atvs and ate a ton of fantastic & truly artisinal cheeses.  i'll write in more detail about that later.

steven's scarf as tie look at provo bicycle collective

last night was a cool evening at the provo bicycle collective, followed by ingrid's amazing key lime pie.

tonight lalage plays in salt lake city.  wish julie turley could be there.

tomorrow is ingrid's birthday, and there's so much crazy baking going on at our house.  lula just made meringues, ingrid has half-made a coconut creme pie, and she requested some lemon curd strawberry cupcakes for her 20th birthday tomorrow.  i'm not sure what those cupcakes will entail exactly, but i'll figure it out.  ingrid told me last night, that, as she only has six weeks left with a kitchen before returning to bryn mawr,  she has decided to carpe diem, or as she sad it, "carpe kitchen."  thus her baking mania was born.  which is cool with me.  a little messy and a little pricey, but fun.  and pretty, and delicious.

so, more details to come.  i've had an unexpectedly busy weekend.

out of context--final boulder post

 

back to my happy place

living in nyc was hard.  i was caught up in the minutia of daily life & surviving the mean streets of a much less gentrified nyc, & i didn't get out as much as i should have, & i didn't appreciate the intensity & grandeur of that place as much as i should have.

when i visit now, i can't even imagine that i didn't love every minute of my life there.

when i went to boulder, living in a rural town & milking goats seemed like the most magical thing in the world.

i'm sure it's not.

& i'm sure it also is.

a student wrote today in her boulder essay, "boulder seems like the most perfect place in the world.  probably because i don't have to live there."

that insight made the whole class laugh.

isn't it true: that we rarely really appreciate where we're at until later?

for tonight, i'm going to my happy place to combat the pre-travel jitters and stress of leaving my kids, planning itineraries, budgets, contacting friends and associates, etc. by going to my happy boulder place in my head.

happy place:  burr trail outpost in boulder, utah with honey rhubarb crisp & local characters

(and attending the walden art show, featuring work by students of our very own guest blogger josh graham.)

tomorrow, i'll be in my other happy place, new york city.  all the happier because i will just be pretending to live there for a week, ignoring all the quotidiana back home, getting to stay up as late as i want, & hanging with my girl julie.

legwear:  taking the red-eye leggings

looking forward:  to seeing julie

inspiration:  happy places