I'd like to offer some insight into my heart. My favorite songs of the week right now are "Death to Traitors" by Beloved, "Where the Streets Have No Name" by U2 (yes i admit it!!) and whatever Track 13 is on Madison Greene's old album "Think the Dancer's Mad". Track 14 too! Oh Michigan music so close to my heart. We'll also add every song ever written by little Few and Far Between since I'm kinda in the Michigan mode. Yes. Fewbie. <3

I rode my bike home tonight in the dark wearing way to few layers to be even KIND OF comfortable while freezing rain cut across my face and into my eyes. My shoes were as wet as canvas gets, not like my socks cover anything anyway with my ratty old pair of Tom's, and my glove-less hands were white and numb to the bone practically frozen to the handle bars. Was I miserable? Noo... I don't care what anyone says, U2 makes me feel like I'm in a movie and that I'm cruising toward the warm roads of Georgia. I breath and I smell sweet grass and cotton, I listen and the Atlantic's roll past, I squint and the car's lights rushing all around me are still, stationary, pick up truck spotlights illuminating the stage in the Lynch's backyard for AGAGAG headlining yet another backyard brawl. Thank you U2, for singing me home. Tomorrow night, Beloved. Saturday, Maddy Green. Sunday, Skynyrd.
I'm not from the South but I claim it as part of my upbringing. If anything, Georgia kept my college years ah... dirty and wholesome at the same time. I felt much more at home there than I feel here anyway.
Don't judge me and my U2.
haha

We could be closer than you know,

Two Creek Canyon Hike

This is a shot of a trail in Two Creek Canyon. You can catch up with the trail about a mile and half from my apartment downtown. Kim and I rode our bikes to the trailhead and took off on a lovely Sunday hike. How amazing is it to have that just down the street and a way cool chica to explore it with!

It was like 70 degrees out. Yay warm days in late autumn!

Kim and the trail looking back toward the city.

We could be closer than you know,

Halloween 2009

Yup.
haha

SAN DIEGO for Lauren's wedding October 15 2009

Lauren, Newbie, and I at their wedding reception.
WOOOOOO LAUREN GOT MARRIED! Holy moly one of my closest friends got married and I was honored to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. I jumped on a plane and got to San Diego the Thursday before the Saturday wedding. The plan, show up, settle in, bachelorette party, help prepare for wedding, wedding! It was nice to fly somewhere for once instead of drive.


When I landed in San Diego I had to make my way to Encinetas. This means a bus, a train, and a bit of a walk. Good thing I only packed a backpack. The public transportation system was super easy to manuver and the train, the Coaster, was just lovely. You could compare it to Salt Lake City's "Front Runner". I sat on the top deck and was blessed by a lovely view of the coast along the way. Thus the name "Coaster".




After seeing a surfer moon the entire train and walking a little around downtown Encinetas I made my way the half mile to the hotel and checked in. There was going to be 4 of us staying in our room so I was happy to see two queen sized beds. Lauren, her sister Lillis, Briana (lauren's cousin) and me. Yes that's right ladies I was the last person to share a bed with the bride before her wedding! haha. That thursday night we batchlorette partied it up. Sorry, I cant say what we did...


The next day was a serious prep day with Lo's family. Her mom and dad came from the Congo and her sister Lillis came from Kenya so it was amazing to spend time with them and a rush to get everything done.

They don't look like they're from Africa at all ;) I love them.

We had the rehearsal dinner and I got to know some of the other people involved in the wedding. Good times. Good peeps. The rehearsal dinner was beautiful. It was a warm warm day and the evening was still 70 degrees or so. Our main light was candlelight and I loved hearing what everyone had to say about Lauren and her (then)fiancee Newbie.






So Newbie was like the total bomb. He was personable, good looking, and he seemed patient and honest. What he said at the rehearsal dinner was lovely and very insightful. I got to know him a little better Friday night after the rehearsal dinner. They opened up their new apartment to us all and we played guitar and sang and chilled. It was so refreshing! I am so proud of them and so happy that Lauren has such an amazing (now) husband!!! AHH! It's just crazy. Anyway..

The wedding was beautiful. It was on the lawn of their church that overlooks the city and the weather was hot and perfect! Lauren had us dance down the isles with our groomsmen and mine dipped me! We were for SURE the best dancers ;) well maybe. lol
I almost cried a million times during the ceremony. It was perfect. We decorated the whole place with wild flowers and there were butterflies everywhere. One even almost landed on Newbie during the ceremony. My fav part was that they wanted to do communion before they had their first kiss as husband and wife. That meant a lot to all of us. It was perfect!!!!!! Good job you guys and thank God! Lauren's brother who was stuck in Texas due to flight problems even made it JUST in time to see the ceremony. Praise God!





After the wedding we cleaned up and headed to a park for a potluck reception. It was perfect... except for the BEERLYMPICS going on right next to us. lol it turned out to be a good thing. They even provided the music for the first dance. I can't wait to get all of the pictures (not sure how to get them). We decorated Newbie's truck and sent them on their way. Ok, so, no joke, the second they left FOG rolled in- SO BAD that you could bearly see 10 feet in front of you. Good weather for the whole thing and the second it was over FOGGY- so much fog that when I finally made it to the ocean it was bearly visible! haha. So much fog that all of our flights were delayed HOURS. The night before, though, I meandered into a free concert at a downtown coffee house and there were peopel from the wedding there! I chilled with them then went out to pizza with some more of the wedding party. Lauren, your friends are the bomb.
Next day I made it home on time even though flights were delayed. What a wonderful long weekend.

Lets do it again!
We could be closer than you know,

SOZO Sacramento September 22ndish

Krissi (pictured above with me), her husband Tommy invited me on a little adventure to Sacramento for a retreat... of sorts. I didn't know if I could go but after a little convincing I was on board. One round trip ticket to a ride in a packed explorer 12 hours there and back for a quick weekend. I'm in!

At first I thought it was just going to be K, T, and I but, when the car pulled up to pick me up early Friday morning, I realized every seat was taken. 5 people, 5 seats, 12(or so) hours. That's ok. I was down. Reminded me of that time we drove with a packed car 7 hours just to get hawk some Waffle House in Fort Collins. Good times! I hoped this would be just as good.

The drive was amazing. It brought back lovely memories of when T and I did it for our 2 year anniversary trip to San Francisco in the spring. We went the exact same way and took the exact same way back, the long way around Lake Tahoe. mmm.
The other two people in the car were Grace and Connie. It was Connie's car and she did most of the driving (thanks Connie!). They both turned out to be SUPER COOL and I'm so glad they were along on the trip! Connie, Grace, Me, Tommy, Krissi
Once we got to Sacrament we checked into a hotel and headed over for registration at this church that looked like a futuristic moon building or... like a giant gold armadillo. lol


The whole weekend was for this seminar, of sorts, that dealt with SOZOing. SOZO means to save, heal, preserve, and make whole in Greek. In short, the whole seminar was about forgiveness and how to help people into forgiveness. What I got out of it was a real revelation. I never realized how unforgiving I've been in the past 2 or 3 years. Technically, ever since the brake up I went though with the guy I dated for most of my college career, I've become a total bitch. Well not TOTALLY but I got sick not too long after that and forgiveness was not on my forefront of thought. I wasn't even thinking of it at all. It wasn't like I was CHOOSING not to forgive, it's just like I forgot about that all together.

The SOZO seminar helped remind me that, without our willing act of forgiveness, we are unable to partner in Love with the Lord. By being unforgiving we are imprisioning ourselves. It's crazy. I never thought of it like that. Like I am seperating myself from God's love with the more grudges that I hold. Crazy. So after I got back and processed the whole weekend I started really talking to God and forgiving the people He brought to my mind. A few specifically and probably more to come. It was amazing because I released them to him and blessed them and forgave them and it actually worked. Not just kinda like "ok i feel better" but I saw two of them that same day and I didn't get the usual choked up feeling or ANYTHING for that matter. It didn't bother me. I didn't think about them once for the rest of the day and it just wasn't a thing. During the process I asked God to replace the grudge I had, or whatever, with something good from Him and he did! For example, for one of the people I forgave He replaced my grudge with Joy and I couldn't stop laughing. Anyway, what a great retreat but I'd be lieing if I said it was a breeze. It was hard to take it all in at once but once we got back and I went through my own personal SOZO and then one with Connie and Grace, it was amazing to see the Lord move and work. AWESOME!




So on the way home we stayed with a family friend of Tommy's. Or his family or something. He lived in the biggest house I've ever been in AND they had like miles of land for horses and all sorts of cool stuff. It was amazing. His little daughter's room was bigger than my entire apartment... and it was pink. lol
We headed back Sunday and made it home by the evening. Good times.
Thanks Krissi and Tommy, Connie and Grace! I'll never forget the SOZO trip to Sacramento!
We could be closer than you know,