Dear Friday {Life Goes On}

Dear Friday, 

Where do I start?  

(sigh)

I don't know what's wrong with me, I hear this blog calling me and I have things to say but there's some defiant little self-sabotaging brat that keeps coming along and kicking me in the literary shins. 

I'm not any closer to choosing a new direction.  

I have this tick-tock calling of something (what?!)

something new that keeps nagging at me. 

I wake up dreaming of a life other than the one I'm living in...

But I'm in the life that I'm in right now, 

in the time that I'm in right now, 

in the place that I'm in right now

for a reason right now. 

Trust the journey. Isn't that what they say? 

(Who the heck are they anyways?)

Earlier this week, I googled "the best decision I've ever made"  and it gave me this answer.  A literary spunkarella that drew me in with her creative prowess.  Hooked.  I emailed her. I know she's part of my journey somehow. 
What did I tell her?  That I feel like I'm not even at a fork in the road.  I'm at a 20-lane intersection, clear of traffic, and green lights in all directions.  Standing there, directionless, the world at my feet but with an uncalibrated compass in one hand  and the map from the glove box of the Griswold family station wagon in the other. 
I feel like there's no cohesion, no lines, no boundaries,  and the expectations are blurry.  Yeah. Blurry.  I'm having a hard time focusing. 
Even now, it's not even Friday still in some parts of the country.  Hell for that matter, in some parts of the country there aren't even lights or heat or comfort.  I can't even get the Dear Friday letter in on time. 
Those are my thoughts, but what's happening in my life?  Well, one thing that is most than and more than worthy of mentioning. I've written about it before, but I thought I'd have more time to prepare my thoughts. 


LAST Friday, when I was going to reintroduce myself to this weekly,  a text message pulled/ripped/yanked me out of bed after just one hour of sleep.
Uncle Mickey passed away at 827 this morning. 
Whaaat?!  They said 3-6 months. We had what? 8 weeks?  He was just at lunch yesterday. I didn't go.  I thought I could just see him the coming weekend.  I called him the afternoon before to tell him that I'd see him soon.  He didn't answer.  The events of that day are imprinted on my mind and in my heart.  The scene that replayed itself every time another family member arrived to say their goodbye.  That's a blog with a it's very own blood shot, tear stained, big & beating emotional heart. 

In my family, we have a strong Christian faith.   We believe in the Lord God and in eternal life.  We mourn for our missing of one of the best  brothers, uncles, fathers, friends you could imagine  but we don't fall into sorrow worrying about his soul.  We prayed he would go before the pain set in and made his last days agonizing. Our prayers were answered.  It was quick and merciful. 
So...death is a part of life.  And life goes on. 
My week went on this week. Uncle Mick was one of my biggest cheerleaders,  so I didn't let him down. I did my monthly run, a 5K at Folsom Lake.  My first significant activity on my bum knee.  I made it - wet, sandy, muddy, slow, and lopsided, but I made it  and earned my favorite finisher's medal to date.

Wednesday was Halloween, I busted out a creative makeup muscle ...and I handed out 1,000 coloring books, 1,400 balloons,  and buckets of candy downtown.

Then I got a pretty rad, awesome, compliment yesterday.  Yeah, I said rad and I said awesome! Psyche!

Next Friday is the service. Next Friday may or may not be an entirely different blog.  However, next Friday will be further proof that life just goes on. 
Til then...

coffee date: {grateful}

It's been a while since I've linked up with  Alissa @ Rags to Stiches for a coffee date,  but I'm totally in a fall coffee kind of mood and I want to share today. Over a venti Pumpkin Spice Latte  (my favorite coffee ever! oh my be still my beating heart!!!) I'd tell you: 
I did the math last night and realized that I am working a 70-hour work week this week.   It's kind of a hazy blur, and yeah it's a lot of crazy hours, but I'm managing OK.
It'll make my weekend that much sweeter when it finally gets here.
I'd tell you that in what down time I had this week:
I've caught up with old friends in email and text,  checked a few things off my to-do list (like renting a textbook for my new major in Business Marketing:  back to school after 10 years of this full time+ career and I'm excited!) read some great new blogs, made myself a blog button,  and finally caught up on my She Reads Truth Proverbs Daily. 

I'd share that today was Proverbs 27 and verse17 has been finding me all yearlong.
"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."  
A constant reminder that the people who are falling in & out of my life  in person & here in the blogger world are all there for a purpose. I'm starting to see how some of the dots of sadness and disappointment are connecting  into a bigger picture kind of woven story that's all my own.

I'd tell you that despite these long days:  I had a great dinner with my friends Carrie, Jacob, and their baby Olivia.  I woke up to a picture of cute baby Owen the other day.  The clouds and sky all this week have captivated me. I made it to the gym to run twice early in the AM after my shift. I saw my childhood friend who was having her first kind of great day after the last couple of months of chemo/radiation. I spent time with my Uncle.  Time with him will be gone sooner rather than later.  It's bittersweet.  We have peace in knowing he'll go to a better place, but we will miss him.  Our law enforcement community lost another patrol officer due to a senseless gunman.  It is happening to often and a loss of one is a loss to us all.  It makes my heart heavy. I held back tears when a friend told me nonchalantly that she prays for me everyday.  I didn't hold back tears when another friend thanked me for loving her and her family unconditionally and that a quick email to check in on her early at 5am was a major comfort to her when she really needed it.  Timing. My other lesson this year.
Finally, I'd tell you that this has been a busy week but when I sat down to write this coffee blog,  I realized how grateful I really am and should be. 
I have a good, reliable job, a house of my own to live in,  precious friends & family that love me, and I have a lot of: goals, ambition, dreams, and opportunities that have yet to come to light. 
I hope you all have had a great week and good weekend that is still yet to come.  <3

{Dear} Friday v.4

Dear Friday, well hello there.  I thought you might never get here, but you never fail me. You see I have finally resigned myself to your late hour, having made it through the day and the week.  Dear Red Wine, yes you, I like your sassy bottle curves and your sneaky little smile.  Mmmm...  

Dear Billy Currington (double mmmm...), if you could only see me spinning around this big candlelit room with a glass in my hand, well, that voice of yours is always doing something right.   Dear Sore Body, yeah, you.  You keep wanting to give up on me one muscle a a time, but surely and slowly we're getting it back.  No, no.  No more giving up and giving in.  We're both in this for the long haul.  I have to live somewhere, and it's not longer going to be a lazy garbage dump.   Dear Lynn, Jill, Ashley, Gail, and Michelle, thanks for the nods, the emails, the kudos, and the encouragement this week. Dear Aunt Liz & Uncle Tom, thank you for the invite.  Tomorrow's Cal v. Nevada College Football game is going to be quite amazing.  Somehow I have managed to make it to 31 never having been to a live College Football Game.  I think it's high time to do some jumping, shouting, and screaming!!   Dear Summer, I am sad to see you go.  I feel like we were just getting comfy together.  I can't believe you're gone again.  Like another lost love...*sigh*, but I have hope you'll be back some day.  Hopefully sooner rather than later.  You know how much I love you even if I sometimes complain about how uncomfortable you make me. Dear Family, we knew it was coming, let's make the best of our time with our blessed, sweet Uncle Mickey.  3-6 months isn't a long time, but it's an invitation to make the most if it and so many people don't get that at all.  Don't be afraid.  There's nothing to fear.  It's just going to hurt for a while.  Don't let it disable you from spending the few good days and moments we have left with him.   Dear Louise, you didn't get a warning.  No one should ever outlive their children.  I can't think of the words to say to you to help be a comfort, other than you have my thoughts and my prayers.  Dear readers, whoever you are.  Tell the people you love that you love them.  Whether it's the actual words, a kind gesture, a moment of time our of your day dedicated to thinking of them and simply saying that they're on your mind.  Do it.  Do it now, do it consistently, do it sincerely   


Hoping everyone has a great weekend! XO, 

bad days & {band-aids}

Aaaahhhhhhhhhhh.... I just need to take a breath here to start with.  Things are a little bit funky around here.  and I ain't talking about the dishes or the laundry.  I dunno...these things happen.  I'm just feeling kind of defeated lately.  Not enough time in the day.  Gaining weight rather than loosing it even though I'm trying more lately.  Got some other relationship schtuff going on.  It's the end of Summer but I feel like it just started. I miss...things, people, amenities... Meh. 
Somewhere around 1am Wednesday,  a call came into work  about some dogs howling like they were in distress. The neighbor thought it was my dog and me in some kind of trouble. Can't be...the dog was at my sister's and I was in the dispatch center until 0600.  Sent a couple of patrol guys over to check things out.  Yes indeed, there was a little dog behind the fence at the vacant neighbor's house. Lemme give you a little preview of the all-night serenade:

By the time I got off, the little yappy cute thing had dug a hole over into my yard  and was hanging out on my side of the world.   And there was not one, but two of these little guys!

The neighbor's AC was on too. Suspicious.  Squatters.  That's a possibility.  Yeah, this neighborhood is getting all rolled up in a nice little hand basket for a 1-way trip somewhere here real soon.  Real soon.  So I put in a call of my own and request for a house check and headed off to canvas the neighbors.  Said foreclosed on neighbor disconnected all his phones,  so there I stood in my driveway trying to track him down via Twitter at 7am.  
FTW is going on?  Early morning emergency tweeting? 
Of course, I was almost late to my gym appointment like I am nearly every morning.  I dragged in like my shoes were covered in cement. This time it was like when you tell the teach that your dog ate your homework.  Well, Trainer D, I'm late cause I was waiting for the po-lice, my very own partners to come do a security check on the empty house next to me for squatters.  He just shook his head as he placed a barbell across my shoulders,  resting at the back of my neck.  You got squatters huh?   Well get to squatting.  A small scowl crossed my lips as I realized there was not getting away with anything. As it should be. 
60 sweaty minutes later I was on my way home and on the phone with animal services.  Checking over the fence to see my new little friends, I gave them a couple of treats, and then saw a number on their collars.   Before I could make it in the house to call, a van pulled up and a window rolled down. A series of questions about the dogs the AM disturbance, were they mine, etc, etc... "oh you work for the police department, lemme ask you a question."   6 questions later and having to defend both the Constitution and local law enforcement while standing on my front sidewalk still in gym stank clothes, I was finally released from Q&A. Dog retrieval was a success after getting a hold of the owner (an out of town firefighter just getting off work), the pound is called off, I made it back in the house for a second time this time with a grateful handshake and a smile. 
Fastfoward to 4pm, got some sleep, (like alllll day sleep),  but woke up totally dehydrated and sore.  It was a draw. Figuring that a few errands would help me feel productive, I headed out.  I needed a pick me up and fresh flowers and some Zac Brown Band, well there ya go.   insta-mood-lifter Well kinda...there's some lyrics in some new songs I've heard this week,  they just kinda got to me.  I'm telling you, sometimes a good cry is all you need. So I did.  I was just having a good ol' cry and let-it-out session by myself in the house.
It was short lived 'cause then  my sis dropped by and we got to chatting about...I dunno, sister chat stuff.   "I want a Mcflurry," she says, "you want one?" I don't think I spoke, I just grunted "Oreo" Yeah...see that funkiness I droned on about in the beginning of this saga? Yeah, Mcflurry ain't on the clean eating list folks! It's not rocket science why I'm not loosing the weight!
Soo...elbows deep into planting some new flowers,  my sis headed off to McD's for some treats.  15 minutes later the phone rings.  "My car broke down in the drivethru." (short pause) "Did you get the Mcflurries." > ha-ha!< 10 more minutes later, I'm on my way to save my ice cream from melting pick up my sister.  An hour later, it's not the battery, it's some other mechanical dilemma aaaaand we're I'm laughing.

{Briana is not amused by my picture taking, as you can well see...Not.Amused.At.All.}

{This is Briana again, calling Bubba, the mechanic while I make faces in my camera phone.  Picture 2, me listening to Briana's impression of Bubba, and finally picture 3, me laughing hysterically and Briana still talking like Bubba wathching her car get towed away.  I died a little.  Died of laughter.}

And I repeat she said, "All I wanted was a McFlurry!!!"

Poor thing broke down in the drive thru, four cars behind her, had to be pushed out of the way by an employee, after she just put $600 into the car last week for some other stuff after breaking down on some sketch road in the Bay Area, and she has a last minute 4-tooth wisdom teeth removal next Friday. Oh yeah, and we're going to Vegas in like 3 weeks and all of her fun money just keeps going down the drain. 
{if, for the life of me I can figure out how to upload the audio clip of her impression of Bubba, I swear, I will find  away to put it here.  check back...it is hilarious, sweet death in the McD's parking lot kind of funny}
Listen, these things...they make me laugh. Stray howling dogs and Mcflurry rescue missions. 
I swear, even on bad, funky days, Life (see: God) has a way of patching up the rough spots with some funny schtuff.   A good ol' comedy bandaid was exactly the right treatment. 
You know what they say: Laughter is THE best medicine.

{9} Loves

It's Tuesday and time for the weekly You Challenge

it is Week 2

and (in no particular order) these are my 9 Loves:

1. Great writers, like Andrea Balt who blow my mind with pieces like:

The Crazies Manifesto

that inspire me to write like this: Stand UP

& Tyler Knott who makes my heart beat a little faster when I read his words:

Source: google.co.uk via Lucy on Pinterest

2. My family 

{these are just the regulars ,^ that's my mom!^  this family goes on and on and on...}

3. Coconut.  Yes, the tropical fruit. 

Just a few months ago my aunt told me that I got it from my Grandpa Joe.  

He was from the Phillipines and he had a serious love of coconut flavored anything 

Apparently, it was in his blood and that's why it's in mine too. 

{this is my Grandpa: Joseph Prado Aquino}

4. Music - it floods my ears, my house, my car, my life

...oh let me count the ways I love, love, love music!

What's the quote?  "Music is love set on fire"

You get my drift. 

5. Travel - do I even have to explain this? <3

Source: prettystuff.tumblr.com via Lauren on Pinterest

6. Summertime - sunshine on my skin, BBQs, kids out of school and free, July 4th, my birthday, tans, popsicles, beachy hair, lazy days, pedicures, sundresses, flip-flops, trips to the beach, concerts in the park, good times, good friends, great weather, oh Summer, may you always come around every year to remind us to be wild & free.

7. Tattoos - current count: {10}

{flower tattoo/Hawaii, compass rose tattoo/Austin, my back, my quarter sleeve front/back, my 31st b-day present}

{two foot tatts/2 ankle tatts, my sister and I have matching Celtic knot tattoos for sisterhood, my tatts on display}

8.  my friends

need I say more?  I didn't think so.

9. I love this house, this is my dream house.

 I don't even know where I got this picture, it's been downloaded on my computer for a number of years now, 

so if I'm infringing on anyone's copyrights, forgive me. 

I have dream - of a house like this, on a big piece of property where the weather gets a little sticky, the days are a little slower and easier, all of the neighbors are at least "down the road", and all of my loves, old and new come to stay, come to play, and come to make happy memories.

10 1/2 (oops) 9 1/2...thunderstorms...oh, I love thunderstorms.

They are like fireworks, I just stand and stare in awe. 

<3

PS - it's also the day for the GFC Blog Hop with Melissa,  don't forget to head over there and say hi!!

take me out the to the {ballgame}

For the sake of simplicity, I took a little Blogger break this last week,
but I'm back and I have things to share.
like...

Last Tuesday night.

It was on my calendar for the last few months.

The Annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Night hosted by the San Francisco Giants.

It's tough to be a public servant these days.  

Financial shambles make people do crazy things, 

and well, we're even more damned if we do and especially more damned if we don't.  

Crime, it's not down despite what the media would have you believe. 

Staffing is lower than it's ever been. 

The inherent dangers are increasing along with the line of duty deaths.

{every game starts with a motorcade that lines the entire outfield, the National Anthem, and the Pledge of Allegiance}

So when there's a public event that recognizes the sacrifice made every day by the people I called colleagues, locally and nationally, it's one to be honored.  

Yes, indeed, this is a good time every year and that's exactly why I go.

For a good ol' American good time.
It's BBQ, beer, tailgating, garlic fries, peanuts, ice cream sundaes, friends, family, 

and the greater Bay Area Law Enforcement Community.  

Other than that, I think there's scoring involved?

Some kind of competition?
Balls?  Bats?  I know that they run around the field and stuff.

{see look, there's some kind of running around going on out there behind my $10 beer!!}

Seriously, I don't honestly even follow baseball.

I'm not a fan, but I'm not not a fan.
Baseball is America's past time and I'm very much an all-around American kind of girl.

{it couldn't have been a better day for a game, the weather was perfect!}

The National Anthem always gives me the chills.  Always.

 I'm not a big ol' flag waviin patriot, but that song, well yes, I do bleed Red, White, & Blue.

I appreciate all the men and women who have lived and died for that flag, for this country, for those colors.  Our flag, my American flag, long may it wave.

The rest of the album I created over the course of a few hours was a little self indulgent,

 but I was: 

1) drinking

2) with a bunch of my friends and co-workers

3) a girl armed with a camera phone

and last but not least

4) having a damn good time!

The Giants won.  I know that much.  The score?  I'd have to look it up.
But the memories, yes, there are a few, not withstanding the dead battery in my car when we got out of the game, but even that was no big deal.
The lot was full, we weren't going anywhere fast as it was. 

{This stadium, in this City by the Bay, it's a thing of beauty I tell ya.
A bona fide, American iconic thing of beauty.}

There are just some things, some days, events that you simply make time for.  
This is one of them.  One of the days when I just go and have fun.

No to-do list.  No pressure.  No agenda.

and those kinds of days make for one happy girl.

~ Lauren 

{Survived}: my weekend in pictures

I saw this weekend coming for weeks...

on paper, in my calendar, it looked manageable. 

 It would prove to test my limits, but it was so worth it. 

It was jam-packed full of: family, friends, food, 5Ks, personal achievements, music, mishaps and detours, many, many miles and oh so many memories.

Earlier this week, I announced that I had some craziness coming at me like a runaway train,
some of you wished me well,

maybe a few of you prayed that I'd make it through in once piece. 

Thank you, thank you. 

I survived, barely any worse for the wear {ok, maybe a few lbs extra, but I'll work those off in due time}.
If I didn't get a chance to see you in the last few days, here's the storyboard:

My official weekend began on Wednesday, the only day without out of town plans, I was overdue for a visit to my Grandparents.

It's tradition to grab tacos from our local taqueria and sit and catch up for a couple of hours. 

This time, we each had unexpected, belated gifts to exchange. 

Really though, just hanging out with Grams & Gramps is a treat in itself. 

Thursday was left to appointments, bills, some time with my Uncle Mick, and a 10 hour shift-trade that lasted well into the AM hours.  Enough to keep a girl plenty busy.  I just drove around town and gave my money away, but there's this thing called ownership and that other thing called functioning utilities.  Meh. 

{bills, bills, bills...but then I got to go to lunch with this sweet ol' guy!}

Friday, the day that pushed the limits. 

{cousins are as cousins do, my younger crazy bro, my cousin, and me}

{we wait, we make faces, we stand, we make faces, we take pictures, we make faces}

After about 2.5 hours of sleep coming off of my Thursday night trade, I was up at 6am and getting ready to be in Sacramento for 2012's first graduating class of the California Highway Patrol (hoo-rah!), my cousin, Mike, being one of those proud, new officers.

{The Class Motto: "Blessed are the Peacekeepers"...for they shall be called the Sons of God. It is and has been one of my favorite Cop verses/sayings for years now. 
It made me happy to know that this graduating class of 67 men and women began their careers with that as their motto and their direction for their future. 
God Bless the Peacekeepers}

I've been the law enforcement black sheep in my family for about 15 years, to know that there would be someone else in this profession with me in our family now -  knowing the climate of these political and criminal days lately, knowing what it was to take that oath, and put on that badge, knowing the stress of training, shift work, not just the physical stress, but the emotional one, knowing that it's a sacrifice of the entire family when you have someone in a uniform, in a vest, on the side of the highway, behind a gun and a shield, in the service of others and willing to sacrifice everything that comes with that...to know these things is bittersweet.  It is humbling and proud all at once.

I just sat there in that gymnasium and listened with pride and tears in my eyes as I heard these words said over and over again from various speakers: 

you are all public servants, we are the muscle & bone of government

you are warriors, peacemakers, and now you know that you are more than the sum of yourselves

know that you have the authority but now the responsibility

stand proud, noble, upright, humble

remember you are and remember who stands next to you

May God be with you all

Leaving the gradation after the badge pinning, I headed straight over to this Capitol adjacent office to talk politics and political strategy game plan for the upcoming local election campaigns. 

Yes, this is what I do in my "free" time as the 8-year+ Secretary of the Police Officers Association.

I wear a lot of hats and crack a lot of whips.

Back in high school, there were two things I said I knew (I was 17, I knew tons of s#!% yo!) that I just didn't want to "sit in front of a computer screen all day" or "work in politics".

Adult Lauren, meet 17-y/o Lauren, she jinxed you. 

{Friday the 13th, the day when Scratchers, nude peep toe pumps, and purses ride shotgun}

No rest for the wicked, the rest of my day was tied up in traffic, errands, and trying to figure out how to intravenously inject caffeine into my system and wondering if I just poured it directly into my eyeballs would it be more effective? 

{Gallery showing/fundraiser for Rwanda for Justice, an NPO operating to educate Rwandan law enforcement and medical professionals to treat and counsel childhood victims of sexual abuse}

Home with just an hour to nap and change again, I headed off to an art showing for my good friend, and well she might as well be a little sister, Kerri, who had her first art showing.  She said "yeah, it'll just be a few pictures up on a wall. Oh ye of little self-confidence.  This was a showing of beauty, compassion, grace, talent, and pure God-given talent.  So young, so nervous, this girl is incredible, humble, and talented beyond her years.  This is just her beginning.  Someday I'll say "I knew her in her infancy, she was my second shooter at a wedding one time and now her portraits are in international art galleries."

Between the graduation in the morning and the gallery showing at night, it was just a day to celebrate personal achievement and applaud the compassion and dedication of the human spirit.

{my always-ready passenger, Uncle Mick, came with me - he just likes to get out and have a good time, and it comes easy for him because he is truly one of the friendliest men you will ever meet - we shall mark this photo "pre-incident"}

The actual "incident" involved a high curb and some gravel.  Let's just say it as a big monkey wrench in the long day that was Friday, but we literally rolled with the punches.

{we are 1 more incident away from an Emergency Protective Order (EPO) issued by Adult Protective Services (APS), me being the "restrained party" (R/O)...
I swear, it's just a coincidence that I'm always there for the falls.}

I busted out the EMD assessment with the quickness, gathered some first aid supplies, applied a few rusty, old  EMT skills and had this guy all patched up in no time. 

 Our cover story: teaching some local kids at the community center  what it was like to box back in the days of Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier, things just got a little too real, yo!

Friday still incomplete without making pasta for 50 people, a night of cooking was still in store.  Let's say that tired cooks, sundresses, and boiling water do not mix.  Pasta is pretty forgiving, the cooking gods smiled down upon me and I prevailed just before the stroke of 2am.

{Childhood memory: my mom used to spank me with these wooden spoons when I was a kid...a few years later, she was talking to the neighbor over the back fence.  He told her that he found half a dozen wooden spoons thrown over the fence and was she missing any?  Uhhh...so slick us younguns thought we were.  So slick.}



Saturday ushered in yet another celebration with the entire family to celebrate our new Officer's accomplishments.  I just watched their faces, their reactions at the training video, the questions they had filled with wonder about what they had seen on COPS, how bad the new "beat" was going to be...perception vs. reality.  I just smiled at my cousin with the look that said "I've got your back."  He's part of the Police family now, a different breed, the one that bleeds blue and runs into danger while everyone else is running out.

{20 minutes in the sunshine on the edge of the pool watching the youngest generation of my family float all their childhood troubles away - remembering when a bathing suit, a pair of goggles and the awe of being able to do a headstand underwater was all it took to create bliss}

Earlier this year, I made it a goal to walk/run/participate in an organized run once a month for a year.  I started in March and haven't missed a month yet...this month made 5 for 5.  Of course an epic weekend wouldn't be epic without some kind of physical challenge.  Just the sheer distance between the Bay Area and Davis, CA in a jam packed weekend was enough to count as a physical challenge, but nonetheless, I got myself home, in my house for a quick change and off to the Moo-nlight Race along with what could have been half of the population of Northern California.

{these are the real runners...the marathoners, they came at us like hoards of zombies...we were walking, but I felt like we were slowly going to be overtaken by "walkers"...note to self: couch to 5-k, get on it so next time you won't become a speed bump for people in lycra and duty belts full of hydration bottles}

I could stop here and tell you that after the "run" I went home and went to be early, but I'd be lying. 

There was a post-party for the retirement party I missed while stuck in Davis traffic, so I ended up out on a ranch just east west of town and caught up with old friends in loooooow places {channel your inner Garth Brooks, go ahead, I know you just sang that lyric}. 

And then...Sunday came. 

I had been counting down the days to Sunday for months. 

Named The BEST Day Ever (part duex) 2012 edition, Sunday belonged to two of our favorite guys:

Kenny & Tim

{sigh}

You see, I am just a little bit more country than rock and roll.

{supplies .99 at a time, we got some looks standing in line...proof that our crazy day plans were already working}

{party supplies...we were prepared to make friends and have fun, this was round 2, we tried this technique 4 years ago with great success, people will do just about anything for free booze lemme tell you!!!}

{What Would You Do For A Jello Shot?!  Would you hula-hoop?  Would you limbo?  Would you strip down into a bikini top and grass skirt and do a little dance?}

{2008...who could say no to this band of merry Jello shot do-gooders?  No one, that's who.  No one.}

{girls, horns, and camera phones...we be making memories all day long}

{I call this an oasis...you call it what you want, this is a County Music fans Mecca}

{just happy}

{Kodak moment meets the tour bus}

{The clear day rolled out with the sunset and the Bay Area fog bank rolled in, just in time for a light show to put on a dance over our heads.  As I looked up singing along, I whispered  wishes and hellos to loved ones far and wide, the people that I thought of as my favorite songs floated out across the Coliseum.  Music always takes me to my favorite places, my favorite people, and my favorite times.  Music makes my world go 'round.}

Oh, how was the concert?  It was awesome!!!  I have a not-so-secret love affair with all musical things Kenny Chesney.  He loves what he does and it shows.  He's not singing to throngs of fans, he's putting on a show for all of his friends.  I'm a regular concert goer, and my musical taste runs the gamut.  There is nothing more disappointing than paying good, hard-earned money to watch someone put on the light and smoke show and a half-assed lip-synced show.  You'll never get that here. 

In the words of Kenny Chesney himself  "Music is one of the most powerful forces.  It speaks to our hearts, our minds, our souls...it takes us back to places we've forgotten and memories that have faded."

{We danced.  We sang.  We drank.  We smiled into the night...
We took pictures,  we made new friends, but above all else, we had fun, we made new memories, and we didn't worry about the to-do lists, family concerns, and job responsibilities, even if just for a few hours.}


I leave my weekend with a kitchen sink full of dirty dishes, an empty gas tank, an iPhone full to capacity with videos and pictures, an always increasing appreciation for my friends & family, a letting go of feeling like this place I call home is suffocating me, and a heart full of memories. 


I could tell you that it's easy for me to remember to be grateful and thankful all the time, but I'm not. 
I slip into wondering if the things I really want will ever happen for me.
Yeah, it's not all concert-stubs, sappy blogs, and photo challenges.

I can tell you that I sometimes think I'm addicted to staying busy, that when things slow down, I don't know what to do with myself because I've programmed myself to fill my days with meaning and purpose, or entertainment and hobbies.

I can make all kinds of comparisons about what it isn't, but what I will tell you it is
is that I am always making an effort to take advantage of the days and find time
for the people who I hold dear to me. 

I will tell you that the effort is worth it and you can always get some sleep tomorrow.

I will tell you that it's not the days we remember but the moments. 

If you were part of any of these moments of mine in these last five days, thank you for being part of my life.

~ Lauren