Le Sigh

Change itself, I do not typically find difficult. The process of changing or being in transition, however, is an entirely different story.

That is all for now. :-p

Breathe in...

*
Sleeping under the stars is good for my soul.
Laughing with family and friends is even better...

* My friend Sarah assisted me in capturing
one of my backcountry oddities in photo - -
eating the whole apple. Bottoms up!

Breathe out...

Hand-knit socks & another 14er (albeit a short one)...
I'm feeling accomplished. :-)

Breathe in...

Lunch under a clear Colorado sky
during a long bike ride,
mountains in view from afar...
yeah, that's definitely one of my "happy places."
:-)

More to come later from this year's Colorado BikeMS ride.

Still breathing...

Just a note... I haven't fallen off the face of the planet.

Since my last post, I have:
- finished my 4th semester of grad school
- started my last semester of internship
- spent some sweet time with my neighbors and other neighborhoody-folk
- gotten quite a few decent rides in, including a 60-miler on Tuesday
- begun to appreciate the work of physical therapists
- decided that my goal for the summer is to become a morning person

We'll see how that last one goes...

Breathe out...

Today feels like it should be Friday...

Breathe in...

Apparently the birds of Englewood awake
to sing in the day at approximately
... 4:37am.

Oh, the unexpected things one learns
while sipping coffee and writing papers.

Breathe out...

I've been spending far too much time in the library lately,
but it's tolerable when I can peer around the corner
and catch a glimpse of my hard-working husband.
:-)

Giddy-happy-excited

For the first time in my life, I've successfully done this:


with no help and no mistakes and no hair-pulling-outing!! That's a major accomplishment in my book.

We may have a sock-knitting fiend on our hands...

Breathe in...

A third attempt at sock-knitting
in the generally grad-school-induced
wreckage of my humble abode

All you knitters out there, wish me luck...

Breathe out...

A library desk, a view of the foothills,
Sigur Ros & Album Leaf,
& a frustrating paper that the Spirit of God
is using to bring me to my knees...

not what i planned, but so much better.

Two Funnies

While I'm busy avoiding a paper for school,* I thought I'd share two funny exchanges from today.


Intentional Bad Joke #1: On the way home from out-of-town, we passed a sign that said something to the effect of:

"Welcome to Superior, CO" (to which I chuckled and said, "Just know we're better than you...")


Unintentional Bad Joke #2: I've been sneezing all day. I managed to live 27 years of my life with no particularly pesky allergies. Then we moved to Denver. While gearing up for a particularly annoying sneeze, I proceeded to make a series of funny faces...

Jeromie: "Wow, you're making some rather Calvin-esque faces there..."
Me: "What do you mean, Calvinist faces?!"
Jeromie: "Calvin-esque. Like Calvin & Hobbes."
Me: "Oh."

Also... we got some fun toys yesterday. :-)

Kahtoola Micro-spikes

We took them for a short spin on the Gregory Canyon & Saddle Rock Trails in Boulder. Now I'd much rather be back out & hiking, but alas... papers call. I should get back to them.

* Hey, now... it's spring break AND a Saturday AND I'm in the library.

Breathe in...

Same desk as earlier. New view.
Just for clarification - the snow is blowing sideways.
Oh, and it's accumulating on the side of the classroom building.
And I can't see the campus apartments from here.
I should probably go home...

Breathe out...

Beautiful & crisp morning - perfect for a ride* -
but you can just see the clouds rolling in...

*Alas, no ride for me. Couldn't get my stuff together in enough time this morning AND (as a friend put it yesterday) I really must get some traction on all these papers today... Boo library but at the same time yay library. I am more than blessed to be where I am and to be what I'm doing at this point in my life & story. :-) You know, I'll happily settle for that mug o' tea & some good tunes.

Breathe in...

An amusing pairing...

Breathe out...

Movement can be rest too...

J. & Silent Liz

Oh, goodness... I haven't watched any of those movies in years. Maybe I should remedy that this weekend while Jeromie's away at a weekend class. :-)

I admit, I've been silent around here lately. Some weeks the ol' blog is just not at the top of my priority list or, alternatively, I have nothing of substance to say. Sometimes I just feel like being quiet, and I'm alright with that.

The last few weeks have been a jumble. A combination of under-the-weather or injured, stressed, and busy has dominated Casa del Rand, but we're alive.

We're alive, and actually laughing quite a bit. :-) Sometimes we get so busy that we forget how to be light-hearted with each other. No more of that... my newfound goal for this next year is to find plenty of (healthy) opportunities to laugh and smile and invite others to do the same. I discovered it in the middle of last night's Fishes meeting, but it makes sense in hindsight... I've become quite the fan of "comic interludes" lately.

Aside from laughing, meetings, paper-writing and internship, I've finally hit a good pattern for training. Like I mentioned a few posts back, I'm training for the CO Bike MS ride in June. I'm also hoping to run the Denver Marathon in October. Right now, barring injury, they both look doable. Either way, it's so good to get out and move around.

Anyway... just felt like checking in.

Got anything to add to my barrel of laughs?

Thank you!

I just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to anyone who reads this, and particularly those who took a moment or two to comment on the last 2 posts! It was so fun to read about "little things" other than my own, and I was very encouraged to receive some feedback on the poem. I am not much of a creative writer, so posting poems always feels a little like sticking my neck on a chopping block! :-)

So... thank you!

"wondering"

Winter branches hover
silent and still,
achingly bare...

Are they not weary?
Are they not cold?
Are they not waiting
to be clothed anew in green?

Even so, perhaps they are in some way
content.

To whisper the truth
that we are ALL waiting...

and that it is better to be bare for a time
than to be false.

Little things

Here are a few "little" (read: maybe not so little) things that have been bringing me a lot of joy lately...

- crisp, cool days
- running on slightly crunchy snow
- running at all
- cranberry-apple juice
- good conversation
- hearing or reading poetry from friends
- God's presence in the community of His people
- home-cookin', a la Susan
- colorful, noodley stews that create plenty of leftovers
- Monday's bus commute
- Theology 501 with Dr. Buschart
- comic interludes in serious meetings

I'm sure there are more...

I know I've got at least a few readers out there... what are some of these little things for you?