Hot Chocolate

Quick update:

Recently ran another 5k (no marathons yet). I did it in 41:35. Not a great time as far as they go, but I basically skipped all prep for this one, because I'm a thin-skinned Floridian that can't handle the arctic blasts we had been getting. It snowed the whole race, which made it miserable in my vibrams. Overall, though, I am proud of my accomplishment. I no longer fear running. I am unstoppable!!!

Ocean Affair

It is about time that I come clean about this... I'm having an affair with the ocean.

In all honesty, it is a life-long ebb and flow relationship. I longed for the mountains growing up and resented the ocean for its vertical challenge and sunburns. Now that I have gotten a taste of the mountains, I miss my oceans dearly. The salty elixir is a heal-all, and I find myself more drawn to it as I age. When life wears at me, I seek comfort in the sand, shells, and symphony of the tide. I dream of sandy toes and a sunburnt nose.

Recently, my love affair has gotten me thinking about working for cruise lines. I always said I would never get on one, but I had no sense of adventure as a girl. Maybe this could get my toes wet for more worldly travels.

So Bad It Hurts...

Have you ever wanted to do something so bad it hurts?


I want to hike the Appalachian Trail so much I can't see straight. Somedays I can put it behind me, for another time. Tonight is not that time. Tonight is one of those nights when I stay up forever reading trail journals and watching youtube videos, searching amazon for another book to read. I look longly at the trail map I have hanging on my wall. I've tried to envision the earliest I could pull this adventure off. I graduate college in 2015, but I could work by butt off all year and graduate next December. Then I could begin the hike in February. The ultimate question then is, whose ass am I pulling the money out of because I'll be neck deep in loans. My field gives me tons of leeway on job opportunities, but I have to dig to find the one with the quickest payout that could get me on the trail in maybe 2016. I am so lost in the prospects of my future because when begged the answer for "Where do you see yourself in five years," my answer is a 2,200 miler, not some successful sound engineer with a stable job. I'm young, I want to travel, I want to experience nature, I want to walk...very, very far. I want to skip all normal hygiene and wear the same socks for weeks at a time. I want to live in the woods for 6 or 7 months straight. I want to climb mountains and forge rivers. I want to see a moose, a bear. I want to experience the extreme kindness of strangers (trail angels) and the community of the trail. Everyone together with one goal in mind. I want to have my mind opened and the world to rush in. I want to see more, do more, be more.

So much to do, if only I knew when I could start. Sign me up!

Trail name: Shark Bait

IKAYAK

Kayaking has been my new challenge lately. I have no trouble white-water rafting or canoeing, but I have always struggled in this sport. I have done a few day trips on rivers in Fl and Ga. I hope to do one in the next year in Tn. I feel lazy sometimes because it is a sitting down sport. I forget that every time I come off the river, I am still covered in sweat and swamp muck with bruises and scratches, and it is never as easy getting the boat out of the water as it was putting it in.

Barefoot Lady

So this is home for me; sandy toes.

I am truly a southerner when it comes to shoes and my lack-there-of in most places. Every beach I visit, I take the same picture and add to the collection of sand in the floorboard of my car. 

Besides barefoot beach days, or walks down a gravel drive to get the mail, I am also a sort of 'barefoot' runner. I recently ran a 5k in my vibrams and it was amazing. I'll never run in tennis shoes again. It was my FIRST 5k and a pretty amazing experience. For not being much of a runner (I'm more of a walker), I did really well. Now onto a half marathon!!! 

 

(nearly wiping out on one of the obstacles) 

Sweet Georgia Air

Sometimes I feel like people don't get me, and by sometimes, I mean all the time (sorry I am always this cliche'). I was sitting on my patio this evening enjoying the fall air and the smell of fireplaces in the night sky. It reminded me one of the reasons I moved up here. I live just outside of the mountains here in the south. It is the most incredible thing to experience the seasons. We didn't have that kind of thing by the beach growing up. Today I had been working in the theatre at the school with the lighting designer. I noticed how very minuscule details made a big difference in the emotion and feeling of a scene. I've studied music my whole life and understand the concept as applying to that, but with lighting it is challenging me to really use my eyes to determine and create beauty, when that never has been my strong suit. In music you hear it, and you feel it. My body responds to it. I dance, I sing, and I get chills. When I am somewhere in nature truly beautiful, for me, it's still not my eyes that capture it the best. Sound always hits me first. The silence of the woods, the trickle of a mountain stream, the roar of the ocean. Then the feel of it. Cold mountain air. It is crisp and you can physically feel how clean it is. Or, the stickiness of the sea breeze. The feel of the salt and sand sticking to your skin as the sun warms you, and in contrast the cool sand during the morning and night hours. Lastly, I can smell the beauty. The smell of ocean water brings me home. My favorite smell, though, is that of North eastern Georgia in the fall. That mountain air gets me every time. All of these senses have always outweighed sight. Sight can be captured in a photo, but no one would ever understand the beauty of the moment without having been there to hear it, feel it, and smell it. How do you compare the beauty of an autumn leaf to the feeling of rushing down a waterfall as if it were a slide? I have found it incredibly hard to really capture the color and texture and shading with light. I have a new respect for the people that do it for a living.

Welcome!

This is my new directions blog. I recently was on the fast track career path to be a Disney Imagineer, but after a less than magical experience in the college program, I've chosen to switch lanes. Besides my prior Disney obsession, I am a nerd first and foremost. I am bored when the people who surround me do not challenge me intellectually, and when my life falls into a routine. Unfortunately as of late, it has. I go to school for audio engineering and I am minoring in theatre tech. I love the outdoors. The vacations that I brag about the most involve being outside and working for something rewarding may it be a 10 mile kayak to see a spring and some sizable alligators, off-shore fishing, climbing a mountain, or exploring random trails to find a massive waterfall at the end. My bucket-list for adventures is always growing. Once I complete something, I look for the next step up; one challenge after the next. 'To infinity, and beyond!'