weekly gratitude

thank you windstorm for dropping this at my booted feet & getting me excited for  christmas (yes , already)

So what I should be doing is crawling into bed and preparing to examine the underside of my eyelids for the next ten hours. But what I'm going to do instead is upload photos from this past week and tempt myself into watching either The Office or The Walking Dead (have you SEEN that show yet?).

I'm quickly losing track of most things, chief among them time. Has anyone else noticed it's the middle of October already? When did that happen?

Fortunately, the good things, the important things (yeah, like time isn't important, good job Lairen*) have slowed down enough for me to catch more than a passing glimpse of those pure, happy moments I  was having such a hard time catching (and holding onto) not too terribly long ago.

Life, as ever, continues to be beautiful.

1. Thank you for Frank Turner for yet another epic show. Third time's the charm (Revival Tour 2009, England and last night). I'm fairly certain nothing will top seeing him in England but the one thing missing form that show was the presence of my friends. This time I had them there (though Robin and Dean bounced and were bounced respectively and ended up at the pub down the street) (valuable lesson: Dean, never use the opposite gender's restroom -no matter how much you have to go - it will result in you being asked to leave before the show even starts... Lame Hawthorne Theater... Lame). But I had Jared and Shamoo to scream every song with (Jared more than Shamoo). As soon as he started playing "The Road" Jared flung his hat at me and threw himself into the "moshpit" where he thrashed about right nice while I hung back, nearly destroyed my vocal chords and stomped a hole in the floor. And to top it all off? He sang "Somebody to Love" by Queen and I just about lost my head (video to come). We ended the evening around midnight in a booth at The Original Hotcake House where we had bacon waffles with a side of adrenaline and enthusiasm (sidenote: if you live in Portland and haven't been there yet, GO, immediately if not sooner).

2. Thank you for unintentional entertainment (even when it comes at a small price). Let me paint a picture here: I'm at work today, it's a lovely afternoon, I'm pouring wine when all of a sudden "ouch!", a little prick on my left thigh. A weird pin I didn't notice in the lining of my skirt? Did I bump into the raw wooden walls and get a splinter? Was that some invisible gnome running through the tasting room with an equally invisible stapler attacking anyone in his thigh-high reign of terror? Ah, no, it was just the yellow jacket that flew halfway up my skirt, got too close to my stockings and got himself stuck on a thread where he then panicked, stung me and tried to fly away. In vain though because even after unleashing his tiny can of whoopass, he was still caught on the thread and trying to fly away resulting in an inch-long kite string of sorts while he soared helplessly until I flicked him to freedom/his death. Of course the stinger was still caught on my stocking and kept getting me as I walked casually off the tasting room floor to find ice. Normally we would have had a situation like this (minus the cotton balls) but instead I was so entertained at the sight of my own personal bee kite that I didn't care much.

3. Thank you for Thursday. It was just a really nice day with a good friend. That's all.


So kids, we're off an running into another week. If the rest of this month (shoot, this year) continues along the path set so far, brace yourself. Keep your eyes open, heart open and go. Go be happy, go be in love, go work hard, go relax, go do something you've never done before... Just go. 

And enjoy life.

*No, I'm not having some sort of lapse... 'Round these parts I'm "Lairen" and that makes me smile.