lifeinflux

Seeking refuge…

I can comfortably say that books quite literally saved my sanity growing up.   And no matter where I've lived in my 35 years, the library has been a significant place in my life. Whether I am searching for the latest fiction or the classic I've been meaning to read, whether I am looking for information to gain additional knowledge or to prove someone wrong, the library is where I go first.  If I needed to escape the madness of my childhood home, I would head to the library and lose myself f...

The real meaning of love (and tolerance)

I don't think any other image sums up Drue's and Mimir's relationship as well as this one. Do I need to say more?

Adding insult to injury…

Last time I saw snow it was a balmy 46 degrees. The air was clean and sparkling and the sun was shining and the snow was soft and powdery and thick, like a blanket. I believe California law requires snow to exist in such conditions all the time. But well, Virginia isn't California. So instead, I dealt with a gray, cold day where the high was somewhere around 25 and ice was on the sidewalks and the streets and schools had a two hour delay. Granted, the air might have been clean and sp...

Crimmas Remembered

This weekend the tree is coming down! All the ornaments and decorations will be exclaimed over (again) and wrapped up carefully to survive the next 11 months buried in the storage unit only to reemerge next December 1st, 5th, 12th... oh whatever... to be exclaimed over (yet again). While Halloween is my most favorite of holidays, Christmas is a close second and I always experience a small twinge of sadness once everything is taken down and put away. Then, of course, I feel strong mome...

Going nowhere fast

Every time I travel or even head out of the house for points in town where I'm going to be walking a significant area or distance, I throw on my Mudd's. These are, bar none, the most comfortable shoes I own (given my propensity for designer boots and heels, you shouldn't be shocked, right). The bonus is they go with everything, mostly because I've decided they go with everything. But you get my point. Since coming home from California - or the trip that will now be known as the ten day...

Eruption

Home again, home again and what do I find awaiting me? A wiggly Bear, a Mao cat so happy to see me that she wastes no time sinking her claws into my thighs and eggnog erupting in my freezer! I should have known something was up when Jason casually mentioned he saved the eggnog for me by freezing it. That sentence in and of itself is innocuous; however, it was followed by "I can't WAIT for you to see it." Last I checked, eggnog was not exciting. But I was wrong. Oh, how I was wrong...

The Bridge

After ten days in the Bay Area, I have to say that no other place on earth quite feels so much like home. A person can place their feet in the Pacific Ocean and in approximately four hours, have their feet in snow. The rolling hills, towering mountains and soft fog are exceptionally inviting. The people are, too. Sure, there are downfalls. It is an expensive area for sure (although in some ways it is far cheaper than the NoVA/DC area where I currently reside). The job market can be s...

And then there was none…

35 miles southwest of South Lake Tahoe and a mere 12 miles outside of a little town called Strawberry lies Eldorado National Forest. Eldorado starts above the snowline to the east and drops well below it as you go west. It is a bit disconcerting as one moment you're driving along next to mountains covered in snow on one side and sheer cliff drops on the other and then you drive around a huge curve and the snow is just... well... GONE. And you can't rotate your neck around to find it b...

Awesome Beauty

Today, Drue, Angela and I took a "paddlewheeler" across Lake Tahoe. We left Zephyr Cove - located just over the Nevada state line - and spent an hour crossing Lake Tahoe to Emerald Bay and another hour coming back across the lake. Gorgeous does not even begin to describe the lake, or the mountains, for that matter. I was awe-struck and spent half my time on deck taking pictures and the other half gulping down some of the cleanest, coldest, freshest air I've ever breathed.   Lake Tahoe is ...

Going to the Chapel and we’re…

Okay, we did it. No, not THAT. But, we did crash a wedding. I figure there is no better way to celebrate the first day of 2010 and our first day in Tahoe than by stopping at the Chapel of the Bells in the middle of someone's wedding. The bride was dressed in a short dress and ski jacket; the groom was wearing shorts and a North Face jacket. And just before they promised to love, honor and cherish each other so long as they both shall live, the best man reminded the groom that he had...