Happy

After last night's wallowing session I promised to do a happier post tonight, so here it is.  Today was actually a really good day.  A dear friend/angel called me this morning to ask about the storage unit and see if she could help.  I'm dreadfully tired of asking people for help, but she was so sweet and somewhat insistent.  We went to the storage unit place and found out that they screwed up with their advertising and aren't having an auction in June, so we actually had another month.  Notice they didn't let us know that particular bit of information.  But the good news remains that the storage unit is safe.  We are going to get our stuff out of there and close out our contract.  They have raised the rates 4 times in the last 2 years and our monthly fee has doubled, so we need to just to find room at home for everything.

Anyhoo, I was going to write tonight about my awesome friends anyway, this awesome friend just gave me one more reason.  I've been thinking that for all of it's crazy stressfullness, 2017 had been lovely in terms of catching up with friends.  I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the Camp/Author Friend being here for a visit and how wonderful it was to see her. I hadn't seen her in a couple of years.  In fact, we tend to hang out in June:  The last time she visited was in June, and the only time I have been to her house was in June.

A few weeks before that a friend from seminary was here for an overnight visit.  (Oh dear, she needs a nickname, and I've already used Seminary Friend...)  This particular friend is possibly one of the coolest people I know.  She's hilarious, smart, engaged, passionate, and since I've known her has lived in:  California, Washington, Ohio, New Mexico, England, Boston, Washington DC (twice), Niger, and is soon to move to Belgium.  Oh!  I will call her the World Traveler!  On a side note, I am from Montana and married a man from Ohio.  The World Traveler is from Ohio and married a man from Montana!  Really, it's just another reason to love her. I actually wrote a post about her visit, which I just now remembered.

In March (I think?  Hooray for Swiss Cheese Brain!) The Texas Friend was in the Bay Area with her significant other who was on a business trip.  I hadn't seen her in almost 7 years, since I went to Dallas for a visit in 2010.  She was the happiest I had ever seen her, which was really really great, and was a balm to my own heart.

Last week, I had a lovely Skype chat with The Coffee Friend who very sweetly agreed to be on my Bible Study Podcast.  I haven't seen her in person since 2006 when I was driving home from internship and spent the night with her and her husband in Wisconsin.  I'm so glad I got to chat with her and catch up.  It was the Sunday after that her beloved Labradoodle died, and I'm glad I got to talk to her before that.

I've said before that I have amazing friends, and 2017 has simply been more proof of that.  I am grateful to all of you who have loved and supported me even when I'm grumpy, depressed, freaking out, wallowing, whatever. 

Now, on to shoes!  I went to my handy-dandy ideas folder tonight and just chose a bunch that made me happy:

Today was Bring Your Dog to Work Day, so I had to include these.  They're Mary Janes!  Also, it's much easier to bring my dogs to work when I'm working from the home office...

I want a skirt in this fabric.  How could you not smile wearing this?

Dragonflies!!!

Those are mermaids, how funny and cute are these?

Overall these shoes are kind of scary, but I love the colors and the stripes.

I will also take a skirt out of this material, please.

Look!  A garden for your feet!

Thank you, my friends, for helping contribute to my happiness.  I hope I can do the same for you.

Yay, Friends

Last night I got to hang out with the Camp/Author Friend and her significant other!  (Partner?  They aren't married, but have been together forever.  English needs a better word for this type of relationship)  Anyhoo, they were in the area and were able to go to dinner and visit for awhile.  Actually, they took us to dinner, which was extremely sweet of them.  They are both awesome and it was so good to see them as it's been a couple of years since we got to hang out.  It reminded me once again that I am blessed with amazing friends.

The C/AF was wearing adorable turquoise-y ballet flats.  I didn't get a picture, but they were cute.  They also might have been more blue than turquoise, but I'm going with turquoise for the shoes in tonight's post.  

Suede!  

Crochet!

Oooh, shiny.

I like the cutouts on this.

I really like the green accent on this one.

My main issue with most of the ballet flats I've tried on is that they have zero arch support.  I may as well be bare foot for the support they have.  These are Keens, though, so I'm assuming they would have arch support.  Apparently I need me some Keens ballet flats!

And what was I wearing for shoes last night you might ask?  I was wearing boring black sandals.  JG would be so proud! 

The hubby and I were very happy to have some social time last night with good friends.  It's been a bit crazy and hectic around here for awhile, so this was a much-needed break.

Glossary

It occurs to me that there are many nicknames and such that I use on the blog that you might not be familiar with if you are new here or simply can't keep all of the craziness straight.  I've been meaning to do a Glossary for awhile now so you have a handy-dandy reference guide any time you're confused.  I'll try to update this entry regularly so it is current, or  as I remember things I've left off.

The Auntie:  My mother's younger sister.  I lived with her in Texas for 3 years between college and seminary.  She is hilarious and feisty and I want to be her when I grow up.  

The Bean: The Brother's youngest daughter, born in 2003 (easier than having to update ages...sorry for the math!).  Her nickname is short for Beana, which rhymes with her given name.  In a lot of ways she's my mini-me.  She's a nerd in all of the best ways from drama to band to comic books and fantasy. 

The BFF (Best Friend Forever): My best friend.  We met in college and bonded over The Beatles, Hot Tamales, and movies.

The Brother: My brother, who is 4 years older and lives in my hometown in Montana.

The Brother-in-Law: My sister's husband, who happens to be almost exactly the same age as the hubby (they are 4 days apart)

The BSF (Best Shoe Friend): A dear friend from seminary who shares my love of shoes.  We lived together for a year of seminary and she was one of 3 pastors who officiated our wedding.

The Camp Friend/Author Friend: A friend I met while working at Christikon in the middle of nowhere Montana.  She is now a published author, working on her 3rd book.  She is awesome for numerous other reasons as well.

The Coffee Friend:  Another dear seminary friend.  She is one of the reasons I started drinking more coffee because she kept inviting me to study with her at Starbucks.  There was some studying, but more talking and laughing.  She and her husband are a big part of why I got through my first semester.

Dad: My papa (obvious, yes?).  A retired librarian and EMT.  He's a woodcarver and woodworker and makes awesome stuff.

DJ: The Brother's oldest daughter, born in 1997 (easier than having to update ages...sorry for the math!).  She's all grown up and in the navy, studying to be a nurse.  So proud of her.

Double A: It stands for Awesome A----, a nickname the hubby gave her.  She is the brother's middle daughter, born in 2000 (easier than having to update ages...sorry for the math!).  She's his blue-eyed baby and has always been incredibly sweet and caring. 

FiL:  The hubby's father, so my father-in-law.  The man cracks me up.  We've gotten a lot better over the years, but still need the hubby to translate for us occasionally as neither one can understand the other at times.  He likes to nag me about "grand-grands" (grandchildren) and when I'm going to give him a passel.

Flower: The Seester's older daughter, born in 2005 (easier than having to update ages...sorry for the math!).  Her nickname comes from her Chinese  name.  The Seester and Brother-in-Law adopted her from China in 2006.  She is an amazing musician.

Grandparents: Harry and Sylvia are Mom's parents while John and Mary are Dad's.  Sadly none of them are with us anymore.

The Hubby: I'm guessing this one doesn't really need explanation, but here you go:  We had our first date on August 24, 2010 and were married August 24, 2012.  We like to count the length of our marriage in terms of how many celebrity couples we've outlasted.  Yes, we're dorks.  Our marriage has been anything but easy, but we've stuck together and pulled through a lot.  He makes me laugh, we have awesome conversations, and I very rarely want to smother him with a pillow. 😋

Imaginary Shoe Closet:  I love shoes, but I don't really buy that many anymore.  Instead, I have different imaginary shoe closets where I create virtual shoe collections (it's also cheaper than real shoes!).  I have a general closet, one for the hubby, one for the PB, one for different decades of vintage shoes, and one for my fabulous pretend life in a 1950s musical.

JG: A dear friend from St. Someone's.  Sadly she only wears black shoes, but I love her regardless.

KGHK and KAH: Between high school and college I did daycare for a family in my hometown for 2 1/2 years.  It was only supposed to be a year, but I fell in love with the babies.  KGHK was 2 1/2 when I started and KAH was 3 months.  They were born in 1990 and 1993, so they are now adults of whom I am extremely proud.  We won't talk about how old that now makes me.

Laughter: The Seester's younger daughter, whose given name means Laughter, who was born in 2010 (easier than having to update ages...sorry for the math!).  She's our other blue-eyed baby, which is a beautiful contrast with her brown skin and brown eyes.  She was adopted in Montana, and she is hilarious and stubborn and smart.

MiL: The hubby's mom.  I am very lucky in the in-law department.  She loves me and I love her.  I wish I could see her more often, but am lucky to talk to her on the phone at least once a week, sometimes more.

Mom:  Pretty self-explanatory, yes?  An avid reader.  She sewed our clothes growing up, and now she paints and makes awesome crafts.

The Nephew: The BFF's son, born in 2010 (easier than having to update ages...sorry for the math!).  I was there when he was born!  He's the lone boy in a gaggle of nieces.  He loves Star Wars and superheroes and playing baseball.

The PB (Potential Baby):  I don't know if those grand-grands are ever going to happen for the FiL, but it's still a possibility.  I post a lot of baby shoes and started an imaginary shoe closet for a future (possibly also imaginary) baby that I started referring to as the PB.

Pippi:One of the not-nieces, born in 2007 (easier than having to update ages...sorry for the math!).  Her nickname comes from her older sister, but they also named their St. Bernard Pippi, which makes it confusing.  I lived at home while waiting for my first call and she and I spent a lot of time together in the first year of her life (Mom did daycare for their family and likes to joke that I kept the kid in my room so she never saw her).  She has always been able to crack me up.  And she square dances!

The PF (Pinterest Friend): A former teacher at the preschool at St. Somone's.  She now lives in Idaho with her hubby and 2 boys.  She likes to wander through Pinterest and find pins to send me for the blog.  She's also an awesome friend. 

Scout: Pippi and Tink's older sister, born in 1996.  Another not-niece, although not quite in the same way.  She's older than they and Mom didn't do daycare for her, but she is so amazing

The Seester: My sister, who is 6 1/2 years older, and lives in Montana. 

The Seminary Friend: She needs a better nickname, as I have lots of friends from seminary, but she was one of my roommates during seminary.  She is one of the kindest people I know and I am blessed to have her in my life.

SKD: A good friend and former co-worker at St. Someone's.  She has helped me navigate a LOT through the past 7 years.

St. Someone's: The church that brought me back to California.  I was Associate Pastor there for almost 3 years before my life took me down a different path.

Sunshine: One of the kiddos at St. Someone's.  She is right up there in terms of my favorite kiddos.  She is super smart and sweet and brings sunshine into my life whenever I see her.

Sunshine's Grandma:  Obviously the grandma of Sunshine, but a dear friend as well for whom I am very grateful.

The Texas Friend:  I lived in Texas for 3 years between college and seminary, so I have more than one Texas Friend, but this person was my FIRST Texas friend, so she gets the title.  She used to drag me out on the weekends and force me to have a social life.  I have laughed with her a lot.

Tink:  One of the not-nieces, born in 2009 (easier than having to update ages...sorry for the math!).  She's the youngest daughter of a good friend in my hometown.  She has awesome, crazy, bright taste in clothes and his goofy in all the best ways.  Her nickname comes from her oldest sister. Don't ever tell her she's not really a niece, though.

The Uncle: Mom's younger brother who has been incredibly supportive over the years.  I'm extremely lucky in the uncle department.

The World Traveler: Another fabulous friend from Seminary. This particular friend is possibly one of the coolest people I know.  She's hilarious, smart, engaged, passionate, and since I've known her has lived in:  California, Washington, Ohio, New Mexico, England, Boston, Washington DC (twice), Niger, and is soon to move to Belgium.  I might want to be her when I grow up.

What am I missing?  Tell me in the comments and I will update as often as possible!

Good Day!

I did 4 podcasts today.  I'm still trying to catch up on the Bible Study one, which I seem to be perpetually behind on. BUT I did 2 Book Review Podcasts with the Camp Friend (who is now the Author Friend) and we talked about both of her books!  As a reminder, they are Letters to Zell and New Charity Blues  and you should read both of them, because she is awesome.  And I had sooo much fun talking to her today.  It was an honor to have her as my first-ever podcast guest, and I hope I did her and her books justice because I really don't know what I'm doing yet on this whole podcast thingamabob.

I also just discovered that today is Auntie's Day!  I HAVE an auntie and I also AM an auntie.  Dangit, I should have been home to celebrate with everyone.  Rude.  I will say that I love my auntie very very much and am so grateful for everything she has done for and been to me in my life.  I am also proud to be an auntie and hope my nieces know how much I love them.

Try not to be too shocked, but I'm not really in a shoe mood tonight, so I'm just going to share a picture of me and my auntie:

Weren't we cute?

Also a picture of me and my dad's sister, who died a couple of year's ago and who I miss terribly:

And my twin aunties.  Of whom I clearly need a more recent picture:

Except how awesome is THIS picture?

And that is all.  The end.

New Charity Blues

Facebook reminded me that on this day last year I wrote a post about The Camp Friend's debut novel, Letters to Zell.  In other exciting news, her second book, New Charity Blues came out on my birthday!  Wasn't that nice of her to write me a book for my birthday?  Because I'm sure it's all about me!  I haven't had a chance to read it yet, as just like last time, every library book I had on hold suddenly became available.  I'm just about to finish the last one and return it, so I'll be able to get to my birthday present to myself soon.   Here is the synopsis of the book:

In the wake of a devastating plague, two communities emerge as bastions of survival. One is called the City, and its people scrabble for scraps in the wasteland. The other, New Charity, enjoys the bounty of its hydroelectric dam and refuses City denizens so much as a drop of precious water. When City-dweller Cressyda inherits her father’s ranch within New Charity, she becomes intent on opening the dam to all—no matter the cost.

But when Syd reunites with her old best friend, Casandra, a born seer and religious acolyte, she realizes that her plans could destroy the fragile lives they’ve built in order to survive. What’s more, the strange magic securing the dam’s operations could prove deadly if disturbed. Yet when Syd discovers evidence that her father might have been murdered, she is more determined than ever to exact revenge on New Charity’s corrupt.

Pitted against Cas, as well as her own family, Syd must decide how to secure the survival of both settlements without tipping them over the brink to utter annihilation. In this intense and emotional reimagining of the Trojan War epic, two women clash when loyalty, identity, community, and family are all put to the ultimate test.

Yay!  I can't wait to read it.  For tonight's post I typed in "new charity blues shoes" just to see what would come up.  Here are some selections of what came up.

Ooooh...purty.  These are a little like my wedding shoes, only way fanicer.

Simple, but cute.

Steel toe shoes would probably come in handy in a post-apocalyptic world. Or in a regular world where I live and trip over stuff.

I'm never sure I can pull this style off, but I think it's pretty.

These were actually for some kind of water charity, 3 out of the 4 search words were present.

I love the plaid, but most of the rest is a world of hell no.

Thank you, Camp Friend, for writing books!  I can't wait to read this one.

Memory Lane: 2013 (more blue!). 2014. 2015 (Letters to Zell!).

This Little Piggie Cried

The movers came today. Par for the course of our recent life things did not go smoothly. I'd tell you all about it but I'm too frickin tired. I'll just give you the one piece where I was trying to be helpful and dropped a log on my pinkie toe. I'm not positive it's broken but I also wouldn't be surprised. A friend suggested I need a pair of these:

Steel toe cowgirl boots! They're cute AND practical! My poor toe is cynically wishing I could have thought of this BEFORE dropping the log. (And for any camp friends reading this, yes I was wearing closed toe shoes).

Memory lane: 2013. 2014.

3 Things

1. Moving day is over! Thank God/gods/goddesses/goodness.
2. My toe might not be broken.
3. Moving day is over. I don't care if this is cheating, it warrants two spots on the list.

Yay!

Today was a good day.  Well, not so much for the hubby, who woke up with an icky tummy and thus couldn't participate in the good day.  Poor hubby.  But I got to drive to the East Bay and meet a friend for lunch.  But not just any friend, a friend I worked with at Christikon (Lutheran summer camp in Montana), and whom I haven't seen in almost 20 years!  Which is just crazy, since I know I worked at camp no more than 5 years ago.  It was really great to see her again and finally meet her hubby.  They have 2 children, a boy who is 7, and a girl who is 4 (she is 10 days younger than Laughter, and clearly they were both born under a very dramatic aligning of stars).  Their son spent the time telling me all of the Alcatraz facts he learned on their tour.  He was clearly fascinated, and he definitely paid attention to the audio tour.  Their daughter chatted about lots and lots of different stuff and may or may not have been thinking of a way to steal my wedding rings. :-)  It was so much fun, and so so wonderful to see her again after all of this time.  JJS looks great and seems happy, which makes me happy.  Her suggestion for tonight's blog was Wisconsin (where they are from), and plaid.  So here we go:

Of course when I looked up Wisconsin shoes I got sports results.  I don't know a lot about Wisconsin, so I didn't look up anything more specific.  I do know Bucky the Badger, though, because a friend of mine from Texas went to school in Madison.  Bucky was pretty much the first mascot I could recognize outside of the mascot from my own alma mater.

 

And of course the Packers.  Just makes me think of cheeseheads.  I kind of like the yellow one, though.

 

Moving on to plaid, which is more fun.  These look very bright and summery to me.

I like these too, but maybe they're a little more springy looking?   Or even fall?

I think JJS  was wearing Birkenstocks today, or at least sandals that looked like Birkenstocks. I opted not so be a shoe stalker for once in my life and didn't ask, but I thought some plaid Birks would be fun.

And these are just adorable.

I have no idea if JJS wears heels or not.  We worked at summer camp, so most shoes were very very practical (Camp/Author Friend's ginormous platforms notwithstanding), and I wasn't in a shoe phase at that point, so didn't have a lot of conversations about them.  Regardless, I thought this was a very cute plaid wedge.

So it was a good day, and I am happy I got to spend part of it with JJS and her family.

Random Story of the Day

I've been thinking a lot about the Camp Friend this week.  Obviously the main reason is because  her book, Letters to Zell, came out yesterday.  Also because of the octopus shoes last week.  But I've also been thinking about her hair.  Yes, it's random.  She has awesome red hair, and when we worked together for two summers at a Lutheran bible camp in Montana, she frequently wore it up, especially the second summer when we worked in the kitchen.  At the time I was in my short hair phase of life, so I envied her red, curly, wildly awesome hair and the fact that she could put it into a bun held in place with a pencil.  The past 10 years or so I've grown my hair out and donated it 3 times.  About 4 years ago I was in a long hair, growing out phase, and it's hot here, so I was constantly putting it up.  One day I discovered that I could put it up with a pencil!  At the time I didn't make the connection back to the Camp Friend, I just thought it was awesome I could use a pencil and put my hair up.  I know, I get excited over weirdness.  Yesterday, probably because I was already thinking of her, I did make the connection.  I was working on my computer and too lazy to get up to put my hair up (it's long again), and the only thing I had handy was a crochet hook.  It worked.  I even ended up running errands later in the day with a crochet hook holding up my hair.  I'll never be as awesome as the Camp Friend, but I can keep my hair up with random objects.  Things like...

Pencils.  I already mentioned this one.  They are handy, usually.  I used to have a cup on my desk full of pencils that mostly got used for my hair as I rarely write with a pencil.

Chopsticks.  I have the kind you buy specifically for hair, but I've also on occasion used a regular (clean, don't worry) chopstick.  Isn't that little shoe chopstick holder adorable?

I already mentioned pencils, but I used to have a purple colored pencil in glove box of my car (I have no idea why) that worked great when my hair would get too hot while I was driving.  Also, how cool are these shoes made out of colored pencil stubs?

And finally, crochet hooks.  You know I chose these because I love rainbow colors, and the stripey, rainbow-y baby-y shoes.  I'm not sure these particular hooks would work that great in my hair, as I don't own any, it doesn't matter.

There you go...your randomness for the day.

PS--Should Camp Friend become Author Friend?  Hmmm....

Octopi

The Camp Friend posted this rather interesting picture to my facebook wall this morning:

 This shoe is insane and also awesome.  I'm not sure how it stays on your foot so you can walk, but it's definitely one of the more unique shoes I've seen.  And I like the colors, of course.  So obviously I had to go in search of more octopus-inspired shoes.

I love the turquoise heel and the double strap.  I love the black with the other colors on the shoe, and the shoes are kind of cool, but also kind of creepy at the same time.

Not creepy at all.  Cute.

Kind of cute?  Also kind of weird.  Good shoes to wear to the aquarium maybe.

Um...EEK?  Who comes up with these things?   Who then buys and wears them??

Whew, I needed more cuteness.

I like these in theory.  I'm going to have to take a stab here and say that I'm just not a huge fan of shoes with octopi on them, even if the octopi are blue.  These two look mean.

 

Speaking of creepy.  This was just one of many octopus rings I found during my search.  Clearly there are people out there who are vastly more fond of octopi than I am.  That's cool for them, but I think I'll stay over here in my octopus-free zone.  That ring might give me nightmares.

PS--didja notice that this post has EIGHT pictures in it?  Didja see what I did there?

Some Day Maybe I'll Be Awesome, Too

I got to spend time with some awesome people tonight.  The Camp Friend and her significant other had been in Napa and were on their way to the Bay Area for a wedding.  So I was lucky enough to get to have dinner with them as they traveled.  I haven't seen them since the wedding almost 2 years ago, and then I didn't get to talk to them much.  The hubby had only met them that once, so it was nice that everyone got to know each other a little better.  The CF and I worked at Christikon Lutheran Bible Camp for 2 summers in college.  The second summer she was head cook and I was her (hopefully trusty) assistant.  We laughed a lot, and she helped me survive both summers.  We worked together in the 90s, and as I've mentioned before, she had the biggest shoes I'd ever seen.  Not big feet, just those big, clunky 90s shoes.  She totally made them work.  I totally wanted to be like in her in lots of ways, and I'm very glad I had those 2 summers with her, and for our friendship since.  Tonight she was wearing wedge tennis shoes.  If you had said that phrase to me yesterday I would have rolled my eyes.  And yet once again, she totally makes them work.  I was a dork and didn't get a picture of her shoes (Oh crap! Or of us.  Dammit.)  Here are some I found in tonight's search:

Hers were black, so let's just pretend that I took a picture, OK?

I admit it. I like these.

These are just a little too 80s for my taste.  I like that they come in bright colors, but I'd never be able to pull these off.

I want to like these.  I love the crocheted side panels, and the colors.  I think this is an example where the wedge doesn't work because it makes these look like oddly shaped booties.

I like these, too.  I'm still not as cool as the CF, but maybe I could pull these off?

I'm so happy I got to be part of their California trip.  I got to hear about the book that the CF has written and is working on getting published, and it sounds really cool.  I can't wait to read it.  See how cool she is?