Nature Walk Interrupted

We have one of the most wonderful parks down the street from where we live. It runs right along the Chattahoochee River, it has an amazing "rail trail" where people flock to bike, run, walk, etc. The first time my husband and I went we could not believe this place was in metro Atlanta. We always divert off the rail trail and head for the miles of trails that wind throughout the park.



Yesterday I decided I would share this encrusted jewel of a park with our good friend from college, and his girlfriend...they just moved here, plus I needed to pick up some pine cones for a craft project. Now don't get me wrong--I LOVE the fact that they moved here, we are getting out much more, and totally love this friend--he's just a genuinely good guy. His girlfriend, not so much. I've been hanging out with her quite a bit lately, I've tried really hard to get to know her. But she's a whiner. I do.not.do well with whiners. Little background on the girlfriend--her father deals in scrap metal and apparently is very well off, she has never really had to work a day in her life, and now the father is opening a business here in ATL and she will be working for him. Here's the kicker, the business hasn't opened yet...and from what I gather, it won't for a little while. Soo she literally sleeps in until 11-11:30ish each day and then naps from 4-6ish. Now our friend, works 45 minutes away and also waits tables on the side. The girlfriend does nothing all day and their apartment is TRASHED. Dirty clothes everywhere, boxes unpacked stacked up, piles of junk of the coffee table...for someone who has a LOT of free time on her hands, she doesn't really utilize this time well.



I digress...I went to pick them up yesterday and the first thing she says is, "My legs really hurt, I didn't want to go, but I figured I would." Your legs hurt from what? Sitting on the couch and napping all day? Okay...so I figure ehh she'll be fine. Oh no, we literally walked at the pace of toddlers through this park. So I take them off the beaten path, and the Debbie-Downer begins complaining: "This is really inclined." "My legs hurt." "Eww, look at this mud." "How am I going to cross this mini stream." "It's cold." "I'm too hot." "These pine cones have prickers on them, I would much rather pay a $1 for a bag of three." At one point, when I was 50 feet in front waiting for them to catch up, I said to myself, never will I do this again.

On a more positive note, it was truly a gorgeous day! Great photo ops...

So Mr. MTM got of out work a wee bit later, and after hearing the story of the disaster nature walk, he suggested we go back. What a sweet guy.

We went off the beaten path and took a trail that we have not been on before, it wraps around the outer perimeter of the park, this side is surrounded by businesses. Soo we hooffing it up this hill, dodging large roots and branches, really feeling like your out in the middle of no where...and this is the scene we saw when we got to the top of the hill...






















Surreal right? It's the lobby of a huge building and from what we could see the statue seems to be a iron cast Native American with some sort of eagle costume on. A-freaking-mazing!!

Weekend in Review

So we have had a "cold snap" in Atlanta over the past few weeks. I'm from Michigan, I can take the cold...but on Saturday I muttered the words I never thought I would say, "Oh Lord...I think my blood has thinned." I have a typical Saturday routine: sleep in for an extra 1-2 hours, make a pot of uber strong coffee, sit in front of the computer for a few hours perusing random blogs/websites, download some new tunes, clean the condo, do laundry, read, spend some quality time with Zoe the cat...rinse, repeat.

As soon as I awoke from my slumber, something was not right...my left arm was soo cold, it literally felt so cold that I thought I may have lost all feeling. PANIC. I sat up, abruptly shoving Zoe the cat off of me and it hit me. Freezing cold air. The "I'm back in Michigan in the middle of February and there is a blanket of snow encasing your house and no matter how high you turn the heat you are still freezing," cold.

I regain feeling in my arm, put on my cold weather lounging gear, make my uber strong pot o' coffee, retire to computer room and this is the headline of the local news....

Luckily...didn't happen, however my jaw hit the ground when I saw that. Possible snowflakes in October? Whaat?!?!


Sunday: my BCF (Best Colleague Forever), "Jenny from the Block," and I decided we were sick and tired of paying the big bucks to get our hair highlighted. After some major research, I had a check list of everything needed and we made our way to Sally Beauty. $40 later we walked out with all the accouterments to do a professional job.

My philosophy is this...I have spend 7 plus years of my life sitting for hours every six weeks in a chair, watching someone highlight my hair, and spending somewhere between $85-150 to do so. It's not a hard technique to grasp, I will admit it was a little intimidating to begin, but once you get through the first few foils and realize that you just spent $4.99 on hair color, it's all good!

Soo...first try turned out relatively good. When I was washing the color out of my hair, I had a mini-panic attack and started bargaining with God. My inner dialog went something like this..."Dear God, please let this work, don't let my hair fall out, I promise I will do a good deed everyday." The color is a bit more gold than what I would have liked, Jenny feels the same way (didn't get an after shot of her hair, she was running late and literally almost left the casa with foils in her hair), but the end result is a positive one and I'm happy to announce, I don't believe I will be paying an outrageous amount to have someone highlight my hair in the near future!

Journaling

After having a few life changing experiences, i.e. getting married, moving into a new condo, having a quasi quarter life crisis, getting so ill I had to be tested for H1N1...I re-evaluated my life. I haven't been super happy, what was missing? Where was the spark that made each day an adventure?

While laying in bed with above mentioned illness, feeling pretty sorry for myself, I thought of my librarian mother and her journal club. Her voice echoed through my congested head, "Did you know that the ancient art of journaling is known for stress management?" I propped my antibiotic filled body up and reached for the always handy notepad and pen in my bedside drawer (just in case you need to jot down a note, or in my case have interesting dreams that you want to recall and look up in your dream dictionary, however sleep is more important than documenting a dream at 2:45 am--I digress), and starting writing everything that's on my mind...love, music, shopping, career issues, cats, art, clothes...

Since I have started the old school pen and paper version of this centuries old art, I feel as if I have finally "found" myself, again. And now, this is the digital version.