Lately [In Pictures] With Words.

After I said I would blog more often, I didn't for another 2 weeks. Isn't that life sometimes?

Well, how have I been spending my days? Perhaps eating bon bons and watching daytime soaps.  Some days [when I feel super awesome] it feels like that.  If only I knew what bon bons were actually made of and we believed [not] in paying a ridiculous amount of $$ for cable then I'm sure I'd be glued to All My Children [negative].

So here's a picture montage iPhone dump of things. It is essentially random but the last two weeks have felt pretty random.

Tazo's Passion Tea which I hoard year round until the outside temps warm enough to drink chilled tea.

So Purpley  it stains my teeth 

 I don't know what it is about California water but it makes me cringe whenever I drink it straight. There is something so very earthly about it. I haven't inspected our local water treatment plants but I wouldn't be surprised if it was entirely using organic buggies and ground up hippies. Mmmm. With my chlorinated and fluorinated Ohio water, I always knew what to expect and it was delicious.

Other things I drink to avoid straight up California water is this stinky drinky..

Organic, Raw Fermentation.  

All of the fruity flavors I've tried taste like death.  But this gingerade flavor gets along with the fizzy [almost too] vinegary drink.

And last but not least, plenty of juices and smoothies.  I really like these because I can drink them straight up. I also tried cold pressed green veg juices (which are delicious btdubs) but I have to cut it with a fruit juice. Otherwise, the all veg juices are like drinking the smell of the salad bar.

Green Machine

Kitty cuddling. At least, with the one that loves me.

Dairykins.

Cat in my bed. Never thought I'd see the day.

My new ride. I call her Sheila with an Australian accent. It sounds more like ShiLer in my head. That's probs not PC. Anyway, she is a Specialized Vita Sport. She's last years model but the only differences was color availability.  You bet I made my choice based on color then on price. I'm a girl but I'm practical.  She has a few Sharpie accents courtesy of Moi, for identifying traits in case she gets stolen. At which point I doubt will help but at least I'm doing my part here.

Sheila, in black.

A sampling of my [not] finest graffiti.

Most days I've been showing Sheila around town and introducing her to the neighborhood. Other days I am pillaging Home Goods and rounding out our tiny home. I've been scouring for cheap pillows with cases I can wash for our couch, Blue.  I've scored some other boring  necessary housewife things like rugs, mirrors, picture frames etc from the clearance section.

[Finally] Throw pillows for Blue.

These 2 wood canvas were scored from Home Goods for $5 each.  A canvas the same size would cost roughly $10 each. So two for one :)  While I agree, Money Can't by [me] Love, it does by 2 canvas for cheap.

I sanded down the fronts and primed them up for a mini surprise for Mr. W.  It involved some special song lyrics that have been substantial in our lives.  The song even appeared during our wedding day :) I just need to get a finished photo.

Transition to food stuffs. I make a mean pizza but when I run out of dough I turn to my next carb, Bagels! Mr W. would not like these because I topped them with peppers. Not that you can tell under that cheese blanket.

Caesar salad mixing bowls. Combine organic romaine, finely grated parm, lemon juice and Marzetti's Simply Dressed Caesar.  Toss with chopsticks and consume. These chopsticks were favors from a friend's wedding.  For whatever reason, we possess 6 pairs. Thanks Jon and Kait!

All this eating happened after I cleaned out our fridge.  We eat at Mr W's place of employment most nights so our fridge was outta control with stank. I donned my bio hazard suit and went to town. Here is the finished product.

Fridge wiped down with white vinegar and lemon.

Lastly, sunshine. Lots. of. Sun. Shine. This is California after all. The cost of living dictates I'm paying for sunshine.  

That is all.
Love,
Mrs W.

I got my flippy floppies (No. 3)

After our official introduction, co-op life continued.  There were weekly 1hr lunches scheduled that we would stretch into 2hrs simply by showing up early to reserve the table and ending late.  We would talk about how awesome our work groups were, this one really cool operator that has terrible humor, a project that was exciting until 4 weeks in when progress had stopped because your boss was going out of town or those silly people you emailed hadn't emailed you back yet (the horror!).  We also talked about weekend trips. Going to Loon's Games (baseball), car trips to Cedar Point (I ended up never going), and camping at Lake Michigan.  We also talked about BOATING.

It appeared Mr W was accustomed to boating in the summer.  Specifically, hours spent in the sun shine on a ski boat wake boarding and tubing until your arms fell off.

Growing up in Ohio, there was limited access to pretty blue water for boating.  Sure the Ohio river is there but no one actually goes in it.  Actually, I know of 2 boys who swam across from Ohio to Kentucky in it for a school project.  They both contracted pneumonia.  I had water skied and gone tubing before but that was only for a few summers at a close friends lake house in Tennessee.

Anyway, our first boating trip happened in April. On the first day that broke 60, a small group of us [stupid enough] who wanted to try wake boarding took off work at 2pm.  We met at The W's home and drove out to the lake.  I remember I didn't actually get in the water on this trip because the water temperature was roughly 50 and I was sick with a cold. Mr W. let me off easy that time [he later told me].

We went boating again in May and the water was still too cold. But in Mr W.'s mind that just meant less people would be on the lake.  He was right and the water was as freeze your swimsuit off as before.  Mr W. taught me how to wake board on this trip and I loved it.  Even though I had a hard time crossing the wake and would always end up face down in the water (one thing at a time!).  Another high light from this trip was Mr W's mad tubing skills.  Anyone who's tubed with him knows, he's cray cray.  At one point, he was being torn across the water, skimming the thin ripples from the edge of the wake and he was being really loud.  An eruption of noise and then nothing, he had let go of the tube and was bobbing in the water.  As we approached him with the boat, he started screaming "Jon! Jon! Dude, my pants are gone!".  Yes he rhymed. Once he got back into the boat with some one's spare pair of soccer shorts he told us this dramatic (is anyone surprised?) story of how his swim trucks had peaced out while he was tubing.  He eventually realized losing his trunks weren't worth tubing longer so he let go and tried to hold onto them.  But apparently the lake swallowed them up.

A lot more boating happened in May and June as Michigan was still thawing itself. Eventually, Mr W taught me how to drive the boat.

Need for speed.

He told me later his reasoning was two fold. (the following are his words).  1.) You  are [I am] really hot so teaching you [me] how to drive the boat would only make you [me] hotter and 2.) I [he] was tired of always taking everyone else tubing and wake boarding.  So if you [me] learned, I [he] could have more fun.

Wow! You still with me?

Also, I can't leave this out. The more I hung out on the boat with Mr W, the more comfortable I became.  Until one trip I decided Mr W. shouldn't be the only one pushing everyone else in the water for fun. Mr W was teaching Leslie how to get up wake boarding and I thought he looked too dry. The following series I shot with Papa W's camera while David did my dirty work.

I miss boating. I miss Michigan... Wait. Northern California is breaking 65 today. I just miss boating :)

Mrs. W

The title of this post references a song that was pretty popular that summer. I won't link the song here cause it's not clean and makes my ears cringe. But these two lines sum up boating while everyone else is at work.  "I got my swim trunks and my flippy floppies. I'm flipping burgers you at Kinkos straight flipping copies." 

Pipe dream

Mr W. and I have a pipe dream and it is climbing El Capitan.

Source

Pipe dreams are interesting creatures because they may never happen.  That's the whole point.  The dream part indicates the impossible.  But the pipe part of it is all about being on a path, a journey that could one day lead you there.   This pipe dream was born from being a child of the 90s.  [Like every kid] I too, dreamed of taking home a piece of that glowing, radical rock. As a kid growing up in a family who, once saw a rock wall in a mall in the middle of Ohio, I truly thought that Guts was representation of truth in climbing.  Then I moved to California and fell in love with the real thing. You can read a tiny recap of our climbing history in this post.

Table Scraps

Well, we are re entering the pipe simply by returning to the climbing gym.  After moving in November, our gym bags haven't seen the light of day. We are incredibly far away from this dream.

90ft wall, Tahoe

My hands are no longer covered in the dense, thick skin pads required to pinch, crimp and swing myself to become an extension of the wall.  My forearms and shoulders, while still reminiscent of muscles, have lost most of the strength they used to carry.  The flexibility to swing, stretch backwards and touch my toes to my ears has been replaced with stiff joints and an inability to get my heels flat in downward dog.

I am by definition. out. of. climbing. shape.  But there is a difference between today and yesterday.  Today, I am lacing up my shoes, tying figure 8's and getting a new belay cert.  I am making the effort to get back on the wall.

Will doing this lead to my pipe dream? Definitely not.  But stringing days like today over the course of years just might.

And that's just fine with me.  God may certainly have other plans for us; if that involves spending a crap ton of time training and immersing myself into climbing, so be it. I'm letting Him know I'm totally game.

Do do do do doooooo you have it?

-mrs dubs

I would never date an engineer. [No. 2]

This post is No.2 in a series called Divine Romance.  Which, is actually a song by Phil Wickam Mr W. and I danced to on our wedding day. To read how about my first impressions, see post No. 1.

So, when did we finally meet? It was about a week after the movie diss that we planned Mexican themed potluck. Probably to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. I had heard from my roommate that one of our friends living in the apartment across the hall from us was going to host.  I am sort of ashamed of this but I actually persuaded my roommate, Jane, to ask Mr W. if we could have the potluck at his dad's house instead.  See, Mr W. was actually from the small town we were living in during our summer co-op.  The rest of us were living in corporate housing while we were working.  Ie, our apartments had the bare bones of kitchen supplies and minimal space.

Well, it worked, suddenly we were meeting at Mr W's childhood home for a potluck. I think it was a Wednesday.  I brought supplies for root beer floats [guess I thought it'd go with the Mexican theme??].  Mr W. was making a batch of taco meat and chatting.  He looked like a man who knew his way around the kitchen. I would later find out he could cook pretty well -a skill my sister reaffirmed was scarce in men these days.

"Hi, this is my dad's house. I'm Josh"

[Exactly what I thought] Finally, this kid introduces himself to me! And I notice he has wonderfully blue eyes, dimples in his smile and an ability to dress himself.  He was wearing a button down shirt and khakis.  I would find out later his sister dressed him for work, thus the nice work clothes. Though, it takes a strong man to admit he needs a woman to help dress himself.

We eventually settled into the basement to play hold 'em and pool. I had just sunk a ball in the corner pocket and I think we were talking about relationships. [I hope] because I distinctly remember exclaiming how "I could never stand to date another engineer", and "you'd never get anything done because you have two very smart people battling out how to do something most efficiently".  Cue thunder and lightening; I had just challenged God.  Or at least, that is how I feel now thinking back on it.  Oh, how silly I was [and still am] thinking I could go around making these all-encompassing statements.  

At this point, Josh. had just been mercilessly beaten at hold em' by none other than his Dad! He joined us for pool; he wasn't on my team but I forget who was.  I can remember sinking the eight ball, kicking butt and taking names.  I had beat Josh at pool.  To which he retorted "I can't win in my own house!" and proceeded to be melodramatic for the rest of the evening.  All in good fun, of course.  His sense of humor made me laugh.

I thought here is someone who doesn't take himself too seriously.  Which, is something I did do. All. The. Time.  A few weeks later I realized how he could influence me to be so not-stick-up-my-bum serious.

Not a straight face in the crowd.

But that happened weeks later. There is still a bunch of in-between ridiculous details to savor.  And that was the last time I thought about him for awhile.  Least, until several friends started inquiring about what we were.

And least you forget how handsomely studly Mr W. truly is, I'll leave you with this little gem.

Yes, you are very welcome.
Mrs. W.

First impressions

I was 21 years old.

Just moved to Michigan for the summer. [I thought] It was freezing for April.  I remember having to scrape ice off my windshield while trying to avoid the black snow. You know the nasty stuff that sticks around for weeks after the last snow fall.  It has accumulated all the dirt into one convenient spot right next to the driver side door and refuses let your khaki slacks go unmarked.

My roommate and I were both going through a short hair phase.  Engineering can be such a man's world. Even we felt compelled to have short hair. Makes it easier to recover from hard hat hair (sigh).

Roommates.

We went to the movies to meet the other [co-op] students who were also working that summer.  These pictures are from Cinco de Mayo a few weeks later.

B-dubs to celebrate Mexican independence.

Like civilized young people, we introduced ourselves to the group.  Except, for one boy who showed up a little bit after everyone else was already at the theater. I thought he was pretty cute for a engineer [nerd].  But he never introduced himself to me.  Nope. I was told by another girl who he was.  I remember he brought his dad to the movie with him.  I love hanging out with my family (more than an average young person) and liked that this boy valued time with his dad.**

Source

The movie we went to was "I love you, Man".  Now that I think of it, I haven't seen that movie since.  What happened to it?

Anyway, that was the first time I didn't met Mr W.
-Mrs. Dubyah

**Mr W. would like to clarify here. He ALWAYS went to 5 dollar Wednesday movies with his dad.  He was simply inviting all the co-ops along to partake in their tradition.  Knowing this made me melt even more. What a family man. ;)

Absent

I have been very absent lately.  Absent as in absentminded, absent from thoughts, absent from everything. Life.  I've also been absent on here and I don't really understand why.

They see me rollin, they hatin.

See, I like blogging, I love writing down my thoughts, agonizing over the proper word descriptors and I adore reflecting on moments.  However, I haven't been able to do any of that for nearly 2 weeks. I have been every definition of absent.

New things are on the horizon.  Quite like spring seems around the corner in Northern California.  I was sitting outside, watching 2 interesting characters in the park talk very loudly about a secret mission they were going to embark on.  Then one got up and meandered down the middle of the street in a not very straight line.  #IloveCalifornia.  Once they left I had nothing to do but think about how absent I have been lately.

 

While I was sitting there, thinking myself into circles, I felt a warm tangible weight on my shoulder; the Sun.  He was rising, beginning to bake the air into Spring.  There is a sweet smell associated with Spring.  Scents of fallen rain combing through fresh cut grass and an earthiness..  Sort of like when you were 3 and dug up earth warms for the first time in your mom's freshly planted flower bed.  Then, the breeze rushes in; the damp, heavy, mineral air which has been hiding beneath the shade since the last frost. The vibrations of life beginning to bloom.  This movement is elusive until time allows the Sun to cure Green into the colors of his fiery kiln.

So here is my prayer to be less absent and more present.  Especially now as winter seems to be dying to Spring. Let the old me die and be left behind.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old is gone, the new has come!
2 Corinthians 5:17

-Mrs. W.