I was recently lucky enough to go on a week long camping trip in the Canyonlands of Utah with my fiancé and parents. I hadn't been there since was was a twelve year old girl and it was amazing to go back! I had forgotten just how beautiful it was. The marbled slick rock provided such a contrast to the deep blue cloudless sky that it was enough to take my breath away.
Amid long slick rock hikes, smoky campfires, S'mores, and a bee down the shirt (which resulted in my dinner flying from my lap to the dirt in a matter of light speed), I bathed in the fun of being with my family. I couldn't seem to get enough. I guess that's one thing that I have learned after being out of the house and on my own for awhile--being with the people you love is the most important thing you can do. What does it matter if you have money and success if you have no one to share them with? It's amazing what kind of things you contemplate while in canyon country. I think its because in places like canyon country you are removed from the hussle, the bussle, and overall insanity of modern western life and can actually appreciate the more spiritual (and more important in my opinion) aspects of life. So here is my final thought for this blog: We're done! We accomplished another successful semester! Take a break. Relax and enjoy life.
PROLOGUE
When I was seventeen I found a beautiful white dress that I decided I would buy for my senior homecoming dance. It was on the sales rack at the mall for $7 and fit perfectly. My date for that dance, ironically, is my now fiancé who I am marrying in about a month!
PART ONE: DECISION and STAIN!
I have been a procrastinator concerning the planning of our wedding. In fact, we both have. I fully admit that I was never the girl who was planning her wedding from age 12. After two years of engagement, much moving around the country and wedding plans that have never solidified, my fiancé and I have decided to get married during a previously planned vacation to Las Vegas next month! We are so excited!
Now that our plans have actually been decided on, I decided that it really was time for me to find a dress. I looked through my closet and found that same white dress from my homecoming so long ago. It was still perfect except for one little problem...there was a huge yellow stain splayed out on the front! I had no idea how that had gotten there and was mortified. My perfect $7 dress was on the verge of becoming obsolete! I took the dress down to the dry cleaners and the woman barely glanced at it before saying curtly, "That's never going to come out. Forget wearing that dress. Just go get a new one." My heart dropped. So much for finding the perfect wedding dress in the back of my closet.
PART THREE: HAPPY ENDING
Once I returned home I decided that I wasn't giving up yet! I could home remedy with the best of 'em! I brought out my stain remover and filled a tub full of hot soapy water and got to work. Within 10 minutes the stain was completely out and the dress looked brand new. Take that dry cleaner woman!! Hah! I am thrilled. How many other women get to say that they got their beautiful wedding dresses for $7 and wore it to there senior homecoming and are marrying the man that took them to that dance? Sounds like the perfect wedding dress to me!
<<------- This has to be one of the most adrenaline provoking pictures I have taken. I wish I could tell you what kind of snake it is but I can't. For now let us simply refer to it as Hugo.
The year was 1902 and I was hiking the jungles of Malaysia when my heel broke and I fell into a pit of vipers....
Hold on! Sorry, that was the more exciting version of the story that I have since fabricated in my head in order to avoid the pointed groans and tapping fingernails of my audience. However, you won't mind if I tell the real thing will you? Well, okay...as long as I don't have to pillow my underside from the vibration of your snores or ask Billy Mays to sell me some Drool Bam then I shall proceed.
The year was 2006 and I was on a tourist beach in Costa Rica (yeah I know...not quite so exciting). After laying on the beach and proceeding to turn the vibrant fusia color that is so popular among sunbathers, my friend and I heard the warning: Do not walk up the path along the beach; a large snake has been sighted. Naturally we got up and started for the path, my camera swinging happily from around my neck.
All of a sudden we saw him. He was wrapped contentedly around a branch about 10ft off to the side of the path. His multitude of colors glinted in the sun--greens, yellows, browns, grays, and whites--they seemed endless and dizzying. It took me awhile to find his head. My eyes followed around the never ending twists and curves of its body, searching for an end to that thick, beautiful and living rope. Finally I found it--it was looking right at me--studying me in the exact same manner I was studying it. What a beautiful creature. I thought to myself. How magnificent. Slowly I raised my camera and snapped a picture. The snake, Hugo, posed like a king (I think he knew he was).
Hugo has since stuck with me. His image forever burned into my brain as well as my computer. I find him humbling to look at. His beauty, his magnificence, his strength so much greater than mine. He truly is one of the great kings of not only the jungle but the world.
<<------- Riding Mandy in the Colorado mountains
I fell in love when I was just a child. No, it wasn't the paperboy or the busboy. Hell, it wasn't even Brad Pitt. My first love had four legs and the incredible beauty of the Middle East. She was colored a deep chestnut and had a pure white blaze down her perfectly shaped face--she was Arabian--she was my best friend.
Mandy was just a filly when I made a deal with my stable-owner friend to buy her using the stall cleaning credit I had built up over the years. I was in heaven. All of my short life I had wished and dreamed for a horse of my own and the moment her lead line was passed to my hand, I found that dream a reality. I spent all of my free time with her. I brushed her fine coat, I cleaned her perfectly oval hooves, I polished her tack until I could see my face in the gleaming leather, I rode her everyday. She was the friend I could tell all of my secrets and desires to
Never once did she laugh at me or eye me with that judgmental look that says so clearly, "What in the world do you think you're doing with your life?" Unconditional love shined from her like the sun that radiated down and bounced off her chestnut coat. I believe everyone needs a friend like that--no matter how small, different looking, foreign speaking, furry, smooth, white, black, chestnut or purple.
Mandy taught me the gifts of friendship, tolerance, patience and love. She will always be my girl--my friend--my Arabian beauty.
I was recently lucky enough to go on a week long camping trip in the Canyonlands of Utah with my fiancé and parents. I hadn't been there since was was a twelve year old girl and it was amazing to go back! I had forgotten just how beautiful it was. The marbled slick rock provided such a contrast to the deep blue cloudless sky that it was enough to take my breath away.
