lucky twenty-seven

If you ask me to choose a number between 1 and 100, I choose 27 almost every time. Not sure why but it has always just been my number (oddly enough, my sister's is 72...chosen independently of mine).

My friend Jeni's birthday is about 2 weeks after mine, so each year I make the first step into the new group. At first it was fun... 18, 21, even 25. But, let's get serious, there aren't too many fun birthdays to get to anymore. This year in the days leading up to my birthday she asked me if I was ready to be "so old." I don't feel old, actually I feel way too young at times. In the days leading up to my birthday this year I realized that I was about to become the age of my favorite number. And then I decided that this HAD to be my best year ever.

To start the list so far:
1) I ran my first 10K. Actually, I ran my first farther-than-3-miles-only-because-i-signed-up-for-a-dumb-5K. My sister convinced me to train with her and at first I said, "okay," but was really thinking, "are you kidding me?!!? I don't run" ... and hoping she'd forget about it after a month or so. But she didn't, and she convinced me to join her, and I had so much fun running my first race. Note the raptor hands, and I really was having fun even though I think I look like I might keel over.

2) I'm about to become a home owner... I plan to close at the end of this week but have been hesitant to share for fear that something would fall through. But it looks like this thing is actually going to happen. Much more on that to come, I'm sure.

That's it so far...besides just trying to enjoy every day with even the little things that bring me joy and make me laugh.

I'm excited to see what else the lucky-27 year has in store for me!

bliss.

I love weddings. Everything about them. My eyes tear up every time I hear the song that plays as the bride walks down the aisle. I love stealing a peek at the groom as his eyes first meet hers. I love the gathering of family and friends and the love. A room full of people that the couple has chosen as witnesses. And then later on... i love the dancing and cake.

This weekend I was able to sit and witness the union of two friends. It was a beautiful, uncharacteristically warm, May day in Michigan. The setting was outdoors at one of the more iconic sites of Grand Rapids... Calder Plaza.


And as the ceremony unfolded, I was able to enjoy all of the things that I love about weddings.

For the place cards/favors they gave each guest a basil plant. What a great way to remember their day, as well as to continue to enjoy the fresh herbs all year long (well, as long as I'm able to keep it alive...I have a pretty poor track record with plants).

Hopefully this here fella makes it... because i love love basil, and can think of plenty of tasty ways to use it.

And of course, later on in the evening... I enjoyed some dancing and desserts. Was able to catch a couple of quick pics of us girls chatting at our table.




Thanks, Karl and Joy for letting me share in your beautiful day!

sunshine and fresh cut grass.

So, for my first attempt at blogging. I was driving home from Wednesday night glass o' wine with my dear friend Julie, deciding that I could give this blog thing another shot. I came home, opened my google reader, and figured out how to start.

Then I got to the "name your blog" page. Oh, crap. Such pressure. What to do I call it. I can't make it something totally stupid, because the name will just be there, snickering and staring me in the face each time I open it. So I tried a few which, of course, were already taken (what else was I to expect, jumping on the blog bandwagon so late in the game?).

So 45 minutes later, after leaving the computer sitting on the couch several times and pouring a glass of water and putting away dishes from earlier in the day, I decided to give this one a shot. Two of my favorite things. Favorite vision and feeling on my face. Favorite smell as it comes in through the open spring windowns. And two things I totally miss on these grey michigan winter (and spring) days. Sounded refreshing. I could use some of both right about now. So I gave it a try and it worked.

Well there ya go.

Confession.

Hi my name is carrie and I am a blog stalker.

Yes, for quite some time now I've quietly stalked the blogs of others, reading about their lives, smiling at their triumphs, aching at their diappointments. Some of them are friends, others are people I've never met before. Some are friends of friends, others are people who have breifly touched my life. I leave messages on a few, but more often just quietly read and leave. But, whoever it may be, I've saved them in my google reader and excite on the days when I remember to check in and find items in my 'unread posts' list. I love the pictures and the stories. And just the life.

I've tried to blog before. Maybe when I was in college. But it never really went anywhere -- probably for several reasons:
1. My life just isn't that interesting; it seems like everyone else has fun and interesting things going on in life. But who wants to hear about my ordinary life. Especially when I was in grad school... go to class, blah. memorize anatomy, blah. read lots of books, blah blah.
2. I'm just not that great of a writer. Some of my blog friends have such an amazing gift at words that it blows me away. I also have two dear teacher friends who just so eloquent with their writing. Others can have me on the edge of my seat while reading about the most standard daily doings. Me? I am scattered. And speak in fragments, and I mumble and sometimes just trail off in the middle of sentences. I did a great job at pretending, but always was just poor at english and didn't want to make people decipher my writing.
3. I never could quite find the time.

So I was talking to my dad earlier today and he says to me, "you have such a great life, carrie." And before I could interject the oh-so-common argument, "Butdad..." you dont really know, other people are so much more interesting, what about your great life... I just smiled and said, "Thanks." And came to realize that, though my life has not gotten any less ordinary, I guess I've come more to accept to make the best out of what it is. So why not make the transition from stalker to sharer. Someone might be interested.
And my writing? I make no guarantee that things will make sense as they go along.
And my time? No promises that there will be any sort of regularity to this thing. But at least I can't say I didn't try.

So welcome aboard. Blog stalkers welcome.