#winnieweekends #winnieinthewild #kylieneedsalife

My dearly beloved friend Ronnie just told me that my romance with Winnie the Subaru was getting a bit out of control. My immediate response was disbelief. No way!! That's pathetic! But because Ronnie was right and quick on his feet he proved me wrong. The hashtags. The road trips. The pet names. THE PHOTOS. Well Ronnie, these are the nails in the coffin. You're right. I've got an embarrassing puppy love romance with my car. 

Side Effects

My friend's mom in Farmington told me a while ago that she understood why I was so good at my job.  She explained that it MUST be because I fit in so well with 13 year olds. It was right after I told a questionable poop joke at the dinner table. (In my defense, it was at least after dinner.) Most people would have re-examined their life choices after a comment like that, but I took a different route. For the first time in my life, I took being called immature as a compliment and ran with it. Literally. I ran away for a while with my 15 person van from work and staged a photo shoot. This very van was a big part of my life at the Boys & Girls Club. I drove it every friday all over town with my kids in back, and almost everyday in the summer. One time a high school Club member even asked if it was my own personal car because she saw me driving it so much. Also, one of my favorite videos of all time involved our "grape van." (see below)

                           

Getting ready:

And by getting ready I mean cliff jumping and road tripping. Not packing. Or organizing. Or getting ready at all. Whoops. 

Getting so close:

The bittersweet feeling of leaving is something I just can't shake. I feel it all the time lately, and can't stop thinking, "Will this be the last time I see this?" "Will that be the last time I go there?"  I run my life on timelines, and a major one is getting oh so close to coming to an end. On August 7, I will have been a desert dweller for two years. I sit and think and it feels like a forever full of desert drives, hard days, and hours with my kids. A full 730 days worth. It only lasts for a bit and then my thoughts move onto roadtrips, adventures, family and the future and I realize it's meant to be.

proof:

 it gets really old taking photos of yourself. but when you road trip solo, it's entertaining to maneuver tripods, set self timers, and generally embarrass yourself. when i went to valles caldera a couple of weeks ago, i was wonderfully content taking weirdo selfies (exhibit a) until i was caught in the act of posing for a self-timed photo series  (my camera has a 30 second delay and takes 9 photos spaced 5 seconds apart. imagine me standing in a field changing and holding a new pose every 5 seconds. weeeeeirdo status.) by an adorable elderly couple who stopped for a bit to watch me. i tried to play it off, but it was obvious. that girl must be by herself because she's too weird for other people to handle. but like the tough girl i am, i acted like i was cool shit and looking really intently at the cow pies. i then proceeded to creepily follow that couple for the rest of the hike. from a distance of course (exhibit b). the rest are just photos that i liked. also, valles caldera is a13.7 mile wide supervolcano caldera!

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

bicycle diaries: santa fe

it's decided. exploring cities in cars is awesome. but bikes are even better.

Let the sentimental boobing begin:

Santa Fe is one of my favorite cities in the whole glorious state of New Mexico. When I first moved here I would drive the three hours just to get some sourdough bread and aimlessly drive the back neighborhoods and fall in love with the adobe walls and turquoise doors and roads that could barely fit one car. I went again for the last time before I leave and remember thinking that it was too pretty to be true. 

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Teenagers part two:

Today this happened:
-At the pool I was swimming next to one of my girls and she gave me a blank look and asked:
Guess what?
I answered, Tell me
she nonchalantly said:
I just peed.
and then promptly proceeded to take a big gulp of swimming pool water and yelled:
I JUST DRANK MY OWN PEE!

-While herding my kids to various activities, locations or events I often yell: LETS MOVE KIDDIES!(which gets plenty of annoyed and angsty teenager looks. Kylie! We are NOT kids!)
So I decided to start calling them kitties. Today I yelled LETS GO KITTIES and my herd of teenagers started meowing and trying to lick me.

-and then there's this video:

Hanging with hooligans

Ever wonder what it's like spending every day with middle schoolers?
There were only a couple of kids left at work today so I decided to turn off  the radio and plug in my phone and play some of my music. Immediate teenager response: screaming, eyes poping and plenty of begging to turn off my "drunk hippie music." Refusing to give in, I continued my drunk hippie dance moves until giggle fits took center stage and they escaped with their mommas.  Ohhh the glory of embarrassing hormonal kiddies. 

desert living

it's been nice exploring the desert hills from a whole new perspective. aka: hauling booty and channeling my inner daredevil.

Luck.

i went camping over the weekend and on my way back from peeing in the woods i found these gems. gross and definitely too much information, but hey, what are blogs for?

louis l'amour wannabe.

learning to love the ways of western desert cowboy camping (aka: trucks, guns and camo)

sentimental much?

i've always loved handwriting. there are some people whose handwriting represents as much about them as their faces do. or some handwriting which i would recognize anywhere, anytime for the rest of my life. i have a friend who has multiple distinct styles which is hysterical and utterly unique. i have another friend whose handwriting is so simple and matter of fact that i can perfectly imagine him sticking his tongue out in concentration while writing it. and my other friend whose letter "a" reminds me of whales and the ocean. goodness, i could go on forever. i think it's really why i'm such a sucker for postcards and pen pals. i think it also explains why i got all cheesy sentimental when my grandma sent me a package of seeds for my garden, all in bags with notes and advice written on them. 

reminders:

I had forgotten how exciting and nerve-wracking film photography can be. i was dancing the whole day, and then more on the way to the developer, and then three times that on my way home after picking up the negatives. then it progressed to straight-out squealing when i saw the photos. 

so embarrassing. 

Good Karma.

last week we had a "pay it forward" project at the club. we spent all week planning, calling,  organizing and getting everything ready. come friday, i drove our 15 person van all over town, full of squealing and squirrelly teenagers. i would pull over discreetly (okay, almost discreetly) on neighborhood streets and seconds later, the van doors would be thrown open and one of my kids would bolt out, sprinting down the sidewalk, giant pinwheel in hand. after reaching the house of one of our cute grandmas, volunteers or single moms we had in mind, they dropped off their pinwheel with a little note on kindness and paying it forward. they would make it back into the van with a face flush with excitement and adrenaline and i would peel off into the sunset. the night was full of heart busting random acts of kindness and i loved seeing my kiddies have fun and feel good helping others.
postscript: four hours in a van with 13 teenagers is one heck of a trip. whining, complaining and farting, oh my!

anyways, after driving around town with my hooligan children for hours and keeping my cool, i felt like i was home free in collecting my month's worth of good karma points. and i was right. i met the sweetest man at a photography gallery later in the weekend and he let me test out one of his cameras! i then promptly bought some film and took to the mountains. and these were the results.
what would i do without the kindness of others?