The night I met David Duchovny

So I fulfilled a childhood dream on Monday night, and met David Duchovny at a concert in D.C. You may or may not know he released an album (because why not when you have that much money?), but my love for him extends from The X Files, Californication and various movies. I have had a fangirl crush on him since I was 14.

The meet and greet tickets were not SUPER expensive, so I forked over a little extra money to guarantee that I would meet him. I figured that this would probably never happen again and since we was coming so close to where I live, I needed to do this! I still regret not seeing him on broadway a few years back...

So I got my bro and sis-in-law to join me (along with a friend and his wife) and we ventured into D.C. during rush hour on a Monday (woot woot). I did get to leave work early to drive up, so it made my Monday at work more exciting than normal:)

Howard Theater is in a cool part of D.C. right off U street. I just love D.C. so much it is always fun to go into the city. The theater had tables, a bar and a main floor area in front of the stage, which made it feel more like a lounge than a concert area. It was cool!

Meeting him was super-quick, but amazing. Once the doors opened at 6, I was in a line that wrapped down the stairs to a dressing room. We were instructed to give our phone to a lady when we walked in, shake his hand and chit chat quickly before taking the picture. I told him I liked his leather jacket and got to shake his hand twice:) He looked SO GOOD! Better in person than on TV. And I would like to point out how skinny his legs are...

My marathon training legs can take his.

I was literally shaking when I left the room because of how good he looked. And then I proceeded to social media my picture for all my friends and family. It was awesome. Currently I have upwards of 150 likes- this is equivalent to an engagement announcement. No big deal.

My group then had dinner next door and went back in a little later to catch the show! My camera did not take great pictures, but check them out! 

He bantered with the crowd between songs and I was close to the stage the whole time (standing room only tickets). It was really cool to see him so close for so long. He is not an amazing singer or anything (he has so much money, I am sure this is just a dream/fantasy hobby), but the opportunity to see him perform and meet him was amazing. There were definitely some crazy fan people there (they made me feel much better about my level of obsession for him), but it was a very cool night. I probably enjoyed him talking between the songs the most, but there were some catchy songs and the band was great (I should probably listen to my signed CD)! 

The group consensus was that it was very fun, but he is not what anyone would call a singer. In fact, my brother joked that this might have made him like him less, but I beg to differ:)  We also had a bet on how many times he would mention The X Files and we all lost- he never mentioned the show or anyone related to it at all! This was clearly a night about the music. Ha.

And now I can die happy:)

What I've Learned This Summer

The best way out is always through.

-Robert Frost

What good is life if we don't learn a little something along the way? Get ready for some of my ramblings:)

Let's face it: summers can be long (at least for me). It is filled with long days-> I feel like I am one of the few that hates how long it stays light in the summer-> and long working hours with 10 hours days and no students. It's ridiculously hot in Virginia and people are in and out of town. Activities are suspended, routines are off, and free time abounds. Travel is about the only good thing about the season, in my opinion!

I am not daft enough to know that I am lucky in all my travels, but that is what I have to do to stay sane. When I haven't been traveling, I have mostly been in a funk.  Even taking 3 weeks off and traveling on weekends has not been enough to make up for working during the weeks. 

I've learned this summer that working in schools in the summer is not my thing. It's not the working part that I don't like-> I have always worked in the summer-> it is being in a school without students and many staff members and having to work long days with little people interaction all while mainly staring at a computer. I am a people person at work if there ever was one.

Due to this, I have felt in a funk for a big part of this summer. Aside from traveling, which makes me feel great, happy and limitless, the times at home have been an emotional roller coaster. I realized that I can't be totally happy in my life when I am unhappy in work. I am better at it than I used to be, because I transitioned from the mindset of "live to work" to "working so I can live," but I hate not loving my job. Some people can- they can deal with work while they are there and completely push it off their minds when not there and not have it not affect their out of work life. I can't.

Office work in the summer leaves me anxious and restless when I get home. Marathon training has been a blessing (even though I hate the heat), because it has kept me very active and busy when my friends are out of town. But with no classes and friends in and out of town (and having babies-> that is another post) since the beginning of July, I have had a lot of free time. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people who can be content sitting at home watching TV or doing random projects. I need alone time to recharge for sure, but I don't need evenings and days of it over and over again. I feel the summer is filled with these long, endless days.

This was not my first summer working in my current job, but last summer it was still new so it didn't affect me like it has this summer. I do feel better after this week because teachers and orientation activities start next week (and VCU started), so the end is near, but I need to figure out how I will work through this next summer. Even if I like my job during the year, I cannot hate it for 3 months out of the year. That is not a good balance for me personally. 

So I am going to take this year to examine and explore some options for next summer/year. I turn the big 3-0 in June and can feel some big changes on the horizon. We will see:) I also really relate to this post, which has helped me turn my feelings of "have to" to "get to." Lots of very truthful feelings and mindsets there! That blogger definitely put some of my thoughts into her own words.

And so while I have no answers, I leave you with this picture, because the night I took this I was feeling really deep and wrote the quote below:

I have yet to ever have a day at work that tops experiencing a sunrise or sunset, exploring a new city or land, tasting new food, immersing myself in a new culture, meeting people outside my normal path, or living, seeing, breathing and feeling how big and wide and wonderful our world is. I know I am one of the lucky ones who can do this, yet I cannot ever see enough to be satisfied. I want to spend my whole life discovering this great world. 

What a beauty she is.

Enough of my rambling- anyone else NOT love the summer? Any tips for me?!

Time of Your Life

When graduation season approaches, especially since I work in a high school and currently am in graduate school, I always think back to my own graduations and life changes.

I remember always hearing people say that high school or college was the "time of your life." And I always worried that was the case; that those years from 14-22 were supposed to be the best and if they weren't, then life would be a long road downhill.

But I have to disagree.

I feel that since I finished my master's degree and got a full-time job, that these years have been the time of my life, and a time I will never get back. I live on my own, support myself, travel, run races, spend money and time on what I want, live by my own accord, and don't have anyone or thing to answer to but myself. These may be selfish times for sure- I am not married nor do I have any kids- but I am loving it.

I think back to all the uncertainty of high school and college for me- not knowing if I would be ok. Would I get a job? Would I like it? Where would I live? Would I be able to take care of myself? Would I get married? Did I want kids? Would I be happy?

Right now, at 28 (almost 29), I am living in a time of so much joy for myself and people around me- friends are getting new, exciting jobs and moving cool places, getting engaged and married, having babies and starting families, traveling the world, and going back to school and getting some bad a** degrees. It is not just me embarking on new paths- it is everyone. This is a special time of my life for sure, and I love to share in all this joy with people. 

I know this time won't last forever, but I have to wonder why people put so much pressure on young people to have the time of their life in high school or college. Sure, it is a fun time- you are spending time with friends (I do miss having friends around me all the time) with limited responsibilities, but I never felt it was entirely carefree. You do worry about things: loans, debt, jobs, classes, and how life will turn out, and you are still discovering what you want....I think that for most people now, college is not as carefree as it once was, and while that is fine, students and even adults still put a lot of pressure on those times to make them AMAZING. In reality, it is ok if they are not, and honestly, should they be? That is a long life of disappointment if your heyday was in the first 3rd of your life.

So I think it is important to make every moment in your life the "time of you life" or else what is the point in living? Sure there are ups and downs along the way, but I really think that this time is pretty great.

And to relay this view, I read Andie Mitchell's book "It Was Me All Along" (which you should read-> she also has a great blog), and found this quote particularly fitting to life and all the pressures we put on ourselves to be happy and perfect. That the ups and downs are what make us and are nothing to be ashamed of, but that owning them is what makes up who we are and life all the more sweeter.

Here's the truth I've come to know: fat or thin, it was me all along.

The thing is, it's easy to find the bad. I'm cynical at times. Pessimistic and realistic. I can, and do, look at situations in pros and cons. But what I've come to know as true, in the last twenty-eight years, is that I am everything I've ever been.

I will always know fat. And love who she is. And know that fat, in itself, is not a bad word. I'll own it and respect those twenty years. They were hard, but they were sweet, too. I grew up oin that body, in that time, in that big, beautiful mind.

I will always know thin. And love who she is. And know that even when she feels heavier mentally, she's freer now. She's effervescent. Small, but tough,

I will always know that the grass, though it seems emerald and glowing in that field on the other side, it isn’t. Flowers grow here; they grow over there. As weeds do, to. 

But both are wide and they’re open. And I can lie and cry in one and move and spin in the other. Just knowing this: they’re the same field. And they’re both mine.
________________________________________________________________

What do you think about the "time of your life?" 

Far More Than Food

As you all know, some days I am pretty 'surface based' in what I talk about on here and other days I get a little deeper. Maybe it's because I had two snow days this week (with a full week off for students) and more time on my hands, or maybe it's because of other stuff going on in my life, but I have been in a very reflective, deep mood...thinking about life, health, happiness, friends, relationships, work, school, goals, ect...

Through all my reflections, I have come to the conclusion that life is pretty great. I am still navigating my own path and my opinions of which way to go change constantly, but I have to say I am good. Very good. Despite it not being perfect.

I also get in reflective moods from my blog reading, too. I have commented on here about my struggles growing up with eating disorders. It is something that I always have to keep in check since I tend to get obsessive/controlling about things, especially when I feel my life is not in my control. What frustrates me most, though, is hearing other people approach their weight/looks in the same way that I used to. I want to run up to them and yell, 'FOCUS ON SOMETHING ELSE IN YOUR LIFE! THIS ISN'T THE KEY TO HAPPINESS!" Regardless of if someone needs to clean up their diet with whole foods or exercise more, I hate how health and happiness so often comes down to weight when we know that they are not a perfect correlation. Especially working with so many women, weight is such a common topic and I find that very sad. We are SO hard on ourselves. 

I found a great post yesterday that I wanted to share parts of because it spoke so strongly to me:

It was on a morning run when the decision was made. We were running up a hill, feeling the burn in our thighs and a hunger for air in our lungs, when she mentioned her wild idea for the year. "I'm going to give up the scale." She says through labored breaths. I heard her. Offered a breathless "whoa" over out feet pounding on the pavement. The hill affords me some thinking time. It says I can do it too, give up the scale. I don't tell her because I don't want her to know I'm on board, I want to go home and see what my scale says about being on board. 

Twenty four hours later we're back on the roads, running, right foot over left. And I tell her I'm in. I share how I want to savor this year, savor myself and my food and my life and in thinking of savoring all my scale adds is guilt. So I'll join her. 

We weighed ourselves the last time on January 1st in her bathroom, sweaty and fresh off a run. And we haven't stepped on a scale in over a month. I miss it some days, when I feel tired and sort of confused about how my day has measured up against yesterday and the day before that and before that too.

I miss it because it told me how to measure my day. Days weren't good or bad. They weren't productive or restful. They lacked pride or frustration. Instead, they were a number. On light days, skinny days, better days, they were 130. Fat days, bad days, ugh days were 135. That scale told me good morning or not. It told me good afternoon or not. It helped me decide on dinner portions, lunch choices, breakfast options. It told me if I got that second coffee or not. It patted me on the back or kicked my knees out from under me. It said everything, until I said goodbye. 

And now, I decide between hunger and satiation. I let my clothes compliment me, instead of questioning their size. I measure my worth in action and deed, not weight and calories. 

Some days, I stand where that scale used to be and I look in the mirror. I look at myself, the curves and "trouble spots" and think I am beautiful because I'm me, not because of that measuring thing. I am beautiful because beauty happens everywhere, even inside of me. 

That mirror reflects my outsides, a part of me I'm happy with. I look and smile back at me, a genuine, bright smile. I am beautiful because beauty happens everywhere, especially inside of me. And that is a weight no scale is going to measure. 

So beautifully said and strikingly true in how weight can determine good or bad days. I hope that who ever is reading this can get themselves out of the "cycle of the scale" and focus on weight and food as being good or bad, and instead focus on themselves as a WHOLE person with a SOUL. Because no one will ever look back on their life on their deathbed and wish they had been able to lose those last 10 pounds. We will wish upon more time spent experiencing, living, loving and connecting with others. We need to put focus back where it is due- to people, bettering ourselves and our community and being HAPPY (whatever that looks like to you).

Have a great weekend!

Quotes

I love my quote of the day box on this blog. Some days I take pictures of them to save because I like them so much! Here are some of my favorites:

Have a GREAT weekend and CONGRATS on surviving January, which can be a pretty boring month. TGIF!!!