COINCIDENCE

Yesterday was a running stream of coincidence.
As I drove to lunch I listened to a fascinating interview on NPR with astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Over lunch we started talking about the dubious exploits of Jimmy Page, trying to coax my father in law into believing his hero was maybe less then a sterling example of a man. Then Stairway to Heaven starts playing in the sushi house.

To change the subject, we watch Chris sing "Space Oddity" in a music video he made in the International Space Station. It is basically my favorite thing in the whole world right now.

It's all rounded out when we go to see a showing of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and of course Walter gains strength from Kristin Wiig singing "Ground control to Major Tom..."

Walter Mitty....I liked it! I really did. It was so enjoyable. Go see it.

2013 is almost at an end. We had a wonderful Christmas, and I always love this last week or two of the year when everything seems to slow to a crawl. Work is stagnant, you focus more on how much pie you can eat then how many times you've been to the gym. It's like centrifugal force, everything slowing to almost an end, right before speeding up and shooting downward again into the new year.

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles, I'm feeling very still.
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go.

AWKWARD AND AWESOME: REAL TALK

AWKWARD
Last night we had a white elephant party. I showed up with a pregnancy test and a scratch off lotto ticket. I left with a gigantic picture of a sailboat.

Why is it so hard to have a clean house and food in the fridge and write in a blog and have brass-free hair color? WHY? Seriously, this stage of my life both terrifies and thrills me. There is so much growth and change and excitement and freaking laundry.

When I casually mention the words "coconut oil" "sulfate-free"  "aluminum" or "little boys with baby dolls" and peoples eye fill with panic, fear, mouths gone bone dry while hands become puddles. Fear not-- I have nay come to take your Tupperware or make you eat quinoa, promise. Any normal hippy would scoff at Jared and I's pedestrian ways.

Someone has been driving this little whip to work for the past few weeks. Bravo.

AWESOME
I got a new car. Repeat, I got a new car. With AIR CONDITIONING. More on that later.

Never turning on the heat, always turning on the Christmas tree.

Jared passed the class that has been dogging him for two semesters! So so proud of him!

FORTS

Florida. Its hot and sticky and swampy and everywhere you turn there's something that bites or creeps or stings, and all too often all three. I have to appreciate all that sticking and wet mucking, critters and all. If anything it screams LIFE. It's teeming and rich with big green life. There is so much beauty here. Few people can look at an oak tree dripping with moss or St Augustine wrapped up in twinkle lights and not immediately fall in love, but there's beauty in the gray haze of the afternoons and the scrubby palmetto bushes, too. 

A few weeks ago we took a trip to Fort Caroline so the dog could become one with nature and also because we like to play Russian Roulette with the possibility of  contracting Lyme Disease. We found banana spiders as big as the palm of your hand and watched a big pod of wild dolphins play off the coast.

We also recently ran down to St Augustine for the Festival of the Lights with some friends. My favorite part of St Augustine is first and foremost Kilwins with a close second being photoshoots in the old fort moat. If you're local, I highly reccommend it as a great 0 dollar date. Well....5 dollar date if you snag a cone from Kilwins. But I assure it will be 5 dollars well spent.