welcome

On September 24th, I will have been married for five whole years. I think this is sort-of hilarious as I feel like an 18-year-old most days. I remember my first day of high school and my 10th birthday party and my first college soccer game the same way I remember my wedding day: I was young. I was equal parts confident and nervous. And I was about to make some mistakes.

I’m not what you would call a “spa girl.” Don’t get me wrong, I love a good mani/pedi, massage, hair appointment as much as the next girl, but there is a level of anxiety that comes with all of it.

I think in their truest form, spas are supposed to be relaxing. But this is just not my overall experience. So, what I know about getting pampered:

Social media takes a lot of heat. People think it’s making the youths dumber. And it might be. But it also keeps the information flowing. It keeps us connected, even if that connection is tenuous. I think there is a lot of humanity in social media, should we choose to look at it that way. 

So. We’re in that weird week between Christmas and New Year’s where we have to work a little bit but not in a truly constructive way. We are still eating leftovers and casually attending the gym because we all have until January 1 to gain our winter layer. And we start thinking, “Oh. Should I do something next year? Make a change? Commit? Other people seem to be blogging about it an awful lot.”

Sometime around the year I turned 15, my parents realized that they didn’t need to give all five of us kids Christmas presents anymore. For my whole life, they took all of us on a giant road trip to our house in Florida each year at Christmas and paid for meals, movies, and just general amazingness. So around 15, we all started getting $25 to Starbucks. And on Christmas morning, instead of sitting around opening gifts, we would all walk the 1.5 miles to Starbucks and use our fresh gift cards to buy some frappucinos. It was glorious. 

Road trips are kind-of a tenet of my family. From 1990 until 2005, all 7 of us would pile into our conversion van at the beginning of Christmas break and drive to Florida. Straight through, the trip can be as short as 16 hours. But realistically, it takes more than 20.

We had traditions. My mom would put the back seat down and make a huge bed that four of us could sleep on at a time.