I am missing “it”.

With change comes remembrance-at least for most, but usually not me. My memory is unpredictable-at best-and I have three theories about the why behind that:
#1-My mother dropped me on my head when I was an infant.
#2-My brothers convinced me to hold my breath until I passed out, doing permanent damage.
#3-I was born in an Army hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. Need I say more?

With my faulty memory comes the need to reminisce via digital photos of bygone years. Today, as I scoured through old photos, I realized I was missing “it”.

And, here is what “it” is to me:
An excitement about life-a hopefulness for the future-a knowing that there is something amazing right around the corner.

This photo was taken shortly after selling one of our commercial properties, the Denver House.

Biceps and I were on our way to Europe for an entire month-just the two of us. I had my old manual camera-because, “By gawd, I wasn’t switching over to that new fangled digital type of photography”.

We had our backpacks, our passports, plenty of spending money and a plan.

Life was exciting. For the first time, we had more than enough in our bank accounts. Buying a car that wasn’t 15 years or more old was becoming a reality. We knew we could take on the world.

But before traipsing off to Europe, we chose to spend two weeks with both sets of our parents. We toodled around, checking out leaves, eating amazing food and just being a family.

It seemed like life was more exciting then-for all of us. But honestly, the only thing that has changed since then was my perception of life.

I was more excited about life at that time.

We still had issues. We lived in a part of town we desperately wanted to leave. We weren’t certain of Biceps’ band making it. My parent’s were seeing the end to their teaching careers and didn’t know what was next. The list goes on.

So, what I am going to do today is capture who this girl was and…

…transport her into this girl-who could stand to laugh more, to lean on God more and to realize life is what it’s going to be. And, I’d better get on board with joy.

I don’t want to miss “it” as I’m looking forward to the next “it”. Have you ever felt the same way-as if your excitement about life was missing? I’d love to hear about what you are doing to get it back.
Let’s inspire one another.

To dream a little dream-Pennsylvania

Biceps and I have a dream that has been formulating over the past year. We lease a coach (like the one we typically tour in) that houses 12 people, complete with toilet, shower and sinks.

Since both of us have our CDL and are used to driving 45′ Prevost’s, we would take our families throughout the east coast for a fall leaf tour.
We would pay for everything-their airfare to get to us, the food each time we eat out, any horrible souvenirs they must have-everything. And we would drive wherever we wanted to go.

 

It would look a little something like this.

 

Except with a few of these weirdos on board…

 

…along with several more from this side.

 

We would be sipping coffee as we pass by this type of landscape, talking of what we will eat for lunch…

 

…which of course would naturally progress into what we are having for dinner.

 

My dad would talk about the, “Beauty of God’s creation”-one of his favorite things to say.
And Bicep’s dad would be curious about “how fast can a bus go?”.

 

No matter what, we’d be together, drinking coffee and making memories. At least, that’s how it happens in my dream-world. What’s your dream?

What a mess! Atlanta Hotels are weird….

Touring for years with my hubby musician, I’ve seen a lot of weird stuff. I’ve also had a hand in making some weird stuff happen to the bands we are on tour with. But, that’s a whole other story.

Let me give you a few fine examples:
1. A Cockroach-the size of a coin purse-flying out of a shower head and onto me at a not so fine hotel.
2. A gigantic plastic cow on a flatbed trailer being hauled by a convertible Dodge Dart.
3. A person that no one knew showed up in our bus, plopped down on the couch, and proceeded to drink our tequila. It wasn’t until I began asking around that we all realized the man was a stranger-a sneaky tequila drinking stranger.
4. A church steeple drove by our window as we sat in a Dairy Queen. Not kidding.
5. An RV burned to the ground on the side of the highway.

That’s enough for now. I’m sure I can rustle up a few more, but we’ll save those for later.

So, here’s a look at one of the weird things that I have witnessed at a hotel in Atlanta, Ga. This was underneath the nightstand that sat in between the two queen beds.

Why? Why was this necessary? How many things could possibly be plugged in to make such a gigantic mess?

 

Up close, you realize the insanity of the situation. I tried to undo the bunch of wires, hoping to bring organization to my life and peace to my frazzled mind.
However, it was thoughtfully zip-tied together.
Biceps stopped me before grabbing my fingernail clippers to cut through the plastic zip-tie.
And he reminded me that we were only there for a night. And to go to sleep.

Riding in cars with cats

Over the holidays, we are traveling to and fro, lugging the two furry beasts with us. The kittens seem to know what is up when they see the suitcases coming down from the attic.
Max usually makes a game of it, attacking any foreign object we’ve lugged down, trying to crawl inside and hide, infesting everything as we are packing.

Bianca takes it lying down. She’s chill.

 

But, get these two in the car and they turn polar opposites.
Maxwell, after a few nibbles of treats, sits back with a full belly and settles in.

 

Bianca, on the other hand, needs constant reassurance and several climbings ranging from Biceps,

 

…to me,

 

…to Maxwell,

 

…back again to Biceps. Treats do not satisfy her. She’s busy stepping on the window button, almost killing herself in the process, running back and forth and meowing.

Well, you get the idea. She’s what you’d call-“Unsettled”. It makes for a very long and interesting 9 hour cat-car ride. Very interesting, indeed.