For Jessica’s one day photo project blog.
On June 13th Chris and I were at Arches National Park.
The drive down:
Eeyore, who has lived on my rear view mirror for almost 10 years:
At Balanced Rock:
At Delicate Arch:
Pics from our campsite on the Colorado River:
I started using tumblr the other day and I LOVE it! Yet another internet site to waste time on! It’s a great place to post all the random silliness I stumble on during my hours of internet surfing each day that don’t necessarily work on my blog. It seems that no one I actually care about is using it, so hopefully that will change soon.
Even though I graduated college over five months ago and have been trying desperately hard to push every memory of the last miserable couple of years out of my head, I was really excited to go to my college graduation for two reasons. Although I’m not a sentimental person AT ALL (yes, I’ve thrown away yearbooks), I want to be able to look back on my life and say “Yes, I experienced that.” Even if that means paying way too much money for a cap and gown (or wedding gown for that matter!) that I now have no idea what to do with. I want to be able to say: “Yes, I went to my college graduation.”
The second reason has to do with, well, to put it bluntly: how much I hated college. That’s all been well documented in this blog, and I won’t go over it again, but graduation represented every obstacle I overcame and every struggle I went through when it would have been so easy to just give up and drop out. A few years ago I was on campus the day of graduation, and seeing all the students in their caps and gowns really upset me. I was beaten down after another awful semester and I just couldn’t imagine that it would ever be me dressed like that. I just couldn’t imagine that I would ever make it. But I did! And here I am, at the 2009 graduation, I DID IT!!!
That being said, I was hurt and saddened that nobody in my family, save one, came to any of my (or Chris’s) events. I’m guessing they just didn’t realize how important this day was for us. Because of my family’s absence, I was that much more grateful that Chris’s family made it to so many of the ceremonies, and out to dinner with us the night before. Yay in-laws!
At least my mom came! (Thanks mom, it meant a lot to me!)
And how lucky was I to be able to graduate with my husband?
(In fact, a stranger came up to him and said “You are wearing a beautiful gown! It is such a beautiful day! You are a beautiful man! What a beautiful camera! Only in America could you have a camera that beautiful!” No joke.)
Me with my partner in college hatred, Candice. I think she’s the only person who truly understood how miserable I was because she went through the exact same thing. And she finished too! Yay Candice!!!!
I ran in the much dreaded 5K on April 18th. I had worked myself up into a fit of anxiety before the race, mainly because I pictured every single runner as a strong, fit, athlete, and then there would be me, hobbling along at my turtle pace. Deep down I knew this wouldn’t be the case, many people choose to walk the distance, but this was my first race, and I am Courtney: Queen of Worrying About Things That Will Never Happen.
To my surprise the race turned out to be a blast. It was incredible to see so many runners (over 2500, I think) heading through downtown Salt Lake, and it felt amazing to be a part of it. Yes, many people finished ahead of me, but there were a lot who didn’t. Honestly, I felt a little disappointed with my time, and felt like I could have done much better if I tried harder—but I am still so proud of myself for actually doing it! In past years I have signed up for the race and then chickened out at the last second and I know I probably would have done the same this year if Heather wasn’t running it with me, so THANKS HEATHER!
Chris was a sweetie and biked along the course to take pictures. Thanks, hun!
The starting line:
I assume these are all people who expected to have great times. Heather and I were way back in the pack, it took us three or four minutes to make it up to the starting line.
We be running!
Look, I spilled water all over myself! Running while drinking out of a paper cup is clearly a skill I haven’t mastered.
Spider Man was there!
We finished!!!
Because I was getting married in June 2006 I decided not to take any classes summer semester and I was left with a lot of free time on my hands. I filled up most of this time reading the blog of Heather Armstrong, dooce.com. It took me several weeks, but I ended up reading every single entry of hers since 2001, and her site continues to be the one of the few I visit on a daily basis. I routinely send Chris links to things she has written (I don’t think he appreciates it) and I have pretty much told everyone I know to read her site (nobody listens to me), so I was very much looking forward to the reading for “It Sucked and then I Cried,” her book about giving birth to her first daughter.
I went along with Esther (who was actually the person who told me about Dooce.com in the first place, yay Esther!), and we arrived freakishly early. For some reason I expected there to be a line wrapped around the block, because everyone must be as excited about her book reading as I was! But, no, we were the first people there, so we had dinner at Mazza (falafel, yum!), and were still able to nab seats in the front row (after, of course, the bookstore staff, who are consistently rude and stuck up, accused of us of stealing seats reserved for other people. Thanks for being predictable King’s English!).
I don’t consider myself to be the type of person who has heroes, but Heather would probably be pretty close. Not only is she a great, entertaining writer, but her honesty, especially about her battle with depression, is unlike anything I’ve ever read—online or elsewhere.
Another (superficial) reason she is my hero:
This is what she looks like at SEVEN MONTHS PREGNANT!
And these were the high heels she was wearing!
She has inspired me to keep it together during my future pregnancy and not end up wearing the same hoodie, sweat pants and Crocs every single day. (Fingers crossed!)
The reading from the book was great, although a little too short. My signed copy is sitting on my nightstand, and I’m debating whether or not to start reading it. Yes, I love her honesty, but I have heard so many horror stories about child birth and pregnancy in the past couple of years, it is seriously starting to scare me off of ever having children (my maternal instinct is not very strong). But of course knowing what to expect is better than having no clue, I suppose.
Since I was a teenager I’ve had this bizarre skin condition that causes my skin to completely freak out whenever it’s lightly scratched. It doesn’t hurt, but even the slightest poke from a fingernail results in nasty looking welts and hives and causes people around me to ask “Oh my God, are you OK?!” I talked to a few doctors and dermatologists about it, but the response tended to be to throw a tube of medicated cream in my direction and tell me I’d be fine. Thanks to the glories of the internet I finally figured out it was Dermatographia, and even though it’s not a big deal, it’s nice to be able to put name to what I have, and know I’m not the only one.
In the past few years, the condition has dramatically improved, and I don’t really think about it anymore, but today on Mighty Girl a picture was posted from an artist named Ariana Page Russel who has the same condition, and uses it to design art on her body. Now why didn’t I ever think of that?!
Do you have any idea how good this feels?
My last credit card with a balance on it was completely paid off a few days ago. Now we’ll focus our attention on Chris’s last card, which should be paid off by June. This means we’ll have paid off over $10,000 in debt in six months. I am SO proud of us! Obama’s recently announced tax credit for first-time home buyers has gotten us thinking about maybe buying a house this year. Who knows, though, it’s still up in the air–but the thought of no longer having to share walls and having a yard for Maggie to play in makes me so happy. We’ll see.
Chris and I have been wanting to adopt a dog for years, but there were always many reasons not to. We finally decided we were in a place that we would have the time to properly care for one and headed to the Humane Society last week. We weren’t expecting to necessarily find the perfect dog for us on our first visit, but when I saw Maggie I knew she was the one. She was the perfect size for our apartment, but not too small (I’ve never been a fan of those yappy 8lb rat dogs), extremely well behaved, and when I saw the reason she was in the shelter was because her owner had died, it just broke my heart and I knew I had to take her home.
I think one of the reasons she hadn’t been adopted yet was that she had a nasty case of kennel cough, so bad that she sounded like an old car trying to start or a grunting pig (”You sound like a little monster!” our vet exclaimed when she heard the awful sound). I’m happy to say that she is much better now, and I haven’t heard her cough for several days. She has been the perfect addition to our little family and I couldn’t ask for a better dog.
And now I’m going to turn into one of those people who take too many damn pictures of their pet, so enjoy!
See, I’m still doing it! Yes, I take a picture everyday, but yes, it can take me over a week to get them edited and posted.
I still completely believe that 2009 is MY YEAR!! So far it is going great. I’m on week 4 of the couch to 5K running plan (sure, I want to die during every long run, but at least I’m doing it!!) and I’ll have my credit cards completely paid off next month. I am superwoman.
Courtney. 26. A college graduate, FINALLY! A slob. A lover of dogs, birds, photography, cooking, flickr, books and Chris.
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