stumbling through the good parts

Last fall, Jon and I found a quiet, little oasis as we crossed over into the Adirondack park region.  It was a "local" spot, that seemingly turned out to be not all the "quiet" in the long run, but we fell in love.  There was a big island rock in the middle of the lake great for rock jumping and lay-out practices, there was a rope-swing, bouldering and some spectacular sunsets (still not quite a Telluride sunset).  We loved it, so this year we decided to bring some friends to enjoy the local flavor. First Rule of Camping: Look as ridiculous as possible! The trip itself was a fantastic success.  Laura, Leah and I went up early.  The gents had spent the morning playing a round of 2-vs-2 golf (read: drinking in polo's with clubs) while we lugged up coolers a mile up-hill,  got stuck in calf-deep mud, set-up tents and collected the most impressive pile of fire wood (Ok, we had some help with the last part). We cooked a gourmet meal and spent a good ...

Do-It-Yourself Projects   Schenectady Farmer's Market: Creating your own herb garden This past weekend my friend Leah and I had the opportunity to go to the Schenectady Farmers Market. (For more information, visit  Schenectady Sunday Market )   It was a beautiful day and one of the first really hot days we've had in Albany in a while.  It was also my first time visiting the market since it's been outside! While there, a lovely vendor named Alice convinced me to move past my fears of killing living plants and try to start my own herb garden. So, that's what I did.  I am now the proud owner of my very own basil and parsley plants.  Jon was a bit skeptical at first, considering Leah and I came in the front door with potting planters, bags of dirt and a frisbee full of basil and parsley seedlings up to our eyeballs. Alice was super helpful about care and maintenance.  Initially all you need is the following items: At least 1 ...

In my attempts to make this more a fully encompassing website, I’ve come to recognize that I need to be intentional about what my goals are for each month.  I’m fairly good about keeping a list each month and trying to accomplish things throughout, but perhaps by publishing these aspirations, maybe I’ll see an increase in my productivity!  So in the name of productivity, my June monthly goals: Workout 4 times per week:  Making sure to include weight resistance training at least 2x per week and not focusing strictly on cardio. Wake up by 6 am, at least 4 days per week.  I always feel so much more productive when I'm waking up early and making good use of my time Cut back on time spent on digital media outlets.  Be more intentional about spending time outside, cooking, crafting, reading or spending with loved ones. Begin my 1 book a month read and review! Send 1 homemade card a week to friends or family.  Make sure those that are in my life feel l...

PUNC-TU-AL... wait, how does this work? After the first step, every other tip or tid-bit of information I've gathered since trying to make this big transformation has pretty much all muddled together. No one individual observation (rant) is really going to make all that much different on it's own. It's like a Monet painting, looking at it from far away, it's OK, but up close, it's a big old mess. (yes, I stole that from Clueless. And no, that's not very adult-ly admitting that.) So by-and-by, I give you the importance of timeliness and punctuality. This in it self was a weird concept for me in college. Not because I couldn't take care of myself and show up to things on time, I just didn't acknowledge some of the facts that I knew to be true. I'm not talking deep or profound facts. I'm talking like, logistically, there is no way that you can feasibly could get from one side of the campus to the next and still watch the end of this...

I've learned that the first step of actually becoming an adult is actually admitting that it's inevitably happening. I'm not saying giving up on the that "kid at heart" type mentality of getting excited for the small things and believing in the impossible. While that is what Peter Pan, Hook, Wendy-Lady and Tink will lead you to believe, it's really just acknowledging that their are steps and benchmarks that you'll inevitably come across, or in my case stumble upon, that will do nothing but catapult you into the next stage of your life. How you decide to respond to them is what separates the floundering semi-professionals that still get too drunk at happy hour and talk too loudly about their boss's assistant and those that find themselves enjoying the ever changing twenty-somethings and commemorate them as a success. Prepared or not, it's coming and there's not a whole lot you can do to avoid it . So I've decided to embrace it. As a ...

  i've got a blog. i had one of these in highschool. i lied. i had one even when i was in college, too. however, this time i've made one because it's easier than just writing. not to mention, i think i might actually use this more. its just easier really. besides, i'm about to leave a place i've known as home for 5 years, i have to have something to show for it. i'm convinced that the male and female species were not actually meant to compliment one another so much as complicate one another's lives. all my life, i've been told that you're supposed to be looking for someone that compliments you. Not in the way where some guy is constantly flattering you, but in a salt and pepper, banana and peanut butter kind of way. however, i don't know where it happened, but i always believed that complimentary things, such as red and green on the color spectrum wheel, while were completely different, always shared some sort of middle ground; i.e. they were dir...