Couch surfing

This past weekend I hosted two couch surfers from Prague, Czech Republic. It was a great experience. It was actually my first experience hosting couch surfers and it couldn't have gone any better. I have a feeling that many of you are wondering what couch surfing is. Well, go to this site and it will explain everything. I think it is an absolutely wonderful program. I love how it gives people an opportunity to not only help others, but to also allow some culture into their lives and homes.

The night I hosted Petr and Vaclav (I had a hard time pronouncing it...Vatzlaf is what it sounds like), I was also hosting a birthday party for my "baby" sister's 25th birthday. There were many people at my house and they were very accepting of my couch surfers. Everyone had questions and Petr and Vaclav were very open and had no problem answering questions and carrying on conversations with everyone.

The last couple weeks, some of my friends showed concern about the fact that I was going to allow two complete strangers to stay at my house. One friend even suggested I borrow a gun to put under my bed! Haha! I honestly had zero weird feelings about allowing these two strangers into my home. I told everyone I would be fine and everything would work out. I was right! :)

If any of you are interested in the couch surfing program then I suggest you sign up. It is a great opportunity.

"The only way to have a friend is to be one." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit." ~ Jawaharlal Nehru

Halloween

Halloween is by far my most favorite Holiday! I don't know why...maybe it's the mystery that surrounds the Holiday or maybe it's the fact that we get to dress up and pretend to be somebody else. I honestly can't tell you why I love Halloween so much...I just do and I always have. This past weekend a friend of mine and I threw a Halloween party at my house. It took us a couple weeks to plan it all and get everything prepared, but it was so worth it. We made many of the decorations ourselves and created a list of nasty looking food. We also made the invitations and that alone took us two nights and two bottles of hard booze! :) We had fun planning and preparing, but I must say that I'm glad it's all over with (I think she's glad too) as it was a lot of work and took up a lot of time.

One of the best things about preparing for the party was the fact that I had no choice but to get off my lazy rump and thoroughly clean my house. I've been needing to do it for a long time but I just haven't felt like conquering it! :) Unfortunately, some major cleaning had to be done the day after the party too. :) Okay, actually, all that really had to be done was some major mopping...my kitchen floor was so nasty! My friend, Alex, did a pretty good job of picking up stray beer cans/bottles and cups the night before! Raine, Dawn, and Sham helped me sweep and pick up the rest of the trash. It's so great to have friends who are willing to help with the nasty, not-so-fun aspects of such things as a party! :)






"Eat, drink, and be scary." ~ Unknown

"When witches go riding, and black cats are seen, the moon laughs and whispers, 'tis near Halloween!" ~ Unknown

Surprise!

Friday evening after I got off work Quinn and I headed to Breckenridge, CO to surprise an old friend of ours. The friend we surprised was Matt Seidel. He grew up in Crawford, NE, which is only 30 miles or so from Harrison (the town I grew up in). We've been friends for 10+ years and he is just an all-around awesome guy (super nice, hilarious, etc). He moved to Sacramento, CA a few years ago or so and ended up joining a band. Arden Park Roots. They released their first album last year and this year they went on their first tour. They also have another band, The Livin's Easy, which is a Sublime Tribute Band. They do awesome with their own music and with Sublime's. Anyway, I've been wanting to see them play for quite some time and when I found out they were going to be in Colorado I was stoked! Many of their shows were on weeknights and the shows that were fairly close to where I live were taking place while I was in The Bahamas. Luckily their final Colorado show was in Breckenridge on a Friday night.

After 5 1/2 hours of driving (and giving my sister a major panic attack with my driving skills) we made it to the Three20South bar where the band was playing for the night. We got there at just the right time. The band was just getting ready to play so we got to say hi to Matt before they started. Unfortunately, our surprise was ruined. Matt had heard we were coming just a couple hours before we got there. By some odd coincidence Matt's mom and our dad ran into each other and dad told her about Quinn and I driving down to see Matt. Apparently neither knew it was a surprise so she called Matt and let him know. :) Oh, well. He was still happy to see us.

The band(s) did great and it was so awesome to see Matt in action (he plays the guitar)! The only downfalls of the trip were the fact that it was a very fast trip (we had to be in Harrison by 7:00 Saturday night for Pacen's 1st Communion) and we ended up staying in a creepy Motel. The Motel looked nice online when I made the reservations, but it turned out to be pretty trashy. I slept with a can of pepper spray next to me and Quinn slept with my softball bat, aka Baby Blue, next to her. We also had my self-defense class moves to protect us. :) Nothing happened, but I guess it's better to be safe than sorry, right.

So, everyone, be sure to check out Matt's bands. You can find Arden Park Roots here and The Livin's Easy here.

Quinn, Matt, and I

Matty in action!

Quinn and I with a creepy statue thing. :)

Our creepy motel room. (It was way worse than it looks)

"Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us." ~ Boris Pasternak

"The secret to humor is surprise." ~ Aristotle

True Love

I have never really been a big fan of marriage. Yeah, yeah, when I was a little girl I dreamed of the day I would marry that perfect man in a perfect ceremony wearing the perfect dress, but I grew up and the realizations of marriage came crashing down. It seemed like everywhere I turned people were getting divorces, someone was cheating on their "significant other", etc. After seeing many of those situations I decided I wanted nothing to do with marriage. All I could think was, "What's the point? A majority of people now days are divorcee's or headed in that direction and I don't want to end up like that." I knew that not all marriages were that bad off and I also knew that it wasn't necessarily destined to happen to me, but why take the chance? The last thing I want is to end up as a statistic.

So, I have been living my adult life pretty much avoiding marriage. I was engaged once, right out of high school, but I ended that relationship 1 1/2 years and one baby later. I was only 19...what did I know about love? Since then I have been in a few relationships (a couple have been fairly serious), but I managed to keep them more on the casual side of things.

OK, so you're probably wondering where the heck I'm going with this. Well, at the beginning of the month some friends of mine renewed their vows. They have been married for some 20 odd years (I'm thinking 22, but I can't remember for sure...terrible memory). Anyway, it is quite unusual this day in age to find a couple who has been married for more than 20 years (there are the old couples who have been married for 40 years or more, but I'm talking couples who were married within the last 30 years, not 60-70). My friends are obviously still very much in love with each other and it's just so awesome!

After watching my friends renew their vows, I decided that maybe marriage isn't so bad after all. No, I'm not going to go out and get married right away, but now I wouldn't mind finding my true love and settling down. I wouldn't mind finding that perfect man...the one who will still have love in his eyes when he looks at me after 20, 30, 40, 50, or even 60 years of marriage, the one who will make my heart skip a beat every time I see him (or almost every time), the one who wants to spend the rest of his life with me and who I want to spend the rest of my life with.

My mom always told me I just haven't found the right guy yet, and now I know she's right. I'm still going to be cautious with any relationship I find myself in and, who knows, maybe "Mr. Right" will come along (maybe I've already found him and just haven't realized it). If so, then great, if not, then... whatever.

Here are some pictures of the vow renewal...just look at how in love they are. They were definitely meant for each other. Oh, and yes, they are Irish. :)
"Love is energy: it can neither be created nor destroyed. It just is and always will be, giving meaning to life and direction to goodness...Love will never die." ~ Bryce Courtney

"True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations; it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart." ~ Honore de Balzac