Inspiration Junkie robayre.com

I had a great time this weekend. Saturday Dacia was playing at a festival in Michigan City, IN, so my sister and I drove out to see her perform. She did a great job, as usual, but there was a much smaller turnout at the fest than had been predicted. Afterward, my sister and I decided to go in search of the Indiana Dunes. I’d never been before and had NO IDEA what was in store. I knew the dunes were sand, but I had this assumption that the dunes were more like sandstone than the real loose soft sand they actually were. We parked at a place that said “beach” and had to walk through this little windy path that seemed like a rain forest before we hit another sandy path that took us down through dunes and to the beach. It was amazing. I just had no idea at all how beautiful it could be, and all within 2 hours away from where I live. I felt like I was on some tropical destination vacation. The water was freezing of course, but we weren’t planning on going in past our ankles anyway. I also had no idea that Lake Michigan could be so calm, it was like those corona commercials with the slow lapping waves. I could have easily stayed there all day, and I think we must have been there for several hours walking up and down the beach, collecting rocks, skipping stones, taking photographs, etc.

I found my first beach glass and chris skipped her first stone. I just can’t say enough, how much I enjoyed myself. Afterward we decided to get some grub, as neither of us had eaten all day. We also stopped for fireworks too, shhhhh! Near the Illinois-Indiana state borders you could throw a rock blind folded and hit a fireworks stand, there are so many of them. We got a ton and will probably be having a fabulous time on the fourth of the july.

Here is a picture of some knitting taken with my new digital camera that showed up in the mail Friday. It seems to be great, other than the LCD goes completely white after using it for any period of time. Humph, I just hope that it can be easily and quickly replaced. All the pictures above were all taken on it.

One of my favorite books is going to made into a movie. Into the Wild is a non-fiction book based on life and tragic end of Chris McCandless. I can’t believe they made a movie of this book. You can see the trailor here. 

I got an email from Nikki today. She seems in really great spirits and I am so glad for it. Tom is with her and I imagine that is making a world of difference. As I often do when she is out of town, I’ve been watching her house. It makes me feel like I have purpose, if I can’t be with her now. She has started her treatments and seems ready to face the battle. Please continue to keep her in your thoughts and prayers, as her treatments will be going steadily and heavily for at least the next three months.

The party is over and life has not slowed down. This week I’ve gotten some unfortunate news and one of my best friends is seriously sick and in the hospital. My friend Nikki is a transplanted townie that we’ve all adopted after our friend Tom started dating her probably 5 years ago. Her birthday is the day before mine and she is also the middle child in a family with an older sister and younger brother. She has had some serious sadness in her life with lost family members. She is so kind, gentle and always helping others. So this is my humble attempt to implore you to just keep her and her family in your thoughts or pray for her or whatever method you employ. She can use any amount of positive juju sent her way. Thank you.   

In consumerism news:  -Today my keri smith book “wreck this journal” arrived and I’ve already torn into it. This is going to be so much fun. I wish everyone I knew had one too! 

-The Science of Sleep dvd arrived today from amazon with the above and below purchases. Oh and I recently watched this movie “The Tiger and the Snow” and would highly recommend it. It’s a roberto bernigni film and I found it as charming as “Life is Beautiful”

-I also bought the King-Cat Classix book that just came out. It’s hardcover and HUGE, can’t wait to tear into that as well. -This didn’t come today, but I will be very eagerly awaiting in anticipation for its arrival. I saw it was recommended on boingboing and was able to check out pictures taken by other users on flickr and it seems perfect for me. AND since I threw my last digital camera (literally threw, and threw it hard, picked up and repeated) to the ground, I was in dire need of a camera. 

  In fitness news: 

I’ve completed week four of the Couch to 5K program and I think I will probably stick here for another week just so I will be really prepared for progressing to week 5 (scary-scary). Matt has jumped in mid program and joined me this week.    

In art news:

I suck, I haven’t really done anything. But I really haven’t found much time to do anything either so….

I feel really neglectful of this blog and have been so supremely busy that I haven’t had much time to share. I recently read a meme on this blog and decided it might make a good post, I wasn’t tagged but I don’t care. Here are 7 completely random facts, in no important or logical order whatsoever. So here goes:  

1. I am the middle child and the black sheep of the family. Friends find it hard to believe that I am considered the black sheep since I am not a trouble-maker, or risk taker, and I’m always the responsible type. 
    

2. When we were little, I used to convince my brother to act like a dog or cat, thinking that it would convince our parents that we desperately needed a pet. This same brother is getting married on Friday! 
    

3. I took private art classes when I was in second grade, my grandmother paid for them. I remember I didn’t like them very much because the teacher was so strict and wanted us to do specific things, such as learning all these concepts and techniques and all I wanted to do was draw and use the provided materials on my own. 
    

4. I am painfully shy and awkward around new people. But once I feel comfortable with you and that pandoras box opens, you can’t shut me up. I will proceed to say and do the most incredibly stupid things and then for hours, days, months and sometimes years later, I will replay these stupid things in my mind, blush, and feel just as embarrassed as I did when it originally happened. Usually it’s those things I’ve said or done around friends of mine that I highly respect and look up to. 
    

5. One of my life goals is to feel comfortable in my own body. I have a friend who is free of all of those self-conscious body images that most women struggle with. She does it in such a way that I admire, she has a great body and is very expressive with it, but she isn’t vain, and she also isn’t self loathing. I don’t know if I could get to a point where she is but I would just be happy to not feel restrained by thoughts such as “I’ll look like an idiot if I do that” or the constant tugging on my clothes and wearing layers to cover it up, etc. 
    

6. My mom picked me up earlier to go shopping and while we were in the store it started to rain. I was really pouring when we were done, and so I decided to risk it and run out to the car and pull it up to the store and pick her up. I handed her my flip flops and just took off running through the parking lot to the car. The rain was coming down so hard it felt like hail and stung my skin and my clothes were as drenched as had I just jumped fully clothed into a pool. There were pools of water and drains were overwhelmed, we passed a house whose yard was underwater, all just from 20 minutes of heavy rain. All this being said, two of the best feelings in the world to me are letting loose and just running out in the rain, getting drenched, AND then after being in wet damp clothes, changing into warm dry ones. 
    

7. I just named my third ipod (the shuffle) Cutiepod. 
    

  The End