"The system is rigged" is a lazy excuse.

The voters of the Democratic Party selected Hillary Clinton to be the nominee, not someone else.

The voters of the Republican Party selected Donald Trump to be the nominee, not someone else.

I sincerely believe that our democracy reflects our citizens and their priorities more than social media trends might imply. You don't like either of the candidates? Tough. You were *literally* outvoted. Time to make a compromise and face the fact that you can't have everything your way.

That's how our system works. The Constitution is literally one big compromise. Nobody got everything they wanted when it was ratified. This sentiment holds true today. Not everyone gets what they want all the time, because everyone wants different things.

The "system" can only shoulder so much of the responsibility. You can make an argument about gerrymandering or campaign finance, but when 28.5% of eligible voters participate in the primary, those arguments begin to lose credibility.

"The system is rigged" is a lazy excuse for not recognizing the necessity of compromise. Get off your high horse, and accept the divisive reality that is American politics. The system reflects the people who comprise it; both the voters and the elected officials.

I also sincerely believe that we'll move past this ugly time in our national conversation. The passion in this election reminds me that there are good people out there fighting to make this country and this planet a better place to live a life. That gives me hope.

-LoveTrumpsBummers-

First Friday of Teaching

Well, it sure has been too long since I've updated this blog.

Marie and I have kept busy over the last several months, and long story short, I accepted a job teaching World History and Government at Capital High School here in Santa Fe. And so I find myself now done with my first week.

I survived intact!

This photo sums it up - hanging out at Santa Fe Spirits on the evening of my first Friday, pretty tired, but enjoying life. A much better photo than if Marie had taken one of me grumbling in the morning this week. I'm sporting the Capital High turquoise school colors too, since Fridays are spirit week. Go Jaguars! 

This week was one of the busier weeks of my life, with lots of ups and a couple downs but nothing too bad or all too unexpected. I feel grateful for my past experiences working with high school kids and I love to be a part of a team again. While a wholly new experience, it brings to mind memories sometimes of YRUU, Key Service at CSU, Naturalists at Large, Camp Emerald Bay, and of course my days at Wheat Ridge High. 

Sending love out to everyone who inspired me along my path! Especially Marie. She made cheddar jalapeno sour cream biscuits this afternoon. Those help.

Adiós, April

Hello blog, its been awhile, hasn't it?

At the beginning of 2015, Eric and I toasted to having a year that would be so much less busy and stressful than 2014 - without a wedding and honeymoon to plan, we reasoned, life would be a breeze! We'd finally have time to do all the things we wanted to do, see all the people we wanted to see, and relax.

You need the right snacks to properly relax.

HA. While 2015 has generally been kind to us, the month of April was a pretty intense reminder that, uh, stuff happens. Here's a list of some of the things we experienced in one short (but very long-seeming) month:

• Eric's beloved truck broke (like, for good)
• At work, we turned in a humongous funding proposal and subsequently received some funding (!!!)
• Also at work, we found out that the building our office has been in for the last 12 years was sold and we had to move out by the end of the month; in four weeks we found a new office space, packed, and moved, all well mostly keeping business operations running
• We went to Colorado for 36 hours for Eric's parent's band's album release party and to celebrate Eric's grandparents' birthdays (which are only two days apart!); we also had brunch with my brother on the way down
• We celebrated Zeezy's 4th birthday/having him as the best pet ever for two years
• We found a new favorite cookie recipe
• Eric started planting our garden (and I occasionally helped out with weeding) and has been very busy at his job with the gardens in the park and the volunteers he manages 
• Also, back in March, I decided it would be fun to take a Spanish class through our local community college's continuing education program while at the same time working full-time and coaching with Girls on the Run once a week (in hindsight, that seems ambitious); all those time commitments continued on into April*

 So anyway, we have been BUSY, and stressed, and sometimes despaired and sometimes pretty dang content with life, but all the while longing for a few days where we could just be lazy and boring.

Yesterday, to celebrate the end of the wild month that was April, we went out for dinner, drinks, and a movie. It was nothing fancy; we went to a restaurant where we had a coupon, I ate a pulled pork sandwich at a remarkable speed, and we saw the new Avengers movie. I drank a margarita and wore a dress without tights for the first time this year. It was amazingly low-key and fun, and now we have a weekend with great weather and relatively few plans.

So, cheers to May, which we are optimistically (but cautiously) hoping will include a little more relaxation.

* MAJOR shout-out to Eric for letting me (and even encouraging me to) have kind of a hectic weekday schedule these last couple months. He's been making some amazing dinners and bringing bunches of lilacs home after work and overall being an awesome partner. Seems like that whole marriage thing was a good call! Here's a cute picture of him with Zeezy.

Notes from January

Kind of hard to believe that the first month of 2015 is already over (and I'm still writing 2014 whenever I need to write the date). The first few months of any new year always make me feel impossibly ahead of schedule - like how can it be 2015 already?? And how is it possible that we just extended our lease until 2016? But since we haven't taken a ride in a DeLorean lately it seems like 2015 is really here, and we'll probably be used to it after a few more weeks.

So far 2015 is treating us pretty well; in the last month we've done a few noteworthy things.

Bosque del Apache

Eric's family had been to this wildlife reserve a few times during his childhood but I had never been, or even heard of it until we moved here. So we took advantage of the long weekend and drove south to see some birds. And did we ever! In addition to the famous sandhill cranes and snow geese that migrate there in the winter (mostly from Northern Alaska), we saw bald eagles (at least six, including some adolescents!), kestrels, a roadrunner, Canadian geese, and a coyote. And the reserve itself was beautiful. (I didn't get any good pictures of birds on my point-and-shoot camera but trust me, we saw them.)

Space: The Next Frontier, But Certainly Not Final

Marie and I went to Mexico for a couple weeks in November. One of the many times we found ourselves looking out at the horizon line over the ocean, I wondered aloud why so many humans take comfort in looking at the ocean, why so many humans find solace in the unknown sea.

I thought about this for a while. I realized we are only a few generations removed from those who looked out at the ocean as an unknown world, foreign to our senses, our adaptations, and our knowledge.

Now, thanks to the TV show Planet Earth, metallurgy, and James Cameron, we know more than can fit in to our brains about the 2/3 of our planet that is underwater. The ocean represents a physical world that we can just barely touch, just barely experience, but just barely enough to know it and to learn from it. The ocean was (and currently is) the last great frontier for humans to explore on the planet.

Just as early explorers set out to know the oceans, we are setting our sights on space exploration, and I couldn't be more excited to live in this era.

I can't talk about my interest in space without mentioning my Dad. When I was in elementary school, he built this huge 8-foot-tall telescope. It looks like this:

Not actually my Dad's scope, but looks just like this one.

He'd set it up in the field at school and invite the class to come out at night and check out the sky. Some of my best memories of my childhood were going camping with my Dad in Fox Park, Wyoming. We'd load up the telescope and drive out to meet other astronomers quite literally in the middle of nowhere, and stay up until late walking around, gazing at the stars, nebulae, globular clusters, planets, and other celestial wonders. At home, he'd set it up in the middle of the street. Cars would stop by asking what it was... sometimes people even stopped for a look. I took this for granted at that age. Doesn't everyone's dad build a huge telescope and plop it down in the middle of the road?

My Dad, bringing the world a bit closer for my sister.

It was my Dad who unknowingly introduced me to Carl Sagan. When I was in high school, I remember he was putting together a box of books to take out for donation, and I grabbed "Pale Blue Dot" off the pile. I've read and reread it several times over since. Just this Christmas break, he took us all out in freezing weather over Christmas break to catch an amazing pass of the International Space Station.

It's easy to forget where we are. It's easy to forget how infinitesimal our place is in the universe. Understandably so, because we literally cannot comprehend the size of the universe let alone our own solar system. But it's also easy to forget because we have to consciously take a minute out of our daily lives, look up, and wonder.

This simple act of changing perspective, I believe, is deeply embedded in our consciousness. It's why we evolved. It drives us to explore. It's what we feel, standing at the ocean shore. No other life form that we know of exhibits inquisitiveness and curiosity to this degree. We constantly are exploring and learning, just for the sake of it. Exploration makes us human.

This may not be a revolutionary realization, and it should be noted that I am not a scientist. I'm more of a daydreamer. And my scientist friends out there may shake their heads at my probable lack of understanding of the true nature of the industry. But I truly believe that we, as a nation, need to find the passion that John F. Kennedy ignited when he announced our lunar ambitions. I think the world needs more daydreamers to push the industry in the direction we want it to go.

With that being said, critiques of NASA often include worries that we shouldn't be sending our money in to space. (As if space exploration isn't awesome enough.) Those arguments don't hold water in my mind. NASA and their contractors also innovate and create new technologies that greatly improve our society here on the ground. Power drills, firefighting technology, memory foam, solar panels, water purification systems, and artificial limbs, to name just a few advances resulting from space exploration and related endeavors. And they do it all on a shoestring budget.

The Department of Defense is the one of, if not the greatest driver of scientific innovation today. And often, the interests of organizations often overlap; many contractors who work with NASA make their bread and butter through defense contracts. It's a fine balance between the two diametrically opposed forces of exploration and destruction.

"And yet we’ve always had an odd standard for judging the cost and the value of manned space exploration. As it happens, the cost to run and sustain the Space Station is about the same as the cost to run a single U.S. Navy aircraft-carrier battle group. We have 10 aircraft carriers at sea, with two more under construction. And while an aircraft carrier at sea is a hive of nonstop activity, that activity is arguably just as circular as what goes on in space. It involves maintenance and routine operations and practice for fighting that most likely will never happen." The Atlantic

Isn't that the great irony of the space industry? With the ongoing face-off between exploration and destruction, I wish I had the power to tip the scales.

I know who does have the power. Unfortunately, it's a lot of people; a critical mass of citizens telling their leaders where our priorities should lie. Fortunately, space exploration has universal appeal. Space has awoken the imaginations in every culture in every part of human history. Now we have the power to explore it.

We were bounded only by the Earth, and the ocean, and the sky. The open road still softly calls.
- Carl Sagan

2014: the year we got married

2014 was a pretty great year for the Brayden-Schow family - we traveled internationally, explored New Mexico, accomplished some great personal goals... oh, and we got married!

That was pretty big. And it's been on our minds a lot this week, since we've been looking over our wedding pictures and picked some to put in a frame (which is maybe the most adult thing we did in 2014). And we watched our wedding video for the first time.

A whole lot of the last year was spent planning our wedding - in fact, a year ago today we were sleeping in the back of Eric's truck across the street from the Hyde Memorial State Park office so we could reserve our date before anyone else. And once we had our date and venue, we started planning in earnest, and kind of didn't stop until the day before our wedding.

The Best Day of Our Honeymoon

Two weeks ago, Eric & I got back from our honeymoon - two fun, fascinating, adventure-packed weeks in Mexico. Neither of us had ever been to Mexico and we loved it and want to go back as soon as possible.

December is usually my favorite month of the year, in large part because with my birthday and various holiday festivities it always feels magical and celebratory and exciting. In the weeks since we've been back it's been a little hard to focus on those feelings because of various small stressors in our personal lives and because of some awful, depressing, soul-crushing current events from the last couple of weeks.

In an effort to relive some happier memories - and because people have asked about the trip and I have been too busy to put all our pictures and stories on the internet - here is the story of the best day we had on our honeymoon.

Post-Election Day Thoughts.

Hi everyone - Eric here.

So it's November 5th. We've all had to endure the drudgefest of election season yet again, and here we are, with an outcome not all that unpredictable by historical standards. While I don't identify as a Democrat, I generally align myself with views of the Democratic party, truly only because I feel they are the only major party that seems to understand why empathy, compassion, and equality are important to social progress. Somewhat surprisingly, I don't really feel strongly about the results of the Congressional elections.

When politicians are beholden to those who pay their way to job security (corporate lobbying), of course they aren't going to represent your interests. Would you do something against the interest of your boss? Probably not, and your boss would probably stop paying you. In this way, nearly all politicians, Democrat or Republican, are corrupt. So honestly, I could care less who runs the House or the Senate. We've all voted for people who don't walk the talk, because none of them do. They're all bought and paid for.

So, in the wake of a very normal, predictable, historically-definitely-precedented election, here are some thoughts that are running through my brain.  

To the Republicans: It's time to put your money where your mouth is. Or rather, it's time to put your Super PACs money where your mouth was. Not to say you have a mandate; there's always the veto pen, so don't get too excited. To paraphrase Jon Stewart, do you go full Sam Brownback and ruin Kansas (e.g. bankrupt the nation)? I want to see if you are committed to your positions, even though the economy is better than it's been in years, and that seems to be the only issue you care about. For the last eight years, you've done little but obstruct. Time to act on your words, as crazy as I think they might be.

To the Democrats: Don't be so dour. You saw this coming, and you are cowardly for abandoning the president when he has actually been very successful in a number of metrics (not a personal endorsement). Look at the results from the actual issues of the election. Most of the actual issues that are aligned with progressives generally passed. Whether that was higher minimum wage, marijuana decriminalization, or personhood amendments, it wasn't a bad night for the things many of you stand for. Kind of strange that voters want a higher minimum wage, legal pot, and no personhood definitions, yet Republicans win the Senate. To me, that points to the out-of-control Congressional redistricting, which has roots in race and class, but that's a whole other can of corn.

To the nonvoters out there: Vote. Do it. Even if it feels useless. Politicians count on people like you to not vote. We have some of the worst voter turnout in the world, especially among developed nations. Even if the people running don't represent your views, at least vote on the issues. It's a way to feel a sense of responsible patriotism, and you get a sticker to show off to everyone. If you continue to not vote, have fun with your pity party and unwillingness to participate in your own democracy. Your choice.

To my fellow voters, regardless of affiliation: Make corporate campaign contributions a central issue in the next election. Demand it. This issue bleeds in to every national conversation that we have, and clouds decision making on every level. We must fix the way our politicians are elected. I wholeheartedly believe it is the most important issue of our time. Climate change? Women's rights? Gun violence? Banking regulation? Food system? Energy? Police militarization? Foreign policy? All of these things and countless more nation-wide issues are corrupted by the influence of money in politics. We must be united on this front as Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and anyone else.

Anyway, I don't believe much will change after this election. Let's make political corruption a top issue next election, and see how things change.

Zeez actively fighting political corruption.

Hitched!

We did it - we got married! And we even get to share an anniversary with Amal Alamuddin and George Clooney.

We got to take a picture with some bighorn sheep on our mini-moon in Taos!

It's not really our style to share everything about it on the internet - as much as it was a super fun party, it was also a pretty intense, personal, emotional moment for Eric and me, so we want to keep some things off the internet, and some memories we'd love to share and relive in person. But we will share a few things here, and a few pictures when we get them from our wonderful photographer.

Gratitude and Privilege

Recently, Eric & I can't stop talking to each other about how much we have to be grateful for.

On the morning of our second day backpacking.

 At the beginning of August, we finally went backpacking together for the first time - a trip two years in the making. We spent two days in the Pecos Wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, starting at a trailhead that is a half-hour's drive from our house. We had amazing weather, saw some beautiful wildflowers and lakes, and even harvested some porcini mushrooms. It felt wonderful to really get away from everything and spend time in the beautiful wilderness that's practically in our backyard.

My half-marathon training is going really well. I feel stronger than ever and the idea of running 13 miles in a few weeks seems more and more possible every day. Eric's been running with me on my shorter training runs, and it's really fun to start our mornings with a sunrise run. It feels so good to be working toward this goal and seeing the progress, and exploring Santa Fe on foot has lead me to some spectacular views of the city and the surrounding mountains.

Eric with his first cherry tomato from the garden!

 It's harvest season, and Eric's garden is producing some delicious tomatoes, potatoes, kale, broccoli, and even a few strawberries. This morning when I needed a few more tomatoes for a recipe, I just walked out front and picked a few right off the vine - how cool is that?! And on Saturdays, we usually bike to the farmer's market to get the rest of our produce. Right now it's green chile season - the best time of the year in Santa Fe, probably - so the scent of roasted chiles fills the air.

Our most recent surge of gratitude comes from this happy news: Eric just started a new job as Program Coordinator for the best park in Santa Fe, which is right up his alley. He'll be spending a lot of time in the park, maintaining the gardens and educating kids & adults about plants. Last Monday and we both biked to work; on the way home, we met up on the bike trail by our house and rode home together. It was pretty darn cute.

And of course, we are continuously grateful for each other; for our life in Santa Fe; for Zeezy, the best cat in the world; and for all our friends and family that will be joining us next month for our wedding.

But while we are basking in all this gratitude, we definitely don't forget for a single minute how privileged we are.

First Ladies

In case you haven't noticed, Hillary Clinton has been all over the news lately. (Eric and I particularly liked listening to her Fresh Air interview with Terry Gross - check it out!) And not just because she recently wrote a book about her four years as Secretary of State - she's also the most likely presidential candidate for the Democratic party.

I know this meme is two years old, but I still love Texts From Hillary.

On Eleanor Roosevelt and Running

"You must do the things you think you cannot do."
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Whenever people ask me what my favorite quote is, that's the one that springs to my mind. I first saw it on a page-a-day calendar that I had growing up, and it immediately resonated with me. As a bookworm and an introvert, I realized early on that I needed to intentionally leave my comfort zone to change and grow as a person. And in my adult life, I have done a lot of things that I didn't think I could do, including:

- Go to college far away from home in a place where I knew exactly zero people
- Get hired as a campus tour guide, a job which involved talking loudly to many people at once (and often involved walking around in the rain, sometimes backward)
- Paid off more than half of my student loans a year after graduating
- Moved (with Eric!) to a place where we knew exactly zero people
- Went on a 6-day rafting trip (and actually had an amazing time)

And, of course, the big one: running. Those who knew me before 2011 can probably attest to the fact that exercising wasn't exactly my thing. Sure, I walked a lot, and was down for the occasional yoga class or bike ride, but running? No way. It boggled my mind that people ran for fun. People that I was friends with! When I lived in Chile for months, most of my fellow exchange students would complain about how annoying it was to run outdoors (uh, because the stray dogs would usually try to run with you or chase you). I nodded in sympathy, while all the while thinking, "What is the deal with running?"

Finishing my first 10K in Bellingham!

Well, when I got back to the US, my roommates would often go to the gym together, and I started to go with them, too - we all had busy schedules so I had to get my roommate bonding time in when I could. And when they suggested that maybe I could try running a little, and pointed out that the treadmills had TVs on them that had cable, curiosity got the best of me. I ran 2.1 miles that day, and it wasn't really fun per say, but it wasn't terrible. And I had run 2.1 miles! That was honestly something that I never thought I would do. I was so impressed with myself that I immediately texted 4 or 5 of my running friends to brag about my accomplishment. And then slowly, but surely, I started to become a runner.

I still feel weird saying that - I'm a runner. I spent so many years assuming I would never be a runner, and even after three years I haven't gotten used to it. At first I thought I wouldn't be a runner until I ran my first race. After my first 5K, I thought I would feel like a runner after I ran a 10K. After my first 10K, I decided I'd need to run the Bolder Boulder to call myself a runner. Well, I did that. So what's next?

Right after finishing the Bolder Boulder, SO happy to be sitting in the shade.

Long story short, a few weeks ago I registered for my first half marathon! It's happening in September, two weeks before our wedding, in Santa Fe. Which means it's at an altitude of around 7200 feet. That makes me pretty nervous, and part of me still thinks, "I can't run a half marathon. I'm not a runner." But there's a bigger part of me that knows I can prove that voice wrong.

The thing is, every single time I run, I push myself to do things I think I can't do. When I feel like I can't go any further and I just want to collapse on the ground, I push myself to keep running for one more mile, or five more minutes, or one more block, or until I reach that shady spot on the trail. When I'm running, I'm constantly exceeding and re-evaluating my expectations of what my body is capable of. And I keep running.

After a training run over the weekend

 Turns out that's actually what makes me a runner. Even when I'm slow and tired and sweaty and all I want to do is lay down, I keep running. And the fact that five years ago, I never would have ever guessed that this is what I'd be doing? That makes it all the more gratifying. Thanks for the reminder, Eleanor.

Memories of Bogota

I'm back from Colombia! Well, I actually got back a couple of weeks ago, but between recovering from a post-travel cold, taking a weekend trip to Colorado, and getting back into the swing of working and having a social life, it's taken me awhile to get back to my internet life. But! Some pictures of my international travel are better late than never, right?

But first, a cautionary tale.

Colombia!

A year and a half ago, one of my best friends moved to Bogota, Colombia to teach English for a year. She loved it so much that she's staying there for a second year. Annie and I met in Spanish class and were both Anthropology majors, sand we share a love of languages, travel, and new cultures - so ever since she moved to Colombia, she's been encouraging me to come visit her.

We also share a love of giraffes! (Picture circa 2009)

A very tempting offer, of course, but I kind of brushed it off for awhile. Not because I didn't want to visit her or explore a new country, but because it seemed... impractical. Who was I to think that I could take a trip to Colombia the same year of our wedding and honeymoon? I pride myself on having good financial sense, and that seemed too extravagant.

But then, a few months ago, I realized that I really, really needed to take a pre-wedding vacation. I had some vacation days saved up at work and they weren't doing any good just sitting there. And only then did I bother to actually check prices for a round-trip ticket to Bogota - and they weren't crazy expensive. So I prepared my pitch for Eric, thinking of ways that I could save our household money to offset the cost of an international flight - bike to work more, buy fewer chocolate-covered snacks from Trader Joe's, etc.

When Eric and I both got home from work that day, we sat on our back porch with a couple of beers and I told him that I was maybe thinking about visiting Annie in Colombia if he thought that would be okay. And before I could even start my pitch, he said, "Do it." And then he proceeded to tell my why I deserved an international vacation to visit my friend. That night, I bought the tickets.

Enjoying the summer weather at a Santa Fe Fuego game over the weekend.

 People always talk about "the moment" when you know someone you love is "the one." I've never had that one stark realization. Instead, there have been a million moments in the last nine (!) years that have affirmed what I've basically always known - Eric is a super amazing, supportive partner. Two months ago, when he pushed me to buy those plane tickets to Colombia without any hesitation - that was one of those moments.

So tomorrow I'm off to Colombia for nine days! Big thanks to Annie, for the invitation and the amistad, and to Eric, for reminding me that sometimes you gotta spend some money, and travel and adventure are worth it. South America, here I come!

A Year in the Land of Enchantment

It's been awhile, blog! I started to write a post a couple months ago about the best books I read in 2013, but that felt too pretentious so I moved on to other things. (Short version: Everyone should read The Round House.) Now it's practically the middle of April, we're almost done with our taxes, and we've been in Santa Fe for just about a year! (Eric got here April 1st of last year, but my New Mexico anniversary isn't technically until the 21st... just in case anyone's curious.)

Sunny winter day in Santa Fe

Sometimes the fact that we live in Santa Fe seems so bizarre. When people ask us how we got here - a question we get a lot, seeing as youth in Santa Fe are somewhat of an anomaly - we usually shrug our shoulders and say something like, "We picked it on a map and we ended up both getting jobs!" Which is the short version.

Hello Internet

So I brought back my facebook account after about a year of not having it. It was refreshing, and I'm glad I went without it for awhile!

It was such a negative part of my life... Being unemployed, sitting there refreshing the page, looking at everyone else's life successes, occasionally lashing out in political tiffs...

But I think I've figured it out. I really lost touch with so many friends and family without an online social media presence, and I've missed that dearly! So I think I am going to keep my ramblings to this blog. Facebook and stale political discussions don't mix. Facebook and cat photos do. Well, really anything and cat photos.

How many of you out there get completely bummed out or downright angry with current events? Shootings, political corruption, climate change deniers, on and on and on.... I'd imagine a lot of of you do. Something I have recently been contemplating to combat news-depression is the idea of actively promoting justice. It's a concept that I've tried to always live, but also that I never really fully absorbed until recently. I believe that for peace, justice, happiness, and other good things to persevere, you have to actively DO them. You have to want them, and act them out in your daily life. And, the most critical part, you have to encourage others to do the same! Promote peace. Don't be afraid to stir the pot, in the name of good things!

So that's my new life goal. Finding out an effective means of doing this, well, I'm working on it. And I hope all of you are too!

Now in the spirit of this post....

Don't be fooled - his breath is terrible!

-LTB

Employment History

The first job I ever had was in a garden, picking up rocks and putting them in a plastic bucket. I remember the interview process... and convincing my mom to give me an allowance resulted in fairly gainful employment.

My arugula is coming up! 

I was probably 7 or 8 years old. (Help me out, Mom?) I learned the enjoy the work eventually. Maybe my parents would differ. But I did eventually.

Age 12-14: After working for my parents, I took my skills outside the family business, and entered private practice, watering plants and dogs and cats for family and friends out of town. Watering people's plants gave me such a sense of satisfaction, of personal responsibility at a young age. Being proud of my pretty awesome self, I liked this feeling, so I never rushed, and began to enjoy them.

Tulips that just showed up and are getting ready to bloom!

Watering plants is such a therapeutic activity. It's one of my favorite things about living in our new house! We have so much more sun and garden room. Not that I really know how to garden... but all those years watering plants, the habit is hard to shake.

Kitty tanning his underside.

We've been so busy! A quick play-by-play of the last few months - moving to a wonderful new house, amateur carpentry, weekend trip to Colorado, promotions (both of us - yay!), double car trouble, business trips, Road Scholar group leading, among many other things. We miss everyone out there, and want to give a shout out to our dear friends who are expecting, Kyler and Alex Barton! Hooray for new life in all forms!

-LTB

A Weekend Outdoors (With Donuts)

As everyone hopefully knows, we love having visitors - we think Santa Fe is an amazing place (enchanting, even), and we relish the opportunity to show it off. Eric's parents visited Santa Fe over the holiday weekend, and we got to visit some of our favorite haunts while exploring some new-to-us places.

2014

The other day, my coworker Nicole told me that she doesn't make resolutions for the new year, but instead she makes suggestions to herself. I like that - 'resolutions' always sounded so firm and inflexible when we all know that life is anything but. It's been a few years since I've made an actual list of resolutions, but I do like to take the new year as an opportunity to think about things I'd like to improve on and accomplish. If I still want to improve on and accomplish those same things a few months down the road, then I usually get a little more proactive with goal-setting. Now that I write it out, it seems like kind of a lazy way to go about things, but I also like to give myself room to change my mind and to not be too hard on myself if things don't go according to plan.

New year, new giraffe statue discovery in Santa Fe!

 Eric & I feel like we're in a pretty great place to start thinking about self-improvement - we both love our jobs and we love living in Santa Fe, and stability is always a good starting point, right? But we are also getting married this year (woah), and we have no way of anticipating how the planning and the marriage will change or not change our lives. So we've got to be a little flexible.

With all that said, here are some of our 2014 suggestions for ourselves.

130 contacts

I finally just did one of those little tasks that you have on your brain but never do. You know what I mean? Usually pretty insignificant stuff, like vacuuming out the car, oiling a squeaky door hinge, things like that.

This task in particular was to delete excess contacts in my phone. You know, the people who you know you realistically will never see again. Believe it or not, I haven't lost my phone since the second one I had, my sophomore year of high school. So, every time I partook in the modern ritual of phone upgrading, I had my contacts transferred so as to not lose phone numbers. Pretty standard stuff. So when I need to look up someone's phone number, I have to sit there and scroll through, scroll, scroll scroll STOP til I find the person's name in alphabetical order. (I know I could search, but my way seems lazier. Habits.) Sorry, I know this is probably boring each person and cyborg from the Ukraine that apparently keeps tabs on our blog. (Blogger tracking statistics don't lie, Ukrainian bots, I know you are out there!)

Anyway. I finally did it. At least, I selected each contact I would delete, but I haven't yet pressed "delete." And you know what?