Well, you’ve been listening to me saying how I was newly addicted to Fortune Street (Wii) for a couple weeks now… But after entering the Special Tour (the final row of boards where Mario and Dragon Quest universes are mixed) I can easily say this game simply cheats you.

I saw the game snatch the victory from me a bunch of times earlier… But that never made a difference before since I could always progress with a 2nd place–and anyway I’m not the luckiest guy in the world, so… :P

But now the final boards demand you a 1st place. And it can be quite infuriating to see your 2-hours-long work melt because of such cheap tactics. I dropped it after this:

 I got the amount of money needed to finish the game and was heading to the bank. My numbers: 1, 1, 1, 2, 3. ~.~

 My rival got her money after me. Her numbers: 6, 7 (yes, it’s possible here even though it’s rare), a “warp to a random place” card that led her two tiles away from the bank. -.-

So beat it. I just set my avatar preferences to “all about stocks” (the way I like to play) and used the “out to lunch” option (where the CPU plays for you) to finish the last two boards. Go to hell. lol

I knew I was going to have a hellish time after so many 6s… :P

Week3 Mar 13

Other than that bummer I resumed my Trace Memory (DS) gameplay and I’m glad to say I’m now unstuck and finished the 1st chapter–perfect time for reviewing what happened before. Hopefully I’ll sink my teeth into it and finish it before my Secret of Cape West copy arrives. :)

Gotta love those CiNG DS games…

Done here, gotta play something fresh this week. :)

See ya!

I’m honestly not that broken up about it. It’s still bummed, but mostly for nostalgic reasons.

The first time I heard My Chemical Romance was on YaHoo! Music. I honestly don’t know if Yahoo Music even exists in the same form any more, but at the time it was like a Pandora of music videos, which would try to predict what you would like based on how you rated other videos & songs. “The Black Parade” came up and yeah, I liked it. But it wasn’t a life changing moment. I honestly have no idea how on earth I still remember the exact first time I listened to MCR, It’s such an oddly specific memory that at the time was of no consequence. 

I’m not sure when the transition occurred from “that one song I heard that one time” to level  30: obsession. Over time I resigned to following them from a distance, as the band evolved so did I. The last album they released, Danger Days, was drastically different from their first, I Brought you my Bullets, you Brought me your Love (abbreviated as just Bullets). As musicians, they are in completely different places in their lives than they were 12 years ago when they started the band.

Luckily, the music of a band doesn’t disappear after they decide to stop making music. If this were the case, I would be devastated. Luckily  I get to hold onto these records as long as I like, where I can add them to the list of bands that are no more. The most disappointing part of a band breaking up is knowing that you won’t ever see them live again. MCR was fantastic live, I can say that I was lucky enough to see them twice.

For me, an additional heartache is the nostalgia. My Chemical Romance wasn’t just my favorite band, it was my best friends’ favorite band as well. I remember having sleepovers and playing the CD over and over. Once we stayed up until 3 in the morning while I called a radio station over and over until I got through to request a single song (which they didn’t play.) In 9th grade seminary we played one of their songs during opening exercises.

Go ahead and make fun of me. I know you’re thinking it. It’s fine, whatever. The internet loves to hate MCR. Regardless of that, and even though my current top played tracks include Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, there will always be a special place in my heart for MCR. They could get back together in five years and release an album of water dripping from a pipe, and it would still get to sit on the special shelf in my heart. That’s just how it is.

My Chemical Romance taught me that everyone is as weird as I am. They taught me to never give up. They taught me to be courageous. They taught me what it means to have The Mots (which I love that term, and nobody else knows what I’m talking about.)

I leave you with encouragement to find the origin of the term “The Mots,” for now I must start my free trial of Redbox Instant so I can see if it’s awesome.

P.S. This is a lazy blog post. I’m totally not proof reading it, so if there are spelling errors and/or something doesn’t make sense, that would be why.

Note: Posts will get longer when I sort my self commitment out.  I am experimenting with valuing daily blogging over length because before, I would stop for months at a time; I would not be satisfied with my posts, no guarantee of when I will post again.  The Journey to Life being a benchmark where we indicate our effectiveness as moving as a group, I waste my own time if I do not commit myself for real and do this daily.
I commit myself to when and as I feel like I cannot stand for a principle, and must survive at the sacrifice of doing what is best for all, to stop and breathe. I realise that I am treating principle and survival as two points that must be separate, while the fact remains that what I need to do to live in this world does not change like my mood, and within this certain specific principles remain relevant to look directly at my own creation and live in this world in real time. I commit myself to stop separating principle from survival, in this instead of looking at mental IDEAS, bring my attention back to what I am creating, what characters am I fuelling when I continue this train of thought?

I commit myself to when and as I believe other people dictate what I can and can’t do by/through their words and behaviours to/towards me, to stop and breathe. I realise that this is not an excuse to accept and allow myself to do anything and everything only because other people are forcing me, I remain responsible for my actions and every action I do other people will also hold me alone to be responsible; I remain responsible for myself, practically measurable through time. I commit myself to stop the stupidity of generalizing all of my actions to be the group’s fault – all the other groups, them/they. I commit myself to instead be as physically here as my absolute relationship to my creation/action as creator because even other people will hold me responsible when I make a mistake, and in this Life should be a creation where each one is held responsible for their own actions, so I require to hold myself responsible for ALL of my actions if I ever have any chance to be worthy and trustworthy of Life.

I commit myself to when and as I feel unstable because of feeling like not being part of any group, to stop and breathe. I realise that yes, I am alone to face what I have done to myself and made of my world, and in this I realise that against the biggest group of all, Life itself, I created an entire ego to systematically compromise every part of Life, so when/as I feel alone because ‘I’m not in a group’ = this is an indication that I am justifying my ego to continue the abuse of Life to get worse, where it is inevitable that I will face the consequences to ALL for my creation as what I made of my life, what I have made into an atrocity. I commit myself to face my own creation immediately, by first digging into how/why I go into a feeling of powerlessness, making up statements like “I’m alone”, when I could have placed one and one together to identify the context of the seemingly insurmountable limitation as the task, and remain here to ground my investigation within/as the physical reality all share equally, in terms of being fully exposed to cause and effect.

[Found here.]

Bad news my crazies, i have lost my camera charging chord that attaches to my charger for the battery *face*palm* FUCKNUTZ.

So! I have recorded the video with my boyfriends small camera but the dye looks blue and it is not blue at all, so i have to postpone this hair video and start cleaning my house to find my missing items.                                                       >_>

In other news HAPPY SAINT PATTYS DAY! Anybody reading this doing anything for saint pattys? I’m interested in knowing! I am going to a friends party tonight but i don’t want to get to “crazy” because i have a photoshoot tomorrow and need to be on my A game!!

And because i have failed myself and the others who are awaiting my videos presence, i shall keep this post interesting by sharing an album cover i designed for a band in town the city closest to where i live. I would LOVE your feedback on what you think of the album art!

If anyone is interested in giving the band a listen and some support! here is there link to their website.  http://www.tofustravinsky.com

Yay!!! I survived another trip around the sun. Looking forward to the next trip around.

I don’t want to make Aaron pay for it though because it wasn’t his fault. I just forgot because I got side tracked doing my job and helping other people with their stuff.

I guess this is the price I pay for helping people out. It makes me feel better that I get to complain on this blog.

Damian

Alright phase two of the 90 day program I am doing is kicking my ass. I am sore as all get out.Today was much easier than yesterday. Tomorrow is cardio. Gee… I wonder what that is going to entail. I also did 6.23 miles in the early evening. Intervals. I maintained a 14:30 pace,which is a minute faster than Jan. I altos added another 5 seconds to my interval run. I am up to for run minute and fifteen seconds.

Food has been good. The cravings have subsided. Every time I cut something I feel like I am going through withdrawals. Like a drug addiction. Amazing. This will be week two of no wheat. This week is easier than last week, and my belly isn’t bloated.

The plan for the rest of the work week is to still get up at 4 am do my video, no run or bike tomorrow, but Thursday I will ride my bike on the trainer for an hour. Friday video, run. Then hopefully make it to group.

No Little Guy update today. We didn’t get one.
Have a great week.

I had a moment like that recently that brought me to tears. I wished God had intervened to change the outcome. To have helped me avoid the sting of disappointment I felt. Of course, the moment passed and life went on without much more then a little hiccup. But it left me wondering. I rely on plenty of promises from the Word of God when “big” things happen – so where do I go when it’s just a relatively insignificant bummer?

Interestingly, as I searched for a word from God to answer my question, I found that the same verses that bring me peace in the big things apply in the little ones, too. God cares about all my sorrows!

You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. (Psalms 56:8 NLT)

All my sorrows. All my tears. That’s a pretty big bottle!

He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds. (Psalms 147:3 NLT)

This brought a smile to my face. And I could just picture him bandaging my wound and telling me he loves me. And he’ll be ready with a band-aid for the next “skinned knee”, too.

…I spill out all my complaints before him, and spell out my troubles in detail. (Psalm 142:1, 2 MSG)

I do this! I hope it doesn’t come across as whining, but it’s refreshing to know that King David – a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22) – brought all his complaints before The Lord, too.

And then I ended up face-to-face with one of my favorite verses. The promise that has always given me hope.

That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. (Romans 8:28 MSG)

“Every detail”. All the experiences we go through. Big life changes… Little bummers… Times of joy… Times of sorrow… All of those things are being worked into something good.

Now I just need to remember this the next time I’m bummed out!

Weigh in,-.2 I will take it.
Finished week four of my exercise plan. That also ends phase 1. Tomorrow before crack of dawn I will start week five ,phase two.
So I sent out reminders for spring ahead. Well.. My smart self forgot to set the clock ahead and got up an hour late for the group ride!!! Ha ha. What can I do..so I will go to the gym later and get a hill exercises ride in. Can’t go to bricks Monday got to work. Ugh…

The Boog helping put the speedometer on the bike, grease the chain,and what not. Since I missed this morning, I will go get new tread for the tires I need badly.
Last update we got about Little Guy, he is recovering good. May get to go home. Later next week, is when chemo will start. just to be able to hug everyone and Little Guy would help ease the emotional roller coaster we all are on since we are not there. I asked the Chaplin at my work if they can add Little Guy the prayer service they do. She said they will.
I have to go and get some new uniforms. My current ones do not fit. They have out grown me. My shorts, and shirts all have out grown me. Amazing.even though the scale is not reflecting it, I can see it in the measurements.
Well, meal planning,juicing,and smoothie making needs to be done for the new work week. Make it and freeze it. Makes life easier during the week. Crazy thing, I crave a hamburger . Yep every day I make one, or a double for lunch. No wheat bread. Grass fed beef is yummy. It’s on sale at Publix here.

I love this bread. Wheat free, dairy free, gluten free, soy free. Low carbs ..good stuff.

Well got to get moving and meal planning. Have a great Sunday.

Weight, I have been bouncing around with 3 lbs. up, down, up, loose nothing. I really want to move forward on this.
Food,going good. As of last week, I have stopped eating wheat. Since I have stopped,I am not so bloated. This will be week two without any type of wheat. I juice my veggies, I have a fresh smoothie once a day and I make my snacks. I made the switch to coconut oil. Love it.we did that a long while back.

Exercise, I have been doing my daily video. Last week I had to stop. I was having pain in my right knee and quads. So this week I repeated week 4. My quads would get so tight it was pulling on my knee and knee cap. I got a new speedometer for my bike. Cleaned it up. I have to get new tread for my tires. I get to ride it this weekend. I have been doing run intervals. I have up the run interval to a minute ten seconds. I have been putting in 22 miles a week, except this week. Due to my work schedule. Now I am out of it I can get back to it.
I plan on a duathlon at the end of this month. It is the Easter Egg triathlon/ duathlon. It is the opener for the season. Next month I plan on the Walgreens half at the Sun Life Stadium. There isn’t any triathlons in April but a half down south that has two major causeways in it. Not sure if I want to do them.
This last week has been a rough one. It ranks up there with my injury I had. By the way I have been injury free now a year next month. . Any way, my entire family is going through a rough time. E’s nephew,little guy is fighting a battle. It is playing on our emotions that we can not be there. He had a cancerous tumor, it was removed. Now Little Guy has to go through chemo and radiation .:(
Not sure when Little Guy has to start, but we just want to be there. I had to sit at work waiting to hear what was going on. Do you know how hard that is to do?? I now know. The ironic thing is my floor where I work is now part oncology. I never realized how many people have cancer. We don’t don’t have peds. It is hard to watch people get admitted,and go through what have have to do. A lot get to go home,a lot do not go home with their families. I have a lot of respect for the oncology nurses.
Team Little Guy…it angers me me he got picked for this. I am angered we can’t be there.i am sad he has to go through this. It is not fair. I am saying prayers. Life will win.
It’s finally the weekend. I am gonna play hard this weekend. Weigh in tomorrow.

I felt lucky to be invited by an RN friend to go for a vacation and when she said “Las Vegas” oh oh I sure said “yes” mainly because I need a break from my patients eating all the patience I have in my system. That RN friend who grew up in the same province as I am said we’ll check in at Paris hotel and that made me more excited that I immediately googled Paris Hotel unknowing that there’s really a Paris like hotel in the States. Indeed, lucky me for having someone like her in my life especially that I lack “support” in this strange land of milk and honey oh yeah that’s how my fellow coworkers back in the secondary hospital where I used to work 10steps from the rice field of an unknown owner. Right now though I can’t decide if they’re right.

It was a long road trip from Long Beach but it was worth it

because I was with people I’m comfortable to be with

My friend in La Puente said it’ll be worth it when you see the lights or maybe he was referring to the night life.

My idea of Las Vegas before I even arrived here was “the place where Manny Pacquiao have his boxing match” the place they call as sin city. It wasn’t on my list of places that I wanted to visit and yet again I have proven that things happen

when you least expect it

and the MORE that things will happen when you expect it as long as you work and pray for it…

Did I pray for two nights in Las Vegas in a beautiful hotel? Well, I did pray for travels this 2013

The Paris Hotel was a Paris like experience indeed just the tower itself makes you feel like you’re in Paris already and it’s more beautiful at night.

My first night? We went for a walk after our dinner inside the hotel and the place was so alive even at two in the morning no sleeping allowed?

As expected, we’d a lot of picture taking moments that’s what we’re here for I thought.

Our 1st morning? Breakfast at a Filipino restaurant God I miss Filipino foods and so I ate white rice and beef steak omygulay ang sarap talaga ng Filipino food the best

The rest of our day? at circus circus yey it feels happy and will always be happy o be like a kid again.

<strong

Time as usual ran fast and we didn’t even notice that it was time for dinner and where to go and eat? buffet man who doesn’t like buffet in a hotel?

After having so much food on our stomach haha we played some fiesta like games in the Philippines and won toys didn’t really felt like trying to explore those slot machines eh don’t even know if its called as slot machine…lol and then it’s 10 pm we headed to Fremont to experience street party

Nakakatuwa parang wala silang mga problema sa buhay or was it just their way of escaping from the realities of life?

Anyway, it’s obvious I don’t even have to ask and wonder…we all have our reasons of dancing, shopping, enjoying and partying in Las Vegas at the end of the vacation mode “whatever happened in Vegas stays in Vegas”

We went back to the hotel at two in the morning after our Fremont experience and after eating again haha we went out for a walk might as well sulitin ang Vegas experience finally at past five in the morning wherein people still come and go holding their drinks while walking we decided to go back and enjoy our bed Zzzz

10am good morning reality! time to pack our bag back to the City of Angels…but before that sulitin nga diba ang eksena so we went to Bellagio Hotel for the dancing fountain but to our dismay it was cancelled due to the strong wind ohmygulay that means we’re coming back again to Las Vegas we still have a lot of things to explore and yes! I’d like to go check their hospital I wonder if there’s a casino at their Emergency room

Besides I haven’t entered the famous Mandalay bay yet so another road trip this year maybe? Hmmm

“We are all broken and wounded in this world. Some choose to grow strong at the broken places.”
―Harold J. Duarte-Bernhardt

This is how I feel. Broken. For the past few months, I’ve been on this roller coaster of life feeling complete and then broken all of again. It’s one scenario after the next and it’s NEVERending! It all started two weeks ago, when everything was going perfectly.

I had finally finished my film shoots and could work on editing for the film festival!

Valentine’s Day (although I was single) went fabulously and had finally passed. Let me tell how obnoxious V-Day is on a college campus…nahhh

And, new project ideas were filing my head faster than I could speak them into Professor Mac to expand upon later.

It was a Tuesday night. I sat down at an empty table in the midst of my university colleagues (who were watching the Amazing Spiderman–one of my favorite 2012 movies. Shout out to the hot and amazingly talented Andrew Garfield! I turned on Professor Mac (If you don’t know by now, that’s my Macbook Pro I got for Christmas), opened my writing system, inserted my flash drive, the light glowed….the light went away….Professor Mac was confused and didn’t recognize my flash drive.

Now, two years ago when this happened to me, I freakin’ panicked!!!!! But this time, I didn’t see it as a big deal. i tried again…and again…and nothing. I honestly didn’t start panicking until now–weeks later–after speaking to some data recovery people and they pitched prices to repair it for me…

Presently, I’m hoping that a nerd friend of mine will be happy and willing to repair it for half the price I’ve been hearing. I at least want this darn thing to work for two hours so I can get all of my books off of it! That’s all I ask!

Oh lawd why me! If anyone has any suggestions, that would be fantastic…Idk how this is gonna play out, but hopefully I’ll experience some kind of miracle or gain an insightful moral from this depressing situation. I really don’t wanna type these stories all over again

–Joni Juelissa <3

Finally, I found a place around the block from our hotel that was called “Healthy Happy Beauty Parlor”. I figured that if anyone could make me pretty, it would be those people. I walked into the parlor and asked if they did waxing, to which they replied “of course, what do you want?” When I said eyebrows they gave me a 30 second pause, then very slowly said “yessss, we can do that.” Not terribly reasuring, but I was over walking around so I took a seat and the proffered water.

As the salon woman set about getting wax ready the owner came in and started chatting with me. He spoke really good english, so we were able to converse for a while about how much colder the US is than Cambodia. Eventually he asked me if I really wanted my eyebrows waxed, or just shaped. I tried to explain that all the Cambodian women have nice eyebrows, and I just wanted to look like them. He then said “Oh, ok, you just wanted to be shaped” and left the salon.

When the salon woman came back in with a razor blade, I realized he meant Shaved, not Shaped. But, when in Rome…. I closed my eyes and let her do her work. She did one eye and then let me look in the mirror. I thought it looked fine so I said, sure do the other. Really, at that point what choice did I have? $1 later I was on my way back to the hotel.

Upon returning to the hotel, John said “what happened to your face?!” Apparently they didn't look as nice as I thought. I looked in the mirror and realized they took more off the bottom then I was used to, and I now had a bit of a perpetually surprised look going on.

Oh my! I'm so surprised!

Overall, I'm not too upset about the whole deal. I'll take surprised and startled over unruly any day. John, as a wonderful husband, doesn't think I need to do anything to my face, and gets upset when I meddle with things. Isn't he sweet… but really, what does he know about what it takes to make a lady pretty?

`

Happy to have nice eyebrows

So, I started (Better) New Music Tuesday just a few weeks ago, and I’ve already missed one week and am on the verge of missing another one. The fact of the matter is that Tuesdays are maybe my busiest day, so probably not the best place to put a weekly feature. With that in mind, we’re just gonna call it New Music Wednesdays and be done with it. Cool? Cool. Check back tomorrow (later today?) for some new album reviews; I’ve got some good stuff coming up for you.

Thanks, y’all are the sexiest.

i mean how would you look at these mishaps, i am clumsy, that i know but oh why me ?? are you one of those people who sees a deeper meaning into life events? i always felt like i believed in fate but in what capacity? i honestly never thought about that specifically.

i do feel like i was running in hectic circles; maybe this was a yellow yeild sign in my crazy world?! i am a busy working mom in the center of a busy active family. always trying to balance home, work, school, travel, activity and keep up with the PTA mom types who bake perfect cupcakes for snack time and commiserate with you but at the same time don’t truly get it. i live by the it takes a village principle and i am so thankful for a diverse group of friends because someone is always out there helping me keep things in check. i love being a townie in my small town, and that travis will grow up knowing we’re all similar but different & its our differences that make life so cool. 

i guess bottom line of this post is short-term my L has been replaced with an F.  and maybe (just maybe) i DON’T belive in Karma anymore, and maybe i don’t think everything that happens for a reason (back to my dad’s principal of shit happens)… so #YoKarma, step off of this cloud!

xx Jen #saveoften #stoplookandlisten #lifehappens

Tuesday at the Chivas Brothers distillery in Scotland, workers accidentally flushed 5,000 gallons of whiskey down the drain. The spill happened at the plant where nearly 600 workers are employed. The accidental spill was released into a wastewater plant but didn’t get into any major water ways. NBC News reported that the plant is back up and running and Chivas Brothers has claimed that there will be no shortage! Therefore, Chivas Regal, The Glenlivet and Ballantine’s drinkers; drink up!!

It was totally interesting.

My mind was scavenging the depths of many topics.

My heart was glowing and then at moments cowering in the dark.

I had set the intention during my morning meditation to open to my spirit. To open to what it meant to connect fully to my spirit’s meaning of pleasure and joy.

Snow tumbled from the sky.

Emails and news came in from friends telling stories of saying “good-bye” to loved ones. I felt my heart hiccup and grow bigger. I felt myself open and hold.

Then I found myself contemplating the realms of life and death.

I chose to change channels and plugged into a don Miguel Ruiz Jr. podcast that inspiringly referenced a Muhammad Ali quote:

“Often it isn’t the mountains ahead that wear you out, it’s the little pebble in your shoe.”

I found joy in the thought of emptying out all my doubts out of my shoes and embarking more courageously toward the parts of my dreams that I constantly doubt.

Atoms for Peace just released a new album today. I ran through the album and felt sparked by the new sounds and the alluring attraction to Thom Yorke’s voice on a wintery day.

Laundry smelled so yum as I folded it.

I felt sleepy, yet restless and began taking my lethargic physical being through breath and asana practice.

On the mat in the middle of what felt like redundancy I heard my spirit say,

“Pleasure! Joy! Choose that right now. Change your ‘tude.”

My breathing changed.

My practice became less about what I was doing and more about how to feel the pleasure of my physical being as I breathed and moved as fluidly and joyfully as I possibly could.

I was battling between what was right and what felt gosh darn amazing.

I laughed at what was “right” and snuggled up to the “amazing.”

Suns became a dance of breathing between my hips and my heart.

The snow outside became a beacon for me to play with my body versus demand that it meet some sort of irrational rule of “do this many for this amount of time emphasizing these muscles so that you don’t get hurt.”

“Fuck that” was a repetitive word to the rules.

I glimpsed and imagined myself throwing off the energetic clothing of years and years of training “to be right and to be good enough and strong enough and pretty enough.”

“Enough!” I exclaimed. “I choose pleasure and joy!”

My practice ended with a shower smelling of lavender and lemongrass. The hot water offering more to my being than a 2 hour muscle sore-ing practice.

Heck, I’ve been sore every day for the last year. I think it’s time to wake up feeling something else.

Driving to teach felt like such an oxymoron with the snow falling outside.

I dolled up in my winter gear and filled myself up with the beauty of the snow still falling outside.

I was running pleasure through my entire being and my heart felt magnetic. No gloom and doom expert could peel the smile from my face.  

Teaching felt easy. I felt less doubtful and more carefree. It really wasn’t what I was teaching today, but how we were feeling interacting with each other.

Eating food felt so good.

Then I watched the movie”The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” And I entered the town known as “Bum and Glum.”

It was like the gloom and doom creators had presented a beautiful little game of: Will Anne succumb to the dark side?

I witnessed what happened during the movie to my being: my neck got tight, my heart felt like a machine, and my body felt a million miles away. All my happy thoughts melting like the snow.

“Enough!” I said and changed my mental channel.

I needed a little help. So I chose to watch Disney’s short “The Paperman” I was curious and I thought it looked sweet.

Doom diminished!

Joy is not defined by the amount of hours of sleep. Joy is not defined by the amount of money you make. Joy is celebrating what you love and care about in this moment. Joy is what tickles your face to turn up. Joy is something we can choose simply by taking a deep breath. Pleasure is not just for those who are perfect. Pleasure is not just for bedroom scenes. Pleasure is feeling your skin under your fingers, feeling the softness of your breath and the rhythm of your heart. Pleasure is yours to experience. It is a gift you can choose to give and unwrap yourself.

I choose to live a life abundant with pleasure and joy.

#WITHOUTME??

This is a concept that is really hard to imagine when you’re the one life is going on around… without. i am currently at this exact moment missing a flagship event with my team at one of my favorite spots on earth, doing one of my favorite things on earth all while getting paid! it’s part of the reason that i so freely bragged before that i in fact had #THEBESTJOBEVER. Minus the phone call today from the peanut gallery with well wishes, and we miss yous; the fact is i still do have one of the best jobs ever. but shit life goes on… is such a hard concept to cope with sometimes!!

Did i mention today is my birthday??? it’s my birthday, so i guess this is a double post… whip out your tiny violin’s for me. ready?? not only do i miss an Epic Snow trip but i’m celebrating my birthday cooped up at home with my parents. What gives??

My dad’s wise words of advice were “Jen, shit happens!” My best friend posted poetic Dave Matthews lyrics on my Facebook wall today. she put them there to remind me that (we) have it in us to get through the shit & probably have a better time than most while doing it. so do we just celebrate in what we have? Roll on, keep riding forward & accept the best of what’s around?? My dad’s in, BFF says yes, Dave seems to agree but what about you???

xx Jen #cantcontrollife #celebratewewill #keepridingforward

Terry and about 4 other neighbors were talking yesterday evening about the snow on the Gunnison Mountain Range…this is where we get our water.

The whole conversation was dismal, to put it lightly.

One of the neighbors is the Vice-President of the Uncompahgre Water Users (our irrigation water) and he said things are looking very bad in the water department.  The snow pack is 77% of normal, but the snow is a very dry snow, with very little water.

The Water Users were going to turn the water on the middle of April, but now they aren’t….they are going to wait until the first day of May, hoping to have water for the heat of the season…July and August.

Now, no one knows what to do….everyone is looking at planting a maximum of 60% of their farm ground, but…can they?  The sweet corn farmers and the onion guys need to have the seed in the ground in April, wet and ready to sprout by the third week of April to have a crop.  With this late water start it is looking like the crop for Olathe Sweet Sweet Corn and Mountain Sweet Sweet Corn is going to be very slim…if at all.

Pinto Beans don’t have to be planted as early and can be harvested early, but they do need lots of water…the pinto bean guys are wondering if they should even try since they can’t afford to have the water shot just as the pods begin to swell.

Corn for corn bread, chicken feed and cow feed takes a long growing season and needs to be in the ground, watered up before the first of May…

Lets hope this storm is being very good to us and lots of WET snow is falling on the Gunnison Mountains…magic thoughts from all you, please!

Food is going to be sparse this year from our part of Colorado it seems, unless the Gunnison Mountains can get lots and lots of WET snow.

Thanks,

Linda