This is the end

...of an era, that's for sure. My days as a professional student are few. 5 to be exact. Though I've been done with my "school work" for a few months now, I'm still eking it out at my last clinical placement; along with that, I've been completing my licensure paperwork, applying/interviewing for jobs, and tying up/untangling loose ends all around. I'm also beginning to pay attention to things I've ignored over the past two years. Things I'd felt guilty about turning a blind eye to; mundane crap like deep cleaning, weeding the gardens, keeping up with projects and general responsibilities, writing on this blog...

But now that I finally have a chance to reflect, I really don't feel guilty at all.

When I set out to take on this graduate program, I made a promise to myself; that I would 1. Do my best and 2. Not let the choice to return to school interfere with my presence in my family.

Well, I did my best, which turned out to be pretty good.

And I haven't missed an opportunity to take a picture like this:

Success.

Here's to our next adventure, family.

O, Pioneer(town)!

There are many strange, strange, magical places in this world. Most of them, you only get to read about. Some of them, you might see on an episode of Planet Earth. Others, you'll experience vicariously through instagram the lens and anecdote of a friend. I've been to a lot of places; I've heard of, read about, dreamed of many, many more. Ultimately though, there is no amount of crisp high-def or crafty prose that can compete with what it is to see something for yourself.

Pioneertown, CA. 

You couldn't make this place up. 

I've heard the stories for years now. I've been the outsider to many conversations that revolved around re-living the times had in this literal ghost town. When El informed me last Friday that his favorite musician Ryan Bingham would be playing at the (only) bar in this 'town' that skirts the periphery of Yucca Valley, I knew that at last, my time had finally come to experience firsthand the Town of Pioneer. 

A brief history of the place: founded in 1946 by Hollywood investors, Pioneertown was created to resemble a late-1800's frontier town. The facades were built for use as a set for the westerns that were filmed here, and the buildings were open to the public, housing an ice cream parlor, bowling alley, and miscellaneous shops. Today, the only operational businesses seemed to include: the motel, Pappy and Harriet's, and a lonely pottery shop on the main drag. The bowling alley, a place that lives on in infamy from the stories I've heard of El's bachelor party a few years ago, has also sadly closed its doors. In any case, Pappy and Harriet's has held down the fort in a struggling economy, offering great food and drinks (with high grade crushed ice), and a fully booked venue that attracts some amazing musicians. 

We arrived just before dusk set in, and were welcomed by a sky of purplegrey clouds that cast an amazing light on the land and regulated the environment, holding some moisture in the air to balance out the dry desert heat.

The motel was booked to capacity; Psh, whatever...we were there to rough it. Camping in Pioneertown means parking in the dirt area behind the PT Motel, next to the horse corrals and this magnificent Joshua tree:

  

We El made haste to set up camp before the sun set.

I posted up at the tailgate with the essentials.

Dave and John arrived shortly after, at which point the sitting around and knife-throwing could commence.

Later, El and I took a stroll through town to check out the scene

 

There wasn't much going on.

     

We checked out the motel, and then decided to head back to the homestead to pre-game some more and enjoy the sunset from our fold out chairs.

Please excuse the plethora of sunset shots; much like in real life conversation, I struggle with self-editing.

Watching the sky was as mesmerizing and paralyzing as watching Bob Ross paint on PBS; every time you looked up you were confronted with a new color scheme, a different configuration of cloud shapes, and a deeper appreciation for life in general. 

Yes, that all really happened. And right before our eyes!

At last, it was time. Time to eat. Time to drink some more. Time for the show to start.

Ryan Bingham--was amazing, as both a musician and general specimen of humankind. The crowd on the other hand, was about as lifeless as the jack rabbits (5), snakes (2), opossum (1) and other assorted road kill (2) we swerved to avoid on our drive up to the high desert. No amount of pleading or attempted shaming could coax those depressing mouth breathers into as much as a sway. United they stood, affixed to the concrete with such determination and focus that, had a tornado swept through town, I don't doubt that this crowd would be the only thing left standing. 

We went so far as to try disassembling our own group; we split up and planted ourselves throughout the audience with the hope that our individual grooving would ignite a party, because that's what it was supposed to be (and wouldn't the band prefer to have an audience that showed their support by having fun?). Well, we failed. Maybe the crowd was having fun and we were the party poopers; Luckily we were not sober didn't care, and danced hard all night regardless. It was a great, great time.  

This truck bed tells a (very accurate) story.

It was all a haggard mess the morning after.

But, luckily, we were able to rally for some breakfast.

And stopped for more coffee shortly thereafter.

  

We even mustered the energy to check out some of the antique shops. 

And then, with some hesitation, we hit the road back to real life.

   

Happy New Year!

In my heart of hearts, January 1 is not my New Year. My New Year occurs 8 months late if you go by calendar days. My New Year always comes exactly when I need it, just as I am starting to feel stagnant and unproductive in the, albeit necessary, but dragging days of summer vacation. 

To me, the start of a new school year is just the best. Don't even get me started on the joy it is to walk into Staples and stock up on supplies/organizational materials (Binders for each class? A NECESSITY! A new day planner that I will lose? SIGN ME UP! A Costco-sized helping of 3x5 cards that I will never use? NEED IT! A 24 pack of retractable highlighters even though I have a drawer full of last year's set? MUST BUY NOW!). In addition to forfeiting all control of mind, body, and apparently, grammar, I always end up spending WAY more than I should; something not-of-this-world possesses me the second I step into that store and I am absolutely powerless. I digress. 

Bottom line: A new school year fills me with renewed motivation and my intrinsic need desire to learn and grow my skill set is at an all time high. Obviously, as it always does, this motivation will quickly dwindle as the year progresses, but it's good to know that I'm always starting off on a high note. 

The initiation to the 2012/2013 school year has been no different in many ways, and very different in some. I have been and will be a student my whole life, but this year likely marks the last year of my formal education (cue god-awful Greenday song about turning points and forks in the road, you know the one). I was talking with a friend last night about the post-grad blues phenomenon that seemed to resonate with all of our friends when we completed our undergraduate degrees. Most of us experienced, to varying degrees, what we called a quarter-life crisis--what do you do after 17+ years of continuous, institutionalized education? For me, the answer was simple and safe: I'd pursue a graduate degree. Sure, the answer was easy, but the process...not so much.

I can see how another post-grad blues event might be a brewin' come springtime, but I can safely say that I won't let it get the best of me, for many, many reasons. For one, I have undoubtedly found my calling as a Speech-Language Pathologist. I have also had the invaluable opportunity to both further my educational credentials in the field, while at the same time garner specific training for my career--read: I will be employed upon graduating, read: I can start paying off student loans.  And finally, as a product of institutionalized education (all of us are), I can rest assured knowing that I can always be a part of that machine by working in schools IF I choose to...which means I will always be able to celebrate My New Year each August with a trip to Staples!

And so, some school-related photos from the 2011-2012 school year (don't forget there are two pupils in this house!). We'll start with a collection of some of my favorite outfits donned by Marlowe this school year:

Easters Time

Yes, I meant to pluralize. If you know the movie referenced in the title, then I love you. But really, I'm too tired to write anything besides captions. Here's Easter 2012...

Easter basket, Easter sandals, Easter morning breath/smiles.

After an egg hunt in the backyard (I thought I was genius for filling the eggs with individual hair clips instead of candy), we hiked down to the park by our house.

Then, after an early nap, we dressed up for the occasion.

And took a family photo at our usual spot in the garden.

Marlowe definitely takes after me when it comes to egg hunting/anything that can be participated in as a competitive sporting event.

After an awesome dinner with the family, we headed back outside for bubbles*.

We hopped in honor of the holiday.

*note Mar's drunk eyes in the bubble picture above--this is the face of a child who is literally high on sugar. Our decision to let her indulge on the candy in BOTH baskets from the grandparents (she usually eats sugar in the form of fresh fruit), was a HUGE mistake. The result was a two day bender of the following horrible things: no sleep schedule, tantrums, slightly elevated temperature, no appetite, stomach/ear aches, and delirium. Lesson learned.

Our Rockin' Weekend

We've been up to our usual around here. For me, it's procrastinating. For Elgin, it's tinkering around like the 65-year-old man that I swear he is, underneath it all. For Marlowe, it's just being awesome. The semester is quickly approaching its term, which means I'll be hunkering down in the next few weeks. This past weekend, however, somehow I managed to get my pertinent work done in advance, which allowed for basking, guilt-free, in the freedom of 2 entire days. I'm really, really good at not wasting a second of time when I'm enjoying what's going on around me--so our weekend was jam-packed with good stuff. Sadly, there aren't photos to document everything we did (like going to see the musical "Rock of Ages," which was hands-down the best show I've seen- EVER, or celebrating our friend Molly's birthday-this might not be a bad thing though), but...you win some, you forget your camera on most.

We watched "Frozen Planet" last week, and ever since, Marlowe has been searching for buffalo in our backyard. Now when we are out back, she insists on picking a bouquet of flowers, shoving them through the fence at a very particular location, and checking back the next day to "see if those buffalos ate 'em." Love that imagination, girl!

We tried an initial round of Easter festivities, using our own home-grown eggs.

The boys came over to join Marlowe in an afternoon of easter egg hunt "practice," lunch, and a long, long nap. These kids are the best :)

After weeks of talking about it, Marlowe finally got her first mani/pedi. The mani was ruined before I finished painting, and 5 of 10 toenails were color-less by the end of the night.

3 years and counting

Today El and I celebrate THREE(!) years of marriage. Time has not only been flying by, it's been speeding up steadily. I was thinking lately about the notion of time; I remember in elementary school, and even high school, where time just dragged on and on. It seemed like forever waiting for special events, tournaments, dances, or the end of chemistry class at 3:10 PM. It seemed like an eternity until it was next Tuesday when the new episode of Gilmore Girls was on.

I came to the conclusion that time must have seemed to be moving so slowly because I was hyperfocused on my excitement for future events, probably causing me to take for granted the present moment. I like to think that nowadays time is flying by at record pace because I am enjoying each and every moment (or most of them) and I'm not spending time thinking about time (except for the duration of this post, of course). I still look forward to special occasions, but honestly, all that is just "the gravy train" as the guy from 'Storage Wars' so eloquently puts it.

So in honor of the man who makes my life so gravy-licious, a short and sappy photo tribute...

our engagement shoot

our wedding day.

How could you not love this big ol' bear?