Resurfacing

It is time to resurface and write. The hiatus more than did its job. When I went on hiatus, I felt unsure of about everything in my life. Through changes, conversations, experiences, I realized what I already knew...I make my life with the choices of feelings, words, people, you name it. Instead of looking further outward of myself, I turned inward to rediscover myself and shift perspectives. During that time, I pushed people away, pissed people off, changed the dynamics of relationships. Yet, it was necessary to get the one person that lives my life back on track. Me.

Certain things, and maybe even people, of my life are gone. I send light, love, and happiness in that direction, but move on to a new direction where I feel more confident than I have in years. The loves of my heart are happy. I am happy.




*Note: Slowly bringing this blog back to life with a Tumblr addition as well. You'll see a few post dated Tumblr posts that may or may not have imported previously. Enjoy my hiatus writings.*

Hiatus

I am officially posting about taking a public hiatus from my blog. Actually both of them, including my running blog. I feel I am at a point where I will not publicly post things I want to write about right now, nor do I want to be the blogger that posts random, unrelated junk all over my blog. Hopefully I will get back to it soon, and my very few readers can continue reading my musings.

Take care,
~Carin~

Living in a Smarter City.

My friend, Jamie, recently wrote about a certain company's "eco"-wannabe marketing ways. You can check it out here. Her blog triggered my eco-friendly passion, and I wanted to throw out a super cool fact about the place I call home.

Most of my eco-friendly ways were started while I attended college at the University of North Texas. Living in a progressive city only fueled my self-responsibility to the planet. After living here for 15 years, I am a resident beaming with pride to say I live in one of the top green cities in the America. Cited by the National Resource and Defense Council (NRDC), Denton, Texas is considered one of America's 2010 Smarter Cities.

Side note: Another cool fact is that Texas (a major oil and natural gas state) has four, yes I said four, Smarter Cities.

Eco-friendly is more than a trend here; it is a permanent lifestyle. We aren't all "hippies" here in the "Little D", but I can guarantee you can find "crop-sharing" in the middle of town, more bike/walk routes, ways to recycle, and energy-efficient buildings all in this quaint "town" that Dentonites love.

Books I Want to Read As Soon As Humanly Possible

Part of me cannot believe I even have this list because I usually read books five to ten minutes at a time shortly before I succumb to sleep every night. I do have days where I become enraptured and entangled within a book to where I waste a weekend away just reading because I cannot. put. it. down. Yet here I am, writing an ASAP list of books I want to read.

• Eat, Pray, Love. , Elizabeth Gilbert
• Committed, Elizabeth Gilbert
  
• Suck It, Wonder Woman!, Olivia Munn


• Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain


• Run Like a Mother: How to Get Moving--and Not Lose Your Family, Job, or Sanity, Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea


• The Non-Runner's Marathon Guide for Women, Dawn Dais


• The Ultimate Happiness Prescription, Deepak Chopra


• Journal of a Solitude, May Sarton


• Eat Mangoes Naked, SARK


• Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Alborn


• Surfacing, Margaret Atwood

This list does not include every book recommended to me by my friend, SN. She's always reading something quite interesting. All in all, I feel that I can learn something in particular from each book and my urge to read them grows daily. What are you wanting to read?

Thirty-Two Thoughts

Since my birthday, all sorts of thoughts have been swirling in my head. I happened to capture thirty-two of them in honor of my 32nd birthday.

1. I truly believe this next year of my life has an end result of fabulous.

2. The strongest I have ever felt is when I gave birth, finished every race, and every minute on the soccer pitch.

3. I just may be one of the biggest jocks in a skirt you may ever meet.

4. I have amazing legs. Sure, they look good, but I am more amazed at what they have carried me through than anything.

5. I really do enjoy flowers. Don’t let my tough girl front fool you.

6. Massages really are a saving grace. As much as I put my body through the ringer, sometimes someone else needs to do the job.

7. An objective opinion never really hurts anything at all.

8. A couple of really great friends really can make you feel like the most popular person in the world.

9. It really is true that the older you get, the less you care what people think about you.

10. Even though happiness is something I search for, I think I want peace more than anything.

11. No matter how I feel, my two wonderful boys will always bring some sort of a smile to my face.

12. Passion is contagious.

13. An awesome pair of shoes can turn a so-so outfit into spectacular.

14. Sometimes it is about the big things.

15. A camera is the best way to jolt a horrible memory.

16. One of these days, I won't do "what I should" and it just might be the best darn day of my life.

17. One color can bring back confidence such as a red lipstick, red top, or red toenail polish.

18. Love does hurt, even when you're going through a good spell.

19. I never thought going to bed at 9 p.m. as a good thing until I started running before the sun came up.

20. Expectations people place on you can be confining; expectations you think people place on you feels like jail.

21. Some people do really just get the luck of the draw, and I just have to keep working to get my royal flush.

22. Putting yourself first is not selfish.

23. Solitude should be a commodity, at least for the next 8-14 years.

24. Good mattresses can transform you in a matter of nights.

25. I've had my heart broken more than anyone will ever know.

26. Mexican food tops my food list, and I suggest it for every meal.

27. The perfect night always includes at least one margarita.

28. I'm finding more of myself everyday.

29. I thank my mother (at least mentally) for something everyday. She may not know it but she taught me more about what I wanted out of life than anyone.

30. I've been serious for way too long at way too young of an age. Beware! The fun search has begun.

31. Daily, I struggle with several things I never talk about. This is probably the closest I will ever talk about it.

32. Perspective is probably the one thing that can change in a second and impact the rest of your life.

Birthdays!

I admit it, my birthday is by far, my favorite day of the year. Yes, I do love the attention (wow, I admitted that, too), but my birthday is bigger than New Year's in my book.

Of course, a party or some type of major fun is planned, hopefully surrounded by your favorite people. Even the ones who can't be there, feel close in spirit, in your heart.

For me, it gives me a good time to re-evaluate my year, my life, my everything; kind of like a midway stop to make sure I'm on track. Some years, the re-evaluation may be like a quick annual inspection on a vehicle. Other years, it may involve a complete overhaul.

I've been asked before why I put such a big emphasis on birthdays. I have heard "It's just another day." or "Birthdays are for kids." No, it's not. Birthdays are for everyone. Everyone has one. A person's birthday is that one special day to celebrate that one special person...yourself.

Birthdays are about the celebration of life; the journey that has brought you this far, and the hopes, dreams and plans to take you to the next and beyond. Birthdays celebrate the fact that without you, this world would be different.

Raise your glass, toast with me! Happy Birthday to my 31 years that brought me to 32 in any way possible. To the years ahead of me, may they be filled with fun, smiles, learning and love.

Morning Commute

Very rarely does my morning commute involve cursing, banging on the steering wheel, or bumper to bumper traffic. I consider myself rather fortunate for my commute, even though I still secretly wish to work from home. Yet, my commute is a short one. 25 minutes tops usually, and that even includes dropping off the little ones. My drive takes me through town, a town I love, through the country on two-lane highways, and a small stretch on a fairly quiet portion of the interstate highway. Not many would complain about that commute. My favorite thing of my commute is rolling down the windows (weather permitting, of course) and blaring the tunes, singing right along or playing air drums on my steering wheel. Tunes ranging from Vivaldi and Beethoven to The Beatles to Kenny Chesney to Chevelle.

This morning was a particularly good morning for my commuting jam session. A tropical 77 ° with a warm breeze makes for a pleasantly uncommon Texas morning. The sun still slumbering behind a gray blanket of clouds keeps the air as cool as can be with weather from tropical storm Alex in the forecast. My mellow spirits began to lift as I lowered my windows and starting jamming to the playlist below. Check out the links to hear my morning tunes for today.

• Tonic: If You Could Only See
• Civil Twilight: Letters From the Sky
• Lit: Miserable
• Chevelle: Send the Pain Below
• Kings of Leon: Sex on Fire
• Gavin DeGraw: I Don't Want to Be
• U2: Where the Streets Have No Names
• Coldplay: Talk

What music makes your mornings? Are your commutes just as pleasant, better, worse?