End of Summer - Ed, Camping, Birthday

The end of the summer was a whirlwind.  Of course, for most of us, life is a whirlwind, but it usually consists of days upon days packed with minutiae and before you know it, it's practically November and you have no idea where the year has gone.  Fortunately, my end of summer was the kind of whirlwind full of lots of good times with people, times which I can point to for many seasons to come and remember fondly.   (And also minutiae.)

Ed

I wrapped up the summer concert series with an Ed Sheeran concert in D.C., accompanied by Elaine Crossfit.  Ed was fantastic.  

Opening act was Christina Perri, who has huge musical guns.  Her enviable vocal talents are some of the strongest I have ever seen.  

Our seats were not so bad...

But even still, in typical Veronica fashion, I talked to some people and so we were upgraded to like the fourth row from the stage.

We got out of there and decided to hang back from the crowds for a bit, and it was a good thing we did, because the Metro line broke, and we would have had to walk through the tunnels to get out of there.  We didn't even know about it till we were already on a train, about 30 minutes later, when one of the Metro workers happened to tell us that we were on "the test train" but that we were probably safe at that point.  

Camping

Kake got married at the end of September, and she looked beautiful.

Before that, we went to Shenendoah to fit in some camping before married life began.  It was actually awesome weather - the warmest I have ever experienced in Shenendoah.  

We didn't even need a fire for survival purposes - just for recreation.  That's not to say that we didn't need our survival instincts. 

We spent the day at the apple butter festival, which was lovely. 

Then we set up camp, and then drove around until we found a good perch for sunset, and (later) for sunrise.

We did find a good perch for the sunset... and an even better one was off the side of the road and down a cliff.  Realizing that there was no safe way to walk down the hill, I found one way particularly effective.

Thus, the invention of Mountain Slide.

After sunset, we made our way back to our campsite.  

Within moments of arriving and starting to set up our fire, the campsite next to us caught on fire.  I mean.... caught... on.... fire. 

There's a phrase folks use often: "Adding fuel to the fire..."

PEOPLE.  THIS IS A VERY DECEPTIVE PHRASE.  Please, under The Laws of Science and Physics, do not, under any circumstance, ever ADD FUEL TO A FIRE.

The kids at the campsite next to us decided that it would be a good idea to enhance their campfire using fuel.  This, of course, resulted in literally everything catching on fire.  The fuel can immediately caught fire, and then the kid holding it started flinging fuel everywhere, which caught evverything on fire.  Within seconds, it was so lit up that it seemed like daylight.  

Fortunately, folks from all around came running out from the woods to assist.  Of course, pouring water on fuel only made it worse, so all anyone could do was stand around and watch and wait.  God bless the guy behind us, who had a gigantic cooler of water, and soaked the ground all around the flames so that the fire didn't spread any further.  For a good 20 minutes, all we could do was wait for queue of fleeing whilst their campsite burned.  

Accurate representation of the camping fire scene.

Other than the few moments of absolute terror, the trip was rather lovely.  We spent the next day touring several vineyards and vast spaces.

A bear!

Cows!

Sheep!

Birthday

I had a rather quiet birthday, with a few small but wonderful surprises and gifts.  Some colleagues were really sweet, and Kake sent me a fruit thing!!

Also popped up to NYC for a weekend to celebrate my great-aunt's 80th birthday.  Before we did that, we did some tourist-y stuff and saw a show. 

 I want to take another trip up soon, because I always feel rushed when I am there.  Being given 45 minutes in Macy's is nothing... it takes 45 minutes just to make it to the department I want.

It was noted that it's somewhat of a talent that I can go up 9 flights of elevators without touching the handrails.  

One of the best parts of Macy's is the old wooden escalators.

Also around my birthday, Sara and I got VIP tickets to the Maryland Million race.  It was my first time at the horse races... and I had so much fun!  I really loved it.

VIP tickets allowed us all-you-can-eat and open bar.  Yeah, I'm spoiled, I know.  But let me just set the record straight on one thing:  I am all set on the oyster consumption front.  I do not need to eat oysters ever again. 

PSA: Do not ever serve me an oyster.  Thank you.

Prepare your house and your life - I think we are in for a brutal winter.

Not-So-Great American Tragedy

You wouldn't know from first glance, but I'm actually a really healthy person.  Kake has said on several occasions that it is one of the Great American Tragedies that I eat the way I do and am active as much as I am and am still not a size 6.

Eating 

First of all, when you are above a size 16, anything you eat is judged by those around you.  

I stopped caring about this years ago.  The truth is that I genuinely crave foods which are clean and from the earth.  This is my lunch from one day at work, which inspired me to be on this topic today:

It's great to have some people in your life who share your love for healthy things, whether it is running or other kinds of exercise, or eating clean foods.  I am fortunate to have a few people who care about what they eat, including my colleague Sara, and we share food all of the time.  

Me, every time Sara is working at the Baltimore office.  Or anytime I spot someone with brought-from-home lunch.  

It makes life a little easier for me to having someone who shares my passion for hummus or cheese.  I'll buy a whole family sized thing of hummus at Costco and not give one care about what others think.  Then I get to share with Sara and anyone else around me.

I just stopped by Target on my way home from work today to purchase some caulk and other things, and I wish I had the security footage of when I made eye contact with some hummus across the room. 

Me and hummus

I am pretty sure I was in a full gallop, then looked like I ran into an invisible wall because I had to self-talk and say, "Veronica! Control yourself!!" I was not there for hummus, but it's on my to-do list now.

Those who actually hang around me or have lived with me know that my eating preferences/intentions are clean.  When Melissa lived here, a few weeks after she first moved in, one night we were sitting to dinner, and she looked up at me, and with the most pathetic face, said, "Can we please stop eating vegetables?" I could not stop laughing. 

Melissa came to visit last week.  She came into the house, went to the kitchen, put her hand on the fridge door, and accurately predicted all that was in there - "Green, green, seeds, plants, what is that... hummus?  Why do you need a giant thing of hummus??  Gross!"

Typical Taco Tuesday with Melissa

Of course, Melissa and others also know that I'm normal and won't say no to other foods as well, but the point is that I know that I eat pretty balanced, so I'm not worried about the sideways glances. 

To this day, I still will send Melissa random text messages that say, "Why is there never any junk food in this house!!"  I get so frustrated at myself.  Just another thing I miss about having Melissa living there.  She sends me a bag of Doritos or gummies here and there, just to make up for it, I think.

I will say that my main problem is eating (in general) consistently.  I might eat one meal a day.  I've never been great at remembering to eat, and when I am traveling with someone, that is always something I have to keep in mind... that other people eat all day long.  

This is something which Kate has become used to reminding me about when we travel, and I am all-to-used to getting a fair reaction from her when I throw her a side-eyeing Chloe for when her food choices seem questionable to me, or when I find myself saying,"OMG you have to eat AGAIN?? We just ate like 6 hours ago!!" 

Actual video of Kake eating carbs

Physical

Running a house by myself is in and of itself an incredible amount of work, and I was just telling my friend the other day (she's into lifting) that I bet I could giver her gym-rat self a run for her money, seeing as how I have to carry a 250+ lb lawn mower up and down my porch stairs once or twice per week.

Add to that 1-2 days a week of just hiking all day through the woods whilst archerying, and the occasional additional hike or bike ride, and I'm actually pretty physical.  

One of my colleagues always says to me, "Do you ever just go home and watch Netflix and do nothing?"  This question comes after him asking me daily what I did after work the day before, and me responding with the inevitable, "Oh, I painted my ceilings and scrubbed the house."  Or, "I mowed the lawn and weed-whacked and then scrubbed the house."  Or, "I went to Lowes and bought half dozen bags of mulch... whist wearing business attire and heels..."

I am one of those people (TVW) who can't just do nothing on a weekend - not only would I be filled with guilt, but my body would actually go stir crazy. 

Friends (YOU)

I do want to give a shout-out to my friends who are healthy, and conscious that we are only given one body in which to vessel our souls.

I've watched a few of my friends make some very healthy life changes over the past few years, whether physically, emotionally, or circumstantially, and I want to just say that I get so proud of people for owning their lives.

I have a friend who has produced a whole little happy family in the past few years, and even with very little, she has made a very healthy lifestyle.  I have known her since we were in high school, and I have seen her go through some absolutely awful times, physically, emotionally, and environmentally.  I look at her now, and I am honestly, from the bottom of my heart of steel, filled with such joy and happiness and pride for her.  

I look at her and I see strength.  I see her taking care of her body by eating well and doing her exercise classes, and it's not about fitting into a bathing suit for a few months or anything - it's because she feels good and strong when she puts in the effort.  I see her making good choices for her and her kids.  In fact, I feel comfortable enough to just share what she said to me in an e-mail after I mentioned this to her:

"I do feel so much healthier and stronger these days. I love going to the gym when I can and being active with the kids. And it sounds super cheesy but I finally truly love and appreciate my body, and just want to be reasonably kind to it. Swore to myself that I wouldn’t expose my girls to the kind of self-loathing and weight obsession I witnessed from the women in my family growing up. "

So own your body. Do what you need to do to take care of yourself and feel healthy and strong.  Our bodies are amazing machines, and no one is going to take care of your body except you.  Listen to your body... listen to doctors, and peers, and people who know what they are talking about... but also listen to your own self living in there.    

Feel like a rock star.

South Carolina Trip and Other Shenanigans

I feel like we have not talked in FOREVER!!!

Since I have so many things to tell you, I’ll just have to tell you in small doses, since I don’t want to overwhelm you, and because I have a hot date in a couple of hours.

I have two happy things to report.

Number one, I have finished writing the MD Archery Guide!  Hoorayyy!!  I was staying at work till 9 PM 4 nights a week the past few weeks to write the darn thing.  (Okay, sometimes I left at 8.)  (And sometimes I went to happy hour and had a few beers, and then came back to work, so hopefully that made for an interesting guide.)

Number two, I changed desks at work, so now I am so far away from chewing and clicking.  It is wonderful.  Others are envious and sometimes just come and stand at my desk, because they are going through withdrawal.  And I get lots of e-mails.

12:34 PM  Colleague

hello

if you're interested in hearing food being chewed

please drop by 

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Miglin, Veronica 

Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2015 11:44 AM

To: Same Colleague

Subject: Hello.

Do you want to join Leo and me for lunch at Brio?  We are leaving in like 15.  Hello.

From: Same Colleague 

Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2015 11:45 AM

To: Miglin, Veronica 

Subject: RE: Hello.

No, I’m poor.

And I want to listen to food get macerated here.

Hello.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also the temp that used to be here misses me, too.  Sometimes he just IMs me random yelling.  They all have a weird way of showing it, but the boys miss me when I am no longer available.

9:45 AM Temp

Ugh [[ new temp ]]  got an internet posting of his arrival

I ONLY GET A WELCOME BREAKFAST

you guys really rolled out the red carpet huh

9:46 AM Miglin, Veronica

You are ridiculous

9:46 AM Temp

I see how it is

9:47 AM Miglin, Veronica

you are lucky you got a welcome breakfast

I don’t think he got a welcome breakfast

9:47 AM Temp

On my first day, I got asked if my family was in the Salem witch trials.

I hope you know I’m kidding.

My bagel was delicious.

9:49 AM Miglin, Veronica

btw, WERE your ancestors in the Salem witch trials?

9:49 AM Temp

We’re done here

9:49 AM Miglin, Veronica

still never got a solid answer on that

I went to South Carolina.

I saw on my handy-dandy custom-made-by-Kake calendar that Melissa’s birthday was coming up, and so I asked her what she was doing for her birthday.  She said she was watching TV and working.  Realizing that this was a milestone birthday, I found this to be completely unacceptable, so I rounded up some Maryland folks, and we went down to South Carolina to surprise her.  It went off really well, and it was really awesome of the other Maryland folks to take the time/money to fly down to see her, and to The Boyfriend for helping coordinate. 

Kate and I drove down from Maryland.  It took about 10 hours and it was a beautiful drive, complete with a stop at The Apple House and a beautiful sunset.

Not to mention, a definite vocal workout due to having Pandora set to Disney songs for 6 hours straight. 

It turned out that all of us, the drivers and the flyers, arrived at the same time.  Kake and I picked up the friends from the airport and went right to Melissa’s and it was awesome.  We went out to dinner, and had a great visit.

  

Kake and I did some exploring while we were there, and ran into a little town that has my alias’s namesake.  

We found a park called Paris Mountain, and did some light hiking.  And selfie-ing.

 As we were driving down Paris Mountain, repeatedly singing “Colors of the Wind,” (naturally,) there was a very Kate & Veronica moment.  We were mid-word in the song, (I believe it was right after, “how high does the sycamore grow, if you cut it down, then you’ll never know, and you’ll nev…..”) and we both turned into Twilight vampires when at the same exact moment, we both caught a waft of a campfire fire. 

Then we laughed and we laughed and we laughed.

When Melissa got off of work, we went out for dinner and I will bless your eyes with the sights of our food, you're welcome

Definetly a better way to spend your birthday than on the sofa watching TV.

And then we finished the evening by playing a bunch of rounds of Cards Against Humanity, which btw is hilarious.  I believe Kate went home and ordered her own set immediately.

I will say that the popcorn game is real in South Carolina.  They have a couple of popcorn stores who sell every flavor of popcorn you can think of: watermelon, sour cream & chive, jalapeno, cotton candy, birthday cake, and on and on.  I walked away with some pizza popcorn, and it made the boys at work very happy.

It was a very nice little weekend road trip, fueled by the largest cups of coffee Sheetz sold.  I think we each had a cup of coffee in our hands all of the waking hours.  Well, coffee or beer.  You know how it goes.

Here’s my conclusion:

I do not want to move to Greenville, South Carolina.  There are lots of reasons, but it’s enough that there is no alcohol served on Sundays.  

It's okay for a short visit, but we were ready to get back to Maryland.

The ride home was just as beautiful, paired with hours of praise and worship and Britney Spears and Disney.   Alas, home is where the Smidgen is. This land feels like home to me.

So does Washington State.  And a few other places.  But not SC.    

I have not received your text messages, and I am sorry.

I don't know how long this has been going on, but my suspcian is that it has been at least a month and a half.  My phone has been receiving about half of the messages that people have sent to me.  I am so mad about it that I just want to scream and punch things.  I also am missing calls, and people are being sent directly to voicemail.

I tried to do a hard reset while I was in South Carolina, because I was missing important texts from the people I was with in SC.  

So, I lost all of my contacts, for naught, as it were, because it did not help at all.  I just got a ton of text message notifications at the same time that said this:

I am allegedly getting the replacement phone in the mail today, and my hope and prayer is that all of the messages that I have not received are still alive in cyberspace, and they will all be delivered to my new phone.  I know it won't happen, but I can dream.  After all, I am now on bad terms with a lot of people, and it's possible that it is all over not having received some important communications.  

Therefore, if you have sent me a text in the past two months, and I did not respond, it's because I never got your message.  Please try again.  

On the ride back, Kake and I discovered that this song should be my Tinder tagline.

Btw, as Melissa's birthday present, I reactivated my Tinder, and let her play on it for a while.  NEVER AGAIN.  :-x

But there will be more Tinder episodes on this blog in the future, based off of your feedback of wanting more.  :-)

Until next time... take care of yourself.  <3

Tinder IV, BA & ES, NBC, Cow

Hello.  I should not be writing this blog, because I need to write the Maryland Archery Guide right now. 

Do you have a passport?  You need to get your passport!!  It makes me nervous when people don’t have one.  You just never know what is going to happen.  What if you meet a very wealthy and handsome and eligible bachelor who wants to take you to Rome for dinner tonight??  WHAT THEN, I ASK YOU???  I can  be ready and at the airport in 45 minutes.  Let’s go.

Tinder 

I deleted my Tinder account for now because I don’t care anymore, but here are some things that were lingering:

I knew this convo was gonna be good - I was waiting for it, and he delivered:

Ready for the answer?

You're welcome.

And then there are some people like this: 

Okay, listen, you have given no reason for anyone to care about your existence. 

 Oh, and this sweet treat:

Clearly a kosher situation.

This guy gets straight to business and knows what the ladies like:

Actually, a lot of guys are just holding cash. It happens a lot.

Maybe I’ll reactivate it if you want me to and you come and play it.  I never remember to, and it’s boring.  Also, I keep running into people I know, and it's awkward.

Bryan Adams and Ed Sheeran

I love it when people just get me.

------------------------------------------------------------------ 

From: Miglin, Veronica

Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2015 2:31 PM

To: Katelyn Sullivan

Subject: ed

Ed Sheeran tho.

Seriously.

I’ll have it.

----------------------------------------------------------------- 

From: Katelyn Sullivan

Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2015 2:33 PM

To: Miglin, Veronica

Subject: RE: ed

Only bc of his voice.

Kate Sullivan

----------------------------------------------------------------- 

From: Miglin, Veronica

Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2015 2:33 PM

To: Katelyn Sullivan

Subject: RE: ed

Yes.  It’s like Bryan Adams… I just want to rub their voices all over my body.

----------------------------------------------------------------- 

From: Katelyn Sullivan

Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2015 2:34 PM

To: Miglin, Veronica

Subject: RE: ed

That’s acceptable.

Kate Sullivan

It's A Strange & Magnificent World

Do you have any outrageous experiences?  Experiences which when you reflect upon them, you think, “How the actual heck did that even happen?  Who DOES that?”  I have so many of these – far too many to recollect at one time.  Really.  Any of my very good friends can attest to the peculiarity of all of my strange encounters – it seems unbelievable at times, and more frequent than the average person.

Last night on the drive home (I was at work until 9:30 PM writing the aforementioned archery guide) I was remembering this one flight I took when I was a kid.  I used to travel back and forth to L.A. as a kid.  My dad lived out there, so I would spend time in the summer with him.

My dad used to fly a whole lot, and so he had a whole lot of frequent flyer miles with whatever airline it was (I think it was American Airlines.)  He would use his points to fly me out there sometimes (east coast to west coast – lots of points.)  

One time, he cashed in all of his points on a first-class ticket for me.  I remember being super excited about it, and how he would say, “Everyone should fly first class at least once in their life.” 

It was really a fun experience.  I was probably 11 or 12 years old at the time, but I was used to traveling alone by that point.  I sat in my fancy, gigantic seat, and couldn’t believe that I was able to get orange juice, and an omelet!  And when they were handing around the hot towels, I had no idea what to do with it. I watched the guy next to me and figured it out.  

After a while into the flight, the guy next to me looked over at me, and smiled.  He stopped what  he was doing, and turned to me.  I distinctly remember his voice, and what he said to me; how kind he was.   (Funny how the memory works, n’est pas?) 

He said, “I’m sorry, I’ve been working, and I should have been paying attention to you.”  He asked me some questions, where I was from, where I was going, how I liked school.

He asked me if I would like to see what he was doing, and I said sure.  So he turned his fancy, state-of-the-art laptop (okay, they probably just invented them that year) to me, and showed me all sorts of things.  He told me that he runs football games that we watch on TV.  

He showed me sheets with tons of budget information, and how much things cost.  I, being 11-12 years old, had never thought about things like how much money it costs to light a football stadium, how much spotlights cost, and how much it costs to run TV cameras.  But he was walking me through all of this information, and I thought it was very fascinating.

He told me that his job was to make sure that everything was well lit, and the TV cameras were okay, and that everything went well with broadcasting the NFL football games.  I really enjoyed talking to him, a total stranger, for the remaining 3-4 hours of the flight.  Here I am 20 years later talking about it, so it obviously left an impression on me. 

When we landed, he handed me his business card, and I kept it for several years in my jewelry box.  I forget his name now, but he was some executive at NBC.  I used to video tape football games, just so that I could pause on his name when it came across the screen at the end of games.  He might have been something like Production Executive…  I would probably recognize his name if I saw it.  I doubt I still have that business card, but I’ll be checking my jewelry box tonight.

The point is, you never know how some small act in your day might actually stay with your fellow human forever.

Side note:  do not eat chips around Cow.  She loves chips, and I have no idea why.  Her favorite chips are Tostitos, but she likes everything.  Potato, tortilla, spinach chips, even flax seed chips.  I don't get it.  She's so rude about it - she goes right into your bag; she does not give a what how many times you push her away.  She waits  until you drop one, like a dog.  She will wait all day.  If you drop one, you don't stand a chance at picking it up before she gets to it.

Just to clarify, I do not feed my cats human food.  But she is a determined little thing.

Okay but she is cute sometimes, I guess.

Take care of yourself and each other.  Have a good weekend. 

Laters, baby