I really can’t wait to get back there. Fresh mountain air in my lungs. Mountains. Crystal clear water. The smell of fresh pine. Family. Friends. Adventures…

I think I left my heart on the west coast.

And I’m going back to get it.

Last weekend ended up turning into quite an adventure. We drove 10.5 hours up to Lake Gaston, North Carolina for the All Girls Wake Clinic and AF Wake’s Big Air Watersports Fair. Well the car broke down the morning after our arrival. We drove Danny’s 4Runner because it was pretty risky to take the Jetta that has all the lights on in the dash and some other strange problems right now. Danny never even wanted to drive, I talked him into it to save that extra buck.

Jen H and I were supposed to drive back Sunday night and work Monday. We ended up taking Monday off and hoping the car was a quick fix. Apparently nothings ‘quick’ in the country of North Carolina. We ended up waiting Tuesday for some word of conformation that we could drive back…last second we opted to take the train home. Adam’s dad gave us a ride to the nearest train station an hour away. The 7pm was booked. Booked! People take trains these days? Incredible. Luckily there was another one at 1am…the midnight train home.

So we killed some time with Mr.Fields. Listening to some great music, learning about waterskiing, wakeskating through the ski course, eating brownie crust, listening to old stories from Adam’s grandparents, and driving through the countryside. Lewis wouldn’t leave two girls at the train station alone till 1am so he stuck it out with us. Chivalry isn’t dead folks. The 15 hour train ride home stopped right at my office door. Too bad I checked my bags to a different station…typical Jen. All & all though, some bad luck that turned into a fine adventure. I kept waiting for things to fall into place and they never did, but we really made the best of it. Life is sweet, soak it in.

I snuck out of the house with this classic family photo when I left for college. We have heaps of them from the late 80′s, early 90s. Classic family photo. What’s crazy is my parents don’t really look much older now, younger if anything. Maybe its that classic grizzly beard and feathered hair. So amazing. Reminds me of that ‘Back to the Future‘ series by Irina Werning where she took classic old photos and had the people retake them years later…

If I was on the west coast right now I’d be on the hunt for some of those clothes for a reshoot, 23 years later. Classic. Oh and I’m the little gremlin looking one on the far end. Haha.

Lazy river. Jungle Juice. Caves. Snorkeling. Inflatables. Fire! Friends :) Ooo, and getting ICED with an XL Smirnoff. Love my life. Here’s some photos, full album of fun on the FB.

Anywho. I have the best boyfriend ever. Seriously. He’s something else. I’ve been obsessed with surfing the last few weeks (big thanks to FYBG for being a huge inspiration). I’ve been on a serious board hunt trying to find something I can slay some small waves with. I’m a surfing rookie, but I want to learn how to surf as good as I can fakesurf (behind the boat). Annnd Danny picked this beauty up and just couldn’t wait to give it to me…

A Neilson 6’0″ with a singe fin and fishtail! Looks super fun, can’t wait to shred it!! <3

Yoga’s been on my TeuxDeux list for the last 6 months or so, maybe more. I finally went this week and it was awesome! My muscles are so tight I can barely touch my toes and I keep bouncing off my wakeskate instead of absorbing landings. I actually went 3x this week, and feeling way better already. However I used up all my free guest passes at the Y so I need to find a new place. I highly recommend giving it a try if you haven’t already, it’s quite challenging and rewarding…

It’s a miracle! I don’t know if you remember this post, where I put my computer to rest…but long story short:

My graphics card failed, I went to the Apple store and they informed me the graphics cards in the powerbooks made at this time were faulty and they would fix it for free. I left there pretty stoked and got a phone call saying there was serious water damage and it would be $1200 to fix my computer because they wanted to put a new logic board in it. Instead of forking out $2k + for a new mac, I bought a ticket to the Philippines. For now I’d stay a few hours after work to get freelance done. A few months later I got an email about a class action settlement against NVIDIA for the faulty cards. With no real hope left I sent my info in. I thought for sure they would mail it back and tell me they wouldn’t fix it either. I mailed it out and a week later it showed up at my door…and it works!!! It’s a miracle!