five days

I have a big smile on my face

because after a very long trip back home to Norton on Tuesday night

and getting some personal things on track

and driving back to Richmond on Wednesday

In total-- counting the 12 hour trip home and back--I will get to spend 5 days with Andrew.

and that doesn't happen to often.

AND the sun is shining awfully bright and wonderful today.

just put this on repeat.

I really liked my weekend. And I'm really exhausted.

:)

the weekend ahead

If you pass a brunette in a white van this weekend in Virginia

Honk, wave and give me all your money

(hey..it's for a good cause!)

Off for my GREAT STRIDES walks in Charlottesville and Winchester!

I just finished fueling up for the trip...

This should give me a complete sugar boost for the ride to Cville.

have a wonderful weekend :)

2 creatures who let me be me

one has no choice

(I am bigger than her and she can't speak to tell me otherwise)

and the other somehow finds it all endearing

thanks to both of my favorite creatures

on the road again

Image found here

After work today I will be hitting the road to meet a wonderful friend and fellow musician who is helping me in my journey to play and sing...AT THE SAME TIME.

It's harder than one would think. I can tinker around on the guitar and have picked it up for over a year now. I can find chords well enough to write songs but I can't seem to put the two together.

i'm making progress :)

sweetness

I spent the morning in Charlottesville, VA running some work errands and after I finished up my duties I started to hit the road back to Richmond- just needed a little pick me up before my travels.

I had noticed a little donut and coffee shop called, "Spudnuts" earlier in the day and decided a donut and coffee sounded perfectly delightful as my mid-morning snack.

I loved this little shop. $1.58 later I had a chocolate glazed donut and smedium (somewhere between the medium size and the teeny-tiny small size) coffee. I took a seat on the bar stool, admired all of the comic strips, pictures and old newspaper clippings on the wall and loved this poster staring me right in the face:

Time is

too slow for those who wait

too swift for those who grieve

too short for those who rejoice

but for those who love,

time is

eternity.

Isn't that lovely? Thought so too. My Andrew called as soon as I set open to steal a quick few pages of this wonderful book, "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society", recommended by my dear friend Amy.

I told him what I was doing, he laughed and said, "Val, the D in Diet does not stand for donut" (I have been trying to cut down on my sweets). Oopps.

*he doesn't know about the 2nd donut to-go*

Admission

I admit it.

I started this blog and then got scared. Scared of what? Maybe of what other people would think of me. But that is silly. I have pictures posted everywhere on Facebook, a Myspace page that has my music on it (which was a BIG step for me) but for some reason thinking that someone, anyone would want to know my thoughts and experiences seemed......well, a bit self indulgent.

But then I thought about all of the blogs I have been following and stumbling upon and how they have lifted my spirits and made me not feel all alone (which I admit I do feel sometimes in my apartment with most of my love ones residing in different cities). I love to get this window view into their lives. These people are not lifting themselves up, they lift others up. And that is what I want to do. I have a feeling, deep down inside, that that is what I am supposed to do. What we are supposed to do.

So. There it is. I will stop being afraid of what others might think of me, because as a wise woman--who I owe so much to and I'm afraid she will never truly know the impact that her words had on my life-- "what other people think of me is none of my business"

I like to change that mantra a bit in my mind though:

"what other people think of me is none of my business--unless it produces and distributes positivity and love that I may share"

So here we go. Not sure if anyone other than my dear friends and family will read, but so it goes.