living the brave life

Long trips in the Brave always get me thinking.  I don't have a working radio, so it's lots of silence (or, rather, lots of loud road/engine noise) and my brain has all the time in the world to think and reevaluate life.  I've only been home for a couple hours and all my thoughts have already begun to fall back into their regular patterns, though I'm fighting to hold on to the lessons of the road, as taught by a wise, old mentor.

For an inanimate object, she teaches me a lot.  She's big and slow, she needs a lot of room to make any moves, but she's reliable and sturdy, and cute in a quirky way.  Driving around among regular cars can be stressful in a bigger rig.  I can't accelerate very quickly, I can't merge unless there's a large space available, and I'm generally slow, even getting passed by semi trucks going uphill.  Usually when I drive I'm hyperaware of other drivers, trying to be conscientious of where they're going and what they're doing, but in the Brave I can't really do much about being slow, or needing a lot of room.  In a way, I have to be a selfish driver, even obnoxious, because there's simply no other way to drive a vehicle that goes 55mph on highways and needs 50 feet of merging space.  So instead of worrying what everyone was thinking about us, I decided to accept that we were slow and bulky, and to realize that other drivers also needed to realize that, and act accordingly.  We don't expect semi trucks to drive like a Prius because we know they simply cannot.  The same goes with the Brave.  Prius she is not, and she has the gas mileage to prove it.
But I realized that a lot of times I go through life thinking I'm a Prius (or trying to act like it) when I'm a Brave. Trying to do or be things that I can't because I'm not built that way.  Worrying what other people think about things that I just am.  In a lot of ways blogging ties into that.  You want to appeal to lots of people so you can gain followers, so you can in turn show potential sponsors that they'll get lots of exposure.  And even without advertising as a consideration, bloggers typically don't want to alienate lots of people or say something that will draw out trolls or offend readers.  While I think that not being offensive and avoiding trolls is a good thing, as well as advertisers (if you're full time blogging, you've gotta eat!), there's also something to be said about throwing off all that expectation and saying, "I'm a Brave!  I'm big and slow and maybe I'll annoy you zippy little cars who are going 70mph when I can only go 50, but I'm me and I can only be the best Brave, not a terrible imitation of a Mini Cooper."  Okay maybe I lost you on the Brave/tiny car analogy.  If you're still tracking with me, sweet.

All that being said (and hopefully understood), I want to be more Brave.  Which is appropriate, because I feel like it takes courage to be yourself in a world that is desperately trying to make us all mid-size sedans.  You have to be brave to be a Brave... or whatever you are.  Maybe you're a VW Bug!  Maybe you're a Semi.  Maybe you're a Chevelle.  Either way, it takes courage to realize who you are and what you need in order to live your life the best way you can.  A Chevelle trying to be a Ford Taurus is the same as a Brave trying to be a Mini Cooper.  It's exhausting.  And it's not healthy.


I don't want to lose followers, but I'm at a point where I don't care.  If I lose so many followers that I can no longer blog full time, so be it!  Or maybe I'll end up starting a brick and mortar business and no longer have time to blog full time.  Or maybe I'll start blogging about novelty coasters from bars around the world and everyone will think I've gone totally Amanda Bynes on the blogosphere.  Okay I don't think that last one will happen.  Maybe the first two won't either, but either way I want more out of this blog than what it is now.  If you're a zippy little car who is annoyed by Brave me, feel free to pass me at 70 and move along.  I won't mind!  If you're freaking out wondering how the blog will change, I don't even know if it will.  I just want to approach my content from a place of honesty.  And it's not that I want to share every graphic detail about my life, and it's not that I have been dishonest in the past.  But there are times I've thought about writing something that I felt could possibly alienate readers or bring trolls out of the woodwork, and I refrained.  So who knows.  Things around here could change (likely in the direction of more life thoughts/faith thoughts/emotion thoughts.. thoughts in general.  Don't worry, I have little interest in novelty coasters), but they might not.  Or they may, but only in how I feel about what I do here.

If you are offended (or have been in the past), please know it is never my intention to be offensive or rude and I do try my best to be as clear as possible when I write because I know we take so much of our communication from body language and other non-verbal cues, which are totally lost here online.  If you disagree with me, that's totally fine and good.  No one is required to agree with everyone else, in fact that would be scary and bizarre, and rather unhealthy.  If you give zero shits about something I post, you're free to click on by without reading.  I do this with blogs I absolutely love.  Sometimes I skip posts because I know that content is of no interest to me, but I keep following knowing I do love most of their content.  You are not required to LOVE everything I post here.  And if the majority of stuff annoys/bores/enrages you, you are free to move along, no hard feelings.

I love that there are so many blogs out there with wonderful stuff to share with the universe, and I want my blog to be interesting to readers, but more than that, I want to share things that I feel are not only fun and inspiring, but also things that are important to me.  I know that I will never run a blog that will give you the scoop on what next fall's trends are.  I will never run a blog that can tell you how to make 20 crafts out of popsicle sticks.  Not because I don't like those things, but because it's not who I am.  This is not a Corvette blog, it's not a Jeep blog, it's not a Bentley blog.  This is a Brave blog, and it's about my Brave life.  Big, cumbersome, and slow, but also reliable, hardy, and a little quirky too.

the californians

It's supposed to be 100 in Sacramento this weekend, but it was still a bit chilly when we camped there.  Well, it wasn't really "chilly," but perhaps slightly too chilly for swimming, but we were in California so we went swimming.  It gave me an excuse to finally wear my new Ofabz bikini!  We only soaked for a few minutes, but it felt good to get in the water.  After drying off we walked to a nearby gas station to procure some beer, as we had sorely neglected relaxing beverages on our Safeway trip earlier in the day.  I love Sacramento evenings, they are always the perfect temperature, and as we walked back from the gas station, six pack in hand, the crickets had already started their nightly song.  We cracked one open to share and walked around the park.  It was Sunday night and full of campers still having fun on their Memorial Day Weekend.  We ended up finding a campfire that someone had left smoldering after making s'mores and enjoyed the last of its warmth as we finished our beer and reminisced about our big family RV trip in '07.   



The next day we decided to drive up Hwy 99 instead of I-5, as I had just driven down 5 and it's a bit boring.  The entire drive was through tree groves and orchards, and we speculated what the trees might bear, but never saw a single sign to let us in on what all was being grown!  We decided that stopping for some locally grown fruit and nuts was a must, so we pulled over at one of the many fruit stands and got a few tasty items.  I haven't eaten my peach yet, but I watched my mom eat hers and it was the juiciest fruit I've ever seen!  She had a giant peach juice puddle on the table by the end.  
I think we'll probably be back in Tacoma by tomorrow night, which will make it a weeklong trip total.  Much shorter than my 3 month trip back in 2010, but still wonderful.  I'm excited for more short trips this summer.  Dan and I really want to go camping, hiking, and climbing!  He's never taken a trip with me in the Brave, so it'll be fun to finally spend the night in it together!

going to the chapel

Phew! This week has been kind of crazy.  I left Tacoma last Thursday and spent two days driving down to Oakland to go to my cousin's wedding, and since then I've been over to Sacramento to visit family, and now I'm up just north of Crater Lake with no cell service but good enough internet to squeeze in a blog post before tomorrow morning.  This outfit is from last Saturday, when we went to the wedding.  I got this dress quite a while ago in 2011, and I don't really wear it that much, but it's a great summer dress, so I like to keep it around for just such an occasion as a fun summer wedding.
It was really fun to go to a family wedding and get to see all my family.  At my own wedding I barely even got to say "hi" to my family members, so it was nice to have that opportunity to connect with family who were at my wedding, but as a non-bride.  The wedding ceremony itself was very traditional, with hymns playing as the wedding party walked down the aisle, which was a different experience from my own wedding and the wedding I attended last Sunday, which had "Over the Rainbow" play as they came down the aisle and I had Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes for my wedding party processional.  Seeing lots of blogger weddings I forget how traditional weddings can be, having seen so many eclectic and modern unique weddings.  It was a beautiful wedding, though, and the reception was a blast.

 

dress/target :: shoes/courtesy of modcloth :: bag/courtesy of hearts necklace/courtesy of adorn by sarah lewis :: photos by my mom
I've been kind of stressed out about how off the grid I am.  I have a lot of things I need to be doing that I simply can't do, and so I'm trying to tell myself to stop being anxious and stressed because I really can't do anything to solve that problem and I'll just have to catch up when I get home.  And to not be pre-stressed about how stressed I might be when I'm back home playing catch up.  Because then I'm stressed now and later, when really I'm just choosing to be stressed now about a situation I can't do anything about, so I might as well chill and put off the stress till later when I can do something.  Ya dig?

puppy sundays

The past few months Dan and I have been visiting a litter of Corgi puppies in the hopes that soon we'll be Corgi parents!  I don't know if we'll be able to get one from this litter, but it's been super fun to spend time with the cutest balls of fluff on the planet!  These photos were from about a month ago and we went last Sunday and they were so much bigger and running around like crazy!  So full of energy.  Right up until they all instantly fall asleep.  They move so fast that if you try to take photos when they're running around, you just have a bunch of pictures of brown blurs.  So here are sleeping Corgi puppies because they're cuter than blurs.  Even if we don't end up getting one, it's been really fun spending a couple hours every Sunday getting my puppy fix.

Being in the Winnebago makes me miss Little Bit.  She used to sleep next to my feet while I drove, or on the passenger seat, and there's still tons of Little Bit fur covering the floor and seat where she used to lay.  Driving down here by myself made me realize how much company she really was on my big trip. I think it would've been much more lonely without her, and I'm glad my parents let me take her with me.  The companionship of a dog is such a special thing.  Little Bit was really my Dad's dog.  She used to jump up on him while he was sitting and with her feet on his chest would press her face onto his.  I'd love to have a loving canine companion like that someday!

reunited

Because I'm really great at planning ahead I totally spaced that I would be busy driving and have no time for blogging whatsoever.  I'm currently in Southern Oregon, though only for a few more minutes as I grab some internet at the campground before gassing up and heading down to California!  It's been so great being on the road in the Brave again.  It's like all the world is aligned when we're driving together.  Despite being neglected and having sat stationary for about a year and a half (sorry love!), she seems to be running like a champ.  We had a weird engine hiccup for a second, but it hasn't returned, so hopefully the remainder of the trip will go off without a hitch.  

She'd been sitting under a tree for a year at our old place and the front end was coated in thick organic gunk, so the day before I left I decided it would be embarrassing for her to have to be seen in such a state, and even though it was raining outside, I gave her a scrub down.  It's amazing how well she cleans up!  She looks almost new again!  Her forehead crunch looked so much worse with the grime accentuating, it, but when she's clean it's barely noticeable (a couple owners ago she was driven into the roof of a garage or something...).

Okay, well, we're off to the wild blue yonder!