sedoney baloney

You know, I think when most people go through this for the first time, it feels different. Growing up, we didn’t have a pet until I was in third grade. Sadly, we had to give her to a family without children after a few years. We got Sedona the day before I started sixth grade. It was the best day ever, and I remember bringing her home from the breeder, sitting in the back of our minivan, holding her on just one hand. And in sixth grade, I had small hands (not that they’re huge now).

sedona, sedoney baloney, poopy-dog

She was three parts shih tzu and one part lhasa apso, and the sweetest dog anyone ever met. I don’t think she ever even snapped at anything that wasn’t a squeaky toy. It’s been about seven years since I lived at home and saw Sedona regularly. It’s been about four years that she’s been sick. And it’s been about six months that we’ve known this day would be coming soon.

I thought I would be more sad when I got that phone call from my dad. I think I have to put Sedona down this week. But I’d been expecting it. The last time I was home she could hardly walk or eat. I knew it wouldn’t be long before she just couldn’t walk anymore. So I was surprised this afternoon, when I got the text from my brother. She’s gone. She’s gone and I didn’t get to say goodbye.

It’s harder than you think it’s going to be.

Being that last week was a week for lovers, I read a lot of stuff about self love. With my new hobby, I can’t help but jump on the bandwagon. Whatever it is you do to take care of yourself … you just have to. We all do.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that one of the first things I read at the beginning of last week was one about self hatred. This post really had me thinking about how I take care of myself. And more importantly, the ways I do not. It’s an ugly truth, but for me, being aware of it is a step in the right direction.

enough hate, bring on the love

If you haven’t been reading the All You Need series over on Ophelias Webb, you really should catch up. But this particular post by Grace Boyle should be deemed unmissable. Remember to take care of yourself, physically and emotionally.

I took a yoga class this weekend for the first time in years. And for the first time as an adult. The practice, the breathing, the overwhelming connectedness and balance I felt is just what I needed.

And I can’t wait to do it again … Thank you, Katie Lou!

photo credit: weheartit

Another dumpy slump.

Our July third ride was so amazing.  It was a super long ride, and we got to spend the whole day together.  Two things we never do.  I wish there were more room in our lives for that.  There’s just not enough rides in our lives and not enough time.

It’s not that can’t/won’t/don’t want to ride by myself.  But it’s so much better when we do it together.

Riding makes me feel really good.  Physically and (more importantly) emotionally.  So, why am I not doing it more often?

I rode to work today (and three days last week).  But why don’t I feel good (emotionally)?

Brad and I have kind of a bad history when it comes to many holidays.  Valentine’s Day, Independence Day and Christmas have all been pretty bad at least once each, in the four years we’ve been together.  This Friday will mark the one-year anniversary of when Brad first became sick after floating the Truckee River and contracting some kind of violent stomach bug (for those who don’t know, he was very ill for about six months – and very healthy now!)  That is aside from the fact that we both got the crap beaten out of us by the river last Independence Day.  I might have had a slight panic attack, which might have made it worse, but that’s besides the point.

We didn’t really think much of it when we decided to do our “celebrating” on the third.  But in hindsight, it worked.  Well, either it worked, or it completely didn’t matter at all.  We did suffer a flat tire, but it didn’t end up ruining our day.  And that was the best.

Brad and I so look forward to, and cherish, the very rare day that we both have off.  It doesn’t happen often, being that he works weekends at the hospital and I work weekdays.  So when I found out I’d have the third off, we were stoked to sleep in, lay around, have a nice breakfast AND GO FOR A NICE LONG BIKE RIDE.  So we rode the trail that goes from downtown Reno all the way to east Sparks.

It was fun and peaceful and just so nice to do what we like to do.  Together.  On the way back, we realized Brad’s front tire was completely flat and we didn’t have a travel pump.  And apparently the pump his tires require is somewhat rare.  After lots of calling, we finally found someone that could bring our pump all the way to us (did I mention, we were in Sparks?)  My little sister’s roommate was our savior and we were back on the road.

There was definitely a moment for each of us where we could have gotten really pissed off and upset.  And it could have completely ruined our day.  But it’s quite amazing how much difference a positive attitude can make.  It’s easy, of course, to remain positive when it’s not your own tire that’s flat.  But it’s contagious.  I was determined to find a solution, and we did.  And all was good.  And we still had a fantastic day.

us out in Sparks. we rode all the way to the Legends from our house, which is south of downtown.

on the way back. it really is a beautiful trail.

getting close to wingfield as the sun was setting - there's river in this shot somewhere.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is that bad shit happens, sometimes when we’re trying to celebrate (which might be our own fault – as human beings – for having high expectation), but what matters is how you deal with it.

I … am a terrible blogger!  I can here Mike in my head saying “if you don’t have something original to say, you shouldn’t be blogging” and “if you don’t have the time to post regularly, then you shouldn’t be blogging.”  I’m sorry, Mike … I’m sorry!

This week was just so nuts!  Next week probably won’t be too different, actually.  BUT, in spite of my crazy week, I did manage to ride my bike to work three times last week!  I felt so proud.  I have to get better about riding other places though.  After work, on the weekend, etc.  It’s hard to get on the bike if I don’t have somewhere I’m going.  Yeah, I can take rides to Starbucks, but that’s not very far and also encourages me to spend money, which is no bueno.  It seems like all the places that are close enough for me to ride to are too close, but anything else is too far.  I guess I just need to become a better rider so I can go to the far places.  Excellent plan, self. 

On Thursday night Brad and I rode to Starbucks for some hot chocolate and to work on the abstract for his thesis.  That was interesting.  It took us like two hours to go through the whole thing, but I think I helped.  I just barely understand the dumbed down version of what he does.  But I am a writer and more importantly, a journalist, so I have been trained to say as much as I can in as few words possible (although I don’t really display that here in this blog, as I tend to be long-winded and non sequitur).  Anyway, it was hard, but fun.

yeah, we marked it up pretty good

He is such a smart boy.  Oh, and if anyone ever feels like reading his work (and becoming very aware of how little you know about science) click here.  The smarty pants is graduating in a couple weeks, too.    Thanks to Mike for snapping (the elusive and presumed impossible) good picture of him.

Oh, another highlight of this week (I live a very excigting life) was the creepy racoon that wandered around our parking lot at work.  I thought it was a cat at first.  I took a picture, but it was hard to get a good picture of him without y’know, catching rabies.

see him there, about to go under dixie's car?

I know it looks like a cat, but it was a raccoon.  The best part of that though, was the lady across thes street walking her dogs, trying to talk the raccoon out of coming near her and her dogs.

Hey lady, how about going inside?  I don’t think the racoon cares if you want it to stay away.  There was also some genius following the damn thing around.  I know that I didn’t even know it was a raccoon at first, but at least I knew enough to stay away from it.  Oh the joys of working by the river.  It is NEVER boring.  I just noticed I have used two different spellings of the word raccoon (racoon?) throughout the last couple paragraphs and I can’t tell which is correct.  That seldom happens.

Okay, and now I’m just rambling, so I think that means this entry is over now.  Time to go make some breakfast.

So, after another surprise boyfriendly visit (I love those, by the way–if you are reading this, boyfriend), I went home to Brad who was already preparing a picnic for us to take on our ride to Wingfield.  It took us a lot longer to prep than we expected, but we still got a decent ride in before dark.  (We also got to take a stroll through our neighbors’ new garden and man am I excited for all the stuff they’re growing!)

So, we finally started on our ride at around 6:30.  Wingfield Park is not even a mile and a half from my house, so that’s not really what scared me, but being on the road with cars on Arlington .. ick.  It ended up being pretty quiet so I did okay.  I think I am almost ready to ride to work soon!

So, we rode to Wingfield and had our little picnic on the grass.

Disclaimer: I was a little camera-happy so prepare yourself for lots of Becca-and-Brad pictures!

Brad, pretending to not notice I'm taking pictures of him.

We had an experimental home-made pasta salad.  We are so cute.  It’s almost disgusting.  Okay, it is.  We are totally that couple I used to hate.  I wanted to lay on the grass some more but Brad wasn’t really enjoying it as much as I was.

me, laying on the grass. brad, not amused.

brad hijacked my phone and caught one of me getting ready to go. good thing i was already smiling

Then we rode around the park a bit.  We were going to sit and have a beer at the Tap House, but it was too crowded, so we decided to just sit down by the river to enjoy our amazingly delicious dessert.

balsamic-honey strawberries with a whipped vanilla bean mascarpone topping. heaven.

No reason for putting this here, I just thought it was super cute.

And that was our evening.  We rode back just as the sun went down (loving that it’s light out til 8 these days!)  Can’t wait to do it again.