The Year I got Married and Published my Book!
The year started with lots of circus. I went back to New York for APAP. In March we made our wedding rings. One of our first dates was to Barefoot Forge to take a blacksmithing class. We later went back to take a welding class so it felt right to make our wedding rings there too. If you haven't been to Barefoot Forge you should check it out. Craig is awesome and we've had a lot of fun there. March also brought the first concert of the season, Kelsea Ballerini with my dad and Jules. I started teaching a yoga class at the forge which was a super fun experience. April brought the first baseball game of the season (which was cold) and a circus performance at Velum. I also went back with North Carolina with Jenna for a second writing retreat with Jedidiah Jenkins. I had booked my first writing retreat after I got out of my last relationship. I had planned to spend a year doing my own solo traveling and writing and even though I ended up dating Dan before that first trip, I still had a lot to unpack at that time. This year I found myself much more in a sense of calm in my life. It was nice to reconnect with some of the folks who had come the year before but I didn't need it as much as I had the previous year. The following week I went to Sarasota, FL for a work conference and then to the Luke Combs concert with my dad.
May was so much circus. I knew that I did a lot of circus in the first half of this year as we prepped for showcase, but I didn't realize it was as constant as it was.
GET READY FOR JUNE! June began with a trip to West Chester for a show with SHARP Dance Company, then the Paramore concert with Jenna. Mid June my niece had her dance recital the same day that Jenna, Emily and I went to Taylor Swift. We took the gateway clipper across the river to the concert and I only want to travel by boat from now on. The concert was just as incredible as everyone says it is. The following week we did yoga at PNC park with Craig and then it was the circus showcase! I got to perform in three pieces: the coaches routine, my solo on hoop, and team aggressive reunited for our rendition of the cell block tango.
July we made it out to my parents camp where we spent a couple of days fishing and biking and such and then I went to the Ed Sheeran concert with Lauren. In July I also published my first book. This was something I had wanted to do for a long time and while I had finished writing it a while ago, I didn't really know what to do with it. When I was at my writing retreat in North Carolina I had mentioned to my friend Sara that it was done and just sitting on my computer and she said "you wrote it, why wouldn't you share it?" and that was the push I needed to publish. I soft launched before Dan and I made a trip to California so that if everyone was like "this is stupid" I could ignore it for a few days, but the opposite happened. Everyone was so supportive and lovely and I ended up having to post about it because other people already were. If you're interested in reading it, you can buy a copy here. As previously mentioned, Dan and I made a trip out to California for his cousin's wedding, but while we were there we went to Lassen Volcanic National Park, the first national park we've visited together. Our goal is to go to all of them together so it was nice to start it out! The wedding had the option to camp, which Dan can't turn down. It was a great trip which terrible air travel (which will become a theme of the summer). At the end of the month, my parents, Jenna, and I went to Germany to visit my family. Again the airline situation was garbage and we arrived a day after we were supposed to but we made it! It was nice to introduce Jenna to my family, get to see everyone I haven't seen in a while, and realize that my German is a lot better than I thought it was.
August, I sheltered in place in a public bathroom. So Jenna and I went to Four Chord Music Festival, specifically to see Yellowcard who advertised their set as the Ocean Avenue set so we were the target demographic. Shortly after we arrive, it starts raining, there are rain delays, it starts hailing, there's talk of tornados, and everyone is encouraged to leave or find shelter so we find shelter. We hung out in a public restroom with probably fifty other people for over an hour. We find out that a tornado touched down near us. There's finally a break in the weather and we're like well we should probably go. We get to the car and Forrest texts us that they're going to try to get yellowcard on stage, but it'll be a while. We decided we had already waited all day (and like 10 years since the original album came out) so what's a bit longer. We found a local dive bar, met some colorful characters and then made it back to see Yellowcard and appease our preteen souls. A couple of weeks later my dad and I went to the Luke Bryan concert and then Dan and I made a trip to Yellowcreek to go camping with some of my college friends.
The day before my birthday Dan told me he knew what he wanted to get me but it was occurring to him that it shouldn't be a surprise (there was a whole thing with a surprise and a confetti cannon last year that we don't need to relive). He then shows me a photo of a corgi puppy that he wanted me to go meet. He has a really flattering photo of me sobbing when he showed me. Anyway, the next day we ventured out to meet some real cute pups and came home with Pippi, our tiny menace to society.
The first weekend of September was my bachlorette party. I originally wasn't planning on having one but Jenna talked me into it. I believe her way to doing that was by saying "so you don't want to spend a weekend at a lake drinking wine with some of your favorite people." I was convinced. It was lovely and chaotic and nice for my friends to meet before the wedding. Also if you haven't gone on a girls trip in your 30s I highly recommend it. There was so much mom energy that every time I went to take care of something someone had already done it, including a bizarre incident where we thought someone broke into the house and made our beds only to find out Carolyn just couldn't help herself. I got back and picked up my niece for a sleepover. Lauren and I also took my niece to her first concert (Jonas Brothers).
October was a lot of puppy love, pumpkin festivals, and wedding prep. On October 28th Dan and I got married. There is so much that happened that weekend it needs to be its own post, but the main takeaway is that nothing went to plan and it was also the best day. We're so blessed with the wonderful, amazing folks who made the trip out to us. It was perfect. Thank you. Right after the wedding, I went to Philly to do a SHARP show and then came back and went into tech week for The Nutcracker at the circus.
There are a couple of moments from the wedding that I want to put into writing. We had the rehearsal dinner the day before and maybe 30 people were there. We stopped at the bar after and I was looking around and I realized that usually when you go to a party there are a couple of people there that you like and hang out with most of the time but I'm standing in the middle of this bar looking around realizing I like everyone in this room and was overwhelmed. It was a nice grounding moment because it made me realize the following day was going to be a whirlwind.
On the day of the wedding, while I was getting my hair done Dan called and asked for the number of the venue owner because the venue didn't have water. I gave him the number and someone asked if I was panicking and I said no there is nobody I'd rather have solved a problem than Dan.
We did a special dance for Dan's grandparents as our wedding day was their 44th anniversary. We asked everyone to come to dance with us during this song and the dance floor was full of people in love and it was a really special moment. There was also a moment to the dance floor when I looked around and realized I was surrounded by all of my girlfriends and I loved being surrounded by that energy.
In December my Omi passed away. I haven't had time to fully process all of that yet, but I wanted to note it. I'm glad she's at peace and am holding my family in prayer. December is for settling down and breathing a bit before the New Year. I'm hosting the Intention Setting Ceremony at Triangle Foundry again this year. I love this practice. I've done it for myself for years and I really loved hosting it for other people last year. There's a few spots left if you'd like to join.
Shows I've seen:
- Cirque Du Solei: Corteo
- Hairspray
- What the Constitution Means to Me
- Jagged Little Pill
- Monster Truck Jam
- A Midsummer Night's Dream in Harlem
- Beetlejuice
- Native Gardens
- Six
- Tina
- American Fast
- Young Americans
- Nick Offerman
- Somewhere Over the Border
- Moulin Rouge
- Cirque Carnival with PSO
- Front Porch Theatricals Cabaret
- Mrs. Doubtfire
- Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley
Places I traveled to:
- New York
- Boone, NC
- Sarasota, FL
- California
- Germany
Concerts
- Durry
- Kelsea Ballerini
- Luke Combs with Lainey Wilson and Riley Green
- Paramore
- Taylor Swift
- Ed Sheeran
- Shania Twain
- Gabby Barrett
- Yellowcard
- Luke Bryan with Ashley Cooke
- Old Dominion with Priscilla Block
- Jonas Brothers
- Crystal Gayle with Twitty &Lynn
- Straight No Chaser
- TSO
Book I read:
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