Category Archive for ‘happiness’ at /frekur/blog/

Archive for the 'happiness' Category

i ran out of PBR

Two weekends ago I took Amtrak to PA to visit friends. YAY. I spent the weekend with m and we went to j’s party together where we… played beer pong (???) and sat by the fire until 3am. It was awesome. Really, the entire weekend was pretty great.

I went to visit my parents for the day on Sunday and things were kind of rocky between my mother and I. It seems clearer to me now more than ever that there are some traits I’ve carried from her that I really dislike. But now that I see where it comes from it’s easier to identify what needs to be changed. That sounds really cryptic. Let’s just say I had a *major* revelation that Sunday and since then I’ve had an entirely new perspective on my life.

Lots of exciting things happening lately: Work is going well, my freelance business is picking up, BG and I are hitting a one-year-since-I-moved-here anniversary, yoga is kicking my ass (lovingly), and I’ve been seeing my boys more often. I think I can honestly say that I don’t hate Raleigh any longer. Yea. I said it.

Eeeeeeeeee! :)

Published

frekur

on October 3, 2008

in happiness, lmawesome, relationships and self-awareness

. 1 Comment

busy bee

I just realized that over the next few days this is what I have going on:

Newly loved yoga practice
Four new freelance projects (three new clients!)
Two current freelance projects
Must install and learn CMS system for one of the clients
Yoga
Obama cookout tonight
Rollergirls tomorrow
Yoga
Party tomorrow night
Gym and more yoga
French class Monday nights
White dog cafe lady speaking at the History Museum next Tuesday
Yoga
NCBC meeting next Thursday

All THIS before I leave to visit friends and family in PA next Friday for a week. HOLY HELL. Remember like six weeks ago when I was miserable and bored with life in Raleigh… WELL I WENT AND NIPPED THAT IN THE ASS DIDN’T I?

I talked to my friend Kris from Portland while the BG and I visited and she was telling me how her yoga practice had taken off… she was practicing and going to class like 8 times per week. Insane! I was kind of jealous when she was telling me because she loved her classes and her instructor and she could think about nothing else besides yoga. At the time I hadn’t been doing ANY exercising because I suck, but after our trip the BG and I made more of an effort to work out. Now I think we’ve got it (finally). And my new friend Julianne who incidentally also practices yoga at my YMCA has started motivating me to go to intermediate level classes, where I’m doing surprisingly well I think. (At least I did last night.)

Anyway, it’s all I can think about now. And I’ve been practicing at home more too. While I’m in PA I’m going to bum a class or two off m’s YMCA because we rock like that.

Thank god I have coffee fueling my brain today. CAN’T YOU TELL.

Published

frekur

on September 12, 2008

in french, goals, happiness, learning, the_move, veg*nism, work and yoga

. 1 Comment

the connections you make

This past weekend the BG and I traveled west (again) to Asheville to attend a wedding. A lot of childhood/high school/college friends of his were there and I was truly in awe of how large and close-knit the group was… AND most of them are in a band together. It was such a cute wedding because all the entertainment came from the band members, the toasts were adorable (one made me cry) and overall I just found it so astounding that these kids have damn near moved mountains to be near one another (they’ve traveled across the country from GA to CA).

Anyway, it got me thinking about my close friends and how I moved away from them (both from PA and OR) without batting an eye. When I feel a change needs to be made I just do it without really thinking about my friends; I figure they’ll always be there for me no matter where I live. But, inevitably, friendships change with distance. I can only say that one relationship (Mikaela and I) has strengthened since I left PA. In fact, I believe that strengthened bond has been one of the fruits of my leaving home in the first place. I always wish though, now more than ever, that her and I lived closer to one another. The realization that we aren’t getting any younger, and that I won’t be moving back north, becomes clearer each day.

Either way, I have another close friend, Graham, that I left behind in Portland and he has announced to me that he’s moving to Raleigh. I’ve been truthful with him regarding the city of Raleigh and all that it lacks (especially when compared to Portland), but he is insisting that this is time for him to move on and would like the support of a close friend for the rest of my stay here (until next December).

I have mixed feelings about it. Mostly I am happy, appreciative and excited about helping him out once he gets here. It’s clear to me how many friends I’ve made in Raleigh and the little life I’ve carved out for myself, even if I did spend the first long while completely miserable, complaining and closed-minded. I now have a list of resources to spew at G once he gets here and I’m fired up for him to meet my friends. This is something the BG and I definitely did *not* have when we moved!

Published

frekur

on September 3, 2008

in happiness, lmawesome, relationships and the_other_move

. 2 Comments

at the moment

I got my hair cut a week ago and I swear it was one of the best moves I’ve made in months. My hair looks great, even after I go camping and not shower for two days. SWEET. Plus, since then, I’ve been feeling super cute, super confident, and SUPER HAPPY.

The BG and I went camping in western NC with the THOG group I joined on meetup.com. It was apparently the largest overnight trip the group has ever organized, with 40+ people in attendance. Everyone I’ve met through the group (which has over 2,000 members) has been real nice, very knowledgeable about local/regional outdoor activities and it’s been providing me with a much better perspective on NC. I’ve gone to a few other events and each time I meet different people. I keep pulling the new friends I make to Tuesday night trivia at Napper Tandy’s*, hehe. :)

This weekend we’re headed out to Greensboro to visit some dude who’s really into permaculture. I don’t know anything about it so that’s why I sound dumb but I’m excited to learn. We’ll be heading out with a few students from BG’s permaculture class and hopefully the new knowledge will serve us well when we build our house. After this and some poking around in Greensboro for some good vegetarian food we’re headed west again for a show and a wedding in Asheville on Sunday. Hopefully someone on Couchsurfing will put us up in spite of our last minute attempts at planning on a busy holiday weekend.

I redesigned frekur.com because of a little incident with a client my company works with. The incident was a tad embarrassing, but I think everything is fine now and it kicked me in the ass to revamp the site. I’m also learning more on SEO/google indexing so that’s good, right?

I’ve made a few new improvements to my bicycle, inspired by the recent upgrades the BG did to his new ride. I’m so set now it’s not even funny. Like, set for long-term riding which is really what I wanted in the first place. I’m hoping when the weather cools off a bit the BG and I can get down to business on some longer trips with the bikes. I know he’s itching to get out more, too.

We’ve also been giving the whole exercise thing another go, AND the vegan thing. So far we’re doing awesome and I think the key is… not think about it too much. (Also? Having some Purely Decadent Coconut Milk vegan ice cream around doesn’t hurt either. It’s no Luna and Larry’s, but it’s a pretty delicious alternative to Ben and Jerry’s and the other sugary/gritty vegan alternatives.) I’ve been hauling my ass out of bed earlier in the mornings (like 7am) and getting a TON more done with my day. I’ve been riding about 20 miles a week on my bike and doing the gym about 3-4 times. Granted we’ve only been on it for the past two weeks but I think this time it’s going to stick. I’m motivated, he’s motivated… it’s all good.

With biking, exercising and meeting new people in mind, I’m planning on starting to ride with the North Carolina Bicycle Club. They have several groups that ride, I’d be in the “Slow Pokes” (beginner, non-competitive group). Hehe! They also need a new website and I’ve volunteered to assist them with whatever they need. We’ll see what happens!

*Read: $3-pints-of-Strongbow night.

Published

frekur

on August 28, 2008

in bicycling, design, green living, happiness, learning, relationships, veg*nism and volunteer

. 0 Comments

sometimes i just need a breather

Last week was tough. My emotions dipped to a new low and although I’m feeling MUCH better now through a process of rationalizing with myself and yoga, I think I should give some credit to the beach trip the BG and I took last weekend.

Normally traveling on holiday weekends turns me off because everyone knows someone headed to the beach and the LAST thing I want is to be around people. But I had this feeling we’d be clear of both traffic and retards, and it turns out we were. We left Sunday morning and headed east on US 64 until we came into Cape Hatteras National Seashore and then headed south to Pea Island. It probably took us about ten minutes to find a suitable camping area. By “suitable” I mean no one else around, even if it meant we did it under the radar. After passing the “Day Use Only” sign we found this little road and some construction equipment. We hid the car behind the equipment and set up camp in a little nook in the dunes.

It ruled. After laying around on the beach and eating chips we sat on our hill overlooking the ocean, ate our homemade burritos and spied on people with the binoculars.

Then later after the sun went down we ran around naked and watched the stars. [No picture available.]

A little removal of the pants and staring at the stars with binoculars is all I needed. ALL.

Published

frekur

on May 29, 2008

in happiness and travel

. 2 Comments

say it again

Dewds. Let’s re-re-reiterate: L + M = Awesome.

Last night the Crackcrew gathered at the TLA in Philadelphia to see Sasha and Digweed and it was phenomenal. Seriously haven’t heard music that good in quite a while. Well actually, that’s because usually the next day I can barely remember where the hell I was, let alone what the music was like…

Ok so NEWSFLASH EVERYONE… m and I did NOT drink (minus the one margarita at Justin’s before we left, but that doesn’t count cause we were still able to walk in a straight line afterwards). And the two of us were nearly the last men standing along with Leah and Superstar DJ Chris Le. We danced our sober asses off the entire night to some amazing fucking tracks. The vibe was on point.

Also caught up with Brian K. James (AKA The Engineer) who I haven’t seen since ‘nam and he took pics of the show from his iPhone.

I took lame ass pics from my phone just like every other jackass there, the only difference is that mine are friggen horrible: