Valentime

I know this may sound strange but I adore Valentine's Day.  It is my favorite holiday.  (Don't get me wrong Christmas is way up there but.)  I cannot get enough of the adorable stuffed animals, all the hearts, and the flowers. 

If it wasn't more cliche than I can physically handle I would have bought myself flowers, but that is one step too far for me.  

Next week maybe.  

Here's my philosophy: people in general, and myself specifically, don't share enough that they love the people around them.  We get wrapped up in our lives and take what we have for granted.  It's not that we don't realize the good people we have around us, more that we forget it's important to tell them that we appreciate and love them.  Valentine's Day gives us the opportunity to share that love, in any form fashion or device we choose :].

Did you know that Chaucer was the first to link Valentine's with romantic love?  For some reason this adds so much legitimacy to the holiday in my mind.  I can't explain but Chaucer just has to be bowed down to I think.  (Wikipedia is fascinating...)

My sister* had a mental hiccup yesterday and wrote Happy Valentimes Day on an unknown amount of cards that got sent home to unsuspecting mothers.  I find this story HIGHlarious and laugh out loud every time I think about it.  But I was considering the word she created and I believe it's actually pretty accurate.  I could explain my whole thought process but basically I love the "time" part.  We need to take more time to show our "Valen".  Valen doesn't actually mean anything (I checked) but it could well enough mean love and affection right?!  We'll go with that.  So share some of that valen and time and know I love you <3.

(Lest you think I'm too weird, while I love and adore the holiday I do not enjoy the actual day.  People get weird, there are many expectations,  and drama seems inevitable, whether it's the real kind or the kind that traps me in my head.  So in light of that I went to the gym today and ran instead of going anywhere else haha)

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent*

The Dtown Bucket list

This may be a little bit of a misnomer.  This bucket list is not just about Dtown, it's about the whole Michigan area.  I believe that I'm going to be leaving Michigan in December so I've compiled a list of things that I want to do and see before I go.  The list keeps getting more and more extensive but I figure it will just give me more things to blog about!!

But here's all the things I have so far:

 - Lake Superior (Munising, Painted Rocks State Park, and a Shipwreck tour on the lake, seriously look this place up and I dare you not to want to drop everything and go there)

 - Fall Colors driving tour (by Muskegon and to see Lake Mich again)

 - Ludington (this is if I can convince my friend Elizabeth to let me go with her :)

 - Canadia (most likely Toronto but really since I'm this close I might as well hop the border more than I did at Niagara Falls)

 - New York City (I'm this close might as well take the plunge... plus I need to see Wicked!)

 - Feather bowling (honestly I have a vague/no clue what this is but it sounds great anyway haha)

 - A Tigers game (gotta hit up baseball at least once and I've already done hockey and basketball)

 - A Lion's game (see above)

 - The Bang (this is a dance party in AA that happens once a month, random goal I know)

 - Detroit Metropolitan Institute of Art

 - Henry Ford Museum (can I be in the Motor City and not learn about cars?!?!)

 - Cafe D'Mongo (a speakeasy in Dtown my lovely girl Damien recommended to me)

 - Roast (apparently this fantasmic restaurant in downtown Dtown)

 - See something at Fox Theater

 - Bruce Peninsula (also in Canadia but from the trip I missed last time it's Gorgeousocity)

 - Explore Hell, MI (I have been there but just to the Dam Site Inn and it was at night)

 - Any other fun place to see/eat with good friends!!

Some things I've done but would like to repeat:

 - The Redford Theater (awesome little Chinese style theater)

 - Mackinac Island (which will probably include running in their race again, maybe this will be my half marathon New Years Resolution)

 - Chicago

 - Boston (perhaps)

 - Another Red WIngs Game (because I'm now addicted to hockey)

 - Go back to Holland to see the Tulips!

*If something isn't on the list it might be because I've forgotten it.... or I've already done it!

Any other suggestions I'd love to hear them!!  And you can count on pictures as I am incredibly addicted to taking them : ).

Snow Day Activities

This is the story of a snowman.  This snowman's name is Fernando Gonzalez and he is a Mexican skier.  A fantastic Mexican skier actually.  This is his story; taking on the Ski Jump of Peril.  (For the record this is my first experience building a snowman*)  Fernando not only has but rocks a toupee, and has personalized hand-made ski poles.

The day Fernando chose to make his jump was absolutely beautiful.

Fernando gets his skis.

The Jump of Peril, staring into the face of our competitor.  Remnants of skis and other jumpers before litter the edge of the jump.  One of the other skiers who tried the jump and failed was an Ecuadorian rival Luis.  The night before the jump the two rivals had a run in with each other over a girl named Daisy.  She was stringing them both along, pitting them again each other.  Some blame Fernando for Luis' failure....

Fernando stares down the jump.  Gearing himself up for what is to come.

The face of a champion.

*Just so everyone knows Fernando was not technically my first snowman.  There has been one other.  However he was no as well established as Fernando.  Anton (the friend who helped create Fernando) graciously agreed to provide some context for my first snowman.