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Travel Notes

I Will Freeze You Out … Things You Should Know Thursdays

Mt Whitney - Things You Should Know Thursdays TYSKT

I love to be cold. LOVE IT. I know, really ironic that I live in Houston, isn’t it?

I sleep best when it is cold in my house. Which means that when winter comes to Houston, I don’t turn on the heat for as long as possible. If it is 62 degrees in my house, I am happy. I can bundle up in my handknit socks, layer on the blankets, and be all snug and cozy. I only turn on the heat when it is risk that the pipes might freeze so it needs to be warmer in the house.

One of the things you should know about me if you’re going to be my BFF is that if you come to my house in Houston in the winter? I am going to freeze you out. You don’t get to do that most of the year in Houston, so be warned. I’ll be sure to offer you a snuggly blanket to keep you warm!

Photo above at Mount Whitney, California, on the Whitney Portal Road. Mount Whitney is the highest point in the contiguous United States.

Things You Should Know Thursdays was inspired by a Vivid & Brave journaling prompt. If you share a thing I should know about you, be sure to come back here and leave a comment so I can link to you too! The hashtag for social media is #TYSKT.

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Everyday Avenger

Things You Should Know Thursdays – My “Wedding” Rings…

I have a confession: if you’ve seen me wearing my wedding ring within the past 5 years, you did not see my real wedding ring.

Matter of fact, you saw a Sterling Silver & Cubic Zirconia ring, which cost me a whopping $45 on Overstock.com. (The price has dropped since then, you can get it for a bargain price of $35 on Overstock now.)

When Mike & I got married, my wedding ring was a perfect fit, but too small if my fingers swelled at all. Then I gained 5-10 pounds, and it was really tight. Then I gained another 10 pounds thanks to medicine I was prescribed (ugh, that was a FUN time). I refused to resize my wedding ring though – I was going to lose the weight. I wore no ring for a year or two.

Then I started photographing weddings. When you first get engaged, you look at EVERYONE else’s ring. Everyone. Imagine meeting with a wedding photographer who wore no wedding ring while talking about her husband? It raised a few eyebrows. I didn’t want to resize my real rings though because I really, really was going to lose that weight. I’d make excuses at client meetings, but it always felt weird to not have a ring on.

I started looking at fake rings to act as a stand-in. I had a fancy $10 one from a local box store, until the metal wore off of it. I went to Overstock to start looking at Cubic Zirconia rings. I picked one out and ordered it, and just like that I had a “wedding” ring again.

The most awkward moment? When I told one of my brides, who I knew had a ring from Tiffany’s in New York – where he proposed to her on one knee and all, that her ring was STUNNING. He looked at me and said, “Yes, but it isn’t as nice as YOURS. Yours is so beautiful!”

I mean, what do you do? Admit to him that it is a $45 ring? No. I just graciously said thank you and moved the conversation to a new topic.

People comment on them all the time. Sometimes I tell them, other times I don’t. Like the hair stylist who told me she wished her husband would buy her a ring like mine? I told her to do what I did and go buy it herself!

Now I’ve lost the weight. My wedding rings fit. In the years that passed, I’ve learned about conflict diamonds, and about why diamonds are a sham — the whole “they are rare” thing is hyped up thanks to DeBeers, not reality.

My “real” wedding rings no longer feel like my rings.

I feel weird wearing my real rings. Especially because out of the 9+ years Mike & I have been married, I wore them for a year or two, but I wore my “fake” ring for over 5 years now. It is the ring I’m used to seeing on my hand, not the other one.

A ring is a ring. The marriage is what matters. I felt the need to come clean though and confess that you’ve likely never seen my “real” wedding ring. Maybe one of these days I’ll take it back out and start wearing it again. Or maybe for our 10th anniversary, I’ll ask Mike if we can make a pair of earrings and a pendant out of it. It is a shame for it to just be sitting in a box. For now, on the road? It is nice knowing that if I lose my rings, it isn’t really much of a loss at all. Now that I know that a new set would only be $35, I might order one in my new size – the current set is huge on me!

Things You Should Know Thursdays – #TYSKT – were inspired by a prompt on Vivid & Brave, a coaching program for creative women who blog.

Categories
Travel Notes

Things You Should Know: I Will Drive for an Amazing View…

Cannon Beach, Oregon at Sunset

One of our recent prompts that we gave to our Vivid & Brave group was asking, “Things You Should Know About Me If We’re Going to Be BFFs” and it got me thinking. I struggled with this prompt at first, but now that I’m aware of it I keep thinking about things I want to share — so I’m kicking off Things You Should Know Thursdays! #TYSKT

(I was going to put “about me” in there too, but then the hashtag got too long. Since I’m writing them, you know they are about ME, right?)

Things You Should Know if we’re going to be BFFs

I will drive an hour and a half, each way, for an amazing view and some time in the environment there. I do not consider this time wasted, because soaking it all in fills me up and makes me energized.

I delayed leaving Portland by a day because the forecast for Cannon Beach, Oregon was sunny on exactly one day this week – yesterday. I just had to go there and see Haystack Rock and the Pacific Ocean and hope for the best when it came to the sunset.

As you can see, it did not disappoint.

I’ve driven out of the way several times on this road trip, and never once have I regretted it. It has been worth it every time. Watching this sunset yesterday made my heart soar!

Mini Meets the Pacific

What are things I should know about you?

Join us in sharing things we should know about YOU! If you write a post on your blog about this, leave a comment so I can check it out! I’d love to learn more about you too! This prompt was intended to be lighthearted and fun, but if you want to be more serious and in depth about it, your call. If you post about it on social media, be sure to use the #TYSKT hashtag!

Other People You Should Know about…
— My friend Ashley, who is one of the Vivid & Brave women.
— Another Vivid & Brave woman I’ve met thanks to our group, Tammy Smith – a woman after my own heart!
— My fellow Team-Xer, Patricia Knight, shares one thing you should know about her.
— I will be heading off to Camp Mighty in a week with Erica of Baubles & Bites, so it was wonderful to learn a bit about her before we get to camp!