I'm Tripping!

Lest you think my last ten months have been boring, let me prove you wrong. In pure Teddy fashion, I've been going on adventures all along. It's part of my freelance lifestyle.

Adventures can be quite healing, after all. A Mexican cruise, a week in North Carolina, a 10-day cabin trip, San Francisco, and a week trip at Newport Beach definitely top the list. Two Utah trips and a few other cabin weekend trips are also in there, along with a singles conference, a color run, and some midnight movie premiers. I've also tried acupuncture and deep tissue massage for the first time, hiked some mountains, and dyed my hair purple and then blonde. Lying on a bed of nails was a new experience, as was going to a National Theatre Live broadcast of a Shakespeare play at the Phoenix Art Museum.

MEXICO CRUISE!
This was my third cruise to Mexico. We ate snails, partied in Ensenada and tried to get a winter tan.

Real Scorpion Bracelet, Purchased in Ensenada

Gangnam Style with the Servers

CABIN TIME!

Hanging Out with My Favorite Donkey

Forest

More Forest


NORTH CAROLINA
We visited a friend in North Carolina who's stationed there with the Marines. It was stunning! I loved all the little sea port towns like Beaufort and Wilmington. I'd live there in a second.



SAN FRANCISCO
I celebrated my Golden Birthday with an impromptu trip to San Francisco where I got to visit with family and see some old friends. It was my first time and I loved the city!


Palace of Fine Arts

Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park

Siddhartha

JUNGLE WEDDING CELEBRATION

In May, one of my best friends got married and had the most epic jungle-themed wedding and my bridesmaid attire was a tiger outfit. It was the most exciting wedding I've ever been to!



Color Run 5K Family Time
And of course, I've been doing plenty of this with my favorite people.


And it's summer, which means whitewater rafting trips are on the horizon!

I'm Back!

It's been a quick nine months since my last post, when I announced I was moving out of Utah. I'm happy to report that Arizona has been good to me. In fact, it's been exactly what I needed. I left the mountains and friends I loved to come home for a reset. In a short amount of time, nearly every piece of my life - and every piece of me - fell apart, and I needed some time and space to heal. Arizona has provided me with supportive family and friends and plenty of therapy for emotional and spiritual healing.

I got rid of the pieces of myself that somehow leeched themselves onto me in some dark times. I also brought back some pieces of myself I love that were lost along the way. And the rest of me started anew. That shy, insecure, depressed girl I was last year? She's gone. And after five years, my words and my passion for writing are back. I'm even kept up late at night because poems that need to be written are flowing out of me.

I love quotes because it's like getting a small piece of advice, or a listening ear, from someone I've never known. Here are a couple of my favorites that have been motivating me since I moved back.



It took a lot of strength to admit that my external circumstances weren't the only problem. I've thought about it like this: when a building catches fire and emergency responders are there to extinguish the flames fast enough, there's only minor damage. The structure still stands, but some repairs have to be made. When a building catches fire and there's nobody there to save it, the entire thing burns to the ground, structural beams and all. I was the latter. Some experiences break us down one piece at a time. Others break us down completely, all at once. Once I realized how much active work the healing process would require on my part, I had these thoughts to get me through:



I'm happy to be feeling myself again!