Your Friends Are What Will Matter In The End

Well, tonight we had our fundraiser for WaterPowerPeace at the Staggering Ox.

All I can say, we have really great friends, new and old. Chris and I are so grateful for all of your support.

From the purchase of wristbands, to liking and sharing our project on Facebook, to sending donations, to showing up at the Staggering Ox on the first really nice Saturday of the summer and bidding on our auction items, we thank you so much.

In the end, you, our friends, are what really matter. Thank you.

Reunion - It Does a Body Good

50 Is Our Friend

Last Sunday I headed out to Chico Hot Springs for three days to meet six high school girlfriends for a 50th birthday celebration/reunion. Oh, what a celebration/reunion.

My husband asked if it seemed weird to be meeting up with friends that I have not seen very often in the last 30 years. For some reason, it did not. Maybe because we are now 50 and life has sort of worked itself out. Maybe because I had a blast with all of the friends meeting up way back when. Maybe because I wanted to go to Chico Hot Springs, one of my favorite places in Montana, and I would make the most of it no matter what. Who knows?

The answer: All of the above. We did not miss a beat. We looked through old photos, year books, props from drill team, cheerleading, listened to '80s music for 72 hours straight. Quite simply, we picked up where we left off. We laughed non stop. Everyone got along. There was not one moment of tension. The trip was the perfect length; not too long, not too short. Some cooked. Some cleaned. Everyone had a grand time. It was truly the perfect reunion.

As I have told you many times before, once you turn 50, each day is a gift. Make the most of each day. We will not be waiting to turn 100 for our next reunion. Next June we are headed to Coeur d'alene, Idaho to pick up where we left off. Stay tuned.

I love you all. ~ Stella

50 Years Young

Keeping with my food, fun and wine theme, and also the reason I became a closet blogger in the first place, turning 50, I am headed to Chico Hotsprings tomorrow morning to meet up with several old high school girlfriends for a 50th Birthday Bash. This trip has been in the works for quite some time. Some are flying in, some live in Montana. It started out as possibly a trip to Las Vegas or Phoenix, somewhere warm, where we could bask in the sun, eat, drink and be merry. Too hard to coordinate. Chico, here we come. Good food, great fun, and don't forget the wine. We also have some beer drinkers for this trip. Some are bringing pink Solo cups and the official rules for beer pong. Should be entertaining. Stay tuned for photos after I return home.

As girl trips go, this one has been incredibly low key and easy. Usually, my girl trips are quite labor intensive; many emails, planning menus, you bring this, you bring that, what time should we leave, do we have enough wine? Not this trip. Show up and have fun. How refreshing. It sort of reminds me of I Heart Neihart. Simple.

Can't wait to see everyone. Cheers.

"Good friends are like stars....You don't always see them, but you know they are always there." ~ author unknown

House Wine Will Do Just Fine

Do you order house wine?  I do. Not always, but a lot of the time.

Do you know people that refuse house wine just because it is house wine? Some house wine should be refused, but I think a lot of house wines are very drinkable, and some good. I don't think I have ever had a great house wine, but I do not expect it to be great, and I do not need great wine all of the time. If I want a great wine, I will go to the wine store, carefully select the wine, then enjoy it in the comfort of my own home or some special spot with special people. Also, a great bottle of wine in a restaurant is -- sorry to say -- expensive. The exception is Wednesday nights at Lucca's. They have half-price wine on Wednesdays. There you will always have great food, a great atmosphere, and great wine at half-price. You will never be disappointed.

House Wine took on a new meaning last Thursday. Chris and I decided to head out to sell bracelets. Are you getting tired of hearing about the bracelets yet? I hope not, we just placed an order for 200 more. $5. Just let me know how many you want. As usual, we ended up at the Brewhouse. Unbeknownst to us, the going away party for Jackie, a long-time server at the Brewhouse, was in full swing Downstairs. Kitty brought in a band,  and all of the employees and regulars were there to see Jackie off. There was also a silent auction.

Well, how can we expect anyone at the Brewhouse to support our cause if we don't support theirs? You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Great motto, by the way. It really does work, and a lot of great projects get funded that way. If anyone has ever done anything for you, never forget to reciprocate.


Kitty, the manager, is also a photographer and had some really great photos in the auction. Woody, a great server, artist, and one of the most talented, creative, delightful people you will ever meet, had one of her paintings in the auction. Amber, another great server, cute as a button, made a whole bunch of great jewelry for the cause.  

The one thing that caught my attention was the House Wine Bike. I am sure you've all seen the really fun, trendy, cool, retro, one-of-a-kind bikes that different cool companies supply and have drawings for in local beer establishments. Fat Tire has one. Red Hook Brewery in Woodinville had one hanging from the ceiling. Cool colors, cool logos, old fashioned big fat tires, one speed, back brakes, straight handlebars; one of life's simple pleasures.

I wanted it. My husband said, "You don't need it." Well, when you turn 50, you start to look at life differently. You realize that each day is a gift, and "you don't need it" goes right out the window. First of all, I do need that bike. It says "House Wine" on it. It doesn't get any better than that. I thought I would buy it as a piece of art, hang it on the wall in the wine room in my basement that isn't finished yet, and it would look awesome. I also have a really cool whiskey barrel that is waiting for its spot in the wine room not finished yet. And there would never be another House Wine Bike. The two items would go quite nicely together. The whiskey barrel came from Tim, the brewer, at Blackfoot Brewery, and it was free. Thanks, Tim.

I was the successful bidder. Yeah! I have ridden my new bike every day since I got it. I really hadn't planned on that. Exercise; what a novel idea.

I sent a picture of my new bike to my nephew in California. He asked if it was a fixie and told me I was a hipster. I had never heard the term fixie so I Googled it. I don't know if it is truly a fixie, as I did not find a good definition, but I am going with it. My very own House Wine Fixie.

Tonight, my husband and I rode our bikes over to the high school where I proceeded to complete my photo assignment; a portrait type photo that you would hang on your wall. Well, I now have a portrait type photo of my new bike at sunset out in a field that I will be hanging on my wall tomorrow.

As I like to say, a win/win for everyone. I got something really cool, helped somebody along the way, and also got my assignment done. Life is good.

"No one has ever become poor by giving." ~ Anne Frank
(So go buy something at a fundraiser that will make you smile.)

WaterPowerPeace Bracelet Anyone?

Yesterday, my husband and I decided it would be a great day to head out to the businesses that we regularly frequent with the goal of selling as many WaterPowerPeace bracelets as we could. We typically run into the same people on a Saturday, and we were hopeful that some of those people would be willing to part with $5 and buy a bracelet.

WaterPowerPeace, you may recall, is the Tanzania water project that we have been working on. We are going to Tanzania in July and are doing our best to help raise money. In case you missed it the first time around, www.indiegogo.com/waterpowerpeace is our project donation site. My motto: If you never ask, you will never receive. By the way, if you go to the site, click on "updates", you can watch a 21-minute video that my husband made of our trip to Tanzania last year.

Or better yet, watch it right here: http://vimeo.com/42737919

For starters, neither of us is any good at asking for money. I really don't know how people do that for a living. But, the project is very special to us. If we are going to ask people for money, this is as good of a cause as you will find, helping to provide clean water, sustainable food, and books to gobs of children. Can you think of anything better?

Off we go. We started at the Brewhouse for lunch. We would stay there until 2:00. From there, we would head to Bert & Ernie's, then the Blackfoot Brewery. We figured those places would be packed since it was kind of a crummy day weather-wise. Wrong. Apparently, no one cared it was cold out, and it appeared to us that everyone in town had gone camping or somewhere else for the weekend.

Lunch was great, but we were a little disappointed by the lack of people and afraid we weren't going to come close to meeting our pre-established goal of 20 bracelets, since at 2:00 we had only sold three. Thanks Aaron, Matt and Amy!

Next stop, Bert & Ernie's. Fortunately for us, Toby was there. Toby is a giving kind of guy, always willing to help out a good cause, and he bought five. We're on a roll now. Thanks Toby!

Next stop, Blackfoot Brewery. We really thought the regulars would be at the brewery. Wrong. There was hardly anyone there, and no one we even knew. Flannery and Cash were working. Once again, a little disappointed that there weren't more people. Not to worry. Business soon picked up, and we were finding the courage to just come right out and ask anyone if they would be interested in buying a bracelet. I spotted a lawyer that I know, so I took off to sell him one. Bonus: two other lawyers that I know were with him, and another friend of theirs that I did not know, but he wanted to buy two. The day is looking up. Then Gerry and Stacy showed up and needed a place to sit. Sit with us. They bought two. Twelve sold at the brewery. Thanks Kelly, Flannery, Gerry, Stacy, Oliver, Joe, Charlie and Jerry! We can't go home just yet, we are really on a roll.

Back to the Brewhouse. As long as we are there, we may as well eat again. We are sort of getting the hang of this. Ten more. Thanks Jen, Wyman, Riley, Chase, Rachael, Skip, John, Kelsey and Al!

We ended up selling 30 for the day, 10 more than we had hoped for. Life's simple pleasures. The good news is $150 goes a lot further in Tanzania than it does in the US. Every dollar really does count. What a fun day.

Smile

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

When life gives you rain, take a picture.

As you know, my husband has been giving photography lessons to a select few. I am one of the select few. I don't think that I am taking really great photos, but I am taking photos and, most importantly, I am paying attention to everything around me. If I never take another picture in my lifetime, I have learned a valuable lesson: pay attention, look, and actually see what is around me.

Yesterday I was complaining about the weather. It was cold, windy, overcast and raining intermittently. As I was driving to work, I looked up the hill at the Fire Tower, and it was such a beautiful sight. Three months ago, I would have been (maybe) watching the road, playing with the radio, probably not have noticed that there was even a landscape, driven on to work, driven home, gone to bed, still ticked off that it was nasty weather, and the 3-day weekend would be ruined.

But yesterday my brain registered that: a, the lighting would be killer with the cloud coverage, b, the vibrant green of spring would contrast with the gray beautifully, c, the Fire Tower is an iconic structure. Put the three together, the perfect photo opportunity. I quickly pulled over to the side of the road, positioned myself so as to miss the power poles, power lines, and other icky items that will ruin a great photo, and started snapping away with my Droid phone. My husband always says you need to use your phone camera more. It is something that is always with you. The quality is great for a blog photo. It keeps you paying attention to your surroundings. The perfect photo is usually not the one you plan for; it is the one that just happens when the right subject presents itself.

Well, here is the funny part. I just inserted that really great picture. It is so blurry that I can't (won't) use it. I am going back today with a different camera, as it is supposed to be cold, cloudy and raining. Wish me luck.

Two Days Later - Rain Turned To Snow - Memorial Weekend In MT

May - The Circle of Life

"From the day we arrive on the planet..."

Our Wonderful Graduating Friend, Katie

May is a tough time for a lot of people; kids and parents. It is time for kids to leave elementary or middle school top dogs; come fall they will be mere underdogs. It is time for high school students to graduate, leave moms, dads, friends, a supportive community, embark on a new life in a new world. College graduates will leave what has become a replacement home, forced out into the world to do what is expected of them: find a job, no matter where it may take them.

By the way, over and over, I keep running into magazine articles that emphasize the need for students to pick fields of study that actually have jobs available to them when they graduate. Hello! I think that is really, really good advice. You may not want to listen to your mom, but listen to me.

So, I have experienced the transition of my little one from elementary to middle school, middle school to high school, high school to college.  I wouldn't trade any of those experiences. They were all great. But here is the real scoop: it is bitter sweet. We so love our little people. We don't want them to ever change or leave. And, yes, they still seem little, even though they are now our size or larger. They have rocked our worlds. I always say each and every age was my favorite age; and there was nothing terrible about the terrible 2's. Yes, I really say it, and I really mean it.

My little one (21) will be a senior in college this coming fall at Macalester College, 16 hours away from Helena. He has been there for the last three years. I think he is pretty ready to tackle the world. He is one of the very fortunate college juniors to have been selected for a "paid" summer internship. I emphasize the word paid. Not all are paid. As I say, he is very fortunate. He has worked hard, and that hard work has paid off. It would seem he has the world by the tail. I also realize that after this next school year, his life will change yet again; some parts happy, some parts sad.

Some may think of that as the beginning of the end. It is certainly the end of summer vacation as we all know it. Summer is supposed to be a time to sleep in and do only fun things. If your take on life is "the cup is half empty", maybe it is the end. For those of you that think "the cup is half full", it is only the beginning; the beginning of a new chapter.

Summer Fun (and my glass is really half full)

So pony up, and get ready for the ride. It is time to start thinking in terms of "the cup is half full".

If you have young kids, you may be thinking, "Yeah, I have better things to do than read this crazy lady's blog post." If you have a high school graduate this year, you probably have a lump in your throat. If you have a child that graduated years ago, you know way more than I do, so I will defer to you. I am just sitting here in this mom of a junior (life is great) headed to senior (things are going to change) mode, but I am a "cup is half full" person, so it is just the beginning. I welcome the new chapter.

Each end has a new beginning. For every door closing, there is a new door opening. For every person that dies, there is a person that is born.

The circle of life.

By the way, the Lion King was my son's favorite movie. And Elton John is my hero.

"I like circles, and I love life. A match made in heaven." ~ Stella