winter twenty fifteen

Happy Friday Le Noir.  I could think of nothing more unappealing right now than being in a store or a parking lot with hoards of people.  Thank you amazon.com.  I have memories of growing up and my parents bundling my brother and I up in the wee hours of the morning for a family excursion to take advantage of day-after-Thanksgiving savings.  We would sleep in the car while my parents started the morning at a farm supply store and slowly we would make the progression across town hitting all of the spots that my mother had strategically mapped out.  My mom is a wizard when it comes to saving.  I'm thankful to have adopted her financial prowess, but it plays out a bit differently in my adult life. (true fact:  I only scrape together the energy to go to a Walmart or Target approx 1x every 2 months or so.  Those kind of places make me feel like a need a fricking safety plan to get through the experience.  For real.  And really, what fun is it going into a chaotic store, losing 45 minutes of your life, and leaving $100 poorer with absolutely nothing to show for it?  I'll pass, thanks.)


February marked the start of Philip crossing the threshold from 29 to 30.  We celebrated with dinner at Fogo De Chao and, of course, cookie dough.  Always the cookie dough.  We're pretty excited about the next decade.  Thirty is a pretty awesome place to be. You still look as good as you did at 29 ;)  You've got more resources than you did when you were 20.  There is freedom from the press and edge of having a sense that you have something to prove.  There is something powerful about knowing that you have and are intentionally living your life in a manner that can leave you free of regret.

I had another first this winter.  My first NHL game.  We got tickets to go to a Caps game w/ some of Philip's AFG comrades.  The game was fine.  The company was awesome.  A Purple Heart recipient.  Someone who was enjoying his first day off of work from the White House in 6 weeks who works tirelessly and has spent lots of time behind closed doors with President Obama as of late.  Someone who has repeatedly seen and walked an uglier, sharper edge of the line between life and death than anyone I have ever met.  And the dates of these respective parties (who were perhaps equally as interpersonally intriguing given the relational complexities/patterns inherent to the lives of the men they were seeing).  It was a good night.  Laughter, margaritas, and war stories.  I remember shivering as we walked back to the car hand-in-hand in the dark of the evening wondering what relationships and stories Afghanistan, Part Two would bring into our lives.

In March we boarded a plane for Atlanta to attend the wedding of one of Philip's ROTC buddies.  I was so, so glad that we made the trip.  It was pretty awesome being back with the band from CO.  The night before the wedding, Philip picked me up from the airport (he had gone early for the bachelor party), and I hung out with the guys.  It was reminiscent of life circa 2003-2007.  I'm telling you Boulder feels like it was a lifetime ago.  I loved that chapter of my life (moreso than Philip).  Yet, when I look at these pictures, think about these people, and consider the places we've collectively walked since 2003 I just marvel.  We were pretty mature 18(!)-21 year olds.  But nothing could have quite prepared any of us for the path charted ahead that was set in motion at that time.  These were relationships that were pillars at the time in our lives when we were sorting out whether we were going to be a "we" for the rest of our lives.  I'm glad that this group of guys were ones who voiced their collective opinion that Philip would be out of his mind to let my ship sail when there was an degree of uncertainty in his mind and heart. 

We're over a decade into this Air Force thing.  Ryan was with Philip and I our very first Dining Out in 2003.  The fall of our freshman year where an important part of Our Story began.  Amazing.  In 12 years there have been weddings, babies, promotions, disappointments, difficult choices, victories, wars, and deaths.  These are precisely the kind and caliber of people who we want to walk through these things alongside.