Day 4: Seven People Who Inspire You, and Why?

Hmmm.

I've always had trouble with this "inspiration" thing. Inspire me how? In what way? Sometimes the smallest little things inspire me, inspire me to write, spend time with those I love, generally be a better human being. But a whole person to inspire me? Maybe I'll just think about the things I've seen people do that have inspired me. (In no particular order)

1) Couples on Loving from a distance.
So far Codaniel and I have been long distance for 14 months, and are likely to continue being so for the next 10-12. To anyone in a close distance relationship that must seem like torture. However in the grand scheme of LD relationships it really is nothing. Especially when we'e had two 3 month visits in that time period. I read stories of couple that have been together for 2, 4, 8, sometimes more years, with precious few visits in between. Some don't even know when there next visit will be. For some its literally a year or more away.

I find that incredible. I love Codaniel with everything I have and would wait for him, I just dont know how I would do it with the positivity and light that these couples do. They are amazing!

2) People who give there lives to save others

Police officers, firefighters, the armed forces. Ok its their job and they  get paid for doing it. But think long and hard. For a nominal salary would you be willing to risk your life, leave your mother without a child, wife without a husband, daughter without a mother to save someone you dont know? Now what about all the people who do it voluntarily.Think about it...

3)  Kirsty
My friend Kirsty is one of the kindest, most caring people I've ever met. She'll stop and talk to everyone she meets, she would give her last £1 and the shirt off her back to someone who needed it, and even more so if they didnt ask. And the most inspiring thing? She doesnt even realise how amazing and unique she is for how much she cares.

4) My Mum
Mums should be inspiring. To be honest, every mother is. When you have a child, they become your life. Your first thought will always be of them before yourself. My mum in particular is inspiring because she is mum and dad to me and my sister. She can cook and clean, but she works, fixes the car and does all the DIY. Shes not a "girly girl" mum, but she cant wait to come with me to choose my Wedding Dress. And then  guess who'll be walking me down the aisle? :)

5) My "online" friends who took the chance to meet me

You never know who people are online. You'd like to think you get to know them pretty well and can trust them, but theres always that small part of you that says "What if?" Yet Becca, Ally, Megs, Jen, Codaniel and Sami all  took the chance to not only meet me, but invite me into their homes, meet their friends and family and help me have some of the most amazing memories of a lifetime. Having faith in people gives me inspiration!

6) Children
All children. They are innocent, they have the most amazing imaginations, yet they see things with such clarity. They are very sound judges of character, yet have this amazing ability to love. Plus when you see what they are capable of its pretty darn amazing. Just last night Izzy's baby, barely 3 months old was literally headbanging and dancing to metal music and Codaniels guitar playing! Brought huge smiles to all of our faces!

7) Having the ability to keep loving, even after being burned. 
Love hurts. It shouldnt, but when we open ourselves up so completely to someone else, all of our fears, joys and insecurities, only to have it thrown back in our faces is one of the most horrendous things anyone will ever have to face. I'm hugely inspired by the people, (my Codaniel especially) who are able to say "Ok..that hurt more than I can ever imagine. But I believe that I can love and be loved again, with time" Never give up on love.

Day 3 - Eight Places You Want To Visit

1) All 50 States
Even before coming here for the first time, I've always wanted to visit all 50 States of the USA. As in literally touch the soil and do something there (I clarify that because I traveled through many on the train but didn't visit them!) So far I've already visited:

New York
North Carolina
South Carolina
Illinois
Iowa
Colorado
Washington State
California

8 out of 50 in a year (actually - a month!) aint bad!

2) Northern Europe

I havnt decided exactly where exactly. Basically somewhere with snow and the Northern Lights. I really cant wait to see the Northern Lights one day

3) Disney World
I've been to Disney Land in Paris but I would love to go to one of the ones in America. Where Disney started! What can I say, I'm a child born and bred on Disney films, I cant help it, its true love. :)

4) Australia
I think...I'd like to see the uniqueness of the Outback, Ayers rock etc. I'm not too keen on the 24hour flight, overbearing heat or *shudder* bugs that could kill me. However as my friend Jess will potentially be moving out there, I guess I'll be visiting it at least once in my life!

5) Niagara Falls
Not technically the same as number 1 as its 1/2 in Canada, and its also something specific :-P Its so magnificent, so terrifying, so awe-striking. Would love to see the falls. Might give the going over it in a barrel a pass though! hehe

6) The middle of the Atlantic

Ideally, the point where the Titanic sank. OK, that sounds kinda weird, granted. But I've always had a bit of an obsession with Titanic. Long before the movie came out. It was such a tragedy, I choke up every time just thinking about it, everything that went wrong, the amount of women that lost their husbands, children growing up without their fathers that they had to say goodbye to right there. How maybe just one small thing could have had it averted. And how we should never mess with nature, and declare we are better than forces bigger than us. "God himself could not sink this ship" ...how wrong they were.

7) Scotland
I've been to Scotland, many times. But its so beautiful and theres so much of it I havnt seen yet. And I look forward to discovering it with Codaniel.

8) The Caribbean
Just to say I have!

An amazing weekend

So before I return to my blogging challenge I need to share my amazing weekend with you lovely people!

Friday we planned to go and view a couple of potential wedding venues, including the one we've been in love wit and had our heart set on since we saw the website and package offered alone.

Of course Friday is the day of the worst snowstorm I've seen since I've been here, during the mildest winter FoCo has seen in years....typical. Not only that, we're driving up the canyon, into the mountains to Estes Park where the snow is (of course) a million times worse.

Thank you SO much future mum-in-law Pam for battling that canyon 3 times for us in the snow to allow us to see our venue and get back in time for the evenings shenanigans.

So we get up to the venue and we cant even drive up the driveway to the actual place because it was SO icy. The car gets stuck and we struggle up the driveway. Then Pam nearly fell in the ice (I thought she was going to go down the hill!), Codaniel runs to chivarously save his mum - HE falls over, I struggle over carefully to see if hes ok (OK...to rescue my Wedding binder that was laying face down in the snow, but that doesnt make me sound too good huh?) and then of course I end up on my butt too. Smooth first impressions...

So after this adventure in the snow we get inside and it is every bit as beautiful and a million times more than we imagined it would be! We braved the snow and walked down to the ceremony site (which is outside). We're talking at least a foot and a half of untouched, powdery, crunchy snow. The ceremony site was also untouched and it looked like Narnia. If it wasnt for the logistical nightmare it would cause, I almost wish it would snow on the day!

The guy showing us round bugged me slightly because he wouldn't let the 'Event planner' part of me ask the questions I wanted to or write them down. He was also telling me how I "should" do certain things because most people do. In particular I explained that we probably wouldn't do cocktail hour as we dont drink so it would be "coffee and cake hour" instead. He said "Well y'know most people hold off on the coffee until later when the Wedding cake is served" Apparently my face was one of thunder and to be honest it took a lot of self control to not say anything! Oops....again Sarah - VERY smooth!

(This is what Estes Park looks like in the snow. I promise, there are mountains tucked behind those low lieing clouds!)

So we're settled on our venue, we just need to get the deposit and get it booked ASAP!

So then we battled back down the mountain to be able to get to see Rocky Horror Picture Show! We'd been looking forward to this for close to a month, spent a small fortune on our costumes and practiced what lines to yell and when to throw our props.

The first night we got there a little bit late and were worried we'd be the only ones dressed up. Luckily quite a few people were, in varying degrees, including one guy who was equally as "Frank n Furter-ed" as Codaniel was! We didnt quite know when all the lines were but there was one guy who knew them all and had everyone in fits of giggles pretty much everytime.

The second night we got there early to be able to mingle with everyone. Of course what we forgot was that the cinema was still playing other shows. Needless to say we got a few weird looks, but also quite a few "You look awesome!"'s. The guys at the desk cracked us up. Me: "I'll let you guess what we want tickets for" Clerk: "You guys are here to see Tangled right?" Lol, that was really funny!

There were reporters and a photographer from the local college newspaper there too, As two of the most "in character people" (though certainly not the only ones who were dressed up!) they took quite a few photos of us, and we're hoping we'll end up in the local paper!

And to top it off, WE were the ones that knew the lines! From practicing, and also from hearing them all the night before. I cant tell you how satisfying it is to be a heckler that is not only listened to but laughed with! :D

"The man you are about to see has no neck"

"Ding dong, assholes calling, sluts for sale, going cheap" "How cheap?" "So cheap shes got a condom in her hair!" Hehe - excellent times!

Oh, and I almost forgot. The second night we stayed in a hotel, to make a real weekend of it and to be closer to get to and from the cinema. You would expect the Hilton to be a pretty good establishment huh? Not charge an extra $10 for wifi, wake you up at stupid o clock with "housekeeping" when you requested a late check out and breakfast isnt even done serving or a sororuty convention so loud you feel like the drunk 18yr olds are in the room with you? Not at ALL what I expect when I pay that much a night for a room in an 'expensive' hotel; I complained, we got the room for free - we were VERY happy! Moral of this story...its ALWAYS worth complaining if theres something your unhappy with.

So yup, overal one of the most amazing weekend ever! I love Wedding Planning and the Rocky Horror Picture Show!

Day 2 - Nine Things I Can’t Live Without

First, I feel I must state that I am procrastinating horribly. Right now I should be doing job applications if I have any hope of paying for our dream wedding and having our own space.

However procrastinating from that means that I fed and cleaned up after the pets, done two loads of laundry, done the dishes and cleaned the living room in the space of less than 2 hours. Proof that procrastinating is ACTUALLY productive....just not for the task your procrastinating from! :D

Anyways, onto todays subject. I'll start with the more material things and move onto the actually important things.

1) iPhone
I was so against the iPhone when they first came out. "Why would I want my music and phone in the same place?" Answer: Because it makes life so much easier! Plus being able to read my "time wasting" pages when I actually have time to waste (ie: Waiting for the bus), reply to emails asap if they're important and find out what that song playing is instantly is all awesome. I get really confused when I'm in America and only have my web access when I'm near a free wi-fi spot. Make me sad...

2) My laptop
As much as I love  the iPhone there are some things you just need a proper screen and keyboard for. And I adore that my laptop is so tiny and cute so that I can carry it with me on my travels! When I had the massive 15lb thing it gave me serious back ache.

3) My photos
I definitely get this from my mum. She's always been big on photos, especially since I was born. There are SO many photo albums of just me and my sister, at last count I think it was about 80-something!

Most of my photos are on my harddrive.. So I suppose this is also an item I couldnt live without. Seriously if anything ever happened to it and the photos on it I would be devastated.

4) My Aunt
Me and my Aunt are VERY similar. And as anyone who knows me, when I'm very similar to someone it can lead to fireworks. But dispite ups and downs over the years, I'd like to think I'm very close to my Aunt. She got me into reading and introduced me to lots of amazing books.

There's a brilliant photo of her holding me when I was only a few months old. Someone said something "amusing" about me and the look of anger on her face! I've never seen anything like it - I think I definitly get my defensivness from her

5) My Nan
I've never had a big family and now my family is literally the 5 of us, and my Nan definitely likes to see herself as the Matriarch. Whatever else is going on, she'll always make sure no-one has to go without and overall will do anything she can for her family.

I actually think she secretly runs the East End Mafia, She knows a lot of people, never short of a quid or two and is always disappearing out of the country....hmmm



6) My mum
I love my mum. Although I'm fiercely independent, need my own space and very rarely ask for help..every girl needs their mum. Needs to know she's there when she needs her. :)

7) My sister
My baby sister. Not really a baby anymore, equally as independent as me so would also rarely admit she needs me. It'd be nice to be needed more by her but she knows I'm here when she does. And likewise - shes there for me. 5.5 years younger or not - shes one of the smartest people I know! (When shes not having a blonde moment that is...)

8) My friends
There are far too many to count to list individually. Which is definitely a good thing. As previously mentioned I dont really subscribe to the "best friend - one person you go to for everything" thing anymore. In any given situation, theres often one person that you think of you want to talk about it with. Its not always the same person. Perhaps its someone that knows the back story intimately so you dont need to start from scratch, someone thats been through the same thing and can empathize. Perhaps you want to just not think about it and need someone that'll make crude jokes and drink too much wine (Jess I'm talking about you here!) Perhaps you just need the biggest part animals you know to celebrate amazingness! Whatever it is, I count my blessings to have so many good friends that I can go to for anything.

9) Codaniel
This man has shown me so much. Helped me realise so much about life, people and myself. He is a shining example of humanity and the goodness in people. Proof that no matter how bad things can get you can ALWAYS make a choice to change your situation, yourself and make a better life for yourself and those around you. He has an unwavering faith in people, and most of all in the people he loves and cares about. He can always see the best in people, even if they cant see it in themselves.

When we're apart its one of the hardest things I ever have to deal with, but at the same time it shows me how strong we both are that as much as we need and love each other, we still retain our independence and ability to look after ourselves. Although we're both counting down to the day when we dont have to be seperated by 1/2 a continent and an ocean!