Say What You Wanna Say

First, I want to tell you about the photos in this post. Then I want to ramble about my life a bit.

My talented amiga Lydia of Photography Hill snapped these shots last weekend at Newport Beach. I love love love the colors/light in these photos. She's good at that kind of thing.

If you're a friend in AZ, tune in for this paragraph: Lydia offers this awesome one-year membership deal. Basically, you can subscribe to her photography services for a certain amount of hours, which you can spread out over the year however you please. Her goal is to help you capture those little life moments -- graduation, head shots, playing at the park, a reunion at the airport, birthday parties, your home being built, etc. Basically, all those times you wish you had someone following you around with a camera to capture memories. Sign up for a subscription with Lydia, let her know about your event/moment a week in advance, and she'll be there. And then you'll get lovely photos like the ones below. Cool idea, right? Right.

Camille said I looked like Sara Bareilles in the outfit I was wearing (and demanded that I sing snippets from that "Brave" song all day) (not mad about it) (love me some Sara B).

And now some rambly stuff about my life. 

Life is really good. I'm just really happy and calm. What's funny is that, in the past, I'd go through "happy" phases that mostly depended on my personal life, and work was mostly a thing I *had* to do. But lately, it's the 8-9 hours I spend at work every day that is feeding a large part of my happiness. So even when the inevitable little hiccups occur in my non-work hours, it feels good not to dread getting up in the morning and going to the office. So when work is already good AND I have a good day/evening/weekend of other stuff? It's like a bonus on an already good thing. It's working wonders on my overall calm and happy zen. The weather is warm, my days are good, and my soul is at rest. So much at rest that it makes my eyes leak a little now and again, for no good reason at all.

I have good things on the horizon.

I have Iceland in 12 days (!!!!!), and my best friend's wedding a week after I get back. I'm officially in the "mental packing" zone for Iceland, where I glance at sweaters and things in my closet and think, "I'll take that to Iceland!" The countdown is officially ON.

I would give you a juicy update on my dating life but there isn't much to say, other than that....my heart feels more open than I expected it to feel right now. I had a weird winter (and OK, generally a weird couple years in that department) that gave me a crusty heart, to some degree. That's unlike me, so I didn't take well to the phase. I kept waiting for some bitterness and a sour attitude to hit me after my last go-round with matters-o'-love, but it never did. My heart just......handled it. I credit half of that to my stalwart little ticker, and the other half to some divine intervention, probably. I feel like I've been sorting some things out with God these last few months, and I still have a lot left to sort, but I love the moments when I can feel sure of things. And I do feel sure that there is someone watching out for me upstairs. And that maybe matters more to me right now, after a year of ups and downs and sideways and whatever, than all the other details I need to work out.

It's good to be in somebody's hands. (And very capable, heavenly, knows-me-better-than-I-know-myself hands, at that.)