30 Days of Gratitude: Day 7

Jack the amazing sleeper cat

Today I am thankful for my pets. I know that is so freaking cheesy, but seriously I'm so thankful for my lovely animals. They are such cuddly balls of fur that I really love coming home too. As you can see Jack is a little bit crazy, which isn't too far off the mark. He's the old man of the crew. I found him outside one of my old work places over 10 years ago. He was standing outside the back door just huddled up. I thought he would bolt when I opened the door but he just sat there so I scooped him up and brought him inside. I had to hide him in one of the rooms until I was off and prayed the entire time he wouldn't have anything wrong. Thankfully he vet said he was in really good health, just malnourished and really depressed. Yes cats can get depressed. Someone had obviously abused him and in the process cut his whiskers down to nubs. He hit the jackpot in our house though because he was a spoiled little rotten kitty and now is my shadow. I'm really the only one he tolerates for long periods of time. He's trained my mother to give him treats every time she comes to visit. It's hilarious. I'm so thankful for him though because even when I've had a bad day or a long day he's here and ready for me to sit down so he can curl up next to me on the couch. Such a relaxing feeling just sitting there petting him and being still.

Fleur the princess

Fleur is our little princess. She is really a hot mess of a kitty. We got her as a companion for Jack when we moved. He needed a friend to entertain him while we were at work and school. We got her when she was three-four weeks old. Her mother was killed, or at least that is what the lady thought. We looked at the three, two girls and a boy, but knew with Jack being male we didn't need two males fighting it out so we wanted a female. I picked up Fleur first and immediately she curled up and went right to sleep. Just so cute. I couldn't handle how cute she was that night. It had just finished raining and we were having dinner with our parents that night. I knew when she went to sleep I would keep her, she was too cute not too keep. She's a unique little one. Fleur doesn't jump beyond the bed. Other cats jump up on counters, but not her. She just watches you until you pick her up and put her on the counter. And she loves water from the faucet. It's really funny and sad at the same time. And she LOVES to lick. She wakes you up form a dead sleep licking your face. She licks water bottles, faucets, bathtub walls after showers, if it has a speck of water she will lick the heck outta it until it is bone dry. Like I said, she's unique and by unique I mean special. But she can be a cuddler and at night it's quite calming to have her cuddled up next to your hear.

Mayhem the monster

Last, but certainly not least, is Mayhem the monster. He certainly lives up to his name. He is named after the mayhem commercials from Allstate. you can't see it too much in this one, but he looks like he is wearing a tux with a little tie down the center of his chest. Stef first saw him in our old place. He was a tiny kitten going to town on the stairs by our front door. I put food out for the mom and hoped to try and catch them both, but to no avail. Fast forward a few months to our move and he popped up on our back porch. I am assuming the mother was killed and he was left to fend for himself. We had been putting food out for the strays in the area {a bad idea to many, but I'm related to a Dr. Doolittle and I can't let an animal go hungry} so they wouldn't be hungry and eating the neighbors trash. It took a little time but I was able to scoop him up and was supposed to give him away but I couldn't handle giving him up as I had grown attached. Over a year later he's my shadow as well. He's still skiddish around others {He doesn't like people that are not my sister or I really.} and he still scratches like a kitten, but he's my little monster. I love him beyond measure though. He is really cute in the morning when he hasn't quite woken up yet and he will snuggle up and purr to no end. It's a nice way to wake up in the morning :)

I'm thankful for these little monsters. They bring me such joy and while they are more than a little nuts, they make me happy at the end of a really long day.

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 6

Regardless of the rather vocal feelings towards the election, I am grateful for the opportunity to express my feelings through voting. In the 10th grade I had a really great history teacher, who's name at this moment I cannot remember, but she said something which has remained with me all these years. Without any reservation she told our class that we had a duty to be informed voters and that if we didn't know where a candidate stood then we should do the country a favor and not vote on something we didn't understand. Now, as a 10th grader who really didn't have much of a concept of politics I didn't quite understand what she meant, but years later I can see why she spoke so emphatically. I realize the responsibility we have in voting because of the impacts upon others because of their votes.

My parents always stressed the importance of being an educated voter as well. They taught us how we needed to know the issues, needed to know the candidates before we voted. I'm so thankful for their willingness to teach us and for not always sheltering us from everything. I don't mean they didn't try to protect us, or were not protective of us being children and having a childhood. Instead I mean they taught us as we grew. I'm so thankful for that because as an adult I feel like I can make more informed decisions. But this isn't about my parents tonight!

I'm thankful for the opportunity to exercise the right to vote. Thankful for the women who fought bravely and valiantly for women's right to vote. I don't think they ever thought of the huge impact their actions would have over 91 years later. The suffrage movement isn't something I'm overly familiar with as I was a World History major rather than an American History major, but I've read some of their stories and wow I don't know if I would have the fortitude to face the challenges they faced. It's incredible to think of their zeal and fight.

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 5

Monday. Today I am not thankful for Mondays, but I am thankful for something which makes Mondays a little more bearable: friends. I'm so grateful for my friends today because in face of crappy days at work they help not only make them easier to bear because I can vent to them, but in my case they are also people with whom I work and they are in the words of Penny Hart Ah-maz-ing! (If you don't want Happy Endings then you won't get the reference an if you don't get the reference then you are seriously missing out on a HI-LARIOUS show. Seriously. Just take my word for it and go run to watch it right now!)

I love Pooh and Piglet. They are always there to help
 each other, no matter what!

I am thankful for them putting up with not only my insane craziness, but also letting me vent to them without judgement. Sometimes is nice to just let that burst of frustration out and then move on with life. No words needed, just getting over it. Tonight I get to swap stories with the every Ah-maz-ing Nubia where we will undoubtably eat more food than we should and swap nightmares at work and in the end walking out feel far better about the day than before. :)

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 4

 Okay I know how this looks. Posting food and then saying I am thankful for food. But eh this is what I am thankful for today, especially since I didn't have to cook today :) I am thankful for food, not because of the nourishment it provides to the body, but also the soul. Food is a pretty important part of any culture and in my family food plays a major role in everything we do. I remember being a child and sitting around the dinner table listening to the adults chatter on about whatever it was adults talked about then. I remember being slightly in awe of those dinners and thinking I couldn't wait until I was old enough for those conversations. I did eventually reach the age, but things had changed since then. We'd lost plenty of those who used to sit at those dinner tables, but the memories still remain. I'm thankful for the memories that food conjures up. I'm thankful that at times when I smell something I am immediately transported back to a time when we

had that dish for dinner. I am thankful for the familiar and comforting smells that come from the my mother's kitchen and how it seems to envelope you in a comforting blanket and for a brief moment everything is right in the world. And I'm thankful for the memories that remain no matter how long time passes.

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 3

Atlanta Temple December 2011

I love the temple. I love everything about the temple, the work I do there, the women with whom I have the supreme pleasure of working with and of course the peace and comfort I feel inside these sacred walls. Waking up at six in the morning isn't the easiest thing to do on a Saturday morning, but somehow we manage to pry ourselves from out nice warm bed and take solace in this holy place. I am thankful each Saturday I can enter this house and participate in these sacred ordinance and I am eternally grateful for the blessings the temple has brought into my life.

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 2

Getting all caught up today for the gratitude month. Today I am grateful for my parents. I know this is kind of a generic kind of thing to be thankful for, but seriously think about it, without them I wouldn't have anything to be thankful for because I wouldn't be here!

My parents are pretty much the most awesome parents in the world. They were young when they married and had us. There were times I'm sure they never imagined their lives working out in the way everything unfolded. By the time my parents were 22 they had three children and were living a few hundred miles from home. Not quite how I would imagine my life. I know life wasn't easy with the three of us; we were pretty rambunctious children. Often they found themselves away from their family with none of the natural supports to help when dad was away. They did the best they could with everything they had and there were times I'm sure they didn't quite know how they would make all the ends meet.

Somehow though they managed to make the ends meet together. We never went to bed hungry, or at least hungry without making a choice to not eat. Mom always said she wasn't a short order cook and if we didn't like what she fixed we didn't eat dinner. Dad was a hard worker. He wasn't always there because of the military, but when he was home he was home. We didn't have much growing up. We infrequently got the expensive toys, but those we got were well played with and cherished. We may not have had all the material things in life, but they gave us everything we needed: love, kindness, honesty, truthfulness, choices, opportunities to fail. I said that once during a conference, the best thing my parents gave us was an opportunity to fail and everyone nodded and agreed. For me that is what I am most thankful. I'm thankful they taught me how to stand on my own two feet and the ability to make decisions and know that if they didn't work out that in the end it would all be okay because no matter what they loved me and were proud.

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 1

I've been seeing everyone doing a 30 days of gratitude for this month and I thought what a better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than counting the blessings in your life! I know this is four days late but it's the thought that counts not when it is posted. For the first of November I was thankful for something for which I've worked towards these last two years. On November 1st I found out my petition to graduate from the master's program and my senior research proposal were accepted. Oh the joy in my heart as I opened my email and read this sentence: Your petition to graduate has been approved and sent to the Registrar. So. Much. Joy.

I've been working towards my master's degree over the last two years and a few personal issues prevented me from getting it completed this fall. I had to push things back another semester to the spring so I've been a little antsy about getting it finished, mainly I wanted to get it approved so I wouldn't be waiting another year for graduation. This hasn't been the easiest of roads. I'm one of those that will tell you straight up getting my master's degree was freaking difficult and requires far more attention than an undergraduate degree. But in the end I'm not sad I chose to get my master's degree. I look back over the last two and half years and I know it was the best decision I made. There were times, especially during the proposal writing process, I questioned my decision. It's not easy writing a proposal and trying to second guess a man who who questions everything. Every step of the way was a headache. There are no words really to describe how exhausted I was when I finally saw the approval. I've never been more thankful in my life! Such an awesome feeling and I know the next eight months will be torture in every sense of the word, but I know when I walk across that stage and am hooded I will  know in that moment it was worth the headaches, sleepless nights, cross-eyed reading sessions, back aches from siting in front of a computer analyzing data and generally being a hermit while finishing the research. I'm holding onto that moment because that is what is going to get me through.

Professionalism, going once! going twice! not sold!

So today I had a meeting. To protect all parties I won't give details but I'll just warn you now I'm going to be on a touch of a tirade. This meeting was a difficult one because there had previously been some issues that are in the process of being worked out. We've all faced them before, that meeting you know is going to be completely horrible, but go forward anyway. The day started off pretty blech to begin with. I was across town, by two and a half hours, so I had to get up early and fight the ever loving traffic nightmare that is Atlanta. When I tell you it's a nightmare please know I mean full on car parking lot on the highway kinda nightmare. It. Was. Terrible. I left in what I thought was plenty of time, but alas no. I was late by 15 minutes and this was only after I sped like a demon to get there fast. (Yes I broke several traffic laws, sue me.)


So in I go to this meeting and I get mauled. You know what I'm talking about. It was like those animal movies where someone jumps into the tiger den and thinks the tiger is just a giant kitty cat until the claws come out.

And wow were the claws out on this one.

 

I just sat there taking most of it because well I kinda like my job and the fact that it pays for things such as my rent and water and power and food. Ya know, the necessities in life. Plus I've been drilled by everyone in my family, you don't take someone's rude bait. It never ends well. So I didn't. I didn't rise to the occasion though I will tell you it took all my power not to because I really wanted to blast people. Instead I was a professional who tried to smooth the issues over and make all parties happy. In end then I'm not happy, but then again neither will that person be once my boss is finished with their boss. So I guess in the end the other part won't be happy for long either

The moral of the story is to get respect you gotta give it. I think we've lost that in our technology driven world where our interactions are limited to paper.

Life Happens while we make other plans

So to say I've been absent is a little bit of an understatement. And it's for a good reason. I've been working like a dog. Seriously I feel like a pack mule most days as I cart my office with me in and around the two counties I service. But in all honesty I love my job and my work is needed so I'm not going to complain. Due to the sensitive nature of my work I won't divulge much, but I will say I work with a state agency that helps individuals connect with services they need including medical and supportive supplies. It's quite a change from the previous line of work at a university, but I enjoy the work. I am constantly on the move and no two days are the same so it keeps my seriously scattered brain under tight control. Sadly it also means that school is suffering just a little bit more. But I have come to the realization that my job isn't based on my GPA so enough of the stressing myself out over it.

That phrase is a little hard to swallow since from the beginning I've been all about graduating with honors. Two B's shot that down since to do so I need a 4.0 in the program and I'm not going to retake classes for my GPA. (Although many know I am retaking a class now but that's another story for another time.) I'm something of an overachiever so admitting that straight A's are not my life is something of a major step. Sure has not been easy, especially since I'm currently running behind on an assignment that I'm losing five points for every day and naturally I'm blogging rather than writing a stupid paper. Writer's block, what can you say it kills us all at the worst of times.

We've had a bit of an upheaval in the living situation. Nothing that I'm sad about really. Just time to move forward with that part of life. It hasn't been an easy thing though and caused a day of scrambling, but in the end how it worked out is far better than the situation before.Seriously the feeling in this house is completely different and we've all made that comment now. Interesting how you know something should change but you don't say it because you figure you can live with it until it is over. I think we rob ourselves of something when we do this. We take away a part of our own happiness for the sake of pleasing someone else and in the end it's us who suffers the most. Change is never an easy process. Right now I feel like things are rapidly changing but it is all for the best. I think there is something about the weather that makes change easier. It is easier to handle when it doesn't feel like the center of the sun outside and the leaves are a pretty color rather than just green. I'll end here before an ode to fall begins in earnest and I'm still here in the morning!

Karma... gets you every time!

So I'm going to be a not so kind person at the moment. My recent job shift was in large part due to a particularly nasty person with whom I worked. This person is the type that if they are unhappy will go out of their way to ensure everyone is unhappy. Not the best of situations to be in because no matter what you might be happy with, they were never content. I didn't realize it at first, everything seemed okay. Then again Jaws, Cujo, Amityville Horror all started out well in the beginning too! I jest, it wasn't like those, okay well maybe a little like Jaws.

It is sad to think that others cannot separate their own feelings from those of another. I'm not always the happiest of people, but by damn if you let me get myself together in the mornings with minimal discussions I will generally perk up by about 11 or so. Nope not them, they were in a bad mood it was all damn day and EVERYONE had to be in a bad mood for the entire day.

I won't go on and on about how miserable this person is nor will I say I wish them any ill will because I do not in the least. However, I will say that karma gets you in the end and has a way of sneaking up on you when you least expect it. They have now decided to take some "personal" time away from the office, but only after I've left and they had to pick up more of the slack. Oh yeah I find the sudden leave super suspect!

Life changes

So it's been a terribly long time since I've written, but I haven't forgotten my little space on the internet. Life has been a series of twists and turns the last four weeks. I left my old job, started classes and began a new job. Oh and I finished my summer class and started putting together my final paper for my master's degree. And all this on top of the general day to day living. It's been a busy month, but I love it and won't be complaining because in a few weeks I'm headed to Disney World! :-) Yay.

As I move forward with the new job and find my way through the confusing maze of state government I am comforted in my decision. I know this was the right move to make for myself, not only career wise since it's in the field of public administration, but also because it is more rewarding. For the sake of privacy I won't reveal details, but I can say it's helping people in ways I have never helped before and it's truly something that is life changing.

The sadness though of moving forward is something I had expected, but it is of a different variety. For years I wanted one thing, to work for my university where I received my degree. Not only because it was comfortable, but because I enjoy academia. I enjoy learning, enjoy taking classes (note I do not mention tests! Hate those). I genuinely enjoy  the learning process and increasing my own understanding. I know I will carry that love with me for the rest of my life. However, the time to leave was a simple one. Once I made the decision I wanted it to happen, wanted to say I had made the decision and I was moving forward. My great grandparents had a book in their front room (or at least I think it was there, it's been a while so please forgive me if I don't remember.) titled "The Grass is Greener over the Septic Tank." I never really understood that saying as a child. Never had much cause to really ponder the saying, but as I've gotten older that title remains in my head. It has always been a description I think of when making choices. Sometimes the things that are flashy and seem to goo to be true really are too good to be true. I got what I wanted more than anything in the job, but in the end it turned out to be something I didn't need.

I got consumed thinking this was what I wanted, but failed at asking if it was what I needed. The choice wasn't an easy one and came with plenty of thoughts of doing something different and I'm sure in a few months I may ask myself a few million times if I was crazy. Yet I know for me this was what I needed. The first day I stopped at my local store and picked up a few things. I made a quip about the fact that I had misplaced something and that even with all my education I was still scattered on somethings. Long story short the inevitable question of whether I was using my degrees was asked. For the first time I was able to say with a smile I was using all three of my degrees. The feeling at that moment was worth all the trouble over the years. I'm excited to see where the future leads and to what will come later down the line. Or in the words of Pocahontas "just around the river bend" is something else I'm not sure of but I know it will be good.

Nothing gold can stay

Way back in the 8th grade I had this really great teacher who's name is now escaping me, but she was awesome. One of our units was on poetry (this was an English class btw) and we read Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay. As an eighth grader this poem stuck with me and over the  many years since then has come to mean different things in my life. As  I plan for a big move in jobs this has come to mind yet again.

Frost writes nothing gold can stay. I have a similar feeling for the job I am leaving. I love this work I do for the a university in the scholarship program. I can see the impact a complete stranger has upon another's life. It's frustrating sure, but then again every job has individual frustrations. The shine of a new job wears off as the realizations of the day to day work settles in and as he remarks leaf subsides to leaf. I think- I know- this has happened with my job. But I still love it and in the end I will miss the people more. I work with some really incredible women who I love dearly. I've worked with them since I was a student starting back in 2007. Making the transition into a full time employee wasn't that hard because of having an established relationship and now that I'm moving on it is a truly bittersweet feeling knowing that nothing gold can stay.

The new job presents it's own set of challenges and will push me farther outside of my box than I've every really let myself go. I've lived in academica for years now, since 1999 when I first began college. I've only left for a a few short months before returning with a new focus and zeal, which has lasted six years and resulted in another undergraduate degree and in a few months a graduate degree. But academica was comfortable. I am good at hitting the books. I enjoy hitting the books. Hitting the books doesn't pay the bills and doesn't leave much room for anything else in life. So the books are coming to a close- for the first time in years I will only have one class and it's equal parts scary, exciting, unknown and daunting. 

I'm not good with change and this job brings new changes and challenges I haven't faced before. I'm excited for the work I will be doing. It is public service, where my degree lies, and will again help change lives. I'm trying hard to hold onto the last remaining gold leaves in this position I will soon vacate, but alas Eden quite often sinks to grief and though getting my projects completed will find me busy each day, the mental grief of wondering what would have become had I taken the job far outweighs my increased workload. Two weeks in the grand scheme of things quickly flies by us and in the end the decision, though difficult to make, was the right one. Maybe Frost had it right all along nothing gold can stay, but what is left in its wake is something just as beautiful and the dawning of tomorrow brings a new an interesting existence.

P.S. for those who have not read the poem it goes as follows:


Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf. 
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.


Robert Frost

Defining Moments

A few years back, well more than a few quite honestly, I had a teacher tell my parents I would be lucky to graduate high school. Thankfully my mother is still here and not sitting in jail for pummeling the teacher for making that statement about a fifth grader. As I stand on the cusp of finishing another degree, yes I said another, I've thought long and hard about that statement made many years ago.

I've read in a number of different places about defining moments in our lives. Moments that cause us to stop and either change our focus for the better or choosing to remain in the same place. For me knowing this was a defining moment in my life. I decided then as a fifth grader I wouldn't let her be right. I mean after all what did she know? She didn't know me, my family, or the kind of headstrong person I am. Most importantly she didn't know the kind of determination I can have when encouraged. After that I will admit I pretty much blew her off as a teacher. How could you respect someone who was willing to write you off at such a young age? I mean I was no angel in school but she sat me a table full of boys- what was she expecting tea parties and frilly dresses?! Heck no! It was fart jokes, fart noises and plenty of playground shenanigans. 

Her words stuck with me though, kind of like the shoulder angles from Emperors New Groove. There are always shoulder angels, one telling you to do the right thing and the other who pretty much wants you to blow everything off in favor of screwing around and doing nothing. Well I will admit that fun one he won sometimes. I mean you need some fun in your life! But my fun I will say normally involved making up street names for the sidewalks on the base and pretending to build houses from pine needles. (We were poor kids living on a base with two working parents living several hundred miles from home, our imagination was our greatest gift from my parents.) However, most of the time though it did mean working a little bit harder, pushing myself that much more for the grades to prove her wrong. She wouldn't win that battle, I wouldn't let her. 

Ultimately I did graduate high school. And college - twice. For a third time I will walk across the stage and receive my degree, this time for my master's degree. It's been a long and hard fought road. Nothing came easy or was handed to me. I think back over the time I've dedicated to school and even though the wiser shoulder angle won and I spent more time in the books and library. So in the end I didn't let her statement define me, I defined her statement. We're each face those defining moments in our lives. It is our choice though to let someone else define our capability or for us to break out of their box and follow our own path. 

Life lived amongst gold

There has always been one place in France I never really put much stock in seeing. Not that I didn't think Versailles was of importance, but I never really had this huge overwhelming desire to see the chateau. There were others I found much more interesting, like Vaux le Vicomte. You might remember Vaux as being the place that some celebrity had a wedding that lasted a hot minute, but I prefer to think of this place as the testing grounds for the likes of Charles le Brun before being roped into working on Versailles.                        

It's a busy place!

Plans changed though and we ended up on the train to Versailles after discovering getting to Giverny wasn't going to happen. (Think the first Spiderman movie where he said to get to the neighborhood he had to take a train, two buses and a taxi. It's tricky from Paris to Giverny.) I can't say much about the train ride to Versailles as I slept the entire time, both ways. :/ Fail on my part, it was the countryside which according to my dad was beautiful. Fail.

Recently recovered in gold leaf.

 As you can see it was another one of those steely gray days. Nice and overcast with some humidity going on that wasn't great. And the chateau isn't air conditioned so that wasn't so much awesome either. You'd get hot then cold then hot then... you get the drift. You can also see it's a busy place. Even in September when we went it was still busy. The queue to get the tickets wasn't too bad and I will say they had a free public facility so that was nice at least. 

Front courtyard where you entered.

 There are some interesting nooks and crannies of the chateau. I spent much of my time inside wandering through. I figured I was there I might as well enjoy it and see as much as possible. Big mistake. I needed about a month or two to really see everything. I have so many pictures from here. And there are some really surprising details, like an entire chapel being inside. It's massive too. You can barely make out all the detail on the organ in the back. You don't get to go inside the chapel, which was a bummer because the ceiling was beautiful.

Chapel inside Versailles. Yes an entire chapel. 

 There were two courtyards on the backside you can see from some of the windows. They actually opened the windows on the second floor (or maybe the third floor) to allow for some air flow. We were there in September so there were still some flowers blooming.

Gardens from inside the house.

Say what you will but Louis XIV had a healthy ego. No worries about self esteem issues here. His likeness is all over the place. Hard to escape him.

He had a healthy ego.

Everything was dripping in gold. Seriously all the ceilings were like the ones above. And the walls were just as ornate. Obviously you can't really touch them, but to stand so close to them was incredible. The amount of money put into Versailles is astounding and when you see it in person you really know where it all went- gold.

Ceiling in one of the rooms. I'm thinking of doing this to my apartment.

 There are a few interior courtyards. To think people used to walk to and fro here is kind of mind boggling. I couldn't quite wrap my head around living in a place this big. Although when you're fighting with someone it would be handy because well you don't have to leave to not see them!

One of the several interior courtyards.

I finally made my way outside. We had separated since we all had different interests. You can rent a golf cart to drive around the grounds. I was tempted, but alas I wasn't going to spend the euros on a golf cart and miss something. Hind sight I should had because I missed seeing the gardens.

Backside of the chateau leading to the gardens.

This is the view from the top of the stairs. I was bowled over by the sheer size of this place. You think you understand it when you read about Versailles and when you see some pictures, but it is astounding to stand at the top of the stairs and look out and still not see half of the place. It's amazing. I was only able to cover a small portion. If you walk down towards the first fountain and turn right you go into an entirely different section. It was incredible.

That's all water out there and leads to the more extensive gardens.

After seeing Versailles my opinions changed. I would go back again in a heartbeat to see some of the places I missed. There are so many different facets to the entire place and the town is equally interesting. If you ever find yourself in France it's worth the visit to see Versailles.

Buckingham Palace

I went to Buckingham Palace. I just like to throw that around now. "You know that balcony, well it reminds me of the one at Buckingham Palace." or "Hmm that carpet just reminds me of Buckingham Palace." Or (and this is my favorite one) "Yes Catherine's dress was indeed amazing, but you really don't get to see how amazing until you see it up close. Like I did. When I went to Buckingham Palace." Yeah see they just don't get old!

I have to tell you getting to see Buckingham was quite an issue. I being the intelligent person I am reserved a space for mom, sister and I to visit. I was proactive! It was awesome! I scheduled it for 10 am in the morning and our plane was scheduled to land at 8:30 am at Gatwick, about 30-40 minutes north of London. So much for pro-activity!I did an immediate faceplam when I realized this. Thankfully our flight landed at 8:00 am and we were a little ahead of schedule. Getting there was still difficult in that we had to manuever five people through customs and on the train down to London and then to our hotel. It was touch and go there for a little while.

But we arrived, after some creative driving from our cabby (who was AWESOME!), in one piece to the palace. Then we had to race around the to side where you entered all to find out we could have been a few minutes late and still gotten in. SO I could have changed into real shoes and brushed my teeth rather than showing up looking like some poor slob who had thrown herself off a plane, onto a train, onto the tube, into a taxi and off onto the streets. I also could have used some real shoes instead of flip flops. My feet hurt after that excursion. But it was worth it. It was so worth it. I will say I have not a single interior picture, they don't let you take any. These were some of the first pictures I took of the entire trip.

The back of Buckingham. There is a small restaurant out here.

Tops of the lights. Look closely, it PINK!

Another shot of the back. It was a beautiful day.

Front fence. It doesn't move, found that out later.

Again, more lions. Symbol in England.

Detail on the front gate

More fish with the lamps

The aforementioned balcony. SO. FREAKING. COOL!

Detail work in one of the pediments up front.

Crest on the gates

Gate which leads into the courtyard. 

Trafalgar Square

Our first full day in London was an experience that ended in the famed Tragalgar Square. I love the sky in these pictures. It was shortly after the rain moved through and left us with this beautifully crystal clear blue. You can see a hint of the clouds as they moved out in the background of this one. It was stunning to see in person I must say. I love the sky after rain has moved through. It just looks clean.

 I told you there were lions everywhere. There are four around the base of the monument. I had a sucker of a time getting one with all the people around.

This was a family vacation, the five of us actually were able to coordinate our schedules and jump on a plane! It was awesome to share it with them. We're a close knit group and since none of us are married we tend to still vacation together when we can.

 

                                                      I just liked this fountain. It was cool.

I can't remember who this is a statue of, but honestly I took it more for the architecture behind him.... I have a problem. But it's okay.

Another shot of the fountains. With the cooler temps and the fountain spray it was quite chilly. My little cardigan was working overtime.

The National Gallery is in the background. We wanted to go, but just ran out of time. I want to go back and see it though.

London's Streets

After years of false starts I finally made it to London. I have a huge obsession with the city and to say I was in hog heaven really doesn't do my excitement justice. I was in love. I have 1100 pictures from 3 days. Not even kidding. I'm a little bit obsessed with architecture though. Broken pediments and Corinthian columns! Oh my heart swells at the thoughts. So seeing as this sort of started out as a travel blog I figured I would share with you some of my favorite street shots from London. 

I couldn't resist the picture of the Canadian embassy. I had just represented Canada at my last MUN conference as a delegate. Holds a special place in my heart.

Can't remember where this was taken, but I just loved it!

A monument near the Tower of London. The sky was blue when we went into the Tower and a steely gray when we came out. It rained- shocker in London I know!

These were the lamp posts near the London Bridge and by the London Eye. They were AWESOME in person. Loved them.

Lions were all over the city. I cannot remember where this one was located. But it was somewhere in London. Hey I never claimed to be a geographer!

It's the little embellishments that make the difference.

I can't remember where this was taken, but I just liked it.

Random building. But I love the domed roof next to the mansard style roof. LOVE!

 This is a World War II memorial over looking the River Thames near Big Ben. It was really cool and for a family that LOVES history (two of us have a B.A. in History) we couldn't pass up getting some shots of this.

My dear sweet goofy mother couldn't leave London without a picture of herself in one of the phone boxes. And with Big Ben poking out in the distance and the street closed off for a cycling race we stopped here for the shot. She was so excited. I love her.