My First Corn Maze.

Posted on September 30, 2010 by Megan

Colorado isn’t really known for corn. Some of our neighboring states have quite the reputation (ahem, Nebraska and Kansas), but we’re more keen on our palisade peaches and western slope produce. Given that little nugget of knowledge I was thrilled to find out that there was a corn maze nearby at the Botanic Gardens. Meaning I was on the fast track to my first corn maze.

I can’t lie. I wasn’t expecting much. I figured the corn field was at the downtown Botanic Gardens location, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out where they would grow enough corn to boast a corn maze – but I was willing to go along for the ride. I looked up directions at the last-minute only to find that the corn maze was not growing downtown, but out in the boonies near Chatfield reservoir. I’m an idiot.

Christian (the boy) and I met a couple of friends (Kaitlyn and Griffin) and set out on one toasty adventure. Did I mention it was easily 96 outside? The maze was big — bigger than I ever thought possible in a small open space near the foothills. The corn was taller than me, which in itself is a decent feat.

After about 10 minutes I was ready to be done with the corn. I believe I said “Well this was fun for my first corn maze — and my last”. It was hot (so hot), the security guard was laughing at us, we got lost in the flower (see below) for what felt like forever … and we kept passing the same people. At first you think “Ha, you idiots don’t know where you’re going, see you at the end sucka’”… then as you rounded the corner to pass them for the 16th time it changes to “do you know where we are? I’ll give you my first-born child if you get me out of this maze”, but they were offering their first two children and a jar or cherry pie filling so we were out of luck.

Just when all hope was lost we came to and end, an opening. A sense of joy overcoming us all. This is what they refer to as the half way point.

Our fearless leader Griffin found his way on the TINY map printed on our tickets and maneuvered us around the second 1/2 of the maze. It’s amazing what you can do with a map.

We’d have saved ourselves an hour if we’d had it during the first half. Lesson learned. We weaved in and out of all the letters and made it to the end. Sweaty, covered in dirt, and quite proud of ourselves for completing and halfway cheating our way out of the maze. Feel free to pat us on the back if you feel the need.

It was hot, but in the end a great adventure. We rewarded ourselves with cherry Slurpees. Will we be back next year? Maybe, but on a day where you want to put more clothes on, not take the ones you’re wearing off. Plus, they had treats (funnel cakes, ice cream, hot chocolate, apple cider)… if I’d known that I would have gone AFTER dinner and eaten the whole way through the maze. Just saying.

If you feel urged to check it out, click here for more info!

My mom isn’t just a mom.

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Megan

Over the past few years I’ve started to take notice of new things and appreciate things that have been in my life from the beginning. I’ve started to really appreciate everything my parents did for me. I’ve started to realize that my parents are people… not just my mom and dad. I see myself in my mom and I see her in me. I relate to her.

It dawned on me that my mom is a girl too. I know, revolutionary. She had elementary school crushes and dreamed of her first kiss with prince charming, just like I did. She played sports in high school and giggled like an idiot with her friends because that’s what girls do, just like I did. She went to college, probably experienced heart-break and got her first job, just like I did.

She has emotions, she feels things and has days where nothing goes right and the world is against her. It’s hard to believe that the woman who always had the answer, always knew what to do and was always there probably had doubts, fears, flew by the seat of her pants… but that never once stopped her from being the best she could be.

It’s weird, I can’t pin point when exactly my mom stopped being a mom, and became a person. But she did. She works because she has to support herself, no longer to support me. She’s always been a great Mom, an amazing mom (though there were a few fights back in high school where I most certainly didn’t support that statement). But now, I realize she’s also an amazing woman, friend, sister, confidant and woman.

I love her and am eternally thankful for her. I’m blessed to be her daughter.

Goats

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Megan

I mentioned my dad’s farm a few posts ago. However, I believe I failed to mention one of the most fascinating and wondrous details from that time on the farm. Are you feeling excited yet? Well you should be.

My dad had all kinds of animals: Ducks, Geese, Dinosaur ducks (see picture below), guinea’s, a horse, chickens (and more specifically a flock of roosters created to attack and wreak havoc on bare human legs), three or four kinds of dogs, and goats.

They all seem rather average at first sight, but the goats, oh the goats, they were something special. They had magical powers — well, only one magical goat power. They fainted. My Dad had a herd of fainting goats. Please view this video for proper fainting goat, magical power education:

Those aren’t his specific goats, but they’ll do. And, that lady’s hair will always leave something to aspire to. I thought the fainting goats were the most novel thing since sliced bread and cell phones. You chase after them, their body becomes rigid as if they were instantaneously turning into a stone statue and they un-glamorously fall over, all within a matter of seconds. Like this:

And here is a baby, you know you want to take it home:

This here, this is Dodge. He’s old, cantankerous and capable of impregnating any and every female goat within a half mile. He has also trained his super powers to prevent himself from falling over. As a result, he just stiffens up and stands there. Boring.

There were three “goat herding” dogs that hung around as well, though only one *actually* watched and herded the goats (the one with the herd below). One took to guarding the mini-van (the lone one down below), clearly a precious possession while the other one meandered around constantly looking for something to eat (the one with the food bowl).

That’s all. I have to say if I EVER live on a farm again I will be obtaining a herd of fainting goats. Because I heart them.

Operation book sale.

Posted on September 13, 2010 by Megan

I love books. I love them. I get attached to them. That’s why for the entire past year I’ve been looking forward to the library book sale. Which happened to be this last weekend. I think I’m equally excited for Christmas as I am the book sale. <Insert nostalgic sigh>

I dragged the bf to be the muscle of the library book operation. Someone had to carry them around for me… and it was also payback for “teaching how to play a computer game involving tanks” at 10:00 the night before. I’m sure he loved every second, and by loved I may mean simply existed through the hour or so I spent digging through boxes and piles of books. I walked away (on day 1) with two bags full of books and $32 less in my wallet.

We went back after a quick lunch to fuel up on Sunday. Sunday is the holy grail of book sale days. You get as many brown grocery bags as you want and you fill them up with any and all books you want — and get this — it only costs $6 a bag! I had to elbow a greasy aunt Edna out of the way to score the signed Ann Packer book and loaded up with the Poison Wood Bible among others. Again I had the bf haul my books around and feigned interest. At one point he looks at me incredulously and says “Are you actually going to read all of these? This would take me a lifetime”.

And to that I replied. “I am”, good sir, I am.

$12.80 later and I’m home with this pile of love:

I don’t have a problem.

Posted on September 10, 2010 by Megan

I love food. Almost all of my posts make some reference to food, my love for it, going to get it, not being able to move because I ate so much my pants won’t zip and I have to be in a horizontal position so I can suffer less than if I were standing.

Sometimes I spend time thinking about Anorexia — and how there is no way in hell, even if the only thing available for eating was mushrooms, would I be able to not eat. Maybe for about an hour and then my hunger would take over and I’d devour the mushrooms, gagging them down the whole way. Barf, makes me want to barf thinking about it. Mushrooms… and raw tomatoes happen to be two of the things I don’t want in my mouth. Ever.

Back to eating. I think about it. I remember being in high school, in Hawaii on vacation, and right after eating breakfast I wanted to know where we were eating lunch and dinner. Why you ask? Oh, because I wanted something to look forward to. As if HAWAII wasn’t enough.

I get to work in the morning and begin planning out my snacking schedule in my head — right up there with my to do list and checking all my emails.

9:17 – WALNUTS AND A TOOTSIE POP!

10:46 – APPLE WITH PEANUT BUTTER AND HONEY!

12:32 – LUNCH, It’s time for LUNCH!!

2:13 – COOKIE TIME!!

I really am that excited, but only in my head. So, when it comes time to diet or eat “healthy”, my whole being suffers. It’s hard for me to dream about celery or fantasize about dried peas. So instead I dwell on everything I can’t eat, like that cinnamon roll with the cream cheese frosting or a good ‘ol box of mac ‘n cheese.

Knowing all of this, I have to tell you that I’ve gain a bit of weight. I haven’t gained 50 lbs. or anything, but I’ve gained more than I would have liked. Damn all that delicious pizza and birthday cake I consumed over the month of August.

I weighed the most I’ve ever weighed mid-way through my senior year in college. I spent the next 5-6 months working out, eating little and building some unhealthy habits. But, I lost about 20 lbs and kept most of it off until this summer when I threw caution into the wind and ate like crazy. I’m blaming part of it on having a roommate and a boyfriend that throughly enjoy delicious food. Cheesecake anyone? The answer is almost always a resounding yes.

So, I’m trying to get healthy, again. Trying get back down to where I was and then some, but do it in a healthier way. I’m nervous. Losing weight sucks because not eating french fries sucks. But, that’s not why I’m nervous. I’m nervous because I’m telling you, and you, and you. And now I have to be accountable. I have a fear of failure… so be nice. K?

*Photo Credit: B Tal

The month of August.

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Megan

Ok, people. Let’s pull it together now. Stop having all your baby-making sex in November. Why? Because if there is one more August birthday, I might just keel over and die.

I know that during the start of November it’s starting to get cold and that snuggling naked under the covers appears to make more sense than putting on a sweatshirt, but please, for the love of my waistline and my wallet, constrain yourselves.

Pleaseandthankyou.

P.S. And, yes, I know that having said that I’ve just cursed myself with a house full of babies born in August when the time is right. Damn it.

*Photo Credit: ex animø

Fall in love with reality.

Posted on September 1, 2010 by Megan

I read a post over at Heir to Blair which was based on a post at Life From Both Sides. It’s a thought that, like Heir to Blair, hit me smack in the face. Neither of their posts are incredibly long, but they both verbalized exactly what I’ve felt lately.

Overwhelmed and full of the “I’ll be happy when…” syndrome. I’d think about everything I didn’t have, what was going wrong, what I could be doing, who I was letting down and there wasn’t a way to escape the doldrums of my everyday life. I’d think “If I didn’t have to commute an hour each way I’d be happy”, “If I lose 10 lbs, I’ll be happy”, “If I get Charles his surgery I’ll be happy”, “If I didn’t have so much to do I’d be happy”. But, you know what, the moment I get those things, I find something else to base my happiness on. Which is a never-ending and, ahem, unhealthy cycle. Life slows down and I have time to be bored, I feel lazy and lonely. I lose 10 lbs. and realize I won’t be happy until another 10 lbs. is gone. Get the picture?

I read a quote somewhere, please forgive the paraphrasing, about how you put things off with the “someday” tag and hope you’ll get back to them, you’ll go to Italy someday, you’ll buy a house someday, you’ll go to the gym someday. But, someday is today. I need to stop putting off my life, and, most likely, so do you.

There are so many things I’m blessed to have and experience. I want to focus on that, I want to focus on the family that I love, my wonderful friends, my amazing boyfriend, my sweet puppy, living in beautiful Colorado, all the traveling I get to do, being financially stable, being healthy, etc.

So here it is. I’m on a quest to …

Life, Love & Garlic

Monthly Archives: September 2010