the world is my playground

in an unusual move, i chose to delete the post from this morning (well, ok, late late morning - practically early afternoon). i felt that today's adventures are such a continuation of yesterday's exploits that they warranted a single mass post of weekend goodness.

so, feeling rather redundant, i begin at the beginning - again.

yesterday was a blur of chaos and mayhem during the daylight hours. our intrepid reporter spent her now-atypical day shift getting into disagreements with law officials and tracking down all the news you could use - or at least, all the news she was determined to get to the bottom of. death, destruction, mayhem and scandal. whoo hoo, this is my life. or, rather, this is your life, northwestern vermont.

after the long day of feeling frazzled yet hooked on the rushing adrenaline, i raced home, reveled in calling out "hi honey i'm home" and hearing several voices respond in greeting and delighted in the arrival of more musical goodness from san diego - yay pete - before taking a bite of the sandwich beth and chuck brought home for my dinner (xoxoxoxo to you two), cleaning out the car, greeting becca, piling into the car and heading to bradford for musicial goodness of a different variety - the live kind.

we travel, we descend upon the musical hall nestled in the middle of bradford's surprisingly booming metropolis (at least by small town vermont standards) and we proceed to enjoy a couple of hours of performance by my favorite five guys from boston since nkotb.

the set-and-a-half worth of music was solid, per usual. i sang along and danced about, as always. witnessed more drinking - albeit less than last time (no need to keep the body temperature up this time around). good times had by all.

yet, for the first time in awhile at such a show, the band was an added bonus. the best thing was enjoying a mini-roadtrip with friends, chatting in the car and laughing, singing and dancing at the venue. i wasn't spending all of my time focusing on those standing beneath the lights - i was just as interested in interacting with the three people at my table in the shadows. i loved it.

special note: several new songs were performed - quite good. "with or without you" made its first appearance at a vickie-attended show since metronome. love the cover, loved the memories conjured.

said a hello, got a hug, made our way back onto the roads, on which we returned to the north and civilization. end of that story.

woke up to find the sun shining, sky gorgeously blue and the weather ready to cooperate with our tentative plans (finally). delightful lunch followed by walking around with hot chocolates/expressos/mint/tiramisu/don't-know-what-the-hell-it-was-anymore-but-it-was-good drinks. headed home and said some goodbyes-for-now before heading back downtown to meet up with johnoghue for tea and conversation. a walk while chatting led to the waterfront, where i was amazed to see people walking on the lake and playing hockey. after john's surprise that i'd never walked on the lake, we approached the shore and i took the first steps in my quest to walk on (frozen) water. my jitters about falling through quickly faded and we made our way to the breakwaters, then turned away from the fading sunset to look at burlington, lit up with neon and flourescence.

a few years ago, i wrote a story about kayaking and began it with something along the lines of "beyond the breakwaters of lake champlain lies a chance to see burlington in a new light." this evening, i finally saw that view and was amazed. so incredibly gorgeous - i felt a need to exclaim "I LOVE THIS CITY!!!"

during the walk back and several shortcuts and side routes to find new places i never knew existed, we walked up main street and passed the flynnspace. noticing james across the street, we wondered who the man was standing by him. deciding to say hello, we crossed and, when james turned, i exclaimed "OH MY GOD!!!"

he was with louns, my all-time favorite instructor EVER. i hadn't seen him since one of the last days of my junior year of college and had missed him tremendously. and had actually been talking about him a week and a half prior to this unexpected encounter.

with the day's events, what could have been simply a fun friday turned into a great weekend. i returned home feeling invincible and ready to take on vermont, the country, the world, the universe. ah. i feel almost as if i should mark this post so that i can return to it easily - whenever things are going badly, whenever i feel alone. because i have great friends, i live in a great place, spring is coming and life is grand.

but as i am on top of the world, i send thoughts of positivity to someone in need of hugs and sunshine. the one good thing about the lower left quadrant of the circle of fortune is that things must go up. and they will. and i'm arranging to be able to say that in person in mid-march, rebecca in tow.

ah ... i now turn to a movie, humming rilo kiley as i do so ...

... sometimes when you're on, you're really fucking on ... and your friends, they sing along and they love you ...

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo - victoria