mixing it up a bit!

we have had a wonderful time skiing/snowboarding ....it's so great for our family to get out together....enjoying some of the fun in life!  that's when life is good.  no mom saying, "did you do your homework yet?"..."please empty the dishwasher"......"get off the computer now!"  it certainly is good for all of us to enjoy outdoor sports and activities together.  just getting away gives us all a new perspective and a relief from our busy lives.  just us.  

mixing it up a bit....that's how my husband and i see it.  when we're out and about, with friends and seeing lots of other people....it just seems to mix it up a bit.  we have us and that's great!  but, take us, move us, shake up the routine, mingle and meet and look at things and people with and without all of us.....it's mixing it up a bit!

we did.  since our early dating days, we always said, "we meet the nicest people wherever we go!"  it's true.  we dated, got married, had kids, had dogs.....and with each new endeavor,  we meet the nicest people wherever we go.  i think that's just 'cuz we expect to meet nice people.  actually, while we were dating and staying out in the hamptons during the summer, we found a great old,rundown,  ramshackle building that looked like it had once been a very small sailing club....maybe a beach community on the bay.  riding our bikes, one beastly, hot summer day, we wandered down a dune swept breezy lane and  the sight of the delapidated shack was a relief to both of us.........it was on the water, so we could sit on the dried out,  splintered, sunwashed dock and splash our sunburned feet in the cool water.  we sat back and imagined how it used to be.  we imagined the families who once enjoyed barbeques, beach parties and baoting in common.  we imagined the relaxed atmosphere of the location. we imagined the sunny days of summer there and the early fall as the families departed for their other lives back at home, somewhere else, somewhere that life was not as simple.

we loved that spot.  we brought friends back by bicycle. we took pictures. we laughed about what we could do to the place.  we dreamed of bringing it back. we dreamed of the days to come and the life that would be there.  we dreamed of the twinkling nights at night with families dancing to smalltime bands. we dreamed of colorful bathing suits, beachballs and keds, the sneakers. simple life.  very simple life just for people who were just "nice".  we dreamed of the name posted on the sign out front...."the nice people's club", for nice people.

we like to mix things up a bit. when we're out and about....just having fun with us and with others we meet along the way.

it's really not that corny.  it sounds corny.  we're not that corny! 

so, while we were up in new hampshire, we had to rent some skis....for us.  we stopped into the store, the one my daughter pointed out....because she saw the advertisement in a local magazine, they had great skis.....colorful skis by a name brand surfer company.  what fourteen year old girl could resist?  that was our ski stop.  they had just the right skis for us.

we saw a "life is good" store across the street in the very small summer/winter "resort" town.  who doesn't love a life is good store?  the t-shirts always crack me up.  while my husband got me a cup of coffee at dunkin donuts, grace and i ran across to do a "speed shop" ...we shopped, the salespeople were friendly and approached gently to offer help, but only if we needed it.  as we made our choices, my husband came in.  he had my small coffee with milk.  we were paying and i took a peek under the lid. "yuk", i said.  what?  it was the wrong kind. it was back coffee with sugar.  "epic fail!", as our kids would say.  my husband recoiled and said, "oh no!"........now, he's a man who has learned the perfection of just the right amount of milk with just the right amount of coffee.  it's not that he cares.....he takes his coffee black...it's that he respects my fragile coffee self.  with an uncanny desire to have my coffee, both hot with a capital H and just the right "color" coffee.  my pecadillos are many.....it pleasures me to know that i have friends with similar coffee pecadillos....go figure.  it more than pleasures me that my husband knows these pecadillos and loves me despite them!

well,  "we meet the nicest people.....",  a woman in the store seemed to understand  our concern.  as a local, she assured us, "go back and tell them that it's wrong, they'll give you another!"....we weren't sure.  she prodded.  why?  because she had the same pecadillo.....the coffee pecadillo.  my husband returned with a new coffee and we began to get in the car.  he said, "look what the woman wrote on your cup!".....i looked.  i laughed.  i said, "wait, i've gotta show this to the people in the store!" i ran in and showed them my cup that read, "sorry for our mistake....hope you enjoy this one!"......everyone in the store was happy to share the coffee joy and we all had a good laugh.  and off we went!

the next day, at the mountain, we were buying our lift tickets and we heard someone say, "hey, did you get a good cup of coffee this morning?"  it was our newfound, "life is good"friend, from the store.  she was working at the mountain.  we all had alot of laughs.  we introduced our friends, who would be skiing more than us this winter.  we bumped into each other again and again.  we all had alot in common.  we said our big goodbyes after three days.....just goes to show you, "we meet the nicest people..."

life is good, especially when we're mixing it up a bit!