Life is...

This post is out of order but fresh on my mind and heart so I'm posting.

Life is hard.
Life is short.
Life is not fair.

But, life is also very good.  So live life like you want to, like it means something to you, and you mean something to it. 

Fifty weeks ago pretty much to the day I found out one of my close friends, Ashleigh Range (www.myjourneywithibc.blogspot.com) was diagnosed with Inflammatory Breast Cancer.  To cut to the chase, it's been a year of chemo, radiation, surgery, hoping and praying for a miracle.  It has not happened yet. 

Ashleigh is one of those people who you first meet and go "Wow, I wanna be friends with her." And then naturally, because she's so warm and outgoing, you do.  She's extremely intelligent (free-ride-to- MIT for LGO program smart) but also has the kind of warmth that a mother has that makes you gravitate to her and open your heart up to her (which is exactly what I did when we ran together three times a week in the sweltering Dallas heat).  So naturally I was devastated, I mean, devastated... anxiety producing, awake in the night, kind of devastation when I learned of her diagnosis.

If you check her blog, you'll see a Godly woman who has the most amazing spirit of anyone you would ever meet.  She's got a supportive husband and two very young children...and she's battling for her life, literally.  She was recently told she had about two months to live (and that was roughly a month ago).  She spent about two weeks in the hospital and then miraculously became healthy enough to go home for now.  I was fortunate enough to have time off work, a supportive manager, and funds to buy a ticket and go visit her this week.

It's very difficult to explain what life is like in her household right now.  It's a home of hoping and praying, but also of reality - that it may be a home without Ashleigh in the near future (at which point I think just becomes a "house" vs. a "home" for quite a while).  It's a home with two young boys who need constant care and are a very happy distraction to a very difficult time.  But it's a home with love, regardless of the situation. And I was so very, very, happy to get to spend time with all of them, especially Ashleigh.  It's going to take a miracle to save her, but a miracle can.

So back to the essence of this post --- life is short, hard, unfair.  But it's our life and it is what we make of it.  So the next time you complain frivolously, or think something is unfair, irritating, etc, get some perspective.  I have been working on that a lot over the past year and it's helpful.

Be grateful.
Be humble.
Be a good friend.
Be thankful.

But most of all, live your life. 

Memorial Day 2015 - Bend, OR

Hello,

I’m not sure if I even have any readers anymore, but feel like writing and documenting a few things regardless.  It’s been a busy year (I think that’s the last time I posted).  Unfortunately I’ve not kept a detailed list of everything that I’ve done, but I have posted on my Instagram account pretty regularly (@melaniemeidson) so take a peek.  I can assure you that my year has been filled with lots of travel and lots of fun.  I’ve been too busy to actually sit down to write, so in my book that’s a good thing.

Here’s a few things that have gone on in the past month or so:

1)      Went to Japan! I headed there for work and booked an extra week to do sightseeing with a friend of mine.

2)      Mountain biked, rock climbed, trail ran, drank beer and ate good food in Bend, Oregon with friends for our annual Memorial Day Weekend trip.

3)      Co-hosted a baby shower for one of my best friends, Sara, in Atlanta. Then became Aunt Meme to baby Thomas not long after.

4)      Became a Godmother to precious baby David and visited him in Boston.

5)      Went to Leavenworth, bought a mountain bike (left town again before I could ride it…)

6)      Hosted a colleague and friend from the UK at our cabin and did an amazing hike up to Colchuck Lake.

7)      Decided to get a dog (more to come on that).

I just finished a trip to Dallas to visit my friend, Ashleigh.  As the list above can attest, I’ve not been in one place for very long.

In the effort to actually get something posted, I’m not going to start with Japan because it seems like such a huge (and somewhat daunting) post to get back into the swing of things.  I’ll have to brush up on my writing skills before I tackle something so grand.

So, Bend.

Oh, Bend.  What an awesome place.  Anyone reading this who works in Bend who wants to offer me an amazing job, please reach out!  This weekend was particularly amazing because Will, some friends, and I took off an extra day off work so we had a four day weekend. Yes, four day weekend.  Pretty great. 

Instead of staying at our usual favorite hotel, McMenimans, which was full, I booked us a little house right in town.  It worked out great, even better than a hotel, because we could all hang out together and this place had a wonderful backyard and hot tub.  We had SO much gear (five mountain bikes, climbing gear, camping gear, etc.) that it would have been impossible to fit in a hotel room.  We could still walk to town to go out for drinks or dinner…. and that we did ;)

It was the ‘usual suspects’ in our crew – us, Jonas, Shawn – but as of November we’d added a new member --- Jonas’s new girlfriend, Maureen.  She’s great.  We also had a new ‘ride’ this year --- Jonas bought a Tacoma.  And, technically speaking I owe eating a steak to him.  I made the foolish comment that “If Jonas buys a Tacoma I’ll eat a steak” because it’s expensive and I assumed he would buy another Subaru.  But alas, he did not.  He’s been very kind so far not to make me cash in on my debt.  

Our weekend started with camping at Smith Rock with the intent to climb the next day.  Smith is my very favorite rock climbing location to-date.  However, we woke up to a wet ground, and tents, and wet rock…so, instead we all went to brunch ;)  Not a bad compromise.  Once finished with our amazing brunch at Chow the sun had come out and we headed out to Phil’s Trails for some exercise (boys went mountain biking and Maureen and I ran).  As we were giving the boys a lift back to the house (they were thrown in the bed of the truck since they were muddy), Maureen looked at me and said “Remember when you first met me and said we better like each other because we’d be spending lots of alone time together?”  Yes, Mav, I do.  She said, “Now I get it.”  This made me laugh, not only because it is true (by default, I end up spending alone time with the girlfriends as the boys play) but because of her timing.  I replied, “I assume you like me since you are bring this up now when we are in the cab of a truck stuck with each other.”  Indeed, she does like me.

Each evening consisted of hanging out in our yard, hot tubbing (which is a sport), and going out on the town.  One noteworthy incident was when we happened to run into a very lively couple who were friends with Maureen.  They’d come down from Seattle for the long weekend as well and we just happened to run upon them.  The first words out of their mouth were “MAV! Is that you, MAV!?”  Of course, we all immediately started referring to her as “Mav” from there on out.

We spent the next couple of days riding our mountain bikes (and learning new required bike rider vocabulary like biff, bonk, brah, endo, etc.) and rock climbing.  Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and go back home.  One final important note was that Will became the owner of his first pair of boots.  We drove past a sign for the Boot Barn and he made us do a u-turn so he could pick up a pair.  Sad to leave, as usual, but happy we are able to drive there for vacation and have such great friends to share it with.

Sunning before brunch at Chow

Phil's Trails

Shawn, Mav, Jonas, me, Will

Me climbing a 5.10a route at Smith (credit - led by Jonas)