It was a rainy September afternoon as I sat in a cafe window seat in Salt Lake City. The droplets on the window to my right were dainty and bright as I scribed a letter to a man I’d met a couple weeks prior. My heart thudded against its cage as words spilled onto the…
I left my seasonal employment stint in Montana this past September and bumped into a tall, handsome man on my way through Utah. We share the same last name now. And while I was unsure how I’d ever see him again as I drove the couple thousand miles back to Georgia, I certainly never expected I’d become his…
I never wanted to be the engaged girl. I never wanted the cute couple-y pictures, the wedding registry, the save-the-dates hung on a hundred guests’ refrigerators. I much less wanted to be the married one, who, in my mind, would be set apart from single people in an irreversible, superior way. I didn’t want my…
I’m getting married March 11, 2017 to a man I’ve known for just over two months. It doesn’t make sense to some people, but to the people who have watched it unfold from the front row, it came as little to no surprise. A lot of you have wondered the back story, and so for those…
Hi friends, I’m putting Duly Noted on pause for the next few weeks and would love for you to join me over at www.amateurhourblog.com. My friend Jordan and I are putting out a 12 week series on what it takes to step in the direction of our dreams and of doing the things that matter….
Curled into my down comforter, the box fan in my window is blasting crisp fall air into the room. The contrast of welcoming warmth and biting breeze could not be more perceptible. Autumn is here in Montana, and we seasonal workers are stirring to move on to our new winter homes. Sentimentalism mixes with the…
What do you have in your backyard? Mine includes the Continental Triple Divide, twenty-five glaciers, a multitude of bears and moose and goats, an enormous see-through lake, and the US/Canadian border. Needless to say, my weekends are packed with hiking and camping and skimming rocks from the beach. It’s been a year since I picked…
From the time I left Georgia a year ago to work seasonally in the National Parks, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve heard “can I have your life?” or “your life is so much cooler than mine!” In the beginning I took those remarks as innocuous compliments, but then I realized how dangerous…
I told myself I wasn’t going to do this. I said I was going to wait until my trip to Montana was finished before I processed these last several months. Maybe it’s the IPA in my belly, or maybe my heart has sprung a leak, but this is the first time in months I’ve known it’s…
“Because you’re a woman,” were the words I heard as I asked why I should be the one to vacuum the dining room floor at work the other night. And I know he meant it as a joke, but the words stung like lemon in a wound, and I knew there was at least an…
