Lookin' Good. Feline Lucky.

It's uncanny how I was just talking about timing and how being at home is where I'm meant to be right now.

Because the next day, I ended up winning a trip to Mexico and $1000 playing a game of luck at a Hospice auction I attended with my parents.

Where did that even come from!

And it was a heads or tails game, so it's not like any skills were involved. 100% chance and somehow, I miraculously managed to get down to the top four (in a game of about seventy), and won to the ecstatic cheering of my mom and dad when tails was the winner.

It's wild to me, how things work like that. I think the only other time I had ever won something (at all) was at my graduation party in San Francisco when I won an Anthropologie mug, and I thought then that I was rolling in the dough! Last night, I was literally rolling in the dough, and I had a free trip to Mexico alongside it.

I was given a chance last night, encouraged by my mom to take part in the game ("But Mom, I never win!") and something perfect turned out because of it.

You just never know when life's gonna throw you something worth holding onto. Best be sure you're dressed for the part!

Lookin' good, feline lucky...

Winner #106! What an enjoyable evening with the fam.

Bloom Where You're Planted, Even If It's Covered In Snow.

Mom had been gone for just under twelve hours before things started to go downhill.

First, I went into the ditch. Forty minutes of shoveling later, a neighbor took pity on me in my snowy state and kindly pulled me out, much to my embarrassment.

That same day, my dad took a spill on the trails and ended up dislocating his clavicle, tearing his rotator cuff, and pulling a hammy.

And Mom had just left the day before! She really does hold the family together.

Things looked pretty dim there the start of the week, but as the week wore on, I realized that I am exactly where I need to be, when I need to be.

Think about it. If I hadn't been here, Dad would be alone with no one to care for him (and there's lots to care for with a guy with one arm).

If I wasn't here, I wouldn't be able to enjoy the dumping of snow we've recently been receiving.

If I wasn't here, I wouldn't be able to fan girl with my dad whenever a good basketball game was on and we wouldn't be able to shout out: "Atomic athleticism! He drilled that three and obliterated the interior!"

If I wasn't here, I wouldn't be able to enjoy spin classes with my mom and daily trips to Coffee Roasters.

And most importantly, I wouldn't be able to give all my love to my cat. Fudge without daily attention is a catastrophe just waiting to happen.

You see, what matters most is the moment of now. I can live hanging on to the past, weeping through photo albums, and I can anxiously worry about the future; or, I can live effortlessly in the gift of the present. Everything happens for a reason, and I truly believe that being in Alaska right now is where I'm meant to be. My presence is helping others (Mom, Dad, Fudge) and I think that the break truly is allowing me to consider my next steps with thorough and careful thought.

It took Mom leaving and my dip into the ditch for me to figure that out, but better late than never!

Plus, you simply cannot beat a tromp through fresh snow in lovely thirty degree weather...

Forever home sweet home...