A weekend of art, wine and wind to boot

MOCA in Virginia Beach hosted the Boardwalk Art Show this past weekend. As a dabbling photographer and artist I must say, I would not have traveled three hours to an art show on my own accord. Luckily for me, I have a wonderful and socially inclined friend Inese. Inese decided a vacation was in store and off we went before the sun rose on Friday morning to the beach. We sat on the beach in the late morning bundled in blankets as the wind whipped through our hair and the waves crushed the sand. It was a day at the beach only in the realistic sense.
We didn't even last the day battling the cold winds, we ended up in the cheap tourist hub Sunsations. We had to buy low priced and even lower quality hoodies. We weren't letting the wind run us out of town though.
We were not alone, over the weekend I smirked at every cheap "Virginia Beach" hoodie purchased by a surprisingly cold tourist.
The ART SHOW! We came for one main reason, ok many, but the big even was the art. I logged 10+ hours perusing the booths; admiring, gawking and flipping wide-eyed through photographs and paintings. I met the artists and heard of their unique approach and method for metal working, editing, collaging, painting and the like.
Photographer Matthew Carasella said I was his "little blue tent's" biggest fan of the show. I'm putting that on my resume!! I bought two of his prints. You can see more of his work at http://www.socialshutterbug.com/
Overall, I was completely inspired to get back to art at some level at least.
Here I go on my vacation to Maine and I have my camera (of course) in tow with an accomplice; my tripod! Lighthouses and coast line be prepared. Thank you Inese for the art inspiration, you are my muse.

Yoga fearless friends and the fair weather friend

Why I cannot bite the bullet and commit to more yoga in my life is beyond me. I still feel a bit silly,when outside of a yoga studio, doing sun salutations.
This morning I will be partaking in Oceanfront Yoga, silly or not I will enjoy the strong wind in my face, sun in my eyes and great yoga in the sand. I will not allow myself to be a fair weather friend anymore.
As I move through the poses I will think of my friends who fearlessly take on yoga, whether here or there, high or low. The people who absorb the moment the environment the poses and not the impressions of others.

As you read this, fearless yogi friends of mine, know that you are next to me as I am on the beach in warrior pose. Strong, fearless, taking on the sun sand and wind, I am thinking of you.

Julia, Here's the Deal...

So here is the deal, my sisters and I are very close.  That's us with our dad two thanksgivings ago, 2009, before my deployment.

Top Row L-R:Julia, Robby (step dad), Alice (mom)
Bottom Row L-R: Ashleigh, Wendy (me), Ariel, Meredyth

We are close in age, and have grown even closer as the time passes and the miles between us increase.
Here we are at my mom Alice Perry's wedding 26 (27, 28?) December of 2009, days before my deployment to Afghanistan.

Meredyth, Wendy, Julia

On Christmas Day 2009, covered in the bows from our presents, in Due West, SC.

Wendy, Ashleigh, Julia, Meredyth (front and center)

Here we are again for Meredyth's bridal shower in Virginia, June 2011.

So if four pictures don't do it for you just take my word for it, we are close. Byrd sisters mean a lot, they have veto rights on the men in each other's lives, they will listen intently to each other's whining and gloating, crying and blabbing, boredom and frustrations.  One day they may need to listen to your sobs the next lay out the news you don't want to hear.  My sisters mean the world to me.
Julia and I trained for last year's Army 10-miler together, I ran it with my best friend Ethan just a month after she left for Botswana.  This year I will run it again, a lone Byrd girl in a sea of meaningless people (meaningless because you are not a Byrd sister when that's all I want).

Lately I have been a bit jealous... you see Meredyth and Julia have this ongoing affair... and I want a Byrd sister love affair of my own.  Julia has been gone less than a year and I don't like it.  Yes I was gone longer and it was difficult, yes, she is having a life changing time and its good for her, shut up.

Meredyth is enjoying married life in Austin, TX.  Julia is semi-miserable in Botswana, Africa and I am still a student in Northern Virginia.  Don't get me wrong I am always enjoying life, beachside enjoying life at the moment, but everyone is away.
Back to this affair...
Meredyth and Julia have this on going blogpal and I want my piece of the Byrd pie.
So here's the deal.
Julia, will you take me, Wendy, to be your second oldest sister and second blogpal?
We need to do our 10-miler training again, and each week blog back to tell the other about our weekly runs.  Its not hard, half the time I will be telling you how I missed two days of the schedule and you'll tell me an antelope joined you on your run.

So will you.  Here is the training program in PDF form, I will also email it to you.

Training begins on Monday.