A Full Life

I’m back! On the bi-weekly cadence I originally promised, nonetheless. Bet you didn’t expect to see me in your inbox on time.

Don’t get used to it. It’s summer and I can’t be held liable for the last minute decisions I make, plans I throw together, or peaks I decide must-be-summitted-on-Saturday-because-holy-shit-look-at-that-weather-window-and-my-alarm-is-already-set-for-2AM.

You get the point.

Backcountry Chronicles

Has anyone else ever noticed the correlation between warmers months and lists taking over the internet?

I’m serious. It feels like every year Memorial Day hits and my entire Substack feed is filled with lists upon lists upon lists. It’s stuff to do, books to read, places to camp, the best hikes in Colorado—you name it, someone’s listed it.

I like to think of it as the excited potential energy that’s been stored up all winter turning into kinetic energy. As we all come into the warmer months, I think it’s natural to shift that energy from the things we say we want to do into the things we actually do.

While I’m sorry to tell you that I don’t have a list of my favorite Amazon finds or what I wore to some snazzy event, I will give you a list of things that brought me joy over the last few weeks.

Starting off strong with the aforementioned honeysuckle bush. I’ve stopped and smelled it every single time I’ve walked past it over the last two weeks. I hope you can imagine the smell as you look at this picture.

At long last, Caamp’s new album is here! I’m still working through it — and doing so with a little-more-than-a-wee-bit of trepidation, solely because Lavender Days is such a god-tier album in my eyes. Regardless, there are few feelings better than working from home on a Friday with a brand new album playing in the background from one of your favorite bands.

The quotes above my desk: a mix of Suleika Jaouad and Maggie Rogers. These are new additions as of the last few weeks, but I always smile when I look up at them, no matter what time of day.

I was audibly laughing out loud while watching Dakota Johnson on Hot Ones. Summer might mean lists, but it also means romantic comedy season and subsequent romantic comedy press tours. Consider me satisfied.

This quote that one of my friends (Hi, Dana ❤️) shared with me last week. I’ll be saving this screenshot forever.

This substack article, Taste Is The New Intelligence. I love, love, love the feeling of reading something that so eloquently puts its finger on something you’ve felt but struggled to find the words to articulate.

I wasn’t quite ready to hang up the cleats for the season, so I went skinning one last time at Berthoud Pass last Friday. Being out in the backcountry with friends is already something that makes every single tuning fork in my soul hum, but being out there with golden retrievers (Retrievers! Plural!) was a level of nirvana I don’t think words can describe.

My favorite artist, Bella McGoldrick, published a new YouTube video about finding her first-ever studio space. Despite completing and selling countless full collections of work—each collection including anywhere from 15-20 pieces—and self-publishing a coffee table book, all of her work at this point was done at a table in her kitchen. Artists, man. I just love ‘em.

The way the sunlight was hitting my colored pencils at 4PM on a Monday as I wrapped up my last call of the day. An apartment with an art nook continues to be the best money I’ve ever spent.

I made the brilliant decision to re-read Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed. This one doesn’t need much explanation. If you haven’t read it, please take this as your sign that you must.

I opened up to a friend a few weeks ago about feeling down and thinking I needed some good mind-numbing novels to rip through this summer. Less than 12 hours later, she showed up at my front door with this stack of books. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.

A friend sent me a meme about Francois The Mouse a few weeks ago and I love him wholeheartedly.

It’s officially sunflower season in Denver!!! I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw my first one of the season on my walk last week and beamed ear-to-ear.

Is there any feeling better than curating a playlist that feels like it’s perfect for the season of life that you’re in? I’ve been working on one for the last few weeks and walking around New York City with this playing all day made me cry, laugh, smile, and, of course, feel so much pure joy.

I’ve written about this feeling before, but I couldn’t help but feel lucky when I was looking at my drying rack in my apartment the other day. Set up in the part of my apartment that I call my “gear nook” (ie: the place for my biking, climbing, and skiing equipment), surrounded by paintings and drawings that I made, my drawing rack had some of my base layers and workout clothes on it after a great week of skiing, hiking, and getting outside.

Last but certainly not least, you had to know I was gonna talk about Katie’s book launch last week. This photo of our group hug at the launch event is getting framed in my apartment ASAP. If you don’t already own a copy of Rich Girl Nation, what are you doing?

Leaving you with one of my favorite Cody Townsend quotes, a la the latest edition of the FIFTY+:

'We go until it doesn’t make sense anymore’. 

- McCall 🌻

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