As I mentioned in my last post, I spent this weekend with seeing old friends at the Colts Drum Corps 50th Anniversary Reunion.  The details of that affair can be spared a bit to my exploding facebook page (way too many pictures reminding me how so many of us hasn’t changed … and that I really need to start eating healthy again).  As I sit in the airport and recover, a couple of items ran through my head.

I  have these “theories”.  They include, to name a few:
– The 50 Mile Radius
– The Pillow Theory
– The Ketchup Theory
– The “Everything Applies” Theory

They always start with a story, then it seems to apply to things everywhere else (which is kinda the “Everything Applies” Theory, but don’t get me distracted).  Today, I am living in two of those theories – and those both transend my past weekend to life up in Alaska and most things I have been.

First … “Coming Off the Mountain”
In 1999, I took an epic road trip out to the east coast for a 10 day ride around to different Civil War Battlefields.  At the time, I was pretty unhappy with my job and had looked forward to this break as much from work as it was for what I would do.  Just about the last thing I did was visit the Shenandoah National Park and drive the Skyline Drive, a 105 mile road running across the crest of the Appalachian Mountains in western Virginia.  The road basically climbs up half way before you hit the park, and the other half in the park; but you go down the whole way the last 10 miles of the road.  As I drove down back then, I was slowly realizing that by the time I got off the mountain all roads would lead me back to work and my daily life.  The concept started to depress the heck out of me, but it was what it was.  Since then I noticed that there was always a point when at the end of a vacation that I have to “come off the mountain”, when the vacation is over and I get back to work.  Sometimes it is before the vacation is over, like that trip in 1999, sometimes it is days or weeks later.  I hope that this trip, this little mini-vacation, sticks with me.  I’m not ready to come off this mountain.  But that’s okay, it will happen and when that comes it will be good for me to remember it for what it is.

Second … “The Law of Anecdotal Value”
This isn’t mine to credit, because I first heard it from NPR Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me Host Peter Siegel.  The Law basically comes down to this idea: Make decisions in your life that will some day end up to be a really cool story.  Arguably, if you read this blog you have to guess that the fact the blog exists is proof of that kind of a decision.  I didn’t move to Alaska assuming that it would be just a series of work day after work day after work day – but things were going to happen.  Of course, since y’all haven’t left me to read about quilting accomplishments, I am guessing I had a few cool stories.  This weekend, there were soooooooo many cool stories told.  From the worst parade days ever, to people left behind on free days, to good shows to bad shows, to mallow cups, the bad water in Streeter, Illinois, to old friends gone, and to new things we may have missed.  Sometimes what we face every day isn’t the things we want, and they may make us angry, upset, or hurt at the time — but someday, they WILL be a great story if we let time pass us by.

Back in Alaska tonight, and a mad rush to get everything in order for family to come up in early August.  That and we will see what happens from that point on.