From the Big Box of my Life...part 1

I've been slowly sifting through a very large box of memorabilia that my mom has given me.  It's a ton of stuff from pictures, drawings, report cards, old birthday cards, school work, corsages etc...  It's been fun looking through my life.  It's so strange to think of myself as 36 though.  I see all my stuff from my childhood and feel like it was just yesterday when I got my first pony or my first car.

There are some great things in this box that I can't wait to share with you all.  I can't believe all the crazy things that my mom kept.  There are funny, emotional, informational and cute memories in there.  Here's the first two fun things that I discovered in the big box of my life.

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I was a florist when I lived in Telluride (01-05) at the China Rose Greenhouse that used to be in this old little funky lean-to building on the corner of Oak and Pacific across from the Old Honga's.  Those were some good times in that spot.  The front part of the old historical house was residential and still even had bullet holes in the tin ceiling from the rowdy days.  The back part of the house was the florist shop and we had a little garden in the yard on the side where we kept all the annual flowers and perennials for sale.  It was the cutest little place.  Now, it's a new big second home complex.

Everyone used to call me the China Rose girl.  It kinda stuck.  Years later, I had some customers ask me what my real name was!  haha.  I remember drinking Ska beer with the neighbors in the other little shack next door (Dave & Joey).  I remember Dusty and the other Honga sushi chef (who wears the raccoon hat, what's his name?) would play baseball in the streets before the restaurant was open.  Mmmmm......and Sarah's mason jar mojitos (you could only drink 2).  I remember busting out hundreds of Valentine arrangements after hours with Sandy while drinking Beck's and getting stoned.  I would ride the gondola to and from work everyday.  Life was so simple then when I was in my mid twenties.  Good good times.

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I also had a once in a lifetime experience in France the summer before my senior year in high school.  I got to stay with a French family (mostly their 20 year old daughter) and travel around France.  We stayed in their flat in Port Camargue for most of the time which is on the Mediterranean.  What a  summer that was for me!  I can't wait to return there someday.  I sure hope it's sooner than later.  I loved it.  I also loved the food.  I gained 15 lbs. that summer.  They called me "Ventre du jambe" which means stomach with legs.  Yep!  I never said I was a girl who didn't like to eat.  I definitely live to eat instead the other way around.  I indulged big time.  I experienced.  I lived a little crazy.  I did things that I have NEVER done. I got drunk for the first time.  I'm not talking high school wine cooler drunk.  I'm talking bottle of Jameson drunk and wine drunk.  I stayed up in the city all night long. I went topless. I ate and ate.  I went to incredible places.  It was freaking awesome especially at 17.  It was that moment in your young life when you realize the world is a big place with beautiful, unique people.

I just found this postcard in the box that I had mailed back to my family.  It is hysterical!  Being a mom now, I can only imagine the shock on their faces when they read it.  Pretty priceless.

Here's the front of the postcard

And Here's the back of it

Looking back through my life has been so good for me.  Andy and I have been back and forth through the years about moving back to Telluride.  We are going to do it this time.  I have had a lot of fear about it.  This past summer when I would show the house to potential renters I could barely get through without balling my eyes out.  It's easy to get stuck in your comfortable self.  But, looking through my life it reminds me that I am a courageous adventurer.  I can do this!  I will do this!  I won't be afraid of shaking up the old comfy feeling.  It will all be well.  It will all be well.  It will all be well.  It will all be well.  It will all be well.