heatherbristow
heatherbristow
| Forum role | Member since | Last activity | Topics created | Replies created |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Member | Jan 15, 2015 (11 years) |
- | 1 | 0 |
- Forum role
- Member
- Member since
Jan 15, 2015 (11 years)
- Last activity
- -
- Topics created
- 1
- Replies created
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Bio
I live in a big city with my husband The Paper Shredder, and my enormous sweet, goofy dog Mochi. We collect antiques and vintage stuff, and love making a good find. Older stuff seems to be made better and last longer. Until you get to the 70's. We bought a house that needs a lot of updates to bring it out of the 70's, because that's what you do when you buy a first home in an expensive city. If it were 1972, I would have the coolest small kitchen around. Literally my kitchen drawers are rubbing away into nothing, flake by flake of particle board, each time I open and close them.
Which is a lot, because I've learned to really love cooking. All of it. I love vegetables, desserts, meat, all food, really. Over the years, I've been vegan, vegetarian, and omnivorous, which is what I am now. The only thing is I need to buy $8/dozen eggs to feel good about being an egg consumer. Plus they taste amazing. Have you ever had a poached pasture-raised organic egg? Honestly, you couldn't know the difference it makes in the taste! But I really believe in organic, it's so much better for all of nature.
Oh, how I love nature. I think it's my one true love above all else (besides my husband and dog of course). When I'm outside, or my nose is in a landscaping book, I'm in my element. I love being around plants and getting to know them like I do my friends. Really! They all have their own personalities. For work, I'm a landscape contractor and designer, and I get to fiddle with plants and design. Really, what more could I ask for?
I could swear on everything I knew, when I was a kid, that leprechauns and gnomes and flower fairies were real. Thanks to my parents neglect of the back yard, the grass was so tall that I could crawl around and see what was hiding. I was in my own weird special fantasy world of strange bugs, and salamanders, four-leaved clovers, and flower dolls. My mother had a small screen box for catching bugs, and I really believed that my four-leaved clover in that box would turn into a leprechaun, if I could just find the right clover. And I think that's how I learned patience.
Mochi loves nature too, which is why we make a good pair. One of the things I love about him is that I can walk on any trail alone with this dog and feel safe. No one knows he's all kisses. We love to get in the truck, head outside, and explore. And you wouldn't believe that a two minutes drive from my urban house, in an enormous park of trails with rolling green hills and cows. I still can't believe it's right there, really, because I live near a freeway with a lot of people and street sweeping. I hope that doesn't change.
We get out for a camping trip once or twice a year, and really we should do it more. But when we camp, we like to rough it. Sorta. We like to canoe camp and paddle out to a remote spot to get away from it all, fish, explore, and make fires. A few years ago we went to Lake Sonoma and had to paddle across this giant lake by hand. The wind picked up mid-way, which made some serious waves and some serious bouncing around on the canoe. I thought I was on top of the world, wind in my hair, arms up, woo hoo! We were on an adventure, and life is meant for living, right? And then I turned around and saw the look on The Paper Shredder's face. I think that was the first time I saw fear in his face, really, the first time ever. And that's when I knew we could capsize in the middle of this lake.
Well, we made it to shore safely, but not without resolve to never paddle in the wind again, and maybe we needed pontoons. We saw rattlesnakes, and even The Paper Shredder wasn't afraid of them. In fact, he's caught them by hand before. Who does that? Anyway, this is what I truly love about him. I think I am the wild one, but really, he is the wild one.
I call him Paper Shredder because I met him ten years ago when I was a barista. He came in and ordered not one, but two ham and swiss croissants, of which he proceeded to eat both outside. I was instantly in love. Ha! Not because of the croissants (and how does he eat that much and stay so in-shape?). In my thorough investigations, it turned out he worked on enormous Paper Shredders down the road. I didn't know his name until we began passing letters. Back. And forth. And back...Oh, I still hold those letters dear to my heart. Turned out he was the machinist, artist, industrial mechanic, fix-anything, clean-freak, type of guy. And I love him dearly. Maybe we will post some of our projects as we go along...
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