Checked Out

Almost two months and no post. Geeez....... I'm back though. Bailey has even made a few threats to start writing on here.

School is out! There is a huge load lifted off me. I think I was more happy for the HLHS graduation than when I graduated from college. It got to the point where I really hated going to school everyday. There are a few things I will definitely miss. A handful of teachers and coaches I worked with. There are some students that I wish I could watch as they go through their high school experiences.

The experiences I am taking away are priceless. Who knows if I'll ever try to teach again.........

Speaking of taking away, I am about to take the two hottest ladies up out of the south. After years of discussion, Bailey, Stella and I are moving to back to Ashland. The majority of the time I am overwhelmed with excitement and sometimes I am stressed asking myself what the hell are we doing? Why do I want to move back so bad? Aren't you having enough good time in Nashville? Friends, Family what the fuck, Seth?

I think there are good answers for all those questions. There are definitely lots of reasons this move is gong to be hard to make.

I am going to miss these guys. Yesterday the trails were at an all time level. Check out more at LastDitch.

Need to Blog

There is so much to blog about right now. Life is moving, that's for sure.

School is getting wilder by the week. This happened on Friday. Watch the video. There really was bleach in some of the balloons. 
7 arrested, 2 hurt after fight at Hunters Lane HS
Right now I am not positive I will finish out the school year. I had a vivid dream a few nights ago. It pretty clearly told me I needed to get the heck out of high school.
Reasons to stay in teaching: It is a good way to support my family. And..............

Bailey and I have been getting in a few dates lately. I am pretty happy about that. We had some fun St. Patty's festivities out and about in East Nashville. Irish car bombs while holding a baby! (dont tell dcs) The weather is amazing right now. Everything is blooming right now.

I went back to the trails a few days ago. I miss that place and need it in my life more. Digging is good for the soul. Bailey agrees, she started on her flower garden this weekend. I felt like I had so many good things to write about, but currently my brain is sleepy and I can only come up with 6 word sentences.

WAIT, I didnt mention Stella yet. This little girl is changing my life everyday. She is amazing and is really starting to come alive.

It's a celebration!

I love weddings. It hasn't always been this way. After nearly 5 years of marriage, weddings are a bit different to me. There are so many amazing feelings and experiences I have had because of being married.
With that said, I think marriage is important. This my be a surprising statement from me, especially considering my hippie dippy super liberal upbringing. Saying the I-dos gives an important element to the relationship. This isn't meant to be offensive for those out there not married, but I think it is an important and necessary step for a relationship and that commitment.
I have friends in relationships that I cannot wait for them to reach the alter. This weekend one of the most solid guys I know is getting married to an awesome lady. I am excited to spend Saturday afternoon celebrating these two.

Bailey and I may even talk about how young and crazy we were when we got married

Life!

I am not really sure what to write about right now, but I am sitting on the coach feeling like I need to blog. Life is going pretty fast right now. The baby girl is nearing 4 weeks old. I suppose that means one month. Everyday seems to be busier than possible.
Right now there is a good bit of indecision in my life, but at the same time everything seems kind of right. There are some really good people in my life right now and I am excited. This daughter thing has me pretty blissed out right now too.
This weekend was spent helping out at some collegiate bike races. This increased my weird little desire to race a bicycle again.
I am about to start another week of school.......ugh. I am trying to make myself stay positive about my current profession ( the one I went into debt for). My mantra: i am making a difference, i am doing a good job, the kids need me.
Maybe middle Tennessee will get some more severe weather- that'll make the week go by a little faster.

biggest hail I ever seen



Lit from 5AM lightning



One Week In

Stella has been out of the belly for a week now and a lot has happened. She had a date for Valentines day. She played hard to get.

We went out for a walk today and took advantage of 60 degree weather in February.

Today we even squeezed in a quick trip to the skatepark (no photo documentation available)

This little girl is pretty much occupying all of my thoughts and activities lately. There is a lot of other stuff on floating around in my brain and a good bit I need to get accomplished, but now it is way too easy to blow it off and play with my baby instead.

I try to stay in touch with this blog,  Life? . Today's entry particularly stood out to me. A reminder to love life and keep going for all those things that bring happiness and significance to our lives.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

A post is definitely in order. I have been thinking of a lot of different things to write. So, lets start with the facts. At 9:47 on February 9th Stella Louise Rand was born weighing 7.5 lbs and a length of 21.75". That's it. That's how she came out.
 
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The night before (8th) Bailey's water broke at 10 pm. Surprisingly, the labor started pretty quickly after. I sprang into action. Before this happened I was nearly asleep, but now I was full of energy, like I had just drank 3 liters of coffee. I finished cleaning the house. Quickly rearranged the living room to fit the tub. Rearranged the bike room to fit living room furniture and still easily access all the birth supplies and washer and dryer. (Living in a small house with a lot of stuff has made me a master of space conscious stacking and ordering - unfortunately it hasn't curbed my desire for more stuff)

Next I began inflating the tub. Then made the bed with a few different layers and plastic sheets in between so that we could quickly and easily have a clean bed after the birth.

And where was Bailey and why wasn't she helping you may ask? In between all of the previously named activities I listed I was also rubbing Bailey's back while she was having contractions and/or puking in the bathroom.

Around 2 in the morning Cindy (Bailey's mom) and our midwife arrived at the house. A few hours later Marry Annes assistants arrived. This baby birthing was happening.

Bailey was amazing. So calm through the whole thing. She never yelled or cussed at me. It was beautiful. She kept her composure throughout the whole thing. That's better than can be said about me. I was a sobbing mess towards the end.


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The last 6 days have been like nothing else I have had in my life.  So now lets see what happens next.

Scrimp kept his composure as well

Reppin' Cashville!

The weather in middle Tennessee has been unreal lately. We had so many days in the 50's and 60's during the month of January. I tried to take advantage of as many as possible. Bailey, Stella, Scrimp and I took lots of walks. Thats Stella Belly, not Stella Baby.
I did get to sneak away for a few rides though. One of which was with the guy on the cover of this magazine.
It was a perfect afternoon. We shut down spots all over West Nashville (in actuality, Alex may have "shut down" a few more than I did.).
Most people would agree that riding through poop is the absolute worst thing on a bike. It is. This afternoon I got the worst of the worst. There is a sweet spot around music row- there is this concrete lip into a big grass hip landing. This grass evidently also served as the bathroom for every neigborhood dog. I made that discovery a few minutes too late. There was shit all over both tires, all over the downtube, fork, chainstays, brakes. The worst. I literally road through three big piles. This was behind a recording studio so maybe this was from some dog that was owned by someone famous, maybe Miley Cyrus. Thankfully I found a hose a few buildings up and gave my bike a bath.
Why did I just write about this? First, HUGE props to Alex on the cover shot (FYI, this is a big deal). I can't wait to read this, he told him he was reppin' Cashville and the east coast pretty hard.
Secondly, I am about to have a daughter!!!!!!!!! This is all I am thinking about right now. A few lighthearted paragraphs took me away from baby thoughts. I am back to baby thoughts. I think she is coming today. But, I have had that thought everyday for the last week. I guess it's kind of out of my hands.

Let Downs

It's pretty hard to be bummed when you know a girl with eyes like these.









But still I manage to find myself there. A few weeks ago I sent a roll of black and white film off to be developed. While Forest was here, we tried to capture some of our good times and riding on the camera. We both knew there was going to be some good stuff on there. Sunset shots with Bailey, Forest and I. There was even the possibility that we had some good pictures of us riding our bikes. There was one shot in particular that I was anxious to see. It was something that I felt really good on and knew that the shutter was opened at the perfect time.
Two weeks of anticipation, while the film was sent off to be processed made me I grew as giddy as a 3 year old on Christmas eve. The film was at the camera store and I drove there thinking of how good everything was going to look. Nothing! A roll of overexposed film that no images could be deciphered from. They said they suspected some flaw with the camera. I think there was a screw up on their end.

Maybe what is left to imagination is better than what is actual. No doubt, the specific shot I had high hopes for, probably would have been a let down. An elbow out of place,  awkward knees or some other inherent flaw of my riding, would have left me frustrated in the difference between what I do and what I want to do.

Whether the pictures come out or not, there isn't anything better than a good bike ride.

SCRIMP!

I realized that there has been much said about my dog, Mickey Scrimp Rand. He is probably the raddest dog. Especially when you consider that he is only about 7 pounds. Bailey brought him home one day a few years ago. The first thing she said was, "We are just trying him out and we can give him back if it doesn't work out."

I almost send the dog back, just out of principal because Bailey didn't ask me first. As that I am such a gracious husband, I let this one slide........

Sleeping off a long night

In case you haven't had the pleasure of hanging out with scrimp, here are some facts about him.     1. He talks in an accent similar to Kevin from the office.      2. He is always down for a nap.       3. He always has steak on his mind.       4. He can eat more than you think.           5. Very athletic, always into walks and bike rides, he can jump into my truck.      6. When he is really hungry and you pour him food then make him wait a minute or two to eat it, he will bark a little as he runs to his bowl!     7. He loves a bath, because he knows its going to be at least 20 minutes of spa time. Lathered massages, scratchies, and warm air from the blow dryer.

surveying flood damage

Logs more miles than your club riding buddy self

Lately, scrimp has been keeping his head on Bailey's belly. Maybe he is talking to Stella, telling her to drop him lots of food. I hope he is able to handle the transition of not being the only child of this family. Well smallest at least, arguably I am still pretty childish.

Walter

In the south, it is very common for funerals to have a automobile procession. There is a caravan of cars that drive from the funeral home to the cemetery, or wherever they go after the funeral home, I'm not really sure. There is a police or security escort and a big line of cars. Out of respect all cars, in both directions pull over, similar to if an ambulance or police car were coming. This is polite, but can be quite frustrating for someone driving somewhere that doesn't want to take a 4 minute break. Ignoring the courtesy pull over can result in offending the funeral goers, so much as to make them say mean things out of their window to you.

A few days ago a friend of mine from the west coast got to witness this southern custom. He was equally confused and frustrated as a was the first time I saw this. Maybe this speaks of non-southern culture, we're not nice or in too much of a hurry, so much that we can't pay homage to someone's life passing away or the pain of their friends and family. I don't buy it and northerners and west coasters shouldn't be condemned for not tolerating this.

When I moved to Nashville I asked a co-worker what was the deal with this tradition. Walter was an old salty black guy in his late fifties. Without much thought, he answered, (think in a raspy southern voice with a gold tooth) "Cause we have so many friends."

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The holidays are great. People get together. Enjoy each other, eat, drink, get and give gifts. After Thanksgiving, Christmas and Chanukah it is easy to be over all the holiday cheer. I usually am by the middle of December. I am usually refueled by December 31. As much or more than Thanksgiving of Christmas, New Years is when I like to think about what I am thankful for.  

One of my best friends came to spend the last week with me and my family in Tennessee. It was a lot of fun, arguably too much. I know Bailey thought it was too much each time we came home at 4 in the morning. I've said this before, but I'll say it again. I have the best friends in the world. 

It has been a blessing to grow up and change with my friends. This is apparent when encounters and reunitings are spread out to longer periods of time. Sometime as friends grow there are differences that are large enough to end the friendship, or at least give the mutual feeling that once you were much closer, but now are much different. Thankfully, it also works out that the integral parts which made your friendship significant are still there. These life long friendships are so special and there is nothing better than that feeling of timeless laughter and joy between friends. Growth is inevitable. Well maybe not, what I mean is that I don't want to be friends with and I personally wouldn't want for myself to not grow.

Certain things stay the same and keep that reminiscent nostalgia, but it's also special to recognize how your friends have grown. It also causes me to look how I've changed over the years. As this year ends and a new one begins, I have the goal of balancing growth and change with remaining the same as I always have been. And to Walter, Tennesseans may have so many friends, but us boys from Southern Oregon stay strong.