Dear February

Dear February,

You snowy little month, you. For such a short month, you always feel so long. But, you’ll go down in history as a good month in 2018, because you brought travels to a city I should have traveled to by now, but haven’t. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though.

You started off with lots of puppy-sitting and the Super Bowl. I’ll be honest and say I wasn’t excited about Minneapolis hosting the Super Bowl because I knew it would create an inconvenience, but decided to join in some of the festivities and venture downtown the Friday before. It was fun to see my city celebrating and to see people from all over walking the streets, even if it was a bit cold that weekend!

(Your Restaurant to Guide to Minneapolis // Local Favorites)

[Tweet “Turn lemons into lemonade. When the festivities are inconvenient, join them!”]

Little One doesn’t enjoy hanging out with Tino, so she hung out with my parents while I was puppy sitting. After a strong of puppy sitting days I got some time with my little furball before I took off again.

And then, February, you brought a trip to a rainy New York! I had friends who were happy I have Mina, because it meant I had to return. 😂 New York has been on my bucket list for such a long time–I even have family there, so there’s really no reason I haven’t been there yet. I was so excited to explore a new city and one I have wanted to visit for so, so long!

I was there to attend VoxCon, which is a conference about honing your voice so that you can communicate a message and be heard. It was the first year of the conference and I really hope they do it again. I’ll go back! More on the conference will come later this month. One thing that I always find a little awkward at conferences (as a tried and true introvert) is networking, but this time I was determined to take advantage of opportunities to get to know people.

[Tweet “Take advantage of opportunities to network and make some new friends!”]

There were some really great speakers, including Donald Miller (discussed story structure), Jonathan Merritt (gave a beautiful speech on the power of language and words), and Mary Karr (talked about finding your voice) among many others.

And Jonathan Merritt and I are tattoo twins!

We had breakout sessions at The Alvin Ailey Dance School. The second photo is from our walk back one afternoon. Before I left for the conference people asked what I was hoping to get out of the conference and I always said, “I don’t know, I just know I have to be there.” And that was the truth. I really didn’t know much about it; even when I signed up. I just knew I had to make the investment in myself to attend. I had a gut feeling about it when I heard about it and that gut feeling was confirmed when I saw who some of the speakers were and that a portion of the proceeds would go to fund clean water initiatives in Flint, Michigan. (The lack of clean water in the world–and the US–can get me worked up.)

[Tweet “Invest in yourself, in your dreams, and in your future. You’re worth it.”]

I went with a friend and one of her friends, so we went to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum after the conference ended. Definitely a must! We ran into some other people from the conference while we were there.

We went out for drinks our last night and I taught my friend how to use Instagram & Instagram Stories the day they left.

I spent a few extra days in New York to spend time with my cousins. We went to the Cloisters to see the Unicorn Tapestries, but I wasn’t feeling well that day and it started to rain, so that was the end of our sight-seeing.

And on the day I came home from New York, my friend’s baby was born.

You were the month I officially became a hockey aunt! I’ll definitely go to more of my nephew’s hockey games next year. It was a lot of fun to see them play (and end up doing really well!), even with the element of danger. 😂

You didn’t have as much time as I would have liked for reading. I guess there are ebbs and flows in life. A little behind-the-scenes of this Instagram photo.

(Book Review // The Last Days of Oscar Wilde)

Tino’s a handsome fella. And speaking of Tino, you’re his birthday month! Valentino, aka Tino, was first in a litter born on Valentine’s Day.

And then you brought the snow.

After a roll in the snow.

As you came to an end I spent some time with friends, but felt bad about being out a couple of days in a row, so I took Mina over to hang out with my niece. Here’s her lunch box with her dinner, water bowl, and a few treats.

I took a break from a weekend of planned work to go out for drinks, food, and Black Panther. Have you seen it yet? My New York friend was there too and we were talking about in terms of Donald Miller’s talk on story structure after. 😂

As you came to an end I finally pulled out the bandana I got for Mina. 💙💙💙

Goodbye, February! You were so long, but also so great!

[Tweet “Dear February. Lessons from reflections on the longest, I mean shortest, month of the year.”]

PS // In case you missed them:

>> Dear January
>> 14 Ways to Celebrate Valentine’s Day as a Single Lady (but you can do these things any time of year to enjoy your singlehood!)
>> I Am Enough (if you’re struggling with singlehood, read this)
>> Book Review // Girl Unknown by Karen Perry