We love with a love that is more than love.

The big love.

The star to every wandering bark.

Celebrating at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival

The older we get the more our perceptions of time continues to change. The way it makes life fly by or drag by.  So how does it react to the perception on time in a relationship? It's like that feeling you have with a long wonderful vacation or escapade.  When all the days and nights seemed to have breezed together like one endless adventure that has no separation of days, while it leaves you feeling at your best and rather invigorated by life. Like the time has become irrelevant and space and time has actually stopped. When you wake up one day and it's four years later, perhaps even at 10 or 50 years later- it should all feel the same.  This is what you should feel when you wake up next to the same person years later.  Just seems that all good things never go as slow as we wish. Summers, vacations, really delicious pie, and the years all seem to end too quickly.  Where does the time go? A warm August evening that started it all and ignited the a flame.  It feels as if it was not that far in the past that Aaron and I had just ran into each other at a random bar for a friend's rock show on that one serendipitous evening.  

Aaron was my older brother's - best friend's - little brother; he was a few years older and we went to high school together. We'd known each other at our more awkward phases in life- now we were all grown up.  And how nicely he had grown up, indeed. With piercing green eyes, a smile that could kill, yet was still endearing enough to be sweet, and the kind of arms you want to be wrapped up in all night- neatly bundled into this amazing guy who it'd seemed I had known all along.  

   

Without hesitation, we both jumped.  We dived into this free fall of passion and it was instantly like we felt what forever could be.  We were inseparable, together practically everyday.  It was like we never ran out of things to say, it felt like we had been connected for centuries already, and yet with each new thing we discovered about each other we became more enamored.  A lot of our friends had cries of outrage and warning that "the fire" wouldn't last and that we would "burn out" or grow bored with each other. Although as it usually does, the truth prevailed. After a year I wondered how I could have known this man for so many years and yet never really saw him. We stood there with each other through many good times and some really bad times at one point too.                                        (Photo circa Aug. 2009/1st Summer)

                                                                                                 

The bad times came in sets like waves, some call it the curse of the second summer.  I think of it as a necessary evil.  The bad creates balance.  It is in such times that really show you a person's true character. We only broke up once. It was for five days and it was earth-shatteringly difficult.  I felt like I couldn't do simple tasks anymore.  I no longer knew how to eat, sleep, not cry, I couldn't even focus- on anything.  It seemed he felt the same, truly miserable.  I wrote him a letter.  He took me out to dinner; we talked. And he bought tickets and swept me away upstate to see a few plays at the annual HVS Festival.  While my feet were still in the air, it was there we started a tradition.  

So now this was our fifth summer together, four years officially.  So for the last few years we have been all about going up to Hudson Valley for our mini-vacations as the perfect romantic getaway.  Its great to enjoy no distractions, just us and so many beautiful things, or maybe its to simply remind us of that indescribable feelings we became united with when we were secluded on an upstate adventure after five heart-retching days apart.  Either way its sort of become our thing, one of many things.  It is these things that will add to our adventure.  An adventure to last a lifetime.   

        

 Here  in this vast valley of dreams, we enjoyed three days of fun and relaxation.  

Saw the sights, sampled some great local food, local wine, enjoyed a few plays, 

and of course I wore a few fabulous on a budget outfits over the course of three days.  

Which of the three looks do you like the best? 

 Day I:

Our Arrival at the Thayer, The Three Musketeers 

& the Best Portobello and Goat Cheese Quesadilla 

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( the thayer : west point, ny )

( rose garden @ boscobel mansion : garrison, ny )

i'm wearing:

\\ H&M denim jacket // crochet dress (tucked into skirt) //

\\ MOSSIMO pleated high-low skirt // TARGET belt //

\\ TARGET small spiked bracelet // MICHAEL KORS watch // 

\\ MOSSIMO ankle strap sandals // RAY BAN vintage gold framed glasses //

 \\ MICHAEL KORS clutch // TARGET triangle necklace

( on the hudson valley, ny - then @ whistling willie's in cold springs, ny )

[*Photo from Whistling Willie's]

Day II :

Sleeping in late, The Oldest Winery in the US, 

 Picnic at Sunset, & King Leer

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( brotherhood winery: america's oldest vineyard; washingtonville- ny)

( a picnic on the beautiful hudson valley, garrison- ny )

i'm wearing:

\\ HURLEY button-down sleeveless blouse // H&M printed high-low skirt //

\\ MOSSIMO belt // NINE WEST wedges // MICHAEL KORS bag // 

\\ B&L RAY BAN vintage 70's sunglasses // MOSSIMO blazer //

\\ MICHAEL KORS gold watch //

Day III:

Exploring Cold Springs, buying interesting art, 

crate digging for vintage vinyls, tuscan food &

All's Well that Ends Well  

_______________________________

i'm wearing:

\\ CONVERSE sweatshirt blazer // MOSSIMO tank top //

\\ C WONDER druzy necklace// MOSSIMO textured skirt //

\\ MICHAEL KORS gold watch // C WONDER sandals //

\\ MICHAEL KORS bag //  B&L RAY BAN vintage sunglasses //