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Soooo melodramatic! But true!

This weekend, Alex and I are moving out of my/our apartment. The apartment I’ve been in for the past 3 years. The most I’ve lived in one place since high school! Fortunately for us, this is the shortest distance we will ever have to move – across the hall in my apartment building!

The backstory: My apartment building is in the process of an entire building facelift. From exterior painting to fancy new interior decorations and even a new community name, nothing in the building is safe from updating – including my apartment. When it came time to renew the lease, I was told our lease would be non-renewed but that I could move into an already updated apartment. We like pretty much everything about where we live – location, apartment (large! and with cement walls!), neighbors, office staff – so we decided if we could, we’d stay in the community. Serendipitously, the 1 bedroom apartment across the hall was scheduled to be available the week before our current lease was up. We signed the renewal on the spot and started dreaming of our new appliances, faux-hardwood floors and west facing views.

We got a sneak peak of our new apartment earlier this week – and much to my surprise, we found a microwave included.

Admittedly, this made me more sad than it should have. I haven’t had a microwave for the past 3 years. I’ve never even thought, ‘Man! Would it be nice to have a microwave in here right now!‘ in the past 3 years. If we need to reheat something, we use the stove or oven. Might take an extra couple of minutes but it just means that food will taste *that much better* because you waited.

And, as ridiculous as it sounds, I enjoyed that people thought a microwave was a necessity of living and couldn’t understand why we didn’t have one. ‘But, but! They’re only $40! I’ll go buy you one right now!‘ Today, though, the microwaveless era has come to an end and we rejoin the rest of the world in owning the little box that reheats things. And yes, having one doesn’t mean I have to use it. But we still have one and can’t say we don’t. Hrmph.

Microwaves aside, this move is actually pretty exciting to us – we’re getting a west facing view (baller!) don’t have to clean our old apartment since they’re tearing it up after we move out and will have brand new everything!

What excites me the most is that this is my first move with my husband. In to a fresh new space that we can truly make ours. To create brand new memories and moments in this brand new apartment together.

When Alex moved to Denver and moved in with me, I’d already been in the apartment for a couple of years. I had the furniture that I picked out and bought set up how I wanted. I’d set things up in a way that was great for 1 person but not so great for 2.  I had memories and experiences in that apartment before Alex moved in. I had a history with this apartment that Alex didn’t.

But now? It’s the beginning of a new era. An era of making homes feel like us and not just me, not just him. Of forever living in new places together. Of forever moving together as a family. I’ll trade in a silly ‘death of the microwaveless era’ for this new, super awesome era any day. 

So, here’s to a new apartment, a new microwave and a new beginning.

And the shortest move ever.

Today’s post is a little different than what you’re use to seeing here – and it’s a bit heavier than usual. Today I want to talk about something deeply personal to me – something that affects tens of millions of Americans each year (source).

Mental Health.

Did you know May is Mental Health Month? A month dedicated to being aware of our mental health and giving ourselves a few extra moments to check in with it.

Too often, mental health has a negative connotation – that it’s a scary thing to talk about, that someone is ‘weaker’ if they admit to struggling.

But here’s the thing – mental health isn’t a Big Scary Life Sentence. And it doesn’t have to mean a Big Scary Disease or something that happens to other people. Mental health issues range from ADHD to anxiety to depression to autism to eating disorders to schizophrenia. Some of those sound familiar, right? Maybe you’ve experienced one of those mental health issues or known someone who has. ‘Mental health’ becomes a lot less foreign and a lot more personal, huh? As the years go on, ‘mental health’ is losing its stigma, little by little. More people are talking about it, more are acknowledging their experiences.

And if you haven’t experienced depression, this post over at Hyperbole & A Half explains it in relatable and honest words.

Taking care of our mental health is just as important as taking care of our physical health – I’d argue that it’s even more important. Our mental health drives our decisions, our emotions, our actions. Without a healthy mind, the rest starts to fall apart.

But when mental health issues aren’t addressed when you recognize them in yourself or someone recognizes them in you, you risk so much more than you might realize. Sometimes, mental health issues and diseases can spiral quickly out of control, causing people to make permanent solutions to a temporary problem. Sometimes – and unfortunately, frequently – our friends, families, coworkers, neighbors, celebrities and sports figures commit suicide to end their pain.

And in ending theirs, ours begins.

Why is suicide prevention important to me? I’ve lost an aunt to suicide, almost lost my younger sister and since have known too many friends who have lost their loved ones to suicide. All had different reasons, different stories but all might have had a different ending with professional help earlier or families and friends who recognize warning signs of suicide.

Each year, I help organize the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s walk in Denver. The Out of the Darkness walk brings together those who struggle and those who’ve survived suicide to build a community of hope, a network of recovery and to raise money to affect change. Each year, I am floored by the planning committee – at their dedication to this cause, their passion to make sure no one looses a daughter, husband, aunt, mother or friend like we have, their drive to grow awareness in our community.

I guess my point of this post is to publicly acknowledge that it’s okay to struggle with mental health issues – but don’t struggle alone! Get the help you need before it’s too late. And for those of us who may not currently be experiencing mental health issues, be aware of those around you – knowing warning signs of suicide (or depression or eating disorders or anxiety, etc) can help save a life.

And for those who’ve been touched by suicide, I encourage you to look into participating in the Out of the Darkness walk in your area. It’s tough and uncomfortable to talk about suicide – but the more we do it, the less isolated those who struggle with mental health issues will feel and the likelihood that they will reach out of help increases – and the potential to save a life grows.

Another week, another Wilderness Trekking School lesson!

This week, we focused on emergencies, basic first aid and survival. It’s great to learn how to play safely in the mountains… but what happens when something goes wrong? This week addressed what to expect, how to react and what to do. Every emergency is different but having some awareness up front will be extremely helpful in keeping the chaos under control when the time comes.

In our classroom section, we talked about the different types of emergencies we could encounter: losing a person from the group, injury, sickness, getting caught in adverse weather and getting lost (but! we already learned about navigation… so no getting lost for us!). These emergencies could be within our own party – or we could happen upon someone else stuck in one of these emergencies and we need to be able to act quickly to help.

On Saturday, we headed to White Ranch Park to practice some survival and first aid tactics.

First, using only what we had in our packs (always hike – even day hikes! – with the 10 hiking essentials!), we broke into groups of 3 and had to fashion a quick shelter big enough for 1 person in 20 minutes to protect ourselves from a thunderstorm that might roll in.

We used – a tarp, rain fly, bungee cords, rope and rocks to make our quick shelter.

For a first-ever attempt and for shelter from a rain storm, this would be… okaaay. Definitely room for improvement but it was a good start.

We then broke into different groups and were instructed to make a shelter that was more substantial, as if we needed to stay overnight or a couple nights. We were encouraged to use natural features around us, too.

I was pretty proud of my groups – we used a group of rocks as a wall near our entrance (under the dark orange rain fly) a fallen log as our middle support, insulated with tree logs (that I cut with the badass saw I brought) and pine needles, duct tape and bandaids. It was sturdy and really warm inside – someone would definitely survive overnight or two, if needed.

The other group used dead logs as a roofing structure over a rock ledge.  And the last group used their rope to make a wide spine to hang their tarps between two trees. Inventive and genius! They made the ‘spine’ by securing branches between the cord.

After shelters, we took a quick break for lunch. I swear, our lunch views never fail to deliver breathtaking and interesting scenery. It’s hard to tell in this photo but Denver was clear as anything from where I ate my lunch of a Nutella Sandwich.

After lunch, we talked FIY-AH! Our instructors demoed different fire starters to show us a few of our options. My favorite were these calcium carbide ‘rocks’ – they don’t burn when put in a fire. Instead, when you get them wet, they give off a methane gas that you light on fire.

To demo, we lit snow on fire. No, seriously.

I was lucky enough to take home a few of these rocks for our gear supply – Woohoo!

I’d also brought these homemade/DIY firestarters that Alex likes to make to test/demo for the group. Basically, Alex takes lint from the drier, melts candle wax on it in an old, cardboard egg container. That’s it! It’s kinda gross because there’s a lot of my hair stuck in there but he used some slightly scented candle so our fire smelled more floral-y than burning hair-y. To use this fire started, just spark the cardboard and the container will start a nice fire under kindling.

Next up, first aid! There is a whole CMC class devoted to first aid so this was just a very basic overview of what to do when faced with an injury. In this situation, our instructor had a broken arm and bruised rib and we had to assess the situation, check our casualty and decide how to proceed.
First aid school as definitely been on my radar – I do not know enough to feel like I’d be able to help someone in an emergency situation. Especially with adrenaline running? Forget it. My mind went blank when something ‘small’ happened, let alone a much bigger emergency.

Lastly, we covered how to hang a bear bag. No photos because I was demo’ing! A bear bag is a bag (or bags) that you pack with your smellables and food – anything that might entice a bear to your camp – and you hang it away from your camp, in a tree. This way, if a bear does find the smells, you won’t have a run in with a big ass bear in the middle of the night.

This was a super productive learning day for me. Generally, I rely on Alex to know all of our survival information but it’s extremely important for me to know just as much. I won’t always be hiking and backpacking with Alex and, as evidenced in the Unfortunate Snow Saw Event of 2013, my information source may be the injured. So this day and week was a great jumping off point for me but really highlighted how much more I want (and need!) to learn about safety, first aid and survival techniques in the backcountry.