a video

check out this link for a good idea of the damage in cullman. the number of trees down is astonishing.

donate to storm victims online at the alabama red cross.

cullman continued...

as the nation moves its focus to seemingly frivolous matters like the royal wedding, the dress she wore, and the nfl lockout (c'mon, people...), family, friends, and neighbors in alabama continue to deal with the aftermath of one of the worst storms of the century. below are some images my mom took with her cell phone around our neighborhood and downtown where our office is located and where some of the worst damage was done.

the power of mother nature is absolutely amazing and incredible.

the house of a dear friend in our neighborhood. it will have to be torn down.

what's left of the busy bee cafe, a local diner that's been a cullman staple

for more than 80 years is just gone. this alone is devastating enough.

the view from the office. again, half a city block just gone.

a childhood friend's old house.

obama is touring alabama today, assessing the damage and "empathizing" with the people and showing his support, or doing whatever he does in an instance like this. what else could you do in an instance like this, i suppose. the death toll is up to 316 as of friday afternoon, and it will likely get higher. cullman amazingly had no deaths, but two people died in surrounding small towns. as i watched the massive tornado go through downtown tuscaloosa on a live feed from abc3340.com, meteorologist james spann, a well-known weather man in alabama, said it was the worst storm he's seen in all his years. he said the last storm system of this magnitude was in 1932. power in cullman will be out for 5-8 days (luckily my parents have a generator), and food has become a limited resource. the water supply is fine.

please keep all these families in your thoughts as they continue to

deal with such massive and heartbreaking loss.

in preparation

in 2.5 days i'll be headed here. (iceland)

to do this. (ski touring)

and this. (survey my kingdom; see also: stand on top of mtn and look like a badass)

maybe i'll see this. (icelandic horses)

or this. (traditional icelandic huts)

and i'm definitely doing this. (hot tubbing in the blue lagoon)

the end.

cullman

some of you might have heard about the tornadoes throughout my beloved home state of alabama. the whole state was devastated, with multiple tornadoes hitting everywhere from birmingham and tuscaloosa to arab and east alabama. my hometown of cullman was demolished by at least 2 major tornadoes, one that directly hit downtown.

this is the church i grew up in. it's about 4 blocks from my house in the historic district. notice how all the stained glass windows are blown out.

the white building with the green awning on the far right is my parents' office. there was practically no damage, but the buildings across the street are just gone. image via CullmanSense.

more damage in downtown. image via CullmanSense.

the afternoon tornado in Cullman. supposedly at least a mile wide.

fortunately all my family and friends are accounted for, though many people had major damage or lost their houses entirely. please be thinking of everyone in the south, as the death toll has reached 247, with 162 of those people in Alabama alone.

an ode to my bed

she likes to peek outside and stare intently at birds and squirrels and people.

probably not the best post to put up after two days without posts, but i felt like it was necessary to illustrate my life lately. i've spent a good chunk of non-work time in my bed, and if it hasn't been actual sleep, it's been netflix or hulu or magazines or my newest book. i'm not actually sick, but spring fever for me has struck in the form of being sleepy.

my glorious bedclothes: a quilt and a fleece blanket, no actual sheets required.

the best bed buddy you could ask for. she likes to sleep as much as i do, so it works.

raining in colorado

this is quite the anomaly for a state that claims to get 300 days of sunshine every year. don't get me wrong, i love those bluebird days where the sun shines until 9 p.m. and it's a crime not to be outside all day. but being from the southeast, i'm used to a rainy and wet spring with gray, dark days that make it completely ok to stay inside and read or watch a few movies. i miss the rain.

but we've been getting plenty the last week or so, with a bit of wet snow mixed in there. i'm really loving every minute of it and hope it goes on for a looong time. (forecast says it will last all week—i'll take it!)

my weekend was awesome: friday night (earth day!) was microbreweries for the environment, a great little idea where local breweries bring their beer, sell it for cheap, and the money goes to local environmental nonprofits. also includes live bluegrass and folk music as well as bluegrass and folk dancing (my personal favorite).

recovered on saturday because microbrews are delicious but strong. did some stuff around the house then went to a friend of a friend of a friend's house for arrested development trivia. sunday was ski touring in preparation for my upcoming trip to iceland, which i'm sure i'll talk about later in detail :), painting, walk with lizzie, and a cup of tea. perfect.

this is the makeshift studio in my room. i've been working on that red painting of lizzie that's propped up on the table.

dougald, my boss and ski instructor for the day, checking the bindings on my skis.

the area we toured for the day. this was before the storm came up out of nowhere and cut visibility down to about 15 feet. we respected the power of the mountains and came down soon after that.

cosmic love

i never really wanted this to be a music blog, but i get ridiculously obsessed with certain bands and songs, so it's bound to show up here sooner or later. right now i'm really loving florence and the machine's cosmic love. one word to describe the song: epic. a lot of her music has that up-and-down, you-think-it's-over-but-wait-it's-not! feel (see: dog days are over).

obviously she's ridiculously beautiful as well as talented. it's great to hear a strong female voice that's not regina spektor or feist (gag me with a spoon). and if i hear ingrid michaelson one more time on pandora, i will throw throw my computer out the window.

introduction

since i will probably be talking about my dog lizzie on here more often than is wanted or necessary, i figured i better introduce her to the blogosphere in style. she's a pit/lab mix, and i love telling people that because of the reactions i get to her being a pit. she's one of those pits that proves those misplaced stereotypes completely and utterly wrong. she thinks she's a lap dog, is perfectly trained (i wish i could claim credit for this, but she really just does what she's told. i leave her off leash most of the time.), and is an absolute sweetheart. and i obviously love her more than words. so without further ado, i present to you lizzie! (aka lizzles, lizard, libly, mish mish, mizzles, blondie, lizzie face, punkin)

i would say that face gets her out of everything, but she barely does anything wrong.

this is when i first got her from the shelter, and she was barely two months old.

this was in her leggy blonde phase.

she's adorably pigeon-toed.

is it weird to say my female dog is handsome? because she is.

Trifecta

it's surprisingly disappointing being single in boulder, colorado. as an outdoorsy person myself, this should be a mecca and literal meat market for me. it's boulder, for goodness' sake. all i need is a boy with a beard (seems to be a recurring theme for this blog...), a plaid shirt, and a love for the mountains that's only rivaled by his love for me. totally cheesy, i know, but it's true. of course there are a few more stipulations, but come on, is it that hard??? (that's what she said.)

um, hell yes. shaggy hair, full but nicely trimmed beard, plaid shirt, and JOHN KRASINSKI. that'll do.

so i have to be completely honest that i haven't really been seeking any men as of late. prior relationship complications kept me from doing that, combined with the fact that i never really seek men. i simply meet someone, i like him, he likes me, we end up in a relationship. pretty simple. i'm also not really dying for a relationship, it's just interesting to me that there aren't 10 guys every day that i'm interested in dating. there are 0. null. nadda. zilch. nadda. a big fat goose egg. every guy that's the least bit datable for me is married. not just in a relationship or dating someone, but married. i even work at an adventure/outdoor magazine where we're housed with other outdoor/adventure magazines on the same floor; it should be a no brainer, but nope. nothing. i guess i need to get out more. or something.

Everybody should listen to Fleet Foxes.

Always and forever. They are amazingly poetic, peppy and somber at the same time, and just overall fantastic. Please love them as much as I do.

penniless and tired with your hair grown long

if i had an orchard, i'd work till i'm sore...

gold hair in the sunlight, my light in the dark

bands with beards are just better. (ahem—band of horses, fleet foxes, avett brothers, my morning jacket, charlie daniels, and the quintessential musically inclined beards—zz top. can you tell i'm from alabama?)

the FF magic is in the beard(s)

the lovely, lovely bearded, banjo-boasting, and bandana-ed scott avett

ben bridwell of boh with some more bearded goodness

p.s. my two favorite Fleet Foxes lyrics also have something to do with hair... is there something wrong with me?

update: i just got tickets to see fleet foxes in july in denver. you could say that i'm a little bit excited.

Onwards and Upwards

the last few weeks has been a a roller coaster of emotion for me. as much as i hate that cliche, saying it's been "volatile" seems like i've been in danger or had my life threatened. that is definitely not the case. i have typical white girl problems—don't get paid enough at work, stressful day at the office, relationship issues, errands to run, friends tocall/email/facebook.

when in reality, i should be thankful i have a job at all, grateful for work to do, happy about my newly single status, appreciative that i have a car to run errands in and money to fill it up with gas, and ecstatic that people even want to be my friend and actually choose to hang out with me. as of this past weekend, i've finally started living up to the latter instead of the former. being happy just for the sake of being happy.

utterly happy in Montana, summer 2007.

excited about the future and what it holds, for me personally, for my friends, for my family. seems like everyone i know is on the verge of something big happening, and I'm thrilled to be along for the ride. i know all mine will come in time. i'm in no rush.

Morning Thoughts

i woke up this morning with a really confusing and great feeling. you know that feeling you get in the summer where the world is full of promise and your days lay ahead of you for the taking? you can do whatever you want because you don't have any obligations; the weather is beautiful, and the sun rises really early. i woke up before my 7:30 alarm with the feeling that i had overslept because it was so light out. the thought eventually crept in that it's monday and I have to go to work, but for a few minutes—seconds, actually—it was incredibly peaceful and left my mind blessedly clear. it's barely spring here in colorado, but it already feels like summer in my mind.

p.s. this image is via Katarina 2353, but i will be adding my own images soon.

First Things First

so this is my first post in what i hope to be a long line of insightful, thought-provoking, and amazing posts. ok, so that clearly won't be the case all the time (case in point=this post), but, dammit, i'm gonna try! just wanted to break the ice by getting a first post down. hopefully the following posts will live up to whatever expectations i have for this blog.

right now i'm struggling with the idea of how and when to share this blog. part of me wants to build up a nice archive of posts before i start to shove it down anyone's throat, but the other part of me is so giddy and excited and just wants to share it with the world. i'll probably give it a week before i make any decisions. this blog won't be too risque or anything, i just don't know how the best way to go about it is, especially when family and friends are the main audience. (although i would love a larger audience of all you interwebz people!) i guess the whole point of a blog is to share anyway, right?

a little about me (which i will also share in the about me link somewhere on this blog--crazy, i know!):

i am an outdoor magazine editor in Colorado. my life revolves around the outdoors, hiking, backpacking, climbing, skiing, art, music, photography, food, and my dog lizzie. also known as lizard, lizzles, lizzieface, punkin, mish mish, mizzles, etc. i started this blog to share with my friends and family across the country, record present and future travels and adventures, and provide a place to share photos and words from my daily life. i also want to write more and improve my writing, so a blog seems like an obvious choice. i hope you enjoy reading it as much as i do living it! :)

--jooly

p.s. the name "life of jooly" came about because my parents as far back as i can remember used to always say, "living the life of julie," which basically means doing whatever you want whenever you want. they always accompanied it with the gesture of putting your hands behind your head and kicking your feet up. not that i was a spoiled brat with no discipline, it just means deciding what you want and going after it without letting anyone stand in your way. of course, i had amazing parents who let me do whatever i wanted when it came to my life: playing sports, traveling, picking a college, double-majoring in photojournalism and studio art, working seasonal jobs in national parks, moving across the country, getting a job at my dream magazine, etc. etc. basically i've been living the life of julie for 24 (almost 25) years with no plans to stop any time soon. oh, and i spell my name jooly sometimes just for fun and to change it up a bit. phonetics are phun!