Souvenirs, Stickers, and So Forth

Have I mentioned how I fell in love with Estes Park the moment I laid eyes on it?

I suppose you could call it love at first sight. Not just the town, full of the tourist shops and quaint roads, but the whole place. The mountains and trees (there I go again, talking about them), and just the whole environment of it. It’s so small and set apart from the rest of the world.

All of that to say, today we went shopping in Estes Park. I wanted to get a T-shirt as a souvenir. One of the first shops we stopped at was dedicated to T-shirts, hats, stickers, keychains, and all the other touristy things you can think of. You know, I never really thought of myself as a tourist—but today, that’s what I was. I even looked like one. My ‘YMCA of the Rockies’ hat, my handy leather sling backpack, my yellow flannel shirt and tie-dye tank top, and my necklaces dangling from my neck, I guess I did look sort of like a tourist. At that little shop, I bought another hat, this one with the words ESTES PARK, Colorado, EST 1917 on it. Also, a T-shirt to match. Perfect.

Anyways, that was fun. After that, as a fam we went walking down the roads, dropping into whichever shop caught our attention. One of them was a music store, which was great. I was hoping that they carried guitars that I could mess around with (I’ve been separated from mine for several days now, and I miss it terribly), but they didn’t. However, they did have lots of music-related mugs, shirts, stickers, and so on. One of them was really funny, it said “# This is a sharp, not a hashtag” (Haha!)

The best part about that shop (in my expert opinion) was what I found at the back. Racks of CDs, but not just any CDs— they had Josh Garrels CDs. Specifically, the two Josh Garrels CDs that I had been longing for, pining after, and hoping to buy on Amazon whenever I found the time and money. Namely, his CDs HOME and Jacaranda. The find of a lifetime—and they were only 6 bucks each. Talk about happy. I held them lovingly to my chest, smiling ecstatically beneath my mask. I think I may have even hopped a bit.

Have I ever mentioned how much I like Josh Garrels’ music? Hmm. Well, I shall now enlighten you, my confuzzled and bamboozled readers. I discovered his music sometime last year, during the 18-month period when we were renovating both of our houses. I was our chief painter, and of course I needed something to listen to while painting walls and ceilings. I’ve enjoyed Andrew Peterson’s music for a long time, and somehow his music led me to Josh Garrels’. I love the style of it, or rather, the many different styles, as his music crosses a lot of different genres. It’s great. That’s all I’ll say. (Listen to it and you’ll know what I mean.)

Well, to get back on track, I was very happy when I found those CDs. I’m actually listening to it right now. (So happy!)

Now, you should know something about me. Only recently did I discover that I have a deep and insatiable love for stickers. No, I know what you’re thinking. Not pages of glittery, cupcake-and-unicorn-stickers. (This is where I shake my head sadly and mourn over your ignorance.) The sort of sticker I’m talking about is the sort that you can slap onto laptops and guitar cases and water bottles and the back of your car. That kind of sticker. Just today, I somehow accumulated 4 of them. One of them says ESTES PARK with a cool silhouette of the mountains, another is from an Estes Park coffee shop that we stopped at today, another is from a taffy shop (yeah, really) and the last one is from this super awesome, inkish and bookish shop that we also stopped at. It was so cool, full of journals, pens, art, cards, and so much more. It even had a typewriter. And–-(oh, the joy)—a coffeeshop. It made me happy, and I told mom that I wanted to live there (or at least visit frequently) someday. Yeah, I bought another sticker there, too. So now my grand total of stickers is 5, because one of my friends gave me one a while ago, a cool one from the new Little Women movie. It resides on the back corner of my laptop, soon to be joined by several friends. (Unless I decide to slap them onto my guitar case, which I don’t actually have right now, but I hope to buy someday soon. I mean, aren’t sticker-laden guitar cases just so cool?)

Well, that’s about all I have to say about today. Right now, we’re on our way to Colorado Springs, where we will be staying for a while. We’ll be going to a conference near there, and I am hoping and praying that I will experience God in some unforgettable ways.

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us–

psalm 67:1