I have a history of back problems and I’m only 31. Ugh. My back hates me.
However, I have learned that when my back goes out, it likes hydrocodone. It takes the pain away. One time when my back went out, the hydrocodone made me dance provocatively with a wooden pole. I did not know Laura then. I’m sure she’s thankful for that. Either she would have ran for the hills or been super impressed. Coin toss.
So…my back went out twice this week. The pain was crippling. As in, I-couldn’t-even-stand-up-to-brush-my-teeth, crippling. Brutal. I was about to go to the doctor when Laura quickly found a bad backs best friend…hydrocodone. Instead of dancing provocatively with a wooden pole, I did something much more attractive to Laura. I stopped complaining and immediately fell asleep.
I’m thankful that one of my groomsmen and another good friend own The Move Project, and are pretty much wizards of making bodies feel better. Very thankful for them. I also had to work from a couch two days this week, too. No bueno.
Anyway, I’m sure this kid can describe it better for you.
Sorry we’re a little late today. Bryan’s back went out and he was down for the count last night. Nothing a little muscle relaxer and massage therapy can’t fix though, right?
That said…we need to have a little talk, 12 blog readers. The time has come to restock our inventory of murse pictures. Ever since Laura started taking pictures of man bags in Oxford, England, almost one year ago, the support and laughter has been amazing. You’ve wowed us with some of the shots you’ve taken and we’ve given many a slow clap for your boldness and courage. Thank you.
We want to continue this at a blistering pace, but we have to reload. Murse Monday will be back and better than ever, but we’ll need your help scouting, capturing and emailing us pictures of murses.
With that, we leave you with last murse for a while. Please, leave your own caption in the comments. We’d love to see what you come up with.
Hopefully, Murse Mondays have been a great start to your week. It’s done wonders for ours. We look forward to this season of murse hunting and getting your pictures as well. Murse Monday will be back. Soon.
Email your pictures to info@herethereandelsewhere.com
One of our favorite bands, and we couldn’t be more excited for their new album. Mumford, we dig your banjo playin’ and this new jam makes us want to shake our tooshies.
Laura and I took a quick trip to Austin last week with some friends. Here’s a glimpse at our time there. Clearly, you can see we like to eat food. And yes, you do see a maple-bacon doughnut and a fried chicken doughnut. Don’t judge us. Or do. We don’t care, they were freaking delicious.
Our first date was at a little coffee shop in Dallas called Crooked Tree. Ever since then, one of our favorite things to do is to go and just hang at a coffee shop - any coffee shop.
Just a few things that remind me of our lazy days or nights at one of our favorite spots.
Well, we did it. We’ve officially been blogging for one full year! And all 12 of you have made it more than worth it.
When we first started this here blog, it was strictly for us to document our three-month European vacation. You know, one of those things that we could always look back on and reminisce about. And also so I could see how amazing my beard was and my foreign language skills weren’t. However, very soon into our journey we noticed that more than just our parents were reading this thing.
We have received a lot of emails, randomly met up with several of our blog readers while in Europe and have chased down many-a-man to snap pictures of murses/satchels/man bags over the last year. We’ve posted 270 blog posts and have amazingly had tens of thousands of visitors from 135 different countries, but really just 12 ;) I tell you all this because we kind of randomly stumbled across this thing they call ‘blogging.’ Truly, we weren’t expecting anyone to read it, and are continually flattered and humbled by all who choose to read our words. Why you do, I’ll never really know. I must have a fat boog hanging out of my nose all the time or something.
Over the last year, we’ve learned a lot about blogging. Here are five of those things.
1. The world of blogging is a different and very large beast. Once you get into it, you realize how far it reaches and how little you know about it. It’s like being in the Shire and traveling to Mordor with hobbit feet. It’s like being in Kings Landing and traveling to The Wall. It’s like being at Hogwarts and traveling to the Weasley’s house. Far reaching. Instead of being intimidated by it, make new blogging friends. It’s fun. Embrace the vastness of it.
2. Be yourself. You know when you tell a lie and then feel like you have to keep telling a lie to keep the lie going and then it gets really hard to keep it going and you feel like your brain is going to explode because you can’t even remember the original lie anymore? Yeah, that’s not good. No one will understand you. By being yourself, blogging is easy. You do you. I promise you’re interesting, you just have to figure out how that connects in words or pictures or video.
3. Don’t think so much. Just write. When you start trying to write to please people, you won’t write good stuff anymore. Blog posts don’t have to be long (like this one). When you think they have to be long or super well written, you’ll burn out.
4. Be consistent and disciplined. Newsflash: When you stop writing, people stop reading. The times when we don’t post much our readership declines. Duh. You won’t get a following over night. Do me a favor and go to your favorite blog (besides ours, of course) and look at their archived blog posts. How far do they go back? Probably at least three-to-five years. See? It’s not like those movies when they get struck by lightning and magically have some awesome skills when they wake up.
5. That we love blogging and will continue to write. Even though we originally started this solely to document our journey, it has become much more than that to us. We love meeting new people through our blog and social media. We love being vulnerable. We love taking pictures of murses. We genuinely love all of you even though we probably have never met.
Thanks for reading over the last year. We look forward to sharing our life even more with you and can’t wait to get to know all of you better!
The Mrs. and I had a great weekend in Austin with friends which you’ll hear more about later this week. The trip included bacon & maple doughnuts and Laura possibly getting embarrassed more than she ever has before. Yeah, stay tuned. In the meantime, it’s Murse Monday! Aaaaahhhhhhh!
It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s SuperMurse! This guy must have just seen the new Batman movie and felt like he had to ‘fit in.’ Well, it didn’t work. It appears the guy behind him is also murse hunting and is snapping a great close-up shot with his phone. Well played plaid-shirt. Well played.
Our brave blog reader, Kathy, snapped this in Maryland on public transportation (bonus points). The only thing that makes moe more nervous about his hand being in the bag like that is his singular right sleeve rolled up. What the heck kind of fashion does Maryland have going there? At least he’s getting some eco-friendly shopping done. Still, the creepy hand in the murse? (Shaking my head, or SMH, as the cool kids say it)
This murse carrier had a little pep in his step at an Austin, TX thrift store. He was a slippery sucker as he had me bobbing and weaving throughout racks of clothes just to get a clear shot. I almost got caught red-handed when Laura was pointing and laughing at me trying to get a good shot. Rule #372 of murse hunting: Never blow your partners cover. Luckily, I am a murse marksman by now or else it would have been curtains for me.
Good people that read this here blog, we are continually amazed and flattered when you send us murse shots. Keep up the good work. Have a great Monday and keep doing what you do so well!
Tuesday night we visited the Dallas Arboretum. It’s such a beautiful escape in the middle of Dallas. Especially when a Bon Jovi cover band is playing. Just kidding. Not that I have anything against Bon Jovi, besides the fact that I don’t listen to their music and that the bass player in this cover band looked like he works at a comic book store (also nothing wrong with that, but doesn’t quite fit the Bon Jovi cover band image I had in my head).
Really, it was a night to hang with several couple friends of ours that we don’t get to see very often. I particularly wanted to go because the great glassblowing artist, Dale Chihuly, has an exhibition going on at the Arboretum right now. For some reason, his strange and beautiful glass work really intoxicates my creative soul. I’ll let you borrow that quote. You’re welcome.
I have long had so much respect for Chihuly as my father, the great Ronaldus, first introduced me to his work and craft many, many years ago. His masterpieces can be seen all over the world and I’m sure most of you 12 blog readers have had a run in with some of his stuff, possibly without even knowing it. I encourage you to dive into his life and artwork here. It’s truly fascinating.
Anyway, just wanted to give you a peak into our Tuesday night shenanigans and also to have a look at the jorts, black tank top and pony tail on the bass player in the Bon Jovi cover band. Cheers.
Also, please excuse the obvious sweat marks on my shirt. In case you didn’t know, it’s a little warm in this part of the country. That, and I generally sweat a lot.
Top o’ the Monday to ya! Our weekend was full of surprise party’s and celebrations, so why not keeping it going with a celebration of murses? It’s Murse Monday!
Man, this guy looks angry. We’ll just call him ‘the angry murse carrier’ from now on or TAMC for short. I can’t blame the guy. I’d be mad too if my wife laid out a brown murse with a black suit. Especially if my suit was paired with a red button-up. We’re sorry TAMC. We’re sorry and shamed.
WHY?!?!?!?! You are carrying a backpack. Why then, do you also need to carry a murse? It looks to me like this guy has more than ample room to fit whatever is in his blue and grey designed murse into his backpack. He could actually just put the murse IN the backpack. By the way, you can totally see my murse hunting shadow. It’s like seeing the groundhog on Groundhog Day. That means 6 more months of murses.
Ooh. I love the t-shirt and murse combo here. NOT. A murse deserves a little more respect than a t-shirt. Maybe he could throw on a man-scarf or just borrow the scarf from his wife. He gets a little credit for wearing khaki pants, I suppose, but then he loses that credit for wearing a t-shirt with khaki pants. It’s a vicious cycle, you see.
Happy Monday everyone! Go out there into the world and give it your best this week. We also wouldn’t mind if you captured a couple of murse shots and sent them in to us. I’m just saying.
There are some places, I have found, that speak directly to your soul. This place in North Carolina is one of them.
The picture above was taken one morning when everything was still quiet, the sun had just begun to shine, and I was reading while sitting in a rocking chair. You might see a butterfly perched on the ledge if you look closely enough. That guy kept me company each and every morning.
Sounds pretty perfect right about now.
I’d love to know if you have a special place that you will always love. Where is it? Why is it? Just something to think about while we work today…
