Hello, You

I am called Alex, Al, Allie Kat, and sometimes “that crazy happy dancing girl over there”. I am a skirted, fiddle-playing, frequently-laughing whole-hearted lover of life.

 

Holding a daisy while apple-picking in the beauty of a Michigan fall.

 

I share my life Dan, my love and my best friend. In fine Michigander form, we frolic our way though life, sharing our bounding imaginations, aching ribs from laughter, late night jam sessions, and properly Boojian cuddle puddles.

 

Dan and I at Hoxeyville Music Festival, 2011

 

Boojian? The phrase Booj came from my bizarre imagination as a child as a grand title for our family dog, Max. The title stuck, Max became “The Booj”, and the phrase came to embody all that my young self loved about him… nobility, silliness, smelliness, grandiosity… Soon, the phrase evolved, coming to encompass everything/anyone that exhibited those traits in the moment. All dogs are boojs, but any other noble beast can be a booj as well…as can anything if I am too lazy in the moment to come up with a proper descriptor. Want further boojian philisophy? Get me a beer and I shall ramble in an attempt to encompass its many meanings…

Heart-breakingly, The Booj himself passed away in February of 2012, leaving us all with holes in our hearts and just a remaining whiff of his bad breath. We all loved him so much.

 

My senior picture from high school, starring The Booj.

 

Dan and I live enthusiastically in West Michigan, where, through losses and beautiful times, we try to live with our hearts full of love and our minds and arms open. Friendship and love surround and buoy us, and we never cease to be thankful for the wonder in our lives and for the folks that we are lucky enough to call our friends and our family.

 

My family, watching a sunset at Lake Michigan

 

Collectively, our friends and fellows are eccentrics, it is true. We are, after all, a community of free-thinkers, and we take pride in our diverse oddnesses. We all know how lucky we are to have each other’s love in this crazy world.

 

So lucky to have so much love...

 

We are hikers, readers, musicians, writers, cooks, brewers of fine beer, and fellows in love. We jam, drink, dance, eat, and exchange ideas of how to live better lives. We seek to self-improve and to improve the world through awareness, discussion, art, and music. Through our lives, we tell tales of simple, enthusiastic Michigan life and soaring ideas for the world…