A Proper Mountain Woman: Megan Homer

Better Know a Proper Mountain Woman: Megan Homer
Megan Homer. Where do I even begin with this girl? I guess I'll start by saying she is one of my most favorite people in the whole wild world. We first met overseas on our mission in Romania, where we were assigned to live and work together for six of the COLDEST and BLEAKEST weeks of the year. It was December, the sun went down early there, at like 4 pm, so it always felt dark, and the streets were either always icy, or always muddy, and we seemed to always have a stray dog yapping at our heels as we walked from appointment to appointment. And most of the time the stray dog was a street dog that Megan semi-adopted, named Yippy, and put a flea collar on!
We've been friends now for over ten years, and she continues to amazes me with how bright, clever, and hysterical she is. She's one of those people who seem to know all the secrets to life... like what store is having a good deal on produce, or the best way to earn sky miles for traveling. (Once, on a family vacation, our car broke down in Los Angeles, and I remembered that Megan was living there at the time, and gave her a call. She was there in twenty minutes with jumper cables, and handed out snacks for us all to eat!)
Megan is always improving herself and landing awesome jobs everywhere. She recently moved to Palo Alto, California and I was thrilled to get her on the phone to answer some questions for the Better Know a Proper Mountain Woman series, enjoy!

1. Megan, where is your favorite outdoor refuge where you live right now?

Up in Woodside, there is an amazing spot, with tons and tons of hiking trails. It's about fifteen minutes from my house here in Palo Alto. I found it one day when I was driving on the freeway, one of the back freeways, I just saw all these beautiful nature places and I wondered if there was hiking over there. I asked my coworker about it and she told me there was, so then I googled it and found all these awesome hiking trails! I love it.

Do you think it's important to have an outdoor refuge?
I do think it is important to have an outdoor refuge! I honestly am a firm believer that the cure to most emotional ales in life is going outside... you have postpartum depression, you get outside and go on a walk!...you have regular depression, you go out side and go on a walk!...you are mad at people, go outside!... you're sad, go outside! Sometimes I won't go outside because I know I'll feel better and I want to stay mad. Ha!
It's my mom's recipe, when my sister had her first baby she would get really overwhelmed and emotional, and my mom would say "put your shoes on, hand the baby to Megan, we're going outside." And they'd go on a walk for ten minutes, and my sister would be fine... and then, you know, like five hours later, she would be stressed again and my mom would say "hand the baby over, lets go on a another walk". They'd be gone for ten minutes and she would be fine again.
Going outside is incredibly important.

2. What do you do to feel creative? What is your creative outlet?

Do you know what I love to make? I really love to make wreaths, I really do. And lately I have gotten into repainting furniture, too, So when I moved into my new house I refinished a bunch of cute furniture, like antique-y looking furniture, and I made a wreath. I have actually had people ask me where I bought it and I get to say "I made it!". I made it from recycled silk leaves, from my roommates wedding, and it has lemons on it. It's adorable.

3. What is your favorite mountain? 

For me, the mountain growing up, Casper Mountain. Because I skied on it six days a week for many winters on the high school ski team. And then in the summer I was there every day hiking.

4. What would you say is a mountain that you have conquered in life?

Honestly, not going home from the mission early! [Megan laughs] Yeah, not jumping out in front of a tram! I feel like my life has had challenges, up and down, but I feel like I handle most challenges with "march march march march march march"... but the mission, I was like, "I hope I get hit by a car today", or "I hope that I get sick enough to go home". Ha! Joke was on my because it turns out I was sick enough to go home, but I didn't, haha, nailed it!

Seriously, after not running home early from my mission, I feel like I can literally do anything. If I can survive Romania, I can survive.

5. Is etiquette important to you? 

I think etiquette is actually incredibly important. In life there are certain etiquettes we need to follow, like not saying, "hey you got fat!"... you may have gotten fat, but we don't talk about that.

My grandma was a very very proper person. Very put together. Very classy. It didn't matter that she lived on a farm for sixty years, incredibly classy and put together.

I learned to be put together and and be prepared for the day from my mother, who learned it from her mother, who learned it from her mother, who came over straight from England. Dressing well gives you confidence. If I am wandering the streets in yoga pants and a baggy sweatshirt, I don't care, but if you put it together, you have to. It sounds so stupid, but I remember when I first got my Acura, I was like you better look nicely dressed because Acura drivers are nicely dressed, you just can't be a slob, Get it together.

Even today, my grandma, who has dementia and can't remember a lot of things, gets nicely dressed every day... earrings, necklace, blouse, blazer, slacks... and I'm like "get it together Megan, Grandma's 94 and has dementia and she's a better dressed than you, get it together." My mother puts me to shame too, she's always so put together.

I also have nice parents, who always go out of the way to make sure people feel loved. With house guests, they always made sure there was a bathrobe in the guests bedroom, and guest soaps and things like that. So now, when I have house guests, I am sure to have towels for them and other little things they might need.

6. What do you do to feel motivated when you are feeling lazy, or feel like you are in a rut?

What do I do? Stay in my bed. What should I do? I feel like doing yoga helps me get myself together and going for a walk, yup, and going outside.

7. What daily routine do you have to help you feel more feminine or more like a proper lady?

For me, getting dressed. I wear make up every day, and put on nice jewelry. I have a wall of jewelry in my room, and I always wear accessories. I'm allergic to metal, so I don't wear earrings, but I wear a necklace every day.

But my real answer is curling my eye lashes. If I were on a desert island and I could only have one beauty accessory.... it used to be an eye lash curler, it's probably tweezers now... so I am going to go with two... tweezers and eye lash curler!

8. What is your favorite fingernail polish brand and color?

My favorite is brand is OPI. But actually, I bought this nail polish... I wonder if it's in my purse, it is not even OPI, it is ORLY and it is so stinking awesome, it's like you dipped your finger nails in pure silver glitter, and it is amazing. It's called Silver Pixel, and it goes on beautiful.

Or sometimes just a nice classy red, full disclosure.

9. What is your favorite song that you've been listening to?

Fight Song - by Rachel Platten, that is my new favorite song, I start my run with it every day.

10. What new hobbies or skills are you currently pursuing? 

Well, today I went to Booty Bar class today for the first time, it's a bar fitness class... AWESOME. It's ballet based, and I loved it because I did a little dance in high school. I am also training for another marathon, but that's not new.

Do you ever feel nervous about trying something new?

I've never been a person that was nervous to try something new. I ask myself, in five years will I be happier that I did it, or that I didn't? I always wanted to live in California, and that is why I decided to do it. People were like, "Oh my gosh, you are actually going to go? I have always wanted to leave Utah, and I have always been too scared." and these people are like sixty something years old... and I'm like yeah, I'm going to do it. And I went and did it... because the worst thing that would happen is that I would fail, and I would have to move home with my parents. And now, I'm absolutely a California girl and I love it. Now, every time I leave California, I come back... so I need to stop leaving!

If you have always wanted to do something, do it! What is the worst thing that can happen? You fail. Okay.... you fail, no big deal.
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Peace and pine trees,

Whitney (& Megan)