Gone

Rain

When I moved to California for the first time almost eight years ago I spent a LOT of time alone. I worked from home and it just took me a long time to make friends.

Most of my days were filled going to Lady Foot Locker stores and teaching the staff about the brand I worked for so I was in malls all the time. My favorite one was the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. It's an outdoor mall and it's right next to the beach so I would try to visit that store as often as I could. They had a great music store there that would let you listen to any CD before you bought it. I was in there so much that one of the clerks called me "shoe girl".

Back then I was a pretty diehard Dave Matthews fan and there was quite a bit of buzz around his ATO Records label. I figured if Dave loved someone, they were probably a safe bet (that is true by the way, ATO has some killer artists). Patty Griffin happened to be on sale one day in that little record store on the Promenade and I fell madly in love with her album 1000 Kisses.

That summer I also happened to have a sort of disappointing boy experience and that album turned out to be a major source of comfort. I may have been a bit disappointed by a boy in the last few weeks and I am happy to report that Patty still does a bang up job filling up those little holes only a failed romance can poke.

This song probably spent the most time on repeat that summer. I still love it.

Ring Around the Rosie

I wrote a post a few years ago about how I didn't think I really wanted an engagement ring and for sure I wasn't interested in a diamond. I think I did a poor job of explaining why but my sister does a much better job here of explaining why she got an engagment rocking chair instead. It's one of my favorite things she's ever written.

Jet Plane

Last year when I was trying like crazy to figure out a way out of my miserable life, I had decided I would try to get a job with the Vancouver Organizing Committee. I had some good contacts and I thought it would be a good way transition back into the Olympic world. I told my friend Carrie about my plan and she responded by sending me a book of walking tours of Vancouver. Her confidence that I would need that book still gets me a little teary eyed.

The right opportunity never really came up but I kept that little book by my bed and looked at every night and promised it I would use it eventually. Even so I'm sort of pinching myself that I leave for Vancouver in three days. I spent the first part of the day furiously cleaning my house (full disclosure, I am such a clean freak that normal people might not be able to see an actual difference) and then the second half running around getting my errands done so I can leave for three weeks. And maybe getting my eyebrows waxed and buying a few more cute things to wear during the Games. I mean, if a girl is going to be mixing with Olympians, she doesn't want to do it with stray eyebrows right??

My intern left this morning and we spent about 20 minutes just staring at each other yesterday trying to come up with anything major we may have forgotten. He and I have been joined at the hip for the last three months and I was way more panicked watching him leave my office then I was when my boss left last week. Too real now I suppose.

I know I can do this, and part of me thinks it's funny that 25 year old me was probably less stressed out about the Games than 33 year old me because she was too young and dumb to know what was about to happen.

That's what I am the most excited about-not having any idea what is about to happen. I've planned really well, I've tried to think of everything, and now it's time to just get there and let the adventure happen however it wants to happen. I've been getting all kinds of emails from friends who will be there with all kinds of fun things to do (we already have our tickets to the Barenaked Ladies on the 16th-how Canadian is that??). There is a TON of work ahead-six semis with my name on them will leave Monday morning and we'll unpack them Friday. We have about 600 athletes and team staff come through during our 10 days of operation. Anything could happen and the anticipation and the unknown has me feeling like I'm going slowly up the first hill of some ridiculous Six Flags roller coaster. I know the ride will be fantastic but I also kind of want to throw up.

One thing I do know is that I really can't wait to tell you guys all about it. I feel like the theme of 2010 is going to be "making up for lost time." I have the Games, a trip to Mexico, a site visit to London and two really great weddings all in the next few months. Like Conan O'Brien said last night (and it sort of made me tear up a little bit) "Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen".

Here's to amazing things happening to kind people!

(I've been obsessed with this song all day.)

Witness To Your Life - Lori Mc...

Truth

I can't wait for summer in Colorado.

Wedding Bells

We're finally getting a brother-in-law!


Welcome to the family Aaron!



Good job sister : )

A little great!

My friend Corinne, who has a PhD, a cute husband and two of the most adorable children ever has just given birth to a really fun new lifestyle blog called A Little Great. They have tidbits on everything from fitness to literature to staying organized by a variety of writers. And guess who is doing the music reviews?

Yep, I know enough to be just a wee bit ahead of the mommy set the blog is geared to so it's been a lot of fun. I've only just started but come here to see how I managed to weave Dolly Parton and Common into the same post. It's fun to have another outlet for writing and even though I'm so busy right now I had to drag a date SHOE SHOPPING with me last night just to fit all my errands in, this is helping keep myself a little bit sane. See you there : )

Up

Quite a week folks. I fell into bed at about 10:30 on Friday night which is unheard of for this little night owl and slept like a rock until 8:30. That sleeping like a rock is also fairly unusual but I was BEAT. However, 250 Olympic and Paralympic staffers now have their uniforms for the Games and I took a giant leap towards feeling confident we can pull this off for the athletes in Vancouver next month.

Yesterday I just sort of goofed around, went for a run, got a massage, grocery shopped, watched a movie with a friend-oh, AND went to the office for three hours. So today I resolved that I would not give into the temptation to do any weekend work. Church was over at noon (which is painful when I have to get up early on a Sunday but feels really good when it's over early too) and the weather was spectacular (seriously Boston, you should take a lesson, this is what winter should feel like!) so I decided to tackle the famous Manitou Incline.

The Manitou Incline is the scar left up a mountain here in the Springs by the Mount Manitou Scenic Incline Railway. The fact that people of old preferred to get to the top of this thing by railroad car should tell you something about how insane the trail is.

One mile up.
2800 railroad ties.
2000 feet of vertical.
And four miles back down the Barr trail.

Yep. Here's an old timey poster of it.



My friend Ian lives close by so I talked him into going at least part of the way with me (this story ends with Ian beating me home by about 45 minutes. The shame). I've been using my still not totally adjusted Boston lungs as an excuse not to take the several invites I've gotten to join people. And just before I got to what I had heard was a false summit I started thinking those ill prepared lungs were going to explode. 2000 vertical feet! You can feel every stupid inch. The whole round trip took me a little over two hours and I only had one nasty little spill on the way down-it's super icy on the trail coming back and I was being careless. I had no idea you could buy ice spikes for your running shoes but they must do a brisk business in them here judging from the volume of crazies barreling down the trail.

I got super lazy about pushing myself physically in Boston. If I'm being honest, I got lazy about pushing myself period in Boston. So if the past few months I've been working a little too much and charging straight up a mountain is what counts for a relaxing Sabbath, I'll take it.

Go Time

All the talk talk planning talking counting planning talking of the last three months kicks off tomorrow when I get to outfit about 220 members of Team USA staff. It's a good practice for the actual Team event in Vancouver but I'm a touch nervous about how everything will go. I feel prepared and I know we've worked our tails off but still-I have never done this before and I don't know what I don't know.

BUT, the interns and I had a fabulous time today getting everything set up and then doing our own "shopping trips" through the apparel stations.

I'm really glad these two will be roommates so they can dress the same every. single. day. So cute!
Mostly I just like Ian and Charlie in the back there looking like excited little girls digging through a box.

I may never want to wear red, white and blue again after March but right now I have to say, we are going to look pretty darn sharp!

Perspective

I started the year 2000 fast asleep in my missionary bed in Geneva, Switzerland. I figured it was God's way of helping me build character that the girl who hates with all her heart to miss out on anything had to watch all day as the city prepared for the party of the century and then go to sleep at 10:30. Little did I know that my quiet evening would usher in a decade so rich and full that my head almost explodes when I look back on it.

My biggest fear when I left on my mission was that somehow that was it. I was going to come home, grow up, get a job and be stuck in a monotonous adult life. College had been so much fun and I made such dear friends that I simply couldn't imagine things could actually be better when I could no longer stay up all night and spend half my life laughing around a table at Denny's.

My mother and I went to Paris 29 days into 2000. My dad got a kidney transplant about 35 days in. Within three months I had landed a dream job and met people who are STILL altering the course of my life.

My parents divorced this decade. I bought my first car. And my second. And my third. I was rink side for all the good stories at the 2002 Olympics, I met boys who felt like soul mates and learned that some of those are just teachers and not "the one". I moved across the country three times. I signed a couple of major sponsorship deals, ran a marathon and discovered a passion for activity I never knew existed, I made friends with all my siblings and gained three amazing sisters-in-law. I finally became an Aunt-twice! I watched nearly every friend from college and high school and my mother get hitched and sent more baby presents that I can ever count. I spent six months crying every day before I quit a miserable job but I learned stuff I wouldn't trade. I got my heart kicked around a fair amount but I still find myself offering it up so I don't think the damage is permanent. I've been able to travel like crazy and get to know some pretty great cities here and abroad. I found out sushi is completely awesome. I lived with a ton of really fantastic women over the last ten years but got to finish the decade in my very own beautiful space.

I could go on for days but suffice it to say, the 00's were flat out amazing. I feel like I accomplished so many of my dreams and got to move on to bigger ones. As my blog tagline says, I think my 16 year old self would approve-I flat out love the person I have grown up to be. The potential for the Teens or whatever we are going to call the next ten years is unreal. I already know I have Vancouver, London, Russia and Rio to look forward to which blows my mind just a little bit. I hope hope hope that these are the ten years that include marriage and babies for me and I'm proud of myself for saying that in print. It's not really a goal you can accomplish through work and tenacity like pretty much everything else in my life so it freaks me out to admit that I hope it happens. Soon.

I'll be 43 when I write the next one of these. Forty three. I'm sitting here at noon still in my jammies, listening to Bon Iver and looking out the window at the mountains in Colorado Springs and thinking that if 23 year old me had no concept of what was in store then 33 year old me should not worry about a single thing.

And with that, I'm off to go for a run. 2010 should start with a good sweat don't you think?