Trees

We moved to a big beautiful new office building this week!
This is what greets us when we get off the elevator on our floor now.



It's a really great building with all sorts of fun things like flat screens that run Olympic Highlights, a Wii, a great deck, Diet Coke machines right around the corner and WINDOWS. Oh how I love windows in the office.

It does strike me as slightly funny that although I lived in both LA and Boston, the best two office locations of my career were in Salt Lake and Colorado Springs.

But speaking of my old offices, Tretorn went live with a very cool new site and to celebrate, they are giving Freinds and Family a pretty sweet 45% off one order discount. The code is TRET45EM and you can use it at checkout.

I have my weekly Incline visit this weekend, get to go to Denver and watch my friend Jane's lovely daughter at a dance competition and hopefully unpack some of my last remaining boxes in anticipation of my friend Kristin's visit from Boston NEXT weekend. And then...it's the sister wedding of the century in SLC on the 15th. Did I mention that this guy is taking the photos? I just. can't. wait.

Sometimes

There are days where there are just too many things to be thankful for and I don't even feel right about how happy I am. Is that annoying?

I hope not, because I'm pretty sure the only way to really know how lucky you are is when you look back at your gratitude journal and see that for nearly a year, things like hot showers, 30 Rock and a comfortable bed were the only bright spots in your day.

Or maybe it's just Spring. It really is the greatest. My sister is getting married in three weeks and we get a new nephew any minute after that. Now THAT'S what I call a few bright spots...

Burst

Remember how life was supposed to calm down after the Olympics? How old am I and how long have I been alive to know that life NEVER slows down? A couple of us were here until 7:30 last night because hey, this seems like a good time to move our entire company to a new building. So I'm packing up my office, which by the way contains all the records of 16 years worth of Team Processing. If you would like to know what size pants the Archery team wore in Sydney, I'm your girl.

Or rather I was your girl. We've become somewhat ruthless in our approach to what we save. So we've been shredding and recycling and shredding and recyling and taking breaks to laugh when we find photo albums with pictures of coworkers looking like babies.

I'm trying to actually TRAIN for the Wasatch Back this year since my first leg is rated "very hard", I have plenty to do to get my apartment in shape for several spring houseguests and I'm trying harder to actually make some friends in this town.

So it's been busy around here. Not so busy that I haven't found a new artist to obsess over though. Gregory Alan Isakov. This particular track features vocals by Brandi Carlile and I'm pretty sure it will be a staple of mix CD's I make from here on out. Be warned.

Geneology

I must be my mother's child because she is supposed to be packing up her house and instead she's sending photos to us over email.

This one is so awesome I can't even stand it. Her family getting ready to move to California in 1957-love the car, love my super stylish grandparents, love the luggage, love the cute kids.

Love that this is my history.

Love.

Roots

I've spent more time than usual hunting for new music lately. Several of my favorite artists are releasing albums this year and if the near daily alerts I get from Red Rocks amphitheater are any indication, I will spend a fair amount of both time and money this summer enjoying fabulous shows with new friends.

These are a few things I'd love to pass along...

Last Memorial Day weekend my friend Traci came up from New York to play with me. The National was playing at the House of Blues that weekend but it was sold out and we spent two useless days emailing everyone on Craigslist trying to get tickets. Saturday night came and we figured we'd just give up and watch a movie. Then Traci got a flame in her little eyes and said, "no way, we are getting dressed up, we are going to the venue, and we are freaking getting into this show." I looked for parking and Traci got us tickets and the show was every little bit as awesome as we were hoping. The National has a new album coming out in May and this clip from the Jimmy Fallon show has me so excited about it the hairs on the back of my neck have been on end pretty much since I heard it. It gets better the more you repeat repeat repeat.


Once upon a time I clicked on a music blog my friend Dainon had linked from his blog. It was called You are Fuel, I am Friends and I was instantly hooked. The writing was smart and the author had pretty fantastic taste. She also had a soft spot for the Counting Crows so I knew she was probably awesome. Flash forward about a year and a half and I was moving to Colorado Springs where it just so happened this charming blogger LIVES. Dainon introduced us and she has become one of the best parts of my new home. Now we talk about boys and jobs over pizza but man, that girl nails it everytime when it comes to music. Somehow I missed The Handsome Furs when she first posted about them but now I am pretty much in love.

This is the song she references in the post.



I think this song has showed up in more Facebook status updates than just about anything else lately. The lead singer of Sigur Ros is releasing his first solo album and it's, well, solidly awesome. YouTube has disabled embedding on Go Do by Jonsi, but really, Go Do. It feels like spring to me. New and fresh and full of promises.

So glad Spring is here.

Three's Company

From Emily and Aaron's engagement photo shoot. File under, "why my family is rad".



(more photos here)

Noah's Ark

Lest you get the idea that my life is all fun job/jetsetting vacations/cute dresses let's just be honest that no matter how much fun I am having, the state of my love life will always keep me from drifting into "OMG MY LIFE IS SO PERFECT AREN'T YOU SO JEALOUS" seriously so blessed territory.

I'm nursing a bit of a bruised heart in the wake of a couple of disappointing events in that department. One actually happened a few months ago and was pretty much just a final nail in a coffin I have been too stubborn to close far beyond when it was useful or healthy. I was able to gloss over it at the time but a little distance and some of the emotion dropping out of it is giving me a chance to grieve a little and truly let go. The other is more recent and slightly more raw but I'm trying to let myself just feel what I feel and be able to really move on.

These kind of hurts always make me wonder though how to get through this stuff without putting up a thousand little traps for the next guy. When someone knocks through one of your carefully constructed walls, has a look around and then shrugs and leaves, how do you resist the temptation to build a stronger one?

I don't want to be 22 again where I got a crush on any boy with a nice smile who liked Dave Matthews. It makes sense that as you get older and more comfortable with yourself, you get a little more selective. And you are willing to wait for a deeper connection. I am happy to be in a place where I'm confident enough that when these situations come up I no longer wonder what is wrong with me. I'm mature enough to know that sometimes things just don't work out and it's not because I'm not pretty enough or fun enough. All of those things are comforting.

Still. There is a part of me that I have to fight that wants to declare boys a waste and just eat a whole bunch of ice cream. Instead I put myself on the treadmill and try to figure out ways to stay vulnerable when it seems safer to toughen up.

I know the smart thing to do is allow myself a little time to be sad, not to be too hard on my heart for having the audacity to actually feel something, and then smile brightly at the next boy who gets my pulse up a bit. And just have faith that there will indeed be a next boy and that the pulse won't be too worn out. And maybe it doesn't hurt to take extra pleasure in long phone calls from old roommates and thank you notes from happy athletes and good meetings with good bosses and to be grateful for a life that is far more blessed than cursed.

I got this song a few months ago but today it seemed particulary appropriate. I too tend to Love the Rain the Most...when it stops.

Forever Young

Is there anything better than slow dancing?

The answer is no. There is not.

Maybe this song.