SYTYCD

Sometimes if I have to leave the office in the middle of the day, the only parking option when I get back is the roof. And pretty much every time I get to my car after work, it's so empty and awesome up there that it just feels like someone should be dancing.

Well tonight, after I finished the Jack Quinn 5K and finally got my t-shirt, that person was me. I just couldn't hold it back anymore. I put my purse in the car, cranked up my headphones and I danced my face off right up until I realized that for sure there are five or six buildings that could definitely see me. But for a good ten minutes, I'm pretty sure Cat Deeley would have been really proud of me.



(You get it right? This thing is BEGGING for a performance.)

Motto

So I joined the rest of the internet pretty things junkies and starting a Pinterest account. It's basically internet bulletin boards you can fill with awesome things you find on the www. For someone who loved the web and sharing as much as I do, it's pretty dreamy.

Yesterday I was looking at things my friends had posted and found this

Sorry for the swear but this basically sums up my attitude for 2011. Don't say no when you can yes, try things you aren't sure about, meet more people, get on more planes, see things, learn stuff, relax harder.

To that end, this weekend is packed with hikes and rides and a wedding and what promises to be an insane 48 hours in Aspen with two girls, two boys and a dog. I hope every single one of you is doing something epic this weekend.

Here'sa Memorial Day mix my Twitter buddy from The Knocks posted today. 40 minutes of dance music!

Pig

All day I have been thinking about that children's book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad No Good Day. When your morning begins with an RV nearly running you off an overpass, you should just turn around and go back to bed, nothing good is coming of this day. It's been one of those days where pretty much everything just felt like "seriously?". And honestly, I am THIRTY FOUR YEARS OLD, how is it possible that I can still wake up with a giant zit that wasn't even on my radar last night. I want to go back in time and punch every single adult who ever told me rough skin was a teenage thing. To be fair, I also just kind of want to punch everyone today.

They are not my beans to spill but someone I love is going up against something scary tomorrow, maybe I just needed to squeeze out all of the bad karma I could today.

And with that, I'm taking a couple of Tylenol PMs, and listening to this until I pass out.

Jealous Lovers

In honor of The Rapture today, this is my favorite of all their tunes.



(Heh heh.)

All the Ladies

As I mentioned a few times in the last few posts, we went to see Bridesmaids on Saturday. I enjoyed it on several levels, the first being that it's crazy funny. I have had all sorts of thoughts about it the last few days that may or may not lead to a coherent blog post but here we go.

First of all, it makes me nuts to hear people call it "The Hangover" for women. Plenty of women enjoyed The Hangover AND Bridesmaids is a straight up funny movie whether or not you happen to have breasts. Even after devoting five years of my professional life to a women's footwear brand, I get really eye-rolly when I hear the words "for women" attached to something. When ESPN decided to launch ESPNW, you know, sports info "for women" my first thought was "will the Red Sox scores be cuter over there?" I'm a female but if I want to know how Rickie Fowler is holding up at the Crowne Plaza Invitational this weekend, I'm pretty sure my little girl brain can figure out how to read the leaderboard on "regular" ESPN. It's insulting and a little bit demeaning that the only way to describe something with women in it is to do it context of something male dominated. I'm sure the entertainment industry is a lot like the sports industry where I have enjoyed a career surrounded by strong, smart women and yet somehow it manages to feel like 1955 when wonder of wonder, some ladies get together and make a funny movie and they have no idea how on earth to spin it.

I read Tina Fey's "Bossypants" in one sitting last month. I consistently laugh my head off at Mindy Kaling from the Office's tweets. I watched the entire first season of Parks and Recreation today while I was home sick and found Amy Poehler and Rashida Jones to be the highlights of a pretty delightful show. And you guys know how I feel about Connie Britton's Tami Taylor character on Friday Night Lights. What thrills me to my toes about these women and these projects is that they aren't just good "for a girl". These are women who are standing toe to toe with a very male dominated industry and instead of using sexuality or crying "sexism!", they are just rocking at what they do and letting their work do the talking. One of the reasons I have such a gigantic girl crush on Tina Fey is that she strikes me as the kind of woman who would look at some jerk saying "you are just a girl" and say "suck it d-bag!". It's 2011 and even in the last year I've had men I work with call me sweetie and pat me on the head. I thank my lucky stars every single night for the opportunities I have and how wide open the world is to me compared to what it was for women just a generation before, but it's still a place where you are damned if you do damned if you don't no matter what you choose. Stay at home moms swipe at working moms but often feel restless and like they've lost a part of themselves, working moms feel enormous guilt and get their digs in at those SAHMs when they can. Ambitious single women get accused of choosing a career over a family but when husbands die or get sick or walk away, plenty of women who didn't get an education are forced into the self-improvement Mr. Right was supposed to make irrelevant. So i love seeing these funny and talented women who aren't apologizing for being women nor are they trying to make some statement for ALL women. They are just using their talents and being awesome, giving all the rest of us a big fat thumbs up to do the same.

My final two cents is that I loved this movie for being more about female friendships than it was about dudes saving the day. Hollywood gives us a lot of movies like "Bride Wars" where two women who are supposedly childhood best friends become enemies because they both want their weddings in the same venue. I read one review of that particular film that said the writers of that script either didn't actually KNOW any women or hated the ones they DID know. Female friendships are complicated for sure and girls can be bitchy and backstabbing and competitive but as I get older I see less and less Housewives of New Jersey behavior and far more taking care of each other. I've watched nearly every girl I've ever been close to get married in the last fifteen years and even though for the most part they've married great men, the need for female friendships never goes away. I've been a discreet ear during rough spots and a landing pad for weekends away. Even the healthiest marriages aren't perfect and loyal female friends fill an important role. So I appreciated that at the core of this film was a solid and realistic friendship.

Maybe that's a lot to take away from a silly movie. I've run across some fun old girlfriend photos while loading my computer. I miss these gals.

Blag

I have lots of reasons for enjoying blogging. One of my top five is getting texts like this one from thousands miles away:

I love when you're blogging regularly. It's the perfect replacement for my morning apple fritter.

That's me, blogging for a thinner America.

Tradition

It's sort of funny how really little things in our lives can bring us an enormous amount of satisfaction if we let them.

When I bought my first laptop probably eight or nine years ago, one of my very favorite things became to make CD's. Not just for other people but for road trips and holidays and different moods. I have playlists still hanging around with titles like "Summer Jam Cam" that I did for a friend and "Late Night Summer Listening in the Dark" that was clearly meant for a very specific moment.

Well I got a beautiful MacBook Air before I moved to Boston and the only thing those sexy little things are missing is a disk drive. So my CD making days kind of died. I would still use my old one occasionally for a "congrats on your baby!" mix here and there but my days of "saturday in July" or "Welcome to my brain" musical intros for boys I was falling for pretty much dried up.

So Saturday I was running around getting ready to go to the movies with the cute girls I had talked into getting dressed up and I kept skipping around looking for super peppy songs in my iTunes. And then I realized! New baby iMac can burn CD's!!! So I did a little happy dance and picked out 18 uppers and burned five copies to give to the ladies. It was really fun when later that night both Heather and Amanda were tweeting about how much they liked were enjoying their soundtracks.

Then last night, a friend sent out a great My Morning Jacket song I hadn't heard and it made me want to put together a playlist. I mentioned to him that I had been inspired and his reply of "I wouldn't say no to a copy" has got me sitting here tonight fiddling with the order and making a few substitutions before I send it off.

I know I could just zip the files and email it to him but there is still something so fun about getting a CD in the mail and listening to it in the order someone carefully thought out. My sister still does fall mixes and Coop does a Valentine's Day mix and they consistently rank as some of my very favorite compilations.

It's pretty simple but such a pleasure that I'm delighted to be back at it. And in celebration, I'll gladly send a copy of "Bridesmaid Day" and "Haunted" to the two people who first request them : )

EDIT: If you want a CD, I'm happy to send more than two. Tell me which playlist.

Bells

I was all set to write tonight and then two crazy days of bad sleep and site visit meetings in Houston have combined to turn my brain to utter mush.

But here's a little gem of a song I had totally forgotten about until I was working on a playlist tonight. Someone i once loved is getting married soon and I gave in to a bit of nostalgia thanks to this thing. I'll say this though, it's sure nice to reach a point where you truly do just wish the best for someone who broke you a little.

Maid of Honor

I like days that involve costume changes. We got some girlies together to go see Bridesmaids so duh, perfect opportunity to get dressed up in silly dresses.

And an obligatory DC run afterwards


Then we ate Mexican food and raced over to catch Gregory Alan Isakov and the Haunted Wind Chimes. And now at midnight I am starting to pack for a quick trip to Houston tomorrow.

Busy bee.

Copycats

I love it when the internet gives me something like this first thing on a freezing cold MAY morning.

Sometimes

Sometimes you are a grown up with a good job and a cute apartment and a very nice life and your sister-in-law posts something cute on your Facebook profile and you feel exactly like a nine year old at a sleep-over who wants to go home even though the party is totally fun.

Missing people is really the worst.

Pro-V

I hope you will all indulge me in what is probably the shallowest thing I will ever post on this blog. I was reading some old posts from the early days of this thing and I think perhaps I am guilty of being boring lately. So I'm hoping to freshen up my writing a little bit, even if that means some nights I just really want to talk about my hair.

That's right. Hair.

I'm kind of a big proponent of being comfortable in your own skin-identifying the parts of yourself that are awesome and getting over the things that you can't change. I am also a big fan of taking good care of your body and believe that when you feel strong and healthy, you worry less about whether you look like Jillian Michaels. I made peace with my small breasts and curvy midsection a long time ago and although I am always trying to do better in the wellness area, I don't kill myself to achieve an impossible dream. That said, I seriously hate my hair.

I have long been trapped in family of good hair. My dad is sixty and still has his, my grandfather grew a lovely silver ponytail halfway down his back in his seventies, my mother has thick red hair that no box or stylist was ever able to help me copy. My brothers grew long, curly hair in high school and my two sisters always look like they stepped off a hair show runway. I even got a bunch of in-laws with lovely hair. I basically hate all of them.

I had long hair that I used to put in hot rollers EVERY SINGLE DAY of high school and it was always shiny and bouncy. And then the week before graduation I cut it all off thinking it would look cuter in my cap (it didn't) and for some reason, it would never. grow. again.

So for about 17 years now, I have lusted after long, shiny, healthy hair. I get good haircuts, I buy expensive products, I pick up every single magazine that promises better tresses. I watch Gossip Girl and get distracted by how wonderful all their hair looks. And then I suck it up and tell myself not everyone has big brown eyes with long ass lashes and shut up right now and count your blessings. But I'm a girl, and sometimes in my darkest "seriously, I'M still single" moments I wonder if it's because my hair is too short.

Well boys and girls, I'm here to tell you that sometimes you learn a life lesson through your hair trials. A few months ago I went to bed with wet hair because nephs were here and I didn't want to wake them with the hair dryer. Yes, every single day for most of my adult life, I blow dry my hair straight with a round brush and then get it even straighter with a flat iron. Nevermind the fact that puberty gave me naturally curly hair-it's more like naturally 80's permy, so I go straight. I got up the next morning and it was exactly the kinked mess I was expecting. I told Tasha I would have to wash it again and she looked at me like I had three heads. "No you don't, you curl it like that silly." So I did a trick Natalie taught me when she visited last summer and readers-MY HAIR HELD IT'S CURL FOR TWO DAYS. I tried it for a week. Wash, go to bed wet, curl in the morning. One whole week of good hair days.

I tried it for two weeks. I tried it for a month. Good hair days. Hair growing. Shiny hair. Happy hair. Hair with body. I went to get it cut and my stylist said, "wow, I can't believe how bouncy this is." I told her my story and she said, "you've seriously been blowing naturally curly hair straight every single day? You shouldn't do that." Turns out, my hair wants to do one thing-curl, and it wants to be left alone for the most part. If I let it go it's own way and try not to wreck it, it's paying me back by being the happy, healthy mane I've sort of been dreaming about.

Well you were warned, super shallow. But here's what I've been thinking about with all the spare time I have now that I don't blow dry my hair anymore-maybe sometimes we get really obsessed with something we want and the answer is A) under your nose and B) contingent on looking at the problem in a different way. Looking back, I kind of did the same thing everyday and expected magically better hair. Turns out I was probably the one keeping it down with all the heat and harsh brushing. I wasn't kidding-life lessons through hair. It can happen.

i haven't been taking many photos lately but you can sort of tell here.



I promise to come up with something terribly insightful tomorrow ; )

Found

I'm loading old photos I kept on discs once my laptop got full into my new baby. It's so much fun since the majority of these are about five years old. I found this one of my sister Emily and I that I just love. We're in HB, we're singing, I'm positive the windows are down in my little Jetta and I'm certain we're on PCH.



I'm really glad I have memories that included all of the above.

Baby

I bought a new computer this weekend (!!!!) and am finally joining 2011 and getting internet at my house this week. Which means you can expect some more compelling content coming your way soon. Life has been busy and my heart has been busy doing a little healing and it has conspired to give me a little writers block. But the sun appears to be here to stay, there are some super fun things on the docket for May and June and almost nothing makes me as happy as staying up late, writing and listening to music. I haven't done much of that lately but i am RIGHT NOW and gosh, I sure love it.

I also love it when my friend Heather gets good musicians that she knows to come play in her clubhouse. Joe Pug was the guest of honor last night and for the 30 or so of us lucky enough to be there, it was a feast. I can pretty much tell you that when an upright base and a harmonica get involved, I'm paying attention. It was such a treat to have Dainon here too, we've been friends for a long time and traded an astonishing amount of music over the years but we've never been to a show together. He was teasing me after one of the songs about it being the track "you will post on your blog and get all effusive about." It's good to have someone around to give me a hard time when my brothers are all so far away. And then it's maybe a little bit of awesome when you hang around to help Heather put the chairs away and clean up the beer bottles and you end up in the kitchen eating pizza with the band.

And when there's too much to get rid of
And you get rid of me
Speak plainly to me, Diana
There's nothing you must be



And lastly, I love getting to know new people. There has been an influx of new hires at work and I'm suddenly finding myself with a group of young, single, fun folks who like to get out. So between happy hour that stretched to midnight, a faster-than-i-can-really-go-but-I-can't-look-like-a-pansy Incline trip and an afternoon of movies and playoff games today, it feels a little bit like college around these parts.

Summer, you have my attention.

Blue Eyes

My pal Dainon was in town this weekend for music all across the front range.

And if I don't have kids by the time I'm 40 I might tap his DNA.

Tour de Springs

While I understand that adult brains probably romanticize a lot of our childhood memories, I have some pretty terrific fuzzy feelings about the years my family spent in our house on Pheasant Way. It was pretty much everything a kid could want in a house-a swimming pool, good climbing trees, a TIRE SWING, a garden, not one but two wooded areas perfect for fort building, a little stream in the backyard and a big, safe neighborhood we were allowed to run around in as much we wanted. And it was one of those great old neighborhoods with reasonably sized houses that didn't all look the same, shortcuts from one street to another, plenty of places to hide if the boys decided to chase us and a creepy dirt road that we were sure led to a crazy old farmer who hated kids (that rumor was never confirmed nor denied). I remember long, glorious summers playing outside as long as we possibly could and exploring every inch of that area. And of course, the key to summer freedom as a tween is-a bike! We. Loved. Our. Bikes. We liked to wash them, "work" on them (which consisted of turning them upside down and putting a little WD40 on the chain under Dad's supervision), do tricks in the long driveway. But mostly, we loved to ride them wherever the heck we wanted to go. A bike was a ticket to independence, a kind of "be home before dark" luxurious freedom I don't know if kids really get anymore.

And then high school came and it was more about cars than bikes and I have no idea what happened to my old banana seat cruiser that I loved so much.

I bought another bike when I moved to Huntington Beach and got that same feeling I had as a kid everytime we hopped on them to go down to the pier for ice cream or taco tuesday.

So I always knew I liked bikes. I bought a real live road bike when I lived in Boston but winters and traffic and frankly, being too miserable, kind of kept me from really riding much. My bike fanatic friend Matt took me out the weekend before I moved on a gorgeous ride that made me a little sad I hadn't gone more. He was pretty sure I'd find a person or two to ride with in Colorado.

The last year I've been lucky enough to find more than one or two people to ride with but my very favorite riding partner has been my coworker Todd. He was a National Team Freestyle Skier for Canada and then when he retired from competing, he took up cycling. He studied Kinesiology in college, coached for a long time, and is a certified trainer. And for whatever reason, he's decided that I'm a cause worth taking up. He started hassling me to come out on lunch rides with him when he heard I had a bike and after the first one, I was pretty well hooked. We get out at least once a week and now the that the weather is cooperating a little more, we're trying to step that up signifigantly.

After all of these years of running and spending time in the gym and always feeling like I want to be healthy but I'm just not an athlete, it has been SO FUN to find a sport that is more fun than work. Don't get me wrong, this town is nothing but hills and they are hard and everytime Todd yells, "one minute at full sprint, GO," I kind of want to punch him. But then we're flying downhill and there are three or four of outside on a perfect day when most people are eating at their desks and I feel exactly like I did when I was 11.

The bike is totally a ticket to freedom.

We're walking, we're walking

Pandora must be reading my subconscious today.

I have a hard time getting over people. I think it's because I just really like people in general and I hate it when I lose one.

So this song sort of startled me today. I like the idea of having an, "alright, this is last call, all feeling gotta hit the road," moment.

This is the last song that I write while still in love with you
This is the last song that I write while you're even on my mind
'cause it's time to leave those feelings behind



Did you hear that heart? All clear please.

Stuff

Well this is romantic.

Also, it's snowing again today so I'm just giving in and listening to depresso music. I had a dream about someone last night and it was one of those where you are glad it wasn't real when you wake up but also kind of sad it wasn't real when you wake up.

I hope the treadmill is excited to deal with that this evening.

God Bless the USA

Osama Bin Laden dead.

Finally.

I'm so grateful for the military and all the people willing to risk their lives to that the rest of us can watch weddings and whine about gas prices in peace.

Remembering tonight all those people who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. I hope their families are feeling some closure tonight.

I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation under God, indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.

Sleepyhead

I've been feeling drained all week and I guess my body decided to do something about it today. I woke up at 2:30! But I finally feel like a human again so I guess a little hibernation was in order.

It's the first day of May and Colorado has decided to usher it in with snow. Despite my multiple escapes to warm weather since November, I'm done with snow and cold and coats and gloves and the little Californian inside is restless. My friend Rudy posted this song this week and I've been listening to it on repeat, hoping the weather gods will hear me and grant my mountain home a good spring. I love the imagery on this video too-if you have never spent a summer near the beach, I can't recommend it enough. It actually IS as dreamy as it seems.