Little Feet

As if my sister getting hitched wasn't enough excitement for 2010-we added another baby to our nephew pool last night!


Wyatt Mark was born 10 minutes after his parents got to the hospital, I guess when it's time to come out, it's time to come out!

The good news is I only have to wait a few weeks to meet the little weasel because the Wasatch Back Relay is just around the corner. I wonder how a newborn would fare in the car with us for 30 hours?

With this new arrival, I'm pretty sure we've hit our quota of major family events for the year.

Major congrats to Christopher, Tasha and Mr. Morgan, the world's most adorable big brother.

Sister wedding weekend came and went far, far too quickly. I wish I had about ten more siblings because Clifford’s sure know how to pack a lot of fun into a few days.

Some highlights

• My friend Jimmy’s sister is the famous Sweet Tooth Fairy and he made five dozen super delicious cupcakes for our family dinner the night before the wedding. But not only were they great for eating, one of them made the ultimate sacrifice so that for once in my life, I got the upper hand with one of my brothers. Logan never even saw it coming and although I knew the second the frosting smeared across his face that it would end badly for me, those three to five minutes of him covered in cupcake are moments I will forever treasure. Another five minutes later I was pinned to the deck with a bowl of fruit salad being spooned into my hair and cupcake frosting in my ears. Worth it.
• We have a dear friend who is a hair stylist and cuts pretty much everyone in the family. She talked me into bangs. They are hot. Hot is the way the spinster oldest sisters should look at a wedding. Thanks Marian.
• Spoiler alert-nephew bragging coming! THEY ARE SO FREAKING ADORABLE. They are a perfect example of how wonderfully personal it is to be a human. Almost everyone on the planet has been and Aunt or an Uncle. It’s not anything unusual, and every last one of us was a baby at some point. But these two are absolute miracles to me. They are funny and they are sweet and when they are around I just don’t want to be anywhere else. It’s a huge relief when they are crying or cranky and I can give them back but if being a parent means being even more in love with a little creature than I am with these guys then I think every cheesy cliché about a mother’s love is probably still inadequate to explain what it really feels like. And on a shallow competitive Aunt note, they are really, really cute little boys.


• My sister throws one heck of a party. She did so much herself on a tight budget and it was beautiful and creative and classy-just like my little sister.
• My friend Mark, who is crazy talented and who shoots rock stars for crying out loud, worked his tail off and charmed great photos out of everyone from the mother of the bride to crying toddlers.
• I always say the only two things I care about in a wedding are the photos and the dress. Once again, sister turned up the awesome with a dress designed by a girl she found on Etsy. It was so fresh and sophisticated. Emily is a pretty girl anyway but she was stunning on Saturday.

• My family…oh my family. When I go back to Utah it’s always so hard because I have LOADS of people that I love there and I always want to see them. But then I’m sitting in Christopher and Tasha’s kitchen and Logan and Kristen come over and I never want to leave. Let me be clear that our family has been through our share of tough times. Divorce, illness, financial issues-it hasn’t always been a cake walk. And growing up, I was irritated at the little ones more often than not. All younger siblings do is get into your stuff and follow you around when you are trying to play with your friends. But everyone has turned out to be such a delightful, responsible, fun adult. And then four of them have made pretty stellar choices in mates. I have these three sisters-in-law who are smart and interesting and beautiful and independent and who all support and push my brothers to be better. And our very first brother-in-law has turned out to be quite a gem as well. And watching him adore Emily and treat her just like you hope someone will love your little sister, I’m thrilled that he’s stuck with us now. I feel lucky too that in this marriage obsessed religious culture I grew up in, I have never felt an ounce of pressure from my parents or grandparents or extended family about the fact that I am still single. They never make me feel like they are worried about me or think my life is sad or less full than the marrieds. I know they all want me to be happy and to find someone to be with but I never, ever feel any disappointment which is always such a relief.


The real joy of the weekend was seeing my sister so happy. She’s been so mature throughout this whole engagement, always focused on the fact that no matter what else happened that day, at the end of it she would be married to the boy of her dreams. There are a whole bunch of really tender posts on her blog about getting married that made me so proud of her and her adult perspective on the things that really matter. No talk of how big her ring was, she wanted a chair instead that would symbolize them starting a home together. She definitely wanted a fun wedding but it was always so balanced with how excited she was to be ending up with Aaron.

When I was a junior in college, Emily and her friend Libby came to visit me for a weekend at SUU. Of course I loved my sister and we have lots of fun memories growing up but in those few days, it dawned on me that hey, she was way more than a little sibling, we might actually be able to be friends. I’m five years older but I am constantly finding reasons to admire her. She is creative and fun and soft-hearted. She is a thoughtful friend and a good listener and advice giver. I have called her in full meltdown mode over boys and life choices so many times and she is always patient no matter how nutso she must think I am. She comes to visit me even when I live far away and always leaves my house ten times cuter than she found it.

My access to Emily changes now that she is married and even though I love Aaron, it makes me want to punch him a little bit. I know he realizes what a prize he got but I think he’s going to discover more and more as time goes by that she really is one of the best of the best. Watching so many people come to her wedding who love her made me wish I had spent less time trying to get her out of my room when we were little.

It was never part of my teenage fantasies that I would go to four younger sibling weddings alone and I won’t lie, there have been some good cries and a few, “wait really??” moments for sure. But I adore that girl and Saturday I just about burst with joy imagining all the good, good things in her life right now. And today when I got a text from her FROM HER HONEYMOON asking what that drink is that I like from Starbucks so she could get one (make that two! Good girl Em), I was happy to be able to provide some older sister wisdom.

Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez!!

Mission accomplished

Sister-radiant, weather-perfect, family-happy, friends-abundant.
Weekend an utter and complete success. Details when I don't have to type them on an iPhone.

(explosion sound here)

So all of the sudden the wedding that felt months away is in four days and I have a giant presentation due five hours before I get on the plane. It's making this week feel like it's on warp speed. And for some reason I thought Diet Coke at 9:30 was a great idea even thought what I clearly need is some sleep before I go home and live in the Clifford family talk until the middle of the night no matter how much we have to get done the next day crazy nuthouse schedule.

I have things to say and a post about another stellar May weekend but I have GOT to see what I can do about getting my eyes to close.

Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl

I spent the evening Saturday in Denver with my friend Jane at her daughter Kiana's dance competition. I wasn't really sure what to expect but as it turned out, this was a pretty high level competition and I got to see some really fantastic performances. I took ballet and jazz for about five years when I was a little girl and even though I was OK quitting when theater started taking up too much time, I spent a lot of time feeling just a twinge jealous of all those girls on stage. I give all those years of running around in a leotard and having to know my body really well with my relatively peaceful relationship with it even now.

I ended up sleeping over and Kiana was super patient as her mother and I talked about families and parenting until two in the morning.

I met Jane and her husband Dusty back at SUU. They got married and then moved to Korea to teach english and it really wasn't until Facebook got lots of us back in touch that I knew much about what they were up to. Turns out what they were up to was being pretty killer parents and raising a bunch of adorable kids. Jane is the kind of mom that plans fabulous birthday parties and makes green milk on St. Patty's day and spend half her life driving to various lessons. But honestly that's not what consistently impresses me about her. Especially watching her this weekend as she and Kiana interacted, at the very core she absolutely adores her kids and supports the heck out of the things that are important to them. Family is wildly important to her and I admire how hard she works to create meaningful family traditions. At the same time, she went back to school last year and has done a great job retaining a sense of "Jane" amongst all that good mothering and wifing. All of that stuff still sort of scares the daylights out of me but this weekend, Jane made it look kind of effortless.

One of the studios at the competition made some pretty creative music choices and my favorite performance was to a Broken Social Scene song I have long loved.
They have a new album out today. I'm enjoying it to death right now.

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.

Like the corners of my mind

Over Christmas my long time friend Jed called to tell me he had spent the afternoon looking through college photos. "And let me just tell you," I waited for him to say something sweet about how much he missed all of us or how young and adorable we all were, "the 90's were NOT kind to ANY of us. We looked AW-FUL!"

I would have argued but I spent an entire year in denim overalls and a flannel shirt tied around my waist. So here's to your 30's when you can afford better skincare and good haircuts. And when don't spend a good chunk of your time eating mozarella sticks at Denny's at 2 in the morning.

Hooray for adulthood.

Shadowlands

I think it's safe to say that the last three months have been amongst the most insane of my life. The Olympics feel like some crazy dream that happened forever ago and the trip to Mexico that seemed like it would never come has now had the audacity to be over. And my best friend Lisa got hitched and almost everyone I know from college showed up to celebrate.

Mexico was pretty perfect. Despite our assertions that all we were going to do was lay around, Corey and I kept fairly busy. We went to famous ruins and we swam in a cenote, we snorkeled, we played in the waves, we got massages. We drank more Diet Coke then the Jersey Shore cast off Spring Breakers drank tequila and we squeezed limes into a whole bunch of tacos. It was just the vacation I needed after Vancouver, and frankly, after the last two exhausting years.

(Thanks Jane for the ShakeIt Photo App. Feels so perfect for Mexican vacation photos!)

And then!

I went to Utah and these guys picked me up


I know, I know-you have cute kids/nephews/children you babysit but these two are mine and every single time I am around them it knocks the wind out of me how much I love them. They give me looks where I see their daddies faces and I can't believe I get to be related to all of these people.

My mom dropped me off where some of my SUU friends where staying and I pretty much didn't stop laughing until I got on the plane Sunday evening. I feel so lucky to have gone to school with such a fantastic group of people and that we've all stayed in touch so well. It's so nice to be around folks who knew you before you had any real idea who you were and yet they still manage to love you. Someone is bound to bring up some fabulous event you had completely forgotten and even though I am an adult woman with a grownup job, the boys will tease me mercilessly about something dumb I said ten years ago that somehow stays endlessly alive in their memories. These people feel like home in a way that is so easy and effortless that I honestly felt years and years melt away and it seemed like we were those dumb kids experimenting with the real world.

The best part of course was getting to see Lisa so happy. It was the first time I had met her husband(!) and so we all had to remind him over and over how lucky he was to get her. All I cared about was that he didn't seem to need us to get that. Lisa was a good 50% of the reason I didn't flee college my second semester in what would have been a scaredy-cat mistake of seriously epic proportions (someday I will run you through how my crush on a boy who ran for Student Body President at SUU is pretty much responsible for every good thing that happened from then on). She and I had a public speaking class together freshman year, she gave a talk on love and passed out the lyrics to Howard Jones' Everlasting Love. I think I talked about unicorns. We became dear dear friends and I haven't missed a day making my bed since the semester we started living together. We've been through a lot over the years. She lost her mom just before we graduated, my parents got divorced, her dad had a difficult second marriage, we've both had too many disappointing boy experiences to even start listing (only one of whom was the same boy), we've watched younger siblings and the vast majority of our friends get hitched and have kiddies. "katieandlisa" was one word for a long time and I think everyone knew that if you told either one of us a secret, we would tell the other one but no one else. (except when Brandon SPECIFICALLY told me not to tell Lisa he had bought a ring for his GF. And so I didn't. And then he was ALMOST bugged at me because he didn't tell her assuming I would.) Through all of it, Lisa has been one of the most thoughtful, grounded, kind, generous people I know. She keeps in touch with EVERYONE. She is actually the human Facebook and knew all kind of things about people long before we all started splattering it on the internet. She's the one who will catch in the obituaries that our friend lost a brother and there will be a note on it's way before anyone else knows. She was the one who was there for her little siblings when their mom died and she's the one who got her brother ready for his mission. The night she told me she was engaged her first concern was how I was going to feel since we're the tail end of singles in our group. Which was silly, because what kind of friend can begrudge someone she cares about finding the love of her life?

The reception was packed full of faces I hadn't seen in years and then we stayed out way too late at some funny little bar downtown where there was more laughing and teasing and laughing. I got a good nephew and family dose the next morning and then headed home to the apartment I fall more in love with every single day. All the post-event blues have worn off and the trip totally recharged me. Even a completely full email box Monday morning didn't dampen my good mood.

Here is one of my favorite photos from the weekend. Lisa looked amazing and I think the rest of us are holding up pretty well for being so close to middle age ; )

Arrived

Amazing amazing 10 days. I have plenty to say and some photos to post but this is how the whole experience felt, courtesy of my dear friend Jed.

Christmas Eve

I'm going to Cancun in the morning. I actually finished packing before midnight tonight which is pretty much unheard of in these parts. I spend so much time traveling for work that I forget how FUN it is to pack for FUN. And thanks to the event diet I've been on for the last few months, it was actually pretty pleasant to pull out all my summer clothes. So pleasant I know I overpacked and I will wear a swimsuit or yoga pants the entire time.

I'm super excited for the trip, Corey and I haven't made a single plan-we are just going to go and sleep when we want, sit by the pool when we want, go to the beach when we want and probably eat so many fish tacos and drink so much Coke Light that we'll have to buy new yoga pants. No blinky blackberry light, no early mornings, no scraping my car off three times in the last 12 hours.

Then it's off to Salt Lake for my dearest Lisa's wedding and SUU reunion extraordinaire! So many of my very favorite people all in one place, I'm kind of delerious. And it all ends with a nephew blitz on Sunday because little Oakland nephew is visiting his Salt Lake cousin this week so I get both little weasels for the price of ONE plane ticket.

I probably won't be around the internet much next week, just popping in now and then to check my brackets!!! (22 of 32 in Round One. Not too shabby!) Here is the tune that got me motivated to pack early.

Deleted

I was looking for an old email tonight and happened upon a chain of messages from 2004 debating who is the greatest superhero of all time. I would like to note that both the instigator of the conversation and one of the loudest voices were at the time attending Harvard Law and getting an PhD at MIT respectively. It was a lively discourse. I read my entry into the discussion and thought it was too funny not to post. This was pre-Christian Bale Batman movies but I think that makes my case even stronger. I guess this is what I did before I blogged ; )

I would like to make a case for Batman vs.Superman by bringing us all
back to high school.

Superman is the easy crush. He is the captain of the football team, he
is the Student Body President. He looks good in a tux, he will take
you to the Prom in a limousine (and probably drink too much and try to
get you to stay in a hotel room but that is neither here nor there).
He is six pack abs and straight white teeth. All the girls have a
thing for Superman. He is a good guy, your mom will love him, your
friends will be jealous of you, your life will be predictably
protected. He'll have a good job, the kids will go to summer camp and
get braces and scholarships to the U. Superman is not hard to figure
out. Sure his beginnings were a little sketchy but then he was raised
in a loving home by good people. Superman is cool, and it's easy for
him.

Batman however. You aren't sure what to make of him. He's probably in
your art class. Or he has a band. Or he hangs out in the South Hall
and doesn't make it to class very often. But he's smart. And he's
creative. And he'll draw a picture of you that doesn't just look like
you, it figures you out. And your friends will say "Gross! you can't
like him!!!". And your parents will probably ban him from your house.
But he'll figure out how to get to you. He'll give you your first
copy of Franny and Zooey. He is dark, intense, brooding. He witnessed
his parent's murder for crying out loud. So you are taking a chance
with this guy. He's an underdog to say the least. But you think that
somehow, you will be able to figure him out, solve his puzzle, heal
him. And that is very, very attractive.

I guess I'll let you decide who I'm leaning towards here but I think
I'd rather be Kim Basinger than Margot Kidder.

Boost

Apparently it's brag about who I know week. My good friend Dave, who is responsible for finally getting me into The Smith's at the tender age of 28, is one of those actors out there in Hollywood. It's pretty fun when you are catching up on shows on Hulu and you see his mug spooning with a lawyer. See below if you are confused.

Boost Mobile Commercial Link

Small World

I didn't watch the Oscars this year because frankly, I get to eye rolly by the end of that show with how self-important the movie industry is. Hey guys, film is great, I'll even give you that film is important. But you are all very very well compensated to do a really fun job so...you know, perspective. Not curing cancer or anything.

But. I was pretty excited for Kathryn Bigelow to get that Best Director award. Kind of funny that it's 2010 and it's the first time a woman has ever won it eh?

Anyway, my mom sent this yearbook photos over today-guess who she sat by in English class? Click on the photos below and see if you can find a face that looks kinda like mine on the first page and a famous name on the second page.

Pretty cool.