HOLD UP WAIT A MINUTE!!!

Stop everything!!

A very looooooooooong awaited Broken Social Scene record comes out May 4th and I will actually be visiting a CD shop to get my hot little copy.

But today! My smart and cool friend Chanelle gave a Facebook heads up that one of the tracks from the album is out and you can hear it here.

I have a near crazy love for Broken Social Scene. If you want to know what the world feels like to me, listen to five or six BSS songs and you'll get it. As the reviewer says, they are "...expansive, uplifting, dramatic, melodic".

I discovered these guys as my first time in Huntington Beach was winding down and they will just always remind me of warm sand and funny boys and stolen kisses and the feeling that something big is just about to happen with no clue what it might be.

Show Me State

For some reason when I'm naming artists I love, I always forget Griffin House. I can't think of a song of his that I don't just love. And honestly, he has one called "The Guy That Says Goodbye to You is Out of His Mind", and it starts with the lyric, "you don't have to change a thing about you babe, I'm telling you from where I sit you're one of a kind" sooo...what's not to love?

Anyway, my iTunes is doing a good job recently of sensing what I want to hear. Last night I got "Fever Dream" by Iron and Wine, a song that makes my heart skip as much now as it did when it leapt out at me live at a little club in Rhode Island many years ago. Today I got a stellar Griffin House track I hadn't heard in awhile called "Show Me Yourself". It has hands down one of my favorite lines of any song ever

I understand if your heart has been won, but I'd still like to know if I'm still in the game.

Somehow he writes these kind of melodramatic lyrics but because of the melodies and the way he sings them, they just come across as crazy romantic and not weepy emo.

Anyway, listen for yourself, it's a great song, his voice is sexy, and it will kind of make you feel the girl in a John Cusack movie.

Show Me Yourself - Griffin Hou...

Man vs. Wild

Oh hey so I leave for Denver tomorrow to do that big thing I just did in Vancouver all over again for the Paralympic team. I should be packing. Instead I am blogging. Obviously. Because if I had a tag for "doing other things when I should be packing", there would be approximately 1000 entries.

But whatever, I have things to say.

It's a pretty big part of my belief system that our bodies and our souls are intertwined. It's part of the reason that I'm so passionate about being active even though I do not have an ounce of athletic talent in my whole body. My life rolls along better when I make sure I am getting in a good sweat relatively often.

Too often I spend those sweaty hours at a gym, on a treadmill or a stairmaster. I am grateful for those things and on a cold week night when it's dark and snowy, they are life savers for sure. But yesterday I had too much on my mind to even fathom the slight pointlessness I feel logging another mile staring at the TV in the workout room. So I put on the little ice spikes I finally bought and am pretty sure mean I'm embracing my Coloradan status (still sounds so funny though-when did I move to Colorado??) and headed over to face the Incline by myself. I've been at sea level for a few weeks and I could feel every single inch.

It's been a funny 10 days since I got back from the Games and my head has been an absolute mess trying to come back to reality, but also gear up for the Paralympics, sort through what did and didn't work in Vancouver while trying to mesh with a brand new staff, and also making sense of some personal stuff. So sleeping has been tough and I've been a little edgy.

As I got about halfway up the incline, and I was already drenched in sweat and feeling like my lungs would probably never forgive me, all of the sudden I just started feeling so peaceful about pretty much everything I was worried about. I felt like my crazy heart was just forcing all the concerns to seep right out of me. The combination of the clean air and the mind-boggling views of Southern Colorado and forcing myself to do something really hard made me feel like there really isn't anything I can't tackle.

I have said this before-when I trained for my marathon it cleared away six months of fear and doubt about my ability to make my life in California work. My mind just seems to work better when my body is pushing itself. The sleep cycle app on my iPhone says I got more deep sleep last night then I have in a week.

I'm ready for another crazy week of athletes and chaos and not enough sleep and too many rice crispie treat breakfasts.

Neil Young performed at Closing Ceremonies tonight and sang one of his loveliest songs. It seemed so crazy appropriate for both the end of the Games and the direction I want my life to go. Enjoy.

Back to the Beach

The night before I left for Vancouver I was doing my traditional best to avoid packing. I chatted online with some friends, took a new and complicated Facebook profile photo, my friend Katie brought by an adorable care package so I visited with her for a bit, and then I spent some time on iTunes researching all the new releases my friend Paul mentioned in a status update. Patty Griffin had a new album out that week which is sublime, but he also mentioned a band I didn't know called Beach House. I checked them out and immediately fell deeply in love. They are from Baltimore, a city that has more charm than "The Wire" would lead you to believe and they promptly became my Olympic soundtrack.

I really like the entire Teen Dream album but this one is my favorite. I love songs that yearn.

Good Point

From Facebook today...

Katie C i envy the male ability to compartmentalize...
Lance M it's really easy when there are only two compartments: food and sex.

SportsCenter

Sooooooo, how exactly DO you go about recounting an adventure such as the Olympics. I didn't take enough pictures, I should have blogged as I went instead of waiting until the end, and I'm still scatter brained and exhausted even after spending the weekend pretty much asleep. But I want to share some highlights and since this is a blog and not me talking incessantly, I don't have to worry about boring you! You can just stop reading!

Easily the best part of my experience was getting to know a whole bunch of really amazing people-and that's everyone from the athletes and their team staff to my USOC personnel to a group of ridiculously great volunteers, an amazing hotel staff and really terrific folks from all of my sponsors. You know how my favorite thing is people? I was like a kid in a damn candy store for three straight weeks. Every single day was a new crop of collector's items for me. Even as tired as I was and how compounded that tiredness is every day you are there, meeting these people and being part of the culimination of so many dreams was intoxicating. I don't know why my team needed so much beer ; )

Over and over I thought how lucky I am to be in a job where I'm surrounded by people who absolutely love what they do. No one ends up at the USOC because it's the only option-people here are talented and driven and they have high expectations of themselves and everyone around them. So they jump in. When I needed more muscle to help us unload trucks on the first day, I didn't even have to ask-the guys from the Performance Service Center just sucked up the early hour and helped us unload five semis. When I let most of my team go to a hockey game on load out day, the completely exhausted transportation boys came in and built pallets for me. No one complained when the Cross Country team came in late and we had to put in crazy hours to get them processed. Everyone was just as smiley for the Figure Skaters on Day 9 as they had been for the Long Track team on Day 1.

I got to see a bit more of the Olympics than I did when I worked on the Organizing Committee in Salt Lake which was a treat. My dear friend Paul who works with the IOC hooked me up with an Opening Ceremonies ticket which kind of made my head spin. Sarah McLachlan was flawless, hearing KD Lang do Hallelujah was brilliant and that version of "Both Sides Now" by Joni Mitchell is one of my all time favorites. And after six months of staring at those Opening Ceremonies outfits on worksheets and counting them at the warehouse and hauling them to Canada and unpacking a ballroom full of pallets of them and watching our extraordinary Ralph Lauren tailors work wonders on all manner of body types, I burst into tears when the US Team walked out onto the ice. They looked so cute!!! Their boots were tucked so perfectly and the flags on all the moose hats were over the all the left ears! It was brilliant. And we all got a really good laugh at USA House that night when the stylist from Ralph Lauren who was backstage told us how blazing hot they all were and that they kept laying on the ground trying to cool off and he had to scream at them to STOP GETTING DIRT ON THE WHITE PANTS!

The next night I got some backstage passes to the Nelly Furtado show and my intern sidekick who has put up with me bossing him around pretty much nonstop since October and I went to see Hannah Kearney, Shannon Bahrke, Apolo Ohno and JR Celski get the first round of American medals. We were thisclose to the stage and then afterwards, the interns managed to convince a couple of local girls that they were athletes and I got to catch up with my dear Bev friend who is working furiously to ensure Event Services are flowing smoothly at all the city venues. It was wonderful to see her even if we didn't get enough time.

I made it to a Long Track event and even though the Zamboni broke down (what? in Canada???), I got to see both Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick skate which made my speed skating loving heart nearly burst.

We ran a program called the Olympic Ambassador Program that the athletes go through right before they leave Team Processing. They bring in past Gold Medalists to talk to the athletes about what it means to be an Olympian and to represent your country. So for two weeks we had Dan O'Brien, Nikki Stone, Vonetta Flowers and Bonnie Blair just hanging out at the hotel. There is something pretty fantastic about Dan O'Brien giving you his card and telling you to keep in touch. Class acts all of them, it always felt like the universe might explode sitting at the breakfast table with that many people who have been the very best in the world at what they do. And who were all so nice and down to earth about it.

I had a great time getting to know all the Team Leaders for each of the sports. The Team Leader is kind of like the Den Mother for the team. They handle all the logistics so the athletes can just focus on performing. So we end up working very closely with those guys in the run up to the Games and then on site. They were all so different and so fun. My favorite team leader moment being when the Bobsled/Skeleton TL was standing there on the last day with his Women's Bobsled team, waiting on two of them to finish packing and two of them to pick up alterations and two of them to quit arguing and he looked at me and said, "do you see why I'm single?" . I wanted to give him a gold medal on the spot.

There are a whole bunch of fun moments that aren't specifically Olympic related that you always get when you work an event and spend looooong hours with people. I ended up at the nearby casino more often than I would have guessed which happens when the going out crowd is mostly rowdy boys. I even managed to get up about $200 one night in black jack to the surprise of all the transportation crew. We spent more then a few nights at the Flying Beaver (seriously) eating wings until last call. We found an all you can eat sushi place that had sashimi that it breaks my heart to know I might never eat again. I got to know all my coworkers on a whole new level and even though events TOTALLY bring out the crazy in everyone (me included and perhaps in high doses), I love and appreciate how hard they all work and how much of their hearts they put into what they do.

I had one little personal disappointment amongst all the excitement but with a little distance, I'm relieved to finally let go of someone who had become fairly toxic in the last few years. And grateful that it happened at a time when fun and personal accomplishment could make it clear that everything was going to be just fine.

Professionally the Games felt like redemption. I am to a point where I am at peace with my time in Boston and every time I see Rickie Fowler's smiling face under a PUMA Golf hat I feel a surge of pride at what I was able to accomplish there but this is where I belong. This is a job that utilizes so many of my talents and feels like home. I was sitting in the office one day, cursing my computer for being so slow and not having a single clue whether it was Tuesday or Sunday and eating a rice crispie treat for breakfast and I just started grinning because this is what I love. And now that I'm home I have to say that I miss the constant phone ringing and blinky red blackberry light just a little bit more than I thought I would.

And then there were the athletes. You obviously get a few with too much ego who require more attention than you really think an adult should need but the OVERWHELMING majority of them are just a delight. A few of my favorite things...

-Nike was selling leather jackets, the only item that the athletes have to pay for. Apolo Ohno bought them for all his teammates who wouldn't have been able to get them otherwise. Didn't make a big fuss about it, just did it. The guy is a superstar but he came into Team Processing and just acted like a guy on a team.
-Casey Puckett came in late one night and we had to process him by himself the next morning. This was Casey's fifth team so I imagined he would be over it. Instead he spent three hours with us, trying stuff on, telling jokes, asking me to scratch his back because he was nursing a hurt shoulder. I asked him if the thrill wears off when it's your fifth Games. "Naw, it's always cool. It's the Olympics!"
-Every. Single. Member. of the Men's Bobsled team is just beautiful. I felt like we were on some kind of GQ shoot. I was walking past the alterations room at one point and one of my volunteers pokes his head out and says "katie katie!! You have to get in here!!!". Great, some emergency I'm sure...I go in and there are four guys from the team wearing just their Closing Ceremonies pants, ties and hats posing for photos from my staff and volunteers. So much for our zero tolerance policy on athlete ogling. Also funny when my volunteers discovered that one of them was LDS and ran into my office to tell me to go talk to him! He's single!! And one of your people!! (and 26! I did go talk to him!)
-Johnny Weir=delightful, Evan Lysacek=delightful, Lindsay Vonn=just as beautiful as you imagine.
-Shaun White was on a different flight than the rest of the team so he got to the hotel early. My transport guy called to let me know he was in the banquet hall if I wanted to go welcome him. I walk in and Shaun has wired his iPod to our speakers and he and his coach are LITERALLY bouncing off the walls in the room. I couldn't stop laughing because seriously, isn't that EXACTLY what you would expect when the snowboarders show up??
-There are so many athletes who are never going to medal but who were just so excited to be there. Can you imagine what it's like when you get to be around people whose dreams are coming true every single day for two weeks?? I can't see how I will ever be jaded in this job.
-My favorite athlete moment was my last night in Vancouver. I had gotten to be friends with one of the wax techs with the snowboard team. He called that night to say that they would be celebrating Seth Wescott's medal at the USA House. So after a focus group in the Village and dinner with Nike (oh yeah, I'm totally name dropping), I headed over to meet up with Alex. Most of my team was there so I got to say goodbye to people, ran into my friend Nick who I worked with in Salt Lake and had fun catching up with, and then finally found the snowboard boys. We're talking, flirting a little, and then he asks if I want to see a real live gold medal. So he introduces me to Seth who promptly pulls his medal out of his pocket and HANDS IT TO ME. And I protest, "Oh I can't hold it! It's a gold medal!" and he says, "it's America's medal! Hold it!". So I'm standing there, with four cute snowboard boys, holding a gold medal, in a beautiful city, with a crazy successful Team Processing behind me and all kinds of adventures waiting for me when I get home and everything just felt right in the world.

I am really looking forward to London and my first Summer Games experience but oh my heart belongs to the Winter Games. I spent a lot of time thinking about my experience eight years ago and how lucky I was to get to do this even once, let alone land a job where now this is just what I do.

On a more personal note, this job feels like a message from the heavens that God knows I am here and what my most important dreams really are. In the eight years since Salt Lake nearly every human I know has gotten married and/or had a baby. I never would have dreamed when I stood at Closing Ceremonies that I would be in a city we didn't even know about then, two Winter Games later, still a single lady. There are days I can't help but giggle because really? As Liz Lemon would say-"come on! The female Larry Bird is with a guy? What am I doing wrong?" And then I look at this job. And the eight years I spent feeling like I wasn't doing what I really loved and wanting so desperately to find that passion I had felt at SLOC (and I will interrupt myself here to say that I am FULLY AWARE that even in my low job points, I had terrific jobs in the last eight years and I do realize that no one feels bad for me that I had to travel all over the country and world and pitch deals to celebrities and live in cool cities so, please, take me with a grain of salt) and yet those eight years are precisely what made me a perfect fit for this dreamy job. As in, "we need someone who once worked at the Olympics and then spent a bunch of time working in the apparel industry and hey, if you could have experience with both events AND marketing that would be awesome." So I have to believe that somewhere , He's got a boy for me that will be the perfect fit for my thirty three years of experience. I have said before, and I will stand by it, that I wouldn't trade one second of the life I've had to have been married or a mom before right now. I am so thrilled and satisfied with who I am and the path I'm on. But I also think it would be silly of me to pretend that a family isn't on my To Do list. If you had told me a year ago that I would be writing this post my head would have exploded trying to figure out how I got here. So I'll take this clue that He knows I'm here and knows how to get me where I need to be. And he's out there. And not in any danger of winning a gold medal for speed ; )

Cracks in the Photograph

So I'm back from Vancouver. Back in my apartment, back at my desk, back in Colorado Springs.

I have about a million thoughts and feelings running around but they all have one thing in common-change. Everything here looks the same but you can't go through an experience like this one and come back without so much being different. My view of myself and how I work, my relationships with my coworkers, the volume of new people I met, the friends I reconnected with. It's this crazy and intense three weeks where every little thing becomes a giant thing, emotions are all on the surface and then suddenly you are just back at home and it's all over but you feel like a totally different person.

I had a truly obscene amount of fun and I made new friends and came home with a few phone numbers (wink!) and I saw wonderful things but it was also so many long hours and not enough sleep and too much Diet Coke and not enough exercise and so many heightened feelings and you never know what day it is and you never get to do everything and see everyone no matter how much you wanted to.

And then you get home and you have all of these stories and like pretty much any experience, your friends want to hear a little bit but they DO NOT want to hear everything and really the only people who want to talk about it are the people you are just a little bit sick of after living/working/eating/crying together for a month or so.

I remember on our last night in Salt Lake, everyone was so tired and ready to be done that the office cleared out within about half an hour of the last skater leaving the ice. I was so young and I'm such an emotional little creature that I just stood there looking around at the empty room and feeling like my world had just fallen apart. I'm experienced enough now to know that we'll all come back and we'll debrief and we'll go to London to start scouting Team Processing sites, and we'll take the Olympic Team to the White House and real life will stop feeling anti-climatic. But tonight, while I'm sitting at my kitchen table watching my blackberry crackle with updates about medal counts and media advisories I can't help but feel a bit like my 25 year old self.

Still, it sure felt amazing to be EXACTLY where I wanted to be. I'm a lucky girl. A tired and worn down one, but a very very lucky one.

Go World

Good Intentions

I had these grand plans to blog every night so I wouldn't forget this experience but then I decided I'd rather HAVE the experience than worry to much about capturing it. So I'm not taking a ton of photos and I've hardly written a thing but I'm having a blast. Stuff like Dan O'Brien hopping in the suburban with us to go grab a sandwich or the interns becoming impromptu Secret Service when Apolo Ohno decided to just walk out the front door of the airport with no escort.

Just so happy to be here.

Brief

It's 10:35 and I should reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally get to bed since it's pretty much the last night before teams start to show up but this is so much fun I can't get myself to bed. Great team, great sushi, and the feeling that I'm back exactly where I belong.

More to come...

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?