Spring Break 2007 (catching up)

I can't believe I didn't write anything about this at the time. This is one of the bigger things that Gregg and I did in 2007, and I didn't realize I hadn't written about it until I started writing up the "Holiday Letter". Of course I was studying for an exam at the time, so I guess it's not entirely surprising that blogging was low on my list of priorities. Anyway, so that this doesn't take over the holiday letter, here's a quick "catch-up" post just about Moab ...

Gregg and I traveled to Moab, Utah during Spring Break this year, for the wedding of some friends of ours. Gregg has fond memories of Moab, but I'd never really been. It was a great opportunity to go out with a group of friends, and share the cost of a vacation rental. By pooling our resources we were able to get a big house with lots of room, and a good sized garage. Which was a good thing. Everybody in the house went with the intention of getting out and enjoying the area as much as possible, either on mountain bikes (our mode), dirt bikes, or 4x4. So the garage was packed!

The wedding was off-road, and accessible only by one of the above modes of transportation. There were a couple of 4x4's taking the parents and some family out to the site, the bride and groom and a couple of friends went out by dirt bike, and Gregg and I rode mountain bikes out with the groom's brother.

Without going into a lot of detail, we (just the group on mountain bikes) got lost on our way to the wedding. We made a wrong turn, and ended up riding through some really deep sand, and hiked up some pretty steep rocky stuff. Not really the ride we'd planned. The phones didn't work, and radios didn't work ... so we weren't able to contact the rest of the group to let them know we were off-course. We caused a bit of a delay for the rest of the wedding party, but the best man was finally able to reach us by motorcycle, and get back to the wedding to tell them to just go ahead without us. We completely missed the ceremony, but definitely had some adventures. And we were able to get back and cleaned up in plenty of time for the reception. What's a wedding without misadventure, right? I'm a little disappointed that we were the cause of the misadventure, but I think it was a fantastic trip even with our stumbling.
Here are wedding day photos we took.


My favorite event of the trip was the Porpucine Rim ride. We had a good group. We had the bride and her dad, the groom's brother (also a co-worker of Gregg's), and me and Gregg. I was still the slowest person, as I usually am in any group, but it was a good pace, and a TON of fun. I can't even describe how much fun I had. We've got to make the time to get back out to Moab and do that again. Here are some photos of the Porcupine Rim ride.


And here are a bunch of photos that Gregg took of his Slickrock ride, and another ride he went on while I was studying. Cool photos, but you'll have to ask Gregg about the details.

Halloween Cross 2007

Traditionally the Halloween CX race is held at the Flying M Ranch. We went for the first time last year, and had a blast. I wasn't racing last year either, but it was totally fun to watch. And the Flying M was a GREAT venue. I loved that it was so heavily forested. There was plenty of room for camping, racing, and 'spectating' (I use the form of a verb, because in this case it actually implies doing something active). So we were a little sad that the Flying M was shutting its doors, and Halloween Cross would be relocated.

The new venue, for 2007 at least, was Astoria. One of my old haunts. I taught high school in Astoria for a few years, many, many years ago. Almost a decade ago actually. I was surprised to realize that! We weren't able to leave Corvallis until late Saturday morning, and with the schedule of 'cross related events that didn't give us much time to explore Astoria and visit with old friends. We did manage to sneak in dinner with an old friend of mine though. John, it was fabulous seeing you! And I know you didn't want very badly for us to show up at the Talking Tombstones event on Sunday, but we LOVED it.

You're awesome John. You do the COOLEST stuff :) Our camera died after the first picture, so we didn't get a very good picture of John (no, that's not John playing death), but Gregg did run back for batteries (and jackets ... damn it was cold!) so we did get a few pictures of other players.

Anyway, I digress. Halloween Cross in Astoria was different, but totally fun! I don't think it had quite the energy that last year's event had, but it was great. And this year I rode in the Poker Ride the day before the race. I have several physical issues that make things like lifting a bike and running really painful (and not in a good way). The poker ride was just a pre-ride of the race course for a couple of laps. They didn't have the barriers up yet, and everything was rideable. So I was able to stay on the bike the whole time, which totally met my needs (a.k.a. physical limitations), and it was really fun! I'm hoping to race next season, and I can see already that being on the course with a bunch of people is going to completely spook me. But I've been told I'll get used to that.

Here are some photos we took of Halloween Cross

My working vacation - part one

I'm skipping ahead a bit here. I'll circle back a bit later to write about the events between July and now.

I've gotten a lot of "why" questions about this trip. So ... I decided a while back that it was just WAY past time for a visit back to Colorado. I still love the place, and miss all my Colorado friends. Colorado, and Denver, will always have a special place in my heart. But things are as they always are ... not enough vacation time, Gregg can't get away, and too short of money for a full blown vacation.

So I decided to fashion myself a little working holiday.

Here's part one of the working holiday ...

Gregg and I drove up to Portland after I got off work on Wednesday. We went to the IKEA to pick up another light fixture for the bathroom, and a couple more DVD storage boxes. We also picked up some treats ... salty black licorice fish and cloudberry (?) jam and stuff. IKEA rocks! Gregg dropped me off at a budget hotel near the airport and left to get home to Demi.

I woke up at 3:30 am (what on EARTH was I thinking scheduling such an early flight), caught my airport shuttle at 4 am, and made it through security in about 20 minutes ... plenty of time to catch my 5:44 am flight to Denver. Again, what was I thinking. Well, I know I was thinking of a cheap ticket ... but how cheap is it really if I have to stay in a hotel in order to make my flight.

Two valuable travel lessons learned:
Printing out the boarding pass in advance saves a TON of time.
The flight isn't that cheap if there are add-on expenses (like lodging).
Early morning wake-up calls totally suck.

After arriving in Denver I dropped in at the Denver office to store my luggage, and had a chance to say "hi" to a bunch of old friends and coworkers. I can't believe it's been THREE YEARS since I left the Denver office. Time flies!!!

I worked downtown at the Starbucks for the day and took the light rail south to Geanie & Travis's place. Wow! Their new place is walking distance to the light rail station, and the house is huge and gorgeous, the backyard is landscaped with grapes and apparently a plum tree, and aspen, and a fountain, and the deck has a pretty decent view of the Rocky Mountains. It's absolutely gorgeous.

After working from their house (and the nearby Starbucks) on Friday, Geanie & Travis & I met up with Donata, and Chip & Andrea for dinner. Donata's just had another baby ... less than two weeks ago ... and she looks absolutely amazing!!! I also had a chance to get to know Andrea a little bit, and get caught up with Chip. I can't believe I forgot my camera for this get-together! Dang! Well, I'll just try not to let another three years go by ...

On Saturday Geanie and Travis took me (and the dogs) up to Keystone for the day. I really wanted to get up to the mountains, just for a little hike or something. Anything. Of course the elevation completely kicked my @$$! I completely forgot what it feels like to be struggling for oxygen before any of your muscles feel engaged. But it was so beautiful! The Aspen are just beginning to show color. Within a couple of weeks they're going to be in full glory.

In the evening we opened up some wine and took the dogs for a short walk, and Travis made us a great meal. Tons of veggies. Exactly what a traveling girl needs!

After getting back to the city this afternoon, Geanie and I walked to the mall (a.k.a. "Lifestyle Center") ... did a little window shopping, had some noodles, and I got a pedicure! First time ever. What luxury. I mean, my feet were looking a little worked, and I'm wearing sandals all week. So there was (arguably) an actual need. But it was also an absolutely cool experience. They started with a little whirlpool bath for my feet, lotioned the feet, massaged the feet, exfoliated and massaged my feet and calves, moisturized feet and calves, hot wax on the feet (surprisingly not unpleasant). What an experience!

And after coming back to the house I got to see another fall lightening storm. Man, I've really missed those. The lightening in Colorado is so amazing! Unfortunately Geanie was out running at the time, and got poured on. But (once she was safely home) it really capped off a great weekend for me!

This morning I took the train up to Downtown Denver, and checked in to the office. More on the work week later ... in part two.

Awesome photo from Christy

And speaking of fabulous things that my friends have been up to ... check out this picture Christy sent me. She takes a lot of great pictures, but I really liked this one. And how did Seattle get that great weather. It seems like it's been raining non-stop here for weeks. Anyway, very cool photo.

Heather's new project!

I love hearing what my friends have been up to, and boy has Heather been up to her elbows in a new project. And something right up our alley too. Gregg and I have often talked about doing this kind of thing, but you know us ... a lot of well-meaning hot air, but not generally backed up with action. Still, it's nice someone is living our dream.

Great news Heather. And thanks for the news and photos. I'm so happy for you, and yet so jealous at the same time. Such inner conflict.

Ed

Life has been pretty busy, and a little nuts. So basically, nothing new here. But I did have another of those odd little moments during the last week. I'm not a wordsmith, and the correct word isn't "odd", but I'm not sure how to characterize it.

Since we moved back to Corvallis I've seen surprisingly little of some friends, more of others, and since I work from home I almost never see anybody unless I make an effort to do it. Except for Ed. While working toward my degree at OSU Ed was one of three professors that stand out in my mind. I would say that the three of them taught 90% of my courses. That might be an exaggeration, but that's how I remember it. Anyway, all three were great, and all very likeable ... but Ed is the one who keeps popping up around town.

So I was in the Portland airport last weekend on my way to Chicago (Deerfield) for work, and came across Ed waiting for his flight to New York (via Chicago). Turns out he was on my flight. After a moment of conversation I let him get back to his reading and joined my friends. The flight was full, and I figured I wouldn't see much of him on the flight. A conservative assumption really. But it turns out that he had the aisle seat to my window seat. And Ed is an interesting guy. I've met his wife a couple of times, and she seems pretty great too. We're hoping to hear Ed and his Bluegrass band play, soon after we get back from Australia.

Carol's books

I've been trying for over a month now to put to paper a contribution for my friend Carol's next book.
Her first book, A Patchwork of Comforts, is a collection of contributions from real people about the simple things they incorporate into their lives to deal with stress, and to just generally get more out of life. The book she's working on now is going to be a collection of ideas about the kinds of grief people experience, and how they deal with their grief.

You can probably tell from my disjointed ramblings here that I'm not a "writer". In fact, I think I write pretty badly. But I'm finally sending my contribution, such as it is, to Carol. It's like pulling teeth trying to get a writing assignment out of me!

Anyway, since she's still got the request on her website, I don't suppose she'd mind me mentioning that she's looking for contributions. You've all experienced some grief: death of a friend or family member, divorce, loss of a job, loss of health, loss of independence, loss of a dream ... and the insight you've gained in dealing with your own losses could be of value to somebody experiencing a loss of their own.