Happy 2009!

In 2008 I learned many lessons. To name a few:

Friends new and old are some of the best treasures a person can have

Be grateful for everyday, life can change in an instant. Seriously, I learned this first hand this year.

Be grateful for everyone in your life, they may not be around tomorrow.

Training a smart dog is a lot tougher than training a dumb one

Dogs and Cats don’t always get along

Riding your bike for 7 straight days, over 500 miles, with 30,000 strangers is something everyone should experience at sometime in their lives.

I can not survive on fried, salty, fast food for more than three meals in a row.

I can however, survive on Granola bars, Nuts, Dried fruit and chocolate for days.

One of the best feelings in the world is holding a newborn baby nephew and having them reach out to touch your face.

Trust is a hard thing to maintain, especially with your hairdresser. Use caution when stating the words “I trust you”—ESPECIALLY when you hair is involved.

When all else fails, Champagne helps!

There are many more…

Welcome 2009!!!

The English Beat!

Tonight I get to go see one of my all time favorite bands play in Denver.

How much do I love them? In 1991, before tattoos were cool or even very socially acceptable, I got the "Beat girl" tattooed on my ankle.

My mother cried. (no joke--but that is another story entirely!)

Ogden Theater
Tonight, 8pm.

The Funk

Here we are...in the full swing of the holidays and It appears I have been neglecting my blog. Well maybe not fully neglecting it, I do look at it sideways from the corner of the room every now and again and think of witty quips to make, but they never seem to appear.

The holidays are a strange time for me. Sometimes I embrace them with gusto and other times I get the uncontrollable urge to run away to a far away land, usually the desserts of Nevada or the desire to go to the other end of the earth. The sirens of Bali, Indonesia have been calling loudly lately.

Forgive me if I seem out of sorts, this usually happens this time of year, holiday stress mixed with poor early season ski conditions that prevent me from my therapy, falling down a mountain with a board of some sort strapped to my feet.

I have been finding some sort of solace in getting my required amount of self induced pain while trotting up my favorite ass kicking hike locally, the pikes peak incline. Although even that torments me, I can not seem to break my record time. No matter how hard I push. Also, I use the term “trotting” very liberally.

My head will get right again, I promise. In the meantime, pray to the snow gods for big snowfalls and accumulations.

Thanks for reading…Peace!

It’s my food! GO AWAY!!!

Okay, this is the week of venting my peeves. I do not understand why people seem to feel the need to make comments about what other people eat. I think I must be the only vegetarian in my entire office. I don’t walk around while people eat their hamburgers and say things like “ewwwww”, or “Why would you eat THAT?!” For some reason though, people seem to feel the need to comment on my food. I can almost understand it when I am reheating a tofu dish or spinach soufflé. Today though, I don’t understand. I forgot my lunch so I went to the cafeteria, made a spinach salad and a cheese sandwich. In my opinion, these are very basic lunch type foods, it is not like I made some exotic lunch that would cause curiosity lookers.
I had no less than three different people stop by my office and make some sort of comment about something I was eating.
I don’t get it! Why do I have to work with the food police? I will bet most of those people have magnets on their cars…

Keeping it Ghetto:

Before I write anymore, I need to put a disclaimer here. I live in a great neighborhood, I really do. I feel safe, and relatively there is low crime. But for whatever reason, if there is going to be a murder or stabbing, it seems to happen around my house.

In November 2005 the police shot a wanted criminal literally right in front of my house.

On February 1, 2007: My friendly, neighborhood crack whore that was the punch-line of so many of my stories, stabbed her son over cigarettes. Side note: This was the night of E's and I's first date, making for an interesting evening no doubt.

This morning while I was getting ready for work, I heard that last night there was a stabbing in the central area of Colorado Springs, sure enough, It was at the Co-housing complex across the street from my house. This was not a random stabbing, it was a family dispute that got out of control. Sad.

Things that make you go hmmm:
Three for Three
Three murders in three years, all within 300 feet of my front door.

Read the news story here

Randomness: (Be Warned)

The past few weeks I have felt like I have been floating in between dreams, ideas, obligations and denial that the holidays are approaching, very quickly I may add.

I have posted little here on my blog because everything I think of posting consists of a sentence or two.

How much fun is that? Not very much.

Here are some of the random thoughts that have been occupying my time:

I have made a decision to go forward with plastic surgery on my hand after the holidays, which leads me to search for a reputable plastic surgeon. I am learning if you are not interested in a face lift or a breast augmentation, this is quite a task. It is very difficult to find a surgeon that is excited about fixing scars. Much less one that is a result of a car accident. Not to mention the number of people that have given me referrals because their girlfriends or wives really liked the doctor. Did I mention I was NOT interested in a boob job. My ta ta’s are just fine, thank.you.very.much. It is my hand that is not so attractive. And really, it isn’t that bad, but I would say at least once a week I have to answer the question “what did you do to your hand?”. Since I am tend to grow keloid scars, ie: big ugly scar tissue scars, it makes any scar look that much more, uh, for lack of a better word, gross.

So if you are local and reading my blog, any recommendations on a good plastic surgeon that specializes in scars?

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This past weekend was spent spending time with friends, family, close to home and far away. Thursday night I met with an old friend of mine from as far back as elementary school and her boyfriend. It was an enjoyable time, however; it was also interesting to see how two people can process the same turn events is such different ways. My heart aches for her and I hope she finds peace she is so desperately looking for.

Friday night I met up with another visiting friend from out of town, I had known her since junior high school. I got to meet her husband, daughter and her brother and his family. Last time I saw her brother was literally when he graduated from our high school 20 years ago. Yikes! She and her husband are thinking of relocating to a town close to here. It is funny how for years and years you may not see someone but one day they pop back into your life and you feel like not a day has passed and you can’t wait to see them again, hear stories their lives and make plans to see each other soon.

Saturday, E and I headed to Boulder for his Cyclo-cross race and after that we headed to GlenHaven for a semi-surprise birthday party for my mom. Pictures and more details to come later for both those events, since I used my camera to occupy my 4 and 2 year old nieces, I have no battery life or memory left on my camera. I can’t wait to charge the batteries and see what pictures I have waiting for me.

Sunday morning, E and I left The Inn at Glenhaven at ~9:00 am, we managed to pull into Palmer Park in Colorado Springs at 11:28am for the final Pikes Peak Road Runners Fall Series Race that was scheduled to start at 11:30, luckily they were running a tad late and I was able to pick up E’s number while he changed clothes. As he walked up to the start line the race started. Talk about cutting it close…

More updates from the races and mom’s birthday party to come at a later time…

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So far I am committed to 4 thanksgiving events… Whoever thought that being a vegetarian would excuse a person from the turkey holiday is sadly mistaken. At least there will be pleanty of wine and cocktails at most of the events.

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My company announced last week that instead of our standard one week shut-down around the holidays it is extending it to two weeks, this is good and bad news, since my customer does not take time off between Christmas and New Years, I am still expected to be available during this time and routine meetings must be made, but I see lots of short work days in those two weeks.

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I have developed a sincere despise for a VERY random thing, are you ready for it? Magnet ‘stickers’ for cars, such as the “Support Our Troup” ribbons, breast cancer awareness ribbons and every other god-forsaken ribbon out there. Are Americans really that wishy washy that we can’t commit to a cause that we believe in enough to stick the sticker on our car? We need to make it removable without a trace? Wait, don’t answer that.
True, I refuse to put stickers on my car. My first car was practically a political billboard and there was no guessing what I believed. I guess now I prefer to voice my options over the internet, in person and via any other means, but to put a magnet on my car? No thanks. In fact I have a strange urge to start taking these off cars and collecting them. Who knows why, maybe because I figure if people need such non-commital way to voice their opinions that will probably change with what is the popular attitude at the moment, I feel like they should just nave the magnet to begin with.
Don’t’ worry, I haven’t taken any magnets yet…that would be illegal.
I do feel better though for that minor rant.
As my old buddy Brian C says:
“Thanks for listening, peace”

Change

is coming...And not a moment too soon.