De-bleated Goats and Woodland Creatures

Title this post: Random yet funny.

Last weekend I went to see the new George Clooney movie (with a cute boy, of course), which was hysterical. In one scene, he's explaining how they surreptitiously got the goats on base, concluding with the statement "we didn't have to worry about soldiers hearing the goats because they'd been de-bleated". I was no good after that line and I'll be honest, I still giggled a little just now typing it. Is it wrong that I googled "de-bleated" to make sure I was spelling it right ?

So, the random humor for today comes in the form of a card from one of my good friends at work:

"For every one sweet bunny, there's another one itching to steal your wallet. Be mindful of woodland creatures today"

I dont know why I find this stuff funny but I do.

Perspective

It's been a while since I've either had time to post or had the motivation to post ... it's off-season, I'm super busy at work with quarter-end and, somehow, year-end. Where does the time go ? On one hand it seems like just yesterday we were gearing up for what would become an abbreviated 2009 season for me, but on the other, it seems like years ago with all that has transpired in between. The difference all lies in your perspective.

Perspective is something so simple yet so elusive to most of us. On a ride today, Mitch and I were talking about how much our perspective can change with something so simple as rearranging furniture or changing your route to work. That's our perspective, which is easy to change. Our external perspective - ie taking into account someone else's perspective, is much more difficult to change.

One subject that came up was how we all b*tch and moan about how bad things are in this country, but take one look across our very own border with Mexico and you'll suddenly appreciate what we have here. Listen to a few news stories about Afganistan or Iran or other countries in chaos or with severe dictatorships and all of a sudden we don't have it quite so bad. And while I'm definitely not a bleeding heart when it comes to illegal immigration, I can understand why they want their chance at the "American Dream". If roles were reversed, there's no question I'd make a run for it ... That is my attempt at perspective - There, but for the grace of god, go I.

Perspective isn't limited to huge social issues or hard-to-change policies - I firmly believe that most day-to-day conflicts could be avoided or resolved if everyone took a deep breath and considered all perspectives before flaking out.

Part of the reason this doesn't happen as often as it should lies in our type-A personalities ... that's something we can't change and it seems to be a prerequisite for any longevity in this sport. Get a few dominant personalities together and there's bound to be fireworks eventually.

Another part of the issue is that we feel so passionate about whatever we do - from our training to our work to our families to what color our bar tape should be. You might laugh at that last one but just try convincing someone to change their preferred brand/color of bar tape ... (I prefer lime green these days).

Combine both of the prior issues with pride - inability to back down, even if there's a slight-however slight-chance that we may be going at things the wrong way. Again, this is inherent in most cyclists (and most competitive athletes in general).

These issues are not unique to cyclists or athletes or to our times - I found a great quote that pretty much sums it up:

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

- Arthur Schopenhauer.

Anyway, it seems that 2009 has been a year of perspective for me. I think perspective is a good thing, in general, but I think I've had my share of enforced perspective for a while.

Enough of the philosophical musings of an over worked accountant ... here's a shot of a multitude of bikes parked in my house a few weeks ago.

We planned a team ride but it rained so it was a trainer session. Of course, as soon as we finished, the rain stopped and the sun came out. It was all good - we had a great time together, no-one had to drive home in the rain and we didn't have to clean our bikes.

Talk about perspective.

TGIF - 10/23/09

This time last week, I was braving cold and windy conditions out in St. Michaels instead of posting a TGIF blog. Why would I do such a thing, you ask ? Because that was the site of Robin and Jason's wedding - yep, we lost another one. You can either read that as we single ladies lost another eligible bachelor or you can read it as bachelors and bachelorettes lost another friend to a member of the opposite sex. Either way, we lost something and Robin and Jason gained something ... just the way it should be when two of your friends get married and live happily ever after.

The wedding was amazing - beautiful ceremony with the prerequisite tears and "moments" followed by a kick-ass party complete with 1) a band, 2) lots of alcohol and, as a direct result of 1 & 2, a full dance floor. A good time was had by all, hands down the most fun I've *ever* had at a wedding. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention cake. Mmm.... cake.

You can't see it in this photo, but that's a bike with a bride and a groom on the top. Fitting, no? I won't bore you with too much wedding talk, but I will mention two things:

First, the entertainment was incredible. The Phil Flowers Band flew in from Vegas just for this occasion. They had everyone out on the dance floor from the first note until the last. I had the pleasure of chauffeuring Phil back to BWI on Sunday after the wedding. The joke was that they didn't tell me who "Phil" was when they asked me to drive him back. Driving an old pal of Jason's back to the airport seemed pretty innocuous - then I found out that my passenger was going to be the 6'4" man wearing the red man-fur with his leather pants. Who gets to tell these kinds of stories? Phil was super-awesome-cool - both on stage and off. If you ever get out to Vegas and have the chance, it's well worth the price of admission.

So -(last wedding bit, promise!) - the time came for the ceremonial throw of the bridal bouquet. Robin was throwing it from the 2nd floor, which overlooked the dance floor where most guests had pushed and pulled single ladies from the audience for this event. She tosses the flowers and ... everyone kind of steps away and lets them land with a thud on the floor. There was an awkward pause as the audience expected a frenzy like *most* weddings have. Nope, not this group. A few seconds pass and some kind soul picks up the flowers. The rest of us laughed. Phil thought it was hysterical ... he told me on the way home that he had never seen anything like it. I don't know what exactly that says about this group of single ladies but it was entertaining, if nothing else.

Happy Friday!