Happy Holidays - I hope Santa visited and left lots of bike-related schwag under the tree.
I had the pleasure of spending the holiday with Mitch and her family - they have been kind enough to offer to adopt me for most major holidays and this was the first Christmas I spent with them. I was assured that I could sit back and enjoy the show. So I did.
Christmas eve was a family party for dad's side of the family - the early party-goers were warned of my impending arrival and directed to "welcome her and give her a glass of red wine". The Hart family knows me well.
Christmas morning started by making sure Santa had come before gift-opening, followed by some rock-star praline french toast that was more like dessert than breakfast. We all know calories don't count on holidays, so it was all good.
After a little down time (Mitch and I even got on our bikes for a trainer session while watching Hangover - worth the price of admission if you haven't seen it), we got gussied up again for a Christmas dinner with mom's side of the family.
The younger kids had been working on a play to perform for the family on Christmas day. This was all news to me; I was just sipping wine and taking it all in. Then Mitch informed me that I had been drafted for the play. The kids requested Mitch to rehearse her lines but the play started without me having a clue what it was about. (you only have two lines, they said to me, so you don't need to rehearse)
I was to play Dolores. Thats all I knew. As the play went on, Mitch did a scary-good job at playing the scolding mom to the kids. The kids declare "Ricky and Dolores, sitting in a tree", which is where I learned of my role - I was Ricky's crush. Ricky was 4. I realize I am only 32, but for about 15mins, I became Mrs. Robinson.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
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:
I dont know why I find this stuff funny but I do.
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.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
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:
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.
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.
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