Christmas day snowboarding

Last year we started a tradition of skiing/boarding on Christmas Day. Mom had worked the night before and we needed to keep the house quiet for the day, so we left to ski. And it was great. Mt. Bachelor received 6" of new snow over night and we cruised through powder most of the day, as there was hardly anyone on the mountain. This year, we did it again. We went to HooDoo, a smaller mountain and enjoyed 12" of new snow and no lines. And this year Mom and Vincent went with us, which made it even more fun. It was a great way to spend Christmas doing something we all really enjoyed and we got to do it together. Being 45 minutes from two different mountains makes it even easier, so if you get the chance, I highly recommend it!

Holiday travel and all of its glories

It's laughable when your flight is already delayed 10 hours, 6 hours before you are due to depart.

It's not surprising when they cancel the flight 3 hours before you were due to depart.

It's predictable that suddenly you can't get the airline on the phone and spend the next 2 hours trying to get on another flight or find out how you get from the Right Coast to the Left Coast before Christmas Day...

It's awesome when you get up at 3am to shovel your walk way before your 6am flight that isn't even getting you to your final destination.

It starts to stink when you get to the airport, realize the plane you are supposed to be on isn't there, wait for the snow removal equipment to move so your plane that has now landed can get into the gate, fall asleep on the floor of the waiting area while they do an extra long "clean" because it's technically the first flight of the day, and finally take off after de-icing, etc 3 hours late...

It down right sucks when you arrive in Seattle, not Portland and spend 10 hours in a car, going 35 MPH most of the way with chains on for more than 60 of those miles, and you don't even arrive at your final destination.

Needless to say this trip sucked! But the drive over on Sunday morning, which should have been Saturday morning, had our original flight never been cancelled, was beautiful. It was slow, but the snow on the trees and the winter wonderland they call highway 26. We saw a bald eagle on the side of the Deschutes River in Madras, and lastly, we are safe and finally in Bend, enjoying good food and great family.

Huge thanks to Patty, Tom, Mom and Vincent who helped by constantly checking on road conditions, booking the hotel and being patient as we defiantly decided to keep moving during some dicey road conditions.

Not huge thanks to ODOT who's online trip check was at least 6 hours delayed on the road conditions on a day when all the major news stations and most people were logging in to find out what the status of roads were. When you have snow falling at a rate of 3" an hour in a state that hasn't seen this level of snow since the 60's, you need to use what you have to get the word out!

And prayers for Megan and Alex who took off from Portland in an attempt to get to Chicago for their first Christmas as a married couple only to get stuck in Seattle with no car, no place to stay and no help from the airlines. They took off Saturday and hopefully will be back in Portland today. Yes, that's right, they have been gone for going on 72 hours and they are only 180 miles away from their house. If it weren't so frigid outside, they could have walked home by now... Good luck guys!

Public phone conversations...

should be kept private. There is no reason that I should know that the clearly "just 21" year old girl got free drinks at the Phoenix airport and is back in the Bay Area after having been gone for 10 years, and that she comes back once a year to see friends. I still can't decide what was worse, the middle seat from Boston to Phoenix or the loud talking cell phone girl. It was only 10 minutes worth of time versus the 6 hours of flying time, but I am still trying to decide what was worse. She was that irritating...

New England Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving I went back to Maine for a very long holiday. Being unemployed has it's perks. ;-) We spent 10 very relaxing days in Maine enjoying good food, and family. We had a traditional New England Thanksgiving with lobster! Everyone who came to dinner had already had the turkey thanksgiving in previous weeks. So we decided to support the struggling Lobster industry in Maine. And boy, am I glad we did! It was delicious! We even cooked them ourselves. We also had stuffing, and sweet potato fries and a corn and black bean salad. It was the most different Thanksgiving dinner, and I am happy to have tried something new, combined with a little something traditional!

Kings of Leon Concert

Last night Shane and I got last minute tickets from a friend. We had been contemplating going to this concert for months, being unemployed makes you less likely to do expensive things like concerts. But, I am soooo glad we went! It was an AMAZING concert! If you haven't heard Kings of Leon, their story is an interesting one. They are brothers and one cousin, all sons of a traveling preacher, and their songs, while sometimes "mush-mouthed" have some great lyrics and the energy behind their music made for a great concert. We saw them at the Orpheum in Boston and I had never been in there, it's a lot like the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland and it made for some great sound. The Kings would be great at the Pavilion next summer, but I will leave that to their manager to figure out. :-) To learn more about Kings of Leon, check out their history on Wikipedia!

Being an independent marketing consultant in Boston

For those of you that haven't heard... I am unemployed. I have to say I feel full of life, like when you listen to a great band for the first time, speaking of (check out the latest Kings of Leon, it's inspiring!!!) I think I want to become my own boss and try my hand at being an independent marketing consultant in Boston. But I am super scared. I have talked to a few people I know that do something like it. If anyone has any advice, I would LOVE to hear it! And if you need marketing help: like your whole marketing department was let go and you still need someone to help with RFP's, collateral development, (case stories, press releases, product brochures, white papers) direct marketing campaign development, SEO, Google AdWords, Blogging, event planning, etc. You get the drift. I can help. Just ask... thereasa_fullmer@yahoo.com

A job should always be more than a job

You are going to spend 40 hours a week at the least at your job. You will probably spend more time there than you will with your family some weeks. You should love it. You should really like the people you work with and the people you work for. Today Seth Godin wrote about that, and for those of you that know me, you know how much this piece resonated with me; especially the line about who you work for: "Work for someone who plays the fads and you'll discover that instead of building a steadily improving brand, you're jumping from one thing to another, enduring layoffs in-between gold rushes." We forget how important finding a new job is. Especially in an economy like this it's easy to grab the next thing that comes along, but will that really lead to happiness?

Ultimate Bootcamp

So, I am officially crazy. Two weeks ago, I turned 29 and to be frank, it hasn't been going over well. I am feeling the way most educated, career oriented women feel at 30. Yes, I know it's just a year away, but seriously my 29 is most people's 30, at least I hope.

In this instance of crazy I decided to join two friends, one who is turning 30 in a few weeks, for Ultimate Bootcamp. I get up at 5:30AM Monday through Thursdays and I go in the cold down to a park in Charlestown and I get my ass kicked by strangers. That came out funny. I don't literally get beat up, but I don't think my body would know the difference at this point. Ultimate Bootcamp is basically an outdoor gym and personal training, except you do it in a group of about 30 people and you do it outside, in October. I could have gone earlier, I should have gone earlier, but as I said, CRAZY!

It's been cold, I look funny when I walk now, and I look at myself in the mirror at 5:45am and think, "WTF are you doing?!?!?" I find it even more ironic that I used to be a personal trainer when I was in college. It's not like I didn't get up at 5:30am to meet clients at 6am for training sessions before my 8am classes, but I have fallen way off that wagon, and getting back on is tough!

So, for all of you snuggled up in your beds at 6am Monday through Thursday the next four weeks, enjoy. I will be the one getting her ass kicked at a park in Charlestown... the one of 30 other crazies who just don't know how to say "NO!"

There's a big difference in the types of rain

Being from Oregon, I know rain. I know the kinds, I know how to function in it, I know how to drive in it and I pride myself at being able to make the most of a rainy day.

So, this morning I wake up and realize I have to move my car, due to street cleaning. And I walked outside to a little drizzle but coated with a good bit of rain, but it was walkable. On the walk to the car I thought to myself how much I loved rainy days. I love the smell, the newly cleaned streets, the freshness of them.

And then I went to lunch... the rain had started to come down heavy. There were lakes forming at intersections as it came down in sideways sheets. I made the mistake of walking up to Boloco in the rain, and it was okay with the wind at my back, but the wind didn't change directions and the walk back to the office I had to walk directly into the sideways rain. And it occurred to me that rain is really different out here than it was in Oregon.

One of the things about Oregon and the reason it stays so green all year round is because it rains all the time. We don't have a lot of sideways rain in Oregon, but it might drizzle all day. It will probably drizzle at least 4 days a month for most of the year. But in Boston, the rain comes hard and fast and a lot at one time. I think I prefer Oregon rain...

My birthday

This year I turned 29. I have posted previously about how birthdays have nothing to do with how old you technically are, but should instead be celebrated as a day to remember how loved you are and how lucky you are to be alive. In the interest of avoiding the social pressure that surrounds a woman in my age bracket, I thought it might be best to visit Smith College on my birthday. Smith College is a well known women's college in Central Massachusetts. I went there because my best friend, Katy, who I believe I have written about here before went to undergrad at Smith. She and I were born on the same day, and we use to refer to each other as twins separated at birth. We met in high school and were almost instantly best friends. Sadly, Katy and her mother were killed in a car crash around Christmas of 2003. So, it meant a lot to me to go back and visit a place that she loved so much and that she and I were able to share together for one quick weekend our freshman year of college.

My most recent blog find

I just tripped upon another great blog, for those of you who need to chuckle while the world seems to be spiraling out of control around us, please check it out: http://indexed.blogspot.com/ I know I owe pics from the final two weddings and maybe this weekend... no promises...

Wedding #5

Our fifth and final wedding of the summer was in Maine. Peaks Island to be more exact. It is a 30 minute ferry ride from Portland. Kelsi and Rejan are friends of ours through Paul and Hannah. Shane lived in the same building with Hannah and Kelsi in the North End for a bit. And Kelsi and Rej have this great love story. Basically they knew each other since high school and Rej pined for Kelsi, and now, 10 years later they are finally married. It was another beautiful wedding, shared by many friends and family at a great venue.

The rest of our trip to California

As you read from the last post, Shane and I went to CA for Alexa's wedding and since we don't get out there very often we made the most of it, in typical Thereasa style (aka: Whirlwind). We flew into town, went out to SMC to show Shane my college campus, headed up to Napa to do some tasting and purchasing of some great wines. We met up with Liz, who again, was an amazing hostess. She took us to Franciscan and Cosentino (my all time fav winery). And hooked us up with the industry discount. We headed to dinner where Tracy and Phil met us for a great meal. It's always such fun for me to catch up with good friends, and even though I am 3000 miles away from my good girlfriends, I cherish the time we get to spend together.

The next day we headed up to Grass Valley for Alexa's Wedding and had a great time! On Sunday we took the long trek down to Santa Cruz/Capitola to see Ross and Amy and Elsa. Ross and Shane did gymanstics together for many years when they were growing up, and now they have Elsa, their 16 month old beauty of a daughter! We had a great time at the beach, enjoying friends, the warm weather and a little dip in the Pacific.

Sunday night we were hosted by Kendra and Jason at their place in the East Bay. The night was filled with great conversation, a love of good beer, pizza and an exciting energy for politics. I do wish they would come visit, but they can be sure that the next time we are out in their neck of the woods- we will be stopping!

All in all it was another great trip to California, and as much as I love it in Boston, no one can replace good friends I have met along the way!

A good friends wedding

Wedding number 4 of the season: Alexa & Brian. Alexa and I met our freshman year of college at good old SMC. We lived down the hall from each other and got to be good friends. Our birthdays are a week apart, and I think just being fellow Virgo's led us to being kindred spirits. I think Lex and I probably got closest when we spent the summer living in Walnut Creek between Junior and Senior Year. She was Interning at Harris, I was at Enterprise. We would get together at lunch, we would use our fake ID's to get into bars at night and we generally spent a lot of the summer having a REALLY good time.

Then in 2003, we both found ourselves living back in the Creek and aching to get to the city. She had already started her MBA program and I was going to start mine in the next few months. We decided it was as good a time as any to get up and out of the East Bay and make the move to the big city. I dragged her along to DOZENS of open houses over multiple weekends. She liked to call me Monica, I called her Phoebe... For those of you that know me, Monica is not that far off.

We found this great little place on Bay street, right in our price range, which was low, given the fact we were just two years out of college and paying for grad school. But man did we have a good time. I remember one January, we both had the month off school. And I swear we went out more, and had more parties that month than we ever did in undergrad! We took one "spring break" and went to Cabo... Disastrous! I don't know what we were thinking pretending to be 19, when we were the ripe age of 24. HA! Lexa was by my side when I found out my best friend passed away, and couldn't have been a more supportive friend and roommate.

We have stayed close, even though the crazy upstairs neighbors drove me from the apt on Bay Street. And she met Brian near the end of our lease. Brian and Lexa have one of those relationships that everyone is jealous of. They are a really fun couple, they know how to have a good time, and spend a lot of time laughing at themselves and with others.

Now, to the wedding. This wedding was RIDICULOUS!!! I have never seen such an affair. They had EVERYTHING: oysters for ourdourves, a live band, a beautiul venue, a full bar and good friends. I think, thanks to Lexa's Mom (who is a kindred Monica). It was a beautiful wedding, but I think what made it most beautiful was Alexa and Brian, who know how to have a good time and host a great party. It was super fun to see a bunch of people from SMC that I hadn't seen in quite a few years. And like many friendships formed those first few years of parental freedom, they seem to just pick right back up where you left off.

A little advice on customer service

Yesterday evening I went to log into the Mac when I realized that there were no lights on my modem. This is not a good sign. I know that calling Comcast at 10pm at night isn't really what I wanted to do with my night, so I checked email via the blackberry; and realizing there were nothing earth shattering going on, I went to bed. I made the dreadful mistake of calling Comcast this morning. I was on the phone for over 40 minutes. And I was told the following things:

• I was told that I should not be using my "residential" line to "work from home" instead I should have a "commercial" line. Let's talk about this for a minute. If I want to work from my HOME/or shall we say RESIDENCE then shouldn't I have a RESIDENTIAL LINE?!?!?! I also know NO ONE ELSE IN THE WORLD who has a commercial line from their house. I don't even know if that's available in my neighborhood.
• I was told that I could not get someone out to look at my modem until Wednesday. Today is Friday people, it's been off since Thursday evening... COME ON NOW, even if I had commercial service you would probably tell me the same damned thing...
• After more haggling I was told I could get an appt on Saturday from 8-12 or 12-4. That would have been fine, but we are out of town this weekend. And when I asked if I could get an appt on Monday, they said they can't see Monday's schedules, they can only see the next available appt.

I ask you now- what kind of company can see the schedule for Wednesday but can't see the schedule for Monday? We have our appt for Monday and I am going to ask them for a credit as soon as they fix the thing. But in COMPLETE CONTRAST- I walk in to the office this morning to check my yahoo mail and I get this from Netflix: "We're Sorry DVD Shipments Are Delayed Dear Thereasa,Our shipping system is unexpectedly down. We received a DVD back from you and should have shipped you a DVD, but we likely have not. Our goal is to ship DVDs as soon as possible, and we will keep you posted on the status of your DVD shipments.We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. If your DVD shipment is delayed, we will be issuing a credit to your account in the next few days. You don't need to do anything. The credit will be automatically applied to your next billing statement.Again, we apologize for the delay and thank you for your understanding. If you need further assistance, please call us at 1-888-638-3549.-The Netflix Team" Turns out, and I hadn't really noticed yet, although when I did see the 1 disc on the coffee table this morning I did think, "it's been a while since I mailed in that last movie." But it wasn't a thought that stuck with me, until I saw this email. I just love proactively positive companies. They are apologizing and instead of me having to DEMAND for a refund, guess what, they are just going to give it to me up front??!?!?! How lovely is that? So, to sum up the story- Comcast is the worst company to have to get your cable through (and it stinks even more that they have a monopoly on the neighborhood), and Netflix is lovely, great, fantastic at customer service

University of New Hampshire

I know quite a few people here in Boston that went to school at The University of New Hampshire (UNH). It seems like it was a really good time, and a lot of people have very good friendships that were formed at school. It reminds me a lot of SMC. I was excited to finally be able to see the campus when a couple we know well decided to get married there in Early August. It is really a beautiful campus, and Durham is a cute little town. If you are in New Hampshire with some time to kill, or looking at schools on the East Coast, it's worth checking out. And of course... a pic from the wedding...

New Music: Jamie Lidell

Whew! I love it! I was lucky enough to be introduced this great artist through one of Shane's sisters. The cool one from LA, who is in the know about all things new and fun... and she didn't miss the spot on this one, check him out: http://www.jamielidell.com/ He's touring Portland, SF, Seattle and Boston in October... Tickets at least in Boston are $20...

10k PB

I ran the Beach2Beacon this past weekend, it's a fun 10k up in Cape Elizabeth Maine. I had my 10k PB. For those of you who aren't runners that means it was my Personal Best 10k time... which, is funny, especially since you readers all know that this is my first 10k. I almost think I should just stick with my 57:14 and call it a life of PB's completed. I had a 2:03:39 for my 1/2 and that sounds pretty darn good to me... If I don't run again, I will always have these PB's. I can commit them to memory like I did my High school, College and Grad school GPA's, so when someone on the street asks me what my 10k and 1/2 PB's are I can easily rattle them off. I won't have to worry about remembering if that was my PB from '08 or my PB from '29... This might just be the way it's going to go... All kidding aside. It was super fun. I ran with no iPod, which is kinda a big deal for me, and I ran by myself, which made me miss Shane, but also was a good test of my own abilities. I am happy and might be willing to do another one, Beach2Beacon 2029 here I come!!!!

These guys were just steps ahead of me, I swear!

It was a little foggy, but pretty warm, and by warm I mean humid...

That smile is deceiving... It makes it look like all I do is live for running... ;-)

My biggest fan, I didn't get a pic of the rest of the cheering squad, but they were a huge help!

This was the finish line!

Tomatoes aren't the only thing we have going on in the backyard

So, last week we discovered this HUGE disgusting, clearly carnivorous bug on the back porch (yes, that's a quarter). If we are found bludgeoned to death in our apt you will know who/what did it! Anyone out there know what this thing is?

Tomato Update

The flowers are actual vegetables now! Wooo hooo! We'll be rolling in baby tomatoes before we know it!

The stress of running

So, I got through the 1/2 almost two months ago... And honestly, I have run, maybe 4 miles since then- and not even 4 miles in one session, 4 miles total. So, you can understand my stress about an impending 10k race next weekend. If anyone wants to watch as I stumble my way through, fighting mental and physical demons the entire way, come to Cape Elizabeth Maine. I hear the views are beautiful. Maybe the views, my iPod and a bunch of Gu will keep me going. Needless to say, I am going to try for a 4 mile run this weekend. Fingers crossed...

Disappearing Adverbs

This weekend, my Aunt Gail, brought to my attention the plight of the disappearing adverb. I hadn't noticed and I could possibly be the worst offender. Here are a couple of my most often mis-used phrases:

• Fly safe
• Drive slow

The disappearing adverb reminded me of an article I just read about how the capital letter at the beginning of sentences might be a thing of the past. I have searched again for this article and can't find it, but it makes sense to me. As I type this post, my fingers have to work extra hard just to get the capital letters at the beginning of sentences. why not just keep typing? why reach for that "shift" key? I think in general it will be at least two generations before we completely lose the capital letter, but don't say I didn't warn you... So, the question on the table is: who's job is it to change grammar and writing? It's the job of the people. If we hadn't taken it into our own hands centuries ago, we would still be speaking old English and the language of Shakespeare. Would not thoughst be difficult to comprehend?

Reunion Weekend

So, for the past 23 years my mom's family (all 7 kids plus cousins) have gotten together to celebrate being a family with our annual family reunion at Anderson Lodge in Cougar, Washington. In total we end up having around 50 people from the ages of 86 to -1(aka: still in the belly) make the trek to Cougar every year to enjoy food, family, games, and tons of conversation.

It's a wonderful way to keep in touch, even if people can't go every year, at least we know that there will always be that first weekend in August, or newly announced 2-3rd Monday-Tuesday in July where we can get together and make sure we don't miss a beat in each others lives. (Not everyone has a blog, or likes to shout to the world their daily rants- although, I don't know why!)

In any case, this year, as it was Shane's first year- he skipped out last year because of a bachelor party in Chicago- during our talent show (yes, you heard that right) he had to name every person in attendance. And he did it- all 40 aunts, uncles, cousins, 2nd cousins, 1st cousins once removed, he managed to remember every one's names... I am so lucky to have found someone that would 1. go to the reunion, 2. make an effort to meet everyone, 3. get up in front of a large group of new people and name everyone in the room with 100% accuracy! I may be the luckiest girl in the world...

We have blossoms!

I believe I have written about our wonderful tomato plants Shane has managed to grow on our back porch. If I haven't I apologize, as they are a very big part of our lives. They take a lot of time and attention- constant moving, in and out of the sun, and rain (as we seem to love nasty afternoon thunder and sheeting rain storms here in Boston).

We were at the reunion last weekend and were a little startled to hear from Aunt Patty and Uncle Matt that both of their tomato plants already had blossoms on them... You can imagine the panic that ran through our veins when we looked at each other and realized not one of our 6 tomato children had blossoms on them yet! We quickly interrogated Patty and Matt and learned that they had planted their tomatoes at least 2 weeks before we did. So, our panic subsided, at least for two more weeks. To our surprise and utter joy, we came home last night to find two of our beautiful tomato plants had flowers. And to prove it, of course, we took a picture!

LanaghanLeepalooza

As many of you know cousin Megan and Alex got married last weekend. This beautiful wedding was held at St. Mary's Cathedral in downtown Portland, Or. Megan graciously asked me to be a bridesmaid when they were out here last summer on their East Coast trip, and it's been loads of fun. The wedding went off without a hitch. I didn't do a very good job getting pictures taken, as there were SOOO many people taking pictures. But I will share a few of the ones I have from the Rehearsal and reception (held at the Melody Ballroom). It was a huge family affair, and great fun to see some old family friends. It is very exciting to see two such wonderful people find each other and start a life together, they have such support from their family and faith, I expect to see great things from these two!

Our New Tent

Shane and I have been talking about the need for our own tent for a while, so when LLBean sent a perfectly timed email announcing a sale on tents, we jumped at the chance to have a star gazing tent. We haven't used it yet, but hope to, once it stops raining in Maine! We did learn how to set it up over the weekend of the 4th, just haven't slept in it yet. Baby steps...

Being Sick

For anyone that's called me in the past 6 weeks you know that since I finished my 1/2 marathon I have been sick. It started the evening of the marathon with a scratchy voice, I sounded like I had been smoking a pack a day for about 25 years and I quickly attributed it to over use. I mean, I had never run a 1/2 marathon before. Of course I was going to have some side affects. A week later I was still scratchy and a nice cough had developed. Then we went to Alaska and I thought I just needed some more sleep and was excited to get that on vacation. It didn't help. I was sleeping between 8-10 hours a night, not running, keeping things low- key, and yet still I was congested, coughing, unable to sleep through the night. After coming home from Maine last weekend I decided enough was enough. I am tired of coughing and blowing and the deep scratchy voice I have developed. I went into the doc. She gave me a higher version of Sudafed, told me to take it twice a day for two days and if I didn't get better she would give me amoxicillin. I took the Sudafed for two days, proceeded to get worse and now have started taking my daily dose of Amoxicillin. Do you know what a daily dose of Amoxicillin is these days? It's two pills three times a day!!! DUDE, that's a lot of meds. This had better work!

Back from Alaska

As many of you know I spent the past 10 days in Alaska. Many people think that because I am originally from Oregon I should have been to Alaska before. Not true. Do you know how far away Alaska is? It's about 2200 miles from the Northern most point in the state of Washington. That's only 900 miles shorter than the distance that I drove from San Francisco to Boston. What I am saying here is that Alaska is crazy far away! But I think Alaska being that far away from the lower 48 makes it all that much better. There is something magical about this state, it's like no other place in the world. It reminded me a lot of New Zealand, less people, more land, and just a general respect for the beauty of the land. Although, in New Zealand, things are not as grandiose as they are in Alaska. I know Texas has the motto "Everything's bigger in Texas," but Texas has nothing on Alaska. I saw some of the most amazing scenery and have over 400 pictures to prove it. Yes, that's 40 pictures a day...

I can't wait till we can find a way to get back up to Alaska, maybe next time I will try for some world renowned skiing/snow boarding I keep hearing about.

We were in Alaska for Shane's youngest sisters wedding (see wedding spot below). She has lived in Alaska for at least 12 years now and has completely embraced a true Alaskan life style: simple and aggressive. It was so great to finally see this great place and share it with people who absolutely love it there. I was lucky enough to go white water rafting down Six Mile Creek. It's hardly a creek but thanks to an awesome guide (aka: the groom), we made it down safely. It was amazing, scary and exhilarating at the same time. Just awesome!

The day of the wedding Shane's dad treated us to a morning of Sockeye Salmon fishing on the Russian River. We caught 7 fish between 4 fisher-people. And I am proud to say I was caught the first fish. I know Grandpa and Dad will be proud. He fought for a while and as you can see from the picture he managed to get himself quite dirty flopping around on the ground. It was a lot of work pulling that guy in. Lots of reeling and letting him go, and then reeling and slowly walking him to shore so he could be netted by our guide Brian. It was such fun and super tasty. Shane did an excellent job preparing and grilling the salmon for all of us on Thursday night.

We also did some fun hiking, up Virgin Creek Falls, just a 10 minute walk from the house we were in and up Bird Ridge Trail a hike between Anchorage and Girdwood, we came around a slight incline to find this beautiful Bald Eagle on a tree about 100 feet from us- amazing! In case you have missed the sentiment, the trip was amazing. Huge thanks to Shane's parents for their amazing hospitality. They make an amazing house a home even if they are 3300 miles from Maine.

A note on breathing

I understand the value of breath, there is the obvious fact that it keeps you alive, but there is also a lot of value in using breath to calm you down, center your mind, work you through some more difficult situations, etc. And for the most part I completely take my breath for granted. I even took it for granted during the 1/2 marathon. I certainly wouldn't have been able to make it through some more painful side aches had I not focused on my breathing. And yet, the reason I am writing about breathing this morning is because for the past two weeks I have gotten in the elevator at work at least 3 times with this guy. He doesn't come running into the building as he walks in just like I do, and yet he gets in the elevator and is completely out of breath. He sounds like I do after 20 minutes of running. And it's not like he's out of shape, he looks healthy. Anyway, it just reminded me about the importance of breathing, and how lucky we are to not be out of breath, unless we want to be...

1/2 Marathon- Done!!!

On Sunday Shane and I completed Boston's Run to Remember a 1/2 marathon honoring Massachusetts Law Enforcement Officers killed in the line of duty. Proceeds from the marathon are donated to kids at risk across the city of Boston. This was my first ever official race, or run of any kind. When Shane suggested it in the dead of winter I was pretty skeptical. Picture yourself training for a 1/2 marathon when it's only 30 degrees outside... not something you really want to do with your Sunday morning... But, we did it. We were lucky enough to train at the gym until it was actually warm enough to go outside. And last weekend I made the mistake of mis-reading our running map and forced us to run 12.6 miles when we were only supposed to run 10 miles... opps! I wasn't sure I was going to live it down. Mostly because I SWORE that we had only run 9 miles and it took 2 hours and 10 minutes, which meant we were running WAY slower than we had been running. But... to my dismay, we came home to realize we had run almost the full length of a 1/2 marathon and did it at about a 10 minute mile pace. So, Sunday we woke up early, after barely sleeping- I think at 1am I jumped out of bed thinking we were late for the race and proceeded to wake up every hour on the hour after that. OOO the nerves!!! But we got up, got some breakfast, did some stretching, etc and headed down to the parking lots near the race. We got there in plenty of time, and started to take in the energy of all the runners. If you have never run a race, even a 5k , I really recommend it. There is something really exciting about being in a group of people all set on one goal. We managed to finish in 2:03:39. I was VERY happy with the results and could not have done it without Shane's support. He is an amazingly supportive running partner. I know he could have run much faster than that, but I wouldn't have been able to finish without him. Huge thanks to Mom and Vincent for being there at the finish line cheering us on and grabbing this action shot.

Mom and Vincent come to visit

After being in Boston for 1 year and 8 months Mom and Vincent made their way East. And we made the most of it! I was able to take two days off work and tour them around Boston, cook them dinner at the house, (Shane, once again, was the master of the grill) we took a quick trip up to Marblehead, wandered through the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, they watched us cross the finish line of the marathon and we headed out to Provincetown for the night. It was very busy but great to be able to hang out with them so much and just enjoy each others company.

Steph's Graduation Dinner

After a quick night up in Maine in order to get the camp ready for the season, I headed out to dinner with Stephanie and her family at Lucca, thanks to Uncle Mark for dinner! It was such fun to see the Orrico's! I feel like I have seen a bunch of them since hanging out with Stephanie more and it has been so great to get to know them better. Stephanie is an amazing woman with so many talents and I can't wait to see where her life takes her. Congrats to Steph and remember- "We're all counting on you!" ;-)

Shane's Birthday

We ran down to Newport, RI for the day- about a 1.5 hour drive one-way and we picniced on the beach. It was a beautiful day, and so nice to be on a beach. We finished off the day with a great steak dinner (courtesey of whole foods and Shane's perfect grilling skills). All in all I think he had a fun, low- key birthday.

Trip to Atlanta

Shane's sister celebrated her "28th birthday," again, in real style Mother's Day weekend. We all flew down to Atlanta, where she and her family live, and headed out to Barnsley Gardens where she and her husband threw a very fun birthday bash- see sunset picture below. We also did a mini celebration for Shane's birthday on Friday night, with his favorite: chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, and of course the niece and nephews!!

Jackie Greene Concert last night

So, I stepped off the plane at 7pm got luggage and was home by 7:30pm. Shane had bought tickets to see Jackie Greene at the Paradise, and we headed over around 8:20pm. We got to hear the opening band The Brakes, Shane bought their CD and called this morning offering rave reviews! I love Jackie Greene, and many of the readers of this blog will agree with me, just click on the link above and enjoy! This guy has a great voice, writes amazing lyrics and is timeless. He has this deep soulful voice that makes anyone of any age get up and move. It's the perfect music for Sunday morning breakfasts, windows open, trees in bloom and music flowing through the entire place, filling you with the urge to just groove. And to top it off, the guy is 28... So if you get the chance, check him out!

Orange County

So, at 3am after 20 minutes of sleep I got in the shower, and back on the road to make a 6am flight from Portland to Orange County via Denver (see I told you!). I BARELY made the flight, at the counter and back check- in area at 5:20am when the cut off time is 5:15am, I was very lucky. Who knew it was going to be that busy?!?! I actually was one of those ones that was pulled out of line because she was due to miss her flight. I hate those kinda people, because it's just clearly poor planning on their parts, but with the number of miles that I have logged over the past 5 years, and having never had to be pulled from line, I think I am doing pretty darn well. I was headed down to Orange County for the AAAA Leadership Conference, and my company was sponsoring. The show went very well. We made a few good contacts and are excited to follow up and see what happens. I also got to see Lewis Black perform, he was hysterical. I posted some of his performance on YouTube, you can see it here. I was also lucky enough to have dinner with the Hellings'. Aunt Frances, Uncle Glen, Brittany, Chris, and Katie. They were on different nights, but I got to see everyone. We had pork and salmon on the grill and it was soo much better than going out! Aunt Frances and I went to get our toes done on Wednesday after my conference concluded, and ooo, it was soo nice to sit there and not talk about work but just enjoy having someone take care of my feet after all the standing and talking about Maconomy... I couldn't have picked a better pedicure partner! And on top of that, she got up at 5am to drive me to the airport. I love my family!

Megan's Bridal Shower/Bachelorette Weekend!

Friday evening I headed out to Oregon, via Denver (you will see that phrase "via Denver" a lot over the next few posts) for a quick trip for Megan's Bridal Shower and Bachelorette party. Carrie, Megan's sister and maid of honor did an amazing job planning, cooking, and throwing a wonderful party! All of the bridesmaids were there with their mothers as well as a few other college friends of Megan's. It was a great way to get to know some people that Megan spends a lot of her daily life with. She seems so happy, as you can see from some of the pictures below. Huge thanks to Rachel for hosting at her lovely home!

We headed down to Lincoln City that night to a great house that Carrie found where she booked two nights of girl time for Megan and company. The house was amazing! Such a great find Carrie! We all went out that night to Chinook Winds Casino that was just down the street, found a great cabbie named Bill who carted all of us- quite a feat! The Chinook Winds Casino is interesting. I think they had more security on staff then bartenders. Not my idea of making good money, but whatever. I also saw a fair share of be-dazzled jeans... I have to say, that look isn't good on anyone! But, we got our dance on, and Megan was out, in the veil and was a great sport. I think she really liked the congrats from random passers by!