Right Coast Stories

Minneapolis: more than I hoped for...

2011-01-26T12:21:00.009-05:00

Dear Minneapolis,

In the past two months I have been lucky enough to have taken three trips to Minneapolis. If you read sarcasm in that last sentence you would have been reading well between the lines. Minneapolis is probably a very nice place in the summer, in fact most people that live here, swear that it's great in the summer. I, unluckily enough for me, have been here just during the winter. And it doesn't look like a summer time trip is anywhere on my horizon. All of that said, I was very pleasantly surprised at Minneapolis, even in the dead of winter, and here are a few reasons why:

Transportation: Between the Skyways and the light rail that gets me from the airport all the way downtown in less than an hour from my flight landing- all of it is awesome! Nevermind the fact that, light rail tickets are like $2. And the skyways, don't get me started! They are GREAT! I can walk for blocks in this city without ever going outside. I was here for 4 days earlier this month and I went outside twice. And the skyways still give you access to everything. I even saw an entrance to a Catholic Church, ironically, I was on the phone with mom at the time.

ATM's: I know this is ridiculous to get excited about, but ATM's here give you the option of getting cash back in odd increments. For example, in Boston, I have to get either $20,$40, $60, etc out of the ATM, but in Minneapolis I can get $30, $50, $70 out of the ATM. I love having $10 bills, they make tipping, taxi rides and general food ordering so much easier.

Weather: So, I was in Minneapolis during the coldest week of the winter. It was -14 degrees one morning. I was told by native Minneapolins that is was "too cold to snow." And that this is an actual phenomena. I later learned it wasn't, but I have to admire their positive outlook, even when it's 14 below.

People: The best thing about Minneapolis is the people. I am lucky enough to have two good friends that just moved here in August, Keith & Renee. I know no one else is crazy enough to come visit in the dead of winter, so I have had them all to myself for dinners, drinks, etc. And they will agree when I say that people in Minneapolis, friends or not, are just nice. My waiters, my hotel staff, people you see in the skyways actually smile at strangers. It's such a change from the "head down don't bother me" attitude in Boston.

In closing, I want to say thanks to Minneapolis for surprising me, in the dead of winter. Until next time...

hugs, TR

A Great Boss is a Hard Find

2010-10-04T11:47:00.003-04:00

I have had 7 jobs since 2001. I have had about 10 bosses in that time. There are studies that have been done that say that in many cases, a great boss makes more a difference in job satisfaction than a great salary. In my current role I have one of those bosses. She expertly crafted a team of individual contributors that successfully work together to build a marketing machine that adds revenue to the bottom line.

She not only put us together but trusted us to do the right thing. And because we are all highly driven individuals who didn't want to disappoint our boss, we did the right thing. We made mistakes, but when we did we were given room to figure out what we did and figure out a way to make sure it never happened again.

Building and managing a team can be somewhat of a tight rope balancing act. Giving enough to empower but asking enough back to keep track of everything. It's not an easy role and in all the bosses that I have had, I can't think of someone better than Carol. Thank you.

One more birthday down

2010-09-21T09:47:00.010-04:00

I love social networks. I am the geek who signed up for a facebook account in like 2006, I have a twitter account, I clearly blog. But I love the way these networks let you connect. I love that I just found my neighbor who I have met 2-3 times at another neighbors house, but now, guess what? We're friends. I love that people from all parts of you life, can find you and say, wish you a happy birthday.

Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. It's still making me smile. To all my friends who sent lovely presents, to my work friends, who brought me a gigantic cookie that is 1/2 eaten at my desk. No matter where life takes us, we will stay in touch, not because we have each others addresses, but because we're friends on facebook and that's almost more fun!

On another note, it's pretty cool to have a husband on your birthday. He not only got me my favorite gadget (iPhone4) but a headlamp and a super warm new hoodie for some upcoming hiking we'll be doing. And of course, flowers. Terrible for the environment, but beautiful. I love you!

I am going to spend the day after my birthday remembering my wedding day, b/c the photographers just posted some of their favorites on their blog: http://tullisphoto.com/blog/2010/09/19/thereasa-shane/

Think about someone other than you for a bit.

2010-09-13T15:56:00.003-04:00

I went to a free showing of the documentary 180 South at the local Patagonia store. You can read more about what I thought of the movie over at my other blog. I will keep it short here, but it made an impact. And while I walked away more impacted by the message of the movie I still remember my heightened uneasiness with the people outside the store who bunched together attempting to get in and get a seat before the show.

Let me paint you a picture. Busy Newbury street in Boston, the end closer to Mass Ave. Doors of the Patagonia store closed, with a sign that says "closed while we prepare for the movie showing, will re-open at 7:30pm." When we arrive just a bit before 7pm there were probably 4 other couples milling around the door, not forming a line, but clearly just standing around looking at the door. As we got closer and closer to 7:30pm more and more people arrived, crowding everyone more and more. And finally when the door opened at 7:30pm to have a woman from Patagonia apologize that they were running late and quickly close the door again, the crowd surged together, stepping on toes, crushing their bodies and bags into humans that they would not normally even smile at if they were passing on an empty sidewalk on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. And yet now we were all left there, crammed together forced in this new uncomfortable closeness, when the woman next to me takes out a brush for her hair, and proceeds to brush her hair onto me. I picked some of her hair off my shirt later. Don't worry I let her jam in front of me when the doors did open, even though I had arrived at least 10 minutes before she did because I just didn't want to deal with it.

I am forced to believe she just isn't aware, which is probably the most frustrating part. It's these little ways we treat each other and the earth that are breaking all of us, slowly, we aren't aware of other people, other situations, or of the earth and what we are doing to it.

It's time to think about more than just yourself, and your family. Think about the other drivers- quit texting while driving, think about people around you when you decide to make a dead stop in the middle of the grocery store aisle allowing your cart to block anyone from getting by. Think about what throwing out that plastic bottle does to the earth. Or what tossing that cigarette butt on the sidewalk does to that new puppy who eats EVERYTHING while on his walk.

Please, just start to think.

Again with the name thing

2010-08-16T14:01:00.005-04:00

I wrote a while back about my name and how I love its uniqueness. Now that I am married people have started to ask when I will be changing my name. Let's just say, I am in no hurry. I have an airline ticket 5 months from now, with my new name on it, but I am not going to do any of this quickly, mostly because:

It exposes me to the underbelly of government bureaucracy (aka: the RMV and Social Security office)
I don't have time to get batteries replaced in my three dead wrist watches, what makes you think I have time to spend at any of these lovely government facilities, and
I have had my current name for over 30 years. To change overnight seems a bit unfair to a lot of hard work over those 30 years to build a reputation tied to a brand that is me, and I have/had a name...

To my wonderful husband, do not fret, it will happen. And I really appreciate you not being part of the peanut gallery reminding me to change my voicemail, email address, facebook name, twitter ID, the list goes on...

Getting used to this Wife thing

2010-08-09T09:49:00.004-04:00

This weekend we ran our 3rd Beach to Beacon 10k. This beautiful 10k takes place in Cape Elizabeth, the same town that we were engaged, and we got up almost as early this Saturday morning as we did that fateful day in February. Luckily, the weather is better in August than it is in February. ;-)

At the race we ran into some friends that live in Portland and I was introduced as a wife for maybe the 3rd time in my life. It still makes me smile and kinda giggle to get used to it. It still shocks Shane I think too. I hope that years from now it still makes me smile.

P.S. We ran about 2 minutes slower than last year, but that's to be expected since we started training on Monday with a 2 mile run...

Something About the Gray

2010-04-01T09:51:00.002-04:00

Driving into the office today I had the sudden urge to just keep going West. I get this feeling randomly, but I think I may have just nailed down exactly why and when it comes on. There is something about the clouds in varying shades of gray that remind me of Oregon and makes me ache for home. I would never trade a New England Fall or Spring for that matter, but the gray clouds will always remind me of Oregon and make me miss home.

The most beautiful thing

2010-03-18T09:15:00.003-04:00

This morning, as I was walking to my car, I saw the beginning of daffodils... just the leaves out of the ground, but between that and the warm weather, it is probably one of the most beautiful things I have seen in a while. I am excited to see the city as it comes to life this spring, including the beginning of street cleaning! Happy early spring!

I Thought We Were Supposed to Support our Neighbors

2010-03-04T10:41:00.003-05:00

I was driving home last night and listening to my local NPR station give a report on the Catholic Charities of Washington DC, who have suspended all spousal benefits because Washington DC just approved gay marriage. And as we all know, according to the Catholic Church, being Gay is wrong.

I guess in this case, it also means that you don't deserve equal rights. I wasn't alive in the 60's when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched on Washington DC and gave his amazing "I Have a Dream" speech, but I would equate this blatant inequality as the same thing.

Being raised Catholic, it became clear to me when I was about 13 that I would never be able to commit to an organized religion that didn't do two things: 1. Treat people equally (women and men, gay people and straight people) 2. Respect my right as a human to make choices that they may not agree with, but instead of condemning me, respect that I have made the choices I made for a reason and that I am not inherently evil.

I am continually discouraged by the Catholic Church and its inability to see the forest through the trees. What did Jesus teach? He certainly didn't teach turning your back on someone because they were an outcast.

The Catholic Church will soon find themselves an outcast, and I wonder if they will find solace in the arms of the people they have oppressed because those people know what it is like and instead chose to follow the real word of God and love thy neighbors as they themselves would like to be loved.

Happy Holidays Everyone

2009-12-22T10:23:00.004-05:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday. I am looking forward to 5 days out of the office, spending some quality time in Maine with family. This year has been full of change followed by happiness.

I managed to have three jobs in one year... not something I recommend or would have planned, but I couldn't be happier. And in each experience I learned more about myself and my strengths. Probably the most important being: it's easier to focus on your strengths and just do that than to try to rid yourself of your weaknesses.

Shane and I were engaged in February, and as blissful as I wanted "being engaged" to be, there is nothing blissful about planning a wedding. But in order to plan a party that pulls in friends and family from across the country, it had to be big, and it will be. We are so excited for July 17th and even more for the honeymoon, when I can kiss the wedding planning guide goodbye!

No year passes without milestones sad and happy ones: The passing of an Uncle- a truly amazing man, the celebration of my grandfathers 90th, the celebration of my 30th, weddings and births for good friends.

Each year that passes only makes me more thankful for all that I have: health, family, happiness and someone to share it with.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

No matter what, golfing matters less than Healthcare

2009-12-17T17:45:00.002-05:00

I grew up golfing. I played Jr. Golf starting at age 7 and went into retirement at 17. At 21 I realized that if I was going to work in technology sales in the bay area, I was probably going to have to play again. So, now, 9 years later, I play 1-2 times a year, max. Golfing or anything about golfing should matter a LOT less than Healthcare.

But all the sudden our country cares more about a golfers extracurricular than they do about the way that we receive health care in this country. Tiger isn't going to affect the doctors you can see for the rest of your life. His "companions" aren't going to be the nurses that care for you as you recover from your heart attack, at least you better hope not. Elin doesn't care if you have to pay 50% of your income to pay off hospital bills, she's going back to Sweden, which has government funded healtcare if you care.

We all need a little gut check on our priorities. We need to quit clicking on the tiger stories and instead tune into CSPAN to see what's going to make a difference in our lives.

COME ON PEOPLE!!!!

Happy states- I just keep getting happier

2009-12-04T10:53:00.002-05:00

I just read this interesting article on the "Happiest States"and I realized that I have managed to go from 18 to 9 to the 8th happiest state in my lifetime... Not bad. I do have to say, the one suprise on this list was # 5. I am going to claim ignorance, because I have never been there. And if anyone has any insight, do let me know. Check out the link, it's an interesting read.

My difference may not be great, but it means something to someone

2009-12-03T11:10:00.006-05:00

I just read the most lovely blog post, and it was about me. Me. and I didn't write it. I am incredibly flattered and overwhelmed.

I am often inspired by LARGE acts of kindness. I often wonder if I am supposed to be running a non-profit for pennies and making all of my other dreams (financially focused ones) fall to the side.

And then I am faced with a blog post that illustrates that while my gestures aren't grand. They are noticed. And to the people that matter most to me, that makes me happy, beyond belief.

To Alana and Emily. I miss you both terribly and thank you, you made coming into work fun and inspiring!

Get back on the horse- man!

2009-11-30T09:27:00.006-05:00

After the long weekend I am invigorated and have a new found love for my blog. I feel like I have been ignoring it and updating so infrequently that my readers, may not know exactly what's been going on. For that I apologize. All that being said. What have I been up to?

This past weekend we went to Atlanta to visit family. They are our only niece and nephews. As many of you know, I love kids. I am biased and will say blatantly, that I love these kids more than most. They are all so unique and hysterical. Of course, they are not without their fits and arguments, but some of that is even more interesting. To watch children interact with their siblings is a true study in human development.

One of my favorite things was dancing with all of them to Miley Cyrus' Party in the USA, Flo Rida's Right Round and I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas. There is something so freeing about dancing with kids. They don't care who's watching and what people think, they just move. I can't wait for the wedding, we are going to CUT A RUG!

Update: New Blog for the X-country trip

2009-11-24T13:32:00.001-05:00

All, Paul, Hannah, Keith, Renee and Michelle and their two dogs: Millie and Cooper have started a blog about their cross country trip and their hopes of landing a sponsor. I am excited to promote their efforts and hope that they can make the most of this chance to travel our beautiful country. http://eastwestandback.blogspot.com/

How would you get to a cross country wedding?

2009-10-31T20:15:00.007-04:00

We have great friends. We have inventive friends. We have creative friends. It's one of the reasons they made the "A-list" for the wedding. ;-)

As many of you know, I moved from the West Coast to the East Coast 3 years ago because I met the man who I knew would be my husband. It took him some time, but 2.5 years in he finally sealed the deal with an awesome ring... the one from his great grandmother.

I am probably one of the luckiest girls I know... And in order to share all that I love with all that Shane loves, we are getting married in Bend, Oregon (Sunriver to be exact) in July 2010.

We are also lucky to have our "everyday friends" Paul and Hannah in our wedding. And they, being creative and inventive are trying to get a large brand to sponsor their trip across country.

5 people, 2 dogs, 1 RV, 3 weeks: AWESOME!!!

I turned 30 on Nantucket

2009-09-29T21:54:00.005-04:00

My thirtieth birthday could not have been better. I wanted to be out of the city, trying something new and outside. Shane planned an entire weekend to Nantucket because neither of us have been to the island, and we thought it would be a fun adventure. I did a few new things in Nantucket one of which was staying in a B&B. I had always been a little scared of the close quarters, but the Seven Sea Street Inn was perfect! We weren't adventurous enough to eat breakfast with the other lodgers, but we can check "staying at a B&B" off the list.

We spent time at the beaches, ate amazing food at the Pearl and Lola41, met some cool new people and Shane's favorite- we rented a scooter.

It was one of the best weekends of all time, and we were so sad to leave on the Ferry on Monday. But what a great way to say goodbye to a super fun decade and welcome a new one that looks to be even brighter?!?!

New musician find

2009-09-09T11:51:00.001-04:00

Loving the new album from Eric Hutchinson... He's on a west coast tour right now, so enjoy you left coasters! Great lyrics and fun rhythm!

Stairs and general working out

2009-08-12T11:49:00.004-04:00

As I noted I started a new job at the beginning of July and it's 6 blocks from my house and 5 stories up. I was sure that after 6 weeks the stairs and I would be kindred spirits, quiet companions that enjoyed each others company. I would be getting a much needed workout while getting to the office and the stairs would get a much needed climbing, if you are a staircase isn't that what you want, to be climbed? Maybe, if stairs had feelings...

So the stair cases in floors 1-4 are great. I am content, no real heavy breathing, I barely notice them and I am sure they are content to have me climbing them every morning and lunchtime.

And then there is the staircase between floors 4 and 5. I am convinced it is steeper than any other flight of stairs, and it definitely has more steps than the 2nd and 3rd floors (old building doesn't have equally sized floors) This staircase and I are still not friends after 6 weeks of continual climbing... no love, lots of out of breath mornings and afternoons...

Aaaahhh staircase, if only we could be BFF's... off to lunch, and another attempt to make you by friend or at least quiet companion.

my name

2009-07-22T10:59:00.006-04:00

When I meet new people or start a new job or have to apply for anything online or even purchase something online and people have to verify the spelling of my name it always takes time.

And then there are times like today when even I can't get it right, my fingers just can't type all of those letters together in the right order some days. T-H-E-R-E-A-S-A... It's a lot.

But I wouldn't trade it for the world. I will probably never be confused with another Thereasa Fullmer, unless I decide to name my daughter Thereasa (see Gilmore Girls reference).

So, thanks mom for taking Latin in high school and deciding that my name would sound like Ter-sa if it weren't for that extra "a", and the "h."

New job!

2009-07-09T12:55:00.008-04:00

Hey all, in case you aren't on facebook, I managed to get a new job already. I am now working for a really fun tech consumer company: springpad- www.springpadit.com. It's 5 blocks from my house, so not only am I able to help out the environment, but I can also save $$ and tons of stress!
Springpad is basically an online organizer. By collecting things you find on the web and storing them in one location you can then use them to create shopping lists, track budgets, organize appointments and to-do's, etc.

A few notes to the Boston Public Works Dept

2009-06-02T13:14:00.004-04:00

The Boston Public Works Department is responsible for street cleaning. They are also in charge of trash and recycling pick up. I find it interesting that in Charlestown trash pick up is Wednesday. And yet they schedule street cleaning for Tuesday. This does not seem logical: to have trash pick up, which invariably leaves leftover trash all along the sides of the streets and sidewalks, 6 days before the next street cleaning.

I would think that someone in the Public Works department would either suggest that maybe we move the street cleaning day to a day closer to the trash pick up or maybe move the trash day closer to the street cleaning day, so there might be the chance that for once our streets might actually be clean...

I understand that it takes time to clean the streets and that's why within four blocks of my house, there are four different street cleaning times... I just wonder if you couldn't move more street cleaners to one part of town, perhaps the day after trash day, and then back to another neighborhood after their trash day... thoughts?

Thanks to P&H for the inspiration...

My Grandfather

2009-04-23T08:44:00.003-04:00

I am blessed to have a grandfather who is so well taken care of that he recently celebrated his 90th birthday. In February, we took a trip out to celebrate with he and 100 of his closest friends and relatives. He had 8 kids himself and then after the death of his first wife he married a woman with 4 more kids. Today they have somewhere around 60 grand kids and great-grand kids. As you can see by the picture, I am sure it's his family and friends that have kept him young.

From 2009.02-Oregon

One of my favorite things about Grandpa Fullmer is his appetite for learning. I was just talking to him yesterday on my drive home and he was telling me about this book he is reading, "The Worst Hard Time." Ever since I can remember, next to the rocking chair in the living room sat a book. He is always uncovering something interesting and is never without a good story or life lesson, and he has plenty. Living through the depression and working the majority of his career selling lumber in the Pacific Northwest has made him a very interesting man.

I hope that one day I too can be that interesting and spry at 90.

The dangers of cooking

2009-04-20T17:17:00.004-04:00

I am not a chef. I am a baker, quite good at it actually. One friend claims that "she keeps baked goods on her person." But I rarely cook a meal. I leave that to my fiance, who is VERY good at it. But, we got this dutch oven the other week and hadn't cooked anything in it yet.

So, I had a huge shopping trip planned and I got a roast. I was super excited to cook it and it had been in the oven for about 45 minutes when I started peeling potatoes... I proceeded to slice a finger open while holding the potato over the sink. About 4 minutes after slicing my middle finger open I sliced my index finger open. Blood gushing, swear words flying out of my mouth, and three paper towels later, I was able to get the vegetables in with the roast. I should note that I can cut a potato with one hand. But to top it off, the roast came out 20 minutes before the time the cook book said it should and it was still over done! This is why I don't cook!

I apologize to any bride

2009-03-16T17:32:00.004-04:00

For any selfish comments I made while you were engaged. The one I deeply regret is "so, have you decided when and where yet?" The second would be any comments I made about how you could make your wedding day more convenient for me. God knows it's your day and you hopefully were able to ignore any of my ignorant comments. I know how difficult that is, but I hope if I did it, you were able to curse me and move on.

A bad day has to get better

2009-03-05T15:15:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I was talking to cousin Gega about her kindergartners. She was asking why it was that she was being so challenged by this group and what lessons should she be learning. At the end of the conversation she said, "well tomorrow has to be better." Tomorrow has to be better... sometimes all you need is that insight into terrible situations to understand why you are being challenged, or what you should be learning about yourself because of this day, to really put a bad day into perspective. Or in my case: go to lunch, get free parking and have the pizza guy tell you it's $5.15 for a slice and a soda and you pull out a $5 and he tells you he's got the $0.15... Today is much better than yesterday... thanks pizza guy!

Facebook is scary

2009-02-24T16:38:00.002-05:00

When Shane finally approved my "relationship status" change all the sudden all of my ads on Facebook went from B2B marketing ads to wedding ads, everything from the cake to the dress to the diet... holy scary!

The happiest day

2009-02-23T19:36:00.002-05:00

Saturday morning the love of my life made me the happiest woman on the planet. I am still smiling ear to ear, and I expect it will last a lifetime. Check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQNA4e8-dwY It was an amazing day and I am so enjoying engagement bliss!

Death on my way to work, a little too often

2009-02-12T08:42:00.003-05:00

So as many of you know, I started a new job that requires me to spend at least 30 minutes driving into the office every morning. I have ended my "road rage" period, and am now in the numb, just get me there before 9am routine. But today, I suddenly realized that at least 3 times in the past two weeks I have seen the various trucks carrying what look like casket holders. I am not sure what they are, but they aren't as nice as caskets, but they are shaped like something you might put in the ground to hold a casket? In any case, it's a very unsettling feeling seeing something like this on your way to work... makes starting the day a little slower.

Don't worry be happy

2009-02-04T17:04:00.003-05:00

I am really concerned about the state of our nation, and not just the fact that I know way too many people without jobs and lost investment income. I am worried that all of this loss and general crappy self-esteem that comes with not having a job will reek havoc on the happiness of our society. I am invisioning increasing road rage, decreasing neighborly duties, etc. Nevermind the already constant negative reporting on our local and national news. I am looking for people or places that talk about the positives... I'll start: Today I was at the grocery store, and I love it b/c I get one of those self- shopping wands so I basically don't have to talk to anyone. I take my gun/wand and I shoot items as I put them into my re-usable bags. Well, as I was leaving today, my rosemary fell out of my bag and landed in the basket while I was unloading. A woman noticed as I was walking away from the cart and asked if they were mine as I was walking away from the cart at the front of the store. How great is that? Does anyone know of a site, or a blog where people are posting their Human kindness stories. I could use a higher dose these days.

Commuting Again

2009-02-01T22:31:00.002-05:00

So, I took this new job, which I love. One of the things I am having to get used to is commuting. People are kinda mean in the AM. And it's totally unnecessary. I have to merge from one freeway to another and the other morning this guy would NOT let me into the lane. I don't have a choice here buddy. My lane ends, or I have to get back onto the freeway I just got off...obviously not the thing I want to do while trying to get to work. But even funnier than that, is that this ridiculous weather we have had in New England has caused some major pot holes. These pot holes could swallow your car, give you whip lash, or cost you thousands in car repairs. And it's so bad that the Boston Globe has a site where the worst pot holes are located in the city: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/specials/013009_pothole/ You have to click on some of the comments on washington street... it really is a terrible street... The other day I was driving past this street and I randomly saw 9 cars pulled over all with flat tires... yeah, awesome. I hope Obama approves some of that bail out $$ for our Mass Highways- just to re-fill those huge holes!

TV and Movie Observations

2009-01-12T21:01:00.003-05:00

Did anyone else notice that Jack Bauer upgraded his bag once he was state side in the most recent episode of 24? It's way better than the one he had during the first episode and last seasons show. On another note, there are 4 movies out right now that are all about the Nazi's, WWII or Hitler: Valkyrie, the Reader, the Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and Defiance. I find it really interesting, not sure why or what our recent fascination is with WWII and all of its horribleness. I guess we can hope that with more movies or perspectives we can learn how to prevent such a horrible occurrence in the future.

My new adventure

2009-01-08T13:42:00.003-05:00

On Monday I will start a new job as a Marketing Manager for Makana Solutions. It's an on-demand sales compensation management software that is provided for Small and Medium sized businesses (SMB's) in all industries. I am really excited to work with a team of driven, smart people to help define and implement marketing plans. I feel very lucky to have a job and to have one at a company that makes me excited, selling to a market with such potential. It's a great way to start 2009!

Home Depot in the Morning

2009-01-05T09:10:00.002-05:00

So, as many of you know, I am currently working as a consultant, which is great. I have all this time to be able to get things done on my own schedule. I can work late and get errands done in the morning. I have been to Home Depot on a few occasions in the past few weeks, since embarking on the consulting adventure. Home Depot is like a world of its own. There are all these construction people: the foreman, the project managers, the heavy lifters. It's a little micro-economy. I can never walk in there without asking someone where something is, and everyone is so helpful. But there are people that go there everyday, just like I might go to Starbucks. I will never be a part of that world, but it's nice to step out of my typical Starbucks routine and try something completely different.

Christmas day snowboarding

2008-12-26T11:08:00.002-05:00

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

2008-12-23T10:02:00.004-05:00

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...

2008-12-05T13:35:00.002-05:00

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

2008-12-01T10:54:00.002-05:00

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

2008-11-14T13:32:00.003-05:00

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

2008-11-10T17:31:00.008-05:00

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

2008-10-24T16:02:00.004-04:00

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

2008-10-07T10:43:00.005-04:00

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

2008-09-26T14:17:00.006-04:00

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

2008-09-22T12:49:00.015-04:00

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

2008-09-19T11:44:00.001-04:00

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

2008-09-15T12:40:00.001-04:00

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

2008-08-26T11:31:00.009-04:00

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

2008-08-24T10:45:00.008-04:00

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

2008-08-15T10:31:00.004-04:00

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

2008-08-11T10:23:00.000-04:00

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

2008-08-07T13:42:00.002-04:00

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

2008-08-04T16:31:00.003-04:00

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

2008-08-03T16:26:00.000-04:00

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

2008-07-28T16:23:00.000-04:00

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

The stress of running

2008-07-25T12:01:00.002-04:00

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

2008-07-17T09:38:00.001-04:00

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

2008-07-16T07:30:00.000-04:00

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!

2008-07-15T07:22:00.001-04:00

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

2008-07-14T07:10:00.000-04:00

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

2008-07-07T07:30:00.000-04:00

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

2008-07-03T15:44:00.002-04:00

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

2008-06-23T07:00:00.012-04:00

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

2008-06-02T10:23:00.002-04:00

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!!!

2008-05-27T09:46:00.004-04:00

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

2008-05-26T21:36:00.000-04:00

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

2008-05-19T21:30:00.000-04:00

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

2008-05-14T21:26:00.000-04:00

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

2008-05-12T07:16:00.000-04:00

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

2008-05-02T12:27:00.004-04:00

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

2008-04-30T12:10:00.002-04:00

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!

2008-04-26T11:47:00.001-04:00

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!

More family comes to Boston!

2008-04-25T19:35:00.000-04:00

As many of you know I have been lucky enough to see a few of cousin Stephanie's Bostonians Concerts since I have been in Boston. Sadly, I will miss her final Bostonian Concert as I will be in Oregon for Megan's Bachelorette Party, but I was lucky enough to hang out with the Asbury Family for a quick dinner before I headed out of town. Thanks to Aunt Gail for a wonderful meal at Lineage. Below the picture of (clockwise) Aunt Gail, myself, Aunt Janis, and Carolyn.

7 miles and our first BBQ- what a weekend!

2008-04-21T07:03:00.002-04:00

The weather is nice, I am staying healthy, and enjoying friends and family. It's a great time to be me. This weekend Shane and I got to have dinner and lunch with his parents. Dinner on Friday night at one of our favorite spots, the Navy Yard Bistro and lunch on Saturday at the Parish Cafe, a really fun lunch place that is well worth the wait. And Saturday afternoon we had our first real BBQ at our place in Charlestown. Our little place takes on a whole new area when you can be on the deck, and that's exactly what we did. We had Danny, Amanda, Michelle, Nate, Pat, Karlene, and Jill over for an impromptu grill session that turned into another fun round of Apples to Apples! Shane did an excellent job on the grill as usual, making burgers, chicken, and dogs. We were all stuffed and happy by the time the sun went down. On Sunday Shane and I took our time leaving the house, I think both of us were dreading the fated 7 mile run that the training calendar called for. We decided to do a different route along the Charles River. We did the Mass Ave bridge to the Elliot Bridge loop along the Charles. We did it in about 1:08, not too bad...It think according to the map it was 7.2 miles, so we are happy with the pace. The worst part was the Mass Ave bridge at the very end. It was WINDY, and full of lame tourists that don't understand the value of moving out of the way for runners. I think I am going to have to find a way to never cross the Mass Ave bridge again... not sure how I can swing it, but I am going to have to find a way, because ugh! it was painful!

Land of skinny runners

2008-04-20T09:35:00.000-04:00

Monday is Patriots Day and the 112th running of the Boston Marathon. For those of you that don't know the Boston Marathon, it is the oldest Marathon in the US. Typically offices will shut down for Patriots Day and people will take the day to either watch the Marathon or hit up the day time Red Sox game. It's just another sports day in Boston. This weekend we were down by Copley Square on Saturday and saw tons of people who were registering for the race. And omigoodness these people are skinny! A strong wind could easily knock these people over. As you all know, I am training for a 1/2 marathon, and I know it's a little crazy, but a full marathon, especially Boston takes a special type of crazy... For more information on the race please check out the BAA link here: http://www.bostonmarathon.org/

Even the Freedom Trail needs a paint job

2008-04-15T14:23:00.002-04:00

It's finally sunny here in Boston. It was a balmy 50 degrees today, and that fact combined with the fact that I had to move my car for street cleaning this morning, in order to avoid it being towed, meant that I walked into work instead of taking the bus. On my way across the Charlestown bridge, I realized I am not the only one who realized it's spring. There are more boats in the marina, the birds were out, and to top it off, they were re-painting the Freedom Trail... I think it's a sure sign that spring is here when even the freedom trail gets a fresh coat of red paint, just in time for tourist season...

Apples to Apples with the Charlestown family

2008-04-13T09:39:00.000-04:00

Early Friday there were rumblings about a pot luck/game night in Charlestown. Having not been here for a few weekends I was torn between chilling on the couch or going out and seeing everyone... But the prospect of Apples to Apples came up, and I couldn't resist! I headed to the mall right after work, picked up the game and we headed to P&H's where we and about 10 other Charlestown yuppies played a rousing game of Apples to Apples where things like Vietnam, 1969 was considered "dirty." I don't think we finished the game, between breaks and food arriving, it's hard to keep the game on track with that many people. I am also not sure I technically followed all the rules, one of which being the last one to put a card down is automatically out of that round...

But, a lot of fun was had! We followed Friday up with a trip to Tavern on the Water on a beautiful Saturday. It was probably around 70 for about 4 hours on Saturday and we took in some great views of Boston from the Charlestown harbor...

The wine made it back to Boston

2008-04-10T12:29:00.003-04:00

So, for those of you that take for granted the ease at which you can ship wine to and from your home state. Please be advised this post will open your eyes to a world/state in which it is not possible to ship wine whenever/wherever you want. On Tuesday after the show was over I met Kendra and then headed to Office Depot where I bought $30 worth of bubble wrap in order to attempt to get these 10 bottles of wine home... Knowing full well that these bottles were not going to fit in my suitcase with all of my clothes, I was also forced (completely self inflicted)to purchase another suitcase ($35)... After 60 minutes of wrapping up bottles of wine, in a ridiculous amount of bubble wrap, forcing those bottles into a suit case and then trying to maneuver my way out the door of my hotel room with two suit cases and a laptop bag, you can imagine the site. Never mind the leftover roll of bubble wrap and tape that were left on the floor. Goodness knows what the maids thought... 10 bottles of wine.................$110- thanks to the lovely industry discounts from Liz Bubble Wrap........................ $30 Extra bright red suitcase... $35 Enjoying a bottle of Bouchaine Pinot on my deck in Boston... priceless For all the folks that love to go to Napa and buy their wine and just have it shipped home, I do hope you enjoy that because for the rest of us are paying the price for your ease and comfort!

San Francisco Continued!

2008-04-10T10:15:00.001-04:00

So I headed back into San Francisco and set up for my show and was able to see Gio and Tracy during my lunch break. They are both doing well- Gio at Intuit and Tracy at ask.com. It was such fun to catch up with my former Actuate employees and they both are such amazing women, I am lucky to call them my friends.

On Tuesday afternoon, after packing up all of our boxes we headed to see Kendra at the Thirsty Bear where she was setting up for a customer event. It was sooo good to see her, and she seems so happy with the new job and her impending nuptials.

And then on Tuesday night I was able to drive up to San Rafael with Tracy to see her new condo, and I got to meet Phil, her fiance! And they are the cutest couple. I am sooo happy for them and I can't wait to share in their big day next Memorial Day weekend! Congrats!

SF and Napa Weekend with the girls

2008-04-10T09:24:00.000-04:00

I hadn't been back to the Bay area for more than one night since I left in mid- October 2006. So, when I had the opportunity to go to a trade show in San Francisco, I decided to take the weekend before the show and hang out with all my wonderful friends from the Bay area... It was such fun. I miss everyone so much, and the weather was perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend!

Friday night I got to go to dinner with Alexa, Leila and Nina. We went to First Crush had some good food and then headed out to the Marina where we proceeded to feel incredibly old... I had no idea 1.5 years could age you so much... ha!

Saturday Leila, Alexa and I all headed up to Napa to visit Liz and do some wine tasting. We tasted at McKenzie-Mueller, had a wonderful host who put up with all of our questions and silly girliness!

Our next stop was to Acacia Winery, and we had an initial woman set up to host our scheduled appointment. And Margaret was TERRIBLE! She made assumptive comments about how Liz "would be the only one to appreciate the reserve tasting" that was going on at the other table, because of course unless you are in the industry you don't know good wine... Needless to say I was very irritated!

We let the manager know that we were disappointed, I was walking out empty handed, so you KNOW I was disappointed! ;-) And she quickly rectified the situation by getting us a spot at the reserve table, where Liz and I proceeded to taste some GREAT old wines. I picked up some library wines for all under $20 a bottle. Thank goodness for Liz having the guts to report the poor customer service.

Our last stop was to my favorite winery, Bouchaine, if I could take all my friends there for a huge party I would, these guys were GREAT!!! The most fun I have had at a winery ever! Mike, the wine maker, Luke and Adam were great hosts! Such fun! And we were able to meet up with Lyndsey who is 7.5 months preggers. She is such a trooper!!!

My Professional Blog versus this personal blog

2008-04-04T10:29:00.000-04:00

I started another blog, that I can use in my professional circles. No pictures, but still the same Thereasa voice. The focus of the blog are the three things outside of my personal life that I am most passionate about: Education, Economics and the Environment. Check it out here when you get the chance.

City of Boston

2008-04-03T16:56:00.001-04:00

UGH! I just paid $115 in parking tickets, $75 of which were totally bogus- I swear they put up the "no parking" sign the night I was parked in that spot. And then I got to pay my lovely Excise tax, which sucks! So, today I paid $173 to the city of Boston only to find out that there is an unpaid parking ticket on my record, which is now $53. It means it probably started at $20 and 2 months later it's $53. I never got a copy of this parking ticket. I go to call the parking office, to find out that they are only open until 4:30pm everyday. It's got to be tough being a government worker. I am beyond frustrated with the whole system!!! Get me out!!!

Seattle, FINALLY!

2008-04-01T11:37:00.000-04:00

Carolyn and I woke up and went to get her oil changed in her car and she dropped me off with Ted at Aunt Gail's. We quickly unpacked the car. Ted will be staying with Aunt Gail until June 1st because he has two weeks he's spending in Kenya, so it didn't quite make sense to get a place for 4 weeks only to be gone for two of them. The next thing we did was go get maps and tour books of Seattle. One of the best presents Shane and Paul and Hannah got me were walking and driving maps of Boston when I first moved here. So, we took care of that first thing.

Then we drove Ted's route to work, and toured around Pike's Place Market. It was such fun, and a pretty nice day! We wandered around downtown, had lunch at Boka Kitchen and Bar in Hotel 1000. It was good food, but amazing service. Both Ted and I were very impressed!

We did a bunch of driving around the city, so Ted could get his bearings. And then we stopped at Highland Drive in Queen Anne, and Gasworks Park. We had two beers at Tangletown Pub. And met some great bar tenders. People in Seattle are just nice. It's amazing.

For dinner we extended out the Urban Family a bit and had Jeni join Carolyn, Ted and myself for dinner at the Latona Pub. More great micro brews and a darn good burger followed by some great conversations about what to look out for in your first year in Seattle. Carolyn has been there two years, Jeni one year, and Ted having just moved. I have to say. I am a little jealous!

I hopped on a plane that night and can't wait to go back and visit. Ted started his new job today and is very excited! He will do splendidly and hopefully he'll start his own blog about Seattle!

West Coast Road Trip- Day 3

2008-03-30T11:41:00.000-04:00

Our final day of actual driving! We woke up early to get a 5 mile run in. It ended up being 4.3 miles, but there were two significant hills we had to trudge up. It was very cold- we walked out to snow on the car, not a lot, but a dusting. But we warmed up and ended up on a great loop that allowed us full reign of the street. We saw two cars, two fellow runners and two deer. All in all it was very fun.

Dad cooked breakfast, we packed up the car and took off.

We headed up to Wilsonville from there where we stopped at the Higgins compound. Had a good visit with Mom, Uncle Tom and Aunt Patty and enjoyed tri tip sandwiches with Au Jus sauce. It was delish! On the way out of town we stopped at The Gimarelli's. They are grandparents of Ted's good friend Chris and Ted and I worked for Betty over the summer's in high school. We were lucky enough to run into all of Chris' immediate family: parents and brother. It was so good to catch up, even though it was a brief stop.

We got on the road headed to Seattle around 3:45pm (we were supposed to have left at 2pm). So, when we called Carolyn to ask what time she wanted us to meet at Amy's for dinner she said 6:30pm. We were going to have to fly to get up there that fast. Needless to say, we made it- pulling into their driveway around 6:35pm. And, we followed a cop on the freeway from Chehalis all the way to Seattle, so we were restricted to 65 almost the entire way!

Amy and Kevin prepared a great salmon with pesto sauce, asparagus and caesar salad. Aunt Gail and Carolyn brough carrot cake for dessert. It was super tasty! Aunt Janice came to dinner as well. And it was such fun to catch up with everyone. Ted is so lucky to have such great family so close by! I only have one picture from dinner, but hopefully I will be able to post more soon!

West Coast Road Trip- Day 2

2008-03-29T11:00:00.000-04:00

We got up early on Saturday to meet Michael and Helena in Walnut Creek for breakfast before we hit the road. I used to babysit for Helena when I was in college. Now she's driving! I was lucky enough to be adopted by the two of them, as my family, while I was in the Bay area, and it's been tough being away, but it was such fun to catch up with both of them.

Ted and I got on the road after filling up. We drove straight through to Redding where we stopped for lunch. There's not a lot to mention on this part of the trip because it is incredibly boring heading North on I-5, but it was very nice to see Spring. Boston doesn't know that it's spring yet, so it was great to drive out of the Bay Area and see trees and flowers in bloom.

We did stop off to take a few pictures of Shasta on our drive out of town. The one we took of ourselves, you are supposed to be able to see the mountain in the background.

We barreled through to Albany from there, passing the "Welcome to Oregon" Sign. We thought it was pretty funny that there was a port-o-potty right by the sign... not sure what that means exactly, but entertaining none the less.

We arrived in Albany at Dad's house around 6:00pm. Almost perfectly timed to sit down to a meal of fettuccine Alfredo and grilled garlic butter shrimp. It was great. I think both Ted and I were pretty tired, heading to bed at 9am, but we had a big run and day ahead. More on that, next post...

West Coast Road Trip- Day 1

2008-03-28T11:10:00.000-04:00

It's official, Ted has moved! The next three posts will highlight the trip. Friday Ted picked me up at the Long Beach Airport. He was running a little late, having left his license at the UHaul place the night before, and having to hastily retrieve it as well as random dry cleaning, etc. Luckily my flight was late as well. We weren't driving a UHaul as Ted had rented a Door to Door Pod that he packed up and they ship up to Seattle and store for him. It's a great service that I used when moving to Boston. But he had been at UHaul renting furniture dolly's to move the piano. So, he arrived 5 minutes after I walked off the plane. It worked out splendidly.

We headed into downtown LA to see Angela, a friend of mine from Jr. High and High School. She's been working at a law firm down there and so we were able to steal her for lunch. We headed to Wolfgang Puck's cafe for lunch and caught up. It was such fun!

Ted and I got on the road about 2pm. We decided to head up the 101 because it's a much more scenic drive, and who knows when we would be able to do that again. Traffic getting out of LA and through Santa Barbara were a PAIN, but it was worth it. Here are a few pictures:

We made it up to Redwood City where we stayed with Alexa, my old roommate from SF. She was a GREAT hostess, we headed to downtown Palo Alto where we found sushi at Miyake. It was a happening place- tons of large groups doing saki bombs standing on chairs chanting "saki bomb! saki bomb!" We didn't partake, but enjoyed observing. All in all is was a very low key night, but once again- such fun to see Alexa and a huge thanks to her for letting us crash at her cute pad with the great view!

5 Miles- check!

2008-03-24T11:26:00.000-04:00

We did it! 5 miles, on Easter Sunday too! We went to church, and while Shane's mom was cooking away we headed out for our 5 mile run. It was the first real run I have done outside. And it was about 36 degrees in Maine. There is something to be said for training for any kind of run in the Northeast during winter. I know technically it's spring, but someone forgot to tell the New Englanders. Not being used to 1. running, 2. running outside, and 3. running any sort of distance. It was a huge mental challenge. The entire time I was worried I was breathing in too much cold air that was going to get me sick and my calves still hurt from our 3.5 on Thursday... but, I made it. I have to say, training with someone else is probably the ONLY way I would ever be prepared for something like this... There's something about being able to push yourself a little harder when there is someone else running next to you...

The ever talented Cousin Stephanie!

2008-03-17T11:27:00.000-04:00

Stephanie and I are 2nd cousins, but as we all know- cousins are cousins, and I have a TON, and I love them all. Over the past year I have had the pleasure of getting to know Cousin Steph better as she finishes her final year here at Boston College. She is always down to hang out, hit up the ONLY Nordstrom's in Boston, run to random bars, and man- she puts on an AMAZING show as part of the Bostonians. Shane and I were lucky enough to attend the Bostonians Spring Cafe show this past Friday night. The Bostonians is the A Cappella group at Boston College, and they are all wonderful- Cousin Steph just happens to be the best. I am just a little biased. You can see for yourself here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl8dj9ehC8A . Pardon the video quality, but I took it with my new camera, which is awesome for being so small and still pulling some pretty good sound. Thanks Ted!

1/2 Marathon- the first of many posts

2008-03-14T11:29:00.000-04:00

Two months ago Shane and I registered to run a 1/2 Marathon. Memorial Day weekend we will be running Boston's Run to Remember which benefits Kids at Risk throughout Boston. You might know that I am not a runner. I have been a happy gym rat for the past 13 years and just used my 20-30 minute cardio sessions as a way to warm up my muscles for the real heavy- lifting workout that was coming. This whole run to run thing, kinda strange if you ask me. It's a huge mental hurdle for me. The A-D-D is not helping! But I am up to 3 miles 3 times a week. This weekend is my first 4 mile stint. I just wish I could be running outside, it might make it less mundane, but there is no running outside right now in Boston- because it's STILL too cold! It has not been easy, after the first week of training my lower back freaked out so bad that I had to pay a $20 co-pay to hear a doctor tell me to take 9 Motrin a day and take 3 days off, and maybe get new shoes. I did exactly as she said, and I have to admit, I am much better. The new shoes are Nike's, I should have known that my, Oregonian at heart, body would not accept any other shoe. But all is well now, and there is even talk of a 10k run in August up the coast of Maine. Stay tuned, there will be many more running updates.

Road Trip

2008-03-11T11:29:00.000-04:00

So, when I moved across country, my brother Ted went with me, and we had a GREAT time. Listening to books on CD, laughing at middle of nowhereville Kansas, taking pictures of huge tractors on highway overpasses, staying in funny little motels across the way, etc. To view a photo book about the whole trip check out the link. Now Ted is moving from Newport Beach, CA (the OC-for our international readers) to Seattle, WA. It's an exciting move for Ted, and another chance for the two of us to be a part of the others awesome life experience. And the weather in California in March is going to be much better than Nebraska in October.

Cross Country Skiing

2008-03-07T11:31:00.000-05:00

I haven't been Cross Country skiing since I was in Jr. High. We used to do it all the time at Black Butte in the winter. It's a cheap way to get the family out on skis without having to pay ridiculous prices for lift tickets. So, on Friday night when we were at dinner with our friends Todd and Jenn we were excited to learn about a great Cross Country skiing place near by that only costs $25 a day for a rental and use of their trails- Great Brook Ski Touring Center. Shane attempted to teach me to Skate Ski- it didn't work out... I am perfectly happy to stick to my well known and natural Cross Country skiing. Here are a few pics!

Hysterical Blog!

2008-02-29T11:45:00.000-05:00

I got this email from Leila today and I fell in LOVE with this blog. If anyone else gets the chance you should totally check it out! It's called- stuff white people like, and omigoodness are they right on! http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

Lovin the Whole Foods

2008-02-28T11:46:00.000-05:00

After a long day at the office, it's always nice to wander into Whole Foods and grab a salad, a nice piece of fish or a steak and find random accessory ingredients to help develop a tasty, well- balanced meal. Yesterday I had the best Whole Foods experience ever, and I gotta tell you- it did not start out well. Shane picked me up at 7pm from the office, which is way late, considering I had been in since 8:30am... We drove to a small boutique grocery in the North End and quickly left, after realizing we were too late to find anything worth eating... So, we headed over to Whole Foods to see what we could conjure up. It was a disaster getting over there because there was a game at the Garden. So a trip that should have taken 10 minutes took 25... We wandered in, tired and a little irritated, but hungry. After picking up a few tomatoes, a lemon, & some garlic we headed to the seafood section where we asked for the tail portion of the halibut steak that was on display. It rang up at nearly $18... We were headed to the bakery to find bread when all the sudden the lights went out, and they stayed out... it was crazy. No one knew what to do, the place was packed with a bunch of Yuppies and Dink's...And we all just stood there for a moment looking at each other in the dark. Shane decided we should probably go, so we headed toward the checkout counters and this great checker came in and started ushering people away from lines that weren't working and into lanes that could at least offer people totals, even if they couldn't pay with credit cards. But the lane we were in wasn't working, and instead he just ushered us right through the line, told us to have a good night and we walked out of Whole Foods with at least $35 worth of food. I am sure there were quite a few people that are upset today because they couldn't purchase their dinner from Whole Foods, dates could have been ruined, who knows. But it's worth noting that we had a GREAT night! Shane made an amazing orange zest/onion saute and I cooked up some beans and tomatoes. We enjoyed a bottle of white wine and fun conversation about how lucky we are! So, we are super fans of Whole Foods- can't wait to go back- even if we don't get free food, it was excellent Halibut and the service was EXCELLENT!

Snowstorm- Boston Style

2008-02-25T11:47:00.000-05:00

Contrary to popular belief it's not that hard to get around town in a snow storm. Last Friday around 2pm the mayor of Boston declared a parking emergency and sent all non essential state employees home. This begins the flood of private companies that will follow suit, sending all employees home early. Typically this can cause a serious headache on any major highway, but because it was school vacation week, many people were already out of town. And for those of us with no kids and no vacation time, it's a great way to start a weekend!

Shane picked me up at 3:00pm we grabbed burritos at Boloco, and headed home to work the rest of the day from the couch. As we were leaving the city there was 1-2 inches on the ground. We knew we had to meet cousin Alex for dinner in Beacon Hill at Grotto at 6:30pm, but we decided to head out early, on foot to meet at Red Hat, a bar, beforehand. The bar was packed! I don't know if it was the snow or a typical Friday, but it was just the beginning!

We proceeded to dinner at Grotto, which was great, if you like al dente pasta... And came out to 5-6 inches of snow. We had a great dinner with Alex, cousin Megan's fiance, and his brother Mike who was up from NYC. After dinner we went to see the Urban Family at Beacon Hill Pub to celebrate Jolliday! The boys played hoops in the back while I chatted with the girls who I hadn't seen since before the holidays! We even put in our $1 for the Mega Millions jackpot, hoping that a group of crazy yuppies that refer to themselves as the Urban Family, all with matching t-shirts in a snow storm would make for great PR for the Mega Millions winnings- Alas, we lost to some very un-energetic people in Georgia...

Alex had to get back to the hotel to be a night chaperon for his team of Harvard Model Congress students from LaSalle High School, so we said our good bye's while hailing down cabs and Shane and I headed back to Charlestown where the crew, out for the typical Charlestown Snow Storm Drink Fest, was still going strong, at 12:00am!

Gotta love nights when normal people stay home and you end up out until 2am walking all over the city in a snow storm! Thank goodness for my Boots- Best Xmas present ever- thanks mom!

Freezing your bum off

2008-02-20T11:52:00.000-05:00

I was walking through Downtown Crossing, a shopping area here in downtown Boston, at lunch today and I saw this kid. He was probably between 14 and 16 and he was literally freezing his bum off. His pants were about 1/2 way off his bum and he was wearing this thin "Misfits" hoddie. He had his hands shoved in his pockets and was visibly cold. If you are freezing your bum off, put on some clothes, or at least pull up your pants! This same theme can be illustrated as I sit at the bus stop in the morning and I see these other women who wait in the cold with no hats on. I understand that some people are just immune to this cold weather, I am not one of those people. But if you are visibly cold, PUT A HAT ON- no one is going to judge you in this bitter cold because you have hat hair, but they will laugh at you for being silly enough to not wear a hat... On another cold weather note, I have decided that from this year on, I am taking a 4-5 day February vacation to a beautiful sunny beach because by this point I am tired of freezing my bum off!

V-day, who needs it?

2008-02-14T11:53:00.000-05:00

In protest of Valentine's Day, I have decided to treat this day as any other. I have not celebrated Valentine's Day for the past few years, as a rebellion against and industry that believes we need to devote a day to telling the people around us that we love them. I understand that it's nice to have a day devoted to love, but what's wrong with every day, or most days being devoted to love?

After the loss of my best friend, I make it a point to remind people that are important to me, just how special they are, because you never know just when you might not get the chance again. I don't need one special day because the people around me know every time I speak with them that they are loved. I encourage all of us to not use just this day to profess our love, but to use every day and every breath to express our love.

A Quick Thought on Birthday's and a New Year

2008-01-15T11:53:00.000-05:00

I got an email from a cousin of mine earlier this week, which spurred this current train of thought... Why is it that people, as they get older, want less and less to celebrate their birthdays? I am only 28, so I haven't felt the pressure of 30 and all that it implies for a woman in my social standing... I have good friends who are turning 35 this year, and my mother who loves to celebrate others birthdays, but hates to imagine herself getting older. I get that there is a certain amount of social pressure to have accomplished a set of imaginary goals by a certain age, and maybe you don't physically like getting older, things fall, gravity is as certain as death and taxes. But consider the alternative... Not having a birthday, not celebrating all that you have accomplished so far in your life, not hearing from people you love and even people you didn't know loved you, how great you are. I chose to celebrate, and I encourage you to do the same this year! We are lucky to be alive and well enough to celebrate!

Christmas in Oregon

2007-12-30T11:54:00.000-05:00

We had a great time in Oregon, making a fast trip into Portland, down to Albany, and then over to Bend where we spent Christmas Day skiing at Mt. Bachelor. It was great to be able to show Shane around where I grew up and have him meet the family. He even made it through a night of caroling at the Higgins family Xmas Gathering. Can't say I had experienced anything like it, but he was a great sport!

The family is all doing well, and it was great to see G&G Fullmer, the Higgins crew, my Dad's new house and enjoying Mom's birthday with she and Vincent!

My Faith in Humanity Restored

2007-12-20T12:00:00.000-05:00

Who knew a trip to my favorite burrito place could restore my overall faith in humanity? It's been snowing off and on in various storms for the past 7 days. And between the: shoveling, the attempt to save our parking spots that we spent 2 hours digging out, the brazenness of fellow residents to disregard our attempts, and my frustrations with people who seem to ignore the fact that they aren't the only ones on the narrowed sidewalks, I was FED UP with living in the city, dealing with the snow, and everything that happened after I got out of bed in the morning. And then I went to Boloco... It's my favorite burrito place in Boston, and today was their grand opening of their new store (50 Congress St). It's about 4 times bigger than the last, and they NEEDED it! The store is always packed, rightfully. They have one of the best customer programs I have ever encountered. I eat there once a week (on average) and every 5 weeks I get a free burrito. On top of that, when the Sox won the world series, everyone with a Boloco Card got 2 free burritos, and then for my birthday I got a birthday burrito. So, today, with the opening of their new store, everyone was getting a free burrito. And when we walked in the line was probably 60 people deep. But, it moved quickly and on top of that, a guy walked around offering people hot chocolate while they were waiting in line. How great is that? And everyone was just excited to be there, people weren't even angry about standing in line- in fact I didn't see one person walk in, see the line and leave, the line just kept moving and people kept piling in the new huge store. And everyone was smiling. Who doesn't smile at the thought of a free burrito? It is still snowing and it's still cold, but my faith in humanity has been restored, thank you Boloco!

Picture from the storm

2007-12-14T12:01:00.000-05:00

So, it snowed yesterday. And, because I don't have to commute, I really enjoyed it. I even walked home in it last night, mostly because I didn't want to deal with a bus full of sweaty, melting people... Here's a view from my office this morning...

And while I am at it- here's our Christmas Tree, it takes up 1/2 the living room, but we love it...

Global Warming

2007-12-11T12:05:00.000-05:00

I am all about the environment. Ask anyone and I am the first one to recycle anything, reuse paper, or plastic bags. I considered buying a hybrid for a while, but today ride fairly guilt free as I take the bus to and from work. But I am from Oregon, I have been recycling since I was old enough to walk. As I watch the news about the crazy weather that has hit the West Coast, closing I-5, or the fires in San Diego, or the devastating water shortage in the South East, and the ever declining amount of snow in all of our mountain ranges across North America. I am reminded that even I, who fills the recycling bin on a weekly basis with cans, bottles, plastic and cardboard containers, am not doing enough. More needs to happen. And to help inspire all of us, I encourage you to read Al Gore's Nobel Prize acceptance speech. I am so glad he decided to use his influence on something that he can really make a difference in. Politics be damned! Chose a cause and make it your life. I encourage all of us to do that...