Wednesday, May 28, 2014

It's the summers

I haven't "really" skied in four years.

I've skied a couple of times.  But, literally, for some reason I knew the summer we went to Kona, we were done skiing.

It's funny I own a whole bunch of e-mail addresses  "shouldbe"  as in "shouldbeskiing"  "shouldbeshopping" "shouldberunning".

I remember coming back from Kona the first summer feeling like a fake.  I would send an e-mail, with my skiing address.  Only, all I could think was that I:  "shouldbeinKona"

I left my skis a few years ago at the ski resort.  I was done with them.  I knew it.  It's okay.  Things come and go.

My entire 30's were spent in Vail.  I skied every other weekend - and some in between.

Then life happens.  It's not like I can go ski for two hours - or I can, but it will take me an hour there and back.  I LIKE to ski.  I like to ski in Vail.

In fact, when I go the the vail.com website, it still brings tears to my eyes.  It's beautiful.  An incredible place on earth.

But there is a phrase we know about the mountains, "It's the winter that brings you here, but it's the summers that keep you here."

I think I've had my seasons mixed up.


Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Shopping Carts

We hear all the time how the "kids today don't know how to play".  "They" - this time meaning the kids,  are too over-scheduled. Too many electronics.  Too many shows on television.

Of course, this is told to us by "the experts" - meaning "THEY" (they are THOSE people whom tell us what we should/shouldn't be doing)

There are so many "experts" out there.  Experts whom will tell you how to raise your kids.  How to live your life.  How to do everything, but well, they don't tell you how to be really and truly be you.

"THEY" can't tell you how to be you.  Only you know it.  You have to do what works for you.  In the style you want.  The way you want.  The way that works for you.

Friday early evening, my doorbell rings.  There is a high school boy standing there.  I've known this child since he was in first grade.

"Is Nolan home?" he says.  "No, he's over at a friends house - a friend from high school".

(Back story here - my sons went to the same school from 1 - 8th grade.  Then all the kids (all 50 of them per grade) scattered to different high schools.  Only we all still live in the same neighborhood  So, we now have friends from outside the neighborhood).

"Are you here to get your skateboard?  It's still in the garage", I say.  "Oh, yes, that would be great." "Um, also, would you mind if we put a shopping cart in the back yard behind the big tree?"

To tell you the truth, I was on the phone with a friend when he rang the doorbell.  I was only half listening, half talking.  Thinking he just wanted his skateboard.

"Huh?"  I reply.

"Nolan knows what it is all about.  Is it okay?"

"Sure, that's fine"

"In the side yard, it's okay behind the tree?"

"Yes" as I'm shaking my head.  "Sure.  Go ahead"

"Oh, thank you so much!!! Have Nolan call me."

"Do you want to get your skateboard out of the garage?"

"Oh, yes! Oh, okay!"  "Thank you"

That was the end of the conversation.  I then left. (The kids know how to get into the side yard).  I sent Nolan a text saying, "please call S".  "why?"  Something about a shopping cart in our backyard????

Apparently, there is a "shopping cart" war going on in the neighborhood with the kids from well, the neighborhood.  Only they are in high school now.  There is a grocery store not far from us.  About a month ago, this cart was either taken to the neighborhood or found in an alley.  (I'm not sure which story to believe, or maybe a combination of both of them).

Now that the "group" has a shopping cart, it seems, you take it from someone's yard, place it into the another yard until it is found by the "hunters".  (Not sure here whom is hunting or whom is gathering)  Basically, it's hide the shopping cart.

This weekend, I even notice a couple of shopping carts in the neighborhood.  One was from Target - the closest target from here is several miles.  Then one from Wal-Mart.  The closest Wal-Mart (I had to look it up is over 5 miles away).

By Monday (this being a holiday weekend), I had four shopping carts hiding behind the tree.  Seriously?

My older son came home and was seriously appalled at the "white trashness" hiding behind the tree no one can see.

I still am envisioning waking up to shopping carts all over my lawn.

I don't understand this game they are playing.

What I do know is that the teenagers aren't:


  • Out drinking
  • Out doing drugs
  • Out destroying property
  • Out stealing things (as these shopping carts were already in alley's)
  • Taking pictures of themselves
  • Telling all their friends about it on the Internet.
I was told one was pulled home from the alley with a rope tied to the bike.  No one was riding in the cart - or at least they didn't tell me that and I didn't want to give them the idea.

"They" meaning: these smelly over-grown kids whom are starting to look like adults, were having some good fun.  No one is in trouble around here. 

And if this isn't what "THEY" are supposed to be doing, please tell me what it is that would be better.






Monday, May 19, 2014

When you have a cold

I don't normally get sick.  I'm not sure why.  I don't have the best eating habits.  Or cleaning habits for that matter.

What really is the big determining factor is that I don't work in an office or at a school.  My germ factor would be the gym.  Gym's are really disgusting if you think about it.  Hot sweaty people.  Inside.  Touching their sweat on machines and towels and yoga mats.  Then touching other things.

Yes, my club has "disinfecting wipes" to wipe the mats and machines down.  They provide you with towels, but still it's warm and sweaty there.

For an entire week, I kept sneezing.  Of course, this was after a Mother's Day 5k in the sleet.  Wouldn't have anything to do with that.  I kept blaming my allergies.

I even read a really cool remedy for allergies.  Go buy honey from a local honey producer and have a teaspoon a day.  The pollen from the honey will get rid of your allergies!  Wow!  I like that idea.  We have honey.  I'll try that.

Only on day two, it felt like there was something sitting on my head.  I had to give in.  It was not allergies.  It was a cold.  A run out of tissues, red nose, miserable cold.  Only, not deadly enough that you just want to sleep - just annoying enough to make you not want to do anything.

So, while laying on the couch all weekend, this is what I learned:


  • If you take too much medicine, it does not get rid of the cold faster, it just makes you throw up.
  • Taking too much medicine also makes you a bit paranoid that your life is going to fall apart.
  • Sleeping all day does not help you sleep all night.  Even when you don't feel well.
  • Falling asleep during a movie doesn't only happen at night.
  • There is NOTHING on TV - EVER.
  • All the movies on the Hallmark channel are really bad.  I mean really.
  • The Hallmark movies are also all set in Colorado.
  • Making your cold even worse, as you are on the couch watching it be beautiful outside and on the TV.
  • There is a reason I don't watch TV.  
But I also remembered, 5 years ago I was on my couch watching a bad movie called "Flirting with 40" and I somehow ended up living that movie.  

Hmmm, wonder what Hallmark movie is now headed my way.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

He said, she said

As females, we tend to think we know what other people think when they tell us something.  Instead, we should really believe what they tell us.

I receive a text from Peter Pan:

Were you at Elways?

Nope. You?

Jason said you were at Elways and looking under the weather

Well, glad it wasn't me.....He must have seen your real girlfriend.....

I give him a call.  "What the hell was that?"  "Even if you best friend did see me, are you really going to say "you were looking under the weather???".  Seriously?

Let's let go, of "he said, she said."

Because when I re-read the message:  "You looked under the weather?"  You know what I see?  "She's the hottest thing you've ever had in your life.  And you know it.  How did you screw up this situation??"

Then there was no reply.........


Sunday, May 11, 2014

Merry Christmas

On Mother's Day every year, well, for the last 8 years, the boys and I have run a 5k.  Rockies HomeRun for the Homeless.

You get to run downtown Denver, you get to run in Coors Field (Denver Rockies Baseball Stadium).  The race starts at 8am.  By 9:00 am you are sitting in the stands eating a hot dog and drinking a beer.

We started this tradition by ourselves.  Then we another family we knew ran with their three sons.  Then my mom walked one year.  Then another family and their two boys ran that year.  Then their parents joined us. Then, on and on and on.

Springtime in the Rockies is a very unpredictable thing.  It can be 90 degrees one day - then 40 the next.  Everything can be in perfect bloom - the grass is green, the apple trees have blooms on them - then BOOM - it's snowing.

We had a very mild winter.  The boys didn't have one "snow" day. I think, maybe, we shoveled the walk once.  It was cold and dreary, but not snowy.  The mountains?  They got snow.  Lots of snow.

This year?  It was in the seventies yesterday.  It was perfect.  Then it was cloudy.  Then it was windy.

It rained all night.  We awoke to drizzle this morning.

It never rains in Denver in the morning.

I wake the boys up.  I get a text from my friends whom we now all do this together.  Me, my sons.  My girlfriends.  Their sons.  Their sons friends. One husband.  One boyfriend.  One mom & dad. (meaning mom & dad of us moms).  Our own little tribe.

Are we really doing this?

Even me, I didn't want to do it.  It was 37 degrees raining and starting to sleet.  But, yet, it was still not bitter cold - (until mile 2, then you turned and it was pelting you in the face).

I answered the text:  "Please tell your children labor was harder than this".

We all did it.  We all ate our hot dogs (no beer this year - it was just too cold - the weather, not the beer).

Then, at the end of the day we have our "cook-out".  The tradition also started 8 or so years ago, where the kids cook.

It's ebbed and flowed.  The crowd has changed, some have been added and some have left, but there is a group of us - well, make that 20 of us that make this happen every year.

The kids cook, the moms are served, then everyone else is served too.  It's a potluck cook-out with all of us, together as families.

This year, as the boys were cleaning up, we are laughing about the snow and the feeling of community when people gather.  We were joking that it was really hard not to say "Merry Christmas" when everyone left.

As it was a sense of community and family and gratitude, with snow on the ground.....

Happy Mother's Day.  Or Merry Christmas.  Or whatever this means to you.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Good Thing It Wasn't Drugs

It was ten years ago when a friend of mine suggested we do a triathlon.  I kinda just laughed.

I've always been a "physical" person - active.  I was on swim team.  I rode my bike.  I had run a think one or two 5k's (3.2 miles).  Always with groups of people.  Nothing over the top.

When she suggested we do this triathlon thing, I kept pronouncing it wrong.  I was adding an extra "a" tri-at - a h la - thon.  A women's event supporting breast cancer research.  A half mile open water swim.  A 12 mile bike ride and then a 3.2 mile run.

I suggested we do a relay - I would swim, she could run and we could find someone to do the bike for us.  She wanted to do the whole thing herself.  Okay, okay.  Let's do this.

We sign up for the race in August.  I think it was April or so - don't really remember.  Let's see:  my training consisted of running - sometimes.  Swimming at the pool (I did do some laps).   And well, riding my bike around the neighborhood - MY MOUNTAIN BIKE (that weighed a bazillion pounds and has fat tires on it).

She flies in (she doesn't live here) for the weekend.  We borrow a friends truck.  We borrow another friends bicycle for her.  She insists she did train some that summer.  My bike had dust on it.

BUT, we did it.  We did the race in the "buddy" group - meaning it wasn't "competitive" - whatever the heck that meant.

We hadn't practiced our transitions - you know when you come out of the water, you are wet and need to dry off, put on socks and shoes and maybe something over your swimsuit.

We waited for each other after the different events.  We stopped and took pictures along our bike ride.  We ran together and have a picture of us crossing the finish line together.  It took us 2 hours and 8 minutes to complete.  We were damn proud of ourselves.

We left there and went to get manicures and pedicures.  After all, we had worked hard.

I've done that same triathlon 8 more times.  My best time was almost 40 minutes faster than my first time.

She was also instrumental in getting me signed up for my first half marathon, but she didn't compete - I was the one whom had become addicted.

10 triathlons (I did two others one a longer distance besides the women's one), 7 half-marathons and 2 full marathons later, I'm not sure if I should thank her or not.

At least she didn't introduce me to drugs........


Monday, May 5, 2014

Chips

Years ago, I wrote a story about a woman whom worked with me.  About accepting crumbs in my life.

Now, go read the other story, then you catch up here.

People tell me I accept crumbs.  Really the problem is though, I don't like cake.  I never have.  I tried to like cake.  I tried to fit into the mold of a cake.  But what happens when you truly don't like cake?

Let me tell you what happens:


  • You spend time alone
  • You keep trying to like cake, but no matter how much cake you consume, you still don't like it.  It's a bit like beer.  You keep drinking it, but in the end, you just feel bloated.
  • You try other types of cake:   maybe you will like a different flavor of cake. 
What I do like?

CHIPS!!

Chips now come is all different flavors.  They aren't all made of corn.  They are made of beans.  Rice, Quinoa. Made of different ingredients.

Recently a friend of mine moved in with her boyfriend.  Now they are talking marriage.  Or should I say cake.  Truly?  I'm sorry for her.  As she is caught up in all hoopla about the cake.  I'm happy for her.  I'm happy for him.  

But, really, I'm sad.  Doesn't anyone else want a bowl of chips and some salsa?