December 2006 Archives

That was my answer. I think. I don't really remember. I remember the way my boyfriend walked out of the bedroom with a goofy look on his face and I remember the way I started shaking and I vaguely remember him getting down on one knee. And after that it was a blur. There was more shaking and some tears and all I know is that when it was all over I was as happy as I have ever been in my life.

It wasn't a huge surprise. After almost five years and many many conversations, I knew it was coming sometime soon. But I was not expecting it Thursday night. The way he did it was so simple and sincere and beautiful. It was perfect. Everything about it was perfect.

Friday morning we got up and went to Omaha for my cousin's wedding. At first I felt a little guilty getting engaged the day before her wedding. It was supposed to be her weekend. But then I remembered that she and her (now) husband got engaged en route to someone else's wedding and how great she thought the whole thing was. And she was right. The whole family was there and we got to all celebrate together. My cousin who was getting married was the most excited of all. She flipped out when she found out and for the rest of the weekend every single time we saw her or her (now) husband they were all "Congratulations you guys!!" We finally told them they could STOP saying that and they were like "Noooo!! We're so excited for you!!!". At the reception my cousin got do do the first dance with her husband and then danced with her dad. After that she got on the mic and called Josh and I and another couple whose anniversary was that day up and we got our own dance. I was so embarrassed but it was also very very sweet.

I'm still in shock. All weekend my parents were introducing Josh to people as my fiance and everytime we were like "whooooah ... that's WEIRD!". But its so very wonderful.

We just got back from Omaha about an hour ago and tomorrow morning we will be leaving to hang out with a bunch of friends for a week in Colorado which sounds like the perfect time for more celebrating. I really couldn't be much happier.

We have tons of pictures from the wedding and will have tons more from Colorado but you will have to wait until next week. I promise to make it worth the wait.

Oh, and the ring is BEAUTIFUL and perfect and SO me! :)

This was the view on my MTB ride this afternoon:

This was how we looked when the nice hiker man offered to take our picture:

This is how the river looked during the last mile of our ride:

This was how the bike and the dog looked after a loop on the river trails on a beautiful December afternoon:

Happy Holidays everyone!

For the most part I'm not too freaked out about the prospect of graduating and finding a job and all that fun stuff. Its exciting. Having said that, it wouldn't be honest to say that sometimes, every once in a while, the uncertainty of what is to come didn't freak me out.

Last night (and somewhat still today) I had one of those moments.

Its hard because I really love my job and I really love the people I work with. I know there are plenty of places to work but I'm pretty attached to where I am and I really don't want to leave. I'm fortunate in having found a job and an office and a group of people that I feel like so perfectly fits my interests and personality and lifestyle. But having found all that perfectness makes the fact that nothing is certain that much harder.

When I entered law school, I had this feeling that I would get the internship I had this summer (and am still at now). In reality, I had no reason to believe that would happen. There is a limited number of positions and a whole lot of people applying for them and my grades are certainly not what they could be. But still I felt in my heart like I would get it. And I did. I feel the same way about where I will end up permantently. I feel like someday, years from now, I will look back and laugh at how worried I was about finding a job when I knew in reality where I would end up. But those thoughts don't really help in the dark of night when I'm trying to come up with some sort of backup plan.

I hadn't been to work for a few weeks because of finals. When I was there yesterday I ran into one of the attorneys I worked with a lot this summer. We chatted for a minute and he commented on "Wow! So this is your last semester?!" I said "Yeah ..." and he said "Now we just need to figure out who we can start to push over the cliff of retirement ...". And really, thats pretty much what its gonna take for me to be able to stay. And as of right now there doesn't seem to be anyone eager to call it quits. Low turnover rates is the downside of a job that is just too good.

In the meantime I'm still trying to keep my options open. I'm looking for other jobs and considering an LLM. I have sent off resumes and have found more jobs I will be applying for. I do it begruddingly though because right now even the best jobs in the greatest locations don't seem as good as what I have going on now.

It has been one helluva freakin' day. I don't know how else to describe it.

Because of finals I haven't been to work in two weeks. Today was my big day to go back. I got up early in the morning and got all prettied up. Took the dog out twice and I was on my way out the door to actually go to work when I looked at my car and realized I was looking right into my car. My first thought was "that's weird ... I must have left the window down." My second thought was "Oh dear god someone broke into my car".

Stupid stupid me left my iPod sitting on the seat of my car, which was parked next to my front door (NOT in the garage ... again, stupid me ...) and apparently it was just a little but too much of a temptation for some loser. Well, that loser now has an iPod full of some pretty great music, and I have a smashed window.

Doing what any self-respecting twenty-seven year old lawyer-to-be would do, I called my dad. We spent the afternoon cleaning glass and other crap out of my car (yeah, dad wasn't too happy about the amount of "other crap" in my car ... and rightfully so ... even I hadn't realized it had gotten that bad!), taped a tarp over the window (did I mention it was POURING rain today?!) and dropped it off at the shop. The repairs will cost me a few hundred, which pretty much sucks, but I should be good to go by tomorrow evening.

All day I have oscillated between feeling grateful (we'll get to that) and feeling incredibly violated. One minute I feel fine and the next I'm sobbing. Its all very strange.

How can I possibly feel grateful? Well, here's the thing. I know that I can be way too trusting of other people. I know that there have been nights where I have left my purse in my car or a bike in the car. What if it was my tri bike or my new mountain bike that was stolen? Or my laptop? What if (and this is by far the scariest) instead of breaking into my car they broke into my apartment and stole Maddie (or let her out in the process of breaking in)?! This was a very very good lesson in not being quite so trusting. You better believe I will be parking in the garage religiously from now on and never ever leaving anything in sight.

Aside from his grumpyness over my messy car, my dad and I actually had a pretty nice day. After dropping the car off at the shop we went and had a nice lunch. We talked about all sorts of things including the fact that my lease will expire this summer and I will need to find a new place to live. While we were sitting there eating he commented "Yanno [Looneyville] is a pretty cool town". I said "Yeah ... I love this place ... its home. When someone asks where I'm 'from' the answer is Looneyville. Not Florida and not the BigCity. I'm gonna be really really sad to leave". To which he said "Well why don't you stay?"

Neither Josh nor I had ever really pondered the thought of staying here. Of course, my best friend has commented on several occaisions that she can't imagine us living in the BigCity .. we are "too [Looneyville]." Jobs in this town are hard to come by. The thought of commuting never really occurred to us. But really, why not? Sure, moving to the BigCityBurbs would cut my commute time in half ... but how valuable is that really? Moving here would dramatically add to Josh's commute ... but is it maybe worth it???

I love this town with all my heart. Its wacky and vibrant oasis in a state that is largely very bland. The BigCityBurbs really just sort of suck the life out of me. There's parts that are ok but nothing out there compares to living in Looneyville.

Its definitely something to consider. Commuting is officially a pain in the arse but it could be worth it. My commute from here is 45-50 minutes ... if we moved to the City it would be 25-30. Both Josh and I have jobs (this is all assuming I actually get to keep working where I work, which at this point is probably assuming too much) which will allow us to work from home sometimes or work condensed four day schedules. Compared to the city (at least where we would live in the city), the mountain biking out here is FANTASTIC. I have two different trails within ten minutes of me and another trail system about a 25 minute drive away. We would NOT have that anywhere in the City.

I don't know. Its definitely something to consider. Now I just need a freakin' job offer ... and a new passenger side window in my car ...

I have always wanted to mountain bike with a dog. Long before I had a dog I had dreams of flying down trails with my best pal just enjoying the world. When we got Maddie I became an overprotective mom and refused to do anything that could get her hurt.

Yesterday when I was out on the trail I saw a guy with a beautiful husky. Both dog and rider seemed to incredibly happy and that got the fire burning. What if we tried it? Maybe I could work with her for a while to get her used to it ...

This afternoon Maddie and I found ourselves on the levee next to the mountain bike trails. Not on the trails themselves, mind you. Riding the actual trails was never part of the plan. I figured we would go for a ride on the levee with her on-leash, learning to stay next to the bike. After just a few hundred yards I decided to try her off-leash. After a half mile or so I decided to drop down onto the singletrack and give it a try.

Next thing I know my dog and I were what I had always envisioned us to be. For the most part she stayed right in front of me. It took a few close calls for her to understand that she couldn't just stop in the middle of the trail and stand there. She quickly learned that when i said "Go!" it meant she had to speed up.

I was in absolute heaven riding with my dog. Watching her fly down the trail, race around the tight turns, and leap over the log crossings was amazing to watch. She's fast and agile and you could tell that she was absolutely loving life. When we would stop she would stand there looking at me, tongue lolling off to the side. I couldn't tell if she were saying "Would you hurry up already?!" or "Why did you not bring me out here sooner?!?!". The whole experience was absolutely fantastic!

She has a lot to learn still. She has gotten better about staying out of my way but she really needs to become more reliable about it and she needs to learn to move away from other riders on the trail too. Generally, though, she was great.

We only rode three or four miles. She's done 9 mile runs with me but she's not in that kind of shape right now. I need to spend some time building her endurance back up. I can't wait to get her back out here though. I don't know if I've ever seen my dog look so happy.

I got my new mountain bike in July which means that I have now owned said new mountain bike for *counts on fingers* six months.

I haven't been nearly as good about getting out to the trails as I had hoped. Its not because I lacked the oppurtunity. Its because I was scared.

Sure, I went every couple weeks. Quite often the only reason I actually got my arse out the door was because the boyfriend dragged me kicking and screaming. After an especially mentally difficult ride on the more technical trails a month or two ago, I cried. I was just soooo disappointed in my complete and utter lack of nerve. I HATED that it wasn't my body that was limiting me ... was my mind. And I hated that I can't seem to get past that.

And then it clicked.

Today was a beautiful 40something degree day. Absolutely perfect weather for mountain biking. I hit the trails alone and quickly fell into a rhythm. I found myself not even thinking ... just riding. Sure, there was still plenty of stuff (and I do mean PLENTY) that I walked. The amazing thing tough was that when i was on my bike riding ... I was actually RIDING. Not just slowly coasting along with my arms shaking and my knuckles white feeling like every moment was bringing me closer to sudden demise. I was pedaling hard and trying to go fast instead of simply trying not to die.

It was heaven. And now its all I can think about.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be nice again. I have to go to the BigCity in the morning to get a dress for my cousin's wedding, but I'm hoping to be done in time to ride again. Wednesday brings rain (and work) and that means the trails will be unridable for a week or so. I have GOT to ride this wave of confidence while I can. It felt so so good.

I think my neighbors are beginning to think I'm some sort of weird dog hoarder.

The CoinDog left last night. And this morning I picked up this beautiful girl.

This is Tucson. She was scheduled to be put to sleep this morning but a whole lot of people came together to save her life and make sure she was safe. This morning she was delivered from the pound to the vet and then I drove an hour each way to pick her up and bring her home. She will be with me through the weekend and then Monday morning I'm dropping her off at the airport and she is on her way to a rescue in Sin City.

Tucson is a BIG girl. She definitely was fed WELL during her stint in the slammer. But she is oh so sweet. She and Maddie got along right away (much better than she and Coin ... Maddie and Coin got along but were otherwise pretty indifferent to eachother) and I think Maddie is enjoying having the Big Girl around. Oh, and yes, she does answer to the name Big Girl (but she does not answer to Tucson)!

Back to the neighbors. I'm very fortunate that my upstairs neighbors re huge dog people. They may think I'm nuts, but I'm pretty sure they think what I do is pretty good too. We're kind of secluded on our side of the complex but there are some people whose doors face our area. I think they are the ones who are most concerned with my sanity. Maybe they will think this black lab is Maddie (despite Tucson having 30 lbs on her!) and won't think much of it.

Tucson is EASY to have around. She's a very happy go lucky girl. We took the two dogs for a walk and her big thick tail swooshed back and forth the whole way. She is ALWAYS wagging her tail. Tonight I even caught her wagging her tail in her sleep! I like to think she was dreaming of her good fortune in getting a stay of execution.

In other news, I just have one paper to finish up and then I'm done for the semester! I'm hoping to have it done by tomorrow afternoon so I can hit the trails! Yeeeehaaaaw!

The rule was no Ironman this year.

Never did I say "No long course triathlon this year".

I was planning on taking the year off from IM to do a lot of things, including try some other races. I had mountain bike races and ultras in mind, but when this was announced today, I found myself getting the giddyness all over again.

These races are shorter than IM, but still long enough that you really have to work for it. It will cut out the really miserably long rides and runs but leave everything else. I am so excited.

And it doesn't hurt that one of the races is in a place that has always sounded really cool to me.

The boyfriend and I are thinking of signing up for the Halifax race. The timing is pretty perfect as it is over a month after the bar and falls on Labor Day weekend. From what I hear, studying for the bar is pretty intense, but I'd like to try to do this to. I am better at life when I am balanced and I feel that having this race in the future will help to force some balance. And the good thing is that if it ends up being that I can't get the training in, these entries are actually transferable!

I think these races will do very well. People (myself included) as of late have started to have a lot of very valid complaints about the IMNA races. My biggest concern is the swim start. Even as a very experienced swimmer I have been pummelled the last two years at CDA. As the races have grown those starts have become more and more brutal and IMNA seems to be doing little to keep entries low. Every year the field is bigger and its starting to really show in the swim. Someone drowned this year at Ironman Florida. Who knows if the size of the field played a role in that, but its starting to feel just a little too risky. According to the website they are limiting the field at these races to 1500 competitors which is just about perfect. And I think they are doing wave starts, so start size shouldn't be a problem at all.

I'm so completely psyched its unreal. This will be a new and fun challenge in a beautiful place. I haven't officially registered yet but I think I will pretty soon.

I'm (hopefully) going out to Colorado in a few weeks to hang with some of my favorite people in the whole wide world. When I get back, the easing into real training will begin!

** Please note that this is ALL speculation at this point. I keep going back and forth about whether i can or should do this race ... I'm making NO promises either way! **

I woke up this morning expecting it to be an ordinary day. And then I checked my email and saw a message from Maddie's foster mom and realized here we go again.

Every once in a while, when there is an especially compelling case of someone desperately needing rescue, she forwards them on to me. The last one was a fourteen year old retired service dog who was in pretty bad need of a place to go. This time it was a seven year old chocolate lab whose owner was deployed to Iraq. He dropped the dog off at Animal Control and the poor boy had no time left.

Coin is here for a few more days and I'm completely full. Even temporarily fostering him really wasn't an option, so I did all that I could do, which was basically forward the email on and post it on a lab forum that I sometimes frequent.

By noon he had a great foster home to go to in Denver, people willing to pull and temporarily foster him until he could get to Denver, and even a truck driver who offered to do transport. By late afternoon he had something even better, a forever home which I know will be perfect for him.

It never continues to astonish me how much can be done when you get a few good, motivated people together. And I'm continually amazed by how many good, motivated people there are. When I added my Ironman pal Katie to the email list, I never expected her to step up in such a big way. But I knew she had a huge heart and had done quite a bit of fostering in the past. Almost immediately she offered to foster him and even to drive five hours to the border to pick him up. We won't need the foster home anymore, but WOW ... how cool was that?

By the end of the week Bear will be in his new home in Louisiana, Coin will be in his new home here in town, and I will be one very tired but VERY happy girl. I love this stuff.

who gets chills every time I see this ad.

It might be just really effective marketing, or it might be a really great idea. It seems like a pretty great idea.

If there's one thing I hate about law school, its what finals time does to me. Both physically and mentally.

I somehow managed to plan my schedule this semester so that I would have the finals time from hell. I have two classes this semester that are pretty writing intensive, with lots of papers and parts of papers due throughout the semester. It was a lot of work, but I kept telling myself "yeah, but when finals roll around, you'll be LOVING how easy it is without finals in these two classes!". It did NOT work out that way.

My week is looking something like this:

Monday: 10 page take home final due, 2 p.m. in-class final in my Terrorism class
Tuesday: 9 a.m. Public Lands final (yeah, not a lot of break in between those figuring in at least a few hours for sleep)
Wednesday: 20 page paper due in my 1:00 Urban Planning class. Oh, and I actually have to GO to class, because the rest of the University hasn't started finals yet.

Yeah, back to back finals are pretty common in undergrad. But this is not undergrad. These finals count for my entire grade. And its not like the material is exactly easy. And its not like I'm naturally brilliant. I have to work pretty hard to do even marginally well.

It has been a ROUGH 48 hours, but I'm on the downslope. I have five more pages to finish up on my Planning paper and then I can call it quits, for at least a day or so.

My brain hurts. But more than my brain, my back hurts and my neck hurts and my head hurts and I'm SO tired. I thrive on balance and finals time feels ANYTHING but balanced. I didn't go to work this week and I won't go to work next week. I can't tell you the last time I got a workout in and yesterday ALL I wanted to do was ride my mountain bike.

Thank GOD I only have ONE more round of finals after this semester. I'm not sure my body could handle any more!

I'm so freakin' happy right now I could cry.

We've loved having the CoinDog around. He's a very good boy and very sweet but we had also come to the realization that we couldn't foster/keep him indefinitely. I'm already in violation of my lease with Maddie, adding another, bigger, dog was not smart. Plus he's been a little noisy during the day while we're gone which makes the apartment thing more of a problem. He had to find someplace to go.

Despite the fact that this was NEVER meant to be a permanent foster situation, I still felt guilty. He's so comfortable and happy here ... I hated the idea of sending him back to the kennel, even if it IS a nice doggie resort type kennel.

Yesterday, out of the blue, I got an email from one of my classmates' girlfriends about Coin. She sounded very serious and like she had done her research. Over the years of being pseudo-involved in rescue, I have learned not to get too excited when a friend says they could maybe keep them. That never works out. But this girl sounded dead serious. We emailed back and forth all day yesterday and I was VERY impressed with them.

They came out this morning to meet the CoinDog and it couldn't have gone better. They are looking for a lovey and very sedentary greyhound and that is EXACTLY what he is. They loved all over him and he just stood there soaking it all up. She played with his feet, looked him over really closely, asked all sorts of questions and completely convinced me that this would be a GREAT home for this guy.

They are sending in an application for him tonight. :D

This seems like a PERFECT match and I honestly couldn't be happier. Its actually really interesting because our one real "complaint" about Coin is that he's a little TOO sedentary. On the spectrum of greyhound activity he's way way over on the lazy end. We want a dog with a little more energy ... they REALLY want a dog who will sleep all the time. He's their boy!

Even though I got in a little over my head with the whole apartment living situation, fostering has been a fabulously rewarding experience and I can't WAIT to do more of it. I had been on the other end ... I had walked into an adoption event and seen a dog that was a perfect match for us and fell in love and given it a great home ... and its been really really cool to be on the other side. To watch your baby find his own place in the world and a family who will love him the way we love Maddie.

Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that their application gets approved ... !