2008: A Review

In 2008 I:

1. Got a bad-ass scar from my first major surgery.
2. Went to 3 beautiful weddings.
3. Traveled 94 days between March - December, mostly for work.
4. Found hope in politics again.
5. Hosted my first Thanksgiving with my awesome husband.
6. Flew quietly over the Flatirons.
7. Went to Vegas for the first time.
8. Hung out on the roof of the Denver Aquarium with my brother.
9. Had some really good times with new and old friends.
10. Got to laugh every day with the greatest guy ever.

A Rose is a Rose

I've been a Henderson now for 14 months, and I can't really say that I'm super used to the name.  I haven't figured out the spacing for the extra letters (all 4 of them) that make the name longer than my maiden name.  I've also listened as someone has called out for "Anne Henderson" only to take a moment or two before realizing that is me now.  The funny thing is, I never felt particularly attached to "Dirks" as a name until it was gone.

Having said that, I love the letter H.  I love writing it.  I love the way Anne Henderson flows - lots of n sounds to roll around.  

I'm still going through and getting my name changed on my membership forms.  I tackled 3 name changes today - one hotel membership, one airline frequent flyer membership (for Sucky Frontier, no less) and one credit card.  

For the hotel and the airline, I have to send in a formal request with a copy of the marriage certificate.  For the credit card, I had to rattle off all of the numbers associated with my life (SSN, former addresses, current address, favorite lucky number, etc.) - and that's it.  They changed my name and are sending me the new stuff immediately.  Doesn't it seem odd that the airline & hotel, which in all reality don't mean anything in the grand scheme of things, are making me jump through hoops, while the credit card/military membership couldn't have been more accommodating?

Our Unintended Staycation

How depressing is the term, "staycation"? It means that you don't have the money to go somewhere for vacation - or, in our case, it means Frontier sucks and you can't get to where you want to go until 3 days later!

Will and I are supposed to be visiting his family in Gig Harbor for the holidays. We were supposed to leave last night. But while at a holiday party at my parents' house, Will's dad called to tell us that our flight had been cancelled.

Now, I'm a reasonable person. Seattle is socked with snow that they can't handle so they shut the airport down. That's a perfectly acceptable thing to do. And I can be patient with a weather delay. But we were supposed to be in Gig Harbor on Sunday night, and now Frontier is telling us that they can't rebook our flights until Wednesday - arriving in Seattle at 8 pm. Yep, that's right. We get in late on Christmas Eve - at best we'll be at the house around 9:30 pm.

Here's the kicker - we're supposed to come home on Friday night. Our week long vacation to the Northwest is now going to be 48 hours and 30 minutes. And Frontier is being a complete jerk about helping us extend our time out there.

Sucky Frontier: "Sure, we can book you on a later flight coming home - when would you like to come back?"

Me: "Umm, Monday?"

Sucky Frontier: "No flights available that day."

Me: "Umm, Sunday?"

Sucky Frontier: "Sure, let me look. No flights available that day either."

Me: "Saturday?"

Sucky Frontier: "Sure, let me look. No flights on Saturday."

(Side note - if we wanted to BUY a ticket for any of these days, we could for an outrageous price. So Sucky Frontier is cramming even more folks onto already oversold flights for a premium price.)

Me: "So, our week long vacation is now reduced to 48 hours and you can't do anything to help?"

Sucky Frontier (now with an attitude): "You know, you're really lucky to get out there before Christmas - we have lots of passengers that aren't getting out to Seattle until the 27th."

That may be true, but it doesn't make the situation suck any less or make me feel any warmer or fuzzier towards your airline.

I estimate that I've spent about $15k on airline tickets in 2008 between work & personal travel. And while I really hope I don't have to travel that much in 2009, I can guarantee that Frontier is not getting any of that business next year, unless they start making this better ASAP.

Okay, now it is time for an attitude adjustment... Any thoughts on what we should do with our 3 extra days of time in Boulder?

I'll Order Some Sleep with a Side of Snooze

Right before I had surgery in January, I read someone's blog post that had a "Top 10 Reasons You Know You Have Crohn's" list.  Most of the list was the usual, but one of the spots said something about only being able to sleep on your side with your right leg bent under - or some such strangeness.  And I totally was sleeping like that at the time - I just had no idea that it was related to Crohn's.  I felt like I belonged to a secret club.

But for a tummy issue that would probably benefit from some really good sleep, Crohn's has a way of making it hard times to sleep.  After I had surgery, I could only sleep on my right side or my back - sleeping on my left side made it feel like my stitches were being pulled out.  With other flare ups, I've only been able to sleep on my left side because it hurt to sleep on my right.

I'm a total side sleeper.  It makes me happy to snuggle with Will while falling asleep with the cat at the foot of the bed- one big warm happy pile of Hendersons.  With this latest flare-up, I can't sleep on either side without waking up in pain which usually leads to throwing up.  So I have to fall asleep either on my back or on my stomach.  And sleeping on your back or stomach doesn't make you a very good snuggler.

Falling asleep on my stomach is possible, but I usually wake up in the middle of the night with two arms prickling because they've fallen asleep.  Trying to roll over or push myself up with fast asleep limbs has resulted in a few not so cool rollover moves.  One night I even contemplated waking Will up so he could help shove me over because I couldn't feel my arms at all!

Sleeping on my back is okay, but I've been waking up with horrible back and neck aches.  My very awesome mom and I went to the Woodhouse Spa in Denver on Thursday to get massages and I had the guy crank on my neck and back.  Which I think helped - I'll let you know as soon as I'm not so sore from the massage.

So last night I couldn't fall asleep on my back or my stomach.  I thought, screw it, I'm sleeping on my side and I fell fast asleep.  Then I woke up in pain at 5 am and have been throwing up ever since.  It wasn't worth it.  And now I just keep adding food to the list of things I never want to see again.  Goodbye beef tostadas - never want to see you again.

Dear Insurance Company

You suck big time. Thanks for waiting for 3 weeks to not approve the medicine I need. That gives me 3 weeks of staying on my old, ineffective medicine. And now, a few more while we figure out what is next. That's 3+ weeks that the inflammation wins.

I hope I don't have to have surgery again because I'm sure you'd be pissed at having that bill to pay just because you wouldn't fork over money for a prescription in the short term.  Actually, other than the surgery part, that sounds kinda good to me right now.

I hope Obama kicks your ass and takes your names.  And then gives me a chance to throw in a sucker punch or two.

Love,

Anne

Where is Anne?

A few months ago I was in the Portland office and walked into my friend, Aleta's, office. She was holding her cell phone out extended away from her and smiling like a Cheshire cat at it. Once she noticed me standing there, Aleta sheepishly admited that she took photos of herself doing random stuff at random times and sent them to her husband as a little way of saying, "hi."

And I thought that was freaking AWESOME!

I'm often in different locations because I travel so much for work. And I'm often by myself. But there's usually something fun going on, or at least something fun going on in my head, and I don't have anyone to instantly share my fun with. So I started taking random photos and sending them to Will to say "hi dere" because I love him and I think about him a lot.

In that spirit, I took this photo today - the first person to correctly guess where I am will win fabulous prizes. The prizes get more fabulous the more accurate and specific you are. Start guessing!

Grandma Lays It On the Line

Ring ring...

Me: "Hi Grandma!"

Granny Therese: "Hi Anne! I'm so sorry you don't feel good. I wish I could take the pain away."

Me: "Thanks Grandma - I'll get through it."

GT: "So are you taking Percocet?"

Me: "No, I'm taking Prednisone."

GT: "Oh, you're gonna get fat!"

Me: Facepalm

Life Goes On...

Well, its official. Crohn's gets to be part of my day-to-day life for the foreseeable future. And while it is a familiar guest, I can't say that it is a welcome guest.

In January, I had a very painful surgery to remove 25 cm of my small intestine and clean up all of the scarring and mess the inflammation had left in my insides. It took a long time to recover and I still have a pretty bad-ass scar from the surgery. The surgery was absolutely worth it because it got rid of the debilitating pain I felt every time I ate, or moved, or breathed. 

But...

The rate of Crohn's recurrence after this type of surgery is 50% within 5 years. I expected that I'd probably have problems again. But not so soon. Not this soon. Not within 10 months of the surgery. And I'm just so disappointed. 

I wanted 5 years to not be sick. To drink caffeinated coffee and good wine. To have a baby. To live life without constantly having a shadow of something that I don't want with me. 

Grumble Grumble

My stomach is completely barren of anything but grumbles today. 

I have to go to the doctor for a colonoscopy this afternoon and as such had the pleasure of purging everything from my system yesterday. Couldn't eat anything, couldn't drink anything but clear liquids. And then, joy of all joys, I had to drink the nastiest prep drink over the course of two hours. It was two hours of hell - slightly sweet lemon ginger flavor, thicker than juice, but not quite eggnog consistency, making me gag with every sip.

The joys of having Crohn's means that at the ripe age of 31, this will be my third colonoscopy. At least I'm getting knocked out for this one. I was awake for one and no matter what they say about it not hurting it is terribly uncomfortable, and no matter how awesome the staff is (especially the nurses) at making the situation seem like it isn't an embarrassing deal, it is awkward. 

But when I get knocked out, I don't remember any of it. And apparently my short-term memory sucks once I come out of the "under". The last "procedure" was when they were trying to diagnose me with Crohn's. Will was there when the doc came out to talk to us about the findings. 

I asked the doctor, "So, do I have Crohn's?" 

And the doctor said, "Yes." 

And then after a few minutes of going over the treatment options, I piped up again, "So, do I have Crohn's?" 

And again, the doctor said, "Yes."

Apparently I asked the same question every few minutes. I was useless with remembering stuff. I need to figure out a code word to give Will so he can say, "bananas" and I'll know to shut up because I'm not making sense and repeating the same question over and over. But with my luck, I won't remember the code word and Will will just be stuck repeating the same nonsense over and over this time trying to give me the code word. And he won't have the excuse of having been knocked out.

Also, the spellchecker wants to change "colonoscopy" to "cloudscape." A cloudscape sounds much more pleasant today.

UPDATE:

So, as per usual, I couldn't remember a thing once I woke up. Apparently I repeatedly freaked out about them putting me on Prednisone because I really, really, really don't want to get moon face. Call me vain.

The weird thing is, I don't remember ANYTHING in between the nurse explaining the "happy juice" (her words) that she was putting into my IV and then BAM, I'm in my kitchen eating a Good Times hamburger with Will. Seriously, I don't remember waking up, I don't remember visiting the pharmacy to get the dreaded prednisone, I don't remember going to Good Times or even driving home. This is totally messing with my mind!

A Weekend in Review

Friday - SNOW!

I was home for the first snowfall of the season! Every time I left town on a work trip I was worried that I'd miss the first snowfall, that it would come without me. I'm not sure why seeing the snow for the first time felt like such a big deal. But there's something magic about waking up to a snow scape outside, feeling all warm snugly inside. And the first snowfall came later than usual this year (it usually happens on Halloween). So maybe the anticipation was being built up. 

It just seemed like something that would be tragic to miss. And I didn't miss it. I got to enjoy the dusting of snow that we got. Snow means that skiing is coming soon. And Christmas! And also the usual scrape-your-car-off for death defying drives to work too... but that only affects me if I have to drive to the airport.

Saturday - Adventures in Babysitting

Will and I babysat our friends' little girl, Malia, for a few hours on Saturday night. I used to be a babysitting champ when I was in middle school. What else did I have to do on the weekends, right? But as soon as high school came along, that gravy train gave out because it turned out I liked kids my own age a whole lot more than little kids.

So it has been awhile since I've been hanging out with a kid sans a responsible adult. And no, I don't qualify as a responsible adult. But, I had Will for reinforcements. So off we went.

It was actually fun. Malia is 2 and getting her molars in. So her mom was worried that she might be a little bit off. She threw a few puzzle pieces at Will, but I don't know if that qualifies as "off" or "playing." 

We went out to eat and had a little bit of an adventure with the car seat. You see, Will let Malia pick out her own jacket and she picked out the biggest, fluffiest red snow parka to wear. And Malia and her jacket didn't both fit into the car seat. So, we took off the jacket, strapped the kid in the car seat and used the parka as a blanket. I know, we're brilliant. But I think Malia thought we were pretty dumb due to the whole 10 minutes of figuring out the car seat part.

All in all, the night was a roaring success - as Will said, Malia still had all 10 fingers and all 10 toes. So we'd done a good job.

Sunday - Pain

I woke up in pain on Sunday. The throbbing, knife searing pain that comes and goes with my Crohn's. I haven't had it since surgery in January. But there it was, ruining my day. 

Usually, when I get this kind of pain, I end up in the ER throwing up all over the place. It was really fun to do that on a work trip where my boss had to take me into the ER. Fortunately, she was awesome and a half and even though I loved working for her before that, I really loved working for her after. She stayed in the ER with me chatting about all kinds of silliness until I got discharged at 3 am.

And then a few months before our wedding, I had another case where I ended up in the ER. Fortunately, I was in Boulder and Will could take me. And he hung out with me in the ER until almost 5 am. We put the whole "in sickness and in health" stuff to test well before getting married - and lucky for me Will was still up for the job.

So yesterday, I was determined not to end up throwing up in the Boulder ER. I found some remaining pain meds from my surgery and took them. Which knocked me out - my brain and body were worthless yesterday. But I got a chance to watch some movies and sleep off the pain meds. It wasn't the way I planned to spend my day, but it also didn't end up with throwing up in the ER. So, I'd call it a draw.

Things That Make Me Happy

Today has been one of those days. 

I cried at work. And since I work at home when I'm not working in other states, I get to deal with things like answering the door to let the cable guy in looking a (hot?) mess. Even mustering up what was hopefully a cheerful, "Hi! Thanks for coming to fix our cable, here's where we are having issues kthxbye!" didn't really hide the swollen red eyes and snotty nose. 

I do pride myself on being an optimist, seeing the glass as half full. So in the spirit of looking on the bright side of life, here's my list of things that made me really happy today:

1. Top Chef started! OMGOMGOMG - two chefs from Boulder are competing this season! I have to say that Boulder has become quite a culinary hot bed in the 6 years since I re-moved here. Frasca and The Kitchen get written up quite often. And now, chefs from Centro and Jax are in one of the best shows ever! I was already quite excited for the new season, and now I'm simply giddy to cheer on the home-town heroes!
2. Will! Due to the fact that Will works from home too, he could hear the conversation that made me cry through my ear piece. Not many people are lucky enough to have their husband give them a well needed hug during tough work conversations. Also, we had a good laugh coming up with a story about why a police car was heading into our neighborhood as we headed out for dinner tonight. We thought either our cat was busted for dealing catnip, or our elderly neighbors were busted for dealing pot. When we got back home, there wasn't evidence to confirm either scenario, though the cat was still home. So clearly he hadn't been hauled off to the clink. Also, we don't really think our elderly neighbors deal drugs. But if you knew them, you'd think it was a pretty funny idea too!
3. Noodles & Co! Nothing like a big plate of delicious carbs to make everything better. Okay, maybe not the healthiest response to stress, but at least I ate something other than mac and cheese.
4. My college roommate, Carrie's, new nephew! Haven't met Parker yet, but he sounds beautiful even though he was 11 days late. New babies put life into perspective and hearing about this new guy makes me happy.

So I'm going to wrap up my day, snuggle with my cat, and get a good night of sleep. Tomorrow doesn't have any mistakes in it yet, so wish me luck that I can keep it that way!

Sey-rah & SINdy Campaign in Boulder

Boulder is a little, um, liberal, for those who haven't noticed. In fact, the Colorado Republican party ran ad campaigns against a democratic Senate candidate with attacks calling the opponent a "Boulder Liberal," like that was on par with Osama bin Laden and clubbing baby seals.  The "Boulder Liberal" won, by the way.

I had a group of friends that decided the Wednesday before Halloween that we should really go out this year on Pearl St. We don't have kids (yet), and a good college friend was in town - all reasons to drink like fishes.  The hard part, of course, was coming up with costumes.

In the end, we had a whole group of Republicans heading out to Pearl St. I was Cindy McCain, complete with pain pills and pearls. If only I had a black turtleneck instead of a white one. Will was my secret service agent. We had a Maverick with us - dressed as Top Gun Maverick, but in spirit a true mavericky maverick (wink, wink). We had Todd Palin. We also had a truly outrageous Jem and a gaucho. I don't know their political affiliations, but they didn't mind being seen with us.

The true star of the show was my friend, Colleen, who was a spot-on Sarah Palin. She had the hair, she had the glasses, she had the Nordstrom $1,750 price tag sticking down the back of her suit jacket. People were losing their minds when they saw her walking down Pearl St., wanting to take photos with her and talk to her. If Colleen wasn't there with her husband (dressed as Todd Palin, of course), there was a nerd-costumed guy at the bar that would have gladly gotten her number and followed up.

The funny thing is, Colleen has never been a big Halloween costume person. It was never her thing to dress up as someone else. I can think of a few Halloweens in college and after trying to figure out a costume for Colleen on Halloween day. So for her to literally have the best costume by far was a surprise and so fun. And maybe next year she'll kick it up another notch! Start working on her costume in August. Or maybe, two days before is the secret to Colleen's success.

Hope, Yet H8te

I've just let out a big exhale for a breath I didn't know I've been holding for the past 8 years. As I watched Obama's acceptance speech last night with tears in my eyes I thought, "I finally matter again."

Not that the past 8 years have been completely miserable. I met and married the love of my life. I watched friends and relatives have babies, believing that the future held more than the present. I made strides in my career. I made new friends and kept the old. I learned something new each and every day for the last 2,920 days.

But the hardest days have also happened in the last 8 years. I functioned day-to-day through a debilitating painful disease. I've watched as my investment in my future - taking the leftover money from college to buy a house - has dwindled to "dear God please let me just break even" after living here 7 years. I watched my Dad, who was a rock, suffer through depression on a level I'd never seen before, and hope to never see again. I watched my Mom write a letter to the president explaining how painful my dad's illness was to our family, asking him to help pass legislation to take better care of vets. Only to get a form letter back that didn't address any of her concerns. I watched a war start that hasn't ended. I watched problems emerge, only to have the government say that shopping was the solution. I watched the rich grow richer, even as I came to the realization that I will not be the millionaire I thought I would when I was little. I've pondered whether or not I'll be able to give my (future) child(ren) the life my parents gave me, and pretty much have come to the conclusion that it will be radically different. I've lost my pride in being an American because we had truly become the "ugly" part of our reputation.

And yet last night, I felt proud again to be an American. I felt like the small guy mattered. I felt like my $50 donation to the campaign was as appreciated as any big-wig corporate money-tree. I felt like we could be world leaders again - in science, the arts, in human rights, in being creative and solving problems. I felt like Obama is asking us all to be part of making this country right again - and hell yeah, I'll sacrifice to make this world a better place.  

I was actually registered as a Republican for a long time. I grew up wanting to marry Alex P Keaton and be a yuppy lawyer. I believed, and still do, very strongly in states rights and fiscal responsibility. But I also believe that the measure of a good community, state and nation is how we treat the least among us. That we protect and take care of those that can't take care of themselves. That we educate children. That we care for the sick. That plants and animals count in our equations of wealth. That we don't cause our own extinction. And so, I'm now registered as a Democrat. Don't let me down, okay Democrats?

And yet, in the midst of all this hope, eyes welling with tears among my renewed pride, I'm devastated by the passing of Proposition 8 in California. This is one of the final frontiers of discrimination in this country and I can't be okay with 51% of folks saying that gay marriage is illegal.

I love too many people in this world who are gay. Back when I was single, I analyzed a lot of the relationships around me. And it was a relationship between two men that made me think, "That's the kind of relationship I want." They both have AIDS, and wake up every day committed to caring for each other. And they both believe that if they can love and support each other, then they make the world a better place by drawing on that foundation to care and love for those around them. That's the kind of commitment that the government should recognize.

The folks that wrote and passed this law are acting like us straighties have the marriage thing nailed down. That we treat marriage as sacred and that we never screw it up. But 50% of marriages are projected to end in divorce - so clearly this isn't something treated with reverence by those who currently can get married. How come it is okay for straight pop stars to get married and divorced within 55 hours, but not okay for couples that have been committed to each other for decades to get married? 

So yes, we've come so far... and believe you me, we've got a long way to go. 

How Do I Love You, Neti Pot

Let me count the ways:

1. You are fun to say - it feels like an exotic treatment to say, I'm going to go Neti now.  In reality though, you are really just a fancy, enhanced nose cleaner. Like a giant, wet kleenex.
2. When my mom and brother gave you to me, Mike had to tell me how to use you. His explanation went a lot like this: "You put the nozzle that looks like a Smurf penis against one nostril and pour water in your nose. It comes out the other nostril - and you won't believe the nastiness that comes out with it!" Needless to say, it took awhile for me to become so desperate for relief that I'd put a Smurf penis anywhere near my nose.
3. Amy Sedaris loves you, and anything good enough for Amy Sedaris is good enough for me. Conan though - he's still not convinced. You have some work to do there.

So, what started out as an annoying tickle in my throat last Sunday is now a full blown sinus infection, complete with antibiotics courtesy of my doctor.  I'm heading out on a plane tomorrow and am praying to the baby Jesus that my sinuses don't hurt the way they did on Thursday flying back from last week's work trip. 

Also, apologies to my fellow passengers on the Thursday flight. I completely realized that I was "that person" infecting you with my germy air and I did not take it at all personally that you all acted like you needed a sterile bubble separating us. But seriously, the dude sitting one row up from me who was hacking a lung into his hanky... you needed to be more worried about his germs than mine.

Drill, Baby Drill!

Remember back in school when you had mandatory fire drills?

I've been out of public education now for a few years (13, ahem) and haven't been through a fire drill in awhile. It hadn't really occurred to me that I was missing anything though. I mean, Manual was kinda ghetto - we had bomb threat drills in addition to your standard fire drills. And for about a 2 month period, we had fire drills every Friday because it was good times for folks to pull out a 2-foot long sheet of paper towels and then light it on fire. Yeah, we knew how to have a good time back in the '90s. Go Bolts!

So imagine my surprise today while type type typing away on my computer at my hotel, there was a fire alarm. Apparently these days, it isn't just a bell that sounds to alert your teaches to get you out of the building without losing track of students who decide to ditch class for the rest of the day. No, the Sheraton West Des Moines has a fancy system, complete with a speaker to announce the type of drill you are having.

Type type type... Loud, blaring alarm noises... Announcement to please leave the building calmly due a reported "incident" - do not take the elevators, please.

I'm always one to follow directions, so I left my hotel room with all necessary materials for my next meeting. I walked past some dude blatantly ignoring direction and waiting for the elevator to come get him. I found the fire exit stairs and got down 8 levels pretty quickly, all the while comforting the poor lady who was cleaning rooms on my floor.

Turns out, it was completely a false alarm. But it also turns out, I learned a lot in high school that can be applied to real life. It was a win-win situation.

Dear Peeps on the Plane

Dear People on the Plane with Me,
Since I travel just about every week for work, I've picked up a few things that make life easier on the plane. Please feel free to use the simple and helpful tips.

1. Board the plane when your designated boarding group is called. You don't get on the plane faster by huddling around the line to board. You just end up causing a traffic jam that holds up the whole process.
2. If you need to get into a middle or window seat and I'm in the aisle seat, let me get out of my seat to let you in. I know my legs are short, but it isn't actually more convenient for me to have you straddle over me to get to your seat. Inevitably, some part of your nether regions ends up in my face and that's just a little too personal considering I don't know your name.
3. If you get separated from your significant other in the seating assignments, don't get crazy upset because a) it is only a 2-hour flight and that's not really enough time for your spouse to fall in love with some dude from South America and decide to leave you for good; and b) in 98.9% of cases, someone will change spots so you can sit together. Yelling just adds unpleasantness to the world.
4. Just because you had a bitchin' weekend getting drunk in Vegas, the whole plane doesn't necessarily want to hear all about it. Your friend sitting two rows up isn't going to forget about how wasted you were, or how cute and sensitive that guy was that held your hair while you puked. In fact, your friend is probably really pissed to have to relive what was probably a crappy night for her taking care of your drunk ass.

Also, DIA, I'm putting you on notice. Your whole "Expert Traveler" and "Family / Special Assistance" security designation doesn't really work when the wheelchair line filters into the "Expert Traveler" security lines and not the "Special Assistance" line. When you are harassing an old lady who wants to bring yogurt on the plane in her pocket, you are really a buzzkill for the expert travelers. Oh, and we're the ones who are cutting it close to make our flights - most folks in the other line are about 6 hours early for their flight.

Thank you for considering these tips. Now please sit back, relax and enjoy your flight.

On the Bright Side

Will actually said that it might be worth if for McCain to win, if only so Tina Fey will keep coming back to Saturday Night Live to play Sarah Palin. That's some serious commitment to comedy!

Lukey-John, Patron Saint of Sleep

There's not a lot of sleep to be had here at the ol' Henderson household.  I worked until 12:30 last night and then had crazy work dreams about the shade of orange being used in an ad for pumpkins.  And I COULD NOT get the right orange and the project was going to fail and it was all my fault and AHHHHHHHHHH!  

Maybe if I said prayers before bed like I did when I was little I'd sleep better.  Every night, we'd pray to Matthew, Mark, Lukey-John to bless the beds that we laid on.  I was a little stunned to find out later in life that there were supposed to be 4 dudes looking out for me while I slept (Matthew, Mark, Luke AND John). 

I think if my sister ever gets an animal (and by animal, I mean a purse dog), Lukey-John is a good contender for a name.  Kath is really the one that hard-core had trouble with the whole Luke and John concept so we like to tease her about that. Who knew she'd grow up to be such a brainiac?  This is also the kid that used to tell everyone "don't foget your birthday" after they tucked her in for bed at night because she couldn't remember their birthdays and therefore, needed them to remember.  Lukey-John the purse dog probably won't be as beneficial to sleep as Lukey-John the bed-blesser.

Will pulled an all-nighter.  And at 7 am this morning, he went to the gym to work out with his personal trainer.  Me, not so much.  I hadn't gotten enough beauty sleep.

So now we're like the working undead.  Typing nonsense and making decisions on projects that we may live to regret. Also, I don't think this post makes too much sense.  I need more coffee.  And sleep.  And Lukey-John, can you come help me with that?

Last Minute Pays Off

Will and I rarely have life planned out too far in advance. Its not that we are last minute, late to the party, anti-planning, anti-organization. We just don't have a social calendar that books out months in advance. Which is kinda nice - I mean, we're both total homebodies. And hanging out at home with Will is good times in my book. But, last minute plans that get us out of the house are always fun and add a little spontaneity to life.

Will's former (boss/coworkers/friend/person - his job is a little free-form) called us last week to let us know that she was in town for the Monolith Festival and did we want free tickets? Ummm... sure!

One of my big regrets is that I didn't get a chance to go to a concert at Red Rocks this summer. If you live in Colorado, you have to have to have to go to concerts there. I'm sorry, the Pepsi Center and Fiddler's Green (or whatever Fids is called these days) is just not good enough. Red Rocks is where its at (two turntables and a microphone). Last summer we rocked out to Daft Punk and it was a total highlight of the year. This year though... not so much.

So, Jenny (Will's person) got us out of the house for some social time, got us to Red Rocks, and we got to catch up with her.

The concert itself had elements of fantastic. I love me some Vampire Weekend and they were really really good live. Plus, we learned of two new-fangeled bands that we really liked - Holy F**k! and Cut Copy. Good times folks - check them out!

We partied like rock stars with our Artist/Media passes and flashed our fancy wrist bands to get access to the artist tent for drinks & food & hobnobbing. We may have been rubbing elbows with the bands, but we're old and didn't recognize any of the young folks there.

All in all, it was a great day out of the house - and in the outdoors. And totally unplanned, which I think may have made the day even better.

It's Not You, It's Me

Dear Fall,

You know that I love you.  We had some great times last year.  And I know that I'll be able to love you the way you deserve to be loved soon.  Just not yet.

You see, I'm still holding out hope that I can work things out with Summer.  We've been seeing each other for about 3 months now and I think we have something special going on.  The warm, sunny days.  The sunsets at 8:30 pm.  The birthdays.  The happy tomato plants.  All of the horoscopes highlighting me for one glorious month.

Sure, we had a few rough patches.  I didn't appreciate the 20+ days of 90 degree heat.  But we tried to work it out and in the end and I thought our relationship was stronger for it.  I mean, I didn't think we'd end up breaking up over a few days of misery and discomfort. 

So, Fall, can you take your chilly weather and give me a few more weeks to get over Summer? Just a few more weeks, that's all I need.  Then I can love you and your colors.

-Anne

A Good Thing

Do you think that Martha Stewart would approve of me rockin' out to Guns 'N Roses while I made her chili?

The Beach

Growing up my family went to Michigan City, Indiana almost every summer to visit grandparents and cousins.  My mom grew up there, and we had a load of relatives still in the area.  The tradition petered off as we got older - I think the last official family trip was the summer I turned 16.  I remember having my driving permit and Granny Therese complaining that I didn't drive fast enough.  

I've been back once since 16 - work actually sent me out to South Bend (45 mins away from Michigan City) and I was able to see my Aunt Dianne & Uncle Bob.  But it was the fall, and I was there for a night.  We drove by the beach, but didn't get into the water to play.  As I drove around in my rented SUV, I had to look for street signs through misty eyes - it was no wonder I got turned around so much.  So many memories of the family the way we were when I was small.  But I had grown, and the town had shrunk, and most of the people that made the most special memories for me weren't there anymore (literally and figuratively).  It seemed like a piece of my life that didn't exist in the now.  

But things changed when my cousin, Amy, got engaged. At first, she thought she'd get married in California where she currently lives.  But sentimentality got the best of her, and the festivities were planned for Indiana for Labor Day weekend.  

When I was little, we'd stay with my grandparents - my brother, sister and I sleeping in the "bunk room" with the mural of the plane crop dusting the corn fields that my uncle painted when that was his room.  The house had one bathroom and well water that tasted nasty.  But it also had grandparents that would build us mud pits, and only get mildly upset when we headed back out to the mud pit after evening baths.  That house has been torn down and Granny Therese moved to Arizona a long time ago.

So this trip was different.  We stayed at a vacation house on the beach with GT and Aunt Mary.  And there are new people in the family. Will - who was convinced that we couldn't be going to a beach if it wasn't on the ocean (but who later recanted and even praised the virtues of a fresh water beach).  And Todd's wife, Judy.  And their daughter, Ellary, the first in the next generation of our family.  And of course, we were there to welcome Brad (or B-Rad as we lovingly refer to him) to the family through the ceremony and lot of alcohol afterwards.

But it was also the same.  My cousin, Tom, flipped through waves with us.  And we walked down to the lighthouse. And ate chili cheese dogs at Carlson's until we thought we were going to barf - and then we did it again the next day. We laughed, we bickered, we had a great time.  And I think we'll all do it again!

Michael Phelps Broke My TV

I woke up this morning and headed downstairs to watch some Tivoed goodness (i.e. Jamie Oliver's show). I like to fancy myself as a gardener (someday) and a good cook (sorta) - and I always feel inspired by Jamie Oliver. I've only cooked one or two things from his show - I mostly just think about how awesome his food is and then cook the same stuff as always...

Since it has been uncharacteristically cold & rainy here in Boulder, I curled up with a quilt on the couch and convinced the cat to come snuggle with me.  Once Khanyo was all situated on my lap and purring away, I grabbed the remote and turned the TV on.  The TV took its sweet time warming up and once it turned from gray nothingness to a picture a close-up, frozen-in-time picture of Michael Phelps was on the screen. Not thinking much about it, I hit the Tivo button to access my sweet Food Network show.  And nothing happened.  Michael just kept looking back at me with the whole "OMG I just won ANOTHER gold!" stunned look on his face.

I didn't want to disturb the cat to get up and trouble shoot, so I turned the TV off and thought, okay, I'll just snuggle with the cat and enjoy the sound of the rain. And that lasted about two minutes before it was boring.  

Still not wanting to disturb the snoozing cat on my lap, I grabbed the remote again and tried to turn the TV on.  Maybe the TV had thought about what it had done and felt bad and would now behave better.  But then after another round of taking its sweet time to warm up, the TV showed frozen Michael Phelps (OMG I just won ANOTHER gold!).  And then I thought, Will is going to be pissed!

I've been trying to convince Will that the Olympics are awesome for a week now.  The Chinese helped a whole lot with their awesome opening ceremony.  But Will is totally over swimming and gymnastics and the whole Michael Phelps hoopla.  And now, Michael Phelps was frozen on our broken TV because apparently the TV couldn't handle his awesomeness. 

Update:  Will was not happy with Michael Phelps for breaking our TV.  But, Will also didn't have a snoozing kitty in his lap when he found out. So he inspected the TV, forced the Tivo to shut down with some sort of boy-magic, and fixed the solution.  No more Michael Phelps (OMG I just won ANOTHER gold!) staring at us from the TV. 

If there was an Olympic game for fixing the TV, Will would have totally schooled Michael Phelps for the gold.