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Turning 30

I turned 30 last month. 3-0. It's a really big number. A number that means I'm supposed to be an adult, a number that means I'm now officially settled down. When I was in my twenties I thought 30 was old. Now I think my twenties were a display of ridiculous idiocy (well, some of it anyway). I thought by 30 that I'd have it all figured out, but I feel the exact opposite. Like I've just crested a false hill and there's still a long way to climb. I know I shouldn't discredit what I've got, a great and stable relationship with my man, a fabulous job, a rent free apartment in Aspen. I have the perfect life. I think I just had unrealistic expectations for that number - 30. Like I would be crossing the finish line of a long race and I'd be handed a trophy at the end. Unfortunately there's no trophy. Just another set of goals and worries and aspirations. In fact not a lot has changed. I still freak out when the scale tips 5 pounds in the wrong direction. I fret myself incoherent when I have to fly. I love to cook pancakes on Sunday morning and stay in my pajamas until 2 o'clock. I relish a good book. So really nothing has changed at all. Except now I'm one year older. I'm 30.

Winter Update 2008

So now it's life at 29. One whole year older and only one post to show for it. But I can explain, it's been a busy 12 months.

1. Fall Travel - always a blast.
2. I got a new job. As the Director of Marketing and Technology for Stay Aspen Snowmass. An awesome move but incredibly stressful. I need crampons for the learning curve.
3. I planned, booked and cooked for my B'day hut trip. Never again. Trying to figure out what to feed 12 hungry people and then lug it up 1000 verticle feet was less than fun. Although I burnt enough calories to eat an entie chocolate cake!
4. Social media conference in San Fran. My first official work event and very informative. The wine was good too :)

New Obessions:
1. Hookah. I tried this for the first time in NYC and now I'm hooked. Ha ha.
2. Wall.e. The most adorable robot on film.



3.The new Nomis ad



Cool stuff we're doing at SAS:
1. The SAS Channel

2.

Summer Update

Summer's almost over. I'm bummed. I live in a ski town, filled with ski freaks who can't wait for it to snow, and I'm mourning the cooling temperatures. I actually had to wear a jacket today. I was cold. This is terrible and inevitable.

So, with the changing of the seasons, I figured I'd do a brief update (before I get so slack I no longer even bother).

Harper and I visited his dad in the Bahamas for three days. We had a great time, if you disregard the nearly suicidal scooter ride, through 3 feet of flood water, lightening and crazy Bahamian drivers. We came so close to being electrocuted my hair actually stood on end.

We had a family overnight hike trip to Cathedral. I would have enjoyed it, but the mosqitoes were the size of small dogs, and would lay in wait for me, literally glued to the mesh of my tent by the thousands. We had trouble not eating them at dinner, the swarm was so thick. We went through an entire bottle of repelent and even that didn't keep them at bay. I had 27 bites.

To make things worse, Harper caught a stomach bug and spent 6 hours madly trying to unzip the tent fly and stumble far enough from the tent so he could throw up. Neither one of us got much sleep - and I had to carry his 35lb pack half way down, so he wouldn't collapse.

All would have been well, if I hadn't caught the same bug a day later. I was at a conference in Vail - not the best place to be holed up in a bathroom, especially when housekeeping is demanding that you "Get out now! I clean now!". I thought briefly about getting a restraining order against her.

SkiTops was in Reno this year. That town wins the award for most crazies, homelss and all-out-alcoholics. If you step outside the casino you're putting your life at risk. We had a taxi driver that offered us girls. "No worries, I got girls, who do girls, no worries. All good for you." We got out early and didn't wait for change - we were just happy to be back inside the casion, where there's security.

As bad as Reno is, Lake Tahoe is great. The lake is clear and blue and cool, and the Mai Thai's are even better. We spent the entire day camped out on the beach and pier, played volley ball and went swimming. It was perfect. We roller skated that evening, a brave feat considering how many drinks we'd consumed. It made the whole Reno trip worthwhile.

And that wraps up my summer. Full of fun and hot days, sunning, biking, running along the river. Now we're heading into travel season and I won't see Aspen again until it's covered in snow. Sigh. I'll just have to wait till next year to pull my bikini out.

Spring Fling #2

I can't believe it's been a entire year since I blogged the Spring Fling Series. And after last year I thought there'd be nothing to report this time around. I was wrong. This year's shenanigans were taken to a new level by the usual A Team members. Some of them I was there for, some I heard second hand (this didn't make them any less outrageous).

Let's start with Crescent. Three days on a SC beach, hobnobbing with the council members, a three hour show and way too many hours in Thee Doll House (I think the reps count this as work, seeing one of the group people owns it).

I have to admit I was absent for many of the most stella moments. Bang getting so drunk he had to be carried home, Sarah stripper style at 3am, Bimini Boat Yard dramas. I WAS there for Shake Face. This is the newest, most hilarious game invented for ski reps trying to entertain themselves. All you need is a camera and some one with excessive facial skin.

Here's how it works:

1. Shake face

2. Point camera

3. Shoot.

We amused ourselves for two solid weeks with this game. We were even told to shut up in one particular bar. The price of making your own fun!

I left my fellow reps and headed to NYC for two nights, (always fun), stayed two nights with the Hawks and was privelaged enough to enjoy Mariani's famous cook-off at their house. Let's just say the Pomme Frits were way too much work and my sodium levels are still red lining.

We were soon back in the fray at Philly, where I enjoyed my first Pat's Steak - for breakfast and almost lost my purse (with wallet, passport, entire live) inside. Luckily it was still under the table I'd left 10 mins earlier- phew!

The fun really started in NJ. Morgan scored tix to the Devils vs Senators game. Morgan, Mark and I painted ourselves as Senators supporters and cheered hysterically when they won. Lucky we didn't get our head's punched in. We followed this up with out annual Curtin trip into the city. Korean BBQ (not so good on the stomach), pool, ping pong and private Karaoke. This was Morgan's chance to shine like the star he really thinks he is.

From Philly we headed up to Portsmouth to hang with the infamouse Silva. I'd been told this would be a stella night, and it was. Just not in the way I thought it would be. We started early with rum drinks and a two hour round of Shake Face. Once we were kicked out of that bar we went hunting for another. There's not much happening in Portsmouth on a Tuesday night. So we headed back the way we came. Only this time I was dumb enough to fall down a flight of stairs and tear open the palm of my hand. Very bloody to say the least. Luckily the alcohol had a numbing effect.

There was only one other memorable moment on this trip. FINDING FRIENDLY'S. Morgan and I were heading to the Boston show when he told me about the Fribble. This is a thickshake of mythic proportions, the best I'd ever have, he said. I punched in the restaurant on our trusty GPS and obediently followed the directions. Somehow we managed to miss it on our first try, turned around and found a Church in the said location. This wasn't a case of Friendly's having closed down, there never was a Friendly's. Frustrated and now wanting this famous Fribble more than ever, we tried a second location. It was only 3 miles away so we gave it a shot. No Friendly's. We'd driven 40 minutes out of our way and we weren't giving up. I called 411 twice, called the restaurant and finally spoke to some one with an IQ over 50. We pulled up at the Friendly's and jumped for joy (literally - see photos). We'd gone 14 miles out of our way and an hour and a half to find this fribble. It was damn fine, everything Morgan said it would be.

A long awaited update

I thought no one was reading this so I stopped. Then some one asked me why I hadn't posted in so long. So back again by the popular demand of one...

Fall travel. Boston was the most stand out trip of the season. In an effort to mix up the photo shoots Mark declared a ban on food substances and happy snaps. We spent the week hunting for interesting props and I think we did a pretty good job. See, poles, trees, smoking signs, restuarant decor and so on.

Holidays. Christmas, NYE, Australia Day, Valentines. All the days of a year you are supposed to enjoy with hysterical glee and some how don't. Some were more special that others. NYE was not one of them.

Home again. With typical last-minute-preperation-speed, I booked myself on a flight home. It was the middle of summer and I had no plans to do anything. It was possibly the best vacation I've had. I slept, ate, sunbaked, ate some more. Toyah took me salsa dancing and actually found me some one to dance with, that acutally had a left AND a right foot. We had a picnic in the park, shopped at the markets, drank obscenely expenseive bottles of wine and ate our fill of truly Australian chips and gravy. It was a blast.

Photos from Oz:

1. Me at the Red Hill Winery, on the Mornington Penninsula

2. Sorrento Beach

3. Toyah, showcasing Red Hill beer

4. Kevan and I, doing shots at Cococapana


Photos from Boston:

1.Does this need an explanation?

2. Jess with the lions

3. Jess & Bang getting creative with the paintball props

4. Mark, Jess & I at the park

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A legendary Adventure

I visit Florida a lot. Four times a year actually. It's a great place to lie on a beach or cruise through a mall. I generally like it. Unless I have to play golf. In June it's 110 degrees and 99% humidity. Playing golf in those conditions is like sitting on a flaming grill and drinking Mad Dog Inferno Sauce, while some one sets your hair on fire. That's why when asked to play at the Council tournament I used every skill I had to avoid it. Why would I put myself through 5 hours of smacking a ball with a stick and hoping I didn't hit it backwards? My powers of avoidance need some work - Jake Vest signed me up with the promise it wouldn't be so bad. And he was right. I was pleasantly surprised when we showed up at the course. It was a cool (even chilly) 50 degrees and the sun was no where to be seen (a good thing in Florida). Half way through the game I had to borrow Rodgers XXL sweater and wear it as a dress. Very amusing for my team mates. Even better, my golf game didn't suck entirely. With a little coaching from ET (who thinks I have "potential") I was hitting the ball forwards AND pretty much down the fairway. I even lost a few balls, which to me is an improvement. It means I'm now hitting them far enough away for them to get lost. My putting has not improved. Neither has by tolerance for beer. Maybe that explains my very blonde moment even before we'd left the club house. ET asked me to score for the game and I said of course, but while examining our steering wheel it looked to me like the (meaning one) pencil shoved in the holder had two blunt ends. Jake lent over and pulled one of the TWO pencils out and showed me the sharpened end. I almost died laughing at myself and knew instantly I'd made a terrible mistake. Doing anything that blonde in front of Jake has consquences. Now the entire council and every rep I know has probably heard the story, so really there's no harm in repeating it here. I'm going to pretend I had the 'blonde moment' to entertain my team and to give Jake material for his next speech. You believe me right?

Friday golf was followed by the council welcome reception and some very fierce games of shuffle board. I have found my new calling in life. I defeated two expert players (the Davis's) and carried my team through to a crushing win. It seemed I had an innate skill for landing the shuffle in the perfect spot. Maybe you'll see me at

the next Championship.

One more note about Friday night. Somehow Morgan convinced me to drive him and 'the crew' to Tampa for a supposedly LEGENDARY ADVENTURE. It was an adventure (what wouldn't be when you get back to the hotel at 5am) but I wouldn't call it legendary. In fact I'm sure this 'adventure' had something to do with the cold I'm now fighting off.

Onto Saturday, a some what uneventful day with an annual visit to Rangestu to feed the coy, and of course to eat sushi.

Sunday I was up early to speak in front of the council and to give my rebuttal to Jake, who had so humiliated me on Friday night. I got a good laugh from the crowd and feel some what redeemed from my 'blonde moment'. Then we - meaning, Bang, Morgan, ET, Stephen, Bob & I -

headed to Jacksonville for the football game. I've been in the country for almost five years and

this was my first. We sat ten rows back and on the 50 yard line. I felt like I'd been dropped into a theme park/parade on steroids. I'm obviously a foreigner because our sporting events are basic

and to the point. Get the ball to the opponents side of the field and you win. No histrionics, pads, helmets or mouth gaurds. No billowing smoke, drumming line or half naked cheer leaders with pom poms. Australian sport doesn't stop every two minutes for an advertisement and it doesn't stand around flexing its biceps or adjusting its jock strap - Australian sportsmen don't even wear jock straps. Despite all the frivolity it was fun and definitely something an Aussie need to see. It clears up a few things about American culture. Anyway, we followed the game with Hooters, and more football on tv, and then a very long drive back to Orlando. I have to say, ET did a great job of staying in between the lines.

With so much entertainment I was happy to reach my bed still in one piece. I tried very hard not to dream about streamers, naked wings or some thing called Mons Venus.

Photos:

1. The Shuffle Board Teams

2. On the way to Tampa - 1.5 hours away

3. Morgan & I at Rangestu

4. More Rangestu

5. Bang & I on the way back from Rangestu

6. The game

7. ET & Morgan

8. Bob & ET

9. Bang

Until next time.

T.