Busy girl . . .

Happy New Year! Belated, I suppose. My commitment to blogging is lagging recently. But I think I have some good excuses. Let’s see . . . since my last post I have divided my waking hours between work, skiing, skiing work, GMAT study, GMAT exam, holidays and a vacation. I even managed to squeeze in a manicure or two, but even then, I was multitasking, catching up on all the celebrity gossip I could glean from the salon’s selection of girly mags and tabloids in between coats of polish.

Brief respite on the beaches of sunny Santa Barbara.

That said, the next few months will probably prove to be equally as busy. My GMAT score was less than perfect (to say the least), so I plan on studying for a retake, working still and hopefully skiing a little (though a back injury has me sidelined for the moment – the perfect opportunity to catch up on life). I’ve also signed up for a belly dancing class once a week to keep stress down and I don’t plan on being quite as overloaded as I was in November and December. In fact, I’m going to be submitting posts for a new blog called CU Grad Gab, featuring a female graduates of the University of Colorado, all sharing their different perspectives on various topics, based on location, career, etc. It will be a good writing exercise for me. My blog posts will focus on life in the mountains and ski culture. I am trying to think of a name. So far, I have come up with Chair 10, Chairlift Chatter (but, I think this is stupid), Chairlift Confessionals (also, not so great) and a few other corny options. I think I like Chair 10, because that is the number of the Highline chair in Vail that was recently replaced by a high-speed quad. The old chair was the thinking chair. It was slow and wonderful – plenty of time to rest your legs and ponder the intricacies of the always scintillating Vail existence.

I’d also like to work on my children’s stories, read more, watch less TV and plan our trip to Thailand. Yes, Luke and I have decided that our spring destination will be Thailand. As soon as ski season ends and mud season settles in, I hope to be exploring the balmy tropics of SE Asia. It is going to be hot! Very hot – April is actually their hottest month. But, I can’t wait! We are going to relax on the beach, explore Thai temples, play with elephants and gorge ourselves on Pad Thai and mangos with sticky rice.

The next few months are going to be action packed, that’s for sure. Grad school applications, skiing, vacations, work, etc. I must confess that I’ve been fantasizing about blowing off my business obligations for a few months and getting a job waiting tables at night or something. I probably won’t do it, but it would be nice to decompress for a little while, make some quick cash, and devote my spare time to skiing and study. Might be a nice break before grad school. But, I have to remind myself that I work alone for a reason. Of course, it might make good fodder for a blog . . .

Goodbye Rowdy . . .

I’m feeling a little bit sad today. Well, maybe not sad. There’s not really any reason to be sad – this is, after all, just bittersweet, I suppose. But, I can’t help but feel sort of down about the fact that the University of Colorado is getting a new Ralphie. And actually, I do have a right to be broken up about it, because I spent three of my four years at CU as a Ralphie Runner. Ralphie IV, or Rowdy, as we called her, was the only buffalo I ever worked with. She was pretty young when I joined the team, but that was more than seven years ago, and as captive bison don’t have a very long life expectancy, she is at the end of her career.

In the past, the team always scrambled to find a new mascot after the current animal passed on. I suppose they wanted to be prepared this time, which is smart, but it’s sad to me that Rowdy’s days on Folsom Field have come to an end. She was kind of my baby. We were, after all, the only girls on the team for a while and we had a special bond. That bond was cemented when she tossed me like hay on pitchfork during one of my first practices, leaving my right leg black and blue from the knee up. From that day on we understood each other a lot better.

I would spend hours upon hours sitting in her pen, doing my homework, while she sniffed around me and grunted, as if to say, “I know you now, and I like you. We’re friends.”

For a long time, I was the only one she trusted to harness her before her runs. The boys didn’t get her and she didn’t get them. They weren’t gentle and sweet and certainly never kissed her slobbery nose like I did. And if they saw me coddle, I would always get scolded – the boys wanted her to be mean and fast.

But she wasn’t mean and she was never as fast as her predecessors, but I believe she possessed much more spirit and personality than any bison that came before or will come after her. She did what she wanted when she wanted to do it – and no one could stand in her way. (Maybe that’s why we got along so well.) And I know that I will always remember this impressive creature, at once gentle and wild, for her great might, tempered by poise and quiet resolve. . . I think I carry a little bit of her spirit with me.

Ski season, where are you?

Sayonara Japan! Hello Vail! I’ve made my way back from the sushi and rice paddies of southern Japan to the Rocky Mountains just in time for ski season. Or, so I thought. Vail was supposed to open tomorrow, but lack of snow has delayed the opening to sometime next week, if we are lucky.

This is kind of a disappointment, considering that my last two seasons here have started off with a bang – powder on opening day! But, that’s unusual, and I’m told that the season before I moved up here, the mountain opened with one run. At least that’s better than no runs, right?

Keystone, A-Basin and Breckenridge are open now, all with just one trail, and everyone wants to go skiing this weekend, but I’d personally rather stick needles in my eyes than ski a snow ribbon of death with thousands of other people who aren’t patient enough to wait for the season to really start.

I think I’ll ride my bike instead, study more GMAT, try to write something worthwhile on my blog, and maybe do a snow dance.

Almost Ski Season

I caught up on everything just in time to leave for Japan! I’ll be writing my Cooltiques blog, www.cooltiques.blogspot.com until I come home, just in time for Vail’s opening. Then, I’ll get to write about epic Colorado powder days - I can't wait!

SWAMPED!

I have never been so swamped in my entire life! There are simply not enough hours in the day to get everything done, so how I’m finding time to update my blog is a mystery. Well, maybe less a mystery than just a great procrastination tool.

But, blogging is part of what I do now, so if I don’t get it done, it hangs over my head just like any other project on my list. I would also like to start my copywriting blog and update my website and my listing on Media Bistro, but those things will definitely have to wait . . . until I’ve completed a few hundred more SEO product descriptions for one client, created new web content for another, written copy for an interactive map for somebody else, finished formatting and editing a technical manual, followed up with a few other clients who have things on the burner, and finally created thoughtful copy for a charitable foundation’s website (my pro bono project).

Anyway, now that I’ve gotten my head to spin uncontrollably, I am signing off and not promising anything to this blog until everything else is off my plate.

Quick Catch Up

For someone who claims to be as addicted to blogging as I do, I sure haven’t done a very good job of feeding my addiction recently. So, let’s see, quick catch up . . .

I moved back to Vail! Well, actually Edwards. And so far I love it. It’s much more livable than Vail with lots of shops and restaurants for us normal people. There’s also a much greater sense of community here, thanks to all the year-round residents.

And as much as I would love to just park it here and not leave for a while, my second love, CU football, (first love, skiing) keeps dragging me back to Boulder and various other places. A few weekends ago, I went to Denver to watch the Buffs play CSU, and win! Last weekend I went to Phoenix to watch the Buffs play ASU, and lose. ☹ Still bummed, but what can you do? It’s in my blood, so I keep going back to watch them get stomped. Which is probably what I’ll be doing this weekend when I head to Folsom Field to see the Buffs challenge Florida State.

Up here in the Vail Valley, I have been really busy getting settled in my new place, working and prepping for ski season. I am actually taking a ski conditioning class with my fellow ski instructors and I love it! It’s a super hard workout, but I think it will really whip me into shape.

So, between moving, catching up on work and settling back into the mountain life, you can see why it has been so hard for me to keep up with my blog. That said, my future entries will hopefully be more exciting, not just a rundown of my recent activities. How boring, but I needed to fill in the gaps.

Until next time, Go Buffs and Think Snow!

Happy Hour Boulder

I did something today that I haven’t done in a long time – write a Happy Hour Boulder newsletter. When we first launched the site, I was so good about communicating happy hour news on a weekly basis. But, as the luster of new business ownership faded, the parties ended, and the work set in, I began to lose motivation. Over the winter, skiing took precedence, as did work that actually paid, but I still took care of happy hour business as much as possible. By the time summer rolled around, though, and I left for Japan, happy hour news really fell by the wayside, and I was totally neglectful insofar as promoting our brilliant business idea.

On the upside, I diligently maintained the database. So even if anxious happy hour goers weren’t getting a weekly buzz from me, they could still count on the site to be complete and updated.

But, I’ve renewed my happy hour spirit with the idea of featuring a weekly cocktail in our newsletter and creating a happy hour blog (coming soon).

I plan on spending some time over the next few weeks rejuvenating our original plan by reestablishing relationships with different happy hours and the users of our site. We’re planning a one-year celebration and some cool ways to get businesses psyched on keeping their information updated. And, if there’s time, maybe we’ll even hit a happy hour or two. ☺