2009: Year in Review

As I pack for the 2nd Annual New Year's Eve Squawfest, I can't help but look back on 2009.  The awesomeness of this past year was only made possible by my friends and family. 

**WARNING** About to be somewhat sappy (I know, gag me right?), if you're here for the laughs please skip the following (extremely LONG) paragraph.  Don't worry, I don't judge. 

The events that happened over the past year could have broken many people.  Between losing a job I LOVED at a company I thought I would be with until retirement, and the repeated crushing from Mr. Potential (the last 2 of 3 times were my own fault for sticking around), 2009 should have kicked my ass.  Thanks to my friends though, the good memories outweighed the bad by A LOT!   I consider my strength and general positivity to be two of my better qualities and probably would have survived the year on my own, but not a chance I would have had as much fun.  To the WCB, thank you for literally being there on one of the top 3 worst days of my life.  I'm not sure how I would have gotten through it without you, or the other 364 days of venting, crying, and most importantly, laughing!  To the Favorite, as always, you're amazing and I had one of the best birthdays in the history of EVER because of you!  I heart you, and the new edition to the family that has made 2009 so special.  Now please move out west already!  To the Roommate, thank you for putting up with my insanity and laughing at me when I needed it most.  Seriously.  And of course, thanks to The Saint, Beans, Capt. Logic, Chammy and many others for all the lasting memories that we may or may not be able to tell our kids about someday!  I can already picture Lil' C laughing at the Chammy stories.

Some of my favorite memories from 2009 include: BBQ's, boating, a birthday at the Happiest Place on Earth, painting parties, Tahoe trips, Yosemite and overcoming mental/physical barriers to make it up that hike, singing Sweet Potato Pie, weddings, Windy Hill and gun-toting femme fatales, ridiculously cute babies, logging 5,000,000 vertical feet, wine tasting...in a bridesmaid dress...after the ceremony, a legendary Halloween, seeing a 3 story tall Christmas tree made of sugar, chatting over beverages, or just getting together for dinner.  It's amazing the difference a year makes in friendships, and it's been the brightest spot of my 2009. 

To understand the awesomeness of my friends, I leave you with the most memorable quotes dating back to the 1st annual Squawfest, 1 year ago...

The Saint: I would love to hear John McCain say 'You are F*@%ed, my friend.'

Chammy: I logged, like 5,000 vertical feet today. I'm badass! (and thus launched the exaggeration of all vertical feet logged in 2009)

Chammy: There's nothing better than listening to U2 while snowboarding down the mountain...
Crazy Lady on the lift: I can think of a few things that are better.

WCB: We growl and snort at each other.  I forget there are people around. (in reference to playing with her dog, The Princess)

The Roommate to Capt. Logic: The sun has set on our friendship. (accompanied by her hand coming over the top of her head and in front of her face, similar to a mime when changing from happy to sad)

Capt. Logic: I'll live, I'll just live drunkenly.

Chammy to Capt. Logic (while looking down from the top of a run during whiteout conditions): Not today, my friend, not today.

The Saint (while taking a picture with the camera tilted): I'm doing it like that, it's like my point of view.

During a drinking game in which you guess a card, if incorrect the Dealer will tell you higher or lower, keeping in mind Ace is low.
Me: Ace
Roommate/Dealer: Lower

The winner from Yosemite came after Chammy learned of the Roommate's irrational fear of dinosaurs and we're walking to our cars in the dark...

"Remember, velociraptors work in teams."

Halloween ended in a tie between Captain Logic with, "I lost my sobriety" and the Roommate with "That's a factoid you can take with you!"  Yet, no one remembers what she was referring to.

I LOVE my friends and can't wait to see what's in store for this New Year's Eve and 2010!!  Hopefully, I'll have some new quotes to share upon my return from this amazing place...

...the Fun 6 rarely disappoint!

So long 2009, 2010...let's do this!

A brief break in awesomeness...

I've only been blogging for a short time, but in the last month I've come across a few blogs that rival my humor (yes, I think I'm funny), and perhaps even leave me feeling mediocre in a good way.  Brandy, from It's like I'm...mmmagic!, is one of the few.  A fellow Josh Lyman fan, I couldn't not post the following.  Please take the time to read and re-post/pass along if you can.

My name is brandy. And I have a blog.

And a plea.

I use my blog to showcase the crazy I meet everyday, share the stories of the kids I teach and document my love for tequila, dairy products and the abdominal muscles of Ryan Reynolds. Rarely do I talk about personal issues on my blog- as personal as the dude that I adore (who I actually met through my blog- single ladies, let that be a very good reason to blog, the possibility of meeting someone as wonderful as my man), but I need your help. And it involves my dude.

He's a guy who made math comics for my class, so they would love learning about addition. He's the kinda guy who sends my friends gift cards when they are having hard times, who remembers every story I ever told him, who was the first person I celebrated with when I got a teaching job. He's the guy who sent flowers to me at school- dozens of my favourite pink roses just because he loves me. He's a guy who has spent a year patiently explaining (and re-explaining) everything there is to know about football during the important games when silence is preferred. He's made me word puzzles and comics and stayed up late playing Scrabble with me (even though I beat him almost every time). He's listened to me cry about school and family and jobs. He is everything I never knew I needed and everything I always knew I wanted.

The holidays have hit us hard. He's recently been told he may have something called multiple myeloma- an incurable cancer, that gives a person an average of five years of continued life. Though this news has came as a shock, he continues to be exactly who has always been- spending his time worrying about me, rather than worrying about himself. He's the most selfless individual I know- (he stayed late on Christmas Eve to work, so his co-workers could leave early) and a post like this would never be something that he would promote or encourage but when I'm overwhelmed and feeling helpless, the blogging community has always given me tremendous support and comfort, two things I desperately need at this time.

As I write this, the future is uncertain and we aren't sure what's happening. He'll need to see an oncologist soon, to verify what's going on in his body. My hope is that everyone who reads this think positive thoughts and if you are a person who prays, could you add him to your list? (You can refer to him as 'brandy's hot awesome dude'). If you don't pray, please keep him in your heart.This cancer is only a possibility and I believe that the prayers and positive thoughts of people can make sure it never becomes a reality.

I want to give a big thank you to the blog owner who scraped their original blog plans and graciously put this up. My goal is to get as many people as possible to see and read this post. If you are reading this and want to help, copy and paste my plea into your blog or send a link through twitter, so more people can keep him in their thoughts. I would be so very grateful (even more grateful than I am to my friend who first showed me the picture of Ryan Reynolds on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. If you haven't seen it, google it. You. Are. Welcome).

I realize this all sounds dramatic, a Lifetime movie in the making- but this is life. Right now. And I'm throwing away any hint of ego and am humbly asking for you to pray or think kind thoughts. If you are able to pass this on, thank you and if you know anything regarding MM- please email me (my email is on my blog). This isn't a call for sympathy or a plea for pity. It's just one girl hoping you can think positive thoughts for the person she adores. If my current heartache provides you with anything, let it be with the reminder that life is short, love is unbending and no one knows what could happen next. Maybe it is silly, but I really do believe that positive thoughts can make a huge difference. Thank you for reading this and if you haven't already? Please tell someone you love them today.

I did.

There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays

The Holiday's were all about learning where I inherited my awesomeness...

Backstory:
My mom grew up as the oldest of 4 kids.  We'll call them Uncle K, Uncle J and Crazy Aunt (the latter are fraternal twins).  My grandfather (Poppey) started out as an accountant for the state working his way up to the head of a fairly big department.  My grandmother (Lala), who grew up in the Ozarks of Arkansas and went on to model during WW II, was a stay at home mom (she led a very interesting life full of awesomeness, which I may recount at a later date). They were a pretty typical 50's/60's family, but after hearing the stories, I only have that much more respect for women who choose to stay at home, or didn't have the option of working.

Moments of Awesomeness:
(As recounted by Lala after a few glasses of wine on Christmas Eve)

Watching 4 kids was a lot for one mom, especially with twins.  It wasn't uncommon for one to wonder off, though they usually knew better than to go very far.  As a toddler, Uncle K rode his tricycle into a major intersection more than a mile from where they lived (for the locals he went from the neighborhood back behind Country Club Plaza, before it was blocked off, to El Camino & Watt).  He proceeded to make friends with the gas station attendants along the way.  Awesome. Can you imagine if a 4 year old did this today?  I'm not sure how they found him because apparently at the time they didn't have a phone!

Uncle J and Crazy Aunt both hated doctors and needles.  When Uncle J was a kid he needed a shot for mumps and got so worked up the needle broke off in him (I won't say where, but ow!).  They were so crazy around their first doctor, he kindly asked Lala not to bring her children back.

There were several times when my mom hurt herself as a child (starting to see where I get it), I'll give you two examples.  The first (I'm not sure how it happened, with wine and so many stories being told it was hard to keep them all straight) involved my mom splitting her head open.  The wound bled for awhile, as head wounds tend to do, but it stopped so Lala didn't think to take to her to the hospital right away.  Keep in mind, she grew up in the OZARKS during the depression, taking kids to the doctor wasn't a readily available option.  Poppey came home from work, saw the open gash and knew immediately she would need stitches.  He grew up in Compton, which was then a very nice neighborhood, so it's interesting how their upbringings relayed to the raising of their kids.  My mom remained calm the entire time, not crying once.

After these messages we'll be right back...

I'll get to the 2nd story of my mom momentarily, but hearing this then brought up 2 different stories from when I was a kid. The first happened while I was playing on my wooden playground, doing flips on the bar.  I fell at some point scraping up my knee so bad that blood was gushing everywhere.  My childhood best friend, Thousand Island (TI), immediately freaked out, got my mom, who then freaked out as well.  I just laughed.  Shock does funny things and I'm sure it looked worse than it felt as I still have the scar today.  The 2nd was when some other friends and I were riding bikes in my court.  One of those "friends" waited behind my dad's truck until I came down the driveway, knocking me off my bike and  leaving me unconscious for a bit (thank god for helmets!).  When I came to, I remained calm.  Both of my parents work at a hospital and laugh at me today when I think I'm dying, but freaked out after asking me if I knew the day of the week and I answered incorrectly.  Who knows the days of the week at age 6 anyway? Right? Oh. Well I'm sure the minor concussion has had no lasting effect whatsoever. 

Often referred to as a highly emotional child, I'm glad the memories that stick out are the ones where I was awesome instead!

Back to my mother...

Story #2 not only involves the awesomeness of my mom, but also Lala in her reaction to my mom.  As a family they rarely ate out, Lala didn't think of processed food as good for her children (if only more parents thought that way today!).  A new fast food restaurant opened in the area so as a treat my great-grandmother and Lala took my mom and Uncle K.  When they got to the drive-thru my mom was so excited that she hopped out of the car, thinking it was stopped, only my great-grandmother kept driving.  After realizing they were dragging my mom along with them, my great-grandmother minorly freaked out, saying "I think she's dead."  Lala's response was, "well, if she's not dead, I'm going to kill her."  Seriously, love her!  As punishment for unsafely exiting the vehicle, my mom had to wait in the car while Lala went in to get the food. Not once did either of them address that she had been dragged alongside a moving vehicle!

Yup...my family is Awesome!


Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!  I can't believe 2009 is almost over, so much has happened in the last year.  To recap the overall awesomeness, my Year in Review will be coming sometime in the next few days.  No, WCB, you still won't be able to read it in advance, ahahahaha (evil laugh)!

Week (+1 day) in Review

This week had plenty of the "I want to laugh while I'm crying" Awesome moments:

• Earlier in the week I stopped by the ATM machine.  After entering my pin, I looked in my wallet and had a minor freak out that my ATM card was missing.  Yes, it was in the machine!
• In my attempt to eat healthy and exercise before the Holiday unhealthy food wave hit, I decided to make a salad for lunch and do The Shred every day.  After seriously painful back spasms on Thursday, I skipped the shred Friday morning thinking the salad alone would be enough.  Come lunch time I proceeded to knock my salad off my desk and all over the floor of my office. Screw it, the cookies I had instead were delish!
• The Roommate had a rough week, starting with 1 really bad day, followed by several others.  If you know her, give her big hugs! On the first day, she walked into a store in her work attire (displaying the logo of where she works) repeating the phrase "day from hell, day from hell" a few times before realizing she was saying it aloud. 

Yup, we're Awesome!

I am My Mother's Daughter!

We all have those moments where we realize we are turning into our parents.  Whether it's losing your car keys, or becoming a klutz in the kitchen, in those moments the best thing to do is recognize and accept the awesomeness!

First, let me say my mom is the person I love most in this world (until I find "the one" I'm allowed to say this, and even then, the poor guy will have some serious competition).  She is my rock and one constant, supporting almost every decision I've made in my life.  I still won't forget the time she wouldn't let me quit softball in 8th grade.  I was horrible at anything requiring upper body strength.  Soccer or dance, no problem, but put a bat in my hand and expect me to hit the ball out of the infield? Yea right!  I only signed up to be on a team with the WCB (catcher's got a big butt) which didn't even happen.  But when I decided to go 3,000 miles away to the coldest place in the U.S. for undergrad, my mom got that.  I moved home after graduation and a year later decided to head back east a 2nd time to attend grad school (the need for change which sometimes entails moving across the country I get from my father).  She supported that too.  She is THE BEST!  I can only hope to get half of the goodness she exudes and love the moments when I get to say I am my mother's daughter!  This being said, there are a couple traits I would be ok without...

Backstory:
I have been flying for as long as I can remember, literally.  A product of divorced parents, with a father who was constantly moving for work (I'm not kidding when I say I get my wanderlust from him), flying a few times a year was guaranteed.  I loved it!  Turbulence?  Yes please!  It was like riding Space Mountain and I couldn't get enough!  I remember flying to Disney World in February of 8th grade with the family.  My mom sat in the middle seat with my dad (step dad to avoid confusion) on the aisle.  Anyone who has flown over the Rockies knows about the turbulence which is only intensified in the winter.  As soon as it hit, my mom immediately grabbed the armrest, burying her head in my father and not letting go until the bumpiness passed.  My brother and I snickered and laughed on the inside, only mocking her after we landed.  We thought our mom was a crazy lady!

Moment of Awesomeness:

On one of my recent flights, the weather was horrible from take-off to landing.  45 minutes of shifting, bumps, and drop outs.  About 10 minutes into the flight, I looked down and realized my knuckles were white from gripping the armrests and could only imagine the matching paleness of my face.  If I had someone I knew sitting next to me, my face would have been buried in their shoulder.  I flashed back to the flight with my family and the realization hit, I'M TURNING INTO MY MOTHER!  When did the kid who loved to fly evolve into this crazy lady?  Yup, I'm awesome!

As I fly down to San Diego this weekend for Christmas with the Pops, I am going to make every effort to mentally overcome this new fear.  I love turbulence, I love turbulence, I love turbulence.  If not, at least I know I'm awesome!

Week in Review

I often have these flash forward moments in which I see myself doing something where I, and possibly the rest of the world, would be better off if the moment could be avoided completely.  Every so often they actually happen.  Maybe it's a premonition.  The roommate does describe me as very cerebral.  Oh wait, that doesn't mean I'm psychic?  Moving on...

This week, the 'flash forwards' happened in the kitchen.  Last Sunday, I decided to try out a baked pasta dish I'm making for our No Boys Allowed Holiday Gift Exchange.  In the process I had 3 dishes in the oven and I saw myself reaching in for one and burning my arm.  Did that stop me?  Sure didn't.  I proceeded to burn my arm not once, but twice!  Then again today, while baking 500 cookies (ok, it was only 90), I just knew I was going to burn my hand grabbing for one of the hot cookie sheets and I did!  3 cooking battle scars within 1 week...Yup, I'm awesome!

I wasn't the only one to earn some Awesome points this week.  The Roommate and a friend who will remain anonymous definitely earned their share!

On Wednesday, the Roommate left our house for work, grabbing a change of clothes for the outdoor event she had later that night, but leaving behind her purse containing her wallet and personal phone.  For the roommate to drive without a license (she's not a rule breaker) is a big deal...she's awesome!

Later that same evening, while watching SYTYCD, I received a very entertaining phone call from a friend attending a work conference in San Francisco.  Let me preface this by saying as we get older drunk calls, texts, etc. seem to be few and far between.  I guess we're maturing, or something like that.  Anyway, I answered the phone and the first words out of her mouth were "I'm DRUUUNK" and somewhere in the conversation followed it up with this memorable quote "He can't argue with drunk logic! It's true."  That alone may have earned her a few points, but she didn't stop there.  A couple texts, another conversation and then I head to bed.  Right before falling asleep I check my phone.  In my Inbox is the picture below with the text "drunk falkers dinner :)"

 I'm not sure I've ever received a drunk picture message of what a Drunky McDrunkerson is about to eat!  Yup, she's awesome!

What? The Gators are from Florida!

In looking ahead at the Cuse schedule I noticed two things:

1.The game tomorrow is on TV! (this is a very rare occurrence on the West Coast before the Big East schedule actually starts up)
2. They play Florida.

Thinking about Florida immediately brought me back to an Awesome Roommate moment while we were visiting the Favorite, Big D, and Peanut in D.C.

Backstory:
It was two days before Thanksgiving and both the Favorite and Big D had a week overlap in their maternity/paternity leave.  With a couple budding wino's visiting, what better way to spend a rainy day in Virginia than at a winery playing scrabble?  A 9-wine tasting and full bottle later (split between 2 1/2 of us), it was time to pack up the kid and head home. We still had Holiday decorations and multiple story Christmas trees made out of sugar to see!

Moment of Awsomeness
On our way to the National Harbor later that evening, we were behind a car with an Army decal and the following Florida license plate: BEA8W.  With scrabble still in our heads, and perhaps suffering from afternoon wine fatigue, we tried to make sense of it.  Could it be tied to the Army, or maybe Be A 8 meant something?  The Roommate was uncharacteristically silent.  As our desperation grew, she finally chimed in with the following. "This whole time I was trying to make it say GATORS.  What?  The Gators are from Florida!"  Anytime she brings up a new sports related item, I have to be proud of my protege.  This time, however, she earned herself quite the laugh.  Yup, she's awesome!

We never did figure out what that license plate stood for if anyone has any thoughts?

Week in Review

The small Awesome moments that occurred this week:

• Thinking the Christmas tree guy at Home Depot would have to cut the bottom of the tree with a hand saw and feeling bad for asking him to do so.  Hello, we're in the HOME of power tools (pointed out by the Roommate)!
• Trying to put drops in my eyes with my glasses still on.
• Spitting my gum out into a napkin, only it missed my napkin and found it's way down my dress.  How often do you get to see a girl at a wedding pulling gum out of her cleavage?!?! 
  

Yup...I'm awesome!

CAUTION: If ever attending a wedding with the Roommate, watch out for her elbows on the dance floor, or leave your drink on the table.  At the two I've been to with her this year she has knocked a drink out of my hand both times, slightly drenching herself in the process.  She's awesome!  Luckily, the most recent bride, Legs, had plastic cups...smart move!

The opposite of Awesome = the Niners game, ugh!

And The Awesome Award Goes To...

First, let me explain the Awesome Award.  To receive this very esteemed honor you have to do something so incredibly awesome that, even if attempted on purpose, could never be replicated.  Most often it is given out to my friends for the week.  However, the first award will be given out for the entire month of October.  I know, I know we're in December, but this was soooo awesome that, while the initial event occurred in October, the result didn't come until mid November.

Backstory:
October was a crazy month for the 247 household.  There were weddings (with bridesmaid duties), showers, 2 huge work events, thank you and bachelorette parties, scrapbooking of 2 wedding gift albums, 179 birthdays, a new baby in the friend family, a new expectant mom, 1 insane Halloween, hiking 28,000 vertical feet...you name it, we did it!  It should come as no surprise that awesomeness filled the air.  Wonder Dog received the Awesome Award for Halloween and the WCB even earned her first award based on some cooking challenges leading up to the Yosemite trip/first birthday celebration of the month.  Yet not even a drunk dog or the cooking could top what the Roommate (who might be referred to in the future by her superhero name, Miss Factoid or MF) pulled off!

Initial Event:
Sitting in Golden 1 about to pay off my car (yay!), I wanted to share the good news with the Roommate.  Through the email chain she discovered her keys were missing.  The key gods were not shining down upon us in October, as a week earlier the set to my parents house mysteriously fell off my key chain never to be found again.  While I took care of my car, she began the Great Key Search of 2009.   Retracing her steps*, she searched 2 offices, a Chipotle parking lot, and the various businesses/buildings she visits in the course of the day, coming home only to sleep before continuing the next morning.  After 24 hours and some seriously exhausted manpower the search was abandoned.  A week or so later new keys were made and the hope of finding the original keys was lost forever.


Moment of Awesomeness:
4 weeks have passed...

As I was sitting down on the plane following reason #573 for Why I'm Awesome I received the following email from the Roommate:

Guess what I just found in the front pocket of my lunch box? That’s right, my freakin’ car keys!!!!! I have probably packed my lunch 10 times since I lost them. Never bothered to look in that front pocket. I must have dropped them in there when I meant to drop them in my purse the day I lost them. Yep, I’m awesome.

And that is why the Roommate earned the first ever Awesome Award given out for an entire month!  Not a chance that could ever in a million years happen again.


*As part of her job she drives another vehicle during the day, in case you were wondering how she got around.  You were probably thinking magic carpet or on horse, but sadly those are reserved for the weekends.  I can't say where she works because she's so important she gets quoted in the Bee on a daily basis and is a very Big Deal in her work community.

Why I'm Awesome...Reason #573

Backstory:
I recently took a week of vacation, starting with a wedding in Texas, followed by 5 days in D.C. visiting my Favorite and Peanut.  With a layover on each flight and the temperamental east coast weather, I was determined to fit 8 days of clothing into my carry on and (giant) purse.  I was successful, or so I thought.

Moment of Awesomeness:
When I boarded the first flight on Southwest I was in the mid B group meaning overhead space would already be limited.  As I found my seat and lifted the 150 pound bag, almost dropping it on skeavy man's head (seriously, ew), I started to worry about my packing job.  After several attempts, lots of shifting and being THAT passenger, I finally got the bag to fit.  Forgetting I was surrounded by 140 people I let out a not so quiet 'Yesss!' which may have been followed by a slight fist pump.  It was only the snickers, muffled laughs and avoidance of eye contact that brought me back into reality.  Wow, I actually said that out loud.  I couldn't help but laugh...yup, I'm awesome!