5 days of pools

I thought I had posted this a while back and somehow I hadn't - oops! Reverse to late May...aaaaaand scene. 

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I just had the most unexpectedly lovely 5 days! 

Stop 1: Dallas for Amy’s bachelorette party

I think my crowning achievement of this weekend is tied between 1) ordering 10 honey butter chicken biscuits at 2 a.m., and 2) not having a hangover after two nights of power drinking. Yeahhhhh 30 years old and still kicking! (I feel like that’s an open invitation for karma to lay me out the next time I drink but whateverrrrrrrrr I’m crazyyy remember?!).

We had a really big group—18 in total—which fortunately included the ladies from Austin that I miss so much and of course, my favorite beautiful bride Amy! So for me, it was sort of a double whammy to get to celebrate Amy and do so with all of our mutual friends. In a way, weddings and bachelorette weekends sort of substitute for our girls trips now, so we really max out our time together…in the best way!

what up W!

The highlight of the weekend was a pole dancing class, which we naturally decided to take to an unnecessary level by dressing 80s for it and pre-drinking for several hours before showing up. Which meant that I spent two hours of laughing my ass off instead of working it. In true costume-loving fashion, everybody went balls-out on their outfits too, although I think these two take the cake:

Ain't no shame in this game

There was a lot of other great stuff to love about the weekend, but I especially loved seeing how different groups of girls that are mostly connected in some way but maybe aren’t close can band together for a relaxing, dancy, hilarious, and occasionally raunchy good time!

Stop 2: Ft. Worth for Mother’s Day

Since I was just a hop-skip-and-a-jump away, I rode with Megan back to Ft. Worth and spent the next 24 hours with my mom for Mother’s Day! Even though we definitely celebrated her, I think I got the positive end of the stick. My mom recently bought an amazing house with a pool, hot tub, etc., and now was the first time I was able to actually use it. Ho.ly.Moly. I seriously felt like I was at Club Med. Since I was last there, they have really amped up the outdoor décor and it is really beautiful. The pool is heated, there are outdoor speakers playing music, the treadmill is set up in front of a TV, and there’s a dry sauna…with a TV in it.

#wherewasthis15yearsago

We spent most of our time lolling around in the pool, chatting, and me teaching my mom new phrases like “totes b’goats”—which incidentally she thought was “choke my goat”. I made it clear that that takes on an entirely different meaning.

Tex Mex lunch, obvi

For those of you who know about my mom's shopping habits...right now she's on a bronze kick. Hence, the bronze pelican on the edge of the hot tub....

Ole Johnny boy (i.e. stepfather) waving from the hot tub. Loving life!

Stop 3: Miami for a work conference

So I was already coming off of a truly wonderful 3 days in row, and rolling that right into a conference on consumer trends, which really dives into human behavior and why we do the things we do...well, that's just a nerd's dream. This conference was the bomb.com for 3 reasons. 

ummm what?!

First, not only was it great to be around a bunch of people who more-or-less do the same thing I do, but it reinvigorated me to love what I’m doing. Not to say that I don’t still feel like I’m missing something more purposeful in my job, but at the core of what I do…holy cats, my job is interesting. Some of the topics were: why playing video games is good for us, how to predict food trends, differences between men and women, and how to tell a story with your brands. DELICIOUS.

The hotel was way too classy for me, and I loved it. Eden Roc Renaissance on South Beach, do it.

Second, I won a prize at one of the sessions and I got to accompany a small group to a new restaurant called Tuyo, which is Norman Van Aken’s latest and greatest—he’s apparently the shit, James Beard winner and whatnot, look him up. We got to see a food demonstration and tour the Miami Culinary Institute (the restaurant sits on top), and of course, eat his divine food. My favorite part was sitting next to a woman named Ramin who is a journalist but also a cookbook author, who has a lot of writing awards and is generally just a fascinating person. The conversation with her and the whole table was so bizarre and incredible, we covered everything from how George Washington treated his slaves to Angelina Jolie’s double mastectomy and what it means to predict the future of your health. Pretty dynamic chatting, especially for not knowing each other before that day. 

Flan demonstration. I drooled and learned nothing.

Third, location location location. We were at a phenomenal hotel called the Eden Roc Renaissance, right on the beach. I found time in the mornings and after the sessions to walk, lay out, and enjoy the sunshine, sand, and water. Let's not talk about the worst sunburn of my life, which I got after one hour of no sunscreen (long story) and was in hypersensitive pain for seven straight days. I forget how much I love the beach, probably because all of our vacations revolve around skiing or weddings, but I think it’s amazing. Even just the sound of the water is so relaxing; it’s impossible to be stressed out there. And the fact that I got to get a little taste of the beach for free, on work time, well…can’t beat that. 

sunrise

the road to africa...

...is paved with vaccinations.

 

yellow fever, polio, typhoid, tetanus, hep a, hep b, and flu (for good measure)

That's right, we're going to Africa! And it'll only take 10 needles, 2 prescriptions, ignoring 4 state department warnings, and 2 eight-hour flights to get there :)

Jokes aside, we leave in a few short days to spend two weeks in Kenya, and I couldn't be more excited/nervous! Up until a couple of months ago, I'd been frothing at the mouth for a trip to New Zealand and had all but booked it when I realized Brian wasn't too stoked. Which I guess seems strange - you do know that NZ is supposed to be THE most beautiful place in the world right?! - but he had spent some time in Australia, so the thought about jumping over to the next nearest neighbor wasn't too out-of-the-box in his mind.

After a little brainstorming and an awful lot of discussion, we decided to pursue one of my other bucket list adventures - a volunteer trip to east Africa. I don't know how or why that ever got seeded in my brain, but I have always been super intrigued by east African cultures (as a lot of people are), and just sort of felt like maybe there was something for me over there. So now we'll find out!

The organization that helps coordinate everything is called IVHQ (International Volunteer Headquarters). We chose them because 1) I know someone who did a different program with them and loved it, and 2) I like the way they're infrastructure is set up, which makes it super affordable - and most volunteer programs are stupidly & prohibitively expensive. They have programs all over the world, with all sorts of placements, from construction to teaching to wildlife conservation to sports recreation. SO hard to choose from! You should check out their site if you're at all interested in this kind of thing; it's amazing what you can get yourself into with a couple of clicks on the computer :)

Anyway so here's what we're looking at, itinerary-wise:

• Fly into Nairobi, Kenya - one day of orientation
• 3-4 day safari through the Maasai Mara 
• Back to Nairobi (or just outside) for 2 weeks of living with a host family and going to our daily placements - Brian will be at an orphanage, and I will be doing a women's education program (could range from teaching about reproductive systems to working with them to improve their trade, like selling beads, etc.)
• 36-hour stopover in Amsterdam
• Home
• Sleep + sadness

So far I've only picked up about 15 words in Swahili, along with "I speak English" and "Can you take our picture?" I think if I can master "Where is the bathroom, I feel like a monster is clawing its way out of my lower intestine" then I should be good to go!

not fighting is way harder than fighting

Since I met Brian, I got introduced to skiing and absolutely fell in love with it. Which is lucky, since Brian is super passionate about skiing - grew up in Colorado, on ski team in high school, etc. During our time together we've been to Steamboat, Tahoe, Breckenridge, and a smaller "mountain" in Wisconsin...all great trips...on which I cried every single time.

Because despite our mutual love for skiing, we cannot seem to pull it together when it comes to skiing together. A typical day goes like this: I take a lesson in the morning, join back up with the group in the afternoon, show Brian one of my new skillz, he gives me a pat on the back, then tries to teach me more new things, and I burst into tears and go skiing with someone else. We've always had enough other people around us that I could always ski with instead, so honestly I didn't worry about it too much. Until we got in on a Chicago-Denver flight sale for $104 (round trip!) and then realized we couldn't get anyone to come with us. OOPS!

So here's the funny thing about marriage that's a little different from dating. When you're dating (assuming it's not super serious), sometimes it's just easier to fight than it is to get to the root of the friction and fix it for good. You're not entirely sure this person's gonna be around forever so letting your crazy flag fly is a lot more natural than sitting down for a communication-a-thon. But then you go and get married and lo and behold, your disagreements are bound to be similar and recurring for the rest of your life, so it's better in the long-term to just take the painful route of truly figuring out what's going on so you can better handle the situation the next time it comes up. And for our ski trip, we needed to stop acting like we were dating and go on and get married dammit.

So we did the responsible thing...we drank. Oh, and stood in the kitchen for two hours trying to figure out how to not fight on the ski slope. It was painstaking. It was overanalytical. It was embarrassing (mostly the part where I realized I wanted him to give me more praise on my skiing progress, what am I, 6 years old?). It was even boring. But you know what? We walked out of there with a plan. A how-to-ski-together communication plan. Because we are mother-f-ing ADULTS.

And it worked! It totally worked. We made pacts (I will give 100%. He will let me choose when to receive a "lesson" from him. See, told you it was painful...) and we kept them and had a blast. It is such a ridiculous thing to call a success, but it was really important for us to figure out this whole thing, because skiing is going to be a big part of our lives and it makes no sense for it not to be a big happy part.

Now I need to take a nap from all this adult-ness.

lessons on the lift = acceptable

Winter Park village (and fresh snow!)

so freaking cute

one of the fun things about being alone on a trip is that your husband can't escape when you want to, say, watch carolers?

no tears here!

or here!

who can argue when you're looking at this?

estoy aqui sola

I think I’ll be able to look back over the past few years and quickly tell when my craziest periods at work were based on my blogging frequency. I MISS blogging! Like my dear friend Jackie, I’ve gotten out of the habit, although I don’t have a baby to account for my absence like she does…just screaming, whiney, poorly behaved clients...

Anyway, I’m on a plane now and thought maybe I could play a little catch-up.

This week I got a little break from the office to do focus groups for a client, first in New Jersey and then in Phoenix. For NJ, it was a one-day whirlwind with a colleague in tow – no time to explore and barely enough time to sleep. But for Phoenix, I came on my own, which was the first time I’ve traveled for work by myself. And I have to say, it’s pretty awesome.

First, all your expenses are covered. And I could get used to a daily Starbucks and extra coverage on my rental car, you know what I mean? Yeah? Yeah? (God I’m such an adult, gross).

More importantly, you get to skip the idle conversation. Some coworkers are more fun than others, obviously, but my experience in general is that it’s pretty brutal—people are so quirky when they travel and I’m not into indulging their freak flags.

Phoenix was a perfect trip for me to be alone on, because I arrived around 1:30 p.m. and didn’t have to be at focus groups until lunch the next day. I managed to squeeze in 2 hikes – huzzah! Actually that’s not fair, I should say 1 death-hike and 1 slightly-confusing walk around some buttes.

 

buttes = baby mountains

Death Hike

I did some pre-searching on Trip Advisor & Yelp and decided to try out Camelback Mountain, which was one of 3 main local hiking spots and sounded pretty challenging in the reviews. Note that I actually sort of ignored the reviews though. I scanned them for the lay of the land and got the “vibe” that it would be a good workout with good views, but I totally omitted key phrases such as “you will need to be hands free for the rock scrambles” “trails are very poorly marked” “I got lost” and “extremely steep” – eh, who needs direct quotes anyway?

The trail started off clearly marked with nice wooden stairs staked into the trail – steep, but nothing to write home about. Then slowly but surely, the path degraded until it was just a pile of giant rocks. The incline was so sharp in some spots that they installed metal railings for you to hoist yourself up with—naturally that’s where I dropped my bottle of Gatorade, about 1/3 of the way through the ascent, which fell so far and so hard that it busted open and gave the people down below a lemon-lime splattering—“Greetings from Chicago, everyone!”

 if you look hard enough, you can see hope at the top (in the form of people)

Some girl told me that it was pretty easy after that, which was a bold-faced lie. To be honest, it wasn’t the steepness that threw me as much as the utter and total disregard for trail markers. You generally knew to keep going up obviously, but as for any left or right guidance, well, that was at your discretion. And for someone who wasn’t blessed with a mental compass, I would categorize my trek to the top as “willy nilly.” A few times I panicked that I had taken some crazy divergent path, so I stopped until I could see or hear someone nearby. At another point, I dropped my ID without realizing it (which incidentally I did the second day too WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME) and a few minutes later someone would start shouting “Laura! Laura!” And, as you know, I had run out of my hydration source at the beginning so let’s just so I wasn’t the most well-equipped hiker in the whole place, okay?

a desert Christmas

But the net net is, I made it to the top and managed to get all the way back down without breaking my neck, spraining my ankles (although I rolled them about 10 times), or falling into a cactus. Which yes, I almost did twice. Whatevs. Later when I was looking up some place to go the next morning, I noticed the parks & rec dept gave them all ratings like ski slopes and that Camelback was a black diamond. Whoops. I guess what you don’t know won’t hurt you though, because I’m sure I wouldn’t have gone if I’d seen that before, but overall it was totally do-able and was the perfect mixture of challenging, scary, relaxing, and beautiful.

 

see monkey arms come in handy when you're alone!

Also, as a sidenote, Arizona seems to be pretty amazing in terms of outdoor goodness. I absolutely loved the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and now Phoenix too seems to have a lot to offer. Not to mention that it was 80 degrees during the day and 50 at night—that’s winter weather I can get behind!

boondoggle

At my job, you basically fall into one of three categories: planning, account, or creative. I'm a planner. If you're an account person or a creative, you typically get to attend video/photo shoots, cool client events, etc. Planners don't get to do anything super fun like that because we fall in this weird no-man's-land where we don't really need exposure to the client and we can't really lend any assistance on set (I know, I'm really selling what I do). SO, you can imagine my surprise when I found out that all the important creatives/account leads couldn't attend the ESPYs, and that I would get to go instead! BOONDOGGLE!

I didn't even know what the ESPYs were before my current job, so no worries if you're not up on the sports lingo :) (They're an awards show in L.A. for sports peeps, sponsored by ESPN). Because my client was also a sponsor, they gave our agency two tickets to attend, and the invite trickled down to me! (Cue disappointment on the client's face, ha!). I'd never been to L.A. before, and it seemed like going for an awards show on my company's tab was pretty much the perfect way to do it.

The trip was a whirlwind (24 hrs there and back), but filled with a bunch of highlights, surprisingly, none of which were from the actual show! The show itself was so long, relatively boring during the commercial breaks, and they didn't serve alcohol. WHAT KIND OF PLACE IS THIS.

Shaun White & Olivia Munn say "pretty great seats, huh?" 

(despite that dude's head on the left)

I will say, it was cool seeing all the celebrities present awards (Zooey Deschanel, Jessica Biel, Tim Tebow, Peyton Manning), and they aired a ton of feel-good stories during the show that made me have a couple of sports cries. I also got a lot of good QT with our clients, which is unusual for planners as I mentioned. But okay, to the really good stuff...

First class, baby

If you can believe it, I accidentally ended up in first class when my ticket was booked. Since I'd never ridden up there with the high rollers and was on a four-hour flight, I was nothing short of CRAZY EXCITED! I got real food. And free drinks. And a pillow. And a ton of leg room I didn't need. It was amazing!

this is the real deal

The Grand Canyon

I haven't set eyes on the G.C. since we stopped there on our honeymoon, and I definitely didn't think I'd ever see a view like this! Is this not the most unbelievable vantage point?!

I almost couldn't breathe! I thought it was incredible.

The best part though, was when I realized we were flying over the exact location where we'd taken our 9-mile hike almost exactly two years earlier. 

we hiked from the top of the rim all the way to the point overlooking the water 

(actually I stopped short but B did the whole thing)

Red Carpet

So the funny thing about having a ticket to the red carpet is that you actually get a ticket to the non-celebrity red carpet that runs riiiiiiiight next to the celebrity red carpet. God forbid we share the same pathway, right? My primary celeb sighting during our carpet foray was Eli Manning, not bad! Everyone else looked like Somebody I Should Know But Couldn't Quite Place / Maybe Never Knew to Begin With. 

 sunny day in L.A.! loved it!

Lauryn Hill

I had pretty high hopes for the after party, which we also had tickets for and thus I assumed would be amaze-balls. It didn't disappoint in terms of fanfare (pretty much like a gigantic wedding on crack) but I got zero opportunities to de-flower Tim Tebow, so overall it was a fail. HOWEVER, there was one redeeming moment of the night, which is when Lauryn Hill unexpectedly performed. The Fugees narrated my precarious 6th/7th grade years when I migrated from being an awkward loser to an awkward loser with friends so I was super excited to re-live that! But no really, apparently she has been sort of crazy in her recent years and doesn't show up for concerts and stuff so I felt lucky to see her perform, especially in such an intimate setting. 

She was awesome! She sang a lot of crowd favs with a twist and was pretty much a freestyling badass. Aside from her being all crazy and whatnot, I wanted to be her.

Overall, the whirlwind trip was a perfect taste of L.A. for me--getting our hair done, first class treatment, sweet hotel, and an exciting night! Not a bad way to do L.A. in a day!

the joy of skiing 2

Snowstar
Last month while Brian was working, I went to Kim's hometown in Western Illinois with some of our friends to visit the local ski hill. And let's be clear that when I say hill, I actually mean hill. It was great for me though because every time I ski with Brian...God bless him but he pushes me pretty hard...so this time I could ski on my own terms! Since there was really anything to "push" toward (the steepest run was like 200 feet of what would equate to a Colorado blue), I spent a lot of time just working on my skillz. That's right. The kind with a Z.

Kim, Mark, Jackson, Abbey, Jay & me

matching $3 walmart hats - there was no saying no

Kim's family farm (rather, corn field)...so pretty

She and Mark get married here in September!

check out that gnarly run in the background

this was Jay's first time snowboarding but he'd already bought a matching jacket & pants, boots, and a snowboard. good thing he liked it.

Notably, we also went tubing, which was my first time! Tubing is I guess like sledding, but since I haven't really done that either, I can't be sure. They had a huge hill with four lanes, and you could innertube down by yourself or tie your tube together with a few others. Holy crap. This was reminiscent of my ridiculous happiness on the slip 'n slide, just with more screams and a side of tears (from laughing so hard). Actually I caused some 8-year-old to ask one of my friends "What's wrong with that girl?" to which they naturally answered "Oh, she's from Texas." Cool.

the joy of skiing 1

After going through a skiing dry spell, we got to do a ton of it this year, and I loved it! Back in the fall we planned a trip to Tahoe for March, and after that, two other impromptu opportunities presented themselves...when it rains it pours (when it snows it storms?)! I've split them into 3 posts because they each obviously deserve their own.

Breckenridge
I found out in early December that I'd have some downtime work and also that I'd lose my vacation days at the end of the month. While talking to Amy about my new conundrum (all this time, what to do?!), she said we should jump in on her and Matt's trip to Breckenridge! Since we already had bought tickets to go to Texas on Southwest, it was super easy and cheap to change our return flight to go through Colorado. Bada bing, bada boom!

Brian and I flew out the day after Christmas and stayed two nights in a mountain lodge just outside of town. (Sidenote: The lodge was paid for by a "ham check" that our company gives every employee at Christmas, which is to be used to do something nice for/with your family. Pretty awesome, right?). When Amy arrived a few days later, we moved our stuff to Matt's family's ski-in / ski-out condo, where we had a full house of FUN: us, Amy & Matt, another great couple, and Matt's sister.

The snow situation was just short of awful, BUT the general awesomeness of being in the mountains and having our group gel together so well made up for it. We skiied for three days, played games, showed the hot tub who was boss, went out at night, and most notably took over a karaoke bar (with Matt's mom in tow). Such a great trip, and totally unplanned!!!

cute lodge lobby

we all got reindeer names too, obvi

I think I've given Brian is my love for karaoke

the whole group!

The trip also led to a few conversations about what it'd be like if we lived in Colorado. I think Denver would be pretty sweet - still urban, but close enough to ski frequently. Brian is a major proponent of the mountain towns though, because he knows the reality of living 1.5 hours from the slopes (in Denver) is juuuuust far enough to make it a chore to go skiing often. So if the ultimate purpose is to have our kids growing up in the outdoors and enjoying what the mountains really have to offer, maybe the best way to do that is probably by living at the foot of an actual slope. We will continue to disagree on this.

a baby in our midst

There are only two places I've flown to where I had transforming experience before even getting into the city: Las Vegas - where everyone gets drunk on the plane - and Memphis. The flight crew drowns you in delicious Southern accents and as soon as you step off the plane, the smell of BBQ abounds! How can you not smile at that?

This weekend, I got to experience the Southern immersion by co-hosting a baby shower in Memphis for one of my very best friends, Mama Jackie! (Not her official name but that's okay). I've helped throw several wedding-related parties, but this was my first one for a babe! I've actually only attended one other baby shower in general, so hosting one is pretty new territory. Katie, Patti, and I joined forces with Jackie's mother-in-law, who basically let us use her house and run the show...thanks Janie! Since we were all English majors and Jackie and her husband love to read, we went for an alphabet/book theme. The baby's nursery has two walls of built-in bookshelves, so we had everyone bring a book to help build Baby's new library!

We also had everyone decorate pages for a little alphabet book.

One of the highlights of the shower was Patti's amazing food! I had no idea she could cook like she did, but she "whipped up" an entire spread by herself. This did a good job of reinforcing my current standing as lamest cook ever.

Yep, those are homemade fortune cookies.

My favorite one was "Baby McC will grow up to be a goat farmer."

some sort of quinoa something or other

zucchini tarts

She also cranked out these cute little fabric flowers that we made into nametags. I think I might try to replicate them for...I've been saving some fabric scraps that need a good repurposing (and I'm also actively trying to prove to Brian that I'm not a hoarder).

I didn't get a picture of the favors, but Katie put layered hot chocolate ingredients into bottles...pretty darn cute. All in all, I think we our little suaree turned out quite nicely! Jackie got some adorable things to add to her collection, and it was nice to meet some of her friends that I didn't already know.

I tried out those martha stewart tissue paper flowers.

they're a little more labor intensive than you want them to be, but a nice addition.

Although the weekend really flew by, we got in a couple of delicious meals, a neighborhood walk, and a decent bit of lounging. I know Jackie was exhausted at times, so thanks friend for pushing through for us! The baby is due on my birthday according to her calculations although the doctors say a day later, so I am reallllllllly crossing my fingers for a prompt arrival! It's pretty surreal to have the first baby in our friend group arriving so soon. I'm so excited for the McCrary family to expand and see what kind of little guy/girl we'll be able to watch grow up!