August 2008

I’ve drank the kool-aid and I am back for more.

Tonight Barack Obama accepted the nomination for President and I officially am jumping all in. No holding back for sake of the crushing possibility that America might make the same mistake as we did four and eight years ago.

Obama’s speech was the perfect balance of inspiring dreams and laying out reality. He reminded me that this really is important and that it is worth getting our hopes up for what we can bring about. I am not sure if there is any better way to put it than that I just trust the guy. I think he’s a good person in the way that we should expect all of our politicians to be. I’m tired of cynically believing that no one can be in politics and keep their head on straight and their ethics strong.

Win or lose I know that for the rest of my life I will look back at this time as one of magnificent importance. I will know where I was when Obama ran for President and how it felt to believe in this change. I know that this is something we will talk about when we are old, when our grandkids ask us about this election and when we think back to this time and are happy for this chance.

You know I didn’t ever have a problem when Michelle Obama said that she was proud to be American for the first time in her adult life. I get it. I’m there. I love America but I haven’t been proud of this country for awhile now – not because of the people that are its citizens but the representatives that we let do our talking. Of course I have a lot less time gone past in my “adult life” than Michelle but still. I get it. I’m glad that the rest of the world now hears someone talking and they are hearing the things I believe in too.

I’m glad that I’m getting my hopes up. I’m glad because it means that this is worth the possible letdown. This is important enough to believe in despite the possibility that there will not be enough of us who believe and who want to see something new for this country.

There’s nothing wrong with the audacity of hope.

Well when I left last week the Olympics were still going strong and now that I’m back splattered all over the tv is the DNC (including catchy songs and sparkly stars and stripes t-shirts). August is a month of good tv (clearly this is a biased statement but hey – this is my blog).

Quick rundown of my Connecticut trip:

• The weather was gorgeous, the landscape was gorgeous, the water and sunshine and cows and food and everything was amazing.
• It was great spending time with everyone in the company, learning a lot, and being reminded of how much I just genuinely like the people in this company. How nice to see people again and get to know some new parts of BBI.
• Last year I was a “newbie” and just sat back and soaked it all in. This year I got to really jump in and take part and feel like I had something to contribute.
• On that note … my Social Networking talk alongside of Melanie’s Internet Fundraising talk was so much fun! Being the youngest person in the company I often times feel like the only thing I contribute is a working knowledge of the MS Office Suite. It was great to get to be the “expert”, even if just for 15 minutes or so.
• Things move quickly a lot of times at BBI and with being so spread across the country it’s easy to feel a bit … overlooked. It was nice to feel appreciated and like we are all a piece of the puzzle and to be reminded of why I like working with these people, even at 6 am!
• I definitely need to go back to visit Boston – our quick 30 minutes tour through Harvard, MIT, and Commonwealth Avenue was just a teaser!

While I was gone it seems that Jon has taught Glory a new trick – to balance a treat on her nose and then flip it in the air and catch it. Still a work in progress but here’s a picture to reflect where we are thus far. Can you make out the biscuit?

I told him I can imagine in twenty years I’ll come home and he have our kids balancing baby carrots on their noses. “Nose, nose, nose.”

Busy week at work this week but I’m looking forward to the weekend in a few days and the warmer weather of the fall that is already swinging our way.

Oh ya, and I got gas for $3.99 a gallon today. Almost fainted.

Work retreat in Connecticut this weekend so won’t be blogging much as the internet is a little sketchy (and only available at the farm house as opposed to the lake house where we are staying). It’s been a blast thus far, although the work part hasn’t started unless you count buying the groceries as work. Which let’s face it – when you are getting 5 baskets of groceries it is a bit of work in and of itself!

Off to eat something and go see the cows in the barn. More when there’s time!

Wine tasting tonight with Jon, expensive salad from Whole Foods, packing and watching the Olympics makes for a late night. I leave at 6 am tomorrow for Connecticut, which means taking off for the airport at 4:30 am. Eek! But at least beach volleyball is finally over and my girls Misty May and Kerri Walsh finally got the gold medals. Take that as a note, rest of the world. You should’ve just handed it over in the beginning.

So now it is off for work bonding, hanging with the dairy cows, swimming across the lake, drinking wine and eating sun grown tomatoes and mixing work with pleasure. It will be nice to be in some warm weather and enjoy the northeast. Lucky me – I got three magazines in the mail in the past few days (Self, Redbook, Real Simple!) so I have plenty to read. And I stole A Prayer for Owen Meany from TJ’s house so I’m gonna give that another shot. I tried it when I was younger but just wasn’t quite into it yet. And let’s face it I will likely just listen to my rap music and broadway showtunes on my iPod the whole flight anyway. Watch out Connecticut! Plus when I get home my Grandma’s cookies will (hopefully) be waiting for me.

Until next time (the internet can be sketchy at the farmhouse/lakehouse) …

I do like watching track and field.

Well not everything but I am amazed watching the women’s hurdles. How they can manage to run so incredibly fast and soar over those hurdles and not get smacked in the face with their necklaces or distracted by their short shorts giving them a wedgie? I couldn’t even successfully run hurdles on the Nintendo powerpad.

And watching Usain Bolt from Jamaica run is absolutely incredible. He looks like he is just jogging even though he is running the 200m in 20.29 seconds. And at 6’5″ he just dominates the field as if he owns the place – and then of course his prancing around after any race is entertaining even if somewhat “unsportsmanlike” (come on that’s what 21 year olds are like when they are celebrating – no one comments on the NFL players). So even though it’s not swimming I guess I will stick around and continue watching the Olympics.

Oh ya and in case you haven’t been obsessively watching the Olympics like I have here is an awesome clip from Gawker showing you last week in one minute. To be honest it kinda sucks up until the last 15 seconds when they show a random clipping of Phelpsy and then the weight lifter breaking his elbow. And this comment from Meghan2k makes it worth it:

Ha drunk on Phelps all day. I feel ya Meghan2k.

We leave Thursday early in the morning to head to Connecticut for our annual work retreat. Thursday is a day of flying to Boston (5 hours) and driving to Lakeville (3.5 hours). And then Friday morning is time to buy groceries for 4-5 days for 30 people. It reminds me how hard it must be for the poor Duggar family (still love them though). And then I’m hoping to canoe around the lake and laze around in the sun until the rest of the company gets there.

Oh no. Women’s beach volleyball is back on. Again. Seriously how many times do they have to play before they just give Misty May and Kerri Walsh the medal already?

Ouch.

In other news, if you haven’t seen this awesome video of Ryan Lochte describing what he eats in Beijing (aka trying to become the next spokesperson for McDonalds) please watch it immediately. They were right when they said he was laid back.

Time to take on a new week!

When I was working at Lululemon they were really big into goals and self-motivation and all that. The one questionnaire we filled out had the fill-in-the-blank question “I’m the best in the world at ________”. I thought it was interesting to think of, although difficult to answer because who can really say for sure that they are the “best in the world” at something. Well apparently Michael Phelps would have no issue. Maybe he would have troubel deciding. “I’m the best in the world at winning gold medals” or “I’m the best in the world at being an Olympian” or “I’m the best in the world at winning”. Guess the Chinese were right. Eight really is a lucky number.

I don’t remember how I finished the sentence. Probably “I’m the best in the world at being me.”

It seems as though every night that I turn on the Olympics women’s beach volleyball is always on. Always. Misty May and Kerri Walsh must be exhausted because trust me I am tired of watching them. The interesting point was made the other night that Michael Phelps is in a sport where he can win 8 gold medals in the same amount of days that it takes for Misty May and Kerri Walsh to just get part of the way through the tournament where the have the opportunity to win one medal. Well I mean I suppose two since they both will likely get a medal to take home but you get the point. Guess you can’t be “best Olympican of all time” if you play a sport like that.

In other news though tonight they are playing a Belgium that has one girl who is 6’4″ 195 lbs. So basically they are playing Michael Phelps. Ok well maybe without the 6’7″ wingspan or hot bod … so maybe they have it a little better.

TGTIF.

I signed up for a month long membership at the San Mateo YMCA today. They had a “summer special” for the 18-25 crowd and I’d been missing doing some actual weight lifting as opposed to just the wimpy 8 lb. free weights at the Briscoe’s so I thought it was worth it. I will say that not ever having to lift anything heavy or use much in the way of arm muscles (unless you count typing?) it was a tough reminder of what triceps and biceps feel like after giving them a little bit of work. Pure jello.

Glory and I then put in a little bit of jogging time down at Chrissy Field with Sarah so it was pretty much a grueling day and so this will likely be a short blog before I fall into bed. I haven’t ever really gone running with anyone else (well anyone not four legged and hairy) before this little “5K training” and I am amazed that I can manage to even muster a small amount of conversation in between huffing and puffing. The cold wind down by the water was good motivation though to keep us running to stay warm and the beautiful view of the Bay and GG bridge was certainly inspiring to get me down there.

I found this picture in the SFGate and recognized it immediately as the guy down by the Ferry stop in Sausalito. Mom why don’t you dress up the new find Jackson and start an act in dtown Houston? Fame is at your fingertips.

I’ve been reading this hilarious book of essays by Sloane Crosley called “I Was Told There’d be Cake”. It’s one of those books that is ridiculously funny, relevant to my generation (there’s a whole section of playing Oregon Trail), and by a writer that I think could be my best friend. I got to the second to last chapter and it’s called “Lay like Broccoli” and is about vegetarians. Excerpt:

Ha. I pretty much it so funny likely because the powdered cheese got me too. And it often times is fluorescent. But that makes it easier to believe that there is no way any animal suffered producing that bright orange cheesy mutation.

Still caught up in the Olympics and my mother says she saw on tv some other contenders for becoming Michael Phelps wife. I might have to settle for one (or both?) of the Hamm brothers. Now that they are out of the spotlight I might have my turn.

I did go swimming this afternoon, although it was a very short swim since there were about 8 boys, aged 5 to around 11 or 12 at the pool. Little boys at the pool are very … loud. These kids were pretty much letting out war calls and high pitched screams, almost as if they were trying ot outdo one another. The water in the pool was rocking in waves so much that it felt like I was at one of those wave pools at the water park. It was intense. No wonder so many kids are misdiagnosed with ADD and ADHD each year. Apparently a lot of us were under some misconstrued impression that kids can do anything at half-volume. I’ll just do like Jon on Jon and Kate Plus 8 and get ear plugs to smush into my ear.