Love the Life you Live, Live the Life you Love

This is my usual Friday morning 45 minute Sardine Canyon drive to school playlist - enjoy!  All the songs are hyperlinked to youtube so just click on the titles. I think it has a lot of songs everyone loves but no one remembers how good they are until they go to some outside restaurant with their family and an old guy with a handle bar mustache wearing a Tommy Bahama button down is jamming on his acoustic and you suddenly find yourself mysteriously singing all the words with more enthusiasm than you'd care to admit. Todd Rundgen - Bang on the Drum all day  - My personal anthem Rains Down in Africa   Men at Work - Land Down Under   - For some reason this was my song of choice in middle school Talking Heads - This Must be the Place  - My mom's favorite song Pete Townshend - Let my Love Open the Door   Jump for my love - Pointer Sisters   This ones got a little sumthin' extra from my favorite scene from one of my favorite movies...

Did a bit of solo skiing yesterday. I've always been something of a loner when it comes to outdoor stuff - can you blame me? My life revolves around teaching communication to others, so when I get a chance to put the brain on hold I jump on the opportunity. I've always preferred biking, running, and swimming alone - I think all triathletes/endurance athletes do. So it wasn't surprising when I actually really liked skiing alone. I was a little nervous about getting turned around going down the mountain and ending up in east jesus land on the side of the road but it turns out Snowbasin is pretty clearly marked for us direction-challenged skiers. There are 2 blaringly obvious downsides to skiing alone: 1. Awkward lift/gondola rides 2. You can't hit up the bar after without looking a little sad - everyone knows the only socially acceptable place to go to a bar alone is in the airport So despite having several dead silent gondola rides, one where a lady was really put ...

Christmas break consisted of nothing but running, riding to the grocery store on my beach cruiser, reading trashy magazines on the beach, drinking more margaritas than I care to admit, and eating an entire Gulf of Mexico worth of seafood. It was 3 weeks of sunshine bliss in southern Florida but now it's back to Utah - with a huge slap in the face from the frigid -15 degree wind. I spent the first 3 days shivering uncontrollably and coughing from something Utahns call "inversion".  The first thing I did was hit the slopes skiing with a Snowbasin ski pass and new ski boots. Turns out this Missouri girl sucks at powder skiing....who knew!? My ski trip to Co when I was 10 didn't give me quite the base I need for serious skiing, so I fly down the half the slope with reckless abandon until I make an ass of myself by tumbling the other half. Whatever...with my new ski coat and boots I look damn good doing it. And with my endurance sport background I can fall down the s...

I haven't blogged in so long I forgot my password - that's when you know it's bad. Good thing I have 4 passwords that I cycle through and they're all my bike names and model numbers. Don't get excited -  I didn't tell you nothin'! I have 3 bikes with different names and number combinations and then my other passwords is the first triathlon I ever did and my race number. Good luck guessing my password ....not that you'd want to sign onto my blog account anyway. Life in grad school is a lot more hectic than I thought it would be - I think in the beginning I was floatin' down  de Nile (denial...for those who aren't as punny as I). Days look something like this: 6:00 am wake up 7:30 am leave for school 5:30-7:30 pm get home Run Homework Sleep Repeat Thrilling, eh? I manage to squeeze in fun things like triathlons and marathons and going to SLC on the weekends but all in all I always have school work lingering in the back of my mind. Only...

Some photos of Chris and me enjoying our new mountain bikes in Utah! I spend more time on the ground than I do on my bike. Chris stopped for a minute to turn on his watch...he came around the corner and found me laughing on the ground like this! Ouch! Gorgeous Mountain Biking views of Snowbasin She's up! Just have to laugh at myself Getting the GoPro situation on Chris' head Another shot of me on the ground Chris Mountain Biking in Mantua

Well I was GOING to do my first mountain bike race tonight - but I once again got in the way of myself. While loading bikes in flip flops I managed to give myself a gnarly gash. After yelping I immediately fell into the grass next to the car laughing and Chris ran around the side of the car to see what was wrong. As blood gushed out of my foot, still laughing, I said , "It's okay I can still do the race! We'll just put some hydrogen peroxide on it!" Chris sat down next to me and tried to hide the gaping wound from me by putting himself between me and my foot and said "uhhh...yeah you have to go to the hospital." I continued to tell him it didn't even hurt and I was fine until he told me he could practically see my bone. I sneeked a peek and my cut looked like raw chicken - tendon and all. So I walked myself into the hospital, checked myself in with Chris laughing and rolling his eyes all the way, and talked to the doctor about cycling (turns out he race...

Read an interesting article this morning...20 years ahead of you, US News! Top Places to Live in 2032