Summit County

It has been absolutely crazy here! We went skiing yesterday at Breckenridge. It was -30 with wind chill, the chairlift ride was brutal, but the conditions were excellent. We had a really fun time on powder stashes, trees, bumps, etc. It was great. We had to go in at one point to warm up and we only skied for 4 hours, but the terrain in Colorado is always worth toughing out the harsh weather for. Our drive home was so nuts because the wind was blowing so hard while it was snowing that it was causing a white out effect. The fact that it is a holiday week, it is crowded everywhere - lift lines, traffic, etc. while we were trying to drive home from Breck, what normally would take 20 minutes took us 2 hours! The visibility was so bad that you couldn't see the road at all most of the time. You couldn't see out your windshield to the end of your vehicle.

Jenner tried to drive up last night to hang out, but he couldn't get here with how bad the roads were. Plus he had a 3 hour drive to start with. I just talked to him and he is on his way up today around noon. We had some friends that tried to drive up last night as well from Denver and they couldn't make it because highway 70 was closed and is still closed this morning. There were people that were trapped in Summit County and had to spend the night at the local rec center. We were watching the news and they showed people sleeping all over the gym floor. We are so lucky to have a place up here!

We had a fun night, once we got home, Sue and Stuart joined up with us, (They left early enough to miss all of the mayhem) we cooked a really nice dinner and just hung out, drank wine and talked. It was really nice. It was Sue, Stuart, Suzette, Mike, Kimi and I. I love hanging out with these guys. I miss them so much. I really think that my friends in Colorado are my closest friends that I will always have in my life. We are talking about some really fun trips to take together in the near future. My friend Kimi is half Japanese and has family in Japan and wants to have all of us take a trip out there in the spring of '09. That is definitely something to look forward to.

Okay, we are headed out now into the brutal weather again to get some more powder. Tonight is New Years Eve and we are expecting more people to arrive tonight. This should be a really fun time. I will tell you all about it tomorrow!

I'm here!

I am so excited to be back in Colorado. It is amazing how when you live somewhere and you love it, then you leave it, when you come back it feels like you never left. I miss my friends out here so much. I have so much fun with them. It is so good to see everyone.

So far we have gone out to dinner at a new "hot spot", went dress shopping for my friend Sue who is getting married in May, bopped around the city, hung out at my friend Suzette's house and now I am in Summit County where all the resorts are.

I LOVE it here! It is so beautiful, the city is so fun and my friends are here. It is so fun to visit and so hard to leave. The adventures really haven't started yet though. Suzette and I are the first to arrive at the condo I rented - which by the way ended up being somewhat of a ghetto, unfortunately, but that is okay because we are here to just ski and throw and party and crash.

We stocked up on some party supplies - hats, funny glasses, noise makers, etc. This is going to be a blast. We are expecting several people to arrive over the next couple of days for skiing and partying. Should be a blast! I will keep you posted.

Oh.....and Suzette and I just got back from a local resort bar (at Keystone) where people were doing, "shotski's" it was hilarious!

Going West.......

I am very excited....I am getting on an airplane tomorrow morning at 7 am and heading to Colorado to see my friends and to ski and celebrate New Years. My Uncle JR lives there too and I will be skiing two days with him as well. I am certain I will be posting pictures and telling you about our adventures along the way.

I have rented a condo for the week and am having lots of people coming and going the whole time I am there. It is going to be a blast. This is turning into my annual trip. I met all of these people while I was living in Colorado just before New Years and they invited me to their New Years party which was a really good time. I flew out there last year to go to their party again and this year, the same. So we have decided to make this tradition. It has been a great time and I really like all of these people a lot.

Last year I ended up drinking a *Little* too much - (which, those of you know me, know that I hardly ever drink) and I ended up on a table dancing and shaking my booty to Sir-Mix-A-Lots, "baby got back" because I am known for my infamous, "Ghetto Booty". It was something that everyone has talked and laughed about ever since. A little embarrassing, but I am glad that everyone got a good laugh our of it. Who knows what will happen this year, but I am sure whatever it is, it will be a good time. I just hope we don't get kicked out of the condo!! :-(

I will keep you posted!

Christmas greetings.....

I just wanted to put a quick post down to say thank you for the Christmas greetings yesterday. I must be doing something right. I received a, "Merry Christmas" greeting from 6 guys yesterday and it made me feel great. The reason this was such a good thing for me is because I recently had a birthday and ever since I turned 30, any birthday after that makes me more and more depressed at how old I am getting and how quick life is flying by. I mean, I don't feel old at all, but I just hate that each year I get closer and closer to 40.

What also has been bothering me is, I was in a relationship recently with someone that I thought I really liked - at first - and I initially thought that he was someone I could be happy being with. We were together for about 4 months and towards the end it started getting weird. I followed my instincts and found out that he had been lying and cheating on me. I promptly broke it off with him and haven't seen him since. He does continually contact me and tell me that he still "cares about me" - whatever. I think he is a total jerk and I certainly do not reciprocate.

At this point I am completely over that whole relationship, but to find out that someone you like is lying and cheating does take a toll on your confidence. It made me feel like absolute shit for a while.

I have decided to not have a serious relationship for a while for a few reasons. For one, when snowboarding season starts, I am always gone on the weekends and it is tough to find time to go on dates. For two, I am taking a trip in March with my sister and my friend Suzette to the USVI to visit my friend Steve and two other guys that he is sailing with and living with on their sailboat for 6 months in the Caribbean. I don't think this would be exactly appropriate to do if I had a boyfriend. Steve and I actually have this weird thing going on right now. He is someone I met while I was living in Maine. When I met him, he and I were both married. I became friends with his Wife Adrienne. She is a really great person. She is really pretty, nice, funny as hell and a total spitfire. My kind of chick. Anytime I would hang out or go out with her, I would have a great time because she would just crack me up the whole time. Well, as you know, I left Erick 3 years ago. Steve and Adrienne got a divorce this summer. Which actually made me really sad because I thought they were an adorable couple.

I had always found Steve attractive, but I never thought anything more about it because I am friends with he and his now Ex-Wife. Steve invited me to go rafting with him this fall, he and I are friends - we've gone skiing together, hung out a little here and there. I didn't think much of it. We had a great time together. It was nice to see Steve in that light. We went with two of his friends and camped out, had fires, went out to dinner. It was relaxing and nice. We had a great time. His friends were really funny too.

A week or so after the trip, Steve called me and told me that he had to get it off his chest on how he felt about me. He told me he had a crush on me and now that he got to spend some 1 on 1 time with me, that he liked me even more. It was tough because I actually was feeling the same way, but it was when I was just starting to date Jeff. (The one who I recently found out was lying and cheating on me). Steve was super cool about everything and understood my position. I am extremely monogamous and I told Steve that I was into Jeff and couldn't do anything about it. Steve was a gentleman and simply said, he had to let me know how he felt but would not do anything about it because of Jeff. So, Steve and I stopped talking for a while because I felt weird about keeping in contact with him knowing how we felt and that I was with Jeff.

As soon and I broke it off with Jeff, I let Steve know. We starting talking a lot after that. We email, text, call, etc. I am starting to like him a lot again, but the problem is that he just left in late November to sail to the Caribbean and is gone for the next 6 months. I am planning on seeing him definitely once, maybe twice. But there is nothing we can do until he gets back next summer and who knows what will be going on in my life by then. :-( I also feel strangely guilty about being interested in and seeing Steve because of Adrienne. She actually emailed me recently to let me know that she in no way had hard feelings about anything. (Steve told her all about how we felt about each other). She even told me she had thought we would make a great couple! See what I mean, she is a super cool chick and it just makes me feel weird about the whole thing.

Anyway, that was a huge sidetrack. I was very flattered by the fact that 6 guys reached out to me and wished me a Merry Christmas this year:

Jeff - my ex-boyfriend,

Fred - my ex-boyfriend before Jeff,

Kevin - The guy I met in Colorado last New Years when I went out and visited all of my friends for the annual New Years Party in Summit County. (Whom I am actually seeing again when I go out there this week). He called me last week and we made arrangements for him to come and stay with me in the condo I am renting so we can hang out and ski together like we did last year. It should be a fun time!

Jenner - a friend I have had for over 10 years. I am also seeing him over the New Year this week because he recently moved to Colorado. I am excited to see him because he is someone I really care about as a person and we always have a great time together. He is fun, funny, nice, just a great guy in general. We have a lot of history.

I also got a greeting from Gerrit who is a really attractive guy that I met on eHarmony that I had a few dates with recently, but I don't see it going anywhere. He seems like the kind of guy that doesn't want to "settle" into a relationship, he seems like he is more interested in dating around. He is also younger than me, he is 31.

And then of course, Steve. But Steve called me, which was really nice. He is such a sweetheart. I am excited to see him! I am going to try to see him in February.

So.....I think I am doing okay for a 33 year old single woman?? We'll see. I also recently met two people online that ski. So, I foresee this winter being an absolute adventure between the dating scene and the Caribbean trip to see Steve.

Thank you guys for being thoughtful, thinking of me over Christmas and wishing me well! :-)

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!!

I am spending Christmas this year with my Dad, My stepmother - Noreen and my sister Molly. My Dad and I usually do a lot of cooking together which is nice. We both really enjoy cooking and we have taken cooking lessons together before. This year though, my Dad did most of the cooking. I wasn't at the house early enough this year. I worked a little later than I would have liked to Christmas Eve. But Christmas at my Dad's is always a good time. This year we went to a friend / neighbors house for a party. My Dad lives in a neighborhood that is a place where the same people have been living there for years and years. Some of these neighbors have children my age that I went to school with. I saw some of them last night and I haven't seen them in years. It was nice to see everyone again, (the parents, the kids, everyone).

It is a lot of fun to hang out with my sister too. The older she gets, the more fun we have together and the closer we get. We have been hanging out quite a bit these days because she is living in Boston and going to school now. She is also 22, so we can get into a lot more places together. We go out in the city a lot. We have gone dancing, checked out several new, "hot spots", it has been really fun. One of our favorite hot spots is the, "Beehive". There is usually a line to get in, but it is worth the wait. We usually always meet a few interesting new people to talk to. Well, the truth is, my sister is a guy magnet. It is hilarious to watch men trip over themselves to talk to her and buy her drinks. I am usually the "wing man" for her. I have to occupy the guys she doesn't want to talk to so she can talk to the ones she likes. It is so funny because when I stand in front of these guys to talk to them and "block" them, you can tell they are annoyed because they really don't want to be talking to me and they hate that she is talking to another man. Men are so silly sometimes. They get all territorial when they are trying to get a woman's attention.

One time at Beehive there were two guys that came over and sat with us. It was obvious that they were trying to pick up Molly. We found out later that the plan was they would both talk to us but the blond guy was going to pick up Molly and the other one was supposed to either talk to me or pick me up or something like that. It ended up that they both liked Molly and when the brunette started talking to Molly, they actually hit it off better and the blond stormed off. It was so childish, like a little boy. I get a kick out of watching all of this go down, it is hilarious. I have never been big on meeting guys in bars, the activities I have witnessed over the last year have reinforced that for me. The behavior I have seen is just so piggish and immature.

Anyway, I digress. The summary is that it is fun to be with friends and family around the holidays. To be honest, I always dread the holidays because I hate the shopping aspect of it. But once all that is over with, I love the social aspects of eating, drinking and being merry with everyone. It is a good excuse for a gathering and a huge feast.

There are some people that I wished I could be with this Christmas, primarily my friend Suzette. She lives in Colorado and is a Friend that I care about a lot and I worry about all the time. I am going to have a post dedicated to her soon, but for right now, I wanted to say that she is a wonderful person that has recently had a series of tragic events that have put her though a lot emotionally. My heart goes out to her on this holiday. I will be seeing her very soon. Friday I am flying out to Colorado for a week where I will see all of my good friends and some family to ski and hang out. I am really excited about it. I wish Suzette the best and hope that she will soon have incredible happiness in her life. I know that what she is going through right now is very difficult, but I know in the end, she will be a strong woman.

Merry Christmas everyone! I wish you all a happy, healthy holiday season!

Eat, Drink and Be Merry!!

Some history......

I wanted to spend a moment to tell you a little bit about who I am, where I came from and where *I think* I am going, (you can never be too sure). I grew up in Concord, New Hampshire, at least that is where I spent about 17 years. I was born in San Antonio, Texas on a military base while my Dad was in the Air Force. We lived in Texas for only 1 more year after I was born then moved to New Hampshire.

I think I was really lucky to have been able to stay in an area long enough to go to kindergarten all the way to high school with the same people. I have met people through life that moved around quite a bit while growing up and I got the impression it was hard on them to keep having to meet all new people and make all new friends. While it enabled them to have friends from all over the place, it was hard to start over all of the time at such a young age. Concord is a big enough town that I did meet a variety of people while I lived there, but I was able to grow up with and know the same people and have somewhat of a routine.

I have some good memories of playing softball, having slumber parties, spending my summers in Maine and having my friends stay with me from time to time, pool parties, (I had a swimming pool growing up), skiing - ski racing, playing drums, being in a "punk" band, theater, mountain biking everywhere with my friend Jack. My job at Strawberries, I feel I had a really fun childhood and that I was really lucky. My family took me on amazing trips. I got to see Africa, England, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Hawaii, Bermuda, St. Thomas, all at a very young age.

One thing that really sticks out to me is how I used to walk everywhere starting at a VERY young age. The true definition of a "Latch-Key Kid". My friend Jane and I were talking about this the other day. She is a mother now and we were talking about how we can't believe how little we were when we walked to school. We used to walk to Dewey School which was the Kindergarten to First grade school that was about 1 mile from each of our houses. Soooo meaning we were 5 YEARS OLD! I cannot believe that was normal back then. I look at a 5 year old now and I would never dream of letting them walk to school by themselves. Amazing! You wouldn't even see a teenager walking to high school nowadays. It is so dangerous. It is so sad that things are the way they are now. Kids are in danger all the time. It scares the hell out of me to think about all of the kidnappings and rape cases. Jane and I walked to school from when we were 5 until we got our drivers licenses. It is incredible that I am even here to type this. I mean, don't get me wrong, Concord isn't a bad place to grow up at all. I just can't believe that nothing ever happened.

I highlight my childhood because it had everything to do with me becoming who I am today. (Common sense, right?) Who I am today is someone who is very independent, strong willed, driven, curious with wanderlust, open minded, stable, adventurous, the list could go on. My parents both had careers and were not around much while I was young so it caused me to be independent. I was driven to be a career oriented person because my parents are both entrepreneurs. I was exposed to the world at a very young age which caused me to want to travel all the time and see more. I had a very strong social life which enabled me to be a very open minded person who loves meeting all kinds of new people as often as possible. Because I didn't move around too much growing up, I think that allowed me the ability to pick up and move and start over with no problem because I was so curious and I couldn't wait to go and be somewhere new.

The minute I graduated, I moved 2,500 miles away from home to Lake Tahoe for my first year of college. That was a blast. I learned to snowboard in an incredible area, I met some really interesting people, I got to spend a lot of time in San Francisco, I did a lot of theater. I was even in a traveling children's theater for a little while which was really fun. I lived in an amazingly beautiful area, the mountains and the lake were incredible. It was a great first year out on my own. I then moved to Stowe, Vermont and transferred schools. I had an amazing time there as well. I made some really great friends, I snowboarded a ton to the point where I was competing and was even sponsored for a little bit. I was a radio DJ and the Music Director at my college radio station, I did more theater, more mountain biking, etc. I lived there for almost 4 years. I stayed for a little while after I had completed my business degree because I had a really fun job at a local snowboard shop and didn't want to leave right away.

I ended up picking up and moving to Boston to start life in, "the real world" shortly after I graduated. It was a little scary to be 22 and mostly living in remote areas to move to a large city and start working. It was scary but a fun adventure. I started off working for Minolta selling copiers out of all things I could have done!! That job really sucked and I hated every minute of it, but it was a great thing to have on a resume....I was told. I did that for about a year. It did end up paying off because I was able to get a sales job working for a Database company in Cambridge. I worked there for about a year and a half. It was great experience and I made decent money for my age. I hated living in the city because I took the subway everywhere and had to share living accommodations with people I didn't know because it was way too expensive to live alone. I am not a city person. Don't get me wrong, I love visiting Boston - still today. I love the amenities, numerous restaurants, theater, clubs, Fenway, shopping, the general hustle bustle. I just like the ability to be able to leave. I hated living there. I would feel claustrophobic at times. Too many people!!!

While living in Boston I still made Snowboarding a huge part of my life. I spent one winter still going up to Vermont and couch surfing with friends. That was a lot of fun. The winters following I decided to go check out Maine since I had never skied there. I ended up doing an Ambassador program at Sunday River where I had a blast and met a ton of people. That is where I actually ended up meeting my husband, Erick. He was a Ski Patroler there. We had a long distance relationship for about 6 months and then I decided it was time for me to move out of Boston. I ended up moving in with him all the way up in Bath, Maine. What a switch!! City to rural and they were over 2 hours away from each other. I was very lucky to find a job moving all the way up there. The catch was that I found a job in Portsmouth, NH. I tried finding a job in Portland, Maine but the pay for what I did was so terrible. It was worth it to me to drive the hour and a half each way every day so I could make a decent living.

I couldn't complain though, I was living in a really beautiful area. The Bath area is coastal and just beautiful. I learned a lot about boating and the ocean while living there. Shortly after Erick and I moved in together, we were engaged. It seemed like the right thing at the time. I was 25 and felt like I knew everything and that I was an adult. I look at a 25 year old now and I can't believe how young that really is. If I can offer any advice to anyone, it would be to never get married before you are 30!! The next 5 years of my life were such an incredible learning experience and I think where I did the most growing out of my entire life so far.

Erick and I were married in August of 2001. He was 28 and I was 26. Shortly after we were married, we decided to build a house together. When I say build a house, I don't mean buying land and hiring a company to build it, we physically built it ourselves. It took way too long! It was a very frustrating process. Another bit of advice I could offer is, NEVER physically build a house with your spouse. We almost killed each other and I feel was ultimately the demise of our marriage. There were certainly major issues in our relationship that would have ended the marriage, I just think building the house together was something that just sped it up.

I do miss the house though. It was absolutely beautiful. The only nice thing you will ever hear me say about Erick is that he is a skilled finish carpenter. He did really beautiful finish work on the inside that gave it a quality look. It was a contemporary Cape. It had dormers, a wrap around porch, raised ceilings, wood floors, a river rock fireplace, Kohler fixtures everywhere - including vessel sinks, a rain shower head and a jacuzzi tub, radiant floor heat. I really loved that house. We sold it in the divorce. I hope to build another house like that someday.

We were married for 4 years, and together for about 2 years before that. 6 years of my life. We luckily never had children. That was another thing that pushed me towards divorce is that I felt like he would have been a terrible father. I didn't want to have children with someone like him. I really want to have children, I someday hope to have a family. It is important to me to give my children a happy life and they wouldn't have had that with him as a father.

I learned a lot about life and relationships in those 6 years. I felt that my marriage really helped me mature and grow as a person and become stronger than I was before. It also helped me to know what I need and want in a person and have the ability to not let anyone take advantage of me. When I see things going wrong, I recognise the problems right away and decide if it is the right situation for me. You cannot change people and especially at my age you have to accept someone for who they are and decide if they are someone you can be with.

Erick and I split up three years ago and have been officially divorced for two. I have to say that the first year of our separation / divorce was the absolute happiest of my life. I moved to Colorado because the technology company I was working for gave me the opportunity to start a territory out west. So I took it! I am so glad I did. I felt so free and happy and was the first time in 6 years I was able to live life for ME! I got a lot of money from the sale of the house and was able to pay off all of my debt. I was making the most money I had ever made before in my life, so I decided to spoil myself. I had a blast. I went on trips, I went shopping, I visited the "spa" quite a bit. It was fantastic. "Retail Therapy".

I also started Dirt Biking while I lived out there. It was actually something I had always wanted to try, but never had the opportunity. While living in Colorado, I lived 3 miles from a motocross track and I took advantage of it. What a blast! I love riding a motorcycle. I still do it today. I have always been into trying and doing all kinds of sports. I feel fortunate for having tried and done all of the things I have. I have trail mountain biked, rock climbed, river rafted, sea kayaked, skied, wakeboarded, snowboarded, hiked, dirt biked, boated you name it. I loved it all. Some things I still do on a regular basis.

I fell in love with Colorado and I made some really incredible friends. Friends whom I still keep in contact with and I still see. I actually would still be living there if it wasn't for my current career opportunity which was to take over my mothers company. It was something that I knew was a great opportunity that I couldn't pass up. It was hard to leave Colorado, but I felt this was the right thing to do.

Talking about my adventures with DEI are an entire different chapter that I will discuss I am sure at another time. I was *trying* to summarize my life over the last 33 years, but I have a feeling this post ended up being quite longer than originally intended. The funny thing is that sitting here, typing it all down, I never thought I would be where I am today in my life. I always imagined that I would be married and have children by 33. I also never thought I would be running my mothers company. I always pictured I would always be in the high-tech industry. I never thought that having a business degree and wanting to do business would wind me up in the design industry. I always thought I would have to have a design background for that. My mother built her company to the point of needing a business person to run it and that is where I came in.

It pays to be open minded and allow yourself to follow opportunity. I have just let life take me on an adventure and I felt I have never really forced anything. Things have just happened the way I think they are supposed to. I am extremely happy with my life, I feel very lucky.

Until next time..........

In the beginning.....

Today is my birthday. I am 33 years old.

I never wanted to take the time to set up a MySpace page, or join Facebook. But recently, I have been feeling like I needed an outlet to express myself. A place maybe where I can post things like pictures, thoughts, funny events, insight to share with my friends and family. I thought maybe a blog was more appropriate for who I am. I have previewed the other outlets and felt they were not for me.

At 33 years old, I never thought I would be where I am today. It is funny where life takes you. I also remember being young and thinking about a person in their 30-ies and thinking how old they were. It is amazing how fast I reached this age how young I still feel. I have always wondered when you are actually supposed to, "grow up". When is that pivotal moment supposed to happen when you are, "grown up"? Is it something that you are supposed to have achieved? It it an age? Or is it actually a mindset? I sometimes look at my older brother, my parents, their friends; all people who are older than me and I really look at their personalities, behavior and lifestyle and realize that we are all the same, we don't change from 13 to 33 to 63.

I don't know if that makes sense, but the bottom line is that there isn't this life changing event that takes place that makes you a "grown up". I mean, we all have experiences that may move us and change us in certain ways, but I believe that we all have an inner child that never goes away. A certain immaturity that causes us to continually be curious and learn and grow, to make mistakes and to have the desire to get out of bed everyday to see what is going to happen next.

We are all very lucky to be here. I thank my stars every day to have been given the opportunity to be who I am, to have the life I have, to have the energy I have to do the things I do and to wake up every day to live life. I feel like life is so short and we need to take advantage of it.

The name of my blog is, "in the pursuit of...." because I feel like I am always in the pursuit of something. Whether it is to find true love, true happiness, the next fun trip, the next powder day, to achieve my next goal, to be successful, I am constantly moving and chasing something. I will try to keep you entertained with my adventures and thoughts.