End of 2008 Coming Fast...Welcome 2009!

It's the end of another year and time for a short period of reflection. This has been one insane (read: busy in too many ways) year. I can't say that last year at this time I could have predicted much of what happened this year. Fortunately, that's fine and all definitely for the best, even the parts that were, on the surface, not as obviously good.

I took a break from road racing, but it helped me appreciate what it's all about and the break probably kept me from burning out.

I started my own very small business, it took a lot of time away from time I should have been out playing and having fun, but I learned so much from it. And that was a dream of mine for (almost) ever.

I definitely didn't spend enough time with friends, but I made a few and reconnected with old friends. (Don't you love the feeling of time standing still when you see an old friend? That's one way of seeing the strength of a friendship.)

Oh yeah, this year I was in Toast Masters so I did a lot of public speaking. I think that's the area of greatest improvement this year. I'll continue to work on that a lot next year as well.

The time that I spent working and unable to hang out with people made it oh-so-obvious that the only thing that really matters are time with family and friends (next to food, shelter and sleep). The rest is so insignificant. Time is so precious, I am focusing a great deal more now on my priorities and where things fall so as to properly choose how to spend time. (I don't pretend to be good at it yet.)

What's up for 2009? Once again, I can't foresee the future and that's okay. I'm comfortable not knowing what surprises are in store. If this year is anything like the last four, it will be anything but boring...I hope to race a lot more, help the company I work thrive, have many adventures in Colorado and abroad with my friends, (finally) travel to Europe, squander time less and make every moment matter more, stay positive and optimistic and have fun every day.

Happy 2009 to everyone!!!

Merry Christmas, Take 2

Here are some pics from the day. Collage, above, is a compilation of photos I took today in Denver that were somehow related to Christmas. (Click on it to see it bigger.)

Then there were those pics that weren't appropriate for a Christmas collage:

This was a scrolling news ticker on the side of a building. Saw a couple of interesting news stories today. Here's the other one. Huh? Lance has a Colorado girlfriend? I've officially been living under a rock. I hope she's super athletic. I want to see a freak-of-nature Lance Jr.

I love the concept of these cow statues as canvases for art, but this one is not cool.

This one is my all-time favorite cow. I took this photo in a NY museum in spring of 2002. 

Starbucks sells a recovery shake! There was a grand total of 1 Starbucks open in Denver today (yes, I ran past all of them). It's been so long since going to Starbucks, I knew not that they had gotten into the smoothie biz. 

I needed this after 3 hours of working out without adequate food. The Egg Nog latte almost got me, but I didn't want to have to ask them to add protein to it.

Merry Christmas!

Yeah, yeah, it's 5 days before most people celebrate Christmas, but this year we're having two Christmases. Our first one was today. We played Cranium and had a few rounds of ping pong. Bro kicked my butt as usual, but I put up a decent fight. We enjoyed the day, but of course, there are loved ones out of town and home sick...always better when we're all together.

Christmas shopping was simple this year: I ended up procrastinating due to a lot of work and multiple priorities hitting at the same time so in an hour and a half, all of Christmas was bought last night. Easy. Now it's smooth sailing for the next week going into Christmas. Yea!

My apologies for the lack of pics, my digital camera walked off in the past couple of weeks. Fortunately, I have an older backup one that I was able to resurrect. So, pics will be back soon. Hopefully some of today will be here when I get them downloaded.

Neighbors

This week has been nearly all-consumed with an issue I'm working on with my neighbors. The issue is something I can't blog about, but the point of the post is to say that it's the coolest thing to have neighbors that are friends. We've gotten together some for movie nights in the past which is always enjoyable.

There's something very cool in a different way about working on a cause together...it's quite the adrenaline rush! The other night we were hanging out and talking until quite late. It took me right back to living in the dorm in college and staying up late working on a project with my friends. Yeah, it's work, but it is turning into a lot of fun that would otherwise be drudgery doing alone.

There's nothing like having a real community.

Morning Tea

Drinking tea in the morning is refreshing and a great way to start the day. There's also a side benefit: the tea I drink comes with quotes on the tag attached to the tea bag.

Let each man exercise the art he knows. --Aristophanes 450

4 Days Off

Wow, four days off without any travel in there anywhere? What am I doing? Sleeping in, for one. I like sleep, but haven't had much of it prior to this weekend. So the alarm is not being set and I'm making up for lost time. Of course, it's nearing 2 am and here I am blogging. I was tossing and turning, someone must have slipped some caffeine in my evening tea. 

Every evening before going to sleep, I like to read. This weekend, however, I've had hours to read before shutting off the light. And so, tonight, I said goodbye to a new friend, the book I've been reading since the San Francisco trip. This happens to me every single time I read a book, when I finish the last page, I begin to miss the characters (and often the writer if it's a memoir like this one); I think that hinders me somewhat from starting new books. When I begin a new book, I know I have to be emotionally available for a relationship with it. 

This book spoke to me in many ways. I didn't always agree with the author or completely understand her, but so many of the themes are ones that have been part of my life. And it gave me a chance to think about how I feel about things when she is faced with challenges in her journey. 

I don't know if this book has much to do with my current thinking or not, but everything plays a role, doesn't it? In so many conversations (even many mundane ones), there are some takeaways that I feel thankful for...as thoughts that can be built upon each other to gain further understanding, insight...or simply finding out about some activity that, when I attend, I meet someone else who has something else to add to this ever-growing thought-pool. 

I believe now more than ever in the importance of everyone in my life and I see how their presence continually serves in helping me go in a particular direction. As I hope I am a similar player in the lives of my friends, family, and people I bump into on the street. 

I know exactly where I want to be (not physically, metaphorically) and what I want--these thoughts are never far from my mind. However, I have developed a much more laid-back approach in attaining those people, things and goals. I firmly believe that if I keep my focus and make choices to support my values, that all things fall into place naturally. Patience, patience.

Happy Thanksgiving

Yeah, yeah, I know, this is late, but better late than never, eh? I hope everyone out in blog land had a happy Thanksgiving. I had a very nice Thanksgiving with my family and nice Thanksgiving-eve dinner with the family of one of my friends. It was like having two Thanksgivings and two families. Very cool. 

After two days of feasting, the scale told me that I weighed less afterwards. Let's hear it for veggies, people! This year, I believe we had more color on our Thanksgiving plates than ever. I also did not have a food coma as in years past (yes, I skipped the tryptophan-loaded turkey, but I haven't had turkey for many years, either).

I took movies and haven't uploaded my pics, yet. There weren't any shots worth posting, though. I think my annual quota of picture taking was satisfied in California. 

Last Weekend--How it was Okay After All

Just a few quick notes about last weekend that must be mentioned: 

I went into last weekend dreading it. My expectations were extremely low since I knew I had a lot of work to get done and it wasn't the kind of work that could be done in one day. Yuck. But, somehow the weekend worked out to be really nice. 

The beauty of it was this: There were times that I could not work because my co-worker needed the code to himself. Therefore, there were specific times when I had to put it down and not concern myself with any of it. During these times, I squeezed in working out, running, riding the trainer, dining with church friends, going to a crazy nightclub, celebrating my dad's birthday over breakfast, attending an especially lengthy (although particularly beautiful) mass and finishing the project to be demo'd to the company first thing Monday morning. 

When does all of this stuff ever all get done in such a short period of time? NEVER.  EVER.

Lesson learned here is that we shouldn't worry that which we are not currently working on. If everything is properly scheduled, though it may seem to add stress to schedule things, it actually alleviates it completely, if there is trust in the schedule. I will be trying this new method in the future...

Getting Things Done

I'm letting you in on a little secret...this is how to be efficient in any computer endeavor. Even though Circuit City is in a world of hurt right now, I tried very hard to buy a monitor from them, but they didn't have anything in stock. Nor was I allowed to take a floor model. And they had about 5 employees per shopper (two of them are very new hires). Think maybe they should think about how they're running their business? Best Buy came through for me, though. As a bonus, I picked up a tiny wireless keyboard for the MacBook. It's amazing! So tiny, light, the pleasure of a non-bulky keyboard. Life changing.

Winter's On Its Way

Yesterday morning the strangest thing happened. I got all ready for work and was walking out the door when I glanced outside. The scene was confusing...what is this? Ahhh, that's snow! (I had no idea it was going to snow.) It was a whiteout, too. Fortunately it didn't last very long but that is a sign that it's late enough in the year that such conditions can be expected. I'm happy it's almost time for skate ski season but I do miss the warmth and beauty of the fall.

Today was a nice ride from Boulder. It started off cold. Brrrr. It wasn't bad, though, helps to be properly dressed. By the time we got back to Boulder (noon), it was fairly warm and pleasant. And oh, the sun was bright and intense. It was fun to then watch the cross race next to the Louisville rec center. Yeah, it was nice to spectate and not race today, though it looked like an enjoyable course.

Since I neglected to post any pictures from the last few days of vacation, here's one taken on the last morning I was there (Wednesday, 11/5). I went on a ride prior to any of the conference activities starting.