A Lovely Life

It's New Year's Eve. I always find myself a little emotional (shocking) and a lot reflective when it's time to say goodbye to one year and welcome in a new one. This year, like last, though, there is a profound feeling of excitement. 2017. January. Goodbye to Georgia. Hello to #coloRADo. Snow. Tears. COLD. New job. Celebrating having Brucey for 1 year. ADJUSTMENT. February. Intro to hiking. Brewery visits. Cristy visits from Georgia! Fat biking. Snow shoeing. Pam visits from Alabama! My attempt to date again.. March. The Publix Half Marathon (marathon #2) with #TEAMNOAH. Visits with my Georgia family...lots of hugs. So much more snow (and stuck cars) April.  Snow. AGAIN. Chase visits from Georgia! Moved into my first, big girl apartment. Meet the Malloys and become fast friends. Sarah and Mike visit from California! First trip to Boston. The best visit with Uncle Paul and Aunt Irena. May. Starting to feel settled into my job. Summer! Hikes...

God, it's so easy for me to bitch about how much I miss about Georgia. I then quickly remind myself to shut the hell up and simply look around. I'm 6 months post-move and straddling the line between being settled and still feeling so UNsettled. This post is dedicated to the moments I have where I miss something from Georgia, then immediately find myself in awe of where I stand at that very moment. I miss: The sound of cicadas and crickets Pimento cheese Those random ,"What are you up to? Let's grab dinner", texts Fireflies Southern accents...all of them! Peach picking Being withing driving distance of the beach My old "go to" bike routes Sweetwater beer The smell of rain on a hot summer day My tribe Sitting at my best friend's kitchen counter, watching her cook and catching up Dukes Mayo Bitching about traffic Waffle House at my finger tips Humidity . . . just kidding. I don't miss that shit at ALL. I love: My bike shop Wi...

In the spirit of ripping band aids off, jumping into the unknown and proving to myself that I can do things I never thought I could, I have some BIG news. As of January 2017, Brucey and I will be residents of Denver-ish, Colorado.  I say "ish" because I'm still working out those details. A few months ago, I got a random text from a friend who I used to work with telling me that he recommended me to his boss as a potential manager for a shop out there. I took exactly 0% of that text conversation seriously. I also took the next few months of back and forth communication with a grain of salt. The internal thought process went a bit like this (bonus points if you can read it REALLY fast because that's how it would roll through my head): "There's no way I'd move. That's just too much. I can't leave. I know I said I would, but let's get real...I'm a baby. Why in the hell would a bike shop owner want me to help him run his shop? I...

Taking a quick break from my YOU Challenge.  Don't worry, it'll be back tomorrow!  ;-) Today is sort of a weird one because it was six months ago tonight that we lost our shop.  I have those feelings of, "it feels like only yesterday" while at the same time thinking, "we're a world away from that night".   Sometimes, it feels downright silly to be a little emotional about a place.  But I don't mind being silly and anyone who knows me knows I can be a bit emotional.  The memories of what I jokingly call Peachtree Bikes Buckhead Version 1.0 are bittersweet.  They only occasionally come flooding back when I hear a song that always played on our XM radio or see an old familiar face that's popping in to "check out the place".  I miss the old space and things are different, but I hear change is good. :-) Those emotions aren't as raw as they were six months ago and we've come so far.  I jokingly feel like I can't really re...

Spring is officially here, y'all.  It brings much warmer temperatures, unpredictable weather and LOTS of pollen.  I'm lucky that I'm not one of the people who suffer from terrible pollen allergies, but it seems to get to everyone this time of year.  So much so that I find myself thankful for rainy days that help keep my car clean and my nose a little clearer! We recently started a new landscape project on our ENTIRE yard.  I'll post all about that when it's done!  It's our first big project for the house and something we've talked about since we bought the place.  We're learning lots of lessons in the process including the one where you start a massive project on your house only to have your air conditioner die.  :-/  It is what it is and we're thankful that the weather is nice enough for us to have our windows open while we wait the 5 to 10 days until we can get it fixed.   While we've been focusing on the bigger picture, our back deck w...

Well, sort of.  The last week of work has been, well, INSANE and there's still some work to do, but the worst is over.  I kept saying all week that I felt like I was on an episode of HGTV mixed with a little Punk'd . Everyday included an early morning, often working late into the night/early the following morning. We were furiously working to get the construction phase of everything ready for our big party on Saturday night.  It was close, y'all but we did it! This was LATE Monday Night/WAY early Tuesday morning Thursday We used LOTS of this stuff Wednesday morning's "mud puddle" front yard Toilet seat replacement Saturday right before the party! Unless you've lived it, it's impossible to truly grasp the amount of physical and emotional energy it takes to go from where we were on Monday to where we were on Saturday night.  I was pushed further than ever before, but the feelings of pure joy and accomplishment at ou...

Atlanta got hit with another massive winter storm on late Tuesday night.  Luckily, we didn't have a situation like last time .  The city was prepared for what they were saying was going to be a "catastrophic" Winter event.  WHAT?!  More catastrophic than the million cars jamming the roadways just 2 weeks prior?  What "they" were worried about were downed trees and power outages due to heavy ice.  While many people lost power over those couple of days, I think it could have been WAY worse!   Knowing all of this we, like most people, were prepared to be indoors for a couple of days.  We did our grocery shopping on Sunday as we usually do and I grabbed some wine extras for "just in case" on Monday.   We woke up on Wednesday morning to a mix of freezing rain and snow that lasted all day.  Frank really loved the weird stuff on the ground and got extra excited when we started getting ready to go outside. What was so weird about...

Tuesday ended up being the single worst traffic day in Atlanta.  That's not official or anything, but I'm willing to bet. Like we often do in the Georgia winters, we had a threat of snow for Tuesday afternoon.  95% of the time nothing happens and, if it does, it's nothing to call home to mom about.  Once every few years, we find ourselves shut down because of icy conditions that make it impossible to get anywhere.  I'm one of those people who never believe the weathermen when they say it's going to snow, because it usually doesn't...cut to Tuesday around noon. It started snowing.  A lot.  And then it started sticking.  And then, around 1-ish, every school in metro Atlanta let out along with every business causing a mass exodus of what is estimated at 1,000,000 cars.  That's one MILLION.  On roads that can barely handle our normal rush hour traffic.  In conditions that were dismal.  Snow quickly turns to ice in the South and bec...

My first reaction is to say (and I may or may not have actually said it), "Suck it 2013!".  However, that's super negative of me and while this year was full of challenges, it was also full of some great adventures, laughs and lots of lessons learned! January brought me to California for work where I earned my Body Geometry bicycle fitting certification.  I stepped WAY outside of my comfort zone by taking a class about body bio mechanics, handling bikes in a way I never have before and hanging out in a class that was 99.9% guys except for me.  I learned a lot and felt empowered! While I still have a long way to go, I really enjoy it.   **side note:  if you're interested in a fit for your bike...let me know!** We bought our first home in February.  It was a stressful/exciting/scary adventure for us knowing that we were here to stay and it is ours!  I loved being able to share in the experience with J because owning a home had been a huge goal o...