Monday, March 28, 2011

30

I'm not very good at acting my age , most of the time I feel like I'm still in high school and should be playing soccer or diving after school. I still play soccer after work, but I don't still dive (my body is definitely not still 16). Coming up on my 30th birthday and having it pass just like that, I've noticed a few things lately that have reminded me that I'm not 16.

When I was in Utah, I was driving behind a school bus full of presumably high schoolers and at a stop light two girls in the back row waved at me, so I smiled and waved back. Next thing I know, I had 4 rows of HS girls pointing and laughing at me. I couldn't figure out what was so funny about me, but then I remembered that Lindsey and I used to do that kind of stuff in Jr. High and High School and I can't tell you why we did it either. For some reason, we thought that all older people should be made fun of. Now I'm that older person.

Another "I'm 30" moment, was when I was walking my dad's dog and his little neighbor boy saw me and said to his grandpa "Grandpa, look, that lady is walking Lola." Maybe kids aren't great judges of age, but we all know that kids don't lie, and that kid just called me a lady!

Hip hip hooray for only getting older from here.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Look who came to my birthday party!

To celebrate the big 3-0 this year, Doug and I went out to SLC to hang out with the family and get one last ski trip in. The real driver for this trip was the Lady Gaga concert that Whitney got us tickets to about 7 months ago. The Gaga was playing on my bday in my home state and I had a free ticket...um, yeah, I was going to go!!

This is quite a long entry, so I've broken it into chapters so when you get bored, you can come back to where you left off.

Chapter 1 - Express Train
I almost didn't make it (nothing dramatic like a plane crash, just almost a missed flight). I gave myself 3 hours to get from the city to JFK since it was St. Patty's Day and getting out of the city is just a pain anyway. In an effort to save time, I jumped on the Long Island Railroad and accidentally jumped onto an express train going to BFE Long Island making only express stops...FML. The first stop was 45 min. out of my way, so I was freaking out the whole time. It didn't help that all of the drunk Irish revelers were laughing at me. After running off of one train and onto the next, I made it to the airport with 4 minutes to spare. I guess I had the luck of the Irish on my side.

Chapter 2 - Secret Stash
Since Doug didn't fly in until Friday night (you know, because the President and VP of this family can't fly together...what would happen to the dogs if we were both on the same plane that went down) I went up to Solitude for a day of skiing by myself. It was a blue bird day with beautiful spring conditions. In the afternoon, I was skiing down a chute and stopped to breath and all of a sudden some dude was standing right above me, I had no idea where he came from. I told him to ski through, but he said "Hey...wanna follow me to my secret stash of snow?" Normally I would decline and run, but for some reason I said sure and followed him to the lift. He was about 55 and just a seemingly harmless ski bum. I made sure on the lift ride up to mention that I am going to pick up my HUSBAND and that I'm meeting up with my family later just so that he knew people would be expecting me and might get tipped off if I didn't show up. We had to hike to get to his "stash" so I just kept following and lo and behold, he took me to 3 ft of untracked snow...thanks new buddy! After that run he asked if I wanted to do it again, and I totally did, so I jumped on the lift with him. About half way up the lift he got quiet and then turned to me and said "What time do you have to pick up your husband?" Ruh-roh... "Ummm, do you wanna get stoned with me?" Me - "Oh, no thank you. But you won't offend me if you do." Ski bum - "I've been working up the nerve to ask you this whole time." Oh, sorry dude...you really think I'm going to smoke with someone I don't even know? Hell, I don't even smoke, so I'm surely not going to do it with you. Weird. After that run, I made some lame excuse and went and hid in the bathroom for a few minutes hoping he wouldn't be outside when I came out...luckily no sign of him after that!

Chapter 3 - The big 3-0
There's nothing I love more than being in the mountains, so spending my birthday on the ski slopes was non-negotiable. Doug, my mom and I headed up to Solitude for a beautiful day of spring skiing. We were so busy having fun, I didn't take any pictures.

But, I did take pictures of the evening activities! Whitney was kind enough to rent hotel rooms downtown for all of us so we didn't have to go far after the concert. Here's a picture of us all ready for the concert. I had big intentions of dressing up, but I went for comfort and am so glad I did. There were enough freaks, they didn't need one more.

By the looks of Doug's eyes, you'd think he'd been drinking out of that brown bag all night (but, he hadn't been)


This somehow made it's way on my camera


The Scissor Sisters were opening for Gaga and they are probably one of my favorite dancing bands of all time. Don't feel like cleaning? Put on some SS and you'll be mopping the ceiling! We had GA tickets on the floor, so we got there just in time for the opening act and they were just as awesome as always! I'm not sure that much of the audience knew who they were, so my mom and I looked like fools shaking our thangs, but we had a blast. It took Gaga over an hour to appear, so there was plenty of time for people watching. Here are a few of the gems we saw...

Wonder Woman


Full wedding dress


I don't even know


Once Gaga came out, she put on an incredible 2 1/2 hour show full of amazing sets, dancing drags, burning pianos and lots of S&M. My mouth was dropping in disbelief for most of the show. Even if you're not a Gaga fan, it's worth seeing her live because it's more like a Broadway show than a concert. The sets were incredible - apparently it takes 40 semis to haul everything from one show to the next.

Steel trees


Real Monsters


The Gaga singing Happy Birthday to me


Subway car


After the concert, we crashed hard and then skied the next day on a fresh 10 inches of snow! Once again, no pictures, so use your imagination (or look at any of my other Utah posts and you'll get the idea:)

I did get to hang out with my g-rents and uncle for lunch on Monday before flying out on the red eye that night. Try explaining a Gaga concert to your grandparents in a G-rated version...not an easy task.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Where am I?

It has been a whirlwind of travel for Doug and me in the last couple of weeks. So, instead of boring you with story after story, I'll keep it simple and post lots of pics (i.e., I'm lazy).

Doug had to go to London for business and I decided that I didn't want to be left behind, so I tagged along and we had an awesome long weekend of touring and shopping our way around the city. It seems so far away, crossing that big pond and all, but it's actually just as far to get to California. London is such an ideal city because of it's manageable size, friendly people (read - nice accents) and beautiful architecture. I didn't take too many pics because we were on the go, but here are a few:


Major highlight was meeting up with Laura (friend from college and her fiance Rich)


Staying true to it's reputation, we had rain most of the time


Shopping mecca all lit up


The original Mini...this thing was 1/2 the size of the new mini's


Really cool store full of old sewing machines


Since they have 6 weeks of vacation/yr. there are a lot of travel bookstores


Two days after getting back from London, Doug and I jetted off to Montana for some skiing with friends. We flew into Bozeman and then drove 1.5 hours to Big Sky and set up shop in a ski condo for 4 days. I think I've found a new favorite resort (besides all of my lovely Utah slopes) in Big Sky. The mountain is huge, the terrain is steep and there are no lift lines (because the mountain is so big and spread out). The one drawback on the trip was the burly, cold weather. I tried growing a beard to save my face, but it didn't happen fast enough.

The first morning there, I got up to go for a run (damn marathon training). It was -17 degrees. Smart move.


But, it was beautiful out


The slopes were awesome, despite no new snow




Top of the tram




One night we booked dinner at a yurt. We got to ride snowcats 20 min. up the mountain and had a quaint little dinner listening to live music and sledding in between courses. The ride up the hill (on top of the cat) was freeeeezing.


Inside was nice and cozy, albeit a little fuzzy


The next morning was the coldest I've ever been. We waited until 9am and then hit the slopes.


After 4 days at Big Sky, we headed down the mountain to Bozeman and skied Bridger Bowl for a day. It's a quaint, local yocal mountain with some great terrain. On the way down, we ran into these scrappers.


Doug in action at Bridger


I'm usually happy to be home after a trip, but if I could have figured out a way to get my dogs to me, I would have stayed in Montana.