New Year

2012 slide out over champagne and board games at home. 2013 arrived.

MLKJ in Jerome. Guilty. Later reversed and remanded. We’ll do it again. 

Weekend in Minnesota, beautiful bridal shower. Returned to lunch in the sun in Phoenix with law school friends. Drank so much iced tea I could have floated away. Glee. Guilty/not Guilty. We don’t say “stab,” we say “cut.”

Beyond amazing ladies long weekend in New Orleans. Feeling like the luckiest girl in the world. Gifted a priceless book of photos and stories from girlfriends from all stages of life. Tattooed to remember “these are the days of miracle and wonder.”  First organized run, Pat’s Run.

Visiting everywhere I’ve ever lived in a week- NYC to Middletown to Mpls to Madison. Turning 32 in the middle of all that. We can’t believe we’re 10 years out of Wes. We can’t believe it’s another 5 years until reunion. Our livers are thankful. I brought a graduating senior into the portapotty with me to dispense life advice. Many of my best ones in one place, degenerates on the back porch of Eclectic with Joss Whedon. Baby sister graduated from college. Spotted Cow.

Pre-honeymoon aka trial college in Dayton, OH. Skyline Chili, Dayton Dragons and Sophy. Rising Star Award!

Less organized run, 4 on the 4^th. Small town parade. Arizona shower, bridearific. 

Weekend at the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Work shower. Bridetastic. Week in Minnesota, laughter, anticipation and the state fair. Sing a long into the night... unforgettable songs and faces and feelings. Hot afternoon at summer camp, circle of friends, surrounded by love and laughter and silliness. And Spotted Cow. Married. 

Faux honeymoon at hotwire Sheraton. Wedding party #2 in Flagstaff. Family from Montana, friends from California and AZ. Not guilty! Jewelry from the Yazzies and Sizzler lunch to celebrate.

Wedding party #3 in Great Falls. More celebration, end of the marathon. Neon Color Run. Untimed. Mrs. Peacock in the library with the candlestick.

Hiked into Havasupai. Ate microwaved cheeseburgers in the dark at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Lake Havasu for Thanksgiving. Thankful.

Royal Palms weekend in Phoenix with my best girl. First snowshoe of the season. Slice & dicing surgery and resulting stuporific Christmas cheer.

In between countless jail visits, dog walks, texts and jokes and victories and losses. Tomorrow 2014 slips in.  2013 has been a good one. 

Alwayz More Nailz

Only the Hits

I'm hitting the road tomorrow on quite a fun adventure. And none too soon.  At this time last year I was getting ready to go to South Africa.  There was a weird couple of days where it looked like it might not happen and once it did, I realized how freaking desperately I had needed a vacation.  And I can see that now, too. I am crabby and not taking pleasure in things about my job and life I normally would. Vacay!! 

Sometimes I feel like a real first world a-hole talking about "needing" vacation but it's something I have learned about myself. And besides people in the developing world's lives are much shittier than mine in all kinds of ways. And they don't have to deal with other peoples' problems all of the time because they have their own. 

Anyway, I start in Minneapolis, head to Madison where I watch my little baby sister graduate from college (and get to hang out in Madison again!) and then back to Minneapolis and then for one night only to New York where that one night also happens to be my 32nd birthday (reverse golden birthday!) and then to college for the 10 year reunion.

If you are not going to the reunion and you are not Kristina, well I am a little confused at who you are and how you could possibly be reading this blog.  But I digress. Like everyone else, I have been looking forward to the 10 year since the 5 year. I left that weekend completely exhausted and slightly poisoned and we'd just heard Barack Obama speak filling in for an ailing Teddy Kennedy and all my friends were there and it was a totaly love-fest and I bought matching hats with Julia and now Middletown has falafel trucks (what??) and pulled hijinx and all the weird and misplaced emotions and maturity level of being  18-22 came rushing back and oh my god.  It's good it doesn't happen more often but I also can't freaking wait.

And now in honor of college and this 10 days of only the hits, I present, The Hit:

Because It's Hard II

I ran 4.2 miles in Pat's Run last weekend. To paraphrase Will Smith who claims in Gettin Jiggy Wit It that he is living a life some consider a myth, I tweeted that I run at a pace some consider a walk. But still. Done. Next step: keep doing hard stuff because it might actually be the only stuff worth doing. And you can quote that, unless you'd rather quote Will Smith.

The Big Fun

A week ago A little over two weeks ago, I got back from 4 days in New Orleans with 12 women for my bachelorette. I’d had this idea that what would be the very most fun would be a weekend in a city I love, getting to hang out with many of my favorite folks all at once. And the weekend did not disappoint. Watching friends from different parts of my life enjoy each other and enjoy New Orleans was beyond heart-warming. There were a couple of games played with songs and stories contributed from friends who were there and who were not.  Erica had compiled the stories into this amazing photo book that I’ll treasure forever.

Before the trip, friends who were going and not going and Charlie asked what I wanted to do that weekend—and sitting in the sunshine at a bar in Algiers spending the afternoon talking and drinking beers was exactly that. As was giggling and ordering a second order of fried pickles just because we wanted it. As was sitting on the patio at night shooting the breeze. As was manically dancing to 50s songs late night at Mimi’s. Just chill and happy and easy-going and spontaneous. I got exactly what I wanted and I wasn’t worried about anything. All of the elements were there for the big fun and if you weren't having it it's because you're lame. Luckily no lame-os allowed. It was wonderful.

I was lying in bed Saturday night, when 3 am and the 3^rd night of fun had left me literally too dizzy to stay upright. And listening to the sounds of friends who had been strangers making their own memories, staying up all night.  And thinking this will be the feeling at the end of our wedding.  The big fun is ephemeral, you only get it once (or in this case twice if you can persuade a dozen amazing women to travel for the big fun) and then it's over and based on what I know about myself I will be trying very hard to enjoy the moment and the fact that it happened rather than be sad that it is over. Gah life, you're so wonderful and hard and hard in your wonderfulness.
I've thought this the last few friend get-togethers- how amazing my friends are in their accomplishments. And not just, like, they're all rich investment bankers and therefore "successful."  Because actually none of them are. But they are all truly kicking ass in their respective careers and fields. They are people I'm proud to know and proud of and the longer I've known them kind of take this strange credit in shaping their awesomeness as they've shaped mine. I was tempted to say something like whatever awesomeness I possess, but after drawing the awesome friends for the big fun, I have to somewhat acknowledge if I wasn't at least a little awesome, everyone would have stayed home.
And the friends were also this conglomeration of people committed to fun. Because people who don't sometimes get carried away and stay up too late and who don't think vacation is kind of for excess... well apparently those kinds of friends aren't the kind of friends who stick around. Or self-select for this kind of adventure.
A couple of weeks later, I think back to those days and living in this wonderful feeling like that world was giving back what I've been putting out in it. And that doesn't happen that often, but let me tell you, it feels great.
And I still have a souvenir upper respiratory infection.
Oh. And I got a tattoo.

We Do This Because it is Hard

This isn't really a resolution post, it's more like a revelation post that fits in with living differently in the future. I'd tried to start running at various points in the past, some more successful than others but shin splints and apathy usually kicked in at some point and derailed me.
But there was someone interviewed on NPR this fall and I wish I remembered who it was, he was an ultra-marathoner. Anyway, in talking about he starting and why he keeps running, he said something like, "I do it because it is hard." And this lightbulb went off in my head. I think I was previously derailed because I expected running to get easy and it never did.
But why did I think this? I have chosen challenge in other facets of life, I think of myself as someone who does hard things all of the time. I think about in my work, while in some ways the learning curve gets less steep, it'll never be "easy." Or shouldn't be because then you're doing it wrong.  Some things never become "easy" but I don't give up and I do them exactly because they are hard.
There were some really tough spots of 2012. Some amazing ones, too. But in the tough ones, I felt very self-pitying and like I wasn't strong enough to deal with how tough things were. But I was, and I am and I am aware that some things are tougher because I've chosen them to be that way.  Others are dumb luck.  But I am coming to see that I want this challenge, it's part of my personality and it's ultimately the way I want to live... at least for now. And so while I've topped out at a little over 3 miles so far, this post may be alternately titled, "or how I learned to stop worrying and love running."

Pro Tips

Since I am such an expert on person upkeep and looking beautiful, thought I'd share some recent faves on the topic. This edition: Moist Things.

Arizona is extremely dry. Duh. And where I live is also cold. So we are constantly moisturizing our body parts.

This is the best lip balm ever. Best flavor is Grapefruit & Ginger (I have had all but Black Tea & Blackberry Mango & Mandarin). It's not sticky at all like things in tubes often are, it stays on lips for a long time and it has SPF without tasting like sunscreen (arguably a bigger problem than the fiscal cliff.)

This is the best hand/cuticle cream. It's not cheap, but one of the hardest lessons I've learned in adulthood is that sometimes things that cost more are really better. This does not apply to lawyers or most store brands at the grocery store. It's not greasy and also stays on for a long time. I'm also increasingly obsessed with Philosophy and love this stuff.

Make your own sugar scrub with olive oil, sugar and a couple of drops of essential oils. I used peppermint.  Made dry winter hands so happy. Also feet. Smooth like a baby's bottom, just what you always wanted your appendages to feel like.

Moira got me into Coconut Oil. I put it around my eyes sometimes at night, like eye cream and sometimes smear it through my hair and sleep on it.  After washing the next day, it is as soft as a hair dream. I used Trader Joe's because I haven't found any cheaper. I do have a second jar I keep in the kitchen for cooking/non-beauty routine uses.

To moisture!