merry (first) christmas and a happy new year

while i am well aware that stores already have valentine's day candy (aware because i have already bought some), i still haven't blogged about christmas so let's just proceed as if i am not terribly behind.

shall we?

we had a lovely first christmas together, as you can see in this hard-won photographic proof.

the weather in denver was divine and we had a full schedule with lights at the botanic garden...










the nature and science museum, a tour of the hammond candy factory...






IMAX movies, indie movies, lunch downtown, bookstores and ranch wear stores and lots of yummy cooking at home. oh yeah, and a full day of outlet shopping (AWD brought a book).

i have always loved going home to visit, and i love it even more now that i get to take AWD with me. it just feels good and right somehow.

on new year's eve the mama bear and i went downtown to watch the 9p.m. fireworks display (the countdown was a little anti-climactic) and were home in time to watch the ball drop and toast the new year with our husbands.

and now, here we are. the year of our lord two thousand and twelve. i have a few resolutions in mind-- to be more consistent, more conscious, less covetous-- and i have a good feeling so far about the way things could go.

hope the same is true for you, my babies.

the 2-0-1-1

hello, kiddos, and welcome to this the year of our lord two thousand and eleven!

i have been on time for church and work every day so far this year, so i would say i am off to a pretty good start and i hope the same is true for you.

here's to a fabulous year, on the internet and beyond!

hip to the hop

i have been working on a few projects this summer that fall under the "street cred" file. one of them is to un-ironically rock a fedora. i am still working on this. seems like it shouldn't be that hard but i am here to tell you, it is.

i've had a little more luck with my second street cred goal: get into hip hop music. i am almost (almost!) to the point where i can listen to it in my car with the windows down and not die on the spot of poser shame.

listening to hip hop was going well enough, in fact, that i decided to take it up a notch (as they say on the streets) and try dancing hip hop.

please stop laughing.

now.

bixler and i hit up a hip hop dance class in friendship heights last night and, believe it or not, we can (sort of) shake what our mommas gave us.

honestly, i thought i was just going to crumble in a pile of massive humiliation at my first attempt to (i like to) move it (move it), but it was not nearly so embarassing as that and, in an added bonus, it was also really, super-duper fun (as they say on the streets). we have half of the routine pretty well down (i did it for emily h. last night when i got home and she said i looked awesome. so there) and we are going back next week to learn the rest.

i am afraid i was too busy working my moves (as they say on the streets) to take any pictures or (eek) video of the event, but just close your eyes and imagine me rocking it to this little tune (warning: there are swears) and i think you'll get the idea.



how did i look?

like sands through the hourglass

as a general rule, i am not a very keen or successful observer of the passage of time. (read: i am late for everything, all the time, under just about any circumstance.) and so, my new year was ushered in without much fanfare. (also because i could barely stay up past midnight.) it just sort of became 2010, you know? and the only time i really notice it is when i write the wrong date on my checks. i didn't even make any resolutions because i am still plugging away on that big list of birthday goals.



but, i feel like a new year, not to mention a whole new decade (!) deserves a little more recognition that what i have given it (which is nothing) so i was delighted to come across this little exercise on suvi marie's blog. (note: not her real middle name.)



read on!



1. what did you do in 2009 that you had never done before?
visited turkey. bought a full-priced item from anthropologie. met el presidente. joined a gym.



2. did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for the next year?
i don't remember making any firm resolutions last year, so if i did i am going to go ahead and say i didn't keep them. i did keep last year's birthday goal, though, and i am on track for this year's many goals as well. and that is enough goals for me.



3. did anyone close to you give birth?
back to the "i can't keep track of time" thing, i get a little fuzzy on when my favorite babies were born. but i think i am right in saying that steve and sarah's baby summer joined the party in 2009, so i am going to count that. and three of my favorite people have babies on the way this year, which i am pretty stoked about.



4. did anyone close to you die?
we lost aunt rosemary this year, which still feels impossible.



5. what places did you visit?
denver a couple times to see the family, turkey and paris (just for overnight at the airport holiday inn), the outer banks, back to salt lake (so weird that now i visit salt lake), and d.c. before i moved here. california, idaho, moab. new york a bunch. oh, and montreal, if you count an emergency landing because someone on the plane had a seizure. which i do.



6. what would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
i can't actually think of anything. more time to ride my bike, i guess. and a new biking buddy.



7. what dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
oh geez. this is sort of a hard one. i don't really remember dates. but i am pretty sure i left salt lake on may 10. that was a biggie.



8. what was your biggest achievement of the year?
i would say landing a new job, surviving a cross country move and rebuilding my life in a new place, with my sanity still (mostly) in tact.



9. what was your biggest failure?
the mosaic i attempted to make at craft night. seriously. it was an epic fail.



10. did you suffer illness or injury?
nope.



11. what was the best thing you bought?
a map of the d.c. metro system.



12. whose behavior merited celebration?
remember when bill clinton got those journalists released from north korea? that was pretty bodacious.


13. whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
tiger woods. yuck. and charlie sheen. double-yuck. sarah palin, yuck, yuck, yuck.




14. where did most of your money go?
i don't even want to know. food, probably. with clothes i don't need being a close second. and my investment portfolio at a pathetic third.



15. what did you get really, really, really excited about?
glee!




16. what song will always remind you of 2009?
"sun in an empty room" by the weakerthans (thanks, evan and holly!)




17. compared to this time last year, are you:


a) happier or sadder?
i am happy now and i was happy then. but at this time last year i was starting to get pretty stressed out about the "next step," and that angst is gone.



b) thinner or fatter?
i would say about the same.



c) richer or poorer?
richer! (thanks obama! and no rent at uncle bob's!)



18. what do you wish you’d done more of?
biking.



19. what do you wish you’d done less of?
worrying.



20. how did you spend Christmas in 2009?
in denver, in my pajamas.



21. did you fall in love in 2009?
no. but it's on my list for this year.



22. what was your favorite TV program?
30 rock.



23. what did you do for your birthday in 2009?
dinner at dana's, cupcakes at emily's, lunch with aunt joyce. made 28 goals.



24. what was the best book you read?
east of eden by john steinbeck.



25. what did you want and get?
a sewing machine!



26. what did you want and not get?
a pony. seriously, nothing comes to mind.




27. what was your favorite film of this year?
for new films, i loved "whip it" and "where the wild things are" and "star trek." oh, and definitely "good hair." and, hello, "new moon," naturally. for revisiting old films, how had i forgotten the genius of "moonstruck"?




28. did you make some new friends this year?
that would be yes. i spent half of the year doing nothing but making new friends, in fact. and i am still at it. so far, so good.



29. what one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
would you believe that i can't think of a single thing? i mean, i am sure i had plenty of ideas in the moment, but i can't think of any of them now, so they must not have been that important.



30. how would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
maybe wanna-be-hipster-suddenly-forced-to-be-pseudo-professional, with a sprinkle of what-would-penelope-cruz-wear?



31. what kept you sane?
netflix streaming. endless cell phone minutes. blogging. getting mail. old friends, even if they were far away.



32. which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
michelle obama. jake gyllenhaal. robert downey, jr. tina fey. and is it just me or did ryan reynolds come out of nowhere with a whole lot of awesome?



33. what political issue stirred you the most?
this is not an issue, actually, but the obama inauguration got me all kinds of stirred.



34. who did you miss?
the salt lake crew. all of them. especially my babies.



35. tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
when we ask, we receive. and when we try, we can accomplish.



happy new year, folks! here's to a great one.

whose line is it anyway?

tonight i went to an "intro to improv" workshop taught by a guy who sort of looked like this...

no joke.

i thought it would be terrifying and possibly awful, but it was actually totally fun and relaxing to be in an environment where, as lee put it, "silliness is supported."

we started off playing a bunch of games where there was a lot of switching things up and thinking on your feet and saying ridiculous things like "aaooooga!" (is that even a word that can be spelled?) miss angela and i were more familiar with these games than most of the other people in the class, thanks to our years of faithful family home evening attendance. (big booty, anyone?)

and then we did a scene-type activity with a partner where you riffed together off a word someone else from the class threw out, but everything you said had to be true. i was a little bit bummed i wasn't in the pair whose conversation strayed to placentas (so many good stories on that topic!), but my partner and i hashed it out over cyber-bullying, which i feel pretty good about (our conversation, not the bullying. to be clear).

it was really a blast to let loose and let go and not worry about looking good or being funny. and it was also interesting to think about what makes us laugh and why some things are funny and other aren't, and how that ability to just be out there and honest and without an agenda all the time could change the way we interact with eachother.

not to mention that a solid foundation in improvisational technique could only be a benefit in any awkward social situation. and i am bound to have many more of those before my life is through.

and, of course, dabbling in improvisational theater can only bring my closer to my television idol, liz lemon. i was hopingt to find the clip where she starts improvising to save jack's honor during the retreat to move forward but just ends up taking off her shirt. sadly, i couldn't find that one, but i did find this nifty little montage. listen carefully at the end for the most important thing liz lemon and i have in common.

(did you catch that? date with my cousin? check!)