Where have I been?

Excellent question, not really a very good answer. The short answer is: working and trying to have a life outside of work. Luckily, I'm doing fairly well at the latter, hopefully OK at the former.

I went to SF for a 2 week training (I KNOW). It was a really good experience, and actually I did OK with visiting the city that had so much emotional weight for me with Alicia. It was awesome to stay with my brother for so long and we even still liked each other at the end! Pretty remarkable.

We've been enjoying the great Colorado outdoors, as well. The last few weekends have been perfect Colorado weekends. One of them was spent tubing Boulder Creek with our awesome former neighbors, then getting froyo on Pearl Street after. Bliss.
Another, we drove 5 hours to the Western Slope to hang out in a cabin with other friends, fish a little, and enjoy the beautiful wildflowers. Jasper got to truly walk off leash for the first time ever since we've had him and he was an absolute champ. Then this weekend, we took Jasper on a 5 mile hike to a mountain lake, loaded up his little pack with water, and now he is POOPED today. He just was motoring up the mountain, and now he's recuperating!

We had brunch with friends (and a pool party afterward), then dinner with another friend tonight, so we have been quite the social butterflies!

I've also been sewing quite a bit. I have a quilt top I intended to finish this weekend, which definitely did not happen (see: pool party, but worth it!), and have made several little clutches for friends and myself. So fun to have a project I can finish quickly!

Visiting Alicia

I got back last night from a week in San Francisco visiting Alicia. Well, "visiting" isn't exactly the right word to describe what it was I was doing there. Frankly, I don't know if there IS a word to describe it.

I want to write in more detail about different aspects of my experience later, but for the time being, I will try to describe it in one of my favorite forms: listing*.

My week in San Francisco was:
Surreal
Healing
Cathartic
Emotional
Supportive
Helpful (to some degree, I hope)
Other-worldly

Things I did while there:
Acted confused and bewildered for the first two days
Started to get my shit together on day three
Fell into the "visitor organizer" role, somehow

Took over part of the on-site coordination when the high school crew left

Transitioned the RA crew in

Kept busy so I didn't have time to think

Just *was*

Tried to stay awake for an all-nighter, at the end, but definitely fell asleep

Forgot to eat real food until noon, most days

Dropped a dress size (see above)

Emotions I felt:

Scared

Confused

Really fucking angry

Useful

Productive

Protective of Alicia

Protective of Alicia's friends

Panic

Body-wracking grief

Joy

Love

Friendship (see: rekindled, old)

Friendship (see: new, born of shared adversity)

Awed

Grateful

Many moments of consciously noting the importance, symbolism, or otherwise consciously observing the situation**

Hopefully I can commit more of my thoughts on this incredible, awful experience to writing soon and share them with you. It might take me a little while, and no promises I will publish everything I write. However, if Alicia was brave enough to share her story, I think I can share mine.

*Alicia knew this about me and sent me one of the most awesome books ever, that was written in list form. I need to go find that book now...

**Doesn't fit with the rest of the list, but there isn't a word for that idea***

***I have put more thought into the writing, style, and most importantly, punctuation of this post than any other in this shoddy blog, because I know Alicia would kill me if I made a typo or error, being the great copy editor she is.****

****There are definitely going to be typos. It's unavoidable. Sorry, Alicia. And the style of these footnotes is dreadful. Woe.

Life takes unexpected turns

Last Thursday, I got information that would change my life forever. Alicia was very sick.

Alicia is my maid of honor (for my wedding and for life). Alicia is a kindred writer spirit. Alicia is my friend. And Alicia is sick.

I flew to San Francisco a few hours after finding out, still in an uncomprehending daze about the news. The news was not good.

Since then, I, like many of her amazing and numerous friends, have tried to busy myself with helping at the hospital, helping manage Alicia's Twitter feed and Facebook page, and generally trying to keep busy with tasks so I'm not left alone with time to think.

There's so much more I want to say, but I am very tired after a long night at the hospital, so I will leave you with this:

Go to msparlette.com. Read Alicia's Story in the Chronicle. Let her know how her story touched you on her Facebook page. Donate a few dollars to honor her strength and courage in her fight to help pay the medical bills that mount with each passing hour. Follow her on Twitter for updates. Send out a prayer, good thought, or peaceful energy to her.

Then tell your friends to do the same.

Preparation

This weekend is our big Easter egg hunt (yes, I am aware Easter was last weekend). As usual, we are upping the ante this year, and having the hunt after Easter proper has allowed me to find some mad bargains on eggs, grass and candy. We have well over 1500 pieces of candy and probably close to 400 eggs this year. Insane. Good thing we have a bigger place to hide them this year! We're also having a kid hunt for the first time, which will be outside if the weather holds, so that should help too.

In the meantime, we've been finishing the trim in the kitchen, I've been making these ridiculous little things to give away as favors, planning the menu, and I suppose I should get to cleaning at some point.

I am just SO ready for the summery part of spring to be here because waking to snow this morning was not my idea of fun (although it was heaven to snuggle under the down comforter for a few extra minutes of snoozing I couldn't really afford. Now I want to go home and go back to bed). And today I daydreamed about lounging by our complex's pool. We only used it twice last year and I am determined to get more use out of it this year!

And thus endeth my random ramblings.

The perfect childless weekend

In a couple (several? more?) years, when we have little ones who take up every second of our days and nights, I hope we can remember this past weekend fondly, because even as it was happening, I thought, "we could never, ever do this with kids and we are having so much fun!"

First, we threw a double surprise party for our friends who are getting married in a couple months (sort of a late engagement party/early shower), which we claimed was a surprise birthday party for ANOTHER friend, in order to get the engaged friends here, but then we double surprised the birthday girl (who knew it was really an engagement party) with a special dessert and singing. Got it? Any way, it was amazingly fun and everyone had a great time. The guests of honor ended up spending the night (yay!) and we played Rock Band until 3 AM. Not possible with little ones, though we probably got more sleep even doing that (and waking up at 8 AM to make breakfast) than we will with kids.

I then took a nap (Nap #1), worked on my thesis revisions, then we went tubing on Boulder Creek with some other friends. I have wanted to tube Boulder Creek ever since we moved here four years ago, and spent the majority of that time living right on the Creek. However, I was always too scared because the water was too high (at least a person a year has died in the creek since we've been here, though not all were participating in water sports), or then the water was WAY too low to even imagine being able to float in anything. Luckily, this year has been a very wet one, but it's late enough in the season that the flow is more normal. Plus, it's nice and hot, which is VERY IMPORTANT because the water is effing cold.

I need to buy a waterproof camera because then I could have captured at least some of the incredible beauty we saw. It was ridiculously idyllic. As we floated under the bridge of the public library, families picnicked on the banks, dogs fetched sticks in the creek and children cooled their feet. A mandolin and banjo player provided the soundtrack, in counterpoint with childish laughter and splashing. The dappled sunlight came through the wide shady trees and highlighted the creek as it fell over small boulders, looking like jade lit from within. And then, as we watched the people watching us from the bridge high above us, the cottonwoods let loose their fairy puffs to drift down over the scene like light, glittering snow.

It was impossibly beautiful and I'm almost glad I didn't have a camera because I don't know if a physical image could live up to the one in my own mind.

When we were numb and shivering, after about four trips down the creek, we called it a day and ate pita sandwiches (this IS Boulder!). Then I took Nap #2. It was lovely.

And there you have it. A weekend made all the sweeter for the fact that we were actually able to do it at this point in our lives.

Life Update

Still looking for houses, but taking it a little easier, since we don't know where I'll be working yet, which could affect where we want to live (generally).

Working like mad on my thesis. I'm all done with data stuff, now I have to do a little analysis, and a LOT of writing. I should like writing, since I have a degree in it, but academic writing is never especially "fun." I got pretty inspired today, so maybe I'm over that initial hump of motivation. I only have a week and a half before I start my internship (and cease to have the wonderful flexibility I enjoy now), so I need to get CRACKING.

I've been quilting again. Well, actually just piecing so far, but I will get to the quilting phase soon. I picked up a project I left off several years ago, which is my pattern for projects. Start, make great headway, run into some stumbling block I can't see an easy solution to, put down for a couple years. Pick up again, realize whatever the problem was is no longer a problem and finish. It's all mental, but I'm a very mental person (in every sense of the word).

It's very late. I was waiting for Peter to say goodnight (my cue to come to bed), but he apparently went straight to bed. Oops. Now it's late and so I'm blogging (yeah, it doesn't make sense to me either).

I have reconnected with a whole group of friends from my high school youth group on Facebook. I haven't talked with most of them in well over ten years. They were my very best friends for the two years I was a part of it, so it's been great to reconnect. It's so interesting to me how my different groups of friends seem to take life paths similar to among the group members, but very different between groups. As in, in one of the groups, everyone has stayed in the same place, gotten married and/or had babies. In another, everyone is at least up to a master's, some are pursuing a PhD (a couple are almost done with their PhDs. I feel under-accomplished). I wonder sometimes how my Facebook profile looks to other people. Are they surprised at where I and and what I've done? Are they surprised I'm married? Do they compare their life to mine (who doesn't compare, in some way?). Do they think I'm nuts for getting two MA's? (I sometimes do, though I wouldn't change it for anything).

It's so interesting how much and how little we can learn from the information we put on the internet. Can you tell if a person is really happy? What do they do in their day to day life? What's really important to them? None of these things can really be gleaned from a profile. The best you can do is see if they are socially active, have supportive friends and see if they play a lot of Facebook games :-)

It's not after 1 AM and as much as I am not really tired, I should go to bed so I can get a relatively early start to my day of writing ahead of me. I have a meeting with my advisor tomorrow, and I really need something to show her (or at least prove I'm not just wasting all of my time). Sweet dreams to you all!

Obama-Rama

I was there. I can tell my children and grandchildren this in the years to come, but I was in that packed stadium that was exploding with excitement for this man, our first African-American, first bi-racial candidate on the anniversary of MLK's historic speech. I was there. It was awesome.

We almost didn't make it, and had to stand in line for literally FOUR HOURS, most of which was within a stone's throw of the stadium we were trying to get into, but it was worth it. Sure, we missed almost everything bu the big even itself, but it was worth it.

I'll try to post some more pictures and some video later, especially the one where I'm filming as the fireworks go off one row behind our HEADS and I'm pretty sure the camera goes all crazy as I attempt to hit the decks, PTSD style. Srsly.

OH! And THEN! As we were walking out, we see a bunch of people looking in this one direction, and THEN I see a silver man atop a tall, regal looking man and I'm like, I KNOW that dude! And then I tell my friend Amanda, "I think that's John Kerry," hoping to God I said the right name and did not just make a total jackass out of myself. AND IT WAS! And then his dudes say, "Excuse us, coming through," or something, and the throng parts a bit, and THEN he passes close enough to Amanda that she could touch him if she wanted (she actually could have licked him, she was so close, but opted not to be jumped by "Social Security" folks, as she put it so well). And THEN this guy behind me says, "Senator Kerry!" all journalisty-like, and THEN OH THEN!!! He TURNS! And makes EYE CONTACT WITH ME because he is looking for the caller-outer, and I am standing nearby! (And smiling quite stupidly, I'm sure). And according to Amanda, he says something like, "Hi, how are you?" But I don't remember any of this because magic Massachusetts-Democrat-good-hair-preseidential-nominee dust has frozen this moment in time and I shall always remember the blue-blue of his eyes and the tan-ness of his face and his overall *handsomeness* (that was the first thing Amanda said about him too). And I totally don't remmber him speaking, but I'm sure he did.

EL FIN.

It's my party!

Yesterday (by a few minutes) was my birthday. I'd have to say it was one of the better ones in recent memory, if only because it served to highlight where my life is now and what a good place I really am in. We had a small get-together at our place, gathering friends from my old department, my new department and from the various connections one makes in a community after three years. It was so much fun to see people from so many different aspects of my life playing together in a band, even if it was just a simulation of guitar strumming and drumming.

Beyond those present in body, I also heard from many wonderful friends over the phone, via email and on Facebook (bless Facebook!). I hope to spend a chunk of time tomorrow replying and reconnecting with all of you tomorrow. Thank you so much for remembering me, it means so much.

It's amazing to think back a year and see how much more settled Peter and I are in careers (even if I am just more settled in the direction, without a specific job yet). He's working in the field he has been preparing for for the past two and a half years, and I am on the brink of getting out there on my own as well.

As with all aspects of our lives so far, everything that came before prepared us for what we will be doing, even if we had no clue what was in store for us. We are so lucky to have found careers that will challenge us and reward us (though not always monetarily), and even luckier to have found such incredible friends in our travels together.

Met the tiny new person

I met the new baby today. It was awesome! I hope her parents weren't freaked out by the fact that I held her for an hour (I swear I didn't know it was that long). She is adorable and funny-looking, in that wizened way that all brand-new babies are. She made extremely funny faces. I had no idea that all those little muscles were so mobile so young. Her big sister was awesome too; when the little one started crying (as little ones are wont to do), Sister came over with a very worried expression and when the crying didn't stop, Sister started to cry too. Poor babies. Being an older sister myself, I know she is in for a difficult transition time, but I think she's going to do great. She was already helping mom with the baby's diaper change (when she's still in diapers herself!).

I hope I can continue to go and get my baby/kid-fix from our wonderful new neighbors. I feel so incredibly lucky to have such an awesome family living so close by! I really hope this is the start of something great.

Visitors

I just randomly checked my Sitemeter stats. Since I assume I have very few readers (Hi Aous! And PJ!), I assume that my two visitors a day are just those two compulsively checking in (and since I know at least one of them uses Google Reader, I know that's not really the case).

So I was shocked, shocked I say, to discover that I have had visitors from all over the world. I'm sure most of them randomly stumbled upon this blog, and left quickly thereafter, but I am intrigued as to how any of my readers get here (regardless of how long they stay). Maybe you googled "slash wedding," which is apparently a hot search, and also one I am ranked shockingly high on (to this post). Maybe you even googled "Sazzing" itself. If you are one of these clever people, I am very curious: were you looking for me? If not, what were you hoping to find? I won't be at all sad if it really was not me you were anxiously googling for.

In summary: hooray for visitors! And since people actually read this, perhaps I should try to make it a little more interesting. Sadly, I am very poor at writing scathingly funny things about people close to me (who might get wind of this blog). That would be interesting to read, I think, but you shan't find any of that here, alas.

So, tell me how you got here!

Pass it on

I've had the link to this site starred and marked "unread" for quite some time in my Google Reader, fully intending t send it along to my linguist friends. And I keep forgetting to send it. So I'm posting it here, for them and for anyone else who likes to laugh. A lot. One of the funniest things I've read in quite some time:

So You Want to Learn Japanese

Posting for posting's sake

Just made it back from a fun party, ready for bed. We go home tomorrow. Thanksgiving was great, I'll never be hungry again. My cousin had to put her beloved dog of 14 years down today, and since we sort of knew it was coming, I got some great ones of him and her together this morning. I'll try to post them later when I get them uploaded. I also got to see my friend Alicia (yay!), so that was wonderful. We went shopping for funfetti cake stuff. It rocked. Hope everyone had a great turkey day!

Thanks to give

Since I'm not sure if the place we are going to eat (and see family) has la Internet, I'll post now. I was going to post about the pretty new coat I found yesterday for an unbelievable price, but I realized that I should probably be a little more respectful of the day and all the good things it represents (aside from parades, football, gluttony, and triptophan-induced naps).

I'm thankful that we got to see our families and spend some wonderful time with them.

I'm thankful that my brother and I get along so much better than we did ten years ago (or even 5). He's a really awesome person now and I'm thankful I get to hang out with him and laugh my ass off. (Great thing is, I know he reads this, so I don't actually have to say this in person. Ahh, technology).

I'm thankful that my parents have dealt with their empty nest quite well and are now having a wonderful time with their world travels and I hope they can continue them in the future.

I'm very thankful for my wonderful husband and everything he does. I'm also incredibly thankful that he's found a career that he loves and has a great future ahead of him.

I'm thankful for all the great people in my life, wherever they are, and for the impact each one has had on my life.

I'm also thankful that I don't have to eat again for another 5 hours. I'm still full from yesterday.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Have a safe and restful time, and try not to put yourself into a total food coma.

When Las Vegas IS home

Sitting in the airport, waiting for our flight to Vegas, Peter leans over and says, "I forget. We're just going home, but everyone else is going to Vegas." We're anticipating family, friends and food; our co-passengers are anticipating jackpots, shows and food. Very different perceptions, different experiences and different expectations of the same city. I'm happy for these people with their excitement for the experience, but I've flown on enough flights in and out of Vegas to know that the flights going in are always better.

I'm vicariously internet famous!

OMG. So, go to Cute Overload, and look at the very first picture (or scroll down a little if it's tomorrow now). See the adorable kitty and the adorable girl holding the "Absolutely YES!" sign? That's my friend Jess from high school! She and her now-fiance (yay!) came out to Boulder this summer (he's actually from here) so we got to have a drink with them and Colin's very cool family at the Dushanbe teahouse. I will try and see if I have a pic of us together (I'm pretty sure I do) just to prove it! I'm internet-famous by proxy!

I was so stinking excited when I saw this (I was following the saga before I even know who this "Jess" was, as Colin actually proposed on Cute Overload) that I made Peter pause Transformers. He seriously thought I was CRAZY for being so excited (before he knew what it was all about). Boy does not like his Transformers interrupted, I guess. But I think he understood once I told him! I'm so excited for them! They are a great couple, and wonderful people and I think they will be very happy together for a long time. Congrats, you two!

The Video!

Events

Ladies and germs, if you are in Boulder and have no plans this Tuesday night, head over to the UMC for the GSA's drag show, wherein Aous and I will be belly dancing. Fun times will be had by all! (Mature rating, costumes welcome). The festivities begin at 8 PM, and we will be towards the very end.

Loving Sunday, Dreading Monday

Man, Sundays are great. Especially when you take the time to truly have a day of rest (seriously, I think all those religious traditions are onto something!). Peter and I both had naps today, though at different times. I have spoken before about my passion for naps, and today was a wonderful example of why. Drowsy afternoon, full belly from lunch, sunny but with a chill in the air and no appointments to make. Wonderful!

We went to the wedding of a friend of mine from school yesterday in Colorado Springs. It was the first time we had been there, but it probably won't be the last. It's actually a lot closer than we thought! Another good thing that happened yesterday: The Buffs WON! Amazing. I keep thinking about those of little faith, the scoffers and the disbelievers who didn't want to give
Coach Hawkins a chance. I hope they are changing their tune now! My family has followed him for several years now, since he was at Boise State, because one of my high school classmates from Reno went and played for him up there. He took that team from exactly the kind of fame Idaho has always had, and brought them to the national spotlight with the Fiesta Bowl game last year (even if he wasn't actually the coach, it was his recruits and his former coaching staff).

You could see the spirit even last year. I don't really know sports, I will admit, but even at some of the games last year, it just seemed like if we only had a little more time, we could have made a great comeback. The momentum would shift late in the game, but never soon enough to win. This game, I guess we managed to get *just* enough time to make that amazing field goal with seconds to spare. Now if we can just keep pushing that margin of time back, that would be great!

Well, Monday's less than an hour away now, which makes me sad and excited for next weekend already. I'm just so tired of constantly going with no breaks. Even a lunch hour would be heavenly. I don't know what I would do with all that time. In the meantime, I should probably look at my work for tomorrow and make sure I didn't miss something huge. Merry October too!

Still here

Sorry for the lack of posts, everyone. We had a very social weekend with a wedding shower of Friday (fun!) and house guests Friday through Sunday (also fun!). But the combo meant that free time was spent working on homework and assignments, so, it was not actually free time.

Exciting things:
We went to the football game on Saturday and roasted in the sun but CU won overwhelmingly, and winning is very fun, especially when last two games and last season were not-so-hot. The best part is that a lot of the good plays were made by freshman, so that really shows the rebuilding process is in full swing. Why I love our new coach: ""We've won four games in two years so we're just trying to win a football game against anybody," Hawkins said."

Picture from the game (in the student section with two of the girls in my program):

Weather was CRAZY today! Woke up to buckets of rain pouring down, complete with thunder and lightning. At 6:30 AM people! This simply does not happen here. Rain, especially accompanied by thunder, comes at 3 PM in August. That is it. Even crazier is that it rained all day. Not as heavy as the morning, but steady and more than a drizzle most of the time. They are saying we'll be above our average for the month already just after today. Crazy style, but good.

Easter Party 2.0

Today we had our second annual Easter brunch (yes, I'm aware we were a day early, but that's how the fates aligned this year). Last year, we had an easter egg hunt in our living room, a bunch of great people, good food and a ton of fun. Part of me was a little worried this year wouldn't live up to last year's fiesta (it was the only party we had that people still talked about months after the fact). Would people be too busy on Saturday? How could we top last year's egg hunt?

Thankfully, I needn't have worried. We have awesome friends and the weather was extra crappy, so I guess we were the best thing going :-) That, and Peter had plans to expand the hunt considerably. I accidentally bought way more eggs than he had planned (they were on sale!), so we had 103 and a half eggs to hide in our rather small apartment living room. Amazingly, it wasn't that hard at all and we could have hid many more quite easily (next year, Gadget, next year).

Thanks to my sell-out video, I learned how easy and fun stop-motion movies are, so I decided to make this my next project. Want to see how crazy 20 people hunting for 100 eggs in 250 square feet is? Check out the video:


Looks like fun, huh? Join us next year when we hide 200 (or more?) eggs!