For the record, I loved "I am Charlotte Simmons"

Yes, I realize it has been a very long time since my last entry. No apologies though, because if I had written one, it probably would have...not been very good. Not because life hasn't been interesting (because it most certainly has been!), but because my mind has been elsewhere, and I would not have given the blog post the thought it deserved. This one isn't going to be fantastic either, but I thought I could at least give two thumbs up to the book I finished back in May, "I am Charlotte Simmons."

This was my description:

I am Charlotte Simmons
by Tom Wolfe

This is another book recommended by Matt… I just packed it in my bag on the way to Deer Valley in case I finished “Into thin Air”…which I did, and began reading the hard copy of I am Charlotte Simmons on the plane ride back. It’s a long book, but I’m only 25 pages in and have a feeling I’m going to love it...time to charge up the nook…

“The novel centers on Charlotte, a naive new student at Dupont University, a school boasting a top-ranked basketball program and an Ivy League academic reputation. Despite Dupont's elite status, in the minds of its students, sex, alcohol, and social status rule the day. The student culture is focused upon gaining material wealth, physical pleasure and a well-placed social status; academics are only important insofar as they help achieve these goals.”

Well, I got my nook ready, but Barnes & Noble didn't even offer it. LAME! So, I read the hard copy and loved every minute of it. I think this may actually be my new favorite book! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

I finished it while Matt and I were in Virgin Gorda this May... which obviously deserves its own post...maybe I'll get to it someday...

Happy Veterans Day! 11-11-11

we all have bad days.

Monday, I had a bad evening...came home, did not eat, and wrote a bad blog (complete with obscenities)...I posted it...then deleted it... so, I am replacing it with the lyrics of the first song that popped up on my run on Tuesday evening. U2's "Some days are better than others"... the song says it much cleaner than I did...

...and what's funny is that I don't think I had ever actually listened to the song before Tuesday... ironic, don't you think?


U2 Some days are better than others

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfm0nGiN46o

Some days are dry, some days are leaky
Some days come clean, other days are sneaky
Some days take less, but most days take more
Some slip through your fingers and onto the floor
Some days you're quick, but most days you're speedy
Some days you use more force than is necessary
Some days just drop in on us
Some days are better than others

Some days it all adds up
And what you got is not enough
Some days are better than others

Some days are slippy, other days sloppy
Some days you can't stand the sight of a puppy
Your skin is white but you think you're a brother
Some days are better than others

Some days you wake up with her complaining
Some sunny days you wish it was raining
Some days are sulky, some days have a grin
And some days have bouncers and won't let you in

Some days you hear a voice
Taking you to another place
Some days are better than others

Some days are honest, some days are not
Some days you're thankful for what you've got
Some days you wake up in the army
And some days it's the enemy

Some days are work, most days you're lazy
Some days you feel like a bit of a baby
Lookin' for Jesus and His mother
Some days are better than others

Some days you feel ahead
You're making sense of what she said
Some days are better than others

Some days you hear a voice
Taking you to another place
Some days are better than others

my brain has blown away 'Into Thin Air'

SO… I FINALLY finished “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer…

It only took me… oh… 4months… But that is no indication of the quality of the book.. it’s more an indication of my...er.. lack of…er.. um.. I’ve just been lazy. I haven’t been writing blogs, I haven’t been reading, I haven’t been working out.. ugh. I am getting stupid, fat, and grumpy. Ugh.

But I finally finished it on the plane on the way to Deer Valley, Utah… :)

The book was good and sad and true. I would recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in what happened on Mt. Everest the summer of 1996 and looking for a book to read…

‘Into Thin Air’ deserves a much better review than this… but…I can’t bring myself to think critically, and I wanted to acknowledge it before too much time passed…

namaste

Deer Valley, I am lucky. Love, Tina

Right now I am on a plane, Delta flight 1802 from Salt Lake City, Utah to Atlanta, Georgia. Sitting first class, buzzed off of the Cranberry Vodka cocktail I downed in the Crown Room prior to boarding. I am lucky.

I’ve always (well, not ‘always’-but for the majority of my late teen to adult life) said I do not believe in luck. I don’t really. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Every single itty bitty decision you make every day prepares you, leads you, places you where you are today. Every one. How you dress. How you speak. What you say. What you eat. Everything you do every second of every day effects what will happen the next second, the next day…I believe that. Things happen because of and for a reason. Cause and effect.

But sometimes… I can’t imagine what I have done to deserve the life that I am currently living. I am humbled. And grateful.

Exactly to what or whom I am grateful, I am not currently sure…but that is for another day. Another path. Another story.

For this particular trip, I owe my appreciation to my husband, Matt. Last year, he had a particularly lucrative year work-wise, and to reward him (and everyone else who made the President’s Club quota – which was about twenty others on the sales team) and a significant other, the company treated us to a five day four night stay at the Montage in Deer Valley, Utah.

*Side Note – it is quite funny to me to see how those who can afford a vacation on their own dime are rewarded with nice vacations (or something else expensive), while those who are ‘struggling’ or just not quite as well off have to pay their own way for everything. I guess the title of Truett Cathy’s book “It’s Easier to Succeed than Fail” really is true. I’ve been on each side and can clearly see the rewards of competence, hard work and most importantly - timing. It’s exponential.

**double side note- I just finished a much stronger Cranberry Vodka cocktail (it is 3:22 Utah time, but 5:22 Georgia time…so I can truthfully say, “It’s five o’clock somewhere”…and it’s Sunday…so do not judge me for the third cocktail I am about to order. Thank you.). I am particularly enjoying the pleasure of being buzzed. I would love to be in the state eternally…but will try to refrain from becoming an alcoholic… only for the damage it will do to my waistline… because right now, I think that’s the only harm it could do. I am much more interesting, fun, and insightful while slightly under the influence…

But anyway… about the trip…

The Montage is a brand new hotel… like…brand spanking new. It was finished only two months ago. And it is fabulous. The architecture and landscaping were just right (not overdone. more like a natural, understated mountain lodge)…but the service and other ‘small things’ made it …well… worth it (‘it’ being the money we would’ve paid had Matt’s company not footed the bill). The bathroom tiles were heated (I would love to do this to our house at some point in our relatively distant future. There is nothing worse (actually there are a lot of things worse – but I’m using this phrase for emphasis on how much I enjoyed the heated flooring.) than stepping out of a comfortably hot shower onto a cold tile bathroom floor.); they heated your snow boots, so they were nice and toasty when we were ready to put them on and hit the slopes; they helped you put your boots and skis on if you wanted; they left decadent chocolate covered caramels in a cute little silver box at the foot of your bed during the turndown service…and the food was excellent.

That is just the hotel. Now I’ll tell you about our experience.

The first day.

We landed in Salt Lake City Wednesday afternoon, jumped on the 45min shuttle from the airport to the hotel with several other SecureWorks couples, then checked in. Of course, upon check-in we had an escort show us around the resort… where to go shopping, where to get fitted for skis, where to eat, where to snack on the complimentary s’mores from 4-5 everyday ;)… Then, after receiving our luggage from the bellman, took a nap ((It’s amazing to me how hard traveling kicks my ass. I sit on an airplane for 3hours and 45 minutes with ample opportunity to nap and very limited calories being burned, and all I want to do is take a nap when we arrive. WTF, Man?)before treating ourselves to the s’mores (with homemade vanilla, cinnamon, and peppermint marshmallows) and trekking over to Compass Sports. We talked with the ‘ski experts’ and were fitted with beginner/intermediate skis. Matt owns his own boots and helmet, but I was fitted for those, as well. And, as I’ve come to expect…I had to wear men’s boots because my feet are so damn big… at least they were brand new...

After that, we went back to the hotel and prettied ourselves up for the SecureWorks’ dinner. We grabbed a drink, mingled with the big wigs (who are actually quite personable and a pleasure to be around), ate dinner, and roasted a few more marshmallows before heading back to bed...yes. I realize, it's a tough life...

The second day.

The next morning we grabbed a bagel and coffee at “Buzz,” the coffee/dessert/breakfast shop at the Montage, on our way to pick up our skis and hit the slopes (this became our ritual). I was particularly nervous, as I have only skied a couple of times…and the last time was a couple of years ago… but, I strapped up and hit the greens… it wasn’t so bad, and by lunch time we were skiing blues without falling on our asses… actually I don’t think either of us fell the first day, which is quite impressive in my book considering the level of slopes we decided to tackle.

We pushed ourselves pretty hard for a few hours, then dropped back by the resort to grab lunch at Apex (he had a burger and I had a pulled pork sandwich). Without much ado we geared back up and hit the mountains once again…finally calling it a day around 3:30 and jumping in the hot tub for half an hour. *on the first day, we ran into SecureWorks’ CTO Jon R. both times out and skied a few runs with him…he was a little better than us, so decided to go his own way after getting a taste for our skill level…

That night (Thursday), we had private reservations with the CEO and the other best of the best 2010 performers at Mariposa...cracked open several bottles of Caymus Special Selection and enjoyed a fine dinner with excellent company...It was probably 10pm Georgia time, before we actually started eating, but we all had a blast and enjoyed every bite...before we fell asleep on the 10min shuttle back to the hotel (just kidding - we didn't fall asleep, but we - or at least I - could have...)

The third day.

Friday, we were a little late to the slopes (finally jumping on a chairlift pretty close to 10am)…and I was damn sore. After a couple of hours, I had fallen several times and was losing my sense of fun, so I hit greens back to the resort and walked around in my running shoes…which felt fantastic after wrestling my way around in ski boots and fighting my way up and down the mountain in 6ft skis with sore muscles… but Matt stayed out** and we met back up and ate lunch at the resort pub, Daily’s, around 2 o’clock. (he had fish and chips, and I had a bbq chicken pizza.) We debated hitting the slopes again, but decided to save ourselves for more fun on Saturday (it was getting really windy and the visibility was minimal –which doesn’t make for great skiing), and hit the hot tub once again to treat our muscles… **while I was out monkeying around the hotel, Matt had accidentally made his way to a black diamond and flipped down the mountain with an excellent story to tell.. you should ask...

We went back to the hotel and took a nap… (well, I did, while Matt went to the mandatory employee only meeting)… then headed to Park City around 7pm to walk down Main Street and shop before our 9pm reservations at Zoom (Robert Redford’s restaurant). It was windy and snowy, but we enjoyed ourselves and bought a few trinkets. We met Matt’s good friend (and colleague) Dan B and our CTO Jon R at the restaurant and enjoyed WAAYY to much food… two mac n cheese appetizers, spicy buffalo onion rings, calamari, Osso Bucco for Matt, Pecan Crusted Trout for me, and Hanger steak for Jon and Dan, then we each got desserts…. Jon and I had something chocolate, while Matt had two scoops of ice cream and Dan had cheesecake…. We wobbled home…again...

The fourth day.

Saturday, we got up early and were on the slopes by 9:20…hit a couple of greens on our way to what quickly became our favorite blue, “Nabob,” and enjoyed a couple of hours of this run and “Birdseye”… We felt ourselves getting better and better and loved how wide, steep and not-so-crowded this particular run was… especially in the morning…on the BEST snow yet… but.. unfortunately, I had to call it an early day, as I had a spa appointment at two ;)… we grabbed a little lunch at Daily’s again (he had the fish and chips and I had chicken fingers and fries), and I headed back to the room to prepare for my massage while he went back out on the mountain….

So, I change and get to the spa about 30 minutes early to take advantage of all of the amenities (sauna, steam shower, private hot tub, fruit infused water…you know... the usual ;)… then they called me back to a room with an unbelievable snow covered mountain view… it was phenomenal… afterwards, I ran into a couple of other SecureWorks’ wives in the lounge… I mentioned I couldn’t hang out because of our appointment to bobsled at five required us to be in the lobby and ready to go at 4… She retorted with… “are you going with Dan?”… “yes”… “He broke his wrist…” uh oh… and another story begins…

...to be continued...the plane is descending and our friends Megan and Skip are cooking for us tonight...so it will be awhile..

p.s. sorry for the play by play - but not only am I writing for you, but also for me...so that I remember what we did each day... I'll try to make the next one a little shorter and juicier... and maybe I won't be quite so 'buzzed'... :)

Snowed in...

Soo.. trying to pick up where I left off…

*As a side note, Matt and I finally got his car today. We tried yesterday, but the wheels were not getting him anywhere! It was a little frustrating, quite funny and a touch scary…so I video recorded it. :) He has a very nice car (M3) and we had to rely on my car ( ’06 Accord coupe) to get us through the snow...hm… not sure what to think here…

... Back to Christmas morning…We had a great time at my parents’, and then drove back to Atlanta to spend Christmas evening with his family for dinner. Many years back, his parents came up with a fun way to celebrate Christmas, and I was very excited to be a part of the unique tradition that I had heard so much about. I don’t want to give away the family secrets, but it was a popping good time!

...Coming from my family’s, where my siblings have 4 kids (ages 13, 9, 4 and 2), and there is a lot of music, screaming, laughing and…chaos…pretty much constantly. Then going to his family’s, where his only sister has one little boy, age 1… things are slightly (understatement!) quieter. (I debated using the word(s) more peaceful, but in all honesty, there is something peaceful about kids making lots of racket too…) I am so thankful to be a part of both of these families! Though the atmospheric conditions were quite different, they were both loads of fun!

Meanwhile, back in the car, as we are driving over to his parents’ on Christmas evening, it started snowing! Do you know how long it has been since Atlanta, GA has had a white Christmas??? 128 years according to one of my friends on Facebook! One hundred and twenty-eight years! 1882!

…and mine and Matt’s first Christmas was white!

That’s iconic for us because of more than just the obvious…

Our first date in late February 2009 was in the snow (and you know how important those are!). We had plans to go to a sushi place – I think he was planning for Taka. But, because of the predicted snow storm, many, in fact I would venture to say most, restaurants in Atlanta closed. I double checked with him to make sure we were even still on for the date, and he assured me that his car would be just fine (mind you, it’s the same car that got stuck in the snow two days ago…I guess timing is everything:)). To be honest, I was nervous to be out on the roads in the ‘bad weather.’ However, he picked me up confidently, and as he was waiting for me to come down, managed to find a restaurant that was open...Craft. Only one of the top two nicest restaurants in Atlanta… no big deal …are you kidding!? It just happened that they had an opening, because no one was coming out ‘in the storm.’ We received lots of attention from the staff and had a wonderful time!

*I keep putting the strong comments about the weather in quotes, because by the time 7:30pm rolled around, it wasn’t bad weather at all. There was snow left on the ground and it was cold, but the roads were fine and a ‘wintery mix’ was no longer falling.

Not only that, but our second first date was also in the snow. We were again headed to sushi, Circle Sushi this time. Thankfully, this was over lunch, and the restaurants hadn’t had time to decide to shut down for the day. *I guess you could technically say that this wasn’t really a date, because we were just going to lunch as friends. But this was the lunch that led to our marriage… As soon as we got in the car, ‘our song’ started playing on his radio and everything just fell into place… a month or so later, we were engaged to live happily ever after…

And now for the less mushy iconic snow for me…

Most of you probably know that I have been giving my career a lot of thought lately (why not? Everything else is changing…) Over the last few months, I went on several interviews and talked to quite a few recruiters over the phone. But one day, I had a few girls over for girls’ night. One of my friends brought one of her friends (that I had met once or twice before) and we went out and had a good time. Long story short, the next day, the friend of a friend (who I hope to soon just switch to ‘friend’) sent a job description at her company to me. Seemed like a perfect fit. So after a few conversations, they brought me in for a face - to- face…and whatdya know… it was snowing…

I had two offers, the other of which was much better pay, but I got a very good vibe from this company and decided to accept (snow not withstanding:))…my first day was supposed to be today (1-11-11)…and…obviously…it was snowing… so I couldn’t actually start (This time the roads really are too bad.)…I’m just saying…I have a good feeling:)…and you know what I think about trusting your gut!

Could all of the snow on these special occasions really be happenstance? Yes. But, those are some crazy odds.

Catching up...

Hello again! It’s been almost two full months since I last posted… and, good gracious, do I have a lot to talk about!

So, let’s begin with the end…

In order to close 2010 with the bang it deserved (considering the many life changing events it surprised me with), I decided to go ahead and quit my job (not without two offers to consider -one of which I accepted, of course) and take a couple of weeks ‘off’ to refresh, work on the house, and spend Christmas and New Years with the people I love.

My last working hours at SecureWorks were on December 23, and I had every intention of making a daily habit of blogging, working out, and other things productive. Interestingly enough, however, the two goals that I clarified were the two that I didn’t stick with…argh… That doesn’t seem right- according to the billions of studies about new year’s resolutions and plain ol’ goal setting… but…oh well… it is what it is… and now I have a lot of catching up to do (with the blog AND my waistline - considering all of the delicious sweet treats I did not stop eating over the holidays…)….Catching up sucks. (Unless you’re catching up with old friends or Grey’s Anatomy…)Slimming down the waist line is hard work, and much more fun if you don’t ‘have’ to do it (Unless you’re burning off the extra calories snorkeling in the Caribbean or hiking through the rainforest to zip line in Costa Rica- but then you’re skimping on the alcohol or desserts…so I really wouldn’t prefer losing weight while on vacation... but anyway…)

The holidays were very nice. This was mine and Matt’s first Christmas together, ever! Have I mentioned lately how much I love him? I would not prefer it any other way! We ate too much on Thanksgiving (traveling to both families for meals con delicioso!), and trekked up to North Carolina with his folks and Skip the Sunday afterwards to pick out and cut down our very own live, first Christmas tree! What a great time! The farm was huge and complete with hundreds of gorgeous, full, (<-Kim, notice intended use of Harvard comma), and well-shaped Christmas trees. We had a hard time choosing (just) one, but finally decided and were very happy with ‘the one.’

Though it didn’t appear ginormous at the farm, by the time we got it home, we realized that it was 8ft tall and 6ft wide… We knew it was 8ft tall, but the 6ft wide part threw us for a spin…Big thanks to his folks for hauling it on the Tahoe for us! Though the tree was bigger than we intended, it really worked out well, considering we didn’t have any furniture for the room we were going to put it in :)… It served a great purpose for the month of December, and, after taking it down, I strongly considered finding another (less conspicuous) tree to put in its place…but decided on a bookshelf… I don’t think the books live up to the tree, so unfortunately for them, they won’t live there permanently… but anyway…

Christmas was lovely. Matt and I personalized matching stockings and bought a cute felt one for Anastasia, our cat. I debated personalizing hers too…but decided against it… I’m not sure why and may change my mind for next year… The two of us exchanged gifts on the 23rd, and on the 24th drove down to my parents’ and had Christmas with aunts and cousins over BBQ & Brunswick stew. Yummy - and a wonderful time. Then we had Christmas morning with my parents and brother and sister and their families. That is always a pleasure. This year we decided to do things a little differently and play the white elephant game with the siblings. It was a good time, and I came home with Vodka, coffee and other things that work well with the two…

Ok…I am stopping here for tonight’s blog… Matt got stuck in the snow on the way home from a work dinner, and I had to go ‘save’ him… He had to park about 2 miles away from our house and walk home by himself in clothes designed, well - for dinner - not for walking two miles in snow that comes up to your ankles. It was not snowing when he left and was not snowing where he was having dinner…but the weather got bad quickly and Atlanta is just NOT prepared for the snow…Thanks to advice from my well-informed brother, I called the police and all the taxis listed when you google ‘taxi Atlanta’, but no one could pick him up :( Apparently, the police had real accidents to tend to (Matt didn’t get in an accident but his M3 was not made for snowy weather, and after several tries knew it was better to park than fight with it) and the taxis weren’t getting out in this ‘crazy weather.’ Argh… But he is ok now and we are home in comfy warm clothes, a fire, and wine :)

Until next time…stay warm…