There is so much to say about Chicago.
So much. I can't even believe it's real and it's only been 2 days.
Pillow talk with hazel and her wonderful cooking.
Lara, Gina, and Emily facilitating the most incredible change yesterday in me and 30 other people at MTH.
Lara saying to me, "be you, because you is AWESOME."
Making hard decisions.
Meeting 30 wonderful women just like me.
Mastering public transit.
Meeting Wes, and Joe, Helen and their SQUISHABLE little Julesbaby for dinner last night.
Cocktails with Wes at the Whistler.
So many hugs given and received.

Today, the rest of my life begins.
... and I gotta tell you.... it looks pretty wonderful.

Thank you, Chicago.

surprisingly, erik and i had some time off together (which NEVER EVER happens) last week, and we made a grand day of it. breakfast at a great cafe, followed by hiking up flagstaff with the pooch.












it's so fabulous... i couldn't wake up and go hike a mountain in the morning in indiana... it's just amazing here; the sky is bluer than anywhere i've ever seen. loving it here, so much.

DU crit

it occurred to me that i didn't post any of these, what a goof i am!! a few sundays ago, i had the great fun of watching erik and clayton race together once again at the crit put on in downtown Denver by DU.























both of those big sweetiesssss:


i just love caroline's gestures when talking, hahah:


another great day spent with great people.

My favorite Fridays

the first friday of every month is pretty much my favorite friday every month.... the little velodrome in boulder holds a pretty great evening of racing, complete with beer from the wonderful Oskar Blues brewery just outside of boulder. it's always a good time with good people, and i must say, one of my favorite events is the kids' race... it's almost as good as putting down dollar bets on the races at the bloomington speedway (ahem, geraint)!

enjoy highlights from my favorite friday evenings.































also, i realize that i should be doing more photo-ing of race things.

Just a little post to say how excited I am... Tom, Kerry, and Lyle all decided on photos to blow up for the wall at the Bake House and there's a nice big spread of my photos there now, so honored to be on the wall at one of my favorite places!!! (thank you Tom for this photo!!)



Also, Summit City redid their bathrooms with some of my photos, yay.... and they chose one to blow up friggin huge for their new Trek Project One room, check it out! (thanks to James Holm for getting this photo for me, so good!)



On a little side note, I discovered Tapas hour at the Med yesterday here in Boulder, and I am now obsessed.

a few years ago, i was working full-time overnights for the department of natural resources in indiana at a campground. i was also working for IU's school of fine arts in the photo lab and working as the tour guide program student director in the office of admissions. i was also smack in the middle of the best few months of college spent living with my two best friends, rachel and erin. i also had this long-term guy in my life and we were pretty happy also. needless to say, i wasn't sleeping much in general, but things were busy and life was pretty full.

one morning, after getting off work at the lake, i plopped myself on the back porch of our house, watched the sun rise, and had this fantastic feeling. i was suddenly overcome with this feeling of intense fullness, and contemplated my life and decided that i had achieved what all people aimed for: i had it all. i did. i had EVERYTHING. great friends, great jobs, great boyfriend, a great college experience, great bike, my dream car, really everything. i spent 15 minutes or so basking in this feeling and feeling so happy and grateful that i had it all, and then I went in the house and continued on with my day, feeling fabulous.

right now, i remember that feeling. i remember how it washed over me, and it really affected my whole outlook on things.
more importantly, however, i remember what happened afterward almost as intensely.
it seemed like once i recognized that i had squeezed the juice out of life and made the best lemonade ever, the world stopped.
everything i had felt so grateful for was almost immediately and abruptly ripped away from me. within a week, my fabulous expensive bike was stolen from my house, my best friend officially moved away, my boyfriend had unceremoniously dumped me, and my car was broken due to an unfortunate run-in with a deer on my way home from work.
my happy world literally fell into a thousand pieces.

it took quite a while to rebuild my life after that, and, i'd say in the years since, i have never really had that feeling again.

well, boys and girls, i had it again.
i was driving to colorado springs this weekend for a photo shoot with carrie, and follow that up with a great visit to caroline and clayton afterward, and i was smacked immediately again with that uncanny feeling of sappy pure contentedness with my life, and that the sky really was the limit and that the world was just full of possibility just for me, and that i have it ALL.
only this time, i was afraid of that feeling, dreading the impending doom of when that feeling goes away, and being afraid of when the sky falls in on me again.
i realized that i have become wary of that feeling and didn't want to let myself feel it. and then... all of a sudden... baz luhrmann's song called "everyone's free (to wear sunscreen)" came on my ipod. and i chose to let myself feel that feeling, grateful for all that i have, even if it is only for 15 minutes.

here's to making that 15 minutes of having it all last a lifetime.

i've got it all.

a great new year's celebration with great people. everyone was super-photogenic, but alycin was just EXTRA photogenic :)

























good year ahead.

happiest of happy?

i had the pleasure of helping caroline and kristen prepare clayton's surprise birthday party! i dont even know if i did anything at the party but run around with a camera and document. it really was a super happy event. more to come, complete with baby teddy freddy absolutely STEALING the show with his cuteness...



















srsly... so many more happy photos to come. i grinned ear to ear looking at all of them.
here's to a many more for clayton!