Teeth, Snow, Cats, Rinse, Repeat

Teeth

I am almost beyond giddy from packing and prepping for my DC and Austin trip, so why not wrap the evening/early morning with a blog entry?

My braces are gone! Here's the first official photo of me with super straight teeth and no braces. After two years of canker sores and 

crazy rubber bands, I have vowed that I will wear my retainer ALWAYS. I'm so serious I have three sets to ensure redundancy.

I'm surprised how much more confident I feel. Worrying about spinach or popping my rubber bands took its toll on my confidence level during social situations. Even without braces, I was extremely self-conscious about my teeth. I'm not saying my teeth are gorgeous, but I can't deny I am super appreciative to Dr. Harter for crafting an awesome smile without resorting to breaking my jaw or installing a crazy mega-robot appliance in my mouth.  

Snow

For those who didn't hear, Athens had a massive snowstorm over the weekend. We received over 6.5 inches of fluffy white snow on Sunday. The Potters fared well -- we lost internet and phone for 8 hours, power for about 15 minutes and our front and backyards were covered in broken tree limbs. I cleaned the kitchen and baked cupcakes to take my mind off of the sounds of cracking and

 breaking tree limbs and trees. Wondering if the next tree to topple over would be the 10 trees next to our house was completely nerve-wracking. 

The next day was a bit of a shock. Jonathan and I waited until Monday afternoon to survey the damage to our neighborhood. Willow Run, the street that runs perpendicular to us, looked like a tornado hit it. Before the snowstorm, Athens received fairly heavy rains for about three days. Adding heavy snow to Georgia trees was a recipe for disaster. There were over four large trees that fell over, their roots completely exposed. Luckily, no one in our neighborhood was hurt, and only a few houses were damaged.

On the positive side, Bruce Lee experienced his first snow. I thought he would refuse to walk 

on it, but Bruce surprised me. At first he shook out each paw as he walked, trying to shake the snow off his paw before placing another paw into the snow. He canvassed our backyard for about ten minutes before deciding he had enough.

Cats, Rinse, Repeat

It is time to wrap this up and head to bed. I will leave you with my new favorite picture of the Potter boys. George MacGyver reminds me of a drunk college kid who is laughing at his own joke. Jonathan reminds me the sober friend who is annoyed and wishes his friend would pipe down. Bruce is the friend who is attempting to ignore them both and is counting the minutes until it's time to go home. It's just a typical day at the Potters.

Tomorrow, my memory (with a tad of balloons)

According to my Oracle calendar, tomorrow is my mom's birthday. Her birthday is wedged between two meeting reminders, slightly emphasized by a different font color.

Long before calendars lived within the ethers of the internet, I owned a personal calendar before I ever knew what a check book was all about. Much to my chagrin, I picked up a friend's checkbook thinking it was her calendar. Oops! I loved when October rolled around and my friends were hocking personal calendars in the throes of fundraising. Would the new year call for bears, balloons or galloping horses -- how would year 19xx be defined?

Personal calendars were a necessity for the odd way my brain catalogues information. I would be an ideal police witness.

Detective: Could you please describe the man?

Me: He was 6'2", medium build, short brown hair...the color of chestnuts. Dark brown eyes...he smelled like Clorox mixed with Glade Strawberry Essence. And he was wearing a thin red sweater that looked like something you'd buy at Old Navy. His jeans were a totally different story. They were a cheap bootcut, dark denim with two small worn areas on the left knee. Oh, and this wasn't the first time I saw this man. I remember seeing him over a year ago at Dairy Queen. He had a full beard and wore khakis...

Detective: Seriously, you remember what he wore last year?

Me: Yes, seriously, I do.

Ok, so why would someone who has this kind of memory need a calendar? It's odd...I have a hard time retaining dates and times. I would have rocked History 101 so much more if I have wrapped my mind around dates.

So luckily calendar usage is super in vogue...

Which brings me back to Mom's birthday.

When she was alive, I could never remember her birthday. I knew it was in mid-February. My best friend's birthday was also in mid-February, so mid-February was on my radar, just nothing specific.

My mom is no longer here and now I'm left with this weird side effect of waking up every morning counting down the days to her birthday (February 19th). Unlike every other date of importance (holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, Cinco de Mayo), I no longer need a reminder for my mom's birthday. Unlike a non-sensical RGB hex color value, her eyes, her voice and what she wore the day I was married, are the things that have added the emphasis that no calendar can provide.

So tomorrow I will wake up, make a quick visit to the chiropractor, attend some meetings and eat dinner with Jonathan and some friends. It will be a typical day for me with the exception that I will use my lunch hour to buy my mom some flowers for her grave site.

Mom, if you can hear me, let me be the first one to wish you a happy birthday. I love you.

Where has the weekend gone?

Between cleaning the bathroom, washing over seven loads of laundry and cooking, it dawned on me that my weekend was almost over. 

Luckily, week wasn't totally lost to drudgery. I had a fantastic adventure to Canopy Studios. My friends Emily and Jen took part in a beautiful piece titled Love. The costumes and music matched the harmony of dance and expression, making for a pretty wonderful Saturday night. I am pretty impressed that so many people my age and older were able to bend, flip and twirl with which looked to be the greatest of ease. On more than one occasion I thought how many visits to the massage therapist and chiropractor I would have to book after one false move. On the other hand, I survived snowboarding without any regrets. I'll keep you posted on whether or not I end up trying my hand at trapeze...especially if I end up roping Jonathan into the adventure. Even if I don't end up attempting a trapeze workshop, I have resolved to locating an adult-sized swing set. I miss swinging.

It's time for bed again...

2008 at a glance continues

August 2008 - Attended my very first An Event Apart in San Francisco. It was hands down the most advanced and applicable web conference of my career. The giddy geek in me was super-psyched to finally meet two of my web heros, Eric Meyer and Jeffrey Zeldman, after following their blogs and reading their books since 2001. While in the area, I visited my sister-in-law in Palo Alto. Among the amazing sites was the Google campus in Mountain View and hiking through the Windy Hill Open Space preserve.

Jonathan and I finished the month off with our first Dragon*Con in Atlanta, GA. We spotted Gandolf, Hellboy, the Dude, Spiderman, Boba Fett, and the Joker, but were never able to locate any hobbits. Jonathan also achieved his life long dream of standing next to Ariel in his Alice in Chains t-shirt.

September 2008 - Jonathan and I traveled to Washington, DC for the NBMBA conference. There were sites, sounds, a lots of MBAs, but my absolute biggest deal (top 10 in my lifetime) was that I was able to meet Colin Powell. It was a truly amazing moment.

October 2008 - Jonathan and I traveled to Breckenridge, CO to fulfill my latest dream of learning to snowboard. The city itself was beautiful and the people were very welcoming. I still can't believe I was actually able to stand up and slide down a (bunny) slope. I can't wait for my next snowboarding adventure!

Eek, it's time for bed again. Hopefully I'll finish 2008 by tomorrow. Until then, cheers!

It's time for a reboot...2008 at a glance

Dear Blogosphere,

I am sorry for the extended absence. I'm embarrassed that I have over three unpublished blog drafts queued, dating from October 2008 to Jan 2009. I vow to do better.

Now, on to the blogging....

I'm a little shocked I made it through 2008 without publishing a blog post. Here are some highlights:

• Jan 2008 - I campaigned for Barack Obama in Anderson, SC. Volunteering during the SC primary was my first experience taking part in a political campaign. While I've lobbied for human rights in the past, I've never ponied up for a politician. Campaigning door to door in one of South Carolina's poorest neighboorhoods was a very sobering experience.
  
  
• May 2008 - I attended the HOW Design Conference in Boston, MA. It was a refreshing change of pace from the tech-heavy web conferences I usually attend. HOW reminded me that color and type were beautiful, and not just tools for information and marketing. I also ate lots of awesome chowdah and Boston Cream pie.
  
  
• June 2008 - Jonathan and I threw our first baby couples baby shower for our friends Ed and Mary. We learned that tater tots are popular among both children and adults.
  
  
• July 2008 - Jonathan and I spent Independence Day at Chateau Elan. We had an amazing time walking the trails, swimming, drinking wine, and enjoying the fireworks display. I also learned how to swing a golf club for the first time. I'm a surprisingly decent putter!