connections

I can’t believe it’s almost May. Scary that I gave notice on our little rental house today – scary because it means we can’t live here anymore after May. Scary because I have to figure out how to move us again, though this time not so far. Scary because if anything falls through we’ll be homeless. I know, I know, not literally – we’ll know well before May 30 if we need a plan bee. Exciting though too for obvious reasons like we’ll get to move into our OWN house! And paint one wall green for sure. And I’m going to New York in May to visit my sis and her family. And it’s more like summer every day which I LOVE even though there were some flurries today. Oh! And in May I think I’ll get a new mobile phone with a data plan!

Re: phones. I just got the phone bill from when I was in Canada ($0.59/minute with Jesse and I deciding whether or not to accept the seller's counter offer on the house) and it made me think of way back when long distance telephone calls were so expensive. Back then, living in the dorms, I couldn’t call home to talk to my family, or elsewhere to talk to friends, because it was too darn expensive. Not everyone was on email. Even when I nanny-ed, in a real house, I would save my calls for Sunday night after 6pm because it was a nickel a minute. Now, with the interwebs and social media, I can type half as fast as I can speak (which is turtle speed compared to how fast I think, right?) and send any thought to hundreds of “friends” on Facebook with no incremental fee. It’s been awesome to stay in touch with San Diego folks since we moved. And to connect with new folks here in Denver. Still, it’s sad that I connect less often with close friends who are absent from Facebook as I do with distant friends who are active on Facebook. For the purpose of nurturing personal relationships, I honestly think this social networking thing has gone a bit too far – it’s too easy to degrade a rich relationship to one based on the off-handed sharing of mundane crap. Obviously I have mixed feelings – I appreciate and respect online social networking, but it's also not my favorite.

I have to remember to see people, call people, write people, email people (that seems like it shouldn’t belong, but it’s a reality) and FOCUS on people. Limit my mundanity (apparently that’s not a word, it has a red squiggly underline on my screen) to my marriage. Just kidding. And set my privacy settings so that I don’t constantly message virtual strangers and even distant friends. All of this especially given my (soon) new mobile device with data! I hope that my conscientiousness on this will serve my relationships – close and distant – better. Because that’s what it’s all about: who you love and how you show it.

evict MS

Short funny video where MS is played by person who gets evicted. I particularly enjoy the music.

inspections

This morning Jesse and I hopped in my car and drove up to the house to meet the inspector. After a clear well inspection earlier this week, we were anxious to hear from an engineer about the structural, electrical, etc condition of the house. It was raining and we could see new snow on the mountains, but it wasn't until we got WAY too far to turnaround and get the Jeep that we realized there was new snow on the ground in the foothills. Of course there was, right? Dummies. Maybe we need brain inspections in addition to a home inspection. We parked off the road around the bend from the house (because the driveway slopes in to the property and we didn't want to get stranded there just yet). It snowed very prettily for a bit during the inspection - everything went fine for the most part - and we then realized as we were walking away that there were several NEW inches of snow on the road, the car, everything. It was a slippery drive home [understatement] considering my darn-near racing slick tires. Good thing we have the summer to figure out if we want to replace my car and/or add another four-wheel-drive (where would we store my car?). I want a Jeep Wrangler. And we have the summer to arrange for a super duper snow blower. And get a puppy!

Can you tell that I'm excited about the house... it's all feeling very real! I've been looking online at bed frames made from logs - to have a couple of big cabin-like pieces in the place. And the master bedroom is monstrous so we need something big in there. The carpet in the basement will need to come up soon, but, after feeling the radiant heat on my sock-feet today, I'm not afraid of the concrete!

Ah weekend, welcome. How I've missed you. I won't gloat though because I know it's the big Walk MS weekend in San Diego - and those gals are working hard! I've been especially appreciative of my weekends this April. Miss you girls! It's not work when you're surrounded by 3,000 smiles :)

'sconsin

I'm here in Milwaukee, in my sweet room at The Iron Horse Hotel. It's an old warehouse converted to hotel, catering to bikers. Today we filmed Amy for the We Keep Moving project - Jason DaSilva will blog about his experience later this week. The animal rescue foundation that Amy founded only has cats (all the dogs are in foster homes) so I will NOT be coming home with a puppy this trip. Amy lives in Muskego which sounds a lot like mosquito to me, but I didn't see any bugs today.

I've flown through Milwaukee before, but never stayed here... it's supposedly the Beer Capital of the World (which I can't enjoy anymore - wish Jesse was here to drink my share) and CHEESE which I LOVE. The license plates say "America's Dairyland" and I did have some awesome Wisconsin blue cheese on my salad last night - hopefully more tonight. Back to beer: I did see a billboard for Schlitz while driving from the airport. That reminds me that I went past a Molson brewery when I was in Toronto last week - highlight of my sightseeing except for maybe the Hockey Hall Of Fame which I walked by. Apparently there's a Harley Davidson museum near here but I'm not going to have time to check it out as I fly back to Denver in the morning. Speaking of hockey, we got tickets to some Avalanche playoff games - can't wait!

more house pics

In the last few days, two different people mentioned to me that they knew about this house from my blog... I didn't know that anyone read this. Comment every once in a while so you're not just a lurker ;-)

Here are some more pictures. I should've mentioned that it's just under 2500 square feet, at an elevation of about 7680. The siding is vinyl - looks like wood grain. The lower left pic is the walkout basement game/family room with counter and shelves built in. Finally a place to leave my sewing machine that's not under the bed!

My brother John (occasional quasimodo) has a place in the country in central Iowa with septic and I'm pretty sure a well too; he had a lot of questions about the basement walls and pipes. We'll have many inspections this coming week which also means we'll be able to take pictures.

Here's an aerial - I put black dots about where the property corners are. I hope all our inspections go well... because we're in love with this house!

Having just barely caugh up on sleep from Toronto (our live Web forum was a learning experience for me and informative for our audiences, by the way.  Marc / Wheelchair Kamikaze commented on it), I'm ready for another quick trip. Tomorrow I'm off to Muskego, Wisconsin as part of the We Keep Moving project. Excited to meet the crew (Jason DaSilva, Amelia Davis and Kate Milliken) and the woman, Ann, a woman living with MS, who was voted as this week's video subject. She founded an animal shelter and I'm half afraid (and half hopeful) that I'll end up bringing back a puppy. 

under contract

So we’re “under contract” on a house IN THE FOOTHILLS! If all goes well we’ll be in it by Memorial Day. I’ve included some pictures here (sorry they’re so small). They're summer pictures so it looks green - but it's actually not green right now. It’s three bedrooms (one of which is a huge master with a BIG closet [I've never had a real closet before]) and 2 ½ baths (Jesse and I have always survived with one bathroom in the past). It has two levels of wood decks on two sides of the house. It’s all updated, low maintenance, nice steep roof, new kitchen and bathrooms. Much of it is hardwood floors and there's a fireplace! It’s right in the center of its lot... which is just over an acre.

Now for the cons… it’s about 20 miles from my office but did I mention it’s IN THE FOOTHILLS which means the drive will be beautiful, and still not nearly as far or long as my old California commute. More cons: only one-car garage, well and septic tank. I'm going to have to have a different vehicle than the b-clipse/batmobile for winter commuting (which is not necessarily a con). We'll just brush right over those thoughts for the time being.

If all goes well we’ll be IN by the end of May. Holy paperwork batman… stressful signing away that much money! Exciting though to think about a house of our own... even though it will be empty for months since we don't have that much furniture.

In the last few months we have looked at about 40 houses in the suburbs of Denver, and we didn't make an offer on any. When we looked in the foothills, we saw two houses the first weekend (put an offer in on one) and six or so the second weekend - one of which was this one and now here we are! It's obvious to me that we don't belong in the suburbs right now.

early morning

Here I am in beautiful Toronto, after leaving the house at "o'dark thirty" or "dark and early" or "stupid early" or the "butt crack of dawn" or whatever you want to call it. I shouldn't complain - I'm lucky to be able to get out of bed, lucky to have a job to work for and lucky to have a blog on which to talk about it, right? I slept the whole first leg anyway. I made it through customs... places like that always make me feel like I'm doing something wrong, even though I'm NOT! Finally met Arney, who I've been working with for four years now; she's just like I knew she would be: a doll.

On the way from the airport to the hotel - in the cab - I smelled cookies. Like a LOT of cookies! The cabbie (who had a really cool tightly wrapped turban by the way) said there was a bakery nearby. And spoiled as I am, my cookie-smelling ride ended at the harboUr hotel. In a corner room, with a harboUr view.

Much preparation happening for tomorrow's big AAN- and National MS Society-hosted CCSVI live Web forum. It's a huge opportunity for the MS community to get questions answered!

In the meantime we put in an offer on a house... in the mountains! Don't want to talk too much about it so I don't jinx it. Stay tuned.

excerpt from Wheelchair Kamikaze

Next week the Society is sponsoring a live web forum about CCSVI at the AAN – the panel includes the big names in the CCSVI world. I hope that real, hard questions come in, and not just bashing. I'll be there fielding them! I feel like we’re bringing huge resources within reach of people who have questions – it’s not really about the Society. Many of the bloggers that I correspond with have posted the forum registration link; Wheelchair Kamikaze expanded and provided his opinion on the intent of the Society and the opportunity. I appreciate his balanced perspective and candor! Marc wrote:

I spoke with one of the higher-ups at the Society's national headquarters last week, and in the course of our conversation she told me quite emotionally that she and everyone she works with would gladly give up their jobs to find the cure for MS. Cynic that I am, I acknowledge that's just what a person in that position should say, but my gut feeling was that the person on the other end of the line was speaking from the heart, and genuinely felt the tremendous burden of the destructive force that MS has on so many good people.

I spoke with Marc the week before last, or was it last week… I don’t know, time flies. Though I don’t consider myself a higher-up at the Society, I do work at the national headquarters and I said what he indicates. And it’s the truth, obviously. I hate multiple sclerosis. I want nothing more than for it to be gone forever so that NO family ever again has to go through what mine or Marc’s has and is. I do not speak or blog on behalf of the Society – this is all my personal opinion.

I’m going to New York next month to visit my sister and her family and hoping I can catch lunch with Marc while there.

influence

Just got back from visiting the Midwest. Mom was better now - more alert - than I thought she would be and than she was when I was back in January. After we left her Saturday night, my Grandmother said that one time Mom had told her that she felt like she had no influence on anyone or anything in her life. Grandmother told her that she absolutely did have influence, on everyone. Especially on her kids. That we wouldn't be who we are today without her influence - particularly my younger brothers (because according to my Grandmother, my sister and I were "already on the right track"). This is true, Mom has influence on people she doesn't even know. Her story from my video has had over 600 views!

That alone is influence. 600+ strangers beyond her known circle of influence.

I've been thinking about this blog. Why do I do it? What is it about? My Challenge Walk? My work? Backpacking? Gluten? Crafts? My family? Who cares? Do I have readers? For my readers (real or imaginary, just like calculus) and for me... and for the conversation about influence, I decided that it has to be about living. Really living. I have to believe that my readers will appreciate that.

Like when Forrest tells Jenny about all the things he saw when he was running. Actually like much of Forrest Gump and his relationships - it's about life.