Wow!

WOW! I just realized that it's been almost 2 years since I've blogged on this site! I guess I was keeping the blog mainly to let people know where in the heck I am at any given time...

I suppose I should write a quick update:

Last year I met a man named Elijah and his dog Meecho. Together they stole my heart then brought me back to the one place in this world I'd been trying to get back to since I left in 2000. I'm living in Crested Butte, CO and recently started a job as a dental assistant for Elk Avenue Dental Center. Michael Faktor is the dentist and there is a great team of amazing women that I work with. I've only been doing this for about a week and a half but I'm loving it. there is so much to learn and I love being challenged.

I also accepted a job with Luna Bar to do their mobile marketing for Lilith Fair (A music festival to celebrate women) this summer. Lucky for me Dr. Faktor hired me and is letting me leave the office for 8 weeks to take advantage of this amazing opportunity with Luna Bar! I am truly blessed to have such an amazing boss and team of patient co-workers who are excited for my adventure! I suppose that brings me to the blog...

I am re-starting my blog so that people who feel compelled can follow my adventures on the road.

I hope I can keep you entertained while I'm "on the road again"...

feel free to comment and keep in touch I'd love the company.

Bussin it to Chi-town

on the road again... yep, we're on our way to Chicago. I'm excited. last night we had a film viewing at the Belcourt theater in Nashville, TN (It's the only Indie film theater in the whole city! and it's also the oldest... it started out as a silent movie theater then became the home of the Grand ole Opry for a bit, then became a live theater house and then on back to films, and music performances, very cool place!) We had a showing of "Seasons" it's a downhill Mountain bike movie... the guys in the film are truly insane! we're showing it in Boulder and in Denver at the end of July so please keep your ears open for that! it's going to be FREE and you get to see where I've been living this whole time (Suga Bugga) and you get free clif bar samples and t-shirts and schwag! FUN!! i'm pretty sure we'll be showing the movie on a big blow-up screen next to the clock tower on 16th street mall. okay, I'll stop plugging the movie and Clif Bar.

After our showing we took 4 of our 8 bikes out of the bus and rode to downtown Nashville... it was pretty cool, even Bill our bus driver got on a bike and rode with us. we ended up at the Station Inn where we saw an amazing bluegrass band and some of their guests... I swear everyone in that town has talent! they would look out in the audience and say, "hey, Michelle, want to come up and join us for a song?" then Michelle would stand up there and belt out some song with an absolutely amazing voice... this happened quite a few times, they brought up guitar players, a violin player, a few girls sang... it was great. then we rode our bikes back to the hotel, loaded them up in the bus and as we were walking back towards the front door of the hotel... I saw it... MY INITIALS ON A LICENSE PLATE!!! yes, I'm a total dork, but I love seeing my initials on license plates and I've only seen mine ONCE and that was about 10 years ago when I was in Dallas with the little girl I was nannying for. anyway, I took my photo with the plate and it will go into my collection of 2, Texas & Tennessee. But the REALLY cool thing about this plate is that the numbers on it are my birthday... 854-SYM ... 8 (August) 5+4=9 (The day I was born) so cool!

We're now headed for Chi-town and we're all hoping that we get a phone call from someone with connections at Wrigley Field so that we can see the Cubs play the White Sox... it's totally sold out... so we may have to settle for next Wednesday nights game... I don't really care... I just want to see the Cubbys play at Wrigley Field! It's a dream of mine and I'd love to fullfill it this week! so I'll keep everyone posted on that.

Life has been good to me out here so far, and as long as I don't need to wear a mini-skirt or a bathing suit I'll be fine... if I do need to wear one of those items, I'm going to look pretty nasty... I have so many bruises on my legs that I'm beginning to look like a texican dalmation... I'm not kidding. it's not attractive by any means. oh well... I guess it goes with the territory.

I miss everyone so much and I hope you're all doing well.

lots of love... xoxo

quickie

hello!
I've been away from technology for the past week and living at a campsite in Manchester, TN for the Bonnaroo music festival. I only have about 10 minutes to write in this journal so I have to give a quick synopsys (sp?) of what I've been up to. we pulled the bus in and had to get everything set up in an hour so we could start sampling and get people in the bus to check out our cool technology. it was about 95 degrees and super humid so moving objects that are as big as I am and heavy was a sweat fest. I don't think i've sweat that much in my life! by the end of summer my legs will be a hazy shade of Bruised I'm positive of it. I have bruises everywhere! a bug bit me on my ankle and my whole ankle swelled up so I've been working for the past few days on a very swollen ankle... it's really gross if I push on it the skin stays indented where my finger pushed down... it stays like that for about 5 minutes... yuk. anyway, I have gotten to see so many cool bands and I've met a lot of cool people. the Clif Bar team came in from Austin so I got to hang out with a bunch of girls which was cool because I'm in an all boy world for the next few months. there were about 15 of us total and we all camped together and hung out at night. I got to see Groupo Fantazmo, willie nelson, Metallica, Jack Johnson, Iron & Wine, Death Cab for Cutie, Pearl Jam (one of the best shows I've ever seen!) widespread panic, Allison Kraus and Robert Plant, the Duhks played on our bus and were truly amazing people I had a ton of fun with them and listening to their music, and I can't forget the silent disco! LOVE silent disco (If you've never heard of it or seen it, you go in and put on wireless headphones and you dance to a dj... no one outside of the silent disco can hear the music but they can see everyone dancing which makes it hilarous to watch) the dj's were amazing as well! DJ Logic spun for a while and I love him so that was really cool!

last night Matt and Bill went to pull the bus out while Chris and I were at WSP Matt texted Chris to tell him that they were pulling out so we made a mad dash to catch the bus. (they were going to pull over to wait for us but then no one would allow them to pull over so chris and I had to RUN for the bus) then we got to where the bus illegally pulled over to wait for us and were told that we weren't allowed to walk down the road that the bus was on... so I looked at Chris and said, well, no one said anything about not Running down that road... and I made a mad dash (I pretty much knew that the guy who told us that wouldn't run after me so I took a run for it...) then a guy on a golf cart said, are you okay? I said, yeah I'm just trying to catch my bus and he said, hop on... so I told chris to run and he jumped on the cart with us and we got to the bus legally by not walking on that road to the bus. golf cart driver recieved a box of Clif bars for his help) Matt and Bill weren't too happy with us and we were sorry for making them wait but we got everything straightened out, checked into our hotel and I fell asleep in about 10 seconds with all of my yuk bonnaroo funk on me and I didn't budge until this morning when I took a Very long shower, shaved, and cleaned the grime off of my bruised and tired body. I feel great today! we're heading to the Jack Daniels distillery for the tour and then the loveless cafe for some yummy lunch or dinner and a jaunt through their gift shop which I hear is incredible... they sell bacon wallets and lunch boxes. (not that I need anything else in my 42 lb bag but I might get some things to send as gifts. I'll write more from the bus. I miss everyone and I hope you're all doing well.
love from the road.

Shannon

Some Women

"Maybe some women aren't meant to be tamed. Maybe they just need to run free til they find someone just as wild to run with them."

I found this quote and it reminded me of myself. I really like this quote, I wrote something similar about 5 years ago and I think it's so true. Maybe I just think it's true because I like to keep things going.

Running Errands...

all day long I've been running errands... AND I figured out that my phone is still pretty much broken, this time instead of deleting all of my text messages, not letting me recieve messages, deleting my phone log and emails... it waited until I was on the phone then it made a little beeping sound then disconnected my call and asked me to give it a voice command... i tried two commands that involved angry swear words but it didn't recognize either of those, so I continued to swear at it as i took the battery out and replaced it... ugg... my phone is a piece of crap... i've had quite a few of them over the past 8 months and all of them do the same thing. I'm going to give in eventually and get an iPhone... I hope that kind works.

I have been running errands all day long, I went to storage, I went to target, I went to sunshine market, I am now at Fluid coffee bar and I just had a delicious cup of "CLOVER" coffee... that means it's vacuum pressed and you don't get any of the bitter coffee taste just smooth delicious coffee. it's lovely! they actually sell an $8 cup of coffee here!! can you believe that??? I got them to give me a "sample" of it the other day, and it's good but I just can't imagine paying $8 per CUP for my little coffee addiction... that would almost be as bad as smoking a pack a day! yowsa!

anyway, I'm going to fly my kite for a bit then eat some dinner and then make my way to hi-dive to see b.sous then maybe off to the photobooth at sputnik for a session with my b.sous friends. :) maybe I'll eat a corndog and some sweet potato fries while I'm at it! YUMMY.

wow! this is 2 days in a row!!

xoxo, S

delayed post...

rainy, cold, lovely weather in Denver today... I'm listening to Dean & Britta and planning for my summer long excursion across the US. What to pack... how to make it all fit? 10 weeks on the road is a long time to make everything fit... especially when 1/2 the time I'll be camping and 1/2 the time I'll be in a hotel... not to mention whole days in a captains chair on a biodiesel bus riding across the land. I'm very excited about my journey! I can't wait!! we make our first stop at Bonnaroo for 4 days and I'm psyched. it's making up for the fact that I'm going to miss most of the shows at Red Rocks this year. This will be my first summer in almost 10 years to not hit red rocks for a show or 20... I'm stoked to start my new job though!! my partners in crime will be Matt and Chris I have yet to meet them but we should meet up sometime this week for a quick rafting trip then we're off... 10 weeks with my new best friends. I jumped up and down when I found out that I got the job!! I'll be riding bikes, passing out Clif Bars and helping teach the public about the good that riding their bicycles to replace a car trip can help save the planet... its fun too!! I spent the past week riding my bike all over denver and taking photos and making a video... I love wind in my face. it's one of my favorite things in the whole world!!

I just baked 3 batches of cookies just for the heck of it... I haven't even tasted one yet... I just felt like baking so I did. they're totally organic and that usually makes a huge difference in the taste!! I can't wait to taste them! I have to admit I did try the cookie dough so that is probably why I haven't felt the need to bite into a baked cookie yet. I've had my fill of sweets for the afternoon.

I'm really going to try to keep up a little better with this blog, even if i'm not writing much i'm at least going to try and write every other day. I need to create habits like this because 1/2 the time my phone is broken and the other 1/2 people are just wondering where in the world I've disappeared to... now you'll know... as long as I keep the blog going. until tomorrow... or the next day... xoxo, S

Homeward Bound...

well, it's been a while since I bloggidy-blogged...In no particular order I'm going to try to sum up the past two months...

I've had at least 5 more strange mishap style experiences in the HEB with their lovely customer service, I've started training for the Boulder Boulder, bought new running shoes that let me know exactly when I hit the 2 mile mark because suddenly it feels as if there is a razor in my right shoe... I'm exchanging them today for a better fitting pair, Derek flew down from Denver and we went to South by Southwest in Austin, went to Barton Springs and swam in 50 degree waters... got hypothermia but didn't know what it was we were just really dizzy and couldn't stand up and had the spins when we laid down... hung out on the grass until we warmed up and then went home had no idea it was hypothermia symptoms...I spent a week with my beautiful Niece Emma who flew down here for her spring break, we went to the rodeo, the space center, saw the cast of high school musical, dyed easter eggs, went to the science museum, saw a 3-D IMAX about dinosaurs, ate crawfish, saw horton hears a who at the movie theater, went swimming in 60 degree water, rode a giant ferris wheel and went shopping for clothes for her and her sister...
I hung out with three of my sisters friends one night, helped my best friend move into her new house, made enchiladas for 12 of my family members, visited with my aunt, uncle, and cousins little boy luke, I went to a one year olds birthday party and hung out with cousins that I haven't seen in 20 years, I went up to Austin multiple times to visit with my little brother, I flew my kite more times than I can count, I've helped my dad lose 9 pounds, I tried to see fergie at the rodeo with my friend Andy and we missed the show because we were stuck in rodeo traffic for 2 1/2 hours and then got re routed at the last minute so we went to sushi instead, I went to a crawfish boil at RB and Karens place, hung out with a movie star (Sean Faris) and a playboy model, I've known Sean since he was born so it was just good to see him, I hung out with my friends Jeff and Dominic and Marlena... I planned my parents 20th anniversary get away in Houston, started planning a trip to Las Vegas in August with ALL of the girls on my stepmoms side of the family (4 of them are turning 21 this year) I think there are 18 of us going!! ALL GIRLS!! holy moly! ummm, today my dad and I picked up a 93 year old man dressed to the nines and WALKING on the side of the road... he said he was walking to Galveston from Friendswood (thats over 35 miles) he also said his family didn't know he was going... we dropped him off in front of hooters told him the way to Galveston then had to flag a cop down to make sure he got home alright he was a sweet cute old man but we were worried for him! and now I'm getting ready to pack my things so I can head home on Thursday.

it's been action packed tour of Texas the weather has been amazing with no humidity, lots of sunshine and very cool temperatures... but I suppose I'm like Mary Poppins I have to go when the winds change... the winds have changed and Texas is starting to feel like Texas so I'm suffering from allergy headaches and humidity overload, it's time for me to say farewell to Friendswood and get back to the dry climate of Denver.

It's been fun but I'm ready to get back home.

xoxox,

S