2007

This was -at the same time- the best and worst year of my life. But I would never trade it or relive it, because there were so many lessons.

#1: Love is out there and you are worthy of it. Yes, I know it sounds like some sort of self-help BS but for the first 2 months of the year I had the most fantastic boyfriend who doted on me in every way I have ever wanted to be doted upon. Of course, the third month, it went away... but it wasn't all his fault. I got stressed. And I started to figure out what I really wanted, and he (through no fault of his own, as he is a lovely person) turned out not to be it. But I have now learned that love is indeed out there, and that some day when the time is right and the planets all line up correctly with the stars, I will have it on my terms.

#2: You are stronger than you think you are. I am forever leaping out of my comfort zone and I think I do it just to push myself to failure... but you know what, whether I succeed or fail I always land on my feet. Attitude is everything.

In most cases, I choose the push - a new job, a new city (which I failed at the first time), a new shot at an old love. I conquered 2 of the 3, and that third one... well, Mr. Colorado had a helping hand in the failure of that situation. (Which, to be quite honest - SUCKED. But now I know for sure that he is not The Real Mr. Liz.)

In some cases your comfort zone just gets yanked from underneath you. Like in March when my dad died. I love my father and I respect everything he ever did for our family because I know that no matter how flawed his execution, the THEORY behind his actions was always that we (his family) would have a better life and be better people. But... maybe I'm in a new comfort zone without him. Because now when I think of my dad, it's along the lines of what a great life he set us up with, what a great place he left my mother in, and how nice it is to enjoy the Vermont House without worrying that he's pissed at us or just one misplaced snowboot away from being very pissed at us. And man was it nice to have Thanksgiving and Christmas with the WHOLE family and ALL thier significant others! Rockette's GF would never ever have been allowed to partake in our happy festivities... which would never have been as happy without her around. :)

#3: Something good is just around the corner. Call it hope, faith, optimism, hippie BS or whatever you like, but if you're going through hell it's just your turn on the Wheel of Life. There is something better coming along, if you just wait it out.

Surprises for me this year turned out to be:

* meeting Noodles
* working for Mr. T. and subsequently meeting the fantastic people who make up our company
* a random trip to Paris with the Oakley crew, and that fabulous bottle of Sauterne to crown one of the best meals of my life
* meeting P and Kitty
* discovering Coco Chanel Mademoiselle perfume (which could almost turn a gay guy straight...)
* meeting The Darlings up in Aspen - Mrs. Darling especially!
* Aspen and the surrounding area (did you see the pics of my fall hike to the bells?!?)
* my new (uh - new to me) car, I can't believe it is mine and I love it
* the Dynastars I was dying for going on sale!!
* seeing my friend Cowdaddy and his wife and their three kids, at home in the middle of nowhere, TX
* watching my sister's happiness unfold as she bought a house and began a life with The Canadian and her sons
* bike riding through the hill country of Texas to simultaneously fight cancer and catch up with old friends from all over the country who randomly had decided to do the same!
* finding out that the real reason I moved back to Colorado still holds true - I love it and I am just not as happy living anywhere else

I'm not gonna sugar coat it, a lot of stuff was not so lovely about 2007. But with that list above, how could I ever be sorry that I went through this past year?

Happy New Year, everyone. May your year ahead be full of THE BEST experiences in your life yet! :)

all I want for Christmas...

are hats and scarves. I've pretty much got everything else I could want, but after losing quite a bit of hair to an inexperienced hairdresser, my own bathroom floor and a super adept stylist - well, there's just not much of it left!

When I came home for Thanksgiving, even *my brother* commented on how cool my hair was. First I have to thank Mom and Dad for great hair genes, but I also pay plenty to keep it looking good... more on that in another blog. ;) Anyhow for the past few years while in Atlanta, I have been a product of the magic of Spencer Malay, whom we all call Edward Spencerhands. It takes him about 15 minutes of scissor-flying fury for you to walk away looking fantastic. It's amazing. But since I moved to Denver, I needed to find someone new to cut my hair. For whatever reason, I took Noodles suggestion to try the Aveda Institute in Denver.

Qualifier: Noodles is a gay man who had been there for his own hair preening, and he really liked the outcome. Gay men know their hair and quite often know women's hair, too. Plus, I trust Noodles with my life, which after this weekend might have been proven to be actually less important to me than my hair.

So On Friday, off to Aveda I went. The girl was a "senior student", graduating in February. Or so she says.... she pretty much did the exact opposite of what I wanted. And it looked kinda choppy and too soccer-mom-ish. But it was late and I was tired so whatever.

Well, in the morning when I woke up, "whatever" became HORROR when I looked in the mirror. I officially hated the haircut and decided there was no way I could walk out in public looking like that. So I did what any well educated, totally hungover woman would do - I broke out my sewing scissors and - I kid you not - tried to fix it myself.

Truly, what I did was probably no worse looking than what Little Miss Aveda had done, but it certainly was no better! I was in the kitchen, contemplating exactly how I was going to go home to my family with this mess on my head after coming home last time with The Best Liz Hair Ever. I had quite the look of disgust on my face, for Noodles walked in right then and stopped in his tracks. Well, it was either the look or the hair that stopped him - neither was good.

"WHAT am I going to DO with this? I can't go out like this! I am flying HOME! I have great hair! I have had great hair for years and now I have THIS!!!!!" I was getting near tears and Noodles was melting into the floor as the pitch of my voice increased one octave with each word. I think I still had the scissors in my hand.

As soon as I stopped, Noodles blinked and said to me "GO across the street." Huh? I thought... "GO. Now. I will call them. There is a salon and they will fix you. Go get dressed."

"Noodles, it is Saturday before CHRISTMAS!" (Again with the shrieking.) "They are not going to have an opening and if I go over there they will look at me and be like "who are you?" and laugh as they send me out the door!!"

And Noodles calmly replied "Liz, they are going to take one look at you and TRUST ME someone will take pity on you and fix you. Clearly you can't handle this - and I can't handle you, so you are going over there."

So I did as I was told. And this lovely girl who worked at the salon had had a cancellation so was able to turn the straw pile on my head into something resembling Posh Spice's latest haircut. It's quite cool but VERY short - and there are gaps due to the first girl's mistakes (not to mention my attempted correction). Super Stylist Girl (she really is a hero to me) told me she couldn't get me what I wanted but that it would grow and fill in and we'd work on it. She did a great job with what she had to work with.

And there it is. So I have learned:
* If you pay $12 for a haircut, that's what you are gonna get.
* If you don't like the result of the $12 haircut, you shouldn't try to fix it.
* There is such a thing as hair karma, and for whatever reason it's my turn on the Wheel of Bad Hair.
* Hair will grow, but until it does, you will be miserable unless your brother and the rest of your family keeps you laughing about it.
* When you pay $12 for the haircut, you can take that other $50 that should have gone toward it to buy hats and scarves.
* It's actually fun to wear hats and scarves - thank goodness I did this in wintertime!
* It's not about the hair. They love me here anyways. I already knew this, but it's nice to be reminded. Plus we've been having a great time with hair jokes and hat play. Ah... yay, family and friends. :)

Merry Christmas, everyone. I hope you received everything your heart desires!

---
Again, mad kudos to Spencer Malay. If you live in Atlanta or are travelling through, I recommend him any day to anyone. He is incredible!

my new favorite Texas phrase

“He’s all hat and no cattle.”

working for little companies

Pros: you get to present to CFOs of major corporations.

Cons: you have to present to CFOs of major corporations and you only get a 12 hour warning.

But hey, we get Ski Fridays. Sorry, there are just NO CONS to that one. ;)

Happy Birthday, Dad

And thanks for my great life. Skiied Winter Park both yesterday and today, it probably would have been too crowded for you but I had a great time - and we had almost a foot of new snow on the mountain! Anyhow, you gave me that gift (skiing) back when I was 8, and I'm still enjoying it - so thanks. I hope you and Bob have a great time up there - I know he must know how to get his hands on some Budweisers and Oreos - sounds like a party to me!! :)