Nail by Nail

More updates on the house! The expansion and the main floor have been framed, and the door that's lead to nowhere my entire life now has a deck! Everything looks so much bigger, and I can't wait to see how things feel after walls are installed.

A new view of the garage - Hazel was very confused by the new doorway.

Standing in the new kitchen, looking through the pantry, the laundry room, and the master bath.

A blurry shot of the new

kitchen. I will not be sad to see that linoleum hit the dumpster.

New living room - the view will be amazing when there are windows in the sun room, and when all the moths are gone.

The House That Built Me

After six years of discussing the matter, imagining the possibilities, and cringing at the thought of taking out a mortgage on a house they already owned, it happened. Ground has finally been broken, and transformation of the house in which I was raised has begun.

We have resorted to bribing my parents with food to let us help move all of the furniture out of the main floor. The food is only a bribe because everything that made their kitchen functional was removed. The bathroom that Max and I shared growing up is now

where dishes are washed, the pots and pans are stored, and the rice is made. The stairs and the entire upper level have been shielded with plastic sheeting to minimize the spread of construction dust, but it conjures thoughts of the sterilization tents in ET and is very bizarre. Poor Hazel and Simon are visibly sleep-deprived, and the stress of having strangers around banging on things all day has induced panicked shedding and lots of extra attention.

Part of the cleaning out process meant that I had to retrieve things from my old room that somehow didn't make it to college, or ever move into subsequent homes with me. Perhaps the nostalgia I was plunged into sorting out pictures and memories from my childhood is what has made this transition a weird experience for me, but it has been much more emotional than I expected. Supporting Mom's decisions to update the house they built 26 years ago has been easy - the flooring is older than Max and needs to go! But actually

experiencing the house being taken a part has been difficult to justify in my heart. Every mark on the walls, every corner of the yard, and every box in the garage is tied to some sort of memory. I can't imagine what it is like for my parents, who picked out the lot, built the house, and raised a family there.

The floor plan just shows an extension on the back of the house and the build-out of the patio that was always supposed to be turned into a sun room. But from the inside, nothing looks the same! I know new memories will be made, and that all of the changes are for the best, but it still feels like a sort of permanent "goodbye." Alas, into the breach!

Your Choices are Half Chance

Motivation? Please? Are you out there? It's been a whole year, and I still have no idea what I an doing with my life. I am on a path, though, and sometime in the past month I have become settled with it. I don't know what July will bring, but at the moment my intuition is letting me relax and wait for it.

However, if I have ever wondered why I went to business school instead of law school, I got the best answer today: Bar Review. These brilliant students slaved away for three years, and logged hundreds of hours of service, interning, externing, and clerking. We sent them off this afternoon with a momentous celebration of the commencement of their professional careers. Except...they will be back in a week or two to start the two-month intensive process of cramming for the bar exam. How anti-climactic!

Unfortunately, you're not really Legal until you are subjected to a strenuous background check and a couple of additional months pouring through cases and multiple choice questions. Go take a nap for a few days then get your butt back here for more torture. When the test is over you won't know if you passed it for a couple more months, so you will have time then to think about what you want to do with your legal degree, and potentially recover from working your way through school.

In conclusion, my dear 3L's, I look forward to seeing you around this summer, and I am so not jealous of the adventure which you have undertaken. I'll make sure that the throw-down after the Bar Swearing-In ceremony next October is fantastic!

If You Like Pina Coladas

We have returned from Sinaloa, reasonably relaxed and sufficiently sun-kissed. It wasn't a luxurious gourmet and rum-soaked tropical vacation, but for once we had perfect weather, and there was no family drama!

We stayed in a house on the El Cid golf course, which is surrounded by the wealthier locals, and retired Canadians who decided(perhaps due to their love of tomatoes, which are the pride of every single local?) that their personal paradise is on the edge of the tropic of Cancer. Aside from the fact that every Catholic in Mexico was on vacation to celebrate Holy Week(third largest Carnivale world-wide...) and that every time you turned around somebody

was trying to hawk a kitchy souvenir or something carved out of a bit of tree bark, it was a very nice vacation. The historical center of Mazatlan is beautiful, and has lots of inspiring bakeries and cafes. The Cathedral of Immaculate Conception is supposedly the only catholic church in the world that uses the star of David in its stained glass motifs.

We spent a couple of days at the pool, took a very commercial tour of Mazatlan, and spent a long day out in the foothills of the Sierra Madres. We visited a pit where adobe bricks are made and fired manually, a man making beautiful marble tiles by hand, the town of Copala built around a silver mine, and Concordia. Concordia was founded in 1565 and is scattered with cobblestones and hand-made rustic furniture. We wandered

through the city hall and learned a lot about the history of the region from murals all along the courtyard.

The rest of the week was spent lounging on the screened in porch reading and eating authentic chips with homemade guac, or wandering the beach and gazing at the Pacific. I made it through most of the Stieg Larsson series, and Brian got hooked on my

Sudoku Joy app. Mom brought her French workbooks and we reviewed some grammar and vocab, which humorously resulted in her responding "oui, oui!" or "non!" whenever anybody spoke Spanish at her. We had a fairly uneventful trip back,

although it was definitely one of the bumpiest descents into Denver I have ever experienced! We landed on a Friday night, and had the entire weekend to relax and unpack, and settle back in. The Fri to Fri trip was a great idea and I will have to remember it when booking future trips!

Overall, I have to say that the most amazing part of the journey was that after a week of togetherness, we still went out for dinner together before going to our respective homes and crashing. I am definitely lucky to have such a positive relationship with my parents, as well as a husband who supports that.

What a Difference a Day Makes

This was my walk from the car to the office.

This was my walk from the office back to the car.

I love Colorado.

And then the Beat Comes

This week has been pretty amazing:

Lots of time with the most adorable dog in the world(and "Donkey")

We have a new favorite local Italian restaurant

Went to see Matt Wertz live and discovered Ben Rector

Fantastic final ski day of the season

A positive conversation with a VP of International Client Relations

Dinner with a visiting Arachnid

And the Pacific breezes are calling...

The Sun Will Come Out

OK, so I have hit another loop-de-loop in the Sidewinder that my life has become. As overwhelming as it is to be starting back at square one, I'm finding it more overwhelming to continue trying to approach the process with a positive attitude. I've been lucky to have several positive people around me: A counselor in my office who has made it her mission to put me in touch with every person in her life who has anything to do with event management, a friend traveling to Israel to add me to her family's wailing wall(OK, she's not going all the way there just to pray for me, but she made it sound like her main mission which brought me to happy tears), and several students who have visited the office just to check on me and bring happy thoughts all week.

It feels like after a year of this, persistence would have become a strength from practicing it so regularly. But the cover letters come more quickly now, and the positive attitude is becoming the true challenge for me. I know it's a cycle, and that there will be a peak at some point in the future, and am hoping that my head can convince my heart to find the energy necessary to pick up and keep going until the sun comes back.