River Lesson

Last night as we were flying into Phoenix I was thinking about the extremes of the last week.  One week ago I was spending my last night on the river face painting, sharing belly laughs with people I had only met days earlier, singing and rapping in a talent show, participating in a native ceremony, and sleeping under the stars.  Last night I was flying into Phoenix from Spokane, Washington from a business event named "Family Reunion" where we celebrate all the progress people have made in our business family, all 5000 of us.  Talk about some extremes.  From only thinking about having fun with 32 other people to sitting in an arena with 5000 people.  If I'm being honest it was a little exhausting and kind of a shock to my system in my post-river glow.

 But I also found myself noticing things I may not have noticed before.  We had a connecting flight from Spokane in Oakland.  We were taking off at sunset and the view was so cool.  I may not have mentioned this in my writing about San Francisco but one of the neatest things is watching the clouds roll in.  I have no idea what makes this happen (if you know, please share) but it seems like the land is higher or the clouds are lower..something happens which places you in the clouds or you can sit and look across the city and the clouds feel like they are eye-level.  It is one of the coolest things about San Francisco in my opinion (that and the streets being as steep as they are, when you see them from a distance it is just mind-blowing.)  So, as we're taking off from Oakland with the sky already being that awesome sunset-pink, it's late enough to see the city lights, light enough to see the clouds.  I just thought it was the neatest thing, to peak through the clouds at the city and the horizon.

As we were descending into Phoenix we were racing a storm (we beat it, yay!) so we could again see the clouds, lightning (which I was not fortunate enough to capture a picture of) but what I really noticed was how much I love our grid!  Yes, I actually found some beauty in our streets' grid system....  

Even though I'm not on the river with just the shooting stars (25 my whole trip!!), the canyon walls, or the muddy river, I am still noticing the little things more and seeing the beauty (without even trying) in the every day stuff.  That might be my biggest take away from the river.

River Rampage II

You may remember way back in 2009 I volunteered with a program called River Rampage.  At the time the program was part of the City of Phoenix but now it is run through a nonprofit called Daring Adventures (DA).  DA has a ton of programs for people with disabilities such as kayaking, rock climbing, backpacking, cross country skiing, and hiking just to name a few.  River Rampage (RR) takes a group of teenagers on a river rafting trip on the San Juan River in Utah.  Some of the teens have disabilities or tough life circumstances to deal with, and many are 'typical' teens...all of them complete volunteer work to earn their trip.  My role is known as a "sidekick" which is basically a mentor to a few teens I am assigned to.  I'm their go-to person leading up to the trip for any questions, to help them meet their volunteer hours, and whatever else may come up. I loved this trip and this program so much in 2009 that when the stars finally aligned to get involved again I jumped at the chance.  So here goes...

On a Thursday morning we all met at the Virginia G. Piper Sports & Fitness Center (Spofit for short--Spofit is an awesome fitness center for people with disabilities).  We all packed our dry bags, made sure we had everything we needed, teens said goodbye to their families, and we all climbed onto a big bus to take us to Flagstaff.  We stopped in Flag for lunch and to pick up one of our river guides, then continued on the road for 3-4 more hours before arriving at our first campsite in Utah and meeting the rest of our guides (6 all together).  That night we had dinner prepared for us by the guides and staked our claim on campsites.  Every campsite is divided into boys camp and girls camp, and on this trip we never once set up a tent!  Each of us get a sleep-kit with a sleeping bag, tarp, little air mattress, and a sheet.  The teens all lay their tarps out of the ground and sleep right on that.  Most of the adults use a cot (definitely easier on our old bones than the ground...and for people like me, a little distance between me and the creepy crawlers really eases the mind.). I remember on the last trip I was super freaked out and uncomfortable about this but did it anyway and by the end of the trip loved it.  This time I was able to start out only mildly uncomfortable on night one, but this was eased simply by looking at the sky.  Would you believe I saw 10 shooting stars on the first night?!  It was pretty amazing.

The next morning we're awakened by a guide yelling "COFFEE or HOT CHOCOLATE."  This is our alarm clock, if you weren't already awake from the morning sun.  Then it's time to change, get 'cleaned up' (which I use the term pretty loosely), pack up your own stuff, and then as a group pack up the entire campsite.  We make a bag line to pass everything on and off the boats at each site, which really makes it light work all around.  Which is great because there is so much equipment needed for 33 people total to raft and camp for 4-5 days!  On this first morning we took a short hike to see some petroglyphs, which is always so cool to see.  Then we headed to the boats...  Each morning we are assigned to different boats so you have chances to meet and spend time with different people and try out each type of boat.  We have 5 oar boats which carry equipment and that a guide is in control of, plus 3-4 passengers, except for 1 boat which just carries equipment and in my experience is always run by a kind of guide in training--they are still learning and can't take passengers yet.  Then we also have a paddle boat which has a guide and 6 passengers.  On the paddle boat everyone obviously has a paddle and takes direction from the guide on when and how to paddle.  Finally, we have 3 kayaks, or what they call "duckies" that each hold 2 people.  From this point it's just cruising down the river until we stop for lunch.  I'm having a hard time remembering where we stopped for lunch this day, but there's always time for swimming and playing in the water whenever we stop, and I believe we took a short hike to more petroglyphs.  After lunch it's back to the same boats until we stop for our final campsite of the day.  When we arrive to camp we break out the bag line to unload.  The guides set up the "kitchen" and we all lay our claim...the rest of the night is swimming, playing, talking, and eating before making our way to bed.  I slept like a rock this night until early morning (my best guess is around 3 a.m?  No watches on this trip) when I woke up to the moon, feeling like someone was shining a flashlight in my face, followed by hearing a pack of coyotes howling!  It was pretty cool...even if coyotes are some of the creepiest sounding animals!

That morning after breakfast and packing up the boats we went for a hike to some native ruins.  I will never tire of seeing these ruins and petroglyphs.  It's so cool to see how and where people used to live and try to decode the messages left behind.  After our hike, which was a longer and pretty hot one, we swim a bit to cool down before hopping on the boats.  On this day we would encounter our first rapids, one of which is called "4 foot."  The rapids that are named by a number get their name by how many feet the river bottom descends over the span of the rapid.  Side note- the San Juan River is a pretty tame river.  Most of the time you're floating along, and when you do come upon rapids they are generally class 2, and it's a pretty muddy river.  Last time I went I remember being surprised at it's color (light brown), and this time it was even worse because of monsoonal rains in Colorado, which is where the water comes from.  It felt like swimming and floating in chocolate milk, which I actually really liked (no need to worry about green water and what may be lurking...if I can't see anything then I can pretend nothing is in there..hah)  So, after we went through '4 foot' we pulled over to play.  You can climb out into the rapid and let go to let the rapid carry you down stream, pretty fun!  It's always pretty excellent to sit in the river and just play in the mud and sand... I am a mud puppy!  After we played for awhile we hopped back in our boats (oh, I was on a paddle boat this day) to head to camp.  Our camp on this night was so cool.  We were in the canyon so we were surrounded by canyon walls and girls camp was on top of some giant rocks right next to a rapid.  We could hear the water clearly all night.  I saw the coolest shooting star of the trip that night!  Oh, and on this night, the guides took a night off from making dinner and the sidekicks did the cooking.  We all brought masquerade type masks to wear while serving dinner as a surprise for the kids, and the guides had a chance to kick it with the teens.

The next day I was on an oar boat again with a guide I met on my last trip in 2009.  Now that everyone was pretty used to the river and what to expect the guides let the teens play around with manning the oar boats.  On this day we went to another cool campsite to play called the Ledge (we didn't camp there this time, but we did on my last trip). It's called Ledge because there is a ledge in the rocks on the opposite side where you can catch a rapid and swim to the ledge.  The guides also did a slip and slide by turning over the paddle boat.  So you could get a running start and slide across the bottom of the boat into the river!  After plenty of play we kept it moving to our next campsite.  It was a pretty small camp that night which was kinda cool and cozy.  This final day/night you could look around and see that things had changed.  The group had really come together, became closer, really relaxed, and bonded.  It was a night of painting nails, dressing up in costumes, face painting, and a talent show, which ended with a really special ceremony by two of the native kids on the trip.

The final morning, as you can probably imagine, is bittersweet.  You don't want it to be over when everyone is really starting to find their groove, but you know that it is coming to and end so you may as well look forward to that shower for the first time in 5 days...!  But before we leave we have one very important piece left to complete.  After loading up all the boats we all sit for a closing circle, which honestly my eyes start to burn every time I think about it.  In the closing circle we talk about what the trip has meant to us, what we learned or plan to take with us and because this trip is one of those things where tight bonds are formed very quickly it gets pretty intense.  Just about everyone will cry and some to the point of not being able to speak because they can't even put into words what the experience and the people on the trip have meant to them.  We do some symbolic sharing as well which can by funny or emotional, but completely special.  It's a great reminder of why we all do this in the first place and how important this program is to continue on.  After closing circle, we board our boats for a silent float the remainder of the trip...to reflect and really soak it all in.  Nearing the end of our trip we were greeted by a little family of big horned sheep.  Normally when we see them they just run away up the mountains, but at this instance they just stood and watched us and followed us and it was an awesome way to leave the river.

When we get to our takeout point we unload everything, deflate the boats, clean up, and board the bus back to Flag.  We take our showers (which was pretty delightful), have a pizza party, and sleep inside for the first time.  The next day we make the journey back to Phoenix to meet parents awaiting the arrival of their kids.  As I watch the parents look at their kids I just wonder if they see what I see?  Do they see changes in their kids and this group that are glaringly obvious to me?  The parents want to come rushing out to see their kids (as I would too!) but their kids have work to do.  Without even a directive given the kids know we first need to unload this bus and get equipment where it needs to go...THEN I'll go find my parents.  I'm sure the teens are excited to see their families, but in some ways not nearly as excited as they thought they would be!

I worried that I might be a little jaded about it because my first trip made such an impact, I didn't think it could happen again but it did.  "Every trip is different," you hear veterans say this and you know it's true but you still wonder.  And I can say this trip was very different than my first trip, but equally awesome.  I'm thankful it's something I was able to be a part of not only once but twice.  If I had to compare the trips I would say on my first trip I may have felt more connected to the teens than the sidekicks, and on this trip I felt more connected to the sidekicks than I did 5 years ago.  I had great sidekicks on my first trip, but I think I spent my time differently.  And on this trip I respect these teens and had some great conversations and connections, but I also felt even more connected to the adults.  Which is fantastic.  I'm still in touch with some teens from my first trip and they are adults now doing great things in the world.  And I know I'll stay in touch with some of the teens from this trip.  But I do feel like I found some friends in the adults that I'll stay in touch with, not just pass by in facebook land here and there.  Although I'm so happy to have them all, the passersby and the new friends, in my collection.

San Francisco

"If you're going to San Francisco

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

If you're going to San Francisco

You're going to meet some gentle people there..."

**This song was on repeat in my head the whole time in SF :)**

When I was volunteering in South Africa back in 2008 I met some very cool people and a couple in particular that I keep in touch with at least weekly, usually several times a week.  One of those is Heather from Scotland.  When Heather told me she was planning a surprise birthday trip to San Francisco for her girlfriend, Kirsty, I knew Ivan & I had to join in!  San Francisco has been on our list of places to visit for 9 years (always somehow getting bumped to the bottom for other places) and meeting up there would certainly be easier than finding the time and money to go to Scotland (although it's very high on the list of places I need to go!)  This trip was in the works for a year or so and about 6 months before I knew it would definitely work out for us to join.  The plan was to keep it a complete surprise from Kirsty until she was on her way and even then to keep the fact that we were meeting them there a surprise until we actually met!

Ivan and I flew in early on a Saturday morning knowing that H & K wouldn't arrive until late that night.  Once we landed and checked into the hotel we went off on foot to find some lunch and then to locate the Full House house--the house they use as the outside shot.  Happy to report that we found it!  We were trying to find another park where you can see the Painted Ladies, or the houses/park you see in the opening credits, but our phones had died, our feet were spent, and we stumbled into a random park for a rest, hah!  Although it wasn't the park we were looking for it had an amazing view of the city.  From there we made the trek back to the hotel, crashed for a few hours, then prepared for H&K to arrive!  The original plan was to meet up at a bar for drinks and I tried, but my head was about to pound right out of my skull so we decided we'd just surprise K right there at the hotel.  Excitement #1 is receiving a knock at the door from H, who I haven't seen in person for 5 years but speak to through voice messages and emails several times a week.  So surreal!  K was waiting for H outside the hotel so we came down and met her there.  I wish we had taken a picture or video!  I can only imagine how it would feel to first and foremost have a trip planned for you with no knowledge, to your favorite city, only to find out you're going to your favorite city when you have a connection in the U.S, and then have two people you've only heard about (although heard about plenty and with lovely info only...ha) meet you on the street after traveling for hours and hours... I can't speak for K but it was great to finally meet someone I've been hearing about for a couple years and felt like I'd known awhile myself!

The following morning we all met up to for K's next surprise, which was a champagne brunch cruise through the bay.  This was so awesome.  We were seated at a table by the window, with a birthday card waiting for K and the champagne started flowing.  They had several buffet tables with breakfast goodies, sweets, and lunch options too.  We cruised around the bay to get incredible views of Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito, and AT&T Park.  I love being on the water anyway, but to be there with great friends, celebrating a birthday, as a surprise, it was my favorite part of the trip, hands down :)  After the cruise was over we ventured around Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf, had some ice cream and made the short trek back to the hotel through Chinatown.  After a little rest we met up for dinner at Burger Bar, which happens to be a place we frequent in Vegas too.

Side note, our hotel was this quirky little place in a great location--just across the street from the gates to Chinatown, and about a 10 minute walk to everything else we needed.  The hotel has every room designed by a different local artist.  Our room was the Madonna room which had a huge painting of Madonna above the bed and the other walls with Louis Vuitton patterns.  The bathroom had a claw foot bathtub, and the elevator was so old school you pulled the metal doors open and shut yourself.  A little loud and creaky since it was an old building but overall great price and location and very funky.

The next day we headed downtown to take a ride on San Fran's famous cable cars.  It was quite a line but moved fairly quickly.  Ivan & K took the spots standing and hanging off the side of the car while H & I sat down.  These things were pretty cool and so iconic ya know?  We rode the cable car to the top of Lombard Street, also known as "the crookedest street in America."  This street has 8 turns in one block!  It's so steep and curvy, but also very beautiful!  From here we headed to Ghiradelli Square where you can find the very first Ghiradelli chocolate shop.  After stuffing ourselves with some ice cream and buying lots of chocolate we headed to a little Irish pub where Ivan had his first Irish Coffee-- which is whiskey and coffee!  After drinks we needed to find a corn dog to witness K's first time ever having one.  Not like a corn dog is a delicacy by any means but you should have at  least one in your life...especially if you're in America, right?  Finally it was time for K's next surprise..... An evening tour of Alcatraz!  I was first and foremost happy to be on a boat again...I just love the water!  The view of Alcatraz is very pretty too.  Once we arrived we head inside the old shower room where they give you a headset for the audio tour.  The audio tour is given by former inmates so that adds a lot to it.  You're guided through this whole prison by the inmate's voice leading you from Al Capone's cell, describing every room, telling about escape attempts and murders that happened, and tons of other little details.  Each tour has some extra spaces open to view and for us it was the hospital.  It was really neat, informative, and always cool when you're surrounded by history as well as something as well known as it is, ya know?  Once we arrived back from the tour we headed for some Thai food.

Our final day in San Francisco we headed to Golden Gate Park, which is bigger than Central Park.  First we went to the Japanese Tea Garden which was beautiful and very zen, which you would expect.  We grabbed some lunch next door before heading to the beach.  I can't go to California without hitting the beach!  From there we headed back near the hotel for some final goodbye drinks.  

It was a great trip with some of my favorite people!    

2014 Catch Up

Let's review 2014 thus far...

2014 kicked off with a fun New Year's party at our friends home...complete with yummy food, a midnight toast, watching the ball drop on the big screen, and a night full of Cards Against Humanity.  The following weekend we went to Flagstaff for our friend's birthday for fun on the mountain skiing and snowboarding, and dinner too.  The next weekend my friend Megan and her boyfriend Adam flew in for Megan to complete her first marathon!  She did amazing, finishing right around 4:30 if I remember correctly.  It was a great time to hang out with them, support her, and they squeezed in a lot of hiking as well.

In February we went to the Improv to see Jay Pharoah, which was so cool.  He is one of my faves from SNL and we laughed so hard.  That month I went to my first "Brain Gym" training which has been one of the best decisions I ever made!  I have used that program with so many kiddos and truly seen a difference in them and I've used it for myself as well.

March brought one of the most fun weddings I've been to, and it had a Vegas theme...what could be better? :)  We followed that up with a spring break trip to California for just Ivan and me.  We love traveling with our awesome group of friends but I don't think we realized how much we'd enjoy, and maybe needed, time with just the two of us.  We stayed in Venice Beach and our hotel was literally steps from the beach.  We spent our time playing on the beach, riding bikes on the boardwalk, going to see Chelsea Handler & Gynweth Paltrow 'chat', went to dinner at SUR in West Hollywood (the RHOBV Lisa Vanderpump's restaurant), and to a show taping of Hello Ross...all of it was so much fun.  Just a really special trip!  The next weekend I was lucky enough to go see Chelsea Handler's stand-up show when she came to Phoenix too.  Definitely a month of laughs for us!  And we ended the month with a cornhole competition to raise money for our friend's softball team...let me just say, it sounded like a good idea but we played horribly!!! haha ;)

April was a bit of a slower month for us.  We went to Vegas for a weekend for business--this particular business event is one of my favorites, "Spring Leadership" where we get to learn directly from the leadership guru himself, John Maxwell.  Always enlightening, motivating, and fun too.  We hosted Easter as we usually do and this year had an Easter egg hunt...but the eggs held surprises...some filled with flour, or water, or fortunes!  And yes, some with candy too.  Towards the end of the month I found myself at a job fair.  Initially I went just to support a friend but ended up interviewing and really liking what I saw...more to come on that!

May, my favorite month of the year...brought meeting my teens I would be mentoring for the upcoming River Rampage trip (there's a whole 'nother post about it so you can read all about it there!)  But, I will say I met two of my girls that day and both are super cool.  Remember how I went to that job fair?  Well, in May I surprised myself by accepting a position with a new company!  Leaving the school system after 9 years was a scary and tough decision but I decided I wanted a change.  I celebrated my 32nd birthday in May with a Tim McGraw concert with the girls, followed by a week of end of year/birthday celebrations including a fun retirement party at Macayo's for some very special friends, a martini happy hour with some fun co-workers, going to see another favorite comedian, Fortune Feimster, bowling-laser tag-and arcade games with 20-30 friends, a yummy Filipino Memorial Day meal, graduation for a friend, a quiet Salt River tubing day with just me & Kara, and a bachelorette party!  May was a bit exhausting by the end, but so much fun!!

June kicked off with a graduation/going away party with swimming, movies, and so much delicious Filipino food, followed by wedding dress shopping for a great friend.  I went to dim sum for lunch with friends one week, and hosted a Bal-A-Vis-X training the next week.  Hosting the training felt like a lot of work leading up to it (although it really wasn't all that much, more so just taking up brain space), but I am so happy I did it.  So many teachers and therapists were exposed to a fantastic training.  A few days later we had a wedding for a wonderful couple.  I managed to squeeze in a lot of work in the month of June as well because then came my trip home to Illinois!

Since the summer had been so busy and with a new job coming up I decided I wanted to relax as much as possible while home.  If I didn't have anything planned I did a pretty good job of just relaxing!  During my first week home some of us girls met up for a cook out which turned into looking through memory boxes and old photos until 3 a.m.  It was perfect.  We also had Ivan's family reunion in St. Louis, which is always great.  Ivan's family is a blast...there was dancing, games, a visit to the St. Louis Zoo, and a lot of quality time.  From St. Louis I headed back home for my sister-in-law's baby shower (oh yeah, I should have another nephew any day!)  I was able to see each of my nephews play baseball while home and have a couple sleepovers with my niece too.  This June was also my parents' 40th anniversary!  So we took them out to dinner and planned a surprise party!  When we got home from dinner we had family & friends at the house with cake & snacks & photos from their wedding day out.  It was a great surprise and a really good time with everyone.

Once we returned to Arizona we had a few days before taking off on more travels...which I think I will save for its' own post!  I spent those few days co-treating with my new supervising OT and meeting most of my kids & families for my new job.  This new job will definitely be fun and challenging...ready or not here I come!

2013 in a Nutshell

Better late than never, right?  I come and I go on this blog but the thing that remains the same is that I really do enjoy writing it all down, and when I look back I always appreciate having this great memory-keeper.  So, a re-cap of notable events in 2013...?  Now this will be a test of my memory...!

In February, Ivan and I went to the symphony for the first time.  It was a fun excuse to dress up, bust out the pearls, enjoy some music, and pretend to be fancy!  It was a nice time, but also not quite what I expected and once was probably enough for me ;)  Also in February we went to see P!nk in concert!  She was AMAZING!  She sang live while doing these crazy aerial moves.  So cool.  I was so inspired to get fit just by watching her.  Another biggie in that month was that I earned an incentive in our business to fly to Seattle and spend the day at our coaches home, spoiled with lunch, desserts, and shoe-shopping!  It was a great honor and very cool reward after a lot of hard work.  In March, my cousin Kaleigh came to visit for spring break so we headed up to the Grand Canyon and Sedona, always a beautiful time!  In May we went to Vegas to hang with our Cali crew and of course a handful of AZ friends went to.  Always an awesome time. That same month I did the Glow Run 5k with Kara (which was way cooler to say you did than actually do...maybe it's just me?)  Ivan won an incentive in the business that month and had his turn in Seattle at our coaches home with a trip to the Nike store.  Oh, Ivan and I joined a crossfit gym that month too.  We were very on top of our fitness at that time and totally rocking it.  In June we did a Salt River Tubing trip for our friend Allen's birthday which proved quite memorable...we went to a Mercury game, and to the Improv to see one of my faves-- Whitney Cummings (Hilarious!)  Later that month we took our annual trip home and headed to Tennessee for Ivan's family reunion followed by time at my parents.  If I remember correctly, we had an awesome time geocaching on this trip!  In July, my friend Erin came to visit and we did a girls trip tubing on the Salt River followed by a roadtrip to California!  We went to Santa Monica (my fave), to Laguna Beach, and to a taping of Chelsea Lately where we met Chuy!  In August it was back to school time and then yet another Salt River Tubing trip with our whole California Crew...I love when we all get together and have big kid slumber parties...grilling out, playing in the pool, and playing Cards Against Humanity.  In September we were back at the Improv to see Josh Wolf, another favorite comedian.  We also made a quick weekend trip home in September for my friend Jon's wedding...we really crammed in a ton of fun watching my nephews' baseball practice, another nephew's football game, the wedding, brunch with friends, family pictures (which were SO GOOD!), and cake & ice cream to celebrate fall birthdays while we were there.  The following weekend we headed back to California for a business function...so we were able to spend a little time at the beach, which always delights my heart.  In October, Kara and I went back to California for fall break.  We spent some time at Newport Beach, and got to see P!nk again in L.A.  She was amazing as usual.  We hoped to see a taping of the Ellen show but didn't make the cut, so we headed to a taping of Chelsea Lately again.  For Halloween (one of our favorite times of year you know) we headed to Al's for the annual party.  Ivan was a lightning bolt and I was someone who had been struck by lightning--it was a super fun costume & great night.  In November we did the ROC Race, or "Ridiculous Obstacle Challenge" which is basically the show Wipe Out in the form of a 5k, and it was so much fun (so much fun we're doing it again).  That month I headed to Tucson for a training in a program called Bal-A-Vis-X which has been such a cool program to use with kids (so cool I then hosted a training this summer here in Surprise).  Ivan's mom and her boyfriend came to visit in November also so we took them to a Suns game and spent a lot of good time with them.  We had our traditional Friends-giving dinner and made applesauce & cinnamon Christmas ornaments, followed by a Thanksgiving trip to Vegas!  We went to see KA on this trip, Ivan learned to play Craps (very well might I add), rode the roller coaster at NYNY, visited Fremont Street and just had an all around great time.  December was full of Christmas parties, and our trip home to see family.

Whew!  Ok.  Not as much detail as usual but a lesson learned I suppose.  Either way, when I am older and grayer I will be happy to have it all in one place.