My New Years Resolutions and What Might Just Break Them

January 12, 2009

I don’t usually do New Years resolutions, but there have been a few things I’ve been trying to change in my life the past few months, so figured making them official wouldn’t hurt. But like all resolutions, they are made to be broken, so maybe if I identify them first, I’ll have a fighting chance.

1. Riding to work everyday. I’ve been successful at this as of yet over the past year. A few time I’ve gotten dropped off, but I can’t remember the last time I drove myself to work.

How this might be broken: If I get a new job. There is no where else in Carbondale to work that I know of, so if I got a new job it would probably be in Aspen or Glenwood. But in that case, I would ride my bike to the bus stop and use public transportation.

2. Buying Locally. We don’t have much in the way of locally produced stuff up here in the mountains, but I plan on starting to buy local meat (as soon as there is room in the freezer from the pounds of frozen green chili). But as for things not made here, I’m trying to buy from local shops. Yes, it’s cheaper to buy my Tom’s of Maine from the grocery store or from Vitamin Cottage in Glenwood, but I’d rather shop at the little food co-op on Main Street, even if it does cost $2 more (yikes!). I was able to do 90% of my Christmas shopping (the little I didn’t make) locally, which was great.

How this might be broken: Money. Shopping in a small mountain town is not the cheapest place in the world – like a $6 tube of natural toothpaste instead of Crest. But keeping my dollars in the community is important, so I may buy less to keep it local.

3. Simplify. That’s a loaded word. Don’t even know where to start or how to accomplish that. But my small house is cluttered and my calendar has way to many things on it and something needs to change. I think I’ll start tonight by taking down the Christmas decorations.

How this might be broken: well, more like how will this actually happen! I like being involved and I like stuff, so technically, I’ve already failed. But every bag that goes to the consignment shop makes me feel good, like I’ve just rid my life of one more thing weighing me down. Its the freeing up the calendar that is going to take awhile.

Hot Hot Santa

December 12, 2008

Keep the North Pole cold for goodness sake!
1% for the Planet is a network of global business that have banded together to support environmental causes. Each member donates 1% of its sales to a chosen environmental-focused non-profit. A few of my favorites? New American Dream, Adventure Cycling Association and Grist.org. But those are just of a few of the thousands of non-profits that benefit from purchasing from 1% members. I feel good knowing my New Belgium beer habit is at least helping the environment a bit!
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Change is Good

November 5, 2008

“Ultimately, we hope whatever they do is seeking first the Kingdom of God and embodying their politics with their lives rather than just trusting in a single candidate or a single politician to change the world for them. We vote every day with our lives. We vote every day with our feet, our hands, our lips and our wallets. Ultimate change does not just happen one day every four years.”  Shane Claiborne, quoted from a RelevantMagazine.com article.

This morning our country woke up to a victory of change. But no matter which candidate won, change is in the air as our next president has to come up with a way to solve our economic woes, our failed foreign policy, our climate change, our moral poverty. Every day on my DenverPost Twitter feeds, its story after story of people dying, being stabbed, children going missing. Its a depressing thing listening to the news, and that’s just local!

Because I work in PR (or maybe I work in PR because), I have a tendency to put a positive spin on things. I don’t necessarily take sides, and look a the positive from all angles. I was ‘undecided’ in this election till almost the last minute because I truly believed either man would bring great change to the table – just different how it was brought. As a Christian, I had to analyze what was important to my beliefs, and not the standard “religious right” crap that I’m supposed to subscribe to as a Christian. Right to Life goes way beyond unborn children – what about the poverty in Sudan where a child has to live in a camp so not to get kidnapped; what about the orphans from the earthquakes in China and Afghanistan, and the people who were left without shelter. Don’t they all have a right to life too? Jesus called us to serve the poor and the downtrodden, not to bomb abortion clinics.

I have a choice to make everyday how I am going to react to situations – am I going to be judgmental to a coworkers opinion, or am I going to be full of grace and love them no matter what. I like to think I do the latter, but it is a challenge. In order to change the world, it has to start at the ground level, in our jobs, our neighborhoods, with our friends. Obama isn’t going to change the world alone, its up to all of us to do small things daily to change the community around us.

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New Office Toy

October 10, 2008

Ian shows off the latest addition to the Backbone office.

Ski films galore

October 4, 2008

We are at the Wheeler Opera House watching movies as part of The Meeting. The first one, Massive, was a Tanner Hall film. It had some good skiing, but the overall film itself was slow and the attempt at creating a story line was unsucsessful. Claim by Matchstick on the otherhand was their best film since Ski Movie I. The combination of fantastic lines, destinations, and good intro skits made for a great movie. The highlight was Colby West lipsinging to “Its not Unusual.” He was entertaining on stage as well. Now I am definitely ready to ski !

Go out an Vote! The celebs tell us to.

October 2, 2008

Embedded Video

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Mount Olympus Trip Report

September 4, 2008

I wrote about my trip on WildSnow. Read it and comment about how cool I am…

Insyderz Mantra

August 20, 2008

“I don’t want to be a race car driver in a rat race
Doing what I can to be on top
I don’t want to be a metal head it’s a way
Of life banging my head to vicious rock
I don’t want to be an elementary school teacher
Putting up with kids Like me
I don’t want my stupid ways to make me
Miss my train next stop to glory
I don’t think I want to be fighting in a wrestling ring
Elbow smashing people for drunk men
I don’t think I want to be any of the farming
Type I don’t know how to milk a hen
I don’t think I want to be a guy with
Popularity being someone that I’m not
I don’t think I want to be
One of the men in blue
Hanging out in doughnut shops

I don’t know a lot about science but I do
Know that I’m not a hairless ape
I don’t know anything about really about
Being Kool, less filling or taste’s great
I don’t know if you would call being in a ska-core band really holding down a job
I guess I don’t know what I’ll do in my old age
but I’ll always praise my God

I don’t know much, but one thing is true
All I want to do is live my life for you
No matter what people say

Please God give me peace, give me hope and give me grace
And the strength to see my life through”
– Rat Race by the Insyderz

At church on Sunday, Charley challenged us to have a ‘go to prayer’ for times we just needed a quick prayer – when driving in traffic, frustrating times at work, or anywhere we need a quick reconnection to God. I had just put the Insyderz on my ipod. The whole song and especially the last line to Rat Race stuck out, and I jotted it down to be my quick prayer. Especially right now, I need a lot of peace and hope, as I don’t know where I’ll be living or what I’ll be doing in the next six months. I don’t know what I want to do with my life, but really, that’s not the important thing.

And we're home… finally

August 8, 2008

After 6400 miles on the car, its nice to be out of it. I’m excited to be able to use my bike as my main mode of transportation now.

Recap of the past few weeks. After a wonderful week at the lake, we went to Milwaukee and spent a few days with my dad. I haven’t spent that much time in Milwaukee in awhile, so we got to do a few things I’ve been wanting to do: Bike down to the lake front and have coffee/lunch at Alterra (might be one of my favorite coffee shops ever), ended up being about a 30 mile ride; touring the Sprecher Brewery, which makes probably the best root beer in the world; and we finally found the disc golf course, so played a quick 9 holes.

After Milwaukee, we made our way to Missouri with a quick stop in Chicago and had lunch with Dave’s friend Craig and my step-bro Jeff. We then drove the length of Illinois down to SE Missouri, of course passing Carbondale, Ill and taking pics of the signs. 🙂 We arrived at Dave’s grandma’s house around dinner to about 60% humidity… Ugh. Luckily, everyone there has air conditioning. We spend the next few days gorging on delicious Southern food and swearing to never eat again! We did a tour of Dave’s uncle’s farm. I’ve never been on a working farm before, so it was really cool to learn about how it works. Uncle David (yes, same name) grows corn, soybeans and rice. We also did a 20 mile bike ride – which was pretty, but also miserable in the heat and humidity. Word to the wise – never go to Missouri in the summer!

We then made our way to Omaha to visit with some college buddies. On the way we did a stop in St. Louis to see the Arch, and stopped in Columbia for a quick visit with Dave’s cousin. Columbia is a cool town, too bad its in Missouri. We arrived in Omaha at Nikki and Pete’s house with the humidity and heat no less than Missouri. A full day of no driving on Sunday was nice (besides going to church), and we got to catch up with quite a few people I haven’t seen in about five years. Our church in Ft. Collins helped with a ‘church plant’ in Omaha, and so a bunch of people moved there after college.

Then on to Denver to stay with Dave’s sister in their new house, and to save the final push home for Tuesday. And now…we’re finally home. I’m taking today off of work to relax, do laundry, and get some EXERCISE!!!

Oh the places I've seen

July 27, 2008

Two weeks into our vacation, and I think we’re finally on ‘vacation.’ No significant driving or responsibilities for a full 6 days! But first, a recap: July 7th we arrived late in Seattle after a quick overnight in Boise with our friend Jeff on Sunday. I haven’t been to the NW since jr high, so was very excited to check it out again. We stayed with my friend Lane – a college buddy from J-School and the student paper. Lane lives in a cool little apartment in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle. Cool happening area with good coffee (of course!) and good restaurants. Dave and I did the mini Seattle tour – coffee, Pike’s Place Market, West Seattle for seafood and a great sunset.

Sunset in West Seattle

On Wednesday the three of us took off for the Olympic Peninsula where Lane and I were to climb Mt. Olympus with Summit for Someone – a benefit for Big City Mountaineers. Dave took the four days to check out the peninsula himself while trying to get some work done in the nothing town of Forks. You can pretty much find an internet cafe in any town in America at this point I think. The climb was awesome – but very tiring. Pictures tell a better story – here’s the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/jessica.j.downing/SummerVacation2008

Basically it was four days of walking about 42 miles, with a semi-technical accent of the pyramid of Mt. Olympus. Olympus is the highest peak in the Olympic Mtns at 7963 feet. But we started at sea level (well, 200 ft above). As it was a benefit climb, we had a guide, Craig Van Hoy from GoTrek Expeditions. He’s been doing the SFS climbs since the second year of its existence. I’ve never been so happy in my life to take off a backpack and hiking boots. While I didn’t get heel blisters, I really though my pinky toes might fall off…

Back to Seattle Sunday night, then a nice breakfast with another college friend on Monday morning. Dave and I decided to add a detour to our trip and visit Bellingham. I’ve heard great things about this town, and always wanted to check it out, so figured we were so close, might as well. We found a cheap hotel, hopped on our bikes and rode downtown. Found a burger joint, asked the waitress if there were any parks/beaches, and she directed us to a cool park right on the water. Best thing about this park was the coffee shop right in the middle. So we got some coffee, sat on the beach, and watched the sunset. Definitely will need to do a return trip in the winter, as this could be a place to move to…

Bellingham view

Then comes one of our longest days in the car yet. We had been suggested to take the North Cascades highway rather than the Interstate to get to Idaho. We did, and it was beautiful, but long… My favorite thing about Washington is the amount of farmer’s markets and fresh food you can get. We stopped a lot for cherries and strawberries. Yum. Lunch in Omak, Wa, on the edge of one of the Indian Reservations. Delicious Mexican food, and then found a used book/coffee/internet cafe shop across the street. Very friendly people in Omak. After a few more hours of driving, we finally made it to Sandpoint. Got the last campsite in the closest campground and watched the sun set over Lake Pend Oreille. The next morning we got up, drove into town, once again hopped on our bikes and proceeded to check out town. Anyone want to move?? I’m sold on Sandpoint. Found a cute 1910 bungalow – 3 bed/1bath, w/ detached garage – for $240k!!! Oh, and the public beach with the sea planes coming in and out, the people boating on the lake, wow, nothing about this town I didn’t like. Great coffee shop too. 🙂 Then down to Cour de’Alene. Got lunch at a Greek restaurant and took our Gyros down to the beach. Also a cool town – would have liked more time to explore.

Sandpoint - my favorite

Now off to Bozeman. We stayed with another college friend for two nights. So we had a full day in the BoZone to explore. Went to the Cat’s Eye cafe on high recommendation for breakfast, and was not disappointed. Then went to visit Patrick at work at Mystery Ranch backpacks. Got the factory tour and dave got a new pack! He’s excited. Then camped out in the Bozeman Public Library for a few hours before meeting up with Patrick again to go climbing. We were almost successful until it started downpouring… oh well, at least it was a pretty drive. Then a long drive through Eastern Montana and North Dakota – not near as ugly as I thought. Camped in a city park in Fargo – which was quite entertaining. Now we are in Three Lakes, WI at my family’s cottage, possibly my favorite place in the world. Three Lakes even has a coffee shop now! This place makes Carbondale look like a booming metropolis. I’m excited to relax, water ski, play in the sea kayaks and canoe, and just do nothing for the next week.

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