Flying Solo & Fighting for a Cause

First weekend alone in the new place. I went running a couple times, took a walk on the beach, went hog wild at Home Depot and bought two new plants and some new seeds. Spent most of Saturday playing in the dirt, a.k.a. gardening. Chatted with my dad. Read. Watched "How to Train Your Dragon" on TV. Threw a wild party... if by wild party you mean taking out the trash and doing chores around the house, ha.

Kevin and Devin skiing in Tahoe

It actually was quite nice and relaxing. I feel fully rested and recuperated for the work week unlike my dear fiance who is now snoozing soundly next to me. After getting up at 4 a.m., traveling all day, and then getting home at 6 p.m., he's pretty exhausted.  Glad to have him home.

On Friday, I saw that my co-worker Will had a poster in his cube about a 5k fundraiser for brain cancer research, so when I saw him in the break room I asked him about it and he told me he was actually about to pitch one of our partners on having the company be a corporate sponsor and then asked if I'd like to come with. I was totally floored.  Of course I would. We then discovered that we'd both lost parents to the same type of brain cancer, glioblastoma. Unlike many other types of cancer, there are virtually zero survivors of glioblastoma and there are no preventative measures (i.e. exercise and healthy lifestyle play no role). The side effects of the tumor, depending on where it is, are very similar to Alzheimer's. I think both Will and I

Glioblastoma, we are coming for you!

understood after the meeting, how difficult it is to articulate how much help this cause needs. The experience of watching a loved one not only suffer, but lose their personality, and then to watch modern medicine be hopelessly defeated by this insane disease is quite devastating. To have gone through it is to know, and it's something that both weakens and hardens you at the same time. It's such heavy stuff that it scares people. They don't even want to hold in their heads the idea of such pain and sadness, and I don't blame them. Life is so full of other wonderful, happy things. At the same time, to have the ability as an empathetic human being to cross that bridge and say "hey, I don't know what you've been through, but I care and I'd love to help however I can" is amazing. And that's what my boss did. Love this company.

CBD

Life is Good

I found out today that Nicole booked her flight to visit me in March! Very excited!! I am already mentally planning some fun Florida adventures to be had.

Kevin left me a dozen red roses on the dining room table before he took off for Tahoe for a weekend ski trip. It's those simple thinking-of-you moments that I cherish. It's so quiet and lonely in the house without him... "we's normally like peas and carrots me and Jennay." :)

I would have loved to have gone but we are going to Mexico in February to celebrate Micheal's 30th birthday (Kevin's older brother) and it seemed like not a good idea to request so much time off right after starting a new job (which I love and is going great, but more on that at a later date). Although his absence is clearly advantageous for my blog writing, ha.

I went to Palm Beach Boot Camp for the first time today. I think I finally found a "gym" routine that is suited to me. Growing up playing sports, the reasons why I loved playing sports were for the personal challenge and competition, great coaches who pushed me to find my potential, awesome teammates who I looked forward to seeing each day, and being out in the fresh air and sunshine. The gym just doesn't do it for me, especially alone after a long day of work. I don't push myself hard enough and I get bored and run out of ideas of things to do. Especially when I live in such a beautiful, scenic place, I would much rather run outside than run on a treadmill. The issue I've been having is that although running is great exercise, I really need to add other things to my regiment to keep it fresh. I've found that I'm even having trouble sticking to a running routine, so the accountability of boot camp should help with that aspect. Cross training is also important to avoid injury and running doesn't do much for the upper body (which I am totally lacking in tone and strength). My initial experience with boot camp is that it reminds me a lot of field hockey practice without the skill drills (kind of like preseason).

And the Tarheels found their mojo and played an awesome game tonight.

Life is good! 

CBD

We interrupt your normal scheduled programming...

To announce that I have the bestest friends in the world.

Thank you to Becky for giving me further inspiration and motivation to work on my blog. I hope you have a new adventure to write about very soon... ;)

And Haley (and maid of honor come November) for sending me a sticky-noted wedding magazine so "it's like reading it together."

I feel incredibly blessed to have such caring and thoughtful friends.

Love you guys.

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

One of my favorite "first books" was "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" by Judith Viorst. When I had a day filled with blunders and felt like my horseshoe had been tipped upside down, all I had to do to feel better was read this blissful simple, cheeky little book. The essence of the story is that bad days happen to everybody, everywhere, and changing locations doesn't make them go away—even if that location is pretty cool (like sunny Florida, or in Alexander's case, Australia). 

So yesterday, after four hours of cheering and cringing, our Harbaugh-Bowl dreams evaporated as a second-string player (who took the place of an injured special-teams star) made a very costly mistake amidst a frustrated offense incapable of third-down conversions. After a Cinderella season, the 49ers fell short of Super Bowl XLVI in overtime sudden death—in a game that hardly demonstrated their full potential. Kev and I went to bed with a couple of long faces and awoke to a gloomy Monday morning knowing that our underdog season would not have a classic Friday-Night-Lights ending. And worse, two blue-blood teams will now be competing to add "eh-just-another-why-not" ring to their ever-growing collections. Sigh. I know we're a bit dramatic about our sports teams, but to truly enjoy the highs, you have to be with your team through the lows.

So great to see Judy!

Leave it to lil' Alexander to pick us back up (oh yes, I still have my original copy). Half of the remedy was just laughing at our childishness in enjoying goofy simplicity. Niners aside, life is pretty great for us right now and we feel blessed. I had two DC friends visit in the same week: Judy (my first boss at Ralph Lauren) and Bryttava (GW & SK friend). Judy came down with her boyfriend Tom, who has family in Boca Raton, and they met me for lunch on Tuesday. Bryttava's boyfriend Rob grew up in PBC and the two of them were here visiting his parents, so Kev and I met them for brunch at a cute French bistro in West Palm on Saturday. After brunch, Kevin and I checked out two possible venues for the wedding and read books on the beach. Then we met some new Florida friends for dinner at a Palm Beach hotspot where we watched the Ferrari/Lamborghini/Bugatti convention drive by. 

It's really not horrible, no good, or very bad here.

CBD

Two 49er fans in the Sunshine State

We anxiously anticipated the 49er game this weekend, and, man, for a good reason—what a game! After a very stressful fourth quarter, with four lead changes in the last four minutes, the 49ers came up with the win. Kevin and I were exhausted from four hours of cheering and stressing, but as Coach Harbaugh would say, "Who's got it better than us? NOoobody!" (My favorite Niner chant.)

Go Niners!

Kevin grew up in the Bay area, so as a lifelong 49er fan it had been nine years since he'd had the opportunity to watch them in the playoffs. Growing up in Chapel Hill, where basketball reigned supreme, I had never really followed professional football so over the past five years I've adopted the Niners as my own, mainly due to the enthusiasm of one dedicated fan that is my dear fiancé. The 49ers are in rare form with rookie head coach Jim Harbaugh, who's coaching philosophy is very inspiring and reminds me a bit of my own favorite coach, Roy Williams. Unfortunately, the Carolina game this weekend was the opposite of spectacular as the preseason ranked #1 team looked sloppy, complacent, and, worst of all, blasé. Both programs have a storied history of championships and Hall of Fame athletes and coaches, but one team came into the season with low expectations from the press and performed spectacularly and the other team came in with the highest of expectations and rode the hype straight down the tubes. Hopefully, the Tarheels got a wake up call early enough in the season to change their attitudes going forward, but for now I'm majorly bummed on the basketball front. As for the 49ers, stay tuned because they're heading to the NFC Championship next weekend!

Grow little seeds, grow!

I caught up a little bit with Haley, Varsha, and Nathaly this week. It was nice to catch up with good friends and see what they're up to. Just as I was missing everyone and wishing they could all come visit I found out that my friend Judy would be in Boca on Tuesday so I get to see a familiar face in just two days! Then my mom's sister Sandy told me that her and my Uncle Dave would be coming to town in February! Moving to a new place is exciting and difficult at the same time. It's definitely an adjustment even though it's mostly positive. The hardest part is making new friends and keeping in touch with people you can't see regularly anymore. One of Kevin's co-workers from DC, Lois, also moved to Palm Beach not long before us and we've been hanging out a lot with her and her boyfriend Steve. She just got an awesome cat named Leo who is extremely entertaining, especially with a little catnip. So as a surprise I added some catnip seeds to my herb garden and am going to bring her over a plant once they have a chance to grow. For Christmas, Kevin's brother Michael and his aunt Kathy got me started on my gardening hobby with seeds, soil, and  pots. It's been a fun hobby for me, and so far I have eight different sprouts of herbs and flowers. In DC, it was impossible to grow anything in our apartment as it didn't get adequate direct sunlight or have an outdoor space, so it's a really nice change to be able to have a garden now. I'm looking forward to cooking with my herbs and putting some fresh flowers around the house.

So I guess this week's post could be summed up: Go 49ers and come visit us in Florida! :)

CBD

A Campbell Christmas

The last of the Campbell clan hit the road on Friday morning and Kevin and I enjoyed putting our feet up and relaxing a bit this weekend. Our first couple months in Florida flew by as we scrambled to unpack and finish home projects before the crew came for the holidays. Hosting the holidays for the first time was a milestone for Kevin and I, and in our true style we jumped into the task head first by hosting eight guests, getting a 9'4" tree that had just enough room for our angel, and decorating the house with all the trimmings. It appears we've become real adults, even if we still feel like kids at heart.

The full house added to the holiday feel of family, cheer, and warmth. We also found out how challenging it can be to wrangle a crew of ten with a 70-year age span to do the many activities we had planned: beach, deep-sea fishing, turtle museum, Christmas dinner, New Year's Eve party, Universal Studios, Hard Rock Casino, the Breakers... needless to say, punctuality was next to impossible. Kidding aside, the packed schedule really got us all together exploring our new state. It was a lot of fun showing them around but so was the down time: hanging around playing games, cooking, and watching movies. It was a special and memorable holiday in our new tropical home (the closest we got to snow were my glass snowmen on the dining room table).

Happy Birthday Mama :)

I really enjoyed establishing new holiday traditions, but I do still get sad about what it would be like if my mom was still here. We used to always bake pies and cookies, shop for gifts, go to church and open one present on Christmas Eve... Yesterday would have been my mom's 64th birthday, so I bought some bright yellow flowers to plant in her honor since she loved to garden. I'm also starting to plan the wedding and I think about how nice it would be to talk to her about everything (even though we'd inevitably fight about a few things, ha). It's all very sad and hard to comprehend that she's gone.

All for now.

CBD

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes

I took off for a weekend last month

Just to try and recall the whole year
All of the faces and all of the places
Wonderin' where they all disappeared
I didn't ponder the question too long
I was hungry and went out for a bite
Ran into a chum with a bottle of rum
And we wound up drinkin' all night

It's these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
With all of our running and all of our cunning
If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane

Reading departure signs in some big airport
Reminds me of the places I've been
Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure
Makes me want to go back again
If it suddenly ended tomorrow
I could somehow adjust to the fall
Good times and riches and son of a bitches
I've seen more than I can recall

These changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
Through all of the islands and all of the highlands
If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane

I think about Paris when I'm high on red wine
I wish I could jump on a plane
So many nights I just dream of the ocean
God I wish I was sailin' again
Oh, yesterdays over my shoulder
So I can't look back for too long
There's just too much to see waiting in front of me
And I know that I just can't go wrong

With these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
With all of my running and all of my cunning
If I couldn't laugh I just would go insane
If we couldn't laugh we just would go insane
If we weren't all crazy we would go insane

 "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" by Jimmy Buffett

Kevin and I are settling into our new life in tropical South Florida. The change in latitude has been good to us on many levels, but it's been hard to keep up with our family and friends that are spread around the continent: DC, New York, LA, San Francisco, North Carolina, Chicago, Baltimore, Montreal, Birmingham, Niagara Falls, Ottawa, New Hampshire, Vermont, British Columbia... and a very special friend in Kentucky who inspired me to start this blog. Becky and I ran track together in high school and when we, along with our friend Seshie, all went off to different colleges, we kept blogs to keep up with each other. Over time my blog writing trailed off but Becky has an awesome blog that helps me keep up with her no matter where she is in the world or what she's up to. As much as I love our new life in Florida, there are many people I would be very sad to lose touch with and this seemed like the best way to help with that. So, with Becky as my inspiration and New Year's resolutions as my impetus, welcome to my blog and thanks for reading.

CBD