...anon

...and on the slower days, sometimes I look around and wonder where it all went.  I had a dream that I got a call from fellow Pirate Nick the Brit (that's him in the photo, not me, wearing my lovely Suntour Superbe Pro NJS track chainring).  I only have an old hotmail address for him, though, and he doesn't even know what my last name is now.  I can't imagine what I'd say to him aside from I hope things turned out as well for him as he did for me.  It's about what I'd say to most everyone from Madison/Baltimore/DC/Chicago.  "Come, let's be nostalgic over a drink, but let's resolve to agree that regardless things are good now."

It's easy to imagine one's self still in those places from whenst we came, only they're unchanged, and the people and landscapes are stuck in time, and so none of it is true.  Jumping back doesn't happen.

I forgot this was still live.  I really still like this design.  Quite pleasant, really.

Life in the PNW is good, though.  Very good.  Elliot's a gnar little shredder, backpacking in the Olympics and Cascades, skiing better than I do, struggling through Suzuki book 1 on his violin, riding Duthie MTB trails.  Headed to Kindergarten this fall.

Unlike my Chicago life, I have very few hobbies outside of 5:45am run or climb workouts and our weekend adventures.   Molly still loves to run with me. I rarely pedal a bike.  We live in a cute little house on the near South end of Seattle, walkable to light rail, and I run along Lake Washington in the mornings in full view of pink sunrises over Bellevue.  Chicago, this ain't.

Adventure, though, is what life is all about. Hiking. Camping. Backpacking.  Fire lookout stays. Skiing, both nordic and alpine.  Sledding.  Snowshoeing.  We give our National Parks pass a workout.  We are rarely home weekends.  We know the trails, Alpine Lakes Wilderness, waterfalls, passes pretty well.

You can follow us via Ben's flickr.  He's good at posting.

Westward bound.

It's been a crazy few months.
After talking forever about moving West, a job popped up in Seattle that I couldn't turn down-- a nice promotion with a great team of coworkers.  After nearly 9 years at the same organization, I'm excited to be making a change.  I'm moving from working for the big, international umbrella organization to one of the local unions, and taking a job that's a big step up.  Opportunity!  Anxiety!

Anyway, Ben and I are leaving Chicago on August 28 for greener trails and cleaner air.  And no crazy winters.  It's harder for him because his family is right here.  It's hard for me too though.  Elliot loves his grandmas, his cousins, everyone.  We have roots.

On short-ish notice we couldn't find a house in our ideal location (Seward Park/Beacon Hill) so we'll be starting out in Burien, which is sort of Oak Park-like with its own downtown coffee shops and bakeries and brewpub and convenient location close to the Sound.

Molly is coming with, as are all but two of our bikes (Ben's Bianchi and the tandem).  Suzie, my sister-in-law who has been caring for Elliot, and her dog Beckett are moving with us as well.  It's going to be a two car, two pitbull caravan driving out there (our summer vacation too, I guess!) as our stuff follows on a moving truck.

There will be new bike fun.  Ben will race CX again and have the new adventure of caring for Elliot.  I'll have a crazy new high-up job and a 14mi r/t bike commute in the Seattle hills.  And we'll be exploring a whole new area-- one which Ben has never been to, save our trip to Olympic last year.

Ben's 30th bday and our going away party is this Sunday.  Hit me up if you need details.

waking up from a haze...

When people tell you that parenting goes fast, they're not kidding. Really, they should be jumping up and down in front of you in an obnoxious neon bike commuter outfit with a flashing sign that reads, "YOUR NEXT YEAR(S) WILL BE A BLUR."*

For me, make that a little more than a year-and-a-half so far. Give or take. But I have been waking up lately with an increasing awareness of, well, reality: that I am getting enough sleep, that Elliot is taking care of some of his basic needs by himself, that I'm getting some pretty decent runs in, and that all personal pursuits that previously were pushed to hiatus are suddenly knocking on my door wondering when they'll get to come out and play again.

This sort of came to a head when friend-from-my-previous-life Galen posted a link to this blog about a man who completed the Barkley Marathons. I know I will never even think about entering the Barkley Marathons (that's insane!), but it's surely an inspiration.

In that previous life, I completed a race called the Dogwood Half Hundred. I also dropped out halfway into the Rachel Carson Trail Challenge in 2003 after deeming the steep mudslick trail impassible. But suddenly, just this week, decided I want to go back and finish the sucker. And that 400k brevet. And a number of really improbably lonely remote long-distance events. And then I learned that the Dogwood was somewhat resurrected as the Elizabeth's Furnace Fat Ass 50k, and it seemed wrong not to do an event that's seemingly named after me.

How on earth could I train for 30+ miles on foot, let alone a marathon, or 24+ hours on my bike, given the time constraints of toddler-parent-hood? And how could a Chicago flatlander train for ultrahikes with significant elevation gain? These two questions have kept me awake for several hours in the last few nights. (I could do training hikes with Elliot in the backpack! That could count as good weight to train with, right? Hmm. We need to move.)

But I should also mention my bike mileage this year (not including grocery-getting, taking-Elliot-to-the-Shedd, etc): 0. 0 trail, 0 bike workouts, just 0. Did I mention that I re-upped with Half Acre Cycling and now have an 8 race commitment to fulfill? Yikes.

Anyway, happy spring, fellow travelers. While everyone is working out their race schedule for this summer, I'm trying to figure out if I can find a reasonable target long hike in the woods or sleepy night lit by generator hubs. The long-slow-happy is what I'm good at. I've always said there's nothing I enjoy more than waking up in the morning with nothing to do that day but ride my bike/hike/run all day long. I need to get back to that, just child in tow. Now to figure it all out.

*I do believe length of blur is determined by length of sleep deprivation, as determined by one's children's affinity for sleeping, which we all know E is not a fan of.