One Year

One year ago today, I arrived in Colorado Springs with my brother after a long day in the car.  And I'm currently writing from Indiana, a few days after yet another long day in the car with my brother.  It's amazing what can happen in a year...looking back at everything, I'm shocked that it's only been that long!

So, true to form...some photo highlights from the year that has elapsed.  They aren't in any particular order.

Played tourist with brother for the first week in "Colo Spgs"

Went rafting on the Arkansas River twice in July

Tackled two 14,000+ ft. mountains in one day, successfully summiting one before storms drove us back to treeline

Got certified to scuba dive (again) with Jimmy

Conquered the Incline...multiple times

Lived here and spent a LOT of time staring at this view (and no, it still hasn't gotten old)

Worked for the USOC's Digital Media department

Went to some Rockies games

Did the Incline way too many times!

Climbed Pikes Peak with a little pit stop at Devil's Playground

"Acquired" an Iron Man mask

Went to the Coors Brewery in Golden

Made (and lost) some good friends

Had one hell of a Halloween

Attempted to make grilled cheese over an open fire on 4th of July weekend

Worked as an official photographer at a pentathlon world cup in Palm Springs, CA

Moved into an apartment

Got a puggle named Lola

Had a lovely 25th birthday

Learned to ski on the Rocky Mountains

Made a friendship that will last a lifetime

Made and played tourist with some friends at work...and said goodbye to one of them

Made some Russian friends and had some crazy nights with them!

Played dress up at an awards dinner

Got my Masters degree

Gave into my love for tart frozen yogurt any chance I got

Got into photography and saved my pennies for my very own Nikon D90

Had a LOT of cupcakes...including the original bacon cupcake from Tee and Cakes!

Celebrated Hanukkah

Shared lots of stories...and drank a lot of Starbucks (which, coincidentally, was where lots of those stories were shared)

Went to the first US team trials for the London 2012 Olympic Games (they were for taekwondo)

Worked as production assistant on a video series shoot with 1996 gold medalist Dan O'Brien

Saw one of the most amazing sights in nature - Colorado's Great Sand Dunes

Went a little crazy at the USOC Warehouse Sale

Got some speedskates

Wore a gold medal (which belonged to 2010 gold medalist, Steve Mesler)

Got published...a lot

Saw quite a bit of colorful Colorado

All in all, quite the year.  And the photos don't even begin to cover EVERYTHING that went on, obviously.  If I put a photo from everything I did this year, I might break the internet!  

Needless to say, I've learned a lot and had a lot of great experiences.  I've met some amazing people, made some great friends and learned who maybe wasn't as great of a friend as I thought.  I figured out what I truly want to do with my life, and I made great steps in the direction I want to go. 

Let's see where the next year takes me!

Weekend Update

Okay, I'm terrible at updating this thing.

I blame the fact that I'm blogging for TeamUSA.org, keeping a daily journal for internship credit, and keeping my usual personal journal on top of all that.  Good thing I like to write, eh?

This weekend, I headed up to Denver for the second time since I came to Colorado.  I went to a Rockies game with some of the other interns and my friends from Ball State, Steven and Josh.  Coors Field was amazing!  The view was incredible...you can see the mountains from just about everywhere!  It was a good game, too.  The Rockies ended up beating the Brewers 8-7, but it really came down to the last inning.  Everyone was on their feet at the end...the last at-bat took FOREVER because of four foul balls.  After the game, I walked around downtown Denver with Steven, Josh, and Jon (an intern), then Jon and I came back to Colorado Springs late.

Last week was a busy one at work.  Our cable wasn't working in the office, so I found feeds online for everyone to watch the USA vs. Slovenia World Cup game on Friday.  I updated the website all during the game so that people could get live updates, so it was a fun morning at work.  I'm still slightly bitter about the goal that the USA scored but the ref didn't count...

Last Thursday, a bunch of the interns had a random toga party.  It's a fun bunch of people, so we tend to do random things like that!  I've also made friends with a couple of athletes and they've been hanging out with us, too!  So, here are some pictures for you all...

Me (in a toga) and Alexy, one of the gymnasts

5th trip to the Incline...down to 52 minutes!

Interns at the Finish Line, a bar across the street from the OTC