Not Your Average Thanksgiving

This year, my Thanksgiving is not going to be like it usually is.

Typically, I have a pretty normal Thanksgiving. I brave the ridiculous airport crowds to fly back to Indianapolis, where I have three Thanksgivings (usually) with about 100ish family members (probably an exaggeration, but oh well). I usually talk my sister or mom into going Black Friday shopping with me (although that was slightly delayed last year by a hangover), even though neither of them really want to.

My Thanksgiving this year starts tonight (technically tomorrow) at 2:30am, when I get to the Amtrak station in Salt Lake City. I'll be taking the California Zephyr train through the mountains to Denver, where I'll be spending two days with my former roommate and dear friend Karen. After two days in Denver, we're driving up to the mountains for the Nature Valley Aspen Winternational, a women's alpine skiing World Cup. After two days there, it's back on the train and back to Utah!

It'll be interesting. I'll definitely miss my normal, chaotic holiday that I love despite its craziness. I'll miss my family and our traditions, both old and new.

But stay tuned for an update on my 15-hour train trip and the ensuing Colorado adventure!

Greetings from 30,000 Feet: Part 3

Check out Part 1 and Part 2!

When I got on my laptop the next day, I saw an email in response to a job I had applied for at the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. I had applied on a whim after Karen had sent the job description to me, figuring there was no way I’d get a job there since I wasn’t exactly an expert on skiing and snowboarding. But, they wanted to interview me! So, I emailed them back, detailing my travel schedule and when I could talk. I ended up having my first interview in San Diego airport the next day, since I’d opted to head home to Indiana for a week after London with my newly open schedule.

Side note: I got upgraded to BusinessElite on Delta on my flight home from London. BEST. FLIGHT. EVER. After drinking my welcome champagne, I read a newspaper they provided me with, had a four-course meal with an ice cream sundae bar and a flight attendant constantly refilling my wine glass, watched several movies and slept in my lie-flat seat. They also provided me with a down comforter, amenity kit (with sleep mask, ear plugs, toiletries, etc.) and noise cancelling headphones. Awesome!

My first interview went well, but I was still skeptical about how qualified I was for the position, so I kept applying for jobs and applied for unemployment benefits.

Lo and behold, shortly after I applied for unemployment benefits, they called and offered me the job!

So, the first order of business upon returning to San Diego (well, other than getting a nice tan before heading to the mountains) was arranging everything because I was moving to Park City, Utah!

I was rather skeptical about moving to Utah (I’m noticing the word “skeptical” a lot here…but hey, it all worked out) because I’d never been north of I-70 in that state (and that was just when I was driving from Colorado to San Diego). Everything south of I-70 is desert and there’s very little population to be seen. Still, everyone insisted that Salt Lake City was a “real city,” so I went for it.

I moved to a city I’d never seen.

Even for me, that was a bit of a leap of faith! I’ve moved plenty of times…last time, I’d only been to San Diego once and that was for the job interview. But sight unseen when I could possibly end up living there for years? This was definitely a first for me.

Mom flew out and made the drive to Park City with me in a VERY packed car. I didn’t take anything that wouldn’t fit in my car, although Karen did ship a few small things to me.

And so far, Park City is treating me well!

Work is going well. The people I work with are excellent and very friendly. The mountain landscapes are gorgeous. I found an amazing place to stay with two roommates who seem like they’ll be a good match. And, of course, it’s all at a fraction of San Diego rental costs!

Now, I’m on a plane headed to New York City for the weekend. Tonight, I’m hanging out with my Uncle Jeff and exploring parts of the city that I haven’t seen (since last time I was there, I didn’t leave Manhattan except to go to the airport). Tomorrow, I’m celebrating my friend Margaux’s 21^st birthday! I fly back to SLC on Monday night.

Phew. There’s the lowdown on my life. And all it took was a 4.5-hour plane ride to get it out of me :)

Thanks for following and thanks for listening…hope you all enjoy the randomness that is the life of Riley!

Greetings from 30,000 Feet: Part 2

If you missed Part 1, check that out here.

So, I walked into a conference room at a 4-star hotel in central London to find four of our executives staring at me. Without an ounce of formality, I was handed several pieces of paper (a severance agreement that I didn’t sign), informed that the company was being restructured and if I needed anything, I could email them.

Even though I saw it coming, I was completely taken aback. So after a year of spending probably 70 hours a week pouring my heart and soul into this company, I was just going to be unceremoniously dumped in London? I had just spent an entire month running on four hours of sleep and caffeine so that I could make the “Ludus experience” better for guests. This was my reward?

Me being me, of course, I couldn’t keep my opinion to myself.

“So, do I not get an exit interview?” I asked.

“Do you want an exit interview?” one of the administrators-who-will-remain-unnamed asked.

“Um, yeah,” I said. After all the shit I had seen my friends and coworkers deal with in London, you can better believe that there was no way in hell I was leaving without voicing my thoughts. And, despite the hellish way everything ended (there’s a lot more details I’m just not going to spell out here, but you’re welcome to ask me about them offline), I didn’t want the people who remained with the company to ever have to deal with this again and I wanted them to be better for this experience.

So, I spilled every last ounce of frustration I’d been holding back and replacing with a smile for guests for weeks.

And when I was finished, no one said anything. By this point, I was crying and probably looked like a hot mess. No one said a thing, though. After waiting a few moments for a response, I took my papers and left.

The doorman at the hotel was the lone person to ask if I was okay. He gave me a napkin to help with the tears. I was very grateful and very thankful to see that even in a moment like that, people can surprise you with their kindness.

I immediately called Karen, who was sitting in a park outside of Buckingham Palace (just down the street), waiting for her “exit interview.” After hearing where she was and beginning to make my way there, I called my parents back in the States (no, not a cheap phone call).

It’s still funny to me that I walked to Buckingham Palace after getting fired.

Karen and I chatted for a while, then she went off to her “interview,” where she got the same spiel as me.

That night, there was a rather large group of us who had been laid off and celebrated/mourned by downing several overpriced bottles of wine from Tesco. They were all leaving bright and early in the morning; I was moving hotels to spend a week enjoying a city I could no longer afford.

Fortunately, I managed to have a good (and somewhat cheap for London) week and visited with the Listers, some old family friends, in Bristol. Jon Lister, who is around my age, returned to London and partied it up with me for my last night in the country.

The final part is coming tomorrow...my life update is kind of long.

Greetings from 30,000 Feet: Part 1

Greetings from an airplane!

Well, not really. I am not going to pay out the ass for in-flight internet service, so this will really be posted once I’m back on the ground.

Anyways…

So, I realized that I haven’t really given a substantive update on my life on here lately. I’ve given you plenty of information about me as a person, but not what this person is doing. I kind of realized that after receiving a text from a family member asking about San Diego…and I moved away from San Diego about two weeks ago.

Life has been, in a word, interesting.

On August 13, the Olympics were over, I was still in London and looking forward to exploring for two days with my friend and roommate (in San Diego and London), Karen. She was leaving on the 15^th along with most everyone else from work, so I wanted to spend some time with all of them before I was on my own for a week.

Then, August 14^th rolled around. I woke up in the morning and saw an interesting Olympic-related article on the internet and decided to share it on some work social media pages. To my utter shock, when I got on Facebook, I had been removed as an admin on the dozens of pages I had run for Ludus. Wondering if there was some strange sort of internet issue, I tried to log into the hosting site we used and check the network status. The password had been changed.

Now, there had been rumors flying around for quite awhile that some people would be getting the boot at the end of the Olympics. I even point-blank asked my supervisor before leaving for London if I needed to be looking for a new job. He said no.  Since I had a skill set that no one else in the office had, I figured I was safe.

Joke was on me.

I called my supervisor immediately after seeing the changed passwords. “So, [insert name here], am I getting fired this afternoon?”

His response: “Ummmmm. Let me call you back.”

Of course, he never did.

Turns out, the same admin removal thing had happened to Karen, so we had an idea that our “exit interviews” that afternoon, purportedly for us to discuss our London experience with the company, were going to be “firing sessions.”

To be continued...Part 2 will be posted later today!

30 Questions: 10(ish) Influential People

List 10 people who have influenced you

My parents

My siblings

Karen

Margaux

Josh and Derek

K-Jens

My family!

Running

Today, something happened that has never happened before in my life.

I ran...and I enjoyed it.

For the past 25 years of my life, running and I have not been friends.  I had asthma, occasionally broke out in hives mid-run, got dizzy, etc. Basically, running meant feeling like I was dying, and I was never really a fan of that.  So I biked, ellipticalled, speedskated, lifted and did just about any exercise I could think of in order to avoid running and still stay healthy.

Fast forward to last year.  My sister inspired me to sign up for a sprint triathlon.  Despite my dislike of running, I started attempting a little 5k loop in Colorado Springs (the Jack Quinn's loop for those of you Colorado Springs folks out there).  It didn't really stick, though, and when I decided to move to San Diego (thus making me unable to do the triathlon), I got out of the habit.

Now, San Diego has AMAZING weather.  Going to a gym here feels like it should be a crime since there's gorgeous parks and beaches to enjoy.  So, after having little success when it came to finding a decent local gym with a pool, I decided I was going to suck it up and run.  First, it was just a weekly run when I felt guilty about being lazy.  Then my friend Karen and I got the crazy idea to sign up for a half marathon.

The first month of training sucked...same old feeling like dying while running.  But, I had promised Karen I'd train with her, so I stuck with it (as much as I've always been a loner when it comes to working out, having a running buddy has been infinitely helpful if for no other reason than it forces me to get out of bed and run).

A few weeks ago, I got a shin splint in my right leg.  It was painful and forced me to reassess my old running shoes (old trail shoes that I used to use on the Incline!).  After two weeks off, I was ready to put my new shoes to use, so I was kind of looking forward to running again (yes, new workout clothes/shoes/etc. are a guaranteed way to get me to work out).  Not really the feeling of it, but the whole health factor.  I had signed up for a 5k in Crown Point last Saturday, so I figured that was the perfect time to jump back in.  It wasn't a very long run, the course was flat and I could always walk if I needed to.

I ended up running the whole 5k without stopping (an achievement for me, since my generally horrible attitude with running usually results in me stopping and walking just because I don't like running) and got a personal best time.  So, when I went to do my training run today, I figured I'd at least run for the first 3.2 miles since I knew I could.

Then I ended up running 4.05 miles and still felt like I could run more...only I had to get back to work!  I was smiling during my run.  I wasn't mentally tallying how many songs had played so far and trying to calculate how that translated into miles.  I wasn't thinking about how much I had left.  Instead, I was looking at the sailboats in the harbor.  I was humming along to songs absentmindedly.  I was people watching and wondering whether they were tourists or business travelers.

Somehow, all the things that typically distract me melted away.  And I just ran.

That's not to say running is going to magically be awesome every time I do it now.  But...it was awesome today, and now I know that it can be fun.  And after all, if it can be today, I know it can be tomorrow, too!

Lately

Life is good.

It's been awhile, but I can say that right now, I am very, very happy with my life.  I love my job and my coworkers have become great friends who I spend my weekends with, too.  I love where I live...San Diego is a fantastic, laid-back city with everything I could ever need only a twenty-minute car ride away. Hillcrest has virtually everything I need within a few blocks!

Last night, for example...I rode my bike home through Balboa Park with Josh and Karen, two coworkers. Then, I stopped by my house to drop off my bike, then walked to Trader Joe's. On the way back, I got frozen yogurt. When I got home, I talked for a long time with my roommate, Anne, swapping crazy family holiday stories.

Today at lunch, I was talking to my friend Ashley while we walked to Mona Lisa (an amazing Italian deli in Little Italy). We both echoed the same sentiments about being mid-twenties, single and in the more urban areas of San Diego. Basically, we both love being free. I know that is vague and sounds strange, but think about it. Most of my friends are at work, so if I want to make plans, I just ask around at the office and there's generally someone who's up for a drink or a night out. If I want to be lazy and just have a TV night in, I do that. But there's always company when it's wanted or needed, and we've got each others' backs. One of our company core values is, "Treat each other like family." The Ludus team does that every single day without trying.

Now I sound like I'm writing one of my work blogs. But, that's just another thing to illustrate how happy I am with where I am right now. I mean those things I write in the Ludus blog about it being awesome.

Like I said...life is good :)