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!

30 Days of Photos - Day 5

Day Five - A photo of your favorite memory

Okay, so I'm cheating and adding two.  This first one is from the summer I studied abroad in Paris, France.  The whole experience of living in another country and (attempting) to speak another language was amazing.  To top it all off, I ended up making one of the best friends of my life, Katrina, who I still talk to just about every day now!  I cannot wait to visit Paris again one day!

Although this is my family in the Olympic rings at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, the memory associated with it is my internship.  It had its ups and downs, but ultimately was one of the best experiences of my life.  I finally figured out what I want to do with my life because of it, and I discovered a talent I never knew I had (photography).  I also, again, made one of the best friends of my life, Margaux!  

30 Days of Photos - Day 1

I saw this on a friend's Facebook and thought it might be a good way to keep me motivated to update this blog.

Day One - A picture of yourself with fifteen facts

1. I love hiking and climbing mountains. I've summited two 14ers since I've been in Colorado (including Mt. Belford, where the above photo was taken).

2. I love to cook.  One of the things I am most excited about in my new apartment is the lovely kitchen!

3. Authentic Mexican food and margaritas are basically a guaranteed way to cheer me up if I'm having a bad day.

4. I love traveling!  I have a bucket list of places to go all around the world.

5. I cannot wait to get a dog, but I'm not a fan of large dogs...I'm hoping to keep the family puggle tradition alive.

6. Over the seven months I have been in Colorado, my respect for amateur athletes has grown so much...it isn't really possible to put the amount into words. 

7. I'm more than a little obsessed with Starbucks. 

8. If I'm drinking, it's probably wine (or the aforementioned margaritas).  Cheap wine is fine because I rarely notice the difference.

9. I'm alcohol intolerant, so I don't drink that often and when I do, I need to take allergy medicine about an hour before or else I get sick.

10. I form a strong opinion on most things and I love getting in friendly debates about them.  

11. I'm a tree-hugger, pro-choice, pro-immigration, pro-same sex marriage, strongly opposed to Don't Ask Don't Tell...basically, I'm a liberal and quite proud of it.  I'm educated about it, though, and I know there are flaws in every ideology.

12. I'm pretty much always cold.

13. I like to stay active...some of my hobbies include speedskating, hiking, cycling (in the gym for now since I'm bike-less) and going on walks.

14. I was inspired by the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games to apply for internships with the US Olympic Committee.  I got hired eventually by the digital media department.  Coming out to work for the USOC was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

15. I'm one independent study away from a masters degree in political science.  Although I have no intention of working in politics (I used to want to...I clearly changed my mind), I'll have the degree!

Transition

I'm changing this blog a bit.  I haven't updated in awhile, but now that I'm moving out to Colorado for good, it'll be a good way to keep in touch with family about what's going on in my life.

I have two days left at the USOC.  It's been a fantastic, life-changing experience.  I've made amazing friends and professional connections.  I've discovered a passion for two things I didn't really recognize before: amateur sports and digital media.  I finally know what I want to do with my life.

So, to get to that next part of my life, I'm starting a new job on Monday.  I'm going to be an assistant media planner/buyer at Vladimir Jones, an advertising agency in Colorado Springs.  The company sounds fantastic and they really seem to have their stuff together.  It'll be a great chance for me to learn about all kinds of marketing venues while actually working with real clients.

This weekend, I'm going to be moving into a new apartment at Boulder Crescent, right downtown.  I'll be able to walk to work!  It's exciting!

I'm looking forward to some new experiences and sticking around Colorado...after all, I've still got quite a few 14ers to conquer!

Community Day Picture Post

Lots of Links

I just sent one of my professors an email of everything I've written for the USOC so far, so I thought I'd post it here, too, in case any of you were interested in reading my work!  I'll also be posting some pictures later today!

Here are my blog posts in no particular order:

http://www.teamusa.org/blogs/all-access/posts/2026-surprise-success

http://www.teamusa.org/blogs/all-access/posts/1978-winning-as-a-team

http://www.teamusa.org/blogs/all-access/posts/1931-embracing-the-struggle

http://www.teamusa.org/blogs/all-access/posts/1965-turning-the-tables

http://www.teamusa.org/blogs/all-access/posts/1988-it-s-your-team-too

http://www.teamusa.org/blogs/all-access/posts/2001-trust-your-instincts

They should all be aggregated at http://www.teamusa.org/blogs/all-access but right now that page of the website is down for maintenance.

Here are a couple of other things I've worked on:

http://www.teamusa.org/multimedia/photo_gallery/1706?ngb_id=3 (Community Day photo gallery)

http://www.teamusa.org/news/2010/06/29/community-appreciation-day-at-the-usoc/36888?ngb_id=3 (Community Day story)

http://www.teamusa.org/news/2010/06/24/jones-inspired-o-lympic-path/36785?ngb_id=3 (Christina Jones synchronized swimming story)

http://www.teamusa.org/news/2010/06/15/featured-athlete-lopez-lomong/36561?ngb_id=3 (Lopez Lomong story)

http://www.teamusa.org/multimedia/photo_gallery/1695 (Weekly Olym-pics photo gallery including three photos I took)

I've also been writing the daily "In the News" section, which is located daily on the homepage.

Mmm...Success!

I apologize for the lack of constant updates!  I've been keeping busy with work and new friends, so I haven't had much time for blogging here!  I am, however, keeping another blog for the USOC...it's called the All Access Blog.  Technically, there are four or five people who have the ability to post to it, but so far it's mainly been me posting to it because I really enjoy writing the entries.  You can click here to read my latest entry...click on the title at that page and it will take you to a list of the rest of the entries.

Thursday and Friday were both very exciting days at work for me.  On Thursday, my blog entry that I posted above ended up getting nearly 3,000 hits!  Apolo Ohno posted a link to it on his Twitter account, and Travis Jayner (another speedskater that I admire) and US Speedskating also retweeted the post (for those of you who don't speak Twitter, "retweeting" is basically reposting another person's post so that more people can see it).  Needless to say, I was pretty pleased.  It's been awhile since I've really gotten to write freely and creatively, and it appears that I didn't lose my knack for it!

On Friday, one of my supervisors took me to the downtown headquarters to some meetings.  I met with a person from Development because I rewrote a donor letter for them.  They LOVED it!  That one was about Lopez Lomong, a runner for Team USA in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  It's really awesome that I'm getting these opportunities this early in my internship!  Hopefully, that means that someday I can get a job in this field!

Last night, I went out with some of the other interns.  Today's kind of a cold, rainy day here, so we're probably just going to hang out, watch the World Cup (Go USA!), maybe go outlet shopping and relax!

OTC and Manitou Incline

Today is my brother Jordan's last day in Colorado Springs...so he got to decide what we were doing today.  His decision?  The Manitou Incline.

Now, ever since I found out I would be spending my summer in Colorado Springs, I knew I wanted to tackle "The Incline" at some point.  However, I figured "at some point" would be after I'd had a few weeks to adjust to the altitude and get into a regular exercise routine...I certainly wasn't expecting to climb it on my second full day here!  But Jordan wanted to go for it, and Steven enthusiastically encouraged it.  Ruth and I were a little less optimistic but we still went for it...even though it meant waking up at 5:45am.

A little background on the Incline for those of you not familiar with it...it consists of the remnants of an old cog railway that closed in 1990.  Following the railway's close, hikers, athletes, and people looking for a unique workout took over, turning it into an unofficial hiking trail.  It is technically illegal to climb because it's private property (so hiking the Incline is trespassing), but you'd never know that by looking at it.  On any given day, there are plenty of people climbing up and down it.  The Barr Trail to Pikes Peak meets it twice, once about halfway up (providing the "bailout trail" for people who don't think they can make it up to the top) and then again at the top (so most people take the Incline up and the Barr Trail down).  The Incline ascends over 2,000ft in a mile and a half...so it's a very challenging workout but gives you a lot of personal satisfaction when you've reached the summit!

The Manitou Incline...and me regretting my decision to climb it

Believe it or not, this is the easy part.

Made it to the top!

Jordan, Ruth, and I made it to the top in just under an hour and a half, which surprised all of us, I think (we were half-expecting to have to use the bailout trail).  I'm already anxious for my next trip to the Incline...climbing stairs up the side of a mountain has to be a good workout for speedskating!

And, as promised...here are a a few pictures from our trip to the US Olympic Training Center yesterday!

Ruth and I imitating the short track speedskater statues behind us

Jordan hurt himself trying to imitate the above karate pose

This is for you, Hillary!

We mainly just goofed around with the statues, obviously...we drove back by the dorm that I'll be living in, but we weren't really sure if we were allowed back there or not.  So, after our exploratory drive and our goofing around, we headed back to Ruth and Steven's apartment!  

We ate dinner at Trinity Brewing Company, which was excellent...I unfortunately didn't take my camera, though.  We had cheesecake made with beer!  And more surprisingly...it was really good!  Jordan and Steven were more interested in the beer that Trinity brews themselves, though.

That's it for now...tomorrow probably won't be too interesting because I'll be recovering from the Incline!