Mar

13

As if that weren’t excitement enough!

Category: LOOK, Lazer Helium, Lazer Helmets, Lazer Tardiz TT Helmet, cool stuff, family | 5 Comments

It's been an eventful week, so much so that I can't even remember what happened on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (my favourite) were all about Ben and helping him get better from afar. For those of you keeping track, his leptospirosis test came back negative, so we still don't know what is wrong. He was discharged from the hospital yesterday but is still experiencing headaches and fever. It's very frustrating, but he's got a great attitude in the face of the unknown. As if that weren't dramatic enough, I had some adventures of my own :) . At noon on Thursday, Loren and I solved the world's/Kelly's ...
(more...)

Mar

6

Courtenay are you standing on rocks?

Category: Lazer Helium, Lazer Helmets, enjoy the blog, family, trials and tribs | Leave a Comment

Yes. Yes I am standing on rocks. I am standing here, pretending to be kicking in place like everyone else, because I still can't figure out how to do egg-beater kick and I whacked the crap out of my foot and cursed the stupid rocks until I realized that I could stand on them! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So went my last morning in Honolulu, at the group swim at Kaimana. I actually whacked my foot in the same place on ...
(more...)

Feb

14

Not-So-Lonely Valentimes

Category: cool stuff, family | 1 Comment

My second consecutive Valentimes Day without my Valentime is going nicely thanks to the Olympics and to my brother. So that's nice. Here is what I was up to on Feb. 14 last year. I seemed pretty excited and hopeful in the post, but my memory from that camp was that we were all freezing cold and soaking wet and exhausted all week. Funny how that week seemed to set the tone for the rest of the year. I'd be pretty stoked if this trip in Hawaii set the tone for 2010 - warmth, great training, lots of time with people I love, acceptance into grad school, warmth, sun, warmth... yea!...
(more...)

Jan

27

I got in! I got in!

Category: Grad School, Grad School Applications, family, i'm moving here | 6 Comments

Last month, I finished my applications to 7 grad school programs in environmental policy/public policy/economics with a focus on environmental issues. Kinda broad, kinda not. Anyhow I was expecting to hear decisions in March, but this morning, as I was hemming and hawing and maximizing my downtime between masters swim practice and my long run, omg, I got an email! From the University of Colorado at Boulder! Saying I was accepted to their M.A. in Public Policy program and would I like to come visit at the end of February! (yes!) So that was exciting. Maybe I'll start hearing from my other programs soon. And after falling in love with Hawaii all over again, I'm toying with the idea of applying ...
(more...)

Jan

9

Vacation is over? Or endless summer?

Category: cool stuff, family, i'm moving here, training | 3 Comments

The holidays are indeed over - Mom left last week, my Dutch niece left after New Year's, little sis left on Tuesday, and I've stopped feeling the need to carry a camera everywhere I go. I'm settling into some semblance of a routine - Team Jet cycling practices are on Monday and Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings, and around that I am doing my own rides, runs, swims, and occasional glances on craigslist in search of another part-time gig. Before Christmas, I was swimming at the University of Hawaii Master's practices, but they are on a three-week hiatus that ends on January 18. Last week I was ...
(more...)

Dec

27

They were bigger at the Eddie

Category: family, i'm moving here | 1 Comment

On Christmas day, almost everything on the North Shore was closed, and the waves were big. So we gawked at Sunset a bit and then drove over to Waimea to gawk there. It was pretty awesome. I've been swimming at Waimea before, normally it looks like a big beautiful bay. On Christmas the waves were so big that you couldn't even tell it was a bay, it was just a big foaming cauldron of whitewater. We got there and my brother Than's first comment was "it was bigger at the Eddie" ...
(more...)

Dec

23

A millisecond of down time!

Category: Grad School Applications, Lazer Helium, Splish, cool stuff, family, i'm moving here, training | 1 Comment

Christmas is a pretty busy time. I always forget! Here is what we have been up to: This weekend, I finished up my public policy essay. It took me forever to write because I kept changing my mind about the topic, getting side-tracked and off-topic during my research, and tempted by training and the great (warm!) outdoors. But it's done. I wound up scrapping my animal-rights idea that I mentioned on my blog a while ago. Instead I wrote about the obesity epidemic (in 2006, 67% of adults in the U.S. were obese or overweight!) and three suggested policy approaches to get people off their bums and out of McDonald's. ...
(more...)

Dec

18

Google tells me it’s snowing in Seattle

Category: enjoy the blog, family, i'm moving here | 2 Comments

But not in Honolulu! Sweet. There's a reason why I always categorize my Hawaii posts as "i'm moving here"! My sister arrived today, my niece and her boyfriend arrive from Holland tomorrow night, and my mom arrives on Monday as long as Maryland's 20" blizzard doesn't get in the way. Yesterday Ben and I wanted to go grocery shopping (two days of one-bonk-per-workout due to no food was two days too many) and also for an open water swim at either Kaimana or Ala Moana, both ~2 miles from my brother's apartment where we're staying. He's got this fancy car that I was very begrudgingly allowed to drive last time I ...
(more...)

Dec

17

I Don’t have any Photos yet

Category: family, i'm moving here | Leave a Comment

We're here! We're in Hawaii! It's very warm and exciting. I haven't quite relaxed and gone on vacation yet though. The past six weeks have been the busiest I can remember in recent years - every "down" moment was spent planning what I should/would be working on next. I've crossed most things off my list now, I just have one more application essay to finish and a website update to complete (WOOOHOOO bring on 2010!), totally doable but I'm still finding myself in taskmaster mode a little bit. Tomorrow I hope to take photos - today was spent getting oriented and remembering how to train for more than 3 hours a day. And hanging out with my brother for a bit (who ...
(more...)

Dec

8

A small financial tale

Category: enjoy the blog, family, in my opinion | 1 Comment

The other day I got a massage, my first real massage since I'd seen Jeff last November. This time I stole one of Ben's massage appointments and I went to Liam at Inewmed, where before I even got to disrobe and relax, I was accused of giving the whole office swine flu! But the last time I was there was October 29, and I didn't get sick until November 11, but they were all sick the week before that, so who is right? Me. Who got who sick? Not me. Actually, looking at a calendar and considering contagion horizons... Inewmed got ME sick! The massage was pretty good aside from Liam's very depressing conclusion: ...
(more...)
keep looking »