Traveling Thoughts

Ok, so in Nov 2007 I participated in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) and the point was to blog every day of Novemeber. And when it came to the end of November, I was straggling along, tired and exhausted and just out of stuff to blog about, but I made it through…a few days ago, I get an email about Blog 365, which is basically NaBloPoMo times 12. I’m crazy, and I know I’m crazy, but I was looking through my archives and there are months that suffer severely when it comes to me posting, and the thing about it is, it’s during those months where I have a wealth of stuff to write about and I never take the time to do it.

There’s a couple of things that are usually off limits that I could write about and that would help me in reaching the Blog 365 goal. I usually almost never write about my relationship with God on my blog (or the lack there of). And actually, God is worth writing about. He’s a piece of me.

I also don’t usually ever blog about work, because it’s not always an appropriate topic to blog about, but since I work in a technological industry, there’s plenty that I’m learning that I could be writing about.

So I’m going to give Blog 365 a chance. I mean, I’ve got plenty to write about, I just have to start taking more time and sitting down and writing about it. I can do it, so let’s do this thing!

I love the snow, and last night, the snow came, and I’m cool with it. I’m cool with it because I have an opinion about the cold weather, if it’s going to be cold, it should be snowing. And so it’s snowing, after 9 months of me being able to wear shorts, it’s snowing. While I appreciate that it’s snowing because it’s cold, I’ve realized that I wish it wasn’t cold. The cold weather is cramping my lifestyle. I can’t bike if it’s cold because it kills me, injuries come easier, but it strains my muscles and it hurts my lungs. If I can’t bike, I’m just not happy, biking is what makes my life good, it relieves stress, it keeps me healthy and in shape. Biking is my chi. Ok, I strayed, let me back up from cycling and back to the snow.

It’s snowing:

And when it’s snowing, I feel the need to go play in the snow:

And when I get done playing, it looks like this (in one spot at least):

So, I love the snow. I love when I get to play in the snow. I love when the snow makes it so that I can’t go to work, it’s a beautiful thing.

If I had to say what my claim to fame was going to be in my lifetime it wouldn’t be some stint on a TV show or a part in the movies, I wouldn’t be a famous pop artist, sports aren’t in my cards, inventions…eh, well, unless it’s some great piece of software…No, my claim to fame is blogging.

One day, I’m going to be able to walk down the street, and people are going to stop me because they know my blog, one day my name will be engraved on the blogger’s walk of fame in Orlando and people will be stopping to put their hands into mine.

Ok, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but I’m allowed to think big right??? You just never know what may happen where I’m concerned, you just wait, my signature, one day, it’s gonna be worth something.

In the meantime, I’ve got another step on the way to fame etched in my belt. Today, I am Featured Blogger over at IZEA.

I was very excited and honored to be asked to be the featured blogger. The hardest part about it though, shaking everyone’s hands after it was announced, ok, not really, answering the questions, that was the hardest part.

Wondering what the questions were, go check them out on the IZEA blog.

Not much bummed me out while I was in Vegas, there is one thing though, I played Roulette for the first time in my life with my new gambling partner Ashley, and I have no picture of it (it’s probably illegal to take pictures at the tables, although, had I been carted off to jail for such an act, it would’ve been worth writing about). It was cool, him, Jim and Colleen and I had left the party at the Tao and were going to play roulette, Ashley wanted a $5 minimum table and that was only available at the Imperial Palace if we were playing electronic roulette, which we couldn’t because all the seats were filled. So we were stuck playing at a $10 minimum table.

Now, I knew nothing about roulette, I’m not sure I know a whole lot about roulette as it is now. I watched Colleen play on Friday night, and I asked questions and she would explain stuff to me so I had some understanding on how to play. Once she lost all her riches on Saturday night, I assumed her position at the table and started playing on my own, $20 at a time. Ashley and I would go back and forth asking each other “what are you feeling” We’d answer each other, black, red, even, odd and the other one would say, yeah, me too. Sometimes I’d make nice little patterns in the middle, but I really had no clue what I was doing, I had like $60 in chips at one point and lost it all, but that’s how it works right? When I had lost all $80 in cash that I had on me, I called it a night. Ashley was still going strong. We said we were going to win big, me, I didn’t, so I hope he did :)

Ashley, my man, next year, we’re winning big.

For those of you that don’t know Ashley, that’s him.
Thanks to Drew for the pic.

When Ted, Ashley, and Travis were in ABQ we had talked about doing a cake plow at Postie Con. It was going to be the worlds largest cake plow and we wanted it in Guinness Book of World Records. And lo and behold, they got cakes, to do a cake plow, I was so excited.

They brought the cakes in and started cutting them up into decent size pieces that were the perfect size for putting our faces into them.

We all lined up and got directions on how it was going to work. There was too much giggling and laughing for it to be a true cake plow wave, but that doesn’t matter.

First went Cass

Then Michael (who had help from Pete)

VC Dan Rua

Magical Trevor

Pete

Techie

Mr. Fab

Me

Lisa (she needed help, I helped)

Alli

Drew

Here’s a vid of the entire event, I think Ashley was filming on Drew’s camera.

It was a lot of fun, I don’t think anyone will disagree with me

And if people have pictures of me licking Mr. Fab’s head (cause there was enough flashes going off, there should be pictures) I’d appreciate a link to them, I think they’ve earned a spot in this post

So, little by little, I’ve kindof been blogging about the IZEA guys coming to ABQ. There was the should so be scratch n sniff cards and the entry about how Ted got on the news, but there was also so much more going on. It’s kindof funny, I was getting IMs from people building up to the event to get the scoop on ARGUS and maybe in the beginning I was excited about the sneak peek I was going to get. But when it came down to it, ARGUS wasn’t important. I was sitting there having breakfast with Ted, Ashley, Travis, Glennis, Glennis’ sister, Glennis’ niece (Olivia, who’s oh so cute)

We sat around and talked about all kinds of things. It was a lot of fun. There was a lot laughing.

Bet you’d like to know what we’re looking at wouldn’t you. It was a great video of Antonio Master Impressionist. The things Ted can do. He’s just so much fun to be talking to. We had a completely great time just sitting there and talking. And then we had the fun of Ted getting on the news.

I got my shirt for BBR with all of IZEAs employees autographs (they’re going to be worth a lot one day, you just wait)

It was great to see these guys. I just can’t say enough about how great these guys are. They work hard but they have fun while they’re working.

When we were all done having fun though, they had to get on the road because they had to get to Phoenix for that night so we took care of some business.

I had brought 132 cans for them to take to my local food bank (Road Runner Food Bank). I made the guys work as we unloaded my trunk.

When I arrived in Vegas yesterday I had a plan, I wanted to go see where I was going to be riding in next year’s Tour de Cure. But I quickly got distracted. There were signs for Hoover Dam. But even there, I got distracted. I didn’t stay on highway 93 for long though. I took a detour (because I got distracted) to Lake Mead. And it was absolutely beautiful out there. I had to make a stop and get out of my car and go check out the water. I was really bummed that I hadn’t packed shorts. The water was warm. The weather was warm. It was just warm. So, I pulled up my pant legs and waded into the water. And then we had a Courtney First.

I had a good time. I eventually got down to Hoover Dam but there were people everywhere and traffic wasn’t moving so I didn’t stop (that and I kindof had to get back to Vegas to attend Blog World Expo). So I kept driving because I just knew that the road was going to loop back on itself and that I was going to get back to Vegas. (Yes, I know, I’m not all that smart sometimes) I ended up in Arizona, if only briefly, I was in Arizona. That is my pre-Blog World Adventure. It was cool.

Up until today I wasn’t excited about Halloween. I’ve not been excited about Halloween for years. But this year, there was a reason to get excited. The cause for excitement is a Halloween bike ride. We dress up and ride our bikes from Nob Hill to Old Town…It’s a couple mile stretch down Route 66.

But now, I need to look at all the various options among the Halloween costumes and find me something and then find my bike something. I know it sounds silly, but not only do we dress up, we dress up our bikes as well.

So, I have two ideas. Mainly because I want to turn my bike into a horse. Preferably a black horse and I want to put LED’s in for his eyes and have them blink (that way I can be seen).

So, since my bike is a horse, I have a couple options (in order of what I’ve thought about so far):

1) Cowgirl

2) Headless horseman

3) Zorro

4) Roman Soldier(ess)

So right now, I totally all for the Roman Soldier. It would be awesome to be riding down the road with the red mohawk down my helmet (horse hair crest thingy ma-bob-ber) and armour and a sword. That would totally rock. Of course, as you can see I’ve changed my mind on several occasions so far, so between now and Wednesday, my mind could change again…but whatever it changes to, my bike will be a horse.

I guess I kindof gotta make up my mind soon though…because if I decide on something that I definately will be in need of buying a halloween costume for, I gotta get on the ball and buy it.

Two weeks ago the ADA released the 2008 Tour de Cure dates. As soon as I noticed this I started planning out my vacations. So far over a span of 6 months I’ve got a potential of 7 rides scheduled. For at least 3 of them I’m going to need to catch a plane because they’re not within “I’ll drive 12 hours to get somewhere” distance. Well, one of them is, but I really don’t want to drive to CA for one day just to turn around and drive back.

We all know about the top dogs in the online cheap tickets business. But I’m the type of person that will give the underdogs a chance, but only because it might save me money.

The latest in the travel sites that have a chance at saving me money is cheapOair. Cheap Fare. Cheap Air. Big Fun! That’s what I’m all about. So I went and checked them out for what will be my first of my 7 trips this coming year. Albuquerque to Orlando FL. And sure enough against my favorite travel site, cheapOair was $30 cheaper. Which makes a difference because that $30 can go towards a day of car rentals.

It’s an awesome thing that with cheapOair One Click or Call Does It All! And that is why we search around for cheaper airfares, because we just never know what we’re going to find. Whether it be for business or for fun, cheapOair is now on my list of sites to search. Because if I’m on a budget, cheapOair might be able to stretch it a little further.

Half the time, when I think North Carolina, I think of a Tour de Cure in the future. Which in 2008 (or last year or in the future years) means 2 days on a bike in June in Raleigh, North Carolina. The other half of the time, I think of the more beautiful part of North Carolina. I think of North Carolina in the fall when the colors are changing. And for as much as I’d love to go ride a Tour de Cure in North Carolina, I’d much rather go in the fall and enjoy the fall colors.

Sadly, on my list of priorities is the Tour de Cure. So will I make it to Raleigh, NC for the fall colors before I get out there for the TdC? If you had asked yesterday I would have said no. But since it’s today, I can say, it’s a possibility. It’s a possibility because I can win a FREE Raleigh Getaway. Heck, you can win a Fall Getaway to Raleigh, NC.

Raleigh is so beautiful in the fall, or so I’m told, by both people and pictures, did you see the beautiful colors in the picture I put with this post? It’s enough to make me enter a contest to win that Fall Getaway. And even though I could go to the forest and sit under the trees and watch the colors change and be completely happy for as long as I were vacationing there, there’s other things to do while in Raleigh during the fall.

There’s the 2007 N.C. State Fair. There’s the bike festival (which got me all excited but then I realized that it was a Harley Bike Festival, not a Bicycle Bike Festival). One of my favorite things is the museums, particular the dinosaur museums.

There’s so much to do in Raleigh, and while I know that in the next couple years I’ll make it out there for the TdC, I want to go in the fall and see the colors.