I’m not much for resolutions, which always seem to have have a funny way of turning into letdowns when circumstances (or more often interests) change your ability (or desire) to meet them.
In 2009 I turned 30, and I formally set goals for the first time in many years. Right now they are taped up in a notebook for me to read someday in the future. I will probably have met some of them, be working on others, and some of them won’t resonate the same way they did when I wrote them down so I’ll leave those behind. I have started verbalizing some of my dreams and have left others unspoken. The important thing is to simply have them.
Now, bring on 2010!!
Posted: December 31st, 2009
Categories:
Daily
Tags:
#best09,
dreaming,
living
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The best advertising of this year (or any year) is no advertising.

Posted: December 30th, 2009
Categories:
Daily
Tags:
#best09,
authentic,
consumeristic
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I’m on a boat, bitch!!
(This made Dustin break out in belly-laughs. I think you woulda hafta have been there… :D )
Posted: December 29th, 2009
Categories:
Daily
Tags:
#best09,
living
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No Comments.

One of the best parts about playing and writing music with other people is in those moments where everyone’s parts come together into a whole that is better than you imagined or could have planned for and when the song is done you aren’t quite sure how it happened. I like to think of those as telepathic communication moments.
This fall we started playing in a band with our friend Kev. We are still kind of organically learning how to play together (the logistics of musical conversation), but I think we’ve glimpsed a few of those telepathic moments, too. It all feels incredibly promising.
Posted: December 28th, 2009
Categories:
Daily,
making
Tags:
#best09,
music
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Recent reality check, paraphrased:
J: “I think I want to quit doing twitter and facebook because they are dumb and annoying”
L: “Nooooo, I like to send you love notes”
J: “Maybe you could send me real life love notes”
Posted: December 27th, 2009
Categories:
words to rest in
Tags:
#best09,
living
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Kind of dumb, but ketsup isn’t that gross:

Posted: December 26th, 2009
Categories:
Daily
Tags:
#best09,
foodism
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(My partnership with this man)
Posted: December 25th, 2009
Categories:
things i like
Tags:
#best09,
living
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Cutting off your hair does not magically keep you from turning 30. It does not throw open doors for the free-spirited, risk-taking side of yourself, either. (Just being a free-spirited, risk-taking person does in fact open those doors). It doesn’t help identify you as a feministy Novo-Collegian, not when you have to take 15 extra minutes getting ready every morning. Actually, it throws you right back into that feeling of being an awkward teenager while at the same encouraging others to point at your head, squeal, and make comments.
I think 2010 will be the year of growing out my hair…

pink hair, age 19.

brown hair, age 30
Posted: December 24th, 2009
Categories:
Daily
Tags:
#best09,
living
Comments:
1 Comment.
I am a web designer and I am pretty sad that I haven’t been amazingly impressed by any new web tools this year. However, this has definitely been the Year of the iPhone, and I *do* have a handful of useful/fun/utilitarian apps that will make my “best of” list.
- Twitterific. I totally had a debate with my boss about this the other day, and I realize that Twitterific doesn’t have the most elegant interface and isn’t the cool designer-y app anymore. However, there are a few features that make Twitterific my go-to app for the iPhone. It buzzes/makes a birdy sound to let you know that your tweets have finally loaded over AT&T’s slow-ass connection. It shows the timestamps of all unread tweets in orange, which is really helpful for finding your place as you read. Refreshing doesn’t jump you around to a different spot in your stream. My own tweets and @-mentions are in the same stream with the people I follow and are conveniently color-coded (also helpful for way-finding). I can change an @-reply to a regular tweet if I want, midway through. And it has a dark background, which is good because I am most likely using the app in the morning from bed, and my eyes get watery when I look at a bright screen that early. If only I could set up image posting via Flickr like I can with Tweetie… Can I stop saying these ridiculous “T” words now? (more…)
Posted: December 23rd, 2009
Categories:
things i like
Tags:
#best09
Comments:
No Comments.
- “Social Media”/New Media/Twittered/Tweeted/Twat
- FTW/FML/Epic Fail
- Your Mom/That’s What She Said
- New Normal/Exit Strategy/Meltdown/Credit Crunch/Credit Crisis/Bailout/From Wallstreet to Mainstreet
- Cougar
- Totes/I Know, Right?
- Dialogue/Low Hanging Fruit/Moving Forward/Speak To/Touch Base/Talk Offline/Leverage/Push Back
- To Be Quite Honest
- Threw Under the Bus/Jumped the Shark
Posted: December 22nd, 2009
Categories:
Daily
Tags:
#best09
Comments:
No Comments.

My Mondo Beyondo list, a project in process.
Posted: December 21st, 2009
Categories:
Daily,
making
Tags:
#best09,
dreaming
Comments:
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I have a serious problem with the idea that any of my friends are more “bester” than the others, because it reminds me of 3rd grade when I got temporarily kicked out of the best friends club because I couldn’t make it across the monkey bars. However, the operative word in this Best of 2009 prompt is “new”. This year I grew a new friendship with a really amazing person who inspired me in ways that I am not sure she realizes. This person is taking risks and daring to dream in her own life — starting a business, living creatively, seeking healthfulness, and finding her own path. If you are reading this, I hope you know who you are. Thank you for being you!
Posted: December 20th, 2009
Categories:
things i like
Tags:
#best09,
dreaming,
living,
new
Comments:
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This year marked John’s start of grad school at CU and resulting commute into Boulder 5 times per week. He is really awesome and rides his bike to the bus and then from the bus to campus. I am not so tough/brave/willing to wear bike-appropriate clothes as that, but I did ride my bike from Erie to work on Bike To Work Day 2009, which is 14 miles each way.
(If there are any Boulderites reading this and snickering, you can stop now. That is a major ride for me in traffic.) (more…)
Posted: December 19th, 2009
Categories:
Daily
Tags:
#best09,
traveling
Comments:
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- H&M, London
- The Design Museum Shop, London
- Meg Brothers, Etsy Shop, Denver
- Lululemon, Lone Tree
- Fancy Tiger, Denver
- DeMaj Salon, Erie
Posted: December 18th, 2009
Categories:
things i like
Tags:
#best09,
consumerism,
traveling
Comments:
No Comments.

Posted: December 17th, 2009
Categories:
Daily
Tags:
#best09,
living
Comments:
No Comments.
One of my favorite things to do when we used to visit Jenna in FoCo was to go to the Alley Cat and discuss philosophical zombies over a pot of Lapsang Souchong. It smells like campfires, mmmmm. She got me some for Christmas last year, and it lasted half the year. I think need me some more tea and some more Jenna, stat.
Posted: December 16th, 2009
Categories:
things i like
Tags:
#best09,
foodism,
traveling
Comments:
No Comments.
Anyone knows that the best packaging is no packaging…
Or nature’s packaging…


Or these:

Posted: December 15th, 2009
Categories:
things i like
Tags:
#best09,
foodism
Comments:
No Comments.

Posted: December 14th, 2009
Categories:
things i like
Tags:
#best09,
photolicious
Comments:
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New couches, a pillow, and a thriving jade plant…

Posted: December 13th, 2009
Categories:
Daily
Tags:
#best09,
living
Comments:
No Comments.
Before the summer of 2008, my experiences with kale were limited to a stirfry that my friend made in college and seeing the crazy kale people come thru the line when I worked at Vitamin Cottage. So when I started getting a bunch of kale in my farmshare box last summer, I didn’t know what to do with it. I used it as a replacement for spinach in my favorite VWAV recipe, I tried it in Indian food, and ultimately I had so much of it that I took to hiding it in pasta sauce. By the end of the summer I begged my farm to let me replace the kale in my weekly pickups with chard. I never wanted to eat kale again.
This year was somewhat different. John implored me to destem the kale and to cut it into smaller strips (!!), and he also put garlic in it. Suddenly, I was in love. Now I get weird cravings for kale, and it has become a staple on our menu.
(more…)
Posted: December 12th, 2009
Categories:
Daily
Tags:
#best09,
foodism
Comments:
No Comments.