Technical Difficulties

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So I was writing a post about Vegas and also my tragic hair shelf incident (see my Twitter feed for more on that), but for some reason I keep getting a server error when I try to upload pictures.

These stories simply cannot be told without visuals.

Alas, I will be trouble shooting and try to get the originally intended post up soon.

If not, I am leaving for vacation in Ohio for the next week or so and may or may not find the motivation to blog. I promise I’ll try to whip myself into shape when I’m back. :)

I should have some good content considering I’m attending a wedding, two baby showers, a party at my parents house and lunch with my soon-to-be 90 year old grandfather.

Enjoy your weekends/weeks and I’ll talk to you soon.

Go Bucks!

PS- if you can’t stand the thought of going a week without hearing about my incredibly interesting life, then I will be posting photos and status updates on my Facebook page. It’s open to the public, so you don’t necessarily have to be my friend. Although I’d like you to be. http://www.facebook.com/LizBatman

In Which I’m SO GLAD I Don’t Have a Jealous Husband

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Tonight I am going to Vegas baby!! I’m meeting some of my best college girl friends there for a weekend of dancing, sunning and maybe some shopping. There’s something so fun about a weekend with just girls and I feel like I’m long overdue for some ladies time.

My excitement for this weekend has been spilling out of me the past few days…I’ve been telling coworkers, friends, family…even my hairdresser about our plans for Vegas. One thing has struck me while talking about it though – it seems like a lot of people ask if my husband is coming or if he’s “letting me go” without him. And when I say “it’s just girls,” they immediately give me wide eyes and say “your husband must be upset, huh?”

The feminist in me wanted to say – “What do you mean is he “letting me” go? And why would he care if I spent a weekend with my girlfriends?” But I’ve just been smiling and saying that he is supportive of me going with friends.

These conversations have made me wonder…. do more relationships involve asking for permission to do things and dealing with jealousy than those that are based on mutual respect and trust?

Last time I was in Vegas with girlfriends I couldn’t believe the number of angry phone calls they got from boyfriends back home demanding to know why they didn’t call when they got home from going out. Dude…it was 4am and they probably just wanted to sleep versus getting drilled with questions!!

I’m not sure if it’s because Luke and I have:

A) never ever given each other a reason NOT to trust one another (and never will)

B) that we’re both independent people and respect each other’s need for time with friends

or

C) that we aren’t prone to jealousy

but the thought of him getting upset about me spending a weekend in Vegas with friends never even crossed my mind (nor his for that matter). In fact, there was no “asking” him permission to go…it was more like I told him I was planning to go and made sure it worked with our schedule.

And when he went to Vegas for his bachelor party, he never once got a call from his fiance demanding to know where he was, what he was doing and who he was with. All I wanted to know was if he was having fun and how much money he won at the black jack tables. :)

So what is the deal with all the jealousy that seems to abound when couples travel apart? Does it all come down to a lack of trust? And if that’s the case, why would you be in a relationship with someone you don’t trust or who doesn’t trust you?

Public Speaking is Scary and Exciting

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Phew! What a crazy week. Sorry I was MIA last week, I was in Colorado for a summit with all of my colleagues in Vail Resorts sales and marketing. It was a really fun week filled with BBQ on a ranch, an awards ceremony and plenty of team-building activities.

Part of the week also involved a presentation give by yours truly in front of about 200 of my peers. EEK!

About two months ago I was selected to lead a special project within a program we have called “Vail Resorts Vision.” Basically people from around the company come together to work on a business challenge that is outside their normal focus.

After two months of meetings, planning, research and building our presentation, “Team Tahoe” as we called ourselves took the stage. Right before kicking off our presentation I was pretty nervous….like sweating under my clothes nervous (gross I know).

It didn’t help that the video in our presentation introducing our team didn’t work – despite the fact that I tested it literally seconds before going on the stage. What is it with public speaking and technical difficulties??

After some awkward apologies, I finally got the video to work. Based on the laughs, I think it was worth the wait.

The Tahoe Bunch from Heavenly Mountain on Vimeo.

From there things went really smoothly. I even tried to work in a few lame jokes that my very polite colleagues laughed at. Thanks for that guys.

When it was all over I had an amazing sense of accomplishment. This is super dorky, but it’s an awesome feeling when you take on a big challenge at work, put in a lot of hours on it and finish the project on a high note. I guess you could say I was sort of…. proud of myself?

It’s that feeling that makes me love my job. As many times as I’ve thought – not having to work all day every day would be great – I also know that a lot of my self-esteem, confidence and identity is created through my 9-5. I’m not sure I could ever give that up.

 

A Cross to Bear

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This weekend we attended 5 pm pass at St. Francis of Assisi here in Incline. Where we live in Tahoe is dubbed “Income Village” for the amount of wealthy, retired or second-home owners who live here. Meaning, we’re usually the youngest people at mass by about 50 years.

The priest’s homily this week was about the crosses we all have to bear. I love this priest because he always makes a point to have his homily’s be interactive…not just him preaching to us. For this particular one, he asked us all to close our eyes and think of the biggest cross we bear in our lives.

I held my eyes closed tight and thought….

And thought….

And …. um …. I couldn’t think of anything!

In an instant I opened my eyes and looked around at all the older members of the community with their eyes closed and through their body language I could tell that nearly all of them were thinking about something difficult that had happened to them in their lives. I imagined things like deceased spouses, lost relationships with children, debt, illness.

At first I felt relieved that I have been blessed to not have experienced tragedy in my life. My loved ones are happy and healthy. My financial situation is good. I live a life I truly enjoy every day.

But that relief slowly started to evolve into fear and last night (three days after mass), my anxiety hit hard. I couldn’t help having an overwhelming feeling that all my happiness is just temporary and some great tragedy is lurking somewhere in my future ready to change my life forever. That years from now I’ll look back on all my happy blog posts from this time in my life and think “if I had only known.”

I tried to console myself by remembering what the priest said after we all reflected on our crosses … that to truly know Christ, we have to know suffering. But to be honest, I don’t want to go through something like losing someone I love or getting sick or being unhappy.

And even worse, I hate that I feel like suffering is going to be an inevitable part of my life. It’s like it’s a big, scary, nasty question mark just looming out there waiting to ruin everything.

It makes me wonder … is it possible to live a life of happiness and avoid heartbreak? Or are we all destined to experience tragedy?

And if so, is there any way to prepare myself for what may happen?

(Sorry for the depressing post. I just can’t stop thinking about this…)