Friday, September 30, 2011

Golden Gloriousness

by Tracey Flower

A little September bonus post to celebrate my favorite season. I hiked to Deluge Lake in East Vail a few days ago. The lake is pristine and nestled into the Gore Range; it's only 4 miles from the trailhead to the lake, with a 3,400 ft. elevation gain from bottom to top. My leg strength was tested but I was rewarded generously for my efforts along the way with sweeping vistas of Golden Gore Range Gloriousness. Marvel with me.


                              

            

Thursday, September 29, 2011

A New Season

by Tracey Flower

It’s that time of year again. Fall. The Vail Valley is glowing with it. It’s a new season, and my favorite one at that.

A new season means time for fresh starts. I love this time of year for that. Life in Vail is lived season to season, and for many of us here the end of a summer or winter season means the end of one job and the start of a new one. This can be, at times, a very frustrating way of life; no one makes much money here and there’s always a pause when one job ends and another begins, a few weeks with no work, no income.

There’s also beauty in that pause. There’s always a moment to travel, to relax, to slow down and, especially in fall, time to squeeze in all your favorite summer activities just one last time before the snow settles in for the next eight months.

There’s also time to reflect and refresh before the next major season (that would be summer or winter around here) starts. Time to prepare for the fresh start that a new season brings. I relish this time and always appreciate the opportunity to start anew.

Fall also marks a new year in my life. I celebrated my last twenty-something birthday (gulp) a week ago. 

I don’t get overly anxious about aging; there’s nothing I can do about it and the alternative to aging is, well, death, so I’ll just go ahead and get older thank you very much. BUT there is something intimidating about 30, and something daunting about coming into the last year of my twenties.

It’s that 30 sounds grown-up. Not old. Just adult. Bonafide grown-up. Like maybe I should have my life together somehow by then.

I doubt I will.

And I’m sure a year from now I’ll find a way to be OK with that.

In the meantime, however, I’d like to take this moment to share some goals I have for myself for the next year, things to work toward in this new season (and things to achieve before the big 3-0).


  1. I want to go to Africa a year from now. There are a billion places I want to travel to. Africa is at the top of that list. It’s been awhile since I planned and ventured out into the world on an epic trip. So there you have it. I’m saving my pennies. Countries and dates to come.
  2. I want to expand my professional skills and knowledge by taking some professional development courses at Colorado Mountain College. Specifically those pertaining to social media and Internet marketing. As much as I love new seasons and fresh starts, it would be kind of great to have the same job year-round (and kind of great, too, if that job didn’t involve serving beverages). Taking some classes can’t hurt my chances of finding such a position, right?
  3. I want to (learn) to cook more. I heaved a big sigh as I wrote that. This has been a goal of mine for the last several years and, to be honest, seems slightly un-attainable. I love food. I don’t love cooking or spending time in the kitchen. But I’d at least really like to gain some more skills in that area, to have some level of competence in the kitchen and maybe, just maybe, develop an appreciation for the art of it. Encouragement and/or advice on how to go about this is appreciated. 

There they are, just a few humble goals. There’s a handful of others I’m tossing around and considering at the moment as well, but these three are my favorites. I’ll enjoy seeing where they take me and what else comes up along the way.


Cheers, my lovely readers, here’s to a new season!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Life on a Post-it

by Tracey Flower


There’s an episode of Sex and the City where Carrie gets broken up with on a Post-it.

“I’m sorry, I can’t, don’t hate me,” wrote Jack Berger on that infamous square sticky note.

Poor Carrie. As she points out to one of Berger’s friends later in the Post-it episode, “there is a good way to break up with someone and it does not involve a Post-it.”

I can’t say that’s happened to me but after recently watching a re-run of that episode I got to thinking about the significance Post-its have played in my life.

There’s a small drawer at one end of the kitchen table in my parent’s house. It is full of used Post-its. The notes scrawled on them recall the when's and where's of the Flower family past: “gone to the store,” “walking the dog,” or “running far.” The handwriting dictates message ownership rather than a signature. The messages are short, to the point, and not totally significant in retrospect; the sort of messages Post-its were created for. Yet at some point some family member (Mom?) started saving them and the rest of the family followed suit. I’ve even seen them reused from time to time when a note from the past applies to a current situation or destination.

It seems silly, I suppose, to save Post-its, or even to note in a blog post that they’ve been saved. But if you sit down and open that drawer and start reading, you sort of end up getting a snapshot of the Flower family over the years, of a life lived, and remembered, on Post-its; of where we were and where we went, of what was important to us at that moment.

The notes in that drawer are only a small fraction of the many Post-its that have been shared between Flower family members over the years; reminders, questions, labels, and more have been documented on those convenient little pieces of paper. The habit has stuck with me over the years and I often leave myself, and occasionally my roommate, reminders on Post-its. And, in a 2011-take on my Post-it habit, my MacBook's desktop is wallpapered with Stickies.

My favorite Post-its to receive growing up were the birthday notes from my dad. He was always gone to work by the time I woke up on my birthday. And there was always a Post-it on my placemat (yep, my placemat, we had assigned seats) with a birthday message from Dad. So simple. So meaningful. And you know what? I’m pretty sure I have a good handful of them saved in a box somewhere in my parent’s basement.

This is my 50th post here on Flower Blog. If I could have I would have written it on a Post-it.