Last time I updated I was teaching my mom how to ride a bike and she had just started working towards a healthier more active lifestyle. Dawn decided to jump aboard and joined her on her Journey to complete a triathlon and at the same time, Dallon decided to train for his own. My mom had never ridden a bicycle so you can imagine what a challenge it was to get ready in time for a triathlon. Things went well and she fell a couple times but kept getting back up and conquered her fear. She finished the triathlon and even got a few metals! Dawn also completed and finished 16th overall. VERY impressive and I’m super proud of both of them. Dawn has stuck with the fitness lifestyle and we have been going on longer walks and she now attends a boot camp fitness class a couple days per week. Hopefully I’ll be in good enough condition to compete in their next one!

Jump ahead a bit and our friend Adam bought an awesome retro chinese scooter to get around town. I helped him pick it up and bring it back a couple times for some minor problems that needed to get fixed. I rode it for 5 minutes and was sold. I needed one and I thought it would be a great way to introduce Dawn into the 2 wheeled motorized vehicle world. I bought Dawn and I matching scooters (pretty much the top of the line for chinese scooters) with hers being white and mine being black. The scooters have tiny problems here and there but we got a 1 year warranty so it’s no big deal… (Plus I don’t mind getting my hands dirty). After putting about 150 miles on mine I fell in love with the drive and the whole “mantra” of the scooter world. I decided to trade in my giant 1900cc cruiser that I loved to get myself a top of the line more powerful scooter. The chinese one was ok but didn’t have quite the oomph I was looking for. The cruiser has been sitting around in my garage since I broke my leg and I figured I might as well trade it for something I’ll use daily. The new Vespa 300 Super is AMAZING and so far I LOVE it. The ride is amazing and it has enough power to get me anywhere I can think of. I ride it almost daily now and I look for excuses to ride it around. I think it was a good trade even though it was probably a technical step down from my motorcycle. Along the way I also purchased a broken down Piaggio that has been garaged for a year and a half. I have just started working on that one now and I hope to convince my mother in law to buy it once it works so she can ride with us too.

Several weekends ago I went on an off-road trip with our friend Mike and took my Jeep. It was the first time I had been out in awhile and box canyon is the perfect place to get your feet wet. It’s got enough trails that connect to challenge any skill level. The next day I went back to the same place but with Heather and Adam. I had gotten a taste of the place and really wanted to take it all in. This day we disconnected our sway bars for the first time and I am very glad I did. We hit some spots that would have been incredibly difficult if not impossible without them disconnected. It was a great trip and I plan on doing most my off-roading there from now on.

The biggest news is that Dawn finally graduated her Masters program from University of Phoenix!!! She scored awesome so she should get her Counselors license very soon! It’s amazing how long she has been in school and I’m sure it’ll take time getting used to being out. Hopefully this will give us more time together and she has already quit her crappy state job to work in her field and actually use her degree. I’m so proud of her, such an awesome accomplishment!

So that pretty much sums it up. We have done a couple vacations here and there but otherwise we are just doing the same stuff as usual. Maybe by the next post Dawn will be riding with me to the coffee shop and we can start doing some scooter adventures. That would be a fun chapter to add to our life book. I’ll try and document what’s going on and participate in our blog more often… but you know what they say. Time flys!

1. “Over the Rainbow” Radio: This station is based mostly on the Somewhere Over The Rainbow song by Israel “IZ” Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole (yeah, I straight up copy and pasted that because his name is REDIC!) Anyway, this station is calm, Hawiian type music and like to listen to it when I do chores or relax. Nice, easy, mellow.

2. “Stereo Love” Radio: This station is based on the song Stereo Love by Edward Maya. The music on this station is mostly dance music that is upbeat. I listen to this station when I am cleaning my house and feel like shaking my butt too. I also listen to it when I work out because it has an upbeat tempo. Which leads me to….

3. Skrillex Radio: Welcome to the world of dubstep! In the very odd case that you don’t know what dubstep is, (maybe my parents, not sure) it is a type of house music that is heavy on bass and percussion and computer-type sound, you know “a bunch of racket”. I really like to listen to this when I am working out but don’t have much motivation to be doing so. I especially enjoy when Skrillex’s “Kill Everybody” comes on, and I feel like I can run for miles… Geez, I probably need a psychological evaluation.

4. Colbie Callait Radio: Life’s not good without some sort of balance… so to balance out Skrillex, comes Colbie Callait. You may know her from her song “Bubbly.” Other artists that tend to play on this station are Jason Mraz and Ingrid Michaelson. This is the ultimate testament to adult-easy-listening music. I usually listen to this when I am driving, since “Kill Everybody” probably does not calm violent road rage quite like Colbie Callait’s calming croons. (+1 for alliteration!)

5. Something Corporate Radio: Something Corporate is one of my all time favorite bands. I loved them in High School and I love them now. If I am in a craptastic mood, I know a little Something Corporate will pick me right back up. This also includes Jack’s Mannequin, the band made by Something Corporate’s lead singer, Andrew McMahon, to help him express his battle with brain cancer via his music. Very touching if you are interested. I guess this is where emo music got it’s start… I am not a big buff on music history, so please note that the last comment was just me talking out my ass…

6. Ratatat Radio: Ratatat rocks. Seriously. Rocks. It is mostly just music, no lyrics, and is great to listen to while you are working, reading, or doing something where lyrics may be a distraction. I wouldn’t say that Ratatat is techno, but it is computer synthesized music with other types of real musical instruments, blended together in the most fantastic of ways. Ratatat was introduced to me and Ricky through Daniel Espinoza, and I am forever grateful that he shared the wealth! Awesomeness to my ears. Incidently, Ratatat was the Pandora station I was listening to when Ricky broke his leg, so I couldn’t listen to it for a little while without getting upset. Double upsetting!

7. Angels and Airwaves Radio: Angels and Airwaves is the side project band of Tom DeLong from Blink 182. This station will not only play the epic-space-exploration-like music of Angels and Airwaves, but songs from Blink 182 and Plus 44, Mark’s side project band. So all in all, I get the best of all of the Blink-boys’ music in one stop. I particularly like Angels and Airwaves though, because I can daydream that I am driving a space shuttle to the moon instead of my Jeep down the I-10, probably not safe. Yeah. I should focus more on driving.

8.  Sublime Radio: Oh yes, Sublime, how I love you so. I feel like I am on the beach with a Corona when I hear Sublime. I know some people may invision another type of substance when they hear Sublime… but please, I do not do that. So Corona will suffice. Most of the music on this station is perfect for pool side action or BBQ’s, because honestly, I don’t anyone that doesn’t like Sublime.

9. Enya Radio: You know Enya, the band that sings stuff that you can’t possibly understand… “Whhhooooo caaaaaa nsssssssaaaaaaa wwwhhheennnn isssss ovvvaaaaaa” yeah. I LOVE Enya when I can’t fall asleep or if I do some Yoga. It is by far the most relaxing radio station you will ever experience. More effective than Ambien. Should not be used when operating heavy machinery.

10. Nickleback Radio: JUST FREAKING KIDDING. Nickleback sucks. But somehow this god-forsaken band got put in my Pandora List….  Get.it.off. Ugh!

The real 10. She & Him Radio: This is the band made up of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, and who doesn’t love Zooey Deschanel? This music is good to get creative juices flowing… I always feel like I need to sew my own clothes or paint a picture after I hear this station. Just fantastic. A little old school sounding, and mostly indie vibe. It’s a good change up to the other stations though, because usually the station will introduce me to some other great new music.

Honorable Mentions:
I probably have 30 Pandora stations programmed in, like the unfortunate and non-deleted Nickelback Radio (sigh), so there are some others that I like to listen to in-between. In no particular order: Starfucker Radio, Christmas Radio, Adele Radio, Dirty Bit Radio (mostly Black-eyed Peas and hits), M83 Radio, Owl City Radio, and lastly Postal Service Radio.

Alrighty guys, I hope you enjoyed today’s tardy 10 list (omg, more alliteration, I am so awesome). Please give me some feedback and ideas about what you would like for future 10 lists. And lastly, Happy Birthday Joanne!

Dawn

In an effort to try to get more into the super-cool “blog-scene” I decided that it would be fun to make a Friday 10 list. My plan is to make a list of 10 randomy things each Friday and share them with you. If you would like to contribute ideas to things you would like to see in my 10 list, please feel free… because quite honestly, I am not very creative when it comes to writing…

This week, I present to you, in all of its majestic glory, my first 10 list: 10 things on my indefinite “to-do” list. In no particular order…

1. Complete a triathlon: Yep, one of the items on my front burner right now is completing a triathlon with my mother-in-law. I already bored you with the details of this one… so on to number 2.

2. There are several steps to number 2, so pay close attention to the version indicators, so as to not confuse the precise order that it must occur. Finish my Masters in Community Mental Health Counseling (2.0) and become a Licensed Associate Counseling (2.1), wait two years and become a Licensed Professional Counseling (2.1.1). Then own my own practice where I would be a full time, state-of-the-art, badass Therapist (2.2).

3. Move to the Caribbean and have my very own island! Fuck.Yes. No further explanation needed. (slight explanation, the island would also be owned in part by my awesome husband and possibly some of our close friends).

4. Build my own house from the ground up. Part of number 3, I suppose, would be to build my own house… it doesn’t have to be in the Caribbean, it could be somewhere else, but I really, really, really would like to build something of this caliber with my own two hands. For realz. (maybe start with habitat for humanity)

5. Finish learning how to play guitar. I started about 10 years ago… then gave up at some point. But I still want to play because it is relaxing and super fun, even though to date I only know two songs.

6. Be a Rockin’ Mom! Yep, can’t forget in this list that I want to have kids/kid and have a ball with them/him/her. Plus, if I learn how to play guitar finally, that adjective can be a little more accurate!

7. Own some sort of super-fast-bad-ass-amazeballs car. Right now, for whatever reason, I am convinced that I need to drive a Maserati. Ricky thinks that Maserati’s are dumb, and with all things considered, he is probably right. That is why this one is still open for debate. And no, our Jeep and Camaro do not count for this one, because it has to be something completely and ridiculously unnecessary and over the top to achieve this goal.

8. After that last, totally unnecessary “to do” (as if the island part wasn’t bad enough), here is one to redeem me. I would like to contribute something meaningful to social work fields and human rights. Such as, but not limited to: making a program for foster children, advocating for equal rights in the GLBTQ community, assisting homeless with transitional issues, assisting recovering drug addicts, or helping low-income individuals so someday they can drive a car like my future car, or some other issue that hasn’t even come on the radar yet, but I will undoubtedly care about when it does…

9. Learn to fly an airplane. My grandparents did, my dad does, and so, in turn, I feel like I should pass down this family tradition of aviation to myself and learn to fly an airplane. Plus, it would be a beneficial skill to have to get to and from my awesome new island! vroooooooooom.

10. Refine my cooking skills. A few years ago, I was a joke in the kitchen. I could follow a recipe if I was lucky, but couldn’t do much more. I have slowly been expanding my cooking capabilities, but they are still quite limited. Someday I would love to be able to make food that is uniquely my own, and over-the-top delicious. And I promise, to share with everyone I can.

What’s on your life’s to-do list? What should I write about next Friday?

Dawn

That really applies in so many ways to everything we do in life. Lots of people just focus on what they are doing that moment, they look for ways out, they try to hop off when things get scary, etc when you really need to just look forward and keep your eyes on the road. If you stare at the lights of the guy in front of you, you will never pass them. I always try to look at things not so much as a finish line but more as thousands of tiny obstacles. It’s easy to move forward 1 more inch, but it’s hard to imagine moving miles, right? When you are driving or riding something, you naturally move towards whatever you are looking at. If you are staring at the ground, you will probably fall. If you stare to the right, you will move to the right. If you focus on moving forward, you will move forward. You can’t always go the direction you want, but you will do better if you just keep looking forward.

When I broke my leg, I got in the funk of looking down. I stopped moving and I got discouraged. I knew I needed to keep looking forward and so I did. I could barely pick up a marble with my toes and struggled to do any motion with my leg at all. I couldn’t put weight on it, I couldn’t imagine it was possible for me to stand without being in extreme pain. I was supposed to go from no weight bearing to 100% weight bearing in 2 weeks… I read blogs of other people who took a very long time to recover from a similar injury and some couldn’t walk for months! I knew it would take pain to make gains but I wasn’t able to push myself to put my weight on it. It just hurt too much. My P.T. wanted me to try walking around with one crutch and I decided to look forward and just deal with the pain. I took a couple steps with the crutch and it hurt… Bad.. I decided to ignore the pain and I dropped the crutch.. I started walking! Everyone in my P.T. was blown away. I was blown away… I looked forward and decided to push myself as hard as I could. My brain was be telling me to stop and my muscles were fighting back in pain but I pushed anyways… I was moving forward. I realized that I was holding myself back. It wasn’t the pain, it was my fear. That moment was a breakthrough for me and I knew I needed to just keep looking forward. I started pushing myself to do more than I thought I could each visit and every visit I was making progress. I still haven’t hit my goal and it’s been over 1 year. I really expected to have hit my goal by 6 months and it could be another year for all I know but it’s not the finish line I’m focusing on. I just want to keep looking forward.

I’m really proud of everything my mom is doing right now with her fitness and overcoming her fears. I’m sure she will have times where other people, her body, her mind, etc are all telling her to quit… Just look where you want to go, ignore all of them and don’t look at the other guy.

Look where you want to go, push yourself past your fears and you’ll get there, one inch at a time.

Random floor planking!

Yea, not really super crazy but that’s what really happens…

The prior weekend was my birthday party at a local resort and casino and then later in the week was a small birthday BBQ at my house. Somewhere in that time-frame we decided that the following weekend would be perfect to go to Vegas! We booked a room at Encore and when Friday showed up, we headed out after everyone was off work. This was the first Bartleman/Willis vacation but I’m sure there will be many more to come.

This was the first time in my life where I ever was “lucky”. I can always win something where dedication, performance, etc is involved but I never win something out of pure luck… Until now! We had the craziest 24 hour streak ever! I’m glad I didn’t spend too much or I could have lost it all but this was an awesome vacation. One of my favorites in a very very long time. I think I’m ready for another small cruise so that’s next on the list!

As some of you may know, I have been training for a triathlon with my Mother-in-law, Joanne. You can catch her shenanigans on crowfae.com. The triathlon is a mini-sprint in Mesa. I will be required to swim 200 meters, run .5 miles, and bike 8 miles, in some sort of order that I haven’t really figured out yet. I may enroll for the maxi-sprint which would be 400 meters, 2 mile run, and 12 mile bike ride… the swim is what scares me! Yikes! What do you all think? Mini or Maxi?? Egh. I am bad with decisions.

Anyhoo, I started training about a month and a half ago, and have been plugging along ever since. I decided to join in the training to help support Joanne in her efforts to complete a triath at some point in her life, cross it off her bucket list, and hell, cross it off my bucket list too. Plus, with all the craziness I already have in my life, it would be a way for me to prioritize my exercising and “self-care” because now it is for something, not just because I “should”.

As it stood a month and half ago, I would go to the gym with Ricky pretty regularly and walk about a 5k about 3-5 times per week. What I don’t do is swim. Never have, never.. oh wait, nvm. Did I mention the first swim lesson ended with me puking all over the parking lot? Awesome. I am slowly learning how to swim like Michael Phelps, or Amanda Beard (she’s a swimmer, right?). Now, I can swim about 1 lap before I want to die, or puke somewhere… I have to be able to swim 4 for the mini or 8 if I decide to up the ante and try the maxi. Currently, our practices have us swimming about half a mile (16 laps-ish), but with breaks between the laps that are so long we refer to them as “lunch breaks.” Not going to fly for a triath! But, we still have plenty of time, and PLENTY of practices ahead of us, so we will continue to plug along some more.  Also, I am getting very used to drinking a gallon of chlorine water with breakfast, because I am oh-so-graceful in the water, just as I am on land.

I am working on upping my walks to runs, eventually. And I recently got my mountain bike back from a friend, and will put street/hybrid tires on it for the race. Ugly Betty, my pink beach cruiser, simply will not cut it for a triathlon, but I feel like if I used her I should get points for style?

Lastly, with all this exercise, I feel like I am finally on my way to a healthier and fitter body. I have lost 13lbs already since the beginning of the year, 6 just from the tri-training. Ideally I will be about 140lbs for the race. Wo()T!

I will try to keep up with this business, but I make no promises…

PS: I freaking love food. That is all.

We left after work on our journey and made sure to grab the necessities like water, beef jerky, sleeping bags and energy drinks in case we broke down in the middle of nowhere. I always try to be over prepared for some things so I brought flash lights, my knife, a small gun, tow straps and all the other knickknacks I have hidden in the Jeep. Now that we had the necessities it was time to hit the road. I pulled up a few directions to get there with only a few minutes difference either direction so we chose the prettier route. The drive in the Jeep can be tricky because of the giant tires and lift all slowing us down but it performed much better than our last Jeep on the freeway (glad we opted for the new lower gear ratio and even better suspension!). We passed through some awesome valleys, huge bridges and tight mountain curves. This is such a pretty state, I don’t know how anyone could be disappointed with it… Each time the elevation climbed the temperature would drop and on the other side back down it would go back up. There aren’t many places I have been that have as many varying terrains, vegetation, temperatures, climates, cultures, etc in such a short distance which is one of the reasons I love driving and living here so much.

After a few hours of driving we thought it would be a good idea to pull over for some food. The signs said there was a Taco Bell in the next city so we waited patiently as we slowly passed by several other fast food places on the side of the road. Before you know it we were leaving the town and never saw a Taco Bell anywhere!? I thought maybe we just hadn’t got there yet so we just kept going down the road. We ended up driving to the next town over and stopped to get gas. Dawn asked the store clerk where fast food was and they replied “there aint no fast food in this town…”. That wouldn’t stop US from eating! Dawn found some pizza bites in one of the store fridges and I grabbed some corn nuts. She nuked the whole box at once and we jumped back into our refueled Jeep to hit the road. We only had about an hour or so left to drive but I was ready to relax and see my family.

We are headed down a tiny road and haven’t seen a car pass by in quite some time. It’s very dark and even with the brights on you can’t see too much through the scattered trees on the side of the road. I wanted to get there as fast as possible so we had the Jeep almost maxed out around 75mph. We were cruising along and making great timing. So far we were already almost 40 minutes ahead of schedule according to Google Maps and my phone suddenly crashes. I tried to fix it real quick while heading down the road but it was having a major melt down. Dawn pulls it up on her phone and luckily we have just enough reception for it to get us the rest of the way there. Now it’s smooth sailing… Until a deer runs out in the road right in front of us and I SLAM on the brakes! The roads are icy up here and our giant mud tires weren’t gripping the road. We started sliding towards the dear as he stood there staring at us almost pissed off that we were charging him! With only a few feet before we collide he finally prances off the road and I let go of the brakes. We were still going 50 as we passed the deer… I can only imagine what would have happened to both of us if he hadn’t jumped out the way. Now I was stressing out a bit and REALLY ready to get to our destination. Time to slow down. Great timing is awesome but I think we made up enough to be more cautious the rest of the drive.

Skip the next boring hour and we are finally following them for the last 15 minutes of driving to their remote property. I love being in nature and offroading. I was already starting to smile when they said it’s 15 minutes to the house and our tires are already getting covered in mud! Most of the roads to the property in the area are tight dirt trails and it’s perfect terrain for our Jeep! We make a couple turns here and there and pass by a wolf sanctuary. I knew they lived real close to the sanctuary so I was getting excited to finally get out and see them. We reach a small peak and pull over. I can see some lights ahead of us and a bunch of dogs start running over to greet us. I see Jude (Dallons dog) run up real excited and we are finally here! It’s been a great drive but I am ready for a nice cold beer and our tour of this little paradise they built for themselves.

I get out of the Jeep and grab my jacket. There’s snow on the ground and with my broken leg, it’s going to be a challenge in some of these areas. Kevin comes up and gives me a great big hug. Kevin is our step-dad and we haven’t seen him too much since we were kids but each time I give him a hug I feel like he’s been there the whole time. When we were kids he had the military style haircut with his clothes very tidy and always looked very very neat. Now he has long hair, a big beard and looks way more relaxed. He looks happy! Next Jeremiah runs up to give us a hug. He is a bubbly fun guy that can make any moment feel like a party. Dallon and I give each other a huge hug. Dallon has a big smile on his face and looks great. He’s looked bummed the last couple times I’ve seen him but tonight he looks like he’s on cloud 9. The scenery, the air, the wild life and this incredible home they have built must be great for your health. Mentally and Physically. We head down a small path to a wooden fence with the gate wide open inviting anyone in. There’s a bit of ice on the floor so I have to take my time but it let me really take in the scenery. When I pictured this place in my head I thought it was going to be like camping in a tent around small fire getting chilled to the bone each night. Compared to that, they have built a wilderness paradise! You can smell the wood fire burning as we walk into their cozy home. Everything is built by hand and you can tell every last item hanging from the walls is used regularly. There are vivid paintings on the walls and the place is lit up by frosty white holiday lights. The character that the home has is wonderful. It’s hard to describe the place. It feels like a cozy home/club house/mountain cottage/cabin/etc. It’s very comfy and after the long drive and cold air outside it feels great to be sitting in a place that has my brain stimulated with excitement and intrigue.

Damn… I didn’t finish this when I wanted to and now everything isn’t vivid enough for me to keep going. From now on, I’m going to try and write things along with the photos or take way more photos along the way to keep my memories fresh. I hate to end it here but I will let you know that I had an incredible adventure for the few days we were in that majestic place. I hope to come back very soon. As soon as my leg is healing I want to come and enjoy all the experiences I missed out on. It was hard to participate in all the fun sometimes with my injury but I wont let that hold me back on our next trip.

The first night everyone wasn’t their yet so Dawn, Jake and I had a drink and then went to Duanes. It’s the only 4 diamond steakhouse in California apparently. We enjoyed a delicious meal with some superb filet mignon and finished off with some Hennesy XO. This was the first really nice restaurant Jake had ever been to as well as his first filet experience. Since it was his birthday weekend, it deserved to be something special. Just after dinner Josh showed up so we decided to make a couple more drinks, tour the hotel and then check out the bar. After a couple hours, Dawn and I were tired so we left to the room early while Jake and Josh partied.

The next morning we woke up and had brunch at a nice little sandwich place. Some lady accused Jake of being a creep because the stores 14 year old daughter dressed like she was a 25 year old prostitute. It’s not his fault for thinking she was an adult. Everyone agreed that she did not look 14 (plus it’s just a picture so no foul). After breakfast we met up with Jon and Nicole and headed out to Laguna Beach for a quick lunch and spent about 15 minutes on the beach. I had pizza from Oceanside Brewing (I think that’s what they are called) and it was delicious. We spent most of our time driving and didn’t get to spend nearly enough time at any destination but that’s what happens when you plan a packed weekend.

About an hour before sunset we headed towards Stone Brewing in Escondido. This is one of our all time favorite places to visit. We got there just in time to wait 2 hours for a table and 2 1/4 hours for the brewery tour… I know that sounds really bad but it’s totally worth it. Next time though, I’m calling ahead! We had a few delicious beers and the men all went on a tour of the brewery (except Jon). The girls stayed behind and ate a ton of appetizers while waiting on our hour long tour. We sampled some beers and then ate dinner. The food there is unique and I’ve had food I didn’t like. This time everything I tried I really enjoyed. I’m not really there for the food anyways. The atmosphere and beer are all I need to love the place.

We left stone pretty late and drove all the way back to the hotel. It’s quite a bit of driving (over an hour each way). We got the the hotel and didn’t want to go to bed yet so we went to the bar and got a few drinks. Hung out for awhile and then Jon, Nicole, Dawn and I decided it was time to hit the sack. Jake and Josh stayed back at the bar to try and pick up on some chicks. It was Jakes birthday so he wanted to go all out in a big celebration… Probably too much for Josh since he ended up back at the hotel a few hours before Jake stumbled in. At least everyone made it back to the hotel safe.

We woke up the next morning and headed back. Another long weekend that went by in a flash… I didn’t get very many pictures but I have plenty of memories. Hopefully the few I got are enough to remind me of all the fun things we did.

Thanks California!