078: Simple Little Things...

The simple things blog thread is flowing through the blogosphere faster than the Hot Wings I ate last night. Judi queued me in. I'll play along. This blog game is just one giant slam book after all...

simple things that make me happy. No particular order.

(1) Quiet time with Diane. A hug in the kitchen. A gentle kiss in the bathroom.
holding hands in the car. Watching a movie together and talking shit. Eating Ben and Jerry's
on the couch Sunday evening. (that's kinda become a weekly tradition)
(2) Wool hats. They are warm. they cover my hair when it is tremendously bad.

(3) Hot Coffee. Particularly in the morning. little cream, lots of sugar. It just makes me happy.


(4) White Shoes. Clogs, sneakers, cycling shoes it doesn't matter. White Shoes put the "p"
in PIMP.

(5) The dogs. They eat, they sleep, they fart, they wrestle, one air licks, one steals my pillow at
night. They are pretty awesome.
(6) Music. Love finding something new to love, love hearing something old to appreciate. It can
get me all fired up, or just mellow me out a bit...

(7) My parents. In the last few months Diane and I have had a few occasions to just sit and talk
with my parents about the world, traveling and what's going on in our lives. Just quiet and
really nice. My family has a strange dynamic. These conversations were exceptional. That
was cool.

(8) Career. I work for a great company, that puts people first. One of my leaders has said to me
a number of times "every decision we make impacts 140 families". She is sincere. It is real. It
changes everything for me from a work standpoint.

(9) Family. All my cool nieces and nephews. Yeah it gets a little crazy sometimes, but it's the fun
kind of chaos. My outlaws too. Brothers, And Brother in law and Sister-in laws are pretty amazing people.

(10) Cycling Community: Nor Del is deep in cycling talent, and cool people. I'm lucky to have
wonderful mountainbike riding and roads and groups. The folks are always great to be
around, and the culture is just incredible. Douche Factor is very low. LWeb said to me once that the best thing about cycling is all the diverse people, with different backgrounds and different upbringings that cycling brings together for a common good. I couldn't say that better, so I won't.
(11) Kris and Chris. Getting to be a part of C3 has been huge for me. Getting to work with
Mayhew has been a rewarding, and very good experience as well. Both of these things came
together at a time when I was questioning my involvement in bike racing. Both were
unexpected and very serendipitous. I am lucky to have my C3 teammates, and Kris and
Chris in my cycling life.

(12) Victoria's Secret. Nothing is better than shopping for underwear with my wife. Shorting
through piles of underwear, "what do you think about this one?" "how about this one?" My
choices tend to be less functional than hers. I'm like a kid in a candy shop I always enjoy
that trip.

(13) Home Grown Cafe. My favorite restaurant. Always a great beer and a great meal. Dirty Hippies too. Punk Rock Waitresses. The Hostesses call teh college kids the "little monsters"

(14) Living just outside of a small college town.

(15) Christmas Cards. I love the entire process. Working with Diane to develop our card for the year, pulling together the list, sending the cards, getting them from friends, and Diane displaying them around the house. Generally speaking I'm not a holiday guy, and I generally hate cards for occasions. Christmas cards are the exception. Like mini year in review for a number of friends...

You know, maybe I'll consider riding a bike this week and actually have something to talk about, you know bike related. That might not be too much to expect...

thanks for reading.

respect.
fm