So live it like you’ll never live it twice
Don’t take the free ride in your own life…
-Nickelback, “If Today was Your Last Day” Dark Horse, 2008
Over time, this blog has evolved from an update on my adventures during my year off to periodic updates on what’s happening in my life, often in chunks of time since I’m not great at posting regularly these days.
On Labor Day 2009, I thought it would be a good idea to write about my summer. I’m on my way home from Las Vegas – one of my favorite spots, and we’re flying over the Grand Canyon. It was late afternoon and the sunlight turned the rock that beautiful pink tinge you see so often in photos. It’s hard not to feel patriotic and maybe a little nostalgic looking down on this. I was listening to a song by Nickelback, “If Today Was Your Last Day," which we heard in concert the prior night at the MGM Grand Garden arena. MGM is one of my favorite venues in Vegas and this concert did not disappoint. Chad Kroger is indeed hot in my opinion, and I suppose it was an adult concert so it did not matter if the f-word was like every fourth word out of his mouth. I’ve been known to drop that bomb once or twice so I can’t say anything about this really. But I digress.
I was in Vegas this past weekend with my good pal Tracy, and we were commenting the other day that we have spent a lot of the summer together this year. I’m lucky at this point in my life to have close friends and family whom I like to spend time with, and I guess that’s what summer 2009 was all about.
The summer started out over Memorial Day when Mom, Tracy and I went to Santa Fe, New Mexico. I bought a condo at the Paramount auction last year and it was time to take the trip at last. Despite an unusual amount of rain, we had a fantastic time. I had no idea that Santa Fe is the largest art market outside New York; I could have stayed another week and not even scratched the surface of all the amazing galleries. Highlights included the Georgia O’Keefe museum (http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/) and the legendary 10,000 Waves Spa, and a visit to the Chimayo temple where Mom But the most memorable part for me was dinner the first night we arrived when we went to dinner at La Casa Sena (http://www.lacasasena.com/). The waiters and waitresses in this place are all singers and will randomly break into Broadway tunes. The first song they sang was “Seasons of Love” from the musical Rent. It’s a song about how do you measure a year, and that the best way is to look around at your friends and how much everyone loves each other. (I realize this is getting a tad sentimental, but bear with me.)
After Memorial Day weekend, I got a roommate! My sister Laurel moved to Austin and is living at the Funston pad. It’s nice having someone around, and she’s a great roommate. Most of all, I am happier than a clam with my whole family here. To welcome Laurel to town, and to celebrate her 38th birthday, we threw a party at Funston in early June.
A few weeks later, it was time to hit the road again. I needed to spend a couple of weeks in London for work. As I was making arrangements and securing a really cool pad in South Kensington for the stint, my friend Mary Beth mentioned she was traveling to Leuven, Belgium for work. This was a little too weird, because I studied in Leuven when I was in college. So we arranged to spend the weekend there before I reported for duty on Monday morning. This was a huge score. As luck would have it, we were in town on June 20, the longest day of the year (De Laangste Dag) – a huge outdoor festival in town. All the streets were closed off. In addition to exceptional chocolate, Belgian beer and mussels we ate what we both agreed were the best strawberry pancakes ever. 
I took Mary Beth all over town to see my old haunts. These include the pub, De Weiring, where we ordered the nastiest wine ever. I think the Belgians purposely serve nasty wine so you will have to order beer and not give the business to the French. We did not darken the doorway of De Rector, which was probably good since that’s where all the super drunk undergrads hang out (not that I would know). The town really hasn’t changed much except that the students are a lot younger and you can buy condoms from a dispenser on the street. The latter was especially of note since the university and therefore most of the town’s residents are Catholic. Sign of the times.
We spent Sunday in Brugge, Belgium. Brugge could charm the socks off anyone. In addition to the lovely canals and flowers, some of the best chocolate shops in the world are located there, in the opinion of this blogger. Of note are Dumont and Leonida’s (http://www.chocolatierdumon.be/). And the mussels and frites are without competition.
I traveled to London on the Eurostar and found my office without too much trouble. The flat ended up being even better than I expected, and I fell in love with South Kensington. Maybe it was the lovely weather which brought people out to sidewalk cafes, maybe it was getting to pretend I was a local by riding the tube and shopping for groceries at the local market, or maybe it was my morning runs from the flat to Hyde Park. 
There was something magical about my whole time in London. Even though I was traveling on my own, there were plenty of people to hang out with. The Enfatico London team showed me a great time; here we are in a pub near the office. 
Elizabeth was in from Enfatico San Francisco working in London for the week. We spontaneously decided to go hop the tube Wimbledon one night after work and see if we could get in. 
Although we walked about 30 miles and my feet are still recovering, we made it in, and we even got to see a whole match (not on Centre Court, but what do you expect for 15 GBP). The stadium really is huge, just like it looks on TV. We are sure famous people were very close by, and we probably walked right past them, but we were not able to identify any of them. 
That weekend, I was committed to seeing some shows. And, as we all know by now, that very Thursday, Michael Jackson’s untimely death occurred (see my earlier post saluting the King of Pop on this topic). In addition to “Thriller Live” I got to see “Lion King.” I loved this musical and the story it tells about forgiving others and yourself. My favorite part was the opening scene where all the animals parade up onto the stage. On July 3, it was time to repatriate to the US of A, just in time to celebrate our independence from the Brits. Sharon graciously hosted a fantastic party at her house. Earlier in the day, the Brykerwoods July 4 parade was an event not to be missed, as it always is. 
Despite the fact that there has been next to no rain in Austin this summer and we’ve had record temperatures, it was a beautiful night. 
A week later, I turned 41! Crikey, how did that happen so fast? Luckily, Corazon at Castle Hill (http://corazonatcastlehill.com/) is open for business again, and a group of friends and family got together to help me celebrate. Note how great my friend Herb looks! Herb is the original owner of my cat, Wannabe. He (Herb, not Wannabe) has lost at least 30 pounds. Below this photo is a picture of Neil, Laurel and Kelle at the dinner.
We gutted through the rest of the summer in Austin, where we broke a heat record with 69 days over 100 degrees (http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/2009/08/30/0830heat.html).
I took Mary Beth all over town to see my old haunts. These include the pub, De Weiring, where we ordered the nastiest wine ever. I think the Belgians purposely serve nasty wine so you will have to order beer and not give the business to the French. We did not darken the doorway of De Rector, which was probably good since that’s where all the super drunk undergrads hang out (not that I would know). The town really hasn’t changed much except that the students are a lot younger and you can buy condoms from a dispenser on the street. The latter was especially of note since the university and therefore most of the town’s residents are Catholic. Sign of the times.
We spent Sunday in Brugge, Belgium. Brugge could charm the socks off anyone. In addition to the lovely canals and flowers, some of the best chocolate shops in the world are located there, in the opinion of this blogger. Of note are Dumont and Leonida’s (http://www.chocolatierdumon.be/). And the mussels and frites are without competition.
I traveled to London on the Eurostar and found my office without too much trouble. The flat ended up being even better than I expected, and I fell in love with South Kensington. Maybe it was the lovely weather which brought people out to sidewalk cafes, maybe it was getting to pretend I was a local by riding the tube and shopping for groceries at the local market, or maybe it was my morning runs from the flat to Hyde Park. There was something magical about my whole time in London. Even though I was traveling on my own, there were plenty of people to hang out with. The Enfatico London team showed me a great time; here we are in a pub near the office. Elizabeth was in from Enfatico San Francisco working in London for the week. We spontaneously decided to go hop the tube Wimbledon one night after work and see if we could get in. Although we walked about 30 miles and my feet are still recovering, we made it in, and we even got to see a whole match (not on Centre Court, but what do you expect for 15 GBP). The stadium really is huge, just like it looks on TV. We are sure famous people were very close by, and we probably walked right past them, but we were not able to identify any of them. That weekend, I was committed to seeing some shows. And, as we all know by now, that very Thursday, Michael Jackson’s untimely death occurred (see my earlier post saluting the King of Pop on this topic). In addition to “Thriller Live” I got to see “Lion King.” I loved this musical and the story it tells about forgiving others and yourself. My favorite part was the opening scene where all the animals parade up onto the stage. On July 3, it was time to repatriate to the US of A, just in time to celebrate our independence from the Brits. Sharon graciously hosted a fantastic party at her house. Earlier in the day, the Brykerwoods July 4 parade was an event not to be missed, as it always is. Despite the fact that there has been next to no rain in Austin this summer and we’ve had record temperatures, it was a beautiful night. A week later, I turned 41! Crikey, how did that happen so fast? Luckily, Corazon at Castle Hill (http://corazonatcastlehill.com/) is open for business again, and a group of friends and family got together to help me celebrate. Note how great my friend Herb looks! Herb is the original owner of my cat, Wannabe. He (Herb, not Wannabe) has lost at least 30 pounds. Below this photo is a picture of Neil, Laurel and Kelle at the dinner. We gutted through the rest of the summer in Austin, where we broke a heat record with 69 days over 100 degrees (http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/2009/08/30/0830heat.html). The first week in August brought the annual KIPP School Summit in Orlando, Florida. I was really lucky that I got to attend and focus on the whole thing this year. I love working with KIPP Austin Public Schools, and have been spending more time on this which is a lame but noble excuse for not posting to the blog more. Here’s our board chair, Kin Gill, posing with the entire staff and faculty at the closing dinner.
From Orlando, I headed to Vegas for Tracy’s 40th birthday party. By the time I arrived, the festivities were well under way. Here’s Tracy singing some of her favorite songs at the dueling piano bar in Harrah’s, and the four Vegas pals getting ready to attend her birthday dinner at Michael Mina in the Bellagio. 
As always, Mandalay Bay was a super place to stay, even though no one was really winning at the tables. The last night in Vegas, Tracy and I were playing Blackjack, and somewhere in the conversation it was decided we would return for Labor Day. I get a lot of ribbing for my frequent Vegas trips,but that's OK. You have to understand that a couple of years ago I went to Vegas twice in one month and so far this year I’ve only been twice. The lure of seeing Nickelback and Santana was too much to pass up. I’m lucky I have friends who are as crazy as I am.
From Orlando, I headed to Vegas for Tracy’s 40th birthday party. By the time I arrived, the festivities were well under way. Here’s Tracy singing some of her favorite songs at the dueling piano bar in Harrah’s, and the four Vegas pals getting ready to attend her birthday dinner at Michael Mina in the Bellagio. As always, Mandalay Bay was a super place to stay, even though no one was really winning at the tables. The last night in Vegas, Tracy and I were playing Blackjack, and somewhere in the conversation it was decided we would return for Labor Day. I get a lot of ribbing for my frequent Vegas trips,but that's OK. You have to understand that a couple of years ago I went to Vegas twice in one month and so far this year I’ve only been twice. The lure of seeing Nickelback and Santana was too much to pass up. I’m lucky I have friends who are as crazy as I am. Forget blackjack, I’m just pretty lucky in general.
