Being uncomfortable

No one likes being uncomfortable. We hate it, we avoid it, we do everything to get out of it.

I've experienced my share of discomforts... being fired, messy breakups, staring at my bank account when it reads $0.00, being in 128 degree sweltering heat in Iraq, struggling with PTSD from my deployment, or tough track sessions where I'm just trying to make it through another endless circle.

Since moving to Seattle, I've been uncomfortable... my first time in a big city and going at it alone! With my life in sunny mid-America fading behind the rain and clouds of the Pacific Northwest, it's an uneasy and unnerving feeling...

My heart and mind keep trying to grasp something familiar or tangible, but rather fall back to fond memories of...

taking deep breaths of crisp mountain air during a tough swim set,
long rides that took me over the Continental Divide during the Colorado summer,
running in tow with Cam Dye at our Tuesday morning track sessions,
seeing friends out on the roads training diligently for their next event,
being on rooftops for happy hour drinks on Pearl Street,
and CU football games with the old college gang.

But... I know in my heart that in the end, these discomforts will only make me a better person and I'm experiencing life! Regardless of where I am, whom I'm with, or what I'm doing, when I'm uncomfortable, I'm challenged... and that's when I learn to live.

Life... truly begins at the end of our comfort zones.

Sunny in Seattle

The sun has finally come out! This is the view that I have just 3 short blocks from my downtown studio.

I've traded my sunshine filled days for a life here in the Pacific Northwest.

Seattle has it's own unique vibe, the people are down to earth, and the coffee is A M A Z I N G ! I was never too much of a coffee drinker, but now I find myself drinking copious amounts of this black gold. There is no shortage of coffee in this city.

I recently had Top Pot donuts and they are quite possibly the most delicious donuts ever. It's like a party on your palate! I love the inside of their Queen Anne shop and they have now become my weekly Saturday morning routine. Early morning swim and then straight over to Top Pot for an old fashioned glazed donut and an americano... and how convenient, it's on the way home!




So far I'm loving my new Seattle home and this new city living!

Crackberries and dumbPhones

I've always wondered why they called a Blackberry a "Crackberry..."

Now I know why... After only having mine a few short months, I now have Facebook, Twitter, work e-mail, Gmail, and pretty much the world at my finger tips. I constantly find myself browsing through Twitter, replying to e-mails, writing e-mails, or when I'm bored flipping Facebook open to just read about someone talking about how their cat ate a muffin.

Yup... this is my digital life and now my mobile office.

However, I find that these phones hinder us from actually experiencing the world around us. Instead of carrying on a conversation, we hide behind our phones, staring blankly and diligently tweeting or updating our Facebook statuses. When we want to avoid an awkward situation, we whip out our phones and pretend like we're answering a text. Or when we're bored, we decide to shoot birds violently through the air at green pigs in fortified structures.

Have our phones made us forget what it's like to interact with one another on a personal level?

Why does everything have to be online these days?

Have we forgotten those relationships around us because we're buried in our phones?

I think so... Put down your crackberry and shut off your dumb phone and take a look at the world around you. Talk with somebody, don't text them. And realize, that the world is not going to spontaneously implode if you don't answer that tweet or facebook message right away.

Ahhhhh.... much better, right?