In September of 2009, I ran my first trail race in Oregon. 14 miles on uneven dirt with exposed roots and rocks, uphill and down, with the threat of stinging bees along the course. Pretty much the hardest half-marathon I’ve ever run…and it wasn’t the biggest challenge of this year.

Earlier in 2009, I ran a new race, the Fort Collins half-marathon. I wanted to run it so I could say, “Take a bus up the Poudre”, as often as possible at 5:30 in the morning. And it was as fun as I thought it would be. However, around mile eight, my knee started hurting and making it to the finishing line was mentally tough. Still not the biggest challenge of the year.

[I asked my husband about his biggest challenge this year and he answered marriage. Funny. That was the easiest thing I did all year.]

Nope, the hardest thing I did in 2009 was starting CrossFit.

I already blogged about how nervous I was before the first class and made the requisite cult jokes. Now, after almost five weeks in, I can say that it was, and still is, one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I absolutely love it. And it might be a cult.

It wasn’t just the workouts. Although they were tough. Pull-ups, push-ups, dead-lifts, squats and kettle-ball tough. Yes, I cried out for baby Jesus. Yes, I sweat. And yes, I bitched about  CrossFit on Twitter.

And it wasn’t just because these killer workouts took place at 6:45 in the morning. Before I had to go into the office for a full day of work.

It might have been because getting to those workouts required perilous walks or bike rides in the dark, across ice and through snow, at a time in the morning when I’m normally snuggling in bed with the warm hubby.

That was definitely the hardest part.

(Besides the burpees. I hate those things.)

Despite all my grumbling about being sore, the results of my hard work were crystal clear this past weekend.

I rang in the new year with two days of skiing. The first day was spent remembering what I was doing and getting used to the snow. We got a full day in and I felt pretty confident.

Day two was amazing. Five inches of new powder, lots of tree skiing and three black diamond runs. My goal for the entire upcoming ski season was to feel comfortable on black diamonds and here I was, day two, in knee-deep powder and amongst trees. Shredding it, feeling good and breathing into my quads.

The fact that I kicked ass my first two days on the slope this year is proof positive that CrossFit has already helped me to become a stronger athlete.

And if that wasn’t enough, waking up today, I wasn’t sore at all. While the husband talked about his sore legs, I simply smiled.

Bring it, CrossFit.

From my bachelorette party in February…

To my wedding reception in June…

Elaine Eleanor Ellis rocked my world this year.

With her charmingly awkward ways and her ability to pierce ear drums with a high-pitched “Ummmmm…”, Elaine made me laugh a lot.

She also helped me pick out a wedding dress. Without hitting anything in her car.

Thanks to Chicks who Click, Elaine and I shared hotel rooms in two different states. In one, I drifted off to sleep making fun of the fact that she had to check Twitter before she could go to sleep.

“Goodnight @ElaineEllis.”

In the other hotel room we shared, Elaine promptly fell asleep within two minutes of scoring us a free movie from hotel  management.

Of course, she was probably really tired from all that chalk-art drawing she had done earlier that evening.

The highlight of my friendship with Elaine this year was sharing the stage with her at Ignite 5. The beauty of doing a presentation about beer is that you have to hang out and drink beer while planning your talk. Our hard work paid off and we schooled the geeks with our knowledge of Colorado microbrews.

But the thing I love most about Elaine is that two months ago she did something most of us only dream about: she quit her job to travel. And on top of that, she did it all by herself.

I couldn’t be prouder of my friend. Judging from her blog posts and tweets, Elaine is doing a wonderful job of traveling solo and seems to be succeeding in the goal of spreading her special brand of awkward all over Europe.

Thanks for all the fun this year Elaine. Here’s to more Rio margs together in 2010! ¹

Photo credits: highfireDANGER, greeblemonkey, and kitseeborg

For Christmas a few years back, he gave me a gift certificate to 20×200. His present allowed me to purchase a beautiful print for my husband’s new office and more importantly, changed how I viewed buying art.

It could be affordable. It could be fun. It didn’t have to be intimidating. Or pretentious.

(Is it terribly obvious that I don’t come from a world where people buy art?)

So this…

to me, is like a concert ticket that you want to save and put in your scrapbook. I bought a few new pieces of art this year and highly recommend the 20×200 site…even if you’re just in the mood for some virtual window-shopping.

20×200 is much more than an online store. It’s an experience.

And they make it extremely easy to live with art.

As in, from the very pit of my being.

Then something happened.

And I’m pretty sure that something rhymes with “mirty fartini”.

Don’t get me wrong….I still don’t like black olives.

But holy shit. Those big green ones, or small green ones, stuffed with blue cheese or simply floating in vodka.

Sorry it took me so long…

Olive you.

Photo credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/darwinbell/ / CC BY-NC 2.0, Grace Boyle, and http://www.flickr.com/photos/vtveen/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The fact that my father-in-law knows what Pandora is and streams it on his boat amazes me.

And 2009 is the year that I realized that Gen Y really is good for something: music recommendations. (I kid. Sort of.)

But with all that said, there was one album that stuck out for me as the best. The album I couldn’t get enough of, that put a smile on my face and made me dance around my living room–all my qualifications for awesomeness.

Oh Jack.

There’s that thing about him being totally adorable.

This is just a gratuitous picture of Jack being adorable. I rest my case.

But then there’s also that thing where he incorporates sounds and influences from all over the world into his music…a dash of Fela Kuti, some disco throwback and a healthy dose of Brazilian Tropicalia…reminding us that like his album’s name, Everything is New.

Not bad for a young kid out of England. Who was your Jack this year?

(Hat tip to Bossy’s Ear Worm…a wonderful source of music recommendations from many different time periods. And definitely NOT a Gen Yer.)

We went on a backpacking trip into Mee Canyon, Utah this past May and it was incredible. Not only was it some of the most difficult hiking I’ve ever done, especially with a heavy pack on, it was also some of the most secluded. We saw one other person the entire four days we were there.

Honestly, there’s just not anything to stress about when you have everything you need on your back. Either you have it or you don’t.

All of my most peaceful moments occur when I sleep outdoors, feeling the breeze and waking up with the sun, knowing that I’m just a very small part of the much larger picture.

Here are my runners-up for best nonfiction book (that I read) this year…

All really amazing, each in their own way. But there was one book that gave me loads more to think about…a book with plenty to digest…full of potty humor and a topic that no one likes to discuss…

That’s right. This masterpiece about poop was informative, humorous and a little scary–what to do with human waste is a growing global health issue and one that often gets buried, burned or flushed away.

I also read a few fictional tales that I also enjoyed…one of them being Twilight. (I felt like I had to understand what the frenzy was all about. Now that I have, I don’t really have any desire to read the rest of the series.) Interesting that two of my three favorite pieces of fiction have already been turned into movies.  The third is a moving collection of short stories by Miranda July, causing me to fall even more in love with the talented Ms. July and to rekindle my passion for the art of telling short stories.

But the best novel I read this year was one that surprised me a bit. Written by an author living in a small town in Wyoming, this book was recommended to me by my father and is the first in a whole murder-mystery series. I gave this one a (skeptical) try and am very glad I did. Craig Johnson writes about Wyoming better than anyone I’ve encountered. He nails it from the descriptions of the landscape to the characters of the people. And he crafted a mighty good yarn surrounding a mysterious death…

Those are my votes but I need some recommendations for 2010. What were some of your favorites?

]]> http://talltara.com/best-of-2009-books/feed/ 3 http://talltara.com/best-of-2009-restaurant-moment/ http://talltara.com/best-of-2009-restaurant-moment/#comments Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:12:40 +0000 Tarable http://talltara.com/?p=591 I’m married to a foodie. There are many restaurant moments that come right out of my kitchen.

Also? I live in a town recently profiled in the WSJ and called “the best small city for great meals”.

So when I say it’s hard to pick the best restaurant experience of the year, I really mean it. I’m extremely fortunate to live in a place with such amazing food because I know what it’s like to live in a place where those choices don’t exist. (Hello, Wyoming…I’m looking at you…)

However, when thinking about my best restaurant meal of 2009, my thoughts leave the Boulder scene and head west. Not to the foodie capital of San Francisco, but to a certain dinner I had in Sin City. Yes, Las Vegas.

Seriously.

It’s hard for me to believe as well. My family went on many a summer vacation to Vegas and all-you-can-eat buffets were seared into my memory. It was always more about quantity than quality. Cheap food just seemed to go hand in hand with Vegas.

But, something happened on my last trip there.

Maybe it’s the fact that it was my first time with a celebrity chef?

Photo credit: Reality TV Magazine

Or that I was slap-happy after a long weekend working the booth at Blog World?

Photo credit: Grace

Maybe it was my dinner companion? (Hello, Grace, I’m looking at you…) Or the fact that we had been reassured, on our way to dinner, by a young man going the opposite direction on the escalator, that “we looked good”?

Photo credit: Grace

Whatever the reason, the meal that I had at Todd English’s Olives restaurant was to die for.

Okay, perhaps this had a little something to do with it?

Photo credit: Grace

I did not know until that meal that free range chicken really does taste better. And don’t even get me started on the hand-rolled butternut squash tortelli. Did I mention the olives? Because there were lots of olives.

There was only one thing better than dinner. No, not the banana tiramisu, although it was phenomenal. The conversation, laughs and bonding that went on between Grace and I. Big hands and small hands “literally”, as Grace would say, came together that night. Between the tasty food and the delicious subjects of discourse, this was definitely my best restaurant moment of 2009.

See?

Gen X and Gen Y can get along.

As long as good food is involved.

However, there was one trip in particular that was by far the most magical…

Duh.