Cornmeal and moe.

Not many things make Brad and I happier than live music, so last night we were psyched to head out to the 9:30 Club for our favorite - some fantastic bluegrass and jam band tunes.

The night started out with a band we'd never heard of before. I can't say that we were all that optimistic about an opening band called "Cornmeal" (seriously, who came up with that name!?) Based on the fancy name we were expecting a really traditional, old school bluegrass vibe but they seriously rocked out (well, as much as you can with a banjo, fiddle and string bass). My favorite was the female fiddler/vocalist - gotta love a chick in the band!

Then one of our fav jam bands came on, moe. Since the 9:30 is a pretty small club, their lights looked amazing (although a little overwhelming/blinding at times!) and they sounded great.

It was an awesome night - my only regret? The fact that I had to be at work at 7:45 AM this morning after a late night out ... yet again, work getting in the way of my social life :)

Cool jobs...

My current job is definitely not cool but on a positive note, I am getting the opportunity right now to do some probono consulting work with the Special Olympics (helping them develop a strategic planning process and determine the "future vision" of the organization). Its been really neat to start learning about the great work that Special Olympics does and all of the people struggling with intellectual disabilities that they touch -- 2.5 million in over 180 countries and growing. It blows my mind to think that an organization can touch so many people in so many different parts of the globe, all of whom are struggling with similar issues (although in very different cultural contexts).

Someone who does have a cool, new job is Brad and my little bro, Todd. Todd just graduated from PSU and landed a job working at the International Center for Clubhouse Development where he works with people with a mental health diagnosis and tries to help the members gain skills that will help them get a job (and then, importantly, support the members once they do get a job to make sure that they are settling in ok). Pretty cool if you ask me.

Ugh, Monday

I dread Mondays these days - so much so, that I'm starting to dread Sundays as well since all day long I can hear the clock ticking and my weekend slipping away. Why can't every day be Friday (and preferably Friday at about 5:00 pm)?

Even better, why couldn't I just be independently wealthy, not have to work at all and instead spend my time choosing worthy causes to commit my time and independent wealth to? I really think I'd be good at that :)

Girls' Weekend in Colorado

I was lucky enough to spend the weekend with some of my bestest girlfriends in Colorado. It was a mini Duke reunion with Ginny, Erika, Shazia and I meeting up in Denver for a long weekend.

It was fantastic to spend some time enjoying the great outdoors which in the CO mountains is absolutely gorgeous, if a little freezing in the middle of February! We went hiking one day and then snowshoeing the next - my first time snowshoeing was a blast!

And of course, since we were near the hometown of our fav beer, Blue Moon, we took some time out to do a tour (and sample tastings!) at the Coors brewery in Golden, CO which was really neat.

Brad and I are always talking about how we are SO blessed because we have the coolest friends ever and this weekend was yet another reminder of that!

Our Blogosphere Manifesto

So, I feel like we should have some Grand Manifesto to kick off our blog but quite frankly after a long day of work, I'm pretty much out of ideas.

So, why are we blogging? Partially because everyone else is doing it :) But really, we've found that our friend's blogs are so great for keeping up on what's going in their lives. Brad and I are both admittedly horrendous at keeping in touch with folks (and quite possibly terrible at keeping up with a blog ... time will tell on that one!). So, we are planning to use this blog to occasionally send postcards from our road of life - places we go, special people in our lives that we spend time with, and perhaps the occasional random reflection (or rant) on something we find interesting and want to share.

In any event, enjoy our gratuitous story of us! And send us comments, we love to hear from you all!