Traincation Pt 1

For a myriad of reasons, I called my mom and told her I wouldn’t be home for Christmas. “Home” is a little different for me. I remember a few years ago when I told my mom that Chicago wasn’t “home” anymore. She cried. Harsh words, but they weren’t meant to be hurtful. When you leave home at 16, by the time you’re 24, it’s just the place your parents live. I don’t have many friends there, things are refurbished and reconstructed, torn down and rebuilt. It will never be the same. So for the first time I chose not to go back to my parents house for the holidays. With a wrench thrown in my life plan, I found myself wanting to retreat to a safe place that wasn’t the arctic tundra.

And I booked a flight to Santa Barbara for a few days.

And then I saw this.

Paradise

And I extended my stay.

And I invited a friend, John O’Neill, to come play, too.

And I’m so glad I did!

Phil doing what Phil does best!

As soon as I landed in Santa Barbara, my favorite person, Tina, took me down to see Phil at Hypercat Racing (I wouldn’t trust any one else with my fit!). With my new steed in tow, I was ready to feel comfy and ride the crap out of those mountains (which I’ve done lots of!)! After catching up, we discussed proper position, pedal stroke and efficiency, then christened the steed Sully, and called it a night.

The days have since flown by! It has been such a blessing to be here and catch up with friends, ride in the mountains, run on the beach, and swim next to the ocean. I have lots of favorite things here and I love to share them with others. It lights me up. I remember someone explaining this to me, comparing it to a father and his son. The father loves the son and wants to show him all these great things that bring him joy. So he takes him out to play catch in the backyard and teaches him all about baseball. He wants to share this great and special joy he feels with others that he cares about.

Swimmin’! I’m the far right, doing aqua aerobics ;)

I think maybe that has been missing in my life for a little while. It was nice to have it back.

I’ll be here one more week. I’m stuffing in as much of my favorite things as I can. Like riding out to my favorite grocery store for a gluten free vegan scone, that just happens to be 85 miles away. Typical.

I’m so thankful to be able to do this; it’s hard to put it into words. Last night as I laid in bed, I couldn’t help but think with the passing of each year, the list of things I am grateful for increases tenfold. That is pretty neat.

Happy New Year! Happy Training!

Moose