the background: most of you know that, among other things, my friend and co-worker vicki and i share an interest in horses, and she has friends that work at the nearby race tracks. recently she stopped by for lunch and we were talking about when we could find some time to go watch the races.
vicki: tim asked when we were coming to the track. he said we could come early and ride. me: ride what? vicki: ride the horses. get them warmed up. it's $15/hour. me: $15/hour? that's cheap! vicki: no, they pay YOU $15/hour me: they pay me??? vicki: yes, for exercise riding. me: they PAY. ME??
needless to say, when my knee is strong enough to get back on a horse, i will be taking full advantage of this! exercise riding a racehorse? heaven!
**********
the background: every year my company hosts a consumer event in the long beach area and we rely on other employees to volunteer for the event. i received this email today from one of the would-be volunteers, and it made me laugh heartily!
Good morning Tara,
I still have in my mind last year's event, when you passed by me, going fast on a golf kart. I saw you driving the golf kart with one hand, while the other held your walkie talkie, and you were giving instructions to someone, one foot on the pedal, pushed to the floor, and your splinted leg sticking out of the kart, a bunch of employees in the back with scary smiles, holding themselves tight. I understood in that moment what true multi-tasking meant!
the sweetest place on earth is anywhere my family is. but before getting a taste of that particular sweetness, i headed to hershey, pa for an event.
it's been a few years since i've been to hershey, and though i didn't get to do too much exploring, i did fulfill a year long dream...a visit to the chocolate spa.
the dream was thwarted last year with my various knee injuries preventing me from attending this particular conference, and, because i had used a groupon the week prior for a chocolate facial and cocoa scrub, i decided to forego the chocolate treatments and indulge in a mojito sugar scrub.
never having done a scrub before, i wasn't sure what to expect, but ultimately i decided it's got the perks of a massage with the added benefit of some yummy smelling exfoliation to boot. and boy was it yummy smelling! so much so, that i ordered the product upon my return home.
oooooooooohhh. mojito!
the masseuse?/aesthetician? was absolutely fantastic and it was a comfortable and thoroughly enjoyable experience. i would highly recommend it to anyone, and i can't wait to use my scrub (which just arrived today!)
after the conference, it was time for the real sweet treat. my flight (because it was significantly less expensive) was originally scheduled to depart from harrisburg to dulles at 7:40pm, with a quick layover before my flight from dulles to la. but, since i did not have to remain in pennsylvania, i opted to get up at 3am to try and get on a 6:50am standby flight to dulles, leaving the whole day open for me to spend with my family.
i learned two things: 1) it now apparently costs $75 to fly standby (if you make the flight), and 2) if your layover is more than four hours, it is considered a 'stopover' and they will try and charge you for a one-way ticket.
i had an amazing ticket agent who, upon learning about #2 from her supervisor, found a way to circumvent the system when said supervisor was distracted elsewhere. truly, she went above and beyond, and i was incredibly grateful.
i arrived in virginia at 8:30am, was picked up by dad, and headed to the homestead to catch a couple hours of sleep before meeting up with kate, chris, and the girls.
for those of you who may not yet know, my sister recently got married (a justice of the peace ceremony) and i gained a niece! her name is whisper and she is 4. kendyl is enjoying being a big sister, and i think it's a really good thing for her to have that opportunity.
we met at potbelly's for lunch ( a favorite stop when i am back east) and kendyl did not disappoint....literally running across the restaurant, yelling my name, and jumping into my arms for a giant hug. best. feeling. ever! i hope she is still doing that when she's 15 and 22 and 45, but i guess maybe that's not realistic. :)
me and my girl
after lunch we headed back to the house and spent the entire day talking and playing and catching up. i was so grateful that they were all willing and able to set aside their normal saturday tasks to be with me, and so grateful that my work provided me the opportunity.
can't wait to see them all again at christmas! it will be the first time my WHOLE family will be together since adele was born and kate got married, so i am counting down the days:)
the end of august will mark a big milestone for me - my 35th birthday. that's right, the birthday that forces you to admit that you are in your 'mid' thirties, no longer sliding by in your early thirties like 34 agreeably let's you do.
while i wrestle with the number and not having yet turned some of my hopes into reality, i decided that instead of getting gloomy and despondent (like i did when i turned 30), i am going to spend the entire month of august CELEBRATING and pampering and laughing and loving and dreaming and learning.
i learned (months ago) that this year's theme was 'only make believe,' and i couldn't help but wonder if they chose it just for me, somehow knowing that my birthday was coming! yea or nay, it was ideally suited for me and my friend vicki and I met up in laguna beach for dinner before the show.
laguna tends to be overly auto-congested with challenging parking, so the evening was off to a good start when i found a space about to open up in an otherwise full lot, and the driver of the departing car offered me his parking ticket, so i could avoid the hefty lot fee. happy birthday to me:)
i had chosen a restaurant, based on my friend yelp's high marks, called the lumberyard, and we were more than pleased with the selection. reasonably priced, dimly lit cozy atmosphere, and blue cheese & bacon mac and cheese to DIE for.
after dinner, we headed over to the art festival to peruse the various works before making our way into the bowl for the event.
the pageant is an annual event, taking place june-august every year, for, i think, the last some 70 or 80 years, and is best described as a series of 'living pictures.' works of art are recreated in larger than life size, with living people standing in as the subjects of the sculpture or painting. looking at the works of art, you'd have no idea you were looking at actual people unless you had binoculars and could watch them blink!
the evening was full of fairies and dragons and myths and legends, and i was certain that this had been the perfect way to begin the birthday month o' fun celebration!
and to continue it, last weekend, i scheduled a facial and massage at a local spa. i had purchased a groupon for the treatments, and though i'm not usually one to spend money on those types of indulgences (my indulgences usually lean towards the gadgety and blingy), it was such a good deal, and the offer so tempting, i decided that the birthday month 'o fun needed some pampering. A LOT of pampering!
i arrived at the spa, pleased to find that while it was small, it had a nice atmosphere and the staff was friendly. i spent the first hour enjoying my chocolate facial and the second, my cocoa massage. and yes, the 'chocolate factor' was what made it solo deliciously tempting!
i was especially glad i had taken care of my weekend errands BEFORE the appointment, since the mellow blissful haze lingered (and was allowed to do so) for the rest of the day.
i'm now hershey, pa bound for work, and there are a couple birthday month o' fun events already locked in for the coming week, at least one of which will involve the chocolate spa at hershey hotel. let the celebration continue!
a couple of weeks ago, i had my first weekend at home in ... a really long time. so i decided to leave again, and absconded myself to yosemite!
truthfully, our camping trip had been planned for months, when my roommate got campsite reservations back in march. and though i would have been happy with some downtime in my own space, i was equally excited to be somewhere there would be absolutely no cell phone reception. woo hoo!
on thursday night, i headed up to the santa barbara area to meet up with my friend jesse and get our gear and food consolidated and organized. the two hour drive took three, thanks to la traffic, but as a result, i opted to take an alternate route, up the pacific coast highway to the 101 (also a coastal highway). it ended up being a great solution, despite it's ineffectiveness in reducing the travel time, as many of the recent stressors and exhausters of the last many weeks melted away while i enjoyed the ocean views along the way.
arriving at jesse's late, with my dog cordy along for the ride (her first camping trip), we quickly commenced the sorting and organizing, before sitting down to chat and get caught up. in the early hours of the am, we finally called it a night, knowing we wanted to get an early start and had a six hour drive the next day.
morning came too early, but a little later than planned as we both overslept. by the time we finally got ourselves together and got on the road it was nearing 11, and the uneventful (thank heavens) drive landed us in the wawona campgound, site #30 by 5:30.
heather and her friend holly had come up the day before, and seemed to still be out and about, so we evaluated the site and planned tent placement, set up jesse's new camp kitchen, and got a fire started.
heather and holly arrived shortly after, and we learned that heather had twisted her ankle on the way down the glacier point hike. because i was the only one in the group who had no interest in hiking, i had planned to hang out at the campground during the day, enjoying the sun and the river running behind our site, chilling out with cordy and a book while the others went out adventuring. but with heather's 'condition', the plans changed quickly, and it looked like saturday would be a tour-by-car day.
i got dinner ready for jesse and i (joking with my roommate about how it was the first time in over two years she had ever seen me cook) while he set up his one man tent...and by one man, i mean, it's a ten man tent, but he set up a cot, and end tables and a chair, and by the time he was done, it was a the waldorf astoria of camping.
i was impressed (and only a little jealous) of his pampered camper tent setup. but after dinner (blue cheese burgers), and dessert (reese's smores), and some campfire chatting, i settled in comfortably to the 'girls tent' for an early night and enjoyed my air mattress in 'heather's hilton.'
morning came early, as it always seems to when camping, but i'd had a good night's sleep (unusual for camping), and was pleased to find that jesse was getting started on our bacon and eggs.
after breakfast we hung out at the camp waiting for our 5th and final camper. she had been supposed to arrive the previous night but was a no-show, and with no cell reception, we didn't know where she was or if she was planning on joining us at all. so, we decided we would wait another half hour for her to arrive, and if she hadn't, we would leave her a note at the campsite. we were still discussing the note when her car pulled up.
she had made it up the night before, and successfully found the campsite, but since we were all ensconced in our tents (just barely as it turns out), instead of coming in and hitting the hay, she headed to a nearby hotel for the night, and had come to the campsite to try and catch us. but it turned out she hadn't showered or brought her stuff with her, so we twiddled our thumbs for awhile while she went back to the hotel to get herself ready.
our first view of yosemite valley
eventually she made it back and we all piled into heather's car...four girls, a guy, and a dog, and headed towards hetch hetchy reservoir. since holly wouldn't be able to hike, she wanted to see a part of yosemite she had never seen, and the rest of us were on board.
had we known how bad the traffic in yosemite valley would be, or how far hetch hetchy really was, we might have nixed it, but we didn't, and we made the most of it.
gettin wet at bridalveil falls
since we were snail's pacing it through the valley, we made a couple of stops, first at bridal veil falls, then at the yosemite visitor's center (for my passport stamp), and ended up wandering through the ansel adams gallery, where i was specifically invited to come in by an employee who called me in from off the porch, telling me that i was more than welcome to bring my dog inside. awe - some.
back in the car, we headed for hetch hetchy, and truthfully, i'm not sure it was worth the drive. it's a beautiful place, but it doesn't compare to the valley and it is way out of the way on windy roads. and of course, the fact that i couldn't take cordy on the dam meant my experience was 'less than' what it could have been.
happy puppy
we made the most of it of course, and all of us indulged our inner 10 year olds when we passed the sign below on the way back:
to poop, or naut?
from hetch hetchy, we made our way to glacier point, where heather had hurt her ankle the day before. unbeknownst to them at the time, you can also drive up to glacier point, and the views were spectacular.
view of half dome from glacier point
the sun was going down, so we decided to head back to camp, where jesse and i enjoyed a chili dinner and we all enjoyed chatting around the campfire before calling it a night.
the next morning i woke up, dare i say it, refreshed! it was the best camping night's sleep i've ever had. the temperature was perfect, heather's lent air mattress was comfy, and cordy was a perfect snuggle buddy!
lower yosemite falls
after breakfast, we broke camp and headed back into the valley to see yosemite falls. it was still crowded, but the weather was so perfect, and the falls were full and beautiful. we enjoyed them for a time before deciding it was time to head home.
with a quick stop to the visitor's center to pick up a stamp, and a passport for jesse (yay, another convert!) we made the six hour drive back to santa barbara safely and uneventfully.
while camping always makes me a little tired, and the laundry was piling up, it was a great way to escape, and we couldn't have asked for a better experience!
by popular demand, the following virtual retelling will be extremely detailed, in fact, it's probably going to read like a 15 year old's diary entry, because truthfully, that's kind of how it made me feel. i find no shame and will harbor no embarrassment about reconnecting with my inner 15 year old!
the cast: me - an event planner for a pet insurance company who frequently attends conferences
vicki - my co-worker and friend, a veterinary technician who was asked to attend one of our human resource conferences (normally only goes to veterinary conferences) and bring her dogs to entice attendees to visit our booth
mike - a colleague and friend
terry - an event planner for another company, whom i met a year and a half (ish) ago standing in a very unnecessarily long long for onsite show services.
reed - a co-worker of terry's
the setting:
the society for human resource management (shrm) annual conference
las vegas convention center, las vegas, nv, 105 degrees (if you're wondering)
the background:
-with nearly 50 events on my annual event calendar, i don't always pay attention to each conference program, so just a few days before the start of the event, i discovered that the sponsored (meaning large and recognizable companies pay for a well-known performer to entertain conference attendees in exchange for marketing opportunities) performer, was grammy award winning country superstar and all around hot aussie, keith urban.
-vicki would not have normally attended this conference as she is strictly veterinary, but the hr channel folks requested her presence (with her dogs) at the show. truthfully, i think her attendance was one of many pieces that fell into place in just the right way to make for a surprising night
-terry and i bonded over frustration, and have enjoyed seeing each other a few times over the last year+. during show setup we crossed paths and swapped numbers and made plans to connect later and to connect at the 'main event'.
-this type of performance is very different from a 'regular' concert. they are usually held in an exhibit hall, which is one level of concrete floor. there are no stadium seats, and the seats available are first-come-first-serve. it is also much more intimate, since a performer like keith urban regularly sells out entire stadiums, and the exhibit halls hold far fewer people. in this case, an estimated 5,000 people attended, which, for a keith urban concert, is 'intimate'
-also in attendance at the event were two co-workers and a spouse, and my sister's boss and co-worker from virginia
the story:
vicki, mike and i arranged to meet at the show at 6:45. since the show was scheduled to start at 8pm, i figured we would have decent seats and enjoy a nice evening.
since i had the wristbands required for entry, i first met mike, and we found and saved seats, before i headed back outside to meet vicki and bring her in. it had been my intention to save a few seats for terry and his co-workers, just in case, as we had tossed around the idea of meeting up.
mike, me, and vicki
when i returned with vicki, the entire row (other than our seats + 1) had been 'saved' by someone else, and shortly thereafter, terry texted me to see what/where we were. i told him we had an extra seat, but that i understood if he wanted to stay with his group. he decided to do so, but shortly after his arrival at the center, he texted again to tell me to come meet him at the stage.
our seats were in the front of the second section, and since the concert hadn't yet started, when i scanned the stage, i saw him easily. i told vicki and mike i'd be right back after saying hello, and when i got up to the stage, i asked if he planned on staying there. he said he absolutely was, but since the seating was open, i suspected he (we) might not be allowed, since it clearly obstructed the view of those sitting in the front rows -- but he said that he had confirmed with the contact at one of the main sponsors that it would be alright. so, of course, i decided to stay with him.
i just kept thinking that i wouldn't be able to afford tickets like that at a 'real' concert, and even if i could, how early would i have to be standing in a ticket line before the show sold out, and i couldn't pass up the opportunity to be that close. i texted vicki and told her to join me, and texted mike to ask him if he minded staying with the seats and the bags for a bit. this may sound lame but mike is not a big country fan, and truthfully, i just knew he wouldn't care.
while vicki was making her way to the front, we were joined by terry's co-workers, one of whom was reid. he had to ignore a few comments while making his way up to join us, as he is probably 6'3" and nobody likes a tall guy in front of them. but as it would turn out, i think his height was a huge factor in the evening's events.
and as we waited for the show to start, i told reed the story of hanging out with jason aldean and his band many years ago, and was fully confident that that would be the coolest band encounter story that i would ever have to tell. wow, was i wrong!
the show started and keith instantly had the audience rapt. his stage presence was incredible as was his ability to entertain. he performed three or four favorites from center stage (we were stage left) before moving to a microphone at stage right to perform another. at that point, we knew that he would find his way over to our side of the stage eventually, and we were all anticipating it eagerly!
an example of his engagement with the audience--he left the stage at one point, traveling around the room, before landing on a platform in the middle of the giant hall, where he proceeded to sing a couple of songs so that the people at the back of the room could actually SEE him. in that moment, i fell a little in love with him:)
there were a couple of other great moments before it got really exciting for me, including an on-stage stumble that he made light of, via song (happens at about 1:05 in the clip):
finally, it was our turn. he had started the song 'kiss a girl' and during a musical interlude in the song, he made his way to our side of the stage. we were all excited to be within a couple feet of him and i was very focused on getting some good photos. so focused, in fact, that i was completely oblivious to what was about to happen until out of the corner of my eye, i realized that terry and reed were pointing emphatically at me.
there was a brief flicker of understanding, followed by a brief flickr of panic, and i quite literally tried to melt into reed and become invisible. my long time friends and blog readers know how terrified i am of being in front of people, and while i know how crazy this sounds, in that split second, if there had been enough room for me to run, i would have done it and not looked back. but instead, reed gave me a gentle push, and suddenly, keith urban was holding my hand and walking me around the barricade to the security guard, who then escorted me onto the stage.
he told me to go to center stage and wait for a minute, and when i got there, i made the mistake of looking up and seeing the, literally, thousands of people looking at me! i also had NO IDEA what i was going to be doing up there, and truthfully, if i had known, i probably would have taken a stage dive then to get out of it, but it all happened so fast, i was saved from myself.
the next thing i knew, keith had chosen a guy from the center section and a girl from the right, and the microphone was in front of my mouth and he was asking me what my name was and where i was from.
i do not know what happened in that moment. i was possessed or something because i YELLED "im tara from huntington beach, california!' and the crowd went wild.
you know how people say that? 'the crowd went wild'? and it's usually tongue in cheek? well, the crowd literally went wild. i don't know if they all just really like california or what, but they were clapping and cheering and hooting and i understood why rock stars like being rock stars!
keith then asked the same questions of the guy and other girl, and the crowd was... supportive. i still don't know why they reacted to me the way i did, but even in that moment, i knew i was the crowd favorite. of course, what i didn't know is that that would dictate the rest of my onstage experience.
i still didn't know what we were going to be asked to do, but i suspected there would be some sort of keith urban trivia game going on, and i knew without a shadow of a doubt that i would completely blow it. the pressure was just too high.
and while i began to dread what was to come, all of the sudden, there was a microphone in my hand and keith said 'it's really easy, just sing the chorus.' and the music to 'kiss a girl' started back up and i didn't even take a breath before belting out:
I wanna kiss a girl I wanna hold her tight And maybe make a little magic in the moonlight
(so far so good)
Don't wanna go to far Just to take it slow
(oops, a memory lapse, but fortunately keith was on the ground next to me mouthing the lyrics)
But I shouldn't be lonely in this big ol' world I wanna kiss a girl!
and the crowd went ballISTIC! now keep in mind, i was not focusing on vocal quality or vibrato or anything, really. something just clicked in my mind when i started singing and a little voice said 'go big or go home - if you're gonna fail, fail spectacularly.'
so i was truly, legitimately surprised, when the audience reacted the way they did.
keith moved on to the guy and the other girl, and again, i could tell that the response was not as strong. but i didn't see what was coming, which was that he asked the audience to pick the best performance.
now despite the fact that the audience SEEMED to have thought i did the best job, just about every insecurity i have (and some i don't have) ran through my head. the guy was cute, the girl cuter, and i was pretty sure i didn't have a shot at 'winning'. i was preparing myself for the ego blow, when he put his hand over my head and the audience erupted. he did the same with the other two, and again the response was supportive but not as frenzied. i knew i had taken it, and couldn't believe that the girl who was taller than and weighs more than the country superstar had somehow won over the audience.
he came back over to me, put his arm around me and announced that there was a clear winner. the crowd cheered and clapped. at some point in this quickly passing moment, (maybe he also gave me a hug??) i whispered 'nothing like stage fright, right?' and he responded, saying 'you did awesome (how do you spell that with an australian accent?), you can SING!' and i basked. had the experience stopped there, it would still be the coolest experience of my life. but it didn't.
i know it's blurry, but it's also proof :)
of course, it took me a second to realize it...in fact i actually started walking off the stage, and he grabbed my shirt and said 'stay here'. so i stayed while he took the girl over to the guitar player and the guy over to the bass player and grabbed me and took me up to the center stage mic, and the two of us began singing the rest of the song.
even in the retelling, i can't help but wonder if it was all a dream. i kept trying not to crowd him since we were sharing the same mic, so he kept moving it closer to me until i finally just accepted the insane fact that i was going to be four inches from his face for the rest of the song.
the audience was so supportive and so into it, and i found my friends who, really, i owe the whole experience to, and gave them a 'can you believe this???' look, which turned out to be photo documented.
i also thought about the couple of co-workers i knew were in the audience (who i later found out had gotten their whole section chanting my name), as well as my sister's boss and co-worker from virginia, and just how cool it was that there were people there who would tell the story. as excited as i am to tell it, it is also pretty cool knowing that other people are telling it. does that make sense? does it seem vain? trust me, it's not vanity, but pure gratitude.
i have had a life FULL of amazing experiences. and every single time, i wonder why. why i am so lucky. i'm no more special than in the ways that we are all special and unique, and i have no idea why a guy (reed) who i had literally met a couple hours before would make such an effort to put ME in a spotlight, or why keith urban decided to take him up on his suggestion, or why an audience of 5,000 people decided that they liked me...and while i still find myself pretty mindblown by the why's, i am immensely grateful and unbelievably humbled.
towards the end of the song, keith interrupted himself to say/sing "maybe you wanna kiss a man, but i don't want to kiss a man', and during the last chorus, he changed the last line to 'i wanna kiss a man' for my benefit:) as we finished, he gave me a warm and surprisingly genuine hug and whispered ' you were so great.' and i told him how amazing an experience it had been and thanked him before making my way off stage.
and what was probably a 6 or 7 minute experience? came to an end. or, almost, anyway. i was surprised at the reaction i got when i returned to the crowd and my friends. people were touching my arms and grabbing my hands, and telling me how awesome i was. and when i got back to my group, reed gave me a big hug and said 'i didn't know you could actually sing.' yeah? me neither. at least, not like that.
yes, i've sung in choirs and small groups and i know that i have a decent voice, but you cannot prepare for something like that--it is so completely different from anything any normal person like me would ever experience in my life. and i was sooo not trying to sing WELL, i was just trying to 'fail spectacularly'.
keith ended up playing for just over two hours, and even that endeared me to him. as i understand it, that's about the length of his regular concert, and i felt certain since it was a relatively small group for him and a different kind of group, and because sheryl crow (a couple years before) had performed a short set, that he might be on stage for an hour-ish. but boy did he give us a show. and me in particular!
when the show ended, it took us about an hour to get out because people kept stopping me. my co-workers found me and were as stunned and excited as i was, and every few feet someone would recognize me and tell me how good i was and how lucky, and the look on some of their faces was pure awe. again i thought i could understand the appeal of superstardom, just a little:)
the experience was such a whirlwind, i didn't have much time to think, just react. i know there are things i've forgotten because they were so quick (ie were there two hugs or just one?) so i'm grateful that there were so many people taking photos (since i had none of my own), and that my colleague mike, ended up taking video of the entire thing (which i'm still waiting on). i've talked to my contact at the show, who emailed me to tell me that it 'couldnt have happened to a better person.', about getting a copy of whatever footage they have as well, and my only complaint is that they were all from the wrong angle, so of course, my chin and arms are terrible in all of them;) oh, and by the way, you know how they say you should always wear clean underwear in case you're in an accident? my new motto is 'always wear black in case keith urban pulls you on stage.' after all, black is far more forgiving and flattering...and SLIMMING!
as you might imagine, i'm still 'high' from the experience and i expect to be for awhile. if you're in the car with me anytime in the near future, you'll be listening to keith urban. and if you call me, your ringtone will be 'kiss a girl'.
there are many many many photos of the experience, some of them mine, some of them from friends and strangers, but all the ones in my possession are located HERE. when i have the video(s) i'll try and post, but i understand at least one of them is a huge file:)
lastly, i'll say one more time how grateful i am. every once in a while i get discouraged because my life is so far from what i thought it would be and wanted it to be at this stage in my life, but i also know and recognize often, just how blessed i am, that while i'm waiting for those dreams to come true, i get to have unbelievable experiences like this.
i. sang. with a grammy winner. on stage. in front of thousands of people.
