A Proper Sendoff

I admit, since I shared with ya'll the news of the move, my blog, twitter and facebook updates have left much to be desired. But now that it is 2:40 in the morning and I have been cursed with a sudden bout of energy over the last hour and a half, I guess now is as good a time as any to update!

We have known for a while that we were moving, but because of the whole need for employment, we could not tell that many people. After you have decided to leave your job, it is becomes extremely hard to perform a job that you really do not enjoy. But let me tell you, after you turn in your two weeks notice, it get's even harder to motivate yourself to do the work! But in those two weeks I had a ton of work to do cleaning up loose ends and getting ready to hand my duties off to others. I'm sure I didn't accomplish as much as they wanted, buy hey, I didn't do too bad! My last day of work was the 13th and let me tell you, after 3 and a half years of employment there, that was a happy day. Gregg even managed to send me off with a pizza lunch!

However, the fact that I was done officially working did not mean that it was time for us to party. That night we headed off to a local family's house to baby sit/house sit for their 3 kids while they went on a (really long) cruise. We baby sat from the 13th to the 20th and while the kids were great for the most part, I can say with complete certainty that I am nowhere near ready to have kids! I'm not sure I could handle a 10 year old girl running around the house much longer than a week. I grew up with all boys and Anna insist that I never learned to play with girls. She's probably right...

Well we finished baby sitting on the 20th and were supposed to head out of town on the 27th, so it was time to get busy! The plan was to get a camper shell for my truck and load everything we own into the back of my pick up truck, put the bikes on top of the camper, stuff the dogs into the cab with us and take off! Now that is a great plan if you own a truck like this. When you own a truck like this, it means you have to get rid of a LOT of stuff. It also means that with two crazy dogs, it is guaranteed to be an interesting trip! We had already sold most everything in a garage sale at a friends house so we just had to get rid of some odds and ends stuff. But I listed everything else worth selling on Craigslist, including Anna's car and our bed. I also sold a bunch of triathlon stuff I wasn't using any more and hopefully I can convince Anna to let me put that money back into a (desperately) needed bike!

Needy dog 1: Bailey

Needy dog 2: Ollie

The packing process continued on until a giant monkey wrench was thrown into the plans this Monday. I'm finally getting tired again, so I will tell you about that tomorrow.

A bit late, but BIG NEWS!

Disclaimer: There is a giant crack running through the middle of my computer screen which makes typing and proofreading very difficult. So if you see anything goofy, either ignore it or send me a message. I'll fix it when I get to a better computer and can proof this post! 

Disclaimer 2: Grammar mistakes will not be corrected as I probably won't recognize them as mistakes. If the nerd is reading, she will help me out.

As you are all aware, I have been slacking in the blog department. I promised a blog about some big news 2 days ago and failed to deliver. But as you are about to see, life has been exceptionally crazy lately. Anyway, let's get rolling!

Big news #1

Big news #1 isn't exactly a secret, many of you already know this, but for 2012, I will be sponsored by Endurance Junkie! Endurance Junkie is a high quality triathlon and cycling apparel company out of Belgium. This is a real sponsorship, and when I say real sponsorship, I mean Peter from Endurance Junkie is actually going to help me out! It has been very cool to see the level of support that I already have from this company.

This (official) announcement comes at a great time as I just last night received my race suit for the year! By the way, it's pretty cool getting a package from Europe.

As you can see, this baby is pretty stylish

Not a bad looking door either....

I would post a picture with me rocking this super comfortable suit, but Anna has already ditched off to bed.

And when I say "super comfortable suit," I'm not kidding. This thing is DEFINITELY the most comfortable piece of cycling or tri clothing I have ever put on. I would call this the triathlon equivalent to baseball's Manny pants. In other words, this joker is comfortable enough to wear as pajamas!

Big news #2

Let's go ahead and throw it out there: Anna and I are moving to Boulder, Colorado!!!!

That's right, we are packing up and heading west!  Yes, I know big news, big change (sorry to the few of you that already knew this). I know this brings up even more questions, so let's see if I can cover most of them here:

Why go?

Anna and I just got married back in September and both of our families live here. As much as we love them, this really makes it hard to break away and develop our own life together. Moving will be good for us. Plus, there will never be a better time to get out and explore. This decision won't ever get any easier. We will be back to Alabama/Florida area once we are ready to have kiddos, but for now, it's time to go play!

When?

Anna and I have been planning on moving away from southern Alabama for a while but haven't been able to say much because I needed to keep my job. Well, I put in my two weeks notice on Tuesday so now our news is out in the open and we are headed out quick! We will be leaving the week of January 23rd.

How are you getting there?




We are packing up the dogs and bikes in my truck and heading out on a massive road trip! We are selling Anna's car, so I have been busy cleaning up 10 years ((she has driven the same care since she was 16!) of coffee and make up spills and trying to get little bruiser ready to sell. On top of that, we are having a garage sale on Saturday and selling EVERYTHING that is not absolutely essential (these two reasons on top of still working and training is why I have been struggling to get this blog out). That means we are pretty much selling everything but clothes, bikes and kitchen stuff. It will be tough but I'm sure Anna won't mind decorating from scratch.

So if anybody has any road trip stops we should make between the Gulf Coast and Boulder, let us know! We are open to driving pretty much anywhere, especially if you have some kind of ridiculous tourist attraction.


Why Boulder?

We have seriously mulled over the possibility of several different cities. First of all there was Bend, OR  but for no particular reason, that never really panned out and neither one of us felt right about the move there. Then we decided on Phoenix. One of my teammates from last year just moved out there and it looked like he could help us find jobs pretty quickly. But then neither one of us could fall in love with moving to the desert. I am sure it is great in it's own way, but I like grass.

So then we thought about Boulder. Another teammate of mine lives out there and when I asked her about it, she had a billion great things to say about the town. Then we started seriously thinking about it and I fell in love with the idea for two main reasons: 1. The summer after my junior year of college, I signed a contract to play for the Cheyenne Grizzlies in the Colorado Mountain League. In these college leagues you pretty much live and play ball like a minor leaguer. It would have been heaven for me. But I ended up tearing my ACL, MCL and Meniscus during the school season. All of a sudden it didn't make so much sense to go. The coach offered me the chance to still go out with the team and workout as I could and help with the catchers, but I turned it down. This is the only regret I really have in life. So, that dream to head out west has burned deep down inside of me sense then. Here's my chance to go! And 2. Boulder is pretty much the North American triathlon headquarters. If you look at all of the pros that live and train there at some point throughout the year, it is pretty much ridiculous. If we were going to move away from our families, I wanted it to be to a place where I could really give myself every opportunity possible to succeed at triathlon. I have some lofty goals and why not get to chasing them? After all, there's nothing like laying it all on the line.

What will you do when you get there?

In short, we are going to play. I have had a pretty good job the last 3 and a half years, but I have decided I'm not cut out for the whole 8-5 office job.  So I will be looking for a job, more than likely in a restaurant, bartending or waiting. That way if I want to take a 4 hour bike ride on Tuesday, I can. And if we want to take 6 days to drive to the Grand Canyon or go snowboarding, we can do so without worrying about vacation days. I just have to say "hey Carl, mind covering my shift for me?" I mean, after all, if we are moving to training paradise to allow myself every opportunity to go as far as possible in this sport, I don't want to have an inflexible job standing in the way.

Ok, I'm getting tired and every though there is a ton more to this, you're probably about tired of reading, so hit me up on twitter if you have more questions. 

Oh, and how cool is this label on my new trisuit?