A Tale of Two Annie's

After this weekend it's become quite clear that every once in awhile I have occasion to live two completely, totally, separate lives. Two lives that are starkly, tragically and almost comically at odds with each other. I compare these two lives to Annie the burgandy-haired heiress to the Warbuck fortune and Annie, the red-headed orphan.

I left work on Thursday around 2p to attend a "Nike Appreciation" event at the Allison Inn and Spa. As an event planner and decision maker for team offsites, meetings and celebrations I have been thrown into a new and surreal world where I'm being schmoozed for my money...well, Nike's money. Vendors of every sort LOVE that sweet, sweet Nike money and as far as they know they are one of thousands anxiously waiting outside the pearly gates and to them I might as well be St. Peter, himself. The food, the accommodations, the spa treatments - it was nothing short of luxury and decadence. I barely had to chew, the food just melted. I barely had to lift a finger without one of their 100+ staff anticipating my every move and rolling out the red carpet. It felt like Annie's first arrival at Daddy Warbuck's house, in fact I even sang "I Think I'm Going To Like It Here" while soaking in my tangerine sage bath in front of the fireplace. Friday morning I woke to a stack of Lemon Buttermilk pancakes with berry compote and hazelnut butter delivered to my room with a truffle from the spa and a friendly reminder that my check-in time for my spa treatments was at 10:15a. Ha! Do people really need reminders??

24 hours later, it was time to check-out and check back in...to reality.

Laundry, floors, bathrooms, dusting, vacuuming, grocery shopping...and with a few hours for recreation we "scored" free tickets to the Sportsman Outdoor show at the expo center. Every hunter, fisher, boater and NRA member in the pacific northwest picked out their very best camouflage (from the dirty laundry) and moved like packed cattle from exhibit to exhibit breathing in and out the low hanging, non-circulating air that was heavy with bratwurst and beer burps. $1 redbox, microwave popcorn, 2p church, Sunday dinner and now my hands are pruned from heating water in the microwave and washing dinner dishes by hand since both our dishwater and water heater are currently out of order, indefinitely.

In summation:

Nike Annie: Pruned, from a hot tangerine-sage bath.
Lindsey Annie: Pruned from doing dishes...not quite hot, not really even warm.

Living it up with daddy Warbucks or living the hard knock life, two truths remain self-evident. You're never fully dressed without a smile and the sun will come out tomorrow. (or in my case, probably July)

Exactly Two Months Ago This Minute....

I was dead.

Technically.

My heart wasn't beating, my lungs were deflated and rolled up like sleeping bags, my chest cavity was wide open through my side and my ribs were pried apart wide enough for two adult male hands to fit between them. (Extremely soft, steady and capable hands I might add)

Under any other circumstance I would never post a picture looking this terrible, but that day considering what my body had just been through - I deserved to look dead, because I just woke up from being dead.

Two months later and the hardest thing I had to do today was wake up and get out of bed...alive. What shouldn't I be grateful for? I think today is going to be a really good day.

The Once Forbidden Fruit

I'm officially a MAC! Though really, it's not like anybody ever asked me before. It was always assumed and expected that as an extension of Microsoft I was a PC and my iPod and iPhone were devices to hide and use in shame.

But today, Nike deployed to me a beautiful MacBook Pro and I LOVE it!

True, I didn't completely rid myself of all non-negotiable brand allegiance - it would be a career ending move to be seen in Reebok, Addidas or Under Armor but lucky for me, I was already partial to the swoosh.

Let's just pray Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper never make me choose...