'Tis the end

I spent my Sunday trying to keep the Olympic spirit alive. I started the day watching the best Olympic movie ever...."The Cutting Edge", duh - for all of you out there thinking Miracle or some other boy sports movie:)

Then I joined, from what I could gather from facebook status', all of my friends nationwide to watch the USA/Canada gold hockey game. As I watched, in disbelief, Syd- the kid- Crosby, hit in the winning goal, I couldn't help but let out a little cheer. Crosby plays in the US. We hear about him all the time. I cheered for him in the Stanley Cup last year. How can I cheer against him now?

That got me further thinking, of course. In the business world, we often hear about the flattening of the world. With social networking no longer needing to take place in bars, or conferences, everyone can get to know everyone else. How does this effect the Olympics? I was in speech, and show choir, in high school. And you would after awhile, get to know your competitors from other schools. You would play cards during off-rounds, spend weeks together at camp, etc. It became a friendly competition. Now, multiply that by 500. That can only be how these olympians feel. On the hockey team, many of these players are playing against teammates, friends, collegeus. In the figure skating world, many of them train in the US or Canada, coming from Turkey, South Korea, etc.

Watching the female skiing, where every other person was taking a tumble, the camera's would often pan to other competitors faces and you would see true concern. No one wants to see their competitors get hurt. These people are athletes. They want to compete, and if everyone is hurt, that is a sucky competition. I'm sure these women are all facebook friends with each other;)

Well, another olympics are over...what sucks is from winter to spring you really have to wait 2.5 years. So....I guess I will have to find something to do until Summer 2012.

Thank you athletes for giving me a lot of time to sit on the couch and be amazed by your athleticism, lack of fear, and cheer you on!

Worry Wart

So...Ive been worrying (thinking) alot lately about a whole bunch of things I don't have a whole lot of control over. It really drives me crazy when you can't fall asleep, cuz you are too busy thinking over stupid, stupid stuff. If you are anything like me (God help you) you sit there and play over scenes that havent even happened yet. Some will be best case scenario, some worse, some are just bizaare.

So, as I was worrying, I tried to keep my mind off it by reading some of my FAVORITE poetry....I came across this one.

Funny how these things still apply to us as adults.

Whatif by Shel Silverstein


Last night, while I lay thinking here,
some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
and pranced and partied all night long
and sang their same old Whatif song:
Whatif I'm dumb in school?
Whatif they've closed the swimming pool?
Whatif I get beat up?
Whatif there's poison in my cup?
Whatif I start to cry?
Whatif I get sick and die?
Whatif I flunk that test?
Whatif green hair grows on my chest?
Whatif nobody likes me?
Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?
Whatif I don't grow talle?
Whatif my head starts getting smaller?
Whatif the fish won't bite?
Whatif the wind tears up my kite?
Whatif they start a war?
Whatif my parents get divorced?
Whatif the bus is late?
Whatif my teeth don't grow in straight?
Whatif I tear my pants?
Whatif I never learn to dance?
Everything seems well, and then
the nighttime Whatifs strike again!

RIP Shel Silverstein. You truly are a genious.

olympic lovin

I love the Olympics....I always have. Some of my favorite memories involve Kristi Yamaguchi, Katarian Vit, Bonnie Blair, Shannon Miller (yeah- she's summer, but she is still an olympian), carrie shrug...so...I guess a lot of women are memorable.

But I love, for 3 weeks, that the WORLD seems to be cheering on something in "common" their own country.

We have already seen some amazing stories...and its only day three.

US Metals from short track speedskating, mogals, and nordic combined (our first EVER).

One of the greatest stories of these Olympics so far, is the story of J.R. Celsk, the American short track skater, who 6 months ago "nicked" his leg, almost severing his femoral artery, and thought his skating career was over, at 19. He proved himself and the rest of the world wrong on Saturday night, in an exciting ending, taking home the Bronze.

But we also have tragedy. As we all know, a Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, tragically died during a training run on Friday, prior to the opening ceremonies and creating an atmosphere of somberness. Luging is such a scary sport, and I think it's scariness was brought to light in these Olympic games.

Im sure there will be so many more memories creates, hero's created, tears of joy, tears of defeat, and many more "Star Spangled Banner".

As countries around the world unite to cheer on the few, I pray for safe tracks, beautiful figure skating, and lots of close finishes.

KIDS, I don't know what wrong with these kids today....

Actually, I kinda do. I think it's mostly the parents. My co-worker was talking about valentines day at her daughters school. MAN...it sucks to be a kid these days. You cant get any chocolate, or hearts, or anything b/c all the sudden in the last several years everyone is alergic to something. I would really like someone to do a study that tells me what SHIT we have put in some water source, or whatever is causing all of these deadly allergies, cuz if you asked me they seem to have come out of NO WHERE.

Anyways, they also cant bring in valentines...well, they CAN bring in valentines as long as they
a) have no gender diffarentiator
b)contain no candy
c) are not addressed
d) are exactly the same amount of valentines as there are kids

I get it, I do. Some smelly kid who eats glue didn't get any valentines one year and went and complained to his mommy who went and complained to the principal, who in turn created some rules so everyone was treated fairly.

This is also the same kid who is as coordinated as a bag of fruit, who can't figure out who to swing a bat, and complained because he never got any playing time...DUDE, figure it out. Your not an athlete....how about instead of complaining about what you are NOT good at, you figure out what you ARE good at and make yourself better.

Here is the thing. We are setting future generations up to be WUSSES!!! I see it at work all the time. Parent's who call me because I didn't hire their child (dude, its not hard to get a job here...you have to pass a basic math and drug test...your kid didn't pass one of those, and Im pretty sure he can count to 5....). Parents emailing/calling college professers to ask why thier kid didn't pass the class....(umm...he showed up twice, and didn't bother to spell check....oh...and he has his mom fighting his battles.)

If we never learn to lose, how do we learn to pick ourselves back up, hold our heads high and try again. What ever happened to the saying "if at first you don't succeed try and try again". Now it seems it's "if at first we don't succeed, figure out who we can blame, cuz it's certainly not my kids fault."

Kids need to be taught that everyone isn't always going to like them. People are mean. wait til they get to be teenagers. You get over it, you grow up and you learn to pick yourself up again.

Ms. Danz blogs Washington

This past Tuesday, Illinois held it's primary. It's over...Thank God...I have about 8 months of non-election commercials...yeah!

But as we go through yet another election cycle, I can't help but wonder...does it really matter? Are we really electing "leaders", people with visions of a different future, who can sacrifice their personal agenda for the greater good? or are we only electing politicians (people who talk a good talk, walk a "somewhat" good walk, and plan to retire as elected officials.

Now, as most of you know, I live in Chicago...so, perhaps my judgments are a bit jaded. We don't have the best track-record of quality leaders. Our governors extort, blackmail and, eventually, make our license plates. Our alderman’s staff, drivers, admins, etc. are full of nepotism (sisters making $100K a year to be a weekend driver, yet, we have to decrease/eliminate routes on the CTA because we can’t make a budget).

On a bigger scale, our congressman and senators refuse to work with each other. Regardless of my personal party affiliation, I find it repulsive that elected officials can’t work together to compromise, listen to each other and come up with solutions that are acceptable to all. No one SHOULD ever get everything they want. It’s called working together people. You are all VERY well educated people, did no one ever teach you along the way how to get along with people? Or are you just too concerned about winning your next race, that you can’t afford to “piss-off” your contributors. What a sad world we live in when the people who really are making decisions are the people with the biggest pocketbooks.

I propose setting a tenure limitation for all elected officials. There is a reason we don’t let Presidents have endless terms (that would be called a dictatorship…ok- not really they are still “elected”, so I’m being a bit dramatic), but I really think if people weren’t worried about constantly campaigning, trying to get funds, trying to work with their various large corporate donors, etc that we could actually GET something done in Washington, Chicago, Illinois, wherever.

Now, I know no one is going to listen to me. I don’t sit in Washington, I am not a lobbyist, senator’s assistant, or even a poly sci major, I’m just a girl with a blog. But I urge you to think about it this year as we come to mid-term elections. Would you rather elect a politician or elect a leader?Someone with a vision, someone who isn’t worried to put their personal views on hold for the greater good.

ARuba Part 2

Well its, been a long time coming.  It's been a crazy couple weeks.  Once we got back from Aruba on Sunday, I found out (pretty much upon arrival at my house) that I was going to Jacksonville on Wednesday for work.  So, I was home for two days, then off to Jacksonville until Friday. (the 15th).  That was Scott's birthday, so I had told him that he could have people over to play poker...and I wanted to give him his day...and I was exahsted!!!!!  So, I went into the guest room (have I mentioned how much I love having a guest room) and caught up on Gray's, Private Practice, and Hotel Babalon....SEASON 3!!!!  WHOHOOOOO!!!!  Who knew there was a Season 3.  Take that Brittish guys who said my show is rubbish. 

Anyways, Saturday (the 16th) was a crazy day as well...filled with Brithday lunches, Creighton basketball and surprise birthday drinks....and Sunday I went to a bridal expo...thats a whole other blog.  And that is my blog about why I havent added a second blog about Aruba.

So, Let's go back, shall we, to January 8th.  I woke up from a great nights sleep (it's sooo nice to sleep when its chili....it's never chilli in our apartment, and I love being a little cold....or at least not hot.

Friday we got up and ate breakfast again and then went to the beach.  We had until around 2:30 and then we needed to head to the "high rise district" for our Pirate Cruise.  We went to the hotel lunch place at 1:30 for lunch and ordered (I had a burger, Scott had a fish sandwich), we also had a margarita....

Then it was 1:45....no food

2:00....no food
2:15...no food

Now, I can live on island time like anyone...and Scott pretty much lives on island time all the time...but seriously....waiting 45 minutes for lunch...so we flagged down our waitress and told her we needed our lunches to go, and the check....NOW. 

But here is the good part

Our pirate ship!!!!! 

Me snorkling in 60 feet of water...I was VERY proud of myself...as I was a bit afraid of sharks.

Scott on the rope swing!

It was a bit windy on the boat....but here we are....

We met some friends on the boat (Marcia and Adrian) and we went for drinks on the pier to see the sunset....How beautiful is this.

Saturday, January 9th

Saturday was our last day...and we had nothing planned...on purpose.

We went to the hotel next door to have breakfast.  They had the coolest chairs ever.

We just laid around, read our books, soaked up the sun and RODE THE WAVES!!!!

I love the water.  I love playing in it, how great my skin feels in ocean water, how thick my hair gets when it's full of salt, the way sand sticks to all your creavises for days and days, so you are always taking a part of the beach back with you.

I LOVE the beach, I love the ocean...you get the picture.

So, one of my favorite parts of the ocean, is the waves.  I love catching the wave at just the right time so you can ride it in almost all the way to the shore.  I (secreatly) love it more when you dont catch it quite right, and you hold on for dear life to your nose and your swimsuit,,,,as the wave crashes above your head and takes you for a ride!

We found out earlier in the week that Aruban's Carnival was Saturday night.  so we had planned on going to downtown to watch it.  But by the time we got around to going, we were too late, so we went back to the high rise district.  We walked around...forever....to buy our souveners, and then ate at this cool place called "Mr. Jazz".  It was a steakhouse...and they had plantains...that was really all that mattered.. oh, and the live band

And that, my friends, is Aruba....

I hightly recommend it!  Beatuful island, wonderful people.

Aruba Part One- Arrival, Day One and Two

As most of you know, last year, Scott surprized me with a trip to ARUBA.  We parted on January 6th, bright and early.  We left the apartment to get to the airport in plenty of time for all the enhanced security (thanks alot mr. failed christmas day bomber).  Our flight was at 5:30 to miami.  We were to arrive in Miami at 9:00 and then we were to leave for Aruba at 11:30.

We board the plane....everything is great, it is not full so I got a whole row of three chairs all to myself (yeah for sleeping).  and I promptly fell asleep as the plane wasnt moving.  I was rudely awaken by Scott tapping my head about an hour later asking what time it was....we had not left yet...and it appeared the engine was "frozen" so the maintenance guys were coming BACK with thier tools....evidently it is silly to just bring your tools with you.  Well Scott is freaking out, cuz if we are any later we are NOT going to make our connection (and we wanted to get to Aruba.)  Well we finally left (and I slept until again...another tap on my head...Scott wanted us to move forward in the cabinso we could get off the plane early.  WE moved forward and were talking to lots of other people who were also dangeriously close to missing thier flights.  we landed at 11:05 and ran through the Miami airport...only to find out our plane was now delayed until 12:45.  Well, the reason the plane was delayed was becuase they were getting us a different plane that required everyone to be resat.....awesome.  The only good thing to come of this was the Miami airport has Presidente (a Dominican Beer I am VERY fond of).

WE get to Aruba, get to our hotel, and are finally happy.
We enjoyed our first happy hour beverage

Passion Fruit Daquari and Polar (Venezualian Ale)

The sun was setting on our first day, we were hungry (I had breadsticks from Pizza Hut, Scott had nothing) and we had been up since 2:30 our time.  We walked around the area by our hotel (Manchebo Beach Resort and Spa) and found a cute little resteurant called Elliot's (it was Italian and FABULOUS!) I was falling asleep on my dinner, so i called it a night (Scott went down to the bar and had some more Polar's).

End of Day One


Day Two (Thursday January 7th)
We woke up and enjoyed a breakfast at the resort.  We did not get all inclusive, though it was an option, because we knew we would want to try other areas.

We had 11am massages, which were amazing,  There is nothing like a thatch building massage when you are ON THE OCEAN....no fake "wave sounds" here.  The spa was great.  I could have had a massage every day, but alas...we had other things to do.

We spend most of this day on the beach, lathering up and not getting sunburned....This is amazing for Scott and I, as we are both PALE.

Here I am getting all set up for the day.  Don't you love my sun hat.  It kept me from getting burnt and getting wrinkles...Im getting married folks...can't have wrinkles!

Can you find the iguana?












And this begins the 360 view from our hotel room.

I have a rough life...I know.