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June 28, 2009  While I was unpacking boxes under our new rock, unbeknownst to me, Michael Jackson passed away. He may have deviated from a socially-acceptable path in his adulthood but when I watch this Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” episode, it's undeniable that he was an extraordinarily-gifted entertainer. Watching this takes me back to when I was 5.

June 27, 2009  We’re finally down to 3 boxes of books, albums and framed photos. After every move, I ask myself , "Why we do hang onto this stuff? But I’ve always believed that books and photos are the possessions to keep. When they’re all stuffed in boxes though they’re impossible to move without breaking your back.

Last night, I made Rob promise that we won’t move for a long, long time. Being in a state of flux is fun for awhile, but as with anything repetitive, it gets really old. The kids and I welcome a fixed position. We’re in a nice house and the location can’t be beat. There’s a canyon preserve right across the street, as well as a bunch of restaurants, a supermarket, a dentist, a yoga studio, a dog park, blah, blah, blah. I haven’t had a chance to appreciate any of this yet though because I’m exhausted. I couldn’t even appreciate the bike ride down to La Jolla with Ken and Rob today because my body and mind aren’t communicating with each other. The ol’ legs wanted to be propped up on a pillow and could care less about the scenic views from Torrey Pines Road. They really needed a shot of Red Bull.

Our family enjoyed meeting up with the Hoyle family tonight at Karl Strauss Brewing Company. Rob thought that the pin tail pale ale was incredible. Finding a good brewery in your neighborhood always seals the deal for him. He’s very happy to be where we are now; so is my mind. And, in a few days, so will my body.

June 22, 2009  My family members discovered that I ended up in the emergency room after my bike crash through Nicole's facebook page. It made me laugh and it creeped my daughter out, which cracked me up. Seems our teenager considers old people reading her page as an invasion of privacy. So, she requested that Rob and I NOT join this network craze because she would be horrified to have to "friend" her parents. Little does she know that, although we joined FB awhile back, we don't keep up with it. Coming from someone who has had their debit card skimmed twice, I am very suspicious about FB. How do they know who to suggest as friends? Did it mine my address book upon sign-up? I know that it isn’t along the lines of someone stealing my bank account information or social security number, but I am annoyed by this "contact scraping."

Kids took the news better than we expected. Rob and I made promises so now there is no relocating allowed for the next 3 years. Surprisingly, Nicole was more devastated about leaving Novaquatics than the high school. On paper, the new school will be an excellent fit for her since its curriculum leans toward math and sciences. Ray and Renee just shrugged their shoulders. It's so great to be young enough to not fear any sort of life transition. Their "go with the flow" attitude is evidence that people get more and more set in their ways as they get older. Or, maybe it's because they have not lifted a finger each time we've moved. With mommy and daddy doing all the packing, loading, unloading and unpacking, each relocation to them has been seamless.

As of this week, our teenager is of driving age. Sniff.

June 20, 2009  School is finally over. Today we're breaking the news to our kids that we will be moving again. Yup, you read that correctly and, yup, we did just move 3.5 weeks ago. "Who in their right mind moves 3 times in a year?" The answer is no one but with the economy as it is, no one is really in their right mind. As a result of recent layoffs at Rob's current company, he decide to accept a position in Del Mar. It was like déjà vu all over again. We've been in this situation 3x before: the waiting around, praying and doing rain dances until several more rounds of blood-letting. This time, there'll be no praying...no rain dances...just pack up 'n' go before the pink slip.

It sucks that our kids are getting the rug pulled out from under their feet for the second time in one year but they'll just have to chalk it up under the "building character" list, which is right before the "how to make new friends" list, which is under "why my parents don't understand me" list. Ugh, I feel bad. I hate it when others are let down. I know I am being overly-sensitive right now but not only are the kids going to be hurt, so will their friends...and the current landlord..his realtor...Rob's coworkers...even Pez because she currently has biggest backyard that she has ever had. All these folks' feelings being affected by our move. Sigh.

As for Rob at Kona, I am not too optimistic. A new job and Hawaii IM training just don't mesh together well. Let's be realistic, here. Besides, Rob's right achilles started acting up again after the OC half marathon. Miles of pavement was way just too much for his already-compromised AT to handle. If it can't handle 13.1 how the heck is he going to train for 26.2? As a result, I've been doing a bit of web scouring again and see that the doc who successfully performed Topaz on Rob's left achilles in 2006 is now offering Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Injections before any sort of surgery. Some time soon, after the dust settles from all our life transitions, he'll probably visit Dr. Bob for a consult and go through PRP a few times, and if needed again, Topaz. He doesn't seemed too bummed about this go-around. He's been here before and, just like with his job, he's not going to wait around for this to get the best of him. All that icing, few weeks off from running, NSAIDS, eccentrics—all of it just delayed the inevitable and it drained him emotionally. Anyway, one positive is that we're now in southern Cal and there won't have to be any 7,000-mile round-trip flights for surgery.

June 16, 2009  On Saturday, I tried to buy groceries with my debit card. I have always been able to use my debit card to buy food but this time, my card kept getting denied so I had to dig up my the old Visa. Uh-oh, the last time something like this happened, it was back in Tampa when my card couldn't even buy $10 of chlorine to shock our pool. Sure enough, today I discovered that our credit union's fraud prevention department put a hold on our cards because someone was trying to pay a $2500 bill at the Hotel Melia Habana in Cuba. Four years ago it was a $1200 bar tab in Tokyo, Japan. One thing is for sure, these card-skimming outfits are not only devious, they're worldly.

I recall reading an article similar to this one that criminals were using ATM skimming devices to read the magnetic strips on debit cards as they are swiped at gas stations. Suspects will then use the information collected to produce counterfeit cards, and steal an individual's identity and financial account information. If you look at the photo above, you can see that the fake device is simply placed over the real one and can be difficult to spot. Unfortunately, Rob was forced to use his debit card at an ARCO gas station on Friday because his credit card was stuffed in a bike jersey sitting at the bottom of our hamper. So, now there are two very pissed-off people in Orange County who have no debit cards or any cash. Man, this just blows!

On a positive note, Rob and I headed over to the Oso Creek Trail for the first time last night. It was incredible.

June 15, 2009 Thankfully, school ends this Thursday and I won't have to make the haul to drop the kids off at school. Now that we're closer to the high school, we're further away from the elementary. School officials must have been smoking something funny when they were planning out the school zones.

Rob and I decided it was time to mix things up this weekend and head south toward the ocean instead of up Santiago Canyon. We took the Aliso Creek Trail (shown above) all the way to Dana Point and braved Pacific Island Drive ... or PID as it is affectionately known. It's a 1.5+mi climb in each direction with an average grade of about 8%. We climbed PID out and back and, to me, heading home was harder because it was so much longer. Rob thought the opposite because heading south was a wee bit steeper. Either direction, the climb had us both sweating profusely from our brows (maybe it was tears for me).

This weekend, we also drove to do our long run on the trails of the Aliso and Woods Canyon which is the most popular mountain biking trail in Orange County. Running on its wide singetrack made us really miss the Bellview trail which was right behind the leased home we just left. I can't believe how we took it for granted that we could just run outside our door and be able to hit the Bellview within a stone's throw. After our move last week, I tried to run out on the pavement but I just couldn't get into it. Now I am driving to go run and it's an inconvenience. As for Rob, he has been opting to run on the treadmill during lunch which is utterly boring. We've concluded that the next place we will live in will be right next to a canyon or we both may have to quit running. After running on equestrian trails for a year, the concrete and asphalt just trash our legs.

June 8, 2009  Rob and I spent the last few days in moving hell. Finally, late yesterday morning we had enough of non-stop loading-unloading and packing-unpacking so we decided to hop on our bikes. It was my first time exercising since my crash 3 weeks ago so the first quarter of the ride was spent taxing my lungs. It did get better toward the halfway point into Silverado Canyon but the last few climbs back home was excruciating. Lucky for me, Rob was waiting at our final checkpoint to let me know that he's never put that much time on me before my crash. Gee, thanks, I suck.

Come the end of June we will have been in SoCal an entire 365 days. This past year has been the "year of more." Because of a job offer that could provide us with more, we left Tampa and moved to the OC to have more of an outdoor lifestyle. There was more climbing, more running trails, more scenery, and more triathlons, open-water swims and road races. We moved into a house in the suburbs with more square footage but there was more driving—a lot more driving. The kids even had more activities—more swimming, more parties, more homework. With Obama's bailout funding the transportation and clean-energy sectors, Rob and I had more and more work. Having more felt like a huge hamster wheel that required more and more effort to spin. We both finally had enough and chose to remove a few of the factors, including the amount of driving, to make our daily lives less laborious.

So, as I sit here in this new rental and I feel comforted by its convenient location, small size and coziness, I look back on this past year as a period of adjustment and a whole lot of learning. There were some hurdles for sure but as long as Rob and the kids were there, my life was always good. We have one more major hurdle before the 365 day cycle ends but I am optimistic that the feeling I am experiencing now will carry onto the next transition we face.

June 1, 2009  Our clan faces a lot of changes this month. I am hoping that we all make it through June unscathed. At least one of us may need a therapist to survive without any emotional scars. I am reminded of that story of the farmer and his donkey. It's one of my favorites because it is a great moral lesson for my children. I lecture them constantly with the importance of how they react to the adversities in life. As expected, Ray acts like he is listening to me (and I know that he really isn't) and Renee rolls her eyes at me. Yeah, she may be too young for my boring speeches about character-building but she'll be the toughest nut to crack. It's best to start early with her.

The Farmer's Donkey: One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out a way to get him out. Finally he decided it was probably impossible and the animal was old and the well was dry anyway, so it just wasn't worth it to try and retrieve the donkey. So the farmer asked his neighbors to come over and help him cover up the well. They all grabbed shovels and began to shovel dirt into the well.

At first, when the donkey realized what was happening he cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement, he quieted down and let out some happy brays. A few shovel loads later, the farmer looked down the well to see what was happening and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was shaking it off and taking a step up.

As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he continued to shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, to everyone's amazement, the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off!

The moral of this story is that life is going to shovel dirt on you. The trick to getting out of even the deepest well is to never give up by shaking it off and instead taking a step up. Every adversity can be turned into a stepping stone. What happens to you isn't nearly as important as how you react to it.