holly gets email from friend lisa in dc. holly is inspired by lisa. holly writes.

“waaahhh” cries holly. i am not at an airport.
-but because of that i am using closets and drawers, and can use all my beautiful shoes
-calgary time means time with friends, mostly at eating and drinking establishments
-calgary time means that mum and dad and brother and sister and grandma and lacy and matty are here for christmas
-calgary means bumpys espresso, david walker wine shop, bothering lisa at work, teaching fitness classes at the gym, discovering new random things about the city and trying real hard to believe in the website calgaryisawesome.com

things that happened this year that made holly happy
-biking and hiking and seeing new things and caring of people and learning their stories for work
-having beautiful wonderful friends who send her mail like cait from orillia and sarah from zambia and email her words with song lyrics and hope and send her messages like jord thinking of u and give her hugs and love her and listen when she sits in their kitchen with dani and jods on their turqueois ladder/stool thingamajiggy and over red wine and gingerbread and cries senselessly
-taking over a new position in the great scheme of her work, allowing her to play in two awesome places: death valley & las vegas
-when d taught her how to play blackjack and they laughed and played over vodka tonic and the too loud music at the irish pub in nyny
-little brother graduated from school, her family went to sin city to celebrate, yea little brother!
-mum got a blog. dad did good at his job. lisa m bought a house. obama got elected. holly got her passport stamped. holly bought a new bike.

everything was cool because
-holly ran her first race longer than 10km...11km longer than 10km (on her feet, not on two wheels the prefered method of transport)
-holly got really sick and holly got healthy in two (very different) countries
-crystal and nicki came to visit in calgary and i went to vancouver twice and i got to visit edmonton and see matty and the uofa girls and make it to jpos wedding
-holly can stand and move on a surf board holly saw costa rica even if it was a bit of a misguided journey of the heart

i cannot believe that holly
-slept outside or in a tent or in the back of a penske van for almost two entire months (4 camping trips for work x 2 camping trips for fun x the epic drive from ak to ut x california coast ride)
-went to wine school and passed with flying colors, thanks mostly in part that the school involved one of her most favorite things: wine
-lived in alaska for three months and didn't wear shorts once from june-aug
-kayaked in a skag boat without capsizing but did capsize the first time and the water was cold and she was wet for the rest of the day
-managed to justsqueekinbytheskinofherteeth her book reading goal for 2009
-isn't using proper sentances or grammar for this posting


holly wishes in 2010 for
-the learning of a new language. something bizarre, not french
-to go real fast on her brand new bike she just bought and go faster than other people riding at the same time
-maybe to take the train across russia, since she has wanted to since 1996 when they watched the tanks and people in front of tanks on tv at w.d.cuts school or maybe to go to another country to surf or maybe to go somewhere with a backpack or maybe go somewhere to learn more about wine or maybe go somewhere to learn more about yoga or maybe travel all around the world to big cool cities where there are friends she knows and can hang out with
-to work for her work in a new and exciting place

things holly learned from
-her very brave friend mat and his very very brave friend jason, who is in afghanistan.
-lacy, lovely friend and yogic guru and dispenser of much helpful advice including you are what you are looking for
-lisa m: 'behind every successful woman is herself' and she lived it
-her long break from work during the 'recession' helped her figure out what she truley loves and wants to keep doing
-sister mornings where conversation and coffee and mangos solved the worlds problems
-that very hard times when life hands you lemons, take it with tequila and salt or else make a whip cream lemon souffle like her talented sister can do

in the end
-holly has a very cool life and is very blessed and inspired by all the people in it
-holly has much to look forward to in 2010
-in this moment, there are no mistakes, everything is perfect
-holly is happy you read this post and for the other posts you've read and when you've said hi i have read your post or when someone texts her from far away to say hi i read your post or when no one reads her post but she re reads them and smiles and is happy anyway.