Transitioning

Thinking about transitioning my old blog into a new one. My last blog post was from 5 years ago. A lot has happened in 5 years. Probably the biggest difference being that I have slightly more sure footing when it comes to my career. I’ve been a practicing divorce attorney for 11 years now. In that span of time, I’ve started to have fairly strong opinions about how our legal system is set up when it comes to treatment of our relationships. Our relationships to each other and our relationships to our children. The legal system is broken in so many ways, and the way it handles the complexity of relationships may be the most broken aspect of all.

I’ve thought about this for a while. Writing about what I’ve discovered as I’ve been helping families navigate some of the most devastating life events. In some ways, because I think it might help others to hear my perspective, but probably more so in how it would help me process a lot of the difficulties my clients go through.

Some ideas for topics I’ve had — my thoughts on the protection from stalking/protection from abuse system; what unmarried parents need to know; the complexity of child support; the aspects of marriage that deserve more consideration before people get married; pet peeves of a divorce attorney; just what exactly is “Discovery.”

So I’ve got a few things I can ramble about. Now I need to think of a good name for the blog. I was thinking like, “In Summary” or “Objection; Relevance” or “Family and the Law”

The name still needs quite a bit of work. Gonna have to think on that.

Conquering the Mountain

I’ve been sitting here trying to remember when it was I first decided that I desperately needed to hike to the top of a 14er in Colorado.  I think it was in 2008.  So if that is correct, it took me 9 years folks.  I did it!!

For those who don’t know, a 14er is any mountain that is over 14,000 feet in elevation.  I believe there are 53 in the State of Colorado alone.  On Sunday, July 30, 2017, I went for a hike on Mt. Bierstadt and made it to the summit.   Let’s go on a photographic journey together…

This is how we began our journey.  Just three innocent little Kansans.  The other two are my brother Ben and his girlfriend Julie.  They were pretty cute in their matching hats.  We started our hike bright and early at 5 a.m. thanks to my father who drove us up there, but who did not join the hike.  He claimed he enjoyed going back to the cabin to sleep, but I just can’t imagine that was true.

We had actually planned to go on this hike the day before, but when I woke up at 4 a.m. on Saturday, I checked the weather and saw that it was going to be raining pretty much all day.  We decided we’d try again on Sunday, and boy am I glad we did.  Just goes to show that things can really work out for a reason.

It was pretty swampy at the beginning, which made me incredibly grateful for the dope hiking boots I got at REI earlier in the week.  Completely worth it.  We also basically had to ford a river.  The second shot there is what it looked like as the sun was coming up behind the mountains.  Simply gorgeous.

The above is a picture looking back at how far I’d come.  I think I was about halfway up at this point.  If you look really closely, you might be able to see the parking lot where we started.  I think what helped on this deal was that we started the hike at around 11,000 feet since we started close to the top of the Guanella Pass.

Below is a picture looking the other direction, up the mountain.  On the left side of the top of the mountain is the tippy top where we are heading.  We had a ways to go.  Not gonna lie, it was a little bit daunting, and it was pretty hard to breathe.  But the mantra that I kept telling myself as I trudged up the mountain was “get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”  I got that from my orange theory fitness workouts.  Another thing that pushed me to the top was making it past 12,500 feet.  That had previously been the highest I had been.  So once I got to 13,000 feet, I knew I could do the rest.

Below is a picture of what looks like a lot of rocks.  There were a lot of rocks on this hike.  Some tricky footwork was required.

Below is a picture right before the summit.  There was snow people.  Not a lot, but enough that it warranted a picture.  The last 250 feet or so were basically rock climbing, so it was kind of hard to stop and take a picture.  That part was pretty fun though, I have to admit.  It actually completely took my mind off of not being able to breathe.

Below is me at the top.  My friends, I cannot convey to you the depth of elation that I felt in that moment.  Mt. Bierstadt was my third attempt at making it to the top of a 14er.  My first attempt was Mt. Elbert, and my second attempt was Gray’s peak.  Elbert I was not prepared for.  Gray’s I got altitude sickness.  So there was a lot riding on Bierstadt for me, mentally and emotionally.  I was absolutely determined that this time I would make it.  Yes, I had some doubts.  But in the end I prevailed people!  Below is my best look of triumph despite total exhaustion!  It felt amazing, and I would highly recommend finding this feeling whenever and wherever you can.

Below is the three of us at the summit.  Julie and Ben were definitely able to hike this mountain more easily than me.  I blame their long legs.  They were kind enough to summit with me though!  It’s probably hard to read the sign, but Mt. Bierstadt is 14,065 feet.

Take a look at the view from the top…

This last picture is an artsy fartsy picture I took while I was enjoying my stroll back down the mountain.  The wild flowers were lovely, and I did contemplate having a Sound of Music “the hills are alive” moment.  However, my knees were really begging me to just get off the mountain as quickly as possible.  So I didn’t.

Bottom line my friends is that this was an amazing experience.  I just wanted to share it with you, and I hope you enjoyed it even a fraction as much as I did.  Happy hiking my friends!

Happy New Year’s Eve!

Time for some reflection on the year that was.  Overall, I’m not that sad to see 2016 go.

I spent most of my last day of the year preparing and making a fancy dinner for myself, specifically steamed mussels in white wine with fennel.  Seemed like the most appropriate dish to break in my Christmas gift (Le Creuset).

It was so good.  A bit more work than I initially anticipated — have you ever bearded mussels?  I didn’t even know they had beards.  Trying something new at the end of this crazy year seemed like a fitting way to end it.  Also, the Le Creuset worked beautifully!  Super happy with this gift.  Thank you Santa!

Anymore, with my handy dandy google photo assistant, it’s pretty easy to review my year in pictures.  In taking a look back, I noticed a few trends.  For starters, I got a lot more creative with my pie crust designs.  Below are a few examples.  It was really fun to start putting new twists on them in a decorative way.  The three that I think are the prettiest (as pictured below) are apple pies.  The top left is cherry pie, and the bottom right is a dark chocolate cream pie.  These were not all the pies of 2016, but these were the fashion stars.

Second, I got to do some really fun things.  Going to Sporting KC games and Royals games, seeing Florence and the Machine perform, going apple picking (multiple times), visiting one of my best friends in Salt Lake City, going to the Kansas State Fair with a friend who had never been before, going on an insane last minute trip to Colorado with my brother in a ridiculous attempt to hike a 14’er (I got altitude sickness and failed, he of course got to the top), getting to stand on the Kauffman Stadium infield and sit in the dugout, going to the Royals Spring Training, and going to the opera in KC.  Those were just a few of the highlights, and they are what are reminding me that 2016 really did have a lot of merit to it.

Then there’s family.  We welcomed a new little guy into the fold this year in March, Theodore Martens.  Getting to hang out with my little niece and nephew has become one of my favorite things to do.  I got to spend Christmas weekend in Omaha with the Martens clan this year, and it was wonderful.  Being around little kids always makes me feel so much younger, I get to play again!  My little niece, Zoe, has a great imagination.  She’s 2 and a half, and seems to be quite the negotiator.  Seems about right when both her parents are lawyers.  Here’s the family montage:

For some reason I couldn’t find any pictures of brother Ben holding the kiddos…hmmm.  You’ll also notice there is a pictures of dear Olly, who is my fur baby, with her nose trained on a laser pointer.  Yes, that is a cat toy, and yes, she loves it.

Politically speaking, this year was shit in my totally unbiased opinion.  So I am not going to sully this lovely post kicking that dead horse.  I’ll just say, I hope it turns out much better than what my nightmares are suggesting.

This year was rough in the relationships department as well.  Met a lot of interesting people though.  Another area I don’t really feel like talking about.  So there.

It has been a busy year career wise.  But that is a boring topic, so I won’t go there either. 🙂

I have high hopes for 2017, perhaps despite a lot of reasons that would suggest I shouldn’t.  That’s what hope is though.  Seems a little strange to pin so much hope for change on the cycle of the calendar.  But I have always loved the idea that I can, in some respects, start a new chapter each year.  Turn over a new leaf, what have you.   This year has made me, once again, very thankful for my friends and family.  I can only hope that I can maintain those friendships and strengthen the bonds I have with my family in the coming year.  I love them so much!

So here’s to 2016, and all that it was.  Cheers!