Today I’m gonna try and change the world

I remember how I felt a year ago now – that I was so excited to turn the page to 2022, and to be done with 2021. Now I’m sitting here wondering where the heck 2022 went.

With my professional move in house with All Points North last December, I knew that my life was going to change.

I understood that I would actually have to shower and dress in more than yoga pants and a hoodie most days. And sure, after 15 years or so of working for myself, I knew that in theory I would be accountable to someone for my time and vacation days. Looking back, I laugh at how little I actually understood about how big the changes in my life would be.

The fact that I haven’t posted in (gasp…) a year pretty much sums up 2022 for me. I didn’t stop. In hindsight, I laugh that I wasn’t sure that three weeks of vacation would be enough for me. Three days would have more than covered it! And you know what? I have loved every single minute of it and can’t wait to see what the future holds.

My position has changed my life. It has challenged me in ways I couldn’t even imagine. I have never worked so hard in my career. And the best surprise of all? It has given me an incredible richness of new friendships.

So let start near the beginning. I was sitting at my desk in early March and my phone rang – with caller ID as FBI. I remember laughing to myself, “Sure, like the FBI comes up with caller ID FBI.” So I ignored it. But then they called back… And this time, they left a message!

“This is Special Agent *** with the FBI out of the Glenwood Springs office of the Denver Division, and I’m calling about a question I have for you… We need some legal process up at that location, and I figure from what I understand … this could be coming your direction. So if you wouldn’t mind giving me a call back, I’d appreciate it.”

Um, OK, so that’s something new for me… So I call Special Agent Mike back and he tells me basically that they have an arrest warrant for one of our clients – he wouldn’t tell me who – and that he would like to come arrest him. So after I stumble through some questions, I basically tell him that I’m new at all of this but I do know there are rules that apply to me and that I’m going to get advice from my outside counsel. I try to play nice and tell him that my dad used to be FBI – which I tell him so that he understands that if I can help him, I will. And I promise him that if I can’t help him, I’ll explain why.

So I scramble off the phone and call my lawyer back in Washington DC – and she makes me feel better because even she hasn’t ever had this come up. Together, we decide that his arrest warrant isn’t enough – so we have to tell Special Agent Mike no – which I’m sure isn’t something that he hears very often. So we spent a few days jockeying with the US Attorney’s office over whether I have to give them access – and ultimately they concede that I am right. Whoa..

But in the meantime, all I know is that I have a client that the FBI is looking to arrest – which, lets face it, is kind of a big deal. I spend the better part of the next couple of weeks looking for unmarked and suspicious vehicles around our campus. But ultimately, I forget about it – something else crazy probably made me lose my focus. What I didn’t realize when I said yes to the position is that residential treatment is pretty much managed chaos.

One day, someone brought me the press release announcing the grand jury indictment and named the client and the crime (a simple assault – but on an Indian reservation). So I thought to myself, “What now???” I decided that it would be wrong of me, alone, to make that decision. Until that time, I hadn’t really told anyone other than those who really needed to know – like our security staff and one or two others who I already had a huge level of trust in. So I took the information to the client’s clinician, and his immediate reaction was something to the effect of, “Sarah, are you kidding me? Every clinician dreams of an opportunity like this!” So later that day, the clinician told the client – and I promptly got a call to come help explain some legal stuff. The long story short is that we assured the client that he couldn’t be arrested while he was with us – and that the best thing he could do for himself was to be exactly where he was, doing the work that he was doing. He freaked out pretty good, and I remember thinking the next morning that I would be kind of surprised if he hadn’t bolted in the night. But he didn’t. So over the next several weeks, he got really serious and worked really hard. I was and am so incredibly proud of him.

The day he had to leave arrived. I was scared for him. I’ve probably watched too many movies – but I was certain that the minute he pulled out of our gate, the black Suburbans were going to surround our driver. I chose our most mature driver, told him what we were working with, and coached him on what to do if he got pulled over so that there were no surprises. He took it in good stride. But ultimately, the client’s dad decided to come pick him up and drive him the 10+ hour drive home. Which meant that my client would be with us all day with nothing to do. When we had talked and prepared him for what prison might be like, the thing that made him most sad was that he was going to miss his dog. So when I learned that he was going to be with us all day with nothing to do, I came home and got Millie. I couldn’t do much else to help him, but I could give him a day with a dog.

And that changed everything – for him and for everybody else. I miss that client – I cried when I hugged him goodbye. I have written a letter for the judge to consider for his sentencing, which is this coming week.

After that, the clients started to beg us for a dog. And Kevin, our then-Director of Hospitality (now COO – yeah!), promised them – in a moment of weakness – that we would get them a dog. Hey, I figured that it’s the Director of Hospitality that is going to have the biggest headache from a dog, so if he’s good with it, we’re good! The next night, Kevin and I were driving to Denver for the WarriorNOW End Veteran Suicide gala. Half way there, I asked, “So, what are we going to do about this dog that you promised?” We flirted for maybe two seconds with the whole hypoallergenic, -oodle dog thing, but yeah, no… So we agreed on a lab. And definitely female. I asked what color housekeeping would hate us least for, and we agreed on yellow.

So we arrive at the event, and before we go in, I text our owner and ask him if I have a budget for the live auction. His response was, “Sure, get me something cool.” So Kevin and I go in and do the shaking hands and kissing babies routine – and we peruse the live auction list. And we both felt that there wasn’t anything that just made us super excited – but we would buy something. Sometime after the salads were served, the auctioneer came over to our table (since we were the title sponsor) and tells us that there is a lady in the audience who breeds labs and wants to put one from the next litter up for auction – and he wants to know if we will raise our paddle for a $1200 opening bid. Um, is this a joke?

As I recall it, a couple of people dared to bid against me, but my thinking was that God clearly wanted us to have that puppy – and the cause couldn’t have been a more worthy one – so I just kept raising my paddle. I walked out of there and texted our owner, “I got you a puppy!!!” By now, Noah is probably used to this kind of crazy from me.

So the wait for the puppy was excruciating. I mean, you can’t come back and excitedly announce to the clients that you got them a puppy – but that she won’t be there until long after most of them have left. So, I offered Millie as our Lodge dog in the meantime.

But that presented its own problem. You see, I am meticulous with my little BMW coupe. And given that Millie more or less eats everything on the inside of a vehicle that is capable of being eaten, there was NO WAY that I was letting Millie get in my car. So I decided I also needed a dog car. I set out to find a well used Forerunner or something sensible. But then I kept thinking that I’m old and tired, and I just need all the controls to be in the same place as they are in my car. I get unreasonably frustrated when I’m driving down the road flashing my lights when what I really need is my windshield wipers. Sigh… So I decide to look for a late model BMW X3. I mean, that’s still semi-sensible, right? But, alas, Covid… and the used car market is still crazy such that a 2019 isn’t that much more expensive than say a 2016. But if I’m going to buy a used one, it needs to come from Texas, Arizona or California – where they aren’t already beat up from salt and rocks. And then I decide that I really like the black sapphire paint and light beige interior of my 4 series. And, well, by the end of this – there was literally one car in the entire country that checked all the boxes. So I got on the plane in Denver heading to the Humbold County airport in McKinleyville, California – which, honestly – lets just call it Oregon.

I call the dealer to let him know that my flight should be on time and he confirmed that he would pick me up. I remember asking him where I should meet him, and he answered, “I’ll be the one in the BMW.” Um, ok… Just where am I going again?!?

But he did, and sure enough, he was the one in the BMW out front. He got me to the dealership where my car was parked in the showroom display window with a big red bow and everything. They had me in and out of the dealership and on the road back home in less than an hour – although I did detour a couple blocks the wrong way down the street for good sushi before I turned around and headed east. When in Rome… I had a fantastic drive the 1262 miles or so back home. Northern California was gorgeous with fresh snow, and everyone should drive the Bonneville Salt Flats listening to the theme song from Top Gun at least once in life. I listened to tons of 80’s and country music and called lots of friends that I hadn’t checked in with in too long. It was a short and spontaneous trip, but super fun.

Lets see … over the summer, my entertainment was the local Cowboy’s Forever Foundation rodeo. It is a 7-week, Friday night rodeo series here in Eagle. It started a couple of years ago after one of the local rodeo kids died by suicide, and one of his friends – who is a friend of mine and whose dad is a man I admire – started the local rodeo as a way to raise awareness of mental health among the rodeo and ranching community.

All Points North sponsored the rodeo series – and my gosh, did we have a blast going every week with clients! It was great fun – and so many times, clients would tell us later, “I have never had this much fun sober.” That’s one of the coolest things I get to hear.

Yeah, that? That was a moment of weakness on my part. Someone asked me if one of our clients could enter the bull riding. Being the good lawyer that I am, I checked to make sure that the liability waiver that I wrote was semi-decent, and then I gave him the thumbs up. I’m pretty sure every other lawyer could and would have thought of a thousand reasons in two seconds to say no. And you know what? I’ll say yes again every time I get the opportunity! To watch the guys and the crowd rally around Sam was just good stuff.

We finally got to hold precious little Hope in mid-July, and she is just so beautiful and good and has the best puppy smell.

Of course, that’s where the trouble started… Hope’s mama and I got to be friends, and a couple of weeks later, she texts me and says, “Good morning, Sunshine! Hey, I wanted to ask you first. I have a female puppy, my pick of the litter that I have decide not to keep because I didn’t want to train two puppies at the same time. She is ready to go home this week to her forever home. She’s a beauty. Let me know if you have anybody that is interested.”

So I sent out an email to a handful of people (and probably intentionally misspelled some of the email addresses) and explained that there was an extra puppy in need of a home and did anybody want her? And nobody responded in the two and a half minute deadline that I gave them, so I texted the puppy’s mama back and told her that I would take her.

And so that’s the story of how Hope and Grace came to be!

Some people know that Millie and I have never really clicked. She is big and strong and physical and loud – and very exuberant with her love. For the first six months or so of having her, all I could think every time I looked at and cared for her was that she wasn’t Hailey. And I missed Hailey so desperately – Hailey was just kind and good and sensitive. She was an old soul, and I loved that about her.

And now I’ve decided that Hailey sent Grace for me. It’s like her way of saying that it’s ok that I love another lab. And so I pour every ounce of love that I still have for Hailey into loving Grace. And in doing that, I’ve come to even love Millie more. She is a really good big sister to Grace.

My sweet neighbor even made us a pretty and funny painting of what we look like each morning at sunrise when we return from walking up the Valley.

We sponsored an American Bar Association event in September, so I packed my bags and headed to Washington DC for a few days.

There was no down time for anything – but thinking back to one night 20 years ago in a life that I barely remember (but one that definitely prepared me for this one), I decided that we had to make the time to see the monuments at night. So Jason, Sherry and I put our sneakers on and headed out late the night before we needed to leave. DC at night should be on everyone’s bucket list.

By October, people were starting to look at me funny because I literally hadn’t taken a day off in months. So what do I need then? Camp Emily!!! And we had a great time! We hiked a ton – Emily tried to kill me again.

And we ate great food!

And played a lot of Scrabble. And there really weren’t very many people, and the ibex were everywhere on my hike one day.

So from Geneva, I decided to make a quick Monday morning commute to our newest office in London and meet some people there.

It was great to stop by and see a building that I’ve helped for the last year to lease and renovate. I was there the day they appointed Prime Minister Sunak – those are always kind of cool historic markings.

I got home and hit the ground running again – with a whole new energy to get me through the rest of the year. Turned out, I was going to need it – so I’m glad I took the time. That was a lesson that I needed to learn again – when you get the chance to get away, no matter for how short a time – take it.

Somewhere in there, Emily and Chris came for a visit. They spent most of their time vising Mom and Dad, but they all came up for an early Thanksgiving. It was fun to all be together again. We continued our Scrabble tournament. And for a few blissful days, I had their help wearing Millie and Grace out.

I even found time this year to decorate for Christmas, mostly because Gus is still a big fan of Christmas trees. Of course by the time I got around to getting serious about Christmas, the only real tree I could find was a 12 footer for $600. Um, no… So I got on Amazon. And I learned that one can buy a real, 7 foot, Balsam/Fraser fir hybrid for a mere $209. It arrived right to my door just like they said it would and is a fantastic tree!

So I got Grace and Millie into the holiday spirit – whether they liked it or not.

I busted my butt until the end of the year, sliding into the finish line with a major year-end accomplishment by closing some financing that is kind of a big deal on an impossible timeline. And just as I was turning it all off Friday night – December 30 – I got the nicest email from one of our clinical team leaders:

Thank you for all you have done for me consistently. I know you always support and appreciate me and my work. You are such a respected, powerful, strong woman and one of the kindest, sweetest, and most genuine humans I have ever met. It is such a privilege and honor to know, love and work along side you. I hope you have a beautiful holiday and know how much of a positive impact you have on so many and are loved and appreciated so deeply. ❤️

And right there, all of that hard work that was my 2022 was instantly and completely worth it. And it reminds me of one of my new favorite songs – one that I discovered on that 1262 mile roadtrip.

The zipper pull on the brand of boots that I wear nearly every day bears the inscription II Cor 5:7, and I try to live by those simple words. Life Serendipity…

I have missed writing this blog. When I don’t write, I forget – I forget the work, I forget the thoughts, I forget the people, I forget the funny. I forget the pattern of events that lead to something amazing. Someday I’m going to throw my name into the hat for the most fabulous ordinary life … It’s a good life, and one I’m proud of and grateful for every single day. The way I figure it, it is mostly so good because I have embraced the unknown and the crazy – and it almost always works out.

Hold on for 2023!!!