 |
| Tweed Ride social |
well folks, it must be time for a holiday letter if you have torn out yet another "S" page in your address books trying to enter my latest mailing address. So first things first, here is the new address followed by my annual update (and i may have skipped a few years).
tracie sanchez & jeff roetger
2320 ava place
decatur, ga 30033
so all my chapters are merry these days and I've been rolling proactively towards utopia. I spent 4 months of 2013 plotting, planning, and implementing escape from griffin. while the downtown was quaint, and the neighbors i met were awesome, the rural transportation team was not a good fit. the senior folks i served were appreciative and the community absolutely embraced some bike/ped advocacy; but the old guard office i found myself in, led by a lecherous old gent, was not one to be tolerated. my one-year 'assignment' there was timed to end with the grant cycle and achieved the main goal, a good entry on my resume.
 |
| CB packs his bags |
spring arrived and the moving truck was full and ready to roll to decatur. charlie brown knew the way to jeff's so we scooted up there permanently and ended the 4 years of long distance weekend travels. in fact, this summer we had to find reasons to turn the key in the subaru and often didn't. mind you this is the roomier, newer, sleeker l.l. bean subaru forester that we traded the old sport in for in february. that trade required a leap of faith and a full spectrum of transportation to buy and retrieve the beauty we found on craigslist in orlando. we used marta subway to civic ctr, megabus to orlando, fl; walked around downtown, rented bikes for the farmers market, spent one overnight at a cute b&b with a flordia dmv visit on a monday and we were on the road home.
meanwhile, the career move was a leap of faith as well, my resume was now chock full of transportation policy and program management, but no jobs in bike/ped advocacy or alternative transportation solutions were open and willing in decatur/atlanta, so i just leapt and settled into decatur with jeff. i took care of all my errands, new vets, new docs, paperwork to complete a move and biked about downtown decatur (2.5 miles from our neighborhood), took yoga, and lounged in the hammock. it was may and it was grand. but it was short, 10 days later i interviewed for and got the program coordinator position in active living at the decatur recreation center, where i now spend my part time days. in my spare time, i'm coordinating georgia's inaugural trail summit with a bunch of great organizations and statewide support. more on that possible future career here:
georgia trail summit 2014.
 |
| Walk With a Doc |
in the interim, the active living work is great and i have a blank slate to create programs to keep folks moving. i had no idea that the words 'active living' first uttered to me in grad school in 2009 by my advisor, would turn out to be the continued focus of my path and lead me here. currently i've started a successful weekly walking program for seniors, retirees, boomers, and folks with free daytime hours. its a national chapter of
Walk With a Doc and our hybrid allows any specialist to lead the walk. We walk weekly on Wed @11am from the rec ctr and head out across town in one of 8 city walking routes ranging from 1 to 4 miles. We walk, talk, stretch, and make new friends. It's been awesome and turns out to be a breeding ground for other new class ideas. i invite folks who want to teach new stuff to walk with us and drum up some interest. meanwhile the city manager is giving me props for all the innovation and new programming. honestly, i just start the conversation, open the door, and they show up. i'm sticking around for a full year before i ask for more but i can see full time work WITH benefits on the horizon with the city of decatur. perfect.
 |
| crazy fun rec center staff |
meanwhile, i joined millions in testing the obamacare system and after the kerfuffle, signed up quite easily to a policy that is less $100/month at KP and offers the female, holistic, alternative, doc of my dreams, located downtown in a bikeable/walkable location from home/work. i simply cannot complain. love #ACA.
jeff continues to manage a group of hard working men at phillips landscape and tolerates me bugging him to try to land more urban design projects as decatur booms with restaurants and chef's who want gardens on the premises in compact and perhaps portable spaces. he tests things out on our yard and this spring i shared an album, '
we live in a garden' and indeed we do. its so lovely and charlie brown is very happy in his big yard up on a hill. the chipmunks, rabbits, and dog walkers keep his days full of fence running.
 |
| my champion! |
meanwhile jeff is running his best; we both embraced and loved our 50th years and he knocked out a few triathlons, trail runs, and his best time at the thanksgiving half marathon ever 1:50:40. i bike to work daily (a 5-mile round trip thru neighborhoods with one gnarly major arterial crossing) and after leading the weekly walk with a doc for 3 months, i worked my way up to even more. i now do boot camp 2x/week with city teachers and we are rocking it.
"fit at 50" is the short version of our story this year and we plan to keep it up. we are working out, starting new traditions for holidays, gaining back all that weekend commute time, planning big & far getaways (once full time works rolls my way) and occasionally sitting around in our pjs on a grey rainy day like today.
hope to hear how your 2013 was and catch up with you all. so please, if you will, update that "S" page once again, unless it's all tapped out and in that case feel free to use the "R" page as we do these days with Roe-chez. it works for us.
peace and joy,
tracie, jeff, and charlie brown
