The Verteblog

During a brief loss of internet at the Carbondale office, (and subsequently, the inability to do much of anything on the computer) Hillary and I were able to venture out to a local coffee shop where I got to know her better. Here’s what I learned:

Hillary was born in Wellesley, MA, and moved to Denver when she was 16.  Her favorite TV shows as a kid were the Ninja Turtles and Nickelodeon Guts— I am sure this will explain a lot as we get to know her better.  Her most embarrassing parental moment occurred one day in high school when she came home with a bunch of friends only to find her dad shirtless on the back porch with a beer in one hand and a shotgun in the other. Although Hillary was quick to explain that he was only disposing of pesky garden-eating rabbits, her friends couldn’t ignore his resemblance to the stereotypical redneck.

Hillary had a giant crush on Justin Timberlake back in the days when N’Sync was the hottest thing anyone had seen since snap bracelets. She distinctly remembers salivating over his performance at the 1999 MTV video music awards when he sang alongside Brittany Spears back in her “skinny days”. What’s happened to these stars since then is tearing up our hearts too Hillary.

As much as Hillary may have made some bad choices during her high school days­— I forgot to mention she also liked to wear body glitter to dances— we have to give her credit for her awesome skiing skillz. Last year, Hillary competed in six Big Mountain telemark skiing events. She even ventured to AK for a comp. However, whatever street cred she may have gained from this latest insight is lost when we take into consideration the fact that her favorite ski area is Mad River Glen. For some reason Hillary loves near-death experiences on gnarly East Coast ice.

Since moving to Carbondale and starting at Backbone, there have been a few things that have surprised Hillary. She was shocked, for instance, when she received an entire multi-paragraph email from JLD which he wrote while driving. Makes you wonder what else he can do behind the wheel! There was also the time when Hillary came home to smell of oven-baked apple pie. When she opened the oven to dig in, her roommate informed her that the pie was a cheap City Market buy and was only purchased to make the house smell good. Maybe you Betty Crocker types can give Hillary some advice she can pass along to her roommate so as to avoid these types of disappointing situations in the future.

In addition to killin’ it at Backbone, Hillary is also working on a website for ski fashion. The plan is to take pictures of cool ski outfits seen while hittin’ the slopes and feature them on her site. Who’s willing to bet that no matter how hard Penn tries, he will never make the cut? Just kidding Penn, we all know how fashion-forward you really are.

Alright everyone, now that you’ve gotten to know Backbone’s youngest employee a little better, I hope you’ll be able to welcome her to the office. Make sure you ask Hillary to do the worm; apparently it’s one of her talents.