Thursday, January 31, 2008

What a small world!...and yet, I've never run into Beyonce.....

Had Spanish class last night. This semester, the class is 2hours a night, 2 nights a week. Last summer, it was 3.5hours a night, 4 nights a week. Frankly, how on God's green earth did I ever manage to suffer through that class? I'm getting my butt handed to me and finding that I'm doing all the things my mother taught me never to do when learning a language...the primary rule: NEVER translate....simply speak. What's really funny is that I can read and hear Spanish like nobody's business, but when it comes to speaking it? I don't really stand a chance right now. Thankfully, I have a brother and a mom who are both fluent and Daniel is fluent in about every dialect imaginable. I need to use his knowledge while I still have it...he moves to Colombia in March, then it's off to Japan...probably indefinitely, given his "appreciation" for the Japanese culture.

On a bit of a tangent, I'm quickly coming to realize how much I'm going to miss Daniel when he's gone. Sure, Jessie is gone too, but she's much more accessible and we've always been able to chat on the phone (yay for in-network calls!). Daniel and I have always had more of a "let's grab a beer" relationship and we talk much better face-to-face. Much of that is due to his inability to make a damn phone call when he's out of the country haha!

I'm going to digress from Spanish a bit now, but note that this next section comes from an incident that occurred last night during my class.

I really don't like snowboarders. Yes, I have friends that are boarders, but for the most part, I really don't like the stereotypical snowboarder. They're cocky and irresponsible....and behave very juveniley (is that even a word?). Of the 30+ students in my Spanish class, 4, yes FOUR, of us are over the age of 19. It's uncomfortable most nights. Last night, I heard the following statements regarding snowboarding:

1. "Dude, who gets a job during boarding season?!"
2. "Yeah, I'm only 18 and I live with my parents so I don't need to work."
3. "It's so easy to borrow someone else's pass...just wear goggles or say that you found it on the mountain!"
4. "Dude, this one time, I got caught and they almost called the police so I had to tell the truth cuz I had weed in my jacket."

Dear God. I almost had to leave class just from that last statement.
I mean, I've known my fair share of snowboarders....a few years ago, some of my closest friends were boarders from Breckenridge. Sure, we were young and did stupid things, but one thing is for sure...my two friends, Tom and Jay (don't laugh, those were really their names), were at least responsible stoner snowboarders. They'd get lit before hitting the slopes and had the sense of mind to "leave that s**t" either in the car or at home (they had the pleasure of being able to live in Breckenridge as many of us don't). Oh and they wore helmets. But that's beside the point. The point is, if you're going to be a moron, at least be smart about it. Sheesh.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

I need you to set me up for a joke later....

Well, the stress has finally been handed to me. Man alive, taking all that time off from school may have done more harm than good. I had forgotten what it was like to be under this particular type of stress. Yes, I did have all the stress from the wedding (which is still hammering at me from time to time), but for the most part, I really enjoyed dealing with all of that stuff. So the stress was manageable.

School stress is just as easily managed, but it takes some getting used to again. I'm having to make a VERY concerted effort to get things done and not wait until the last minute. So I take most of my lunch breaks to do homework instead of reading or hanging with my girl friends at work. Friday is really the only day when I can take a lunch truly for myself and not have to do school work.

On top of all of that, when I started running a couple weeks ago, I think I really started to destroy my knees. I'm in pain all the time. Today, I literally cannot walk more than 3 steps without searing pain ripping at my knees. It really sucks. I tried to run with a brace the other day and that didn't do any good. Corwin says I need to have a gait test done at Runner's Roost and make sure that I get the proper type of shoes. I also think it might not be such a bad idea to get arch supports like what Todd got a while ago. I'm just in way too much pain for how young I am. And I do NOT want to give up on running the Bolder Boulder this year, or ever.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Week #4

Totally forgot to do this last Friday. School started again. Life has gotten incredibly busy. Sigh.
In any regard, last week I was grateful for books...



I read a really fantastic short story for my Lit class last week called The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin. It was incredibly thought-provoking and bizarre. I highly recommend it.

Mostly, I just love books.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

What was the theme? Humiliation?

I just got back from lunch. I went to Starbucks, got myself a "jill" and read some stuff for my lit class tonight. Kate Chopin, to be exact. The Story of an Hour to be even more exact. It's a short story that I'd recommend. Very interesting. Somewhat vauge. Thought-provoking. Whatever.

The barista asked what I was reading. I told her. She apparently studied English Lit as her major at Boise State however long ago. It was an interesting tiny discussion (during which I also informed her that ordering my crazy tea misto is much easier to do at jill's store than anywhere else).

I'm discovering more and more how non-conventional I really want to be. I never want to be stagnant. I used to read the same authors, watch the same kinds of movies and eat the same types of foods.

Blech. How boring. John Grisham, chick flicks and pizza/burritos can only really get you so far.

Jill is perpetually introducing me to new authors. Todd (and the former Ninja Den) made me watch innumerable documentaries and comedians. And Todd and I just really hate eating the same food all the time.

Denver Restaurant Week is coming up. We're going to a European bistro (Todd's choice) and fancy-schmancy American fare (my choice). Mmmmm....can't wait!

In other news, I'm dying to get out of dodge, specifically to Alaska. That's nearly 18 months away. What the shank? Oh well. Boston, Vegas, and Buena Vista will carry me through for certain.

Also, I think it's high time I get some insteps for my running shoes. Stupid stress fractures and their stupid crap! I did manage to run for quite some time the other morning. I cannot believe that my gym is more busy at 5:45am than at 6:30pm. What is THAT all about? Tomorrow is another morning of fighting for a friggin' treadmill.

Still though, I feel surprisingly awake and alive after running two miles in the morning (don't laugh, all you hardcore runners!)....especially if Todd makes me a delicious egg/turkey/cheese sandwich for breakfast!

Monday, January 21, 2008

I feel like I just found out that my favorite love song was written about a sandwich.

Much ado about nothing.
I have no idea where that came from.
It's absolutely frigid today. It's warmer in NORWAY than in Colorado. What-EVER!

Todd and I had an interesting conversation about politics this weekend. I'm not as "in" to it as I used to be, but I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I'm so busy with life and school that I don't have the time to study it as much as I used to. I digress. I still enjoy discussing it and trying to figure things out.

This time around, things are pretty sticky. I always feel like if just one teeny tiny thing could be different, I'd have no problems deciding who to vote for.

There's not a single republican that I really care for. Giuliani is the only one that I really know anything about and even that is really only in relation to his work as mayor of NYC. So not much going on there. I know there are a bazillion of the republican candidates that I DEFINITELY don't care for, but that's neither here nor there, really.

I think the democratic nomination is really the most pressing right now. Hillary's tagline is "Ready for Change" but if we're going to be completely honest, anything that happens at this point is going to be a pretty radical change. I mean, we have a woman AND a black man running for president. That's pretty amazing, if you ask me.

The thing that Todd and I were talking about this weekend revolved pretty heavily around Hillary Clinton. I don't necessarily agree with many of her platforms, but the fact of the matter is, you kind of have to respect what she's done, professionally. Other than Oprah, she's probably one of the most powerful and influential women in America right now. We've been telling our little girls FOREVER that they can be anything they want to be, including the President of the United States, if they just work hard enough. But until now, no one has been in a position to *actually* become the first female president, thereby giving little girls everywhere someone to really look up to and respect. I said to Todd, "FINALLY! There really is a "barbie" for every profession!"

Like I said, you don't have to agree with her policies or her platforms. You don't even have to like her personally, but one thing is for sure...the next time any of us tells some little girl that she can be anything she wants to be, one of them is going to ask, "Even President? Like Hillary Clinton?!" and we can unwaveringly say "Yes...even President."

It doesn't really matter if she gets elected. The point here is that she is someone that we can reference.

I could say the exact same thing about Obama. FINALLY, black kids nationwide have something to aspire to that's more than just a basketball or football player. I'm jaded toward basketball anymore because the Denver Nuggets are really nothing more than uneducated thugs and yes, I do recognize that there are nice, educated, talented, family-loving, community-inspiring athletes all over the place, but they don't get recognized anymore, which is a real shame. All that kids know anymore is that they can make a sh*t-ton of money if they just play ball well enough. My, what well-rounded children we're raising!

My point is that now, we ALL have someone to look up to. Role models aren't just washed-up singers, jail-bird actors, and 'roid-popping athletes anymore.

Now we have Oprah, Hillary, and Obama, any of whom I'd be proud to have my children model their goals and dreams and aspirations after (just so long as they do it all with a college education).

This indeed is an era of change. I'm rather much looking forward to it.


Oh and just for good measure:
I don't care if you're Suzy Homemaker or Cathy CEO....if you're a woman, you had BEST be at the polls this year (and every year, for that matter). Don't you dare disrespect all the hard work our mother/grandmothers/great-grandmothers did to get us the RIGHT to vote. We owe it to them to take advantage of such an incredible opportunity.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Week #3

This week, I'm especially grateful for FENG SHUI!



After months of not being able to sleep past about 4am, I finally busted out my feng shui books (this one being my favorite) and re-arranged our bedroom accordingly. Now there is a ton of open space in our bedroom and I have an "escape route" (thank you, Karla). In the process, I have begun getting the guest room / office set up and it's looking quite nice, albeit slightly cluttered...this will be remedied this weekend. Last night, I got a full night's rest and woke up this morning feeling very refreshed and ready to face whatever the day had for me (which isn't much, so far).

Additionally, I am grateful for GOALS.



I have been needing a reason to stay at the gym and I've finally found one. I am going to run the Bolder Boulder this year...even if it kills me. It's a 10k race in Boulder on Memorial Day. My mom used to run this every single year until finally her knees gave out on her. My knees are ready to do the same and I've been wanting to do this race for years...carry on the tradition, I suppose. So last night, I did the unthinkable and actually ran for a half-hour at the gym. I gotta say, based on the fact that I've never run before in my life (not including the sprints of fear from my brother growing up), the fact that I ran 2.21 miles in 30 minutes is rather amazing. That's about a 13minute mile and I'm going to try to work up to a 10minute mile. My friend Laura is running the race as well and intends to finish in 55minutes....she'll be light-years ahead of me haha!

So there you go. Week #3

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The fun-meter is at an all-time low.

I have never been so ready for happy hour in all my life.

And I have to drive almost an hour to get there (it's the price I pay to have a drink with one of my bestest girl friends in town).

Today has rocked me big time. Clients coming at me left, right and center. Co-workers needing this, that and the other.

I just want to go home and relax while Todd rubs my back.

Good times.
Indeed.

Monday, January 14, 2008

"There is no way you can perpetrate that amount of carnage and mayhem and not incur a considerable amount of paperwork."

I tried to read during lunch. I can tell that I'm exhausted because my eyes are crossing every time I try to look at a page in the book. It's an incredibly bizarre feeling.

Neither of us have been sleeping very well for the last few days. I blame it almost entirely on the utter lack of feng shui in the house. I swear by that stuff. I swear by a lot of eastern medicine and that sort of thing. I feng shui'd my house a number of years ago and it worked wonders for my sleeping habits and my general well-being. So I'm going to re-visit my books and do the same to our bedroom. Ideally, I'd feng shui the entire house, but I'm not sure that's going to be possible. I feel like the whole place is probably just laid out all wrong.

So for now, we attack the bedroom.

There might be a slight re-arrangement involved...I have the sneaking suspicion that much of our issues is that there are just way too many doors in our bedroom (grand total of 3) and the office only has 2. Plus it's not on a shared wall, which is probably another issue with our current bedroom. We'll see what happens with all of this.

We're allegedly getting a fan installed in the bathroom this weekend. That'll be nice. Right now, we have to keep the door open when we shower lest we get nasty yellow condensation drops on the ceiling and have to mop the thing whenever those drops start to get really out of control. Who decides NOT to put a fan in a bathroom anyway? I dunno.

Our landlord alluded to the fact that, once our lease is up, he's considering selling the damn place. He's tired of having to deal with all the BS and with another gorgeous new duplex going up next door, it's going to drive the selling price of our house way up. It's a good and bad situation for us, if this happens. Good, because we can get out of that house during the summer. Bad, because we've put a LOT of work into that house and I. HATE. MOVING. It's all just total madness. I'd love to be able to move into a lower rent house just so that we can save some money, but whatever. We'll cross that bridge when the time comes.

I start school again next week.

Oh dear God.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Week #2


This week, I'm eternally grateful for coffee



It has been a God-send this week. Todd and I are on a mission to wake up in enough time to have relaxing mornings before work (and I get to eat breakfast at home instead of in the car. Awesome). But I tell you what...it's CRAZY hard to get up at 6:20am after having spent 3 hours at Big Hoss and Patrick Carroll's with some of my favorite peeps and subsequently closing those places down. Totally worth it, don't get me wrong. Just makes it hard to wake up the next morning! (dot com)

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

"Whoa! It's like package-palooza tonight!"

Many things going on in my brain over the last few days.

We may have found the church that's just the fit for us. Granted, we've only been there a few times, but another few and we may have a decision made. It's hard making this change. I've been at my current church since I was 15 and up until the last couple years, it's been a productive and worth-while experience. Lately though, things just aren't synching with me...or with Todd.

All that aside, we're excited when we go to this other church and the lead pastor is really charismatic and knowledgable, which we both love. The music is...different that what I'm used to. Shockingly, I'm not put-off by this. I'm used to your standard "Christian rock" style and this church has more of a jazzy-jam-band feel, which is....relaxing. It makes it easy to sink into the music comfortably and reflectively.

Both the message and the music are essential for Todd and me. Music is where I get the most out of church (being the right-brained person that I am) and Todd gets the most out of spoken word (being the analytical person that he is).

Also interesting is the age range at this church. I walk in and the vast majority of the people that I see are our age (late-20s/early-30s) with some smatterings of kids and older parents (50s and up). I like that.

More on all that later...probably.
____________________________________________________________________

How would you describe a deep person? Question posed this weekend. I have a friend that is probably one of the deepest, most passionate, most elusive people I've ever met. She fascinates me. Ask her a question about any topic and she'll have an answer that is surprisingly far from what you though it would be, but right on the money. She doesn't change the topic...just takes it in a different direction. She makes me think. And when I sit down to have a real conversation with her, I often find myself wondering how it is she became who she is and how can I get more of what she has. Don't read that wrong. I don't want to BE her...I want to be deep LIKE her. She pushes the limits of conversation and thought, in all the right ways.

How would you describe a deep person? The answer posed this weekend was "Someone with faith, hope, and love"...
I'm coming to think that's a pretty accurate description, regardless of creed.
_____________________________________________________________________

I'm reading a book right now called Eats, Shoots and Leaves. It's hilarious. And I can think of exactly ZERO people that would enjoy it as much as me. It's a book all about the necessity of proper punctuation. That's right. I'm reading a book about commas, semi-colons, and parantheses. Last year, I read a book called Woe Is I which is equally as dorky and is all about the proper use to pronouns...probably one of my bigger pet peeves is incorrect pronoun usage. Unless, of course, the person at fault is 3 years old, in which case it's hilarious, but should be corrected so they don't keep saying it wrong (just think of how a toddler can screw up possessive pronouns. It's a riot!).

Wow. I am one big ol' dork. I kind of love it!

Friday, January 4, 2008

Week #1


So my sister-in-law recently posted a blog about naming something each week that you're grateful for. I seriously doubt I'll remember to do this every week, but I'll make an effort.

And this week, I'm grateful for NEW SNOW.


Our neighborhood is currently covered in this nasty has-been snowfall that's starting to melt and turn even more disgusting. I'm quite looking forward to today and tomorrow, when the temps will be nearly 60F to melt off the rest of the nasty...then Sunday bring a fresh new coating of pristine snow for me to enjoy from the warmth of my own home. Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh...



Thursday, January 3, 2008

Minimize

min·i·mize [min-uh-mahyz] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –verb (used with object), -mized, -miz·ing.
1.to reduce to the smallest possible amount or degree.

I think this is my OFFICIAL new year's resolution. I have w-a-y too much STUFF. Too many clothes, too many books (why buy books when the library is there and FREE?), too many DVDs (why even bother to use Netflix if I'm just going to keep buying DVDs?), too many miscellaneous files, too many boxes in the basement, too much crap from college and high school.....I simply have too much STUFF.

I can think about a handful of DVDs that I want/need to keep and they're all collections. Everything else? Meh, I could totally sell them, make a couple bucks and de-clutter the bookshelf.

I'm going to be selling a ton of clothes to Plato's Closet and whatever they won't take, I'll donate to Goodwill or the ARC or whatever.

Books, well, that'll be a bit more of a challenge because I'm really attached to all of them. It's just that I don't need them, ya know?

The boxes in the basement have been a daunting task. We've been working on that issue for a couple weeks...breaking down the ones we want to keep and trying to get rid of the ones we don't.

And all my crap from high school? Oh dear Lord. There is just so MUCH of it. I still have crap at my parents house, for crying out loud! I really need to trash most of it. I have a ton of The Little Mermaid stuff from my days of collecting literally anything and everything that had Ariel on it. Frankly, I can think of (again) a handful of things that I really want to keep...my music box, some Christmas ornaments and the misc. dolls that I have. Beyond that, I just have no need for it anymore. Sigh. And really, what from high school do I really need other than my letter jacket, diploma and the couple of photo albums that I have?

Oh and don't forget about all the wedding stuff that needs to get sorted through and stored.

My life is getting more and more complicated and cluttered and I want to stop it before it gets so out-of-control that I wind up on Oprah talking about how I haven't cleaned my house or done the dishes in six years because "it's just too much at this point".....

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Social de-evolution appears complete

it would appear that mine and todd's unofficial new year's resolution is going to be wicked amounts of traveling.

All of this is going to be accomplished whenever I'm not in school, making it a bit more interesting as far as the scheduling goes.

March is going to be an off-the-beaten-path trip to Santa Fe via Buena Vista (two of my favorite local-ish places that Todd has never been to) during my spring break. We're going to stay one night in Buena Vista at a funky little cabin haven that, before being transformed to a motel-esque place, was where my parents called home after they got married and moved to Colorado before re-locating to Denver. So I'm kind of stoked about that. I've stayed there once in my life and it was hilarious. It's smack in the middle of town so everything is within walking distance, including the infamous DAIRY KING (yes, KING) which is just a good good time. And there's a sweet park close to the King. So that's awesome. Santa Fe holds more memories for me than I could include here, but some of what I'm going to expose Todd too included the Jackalope, this crazy Indian restaurant complete with belly dancer, downtown Santa Fe, Governor's Palace, and if it's still there and I can find it, the wicked-insane flea market. WEWT!

May is a long weekend trip to Vegas after classes are done for the Spring. We inadvertently won a trip to Vegas (it's a long story that doesn't bear repeating) so we're hoping that it's not all a farce and that we can actually go. Maybe we'll meet up with Crazy Cousin Jackie, as that happens to be her apparent-favorite place on earth (seems like she's there every other weekend...doesn't hurt that she's friends with about a billion different bands). Todd and I went to Vegas a couple years ago in February. It was pretty chilly, to say the least. And we went with my parents and weren't yet married (obviously) so we were staying in different hotels and it was just kind of total madness. This time will be a little easier, both on our feet and our wallets.

Sometime in the summer, we'll be heading to Boston. That was one of our honeymoon options, but decided against it since we wanted to relax on our honeymoon and wanted to see everything that Boston had to offer. Boston + Honeymoon did NOT = relaxing. So we'll be hitting a bunch of the sites and taking in a Red Sox game at Fenway (sorry Rockies, but when in Rome....) and probably watching another game at a pub just so that we can get raucous and crazy like the rest of Boston during a Sox game.

In between all of that, we'll be going to SLC to hang with Todd's parents, sister (+ family) and maybe his brother (if he's in town...we're trying to co-ordinate that). I might try to take a jaunt to Seattle to hang with my sister for a bit (maybe in the summer this time...it was cold and rainy when I was there for her bday last year) and take in more of Queen Anne's, amazing coffee shops, and maybe try to actually hike it to the coast without wearing high heels and carrying a java (again, long story, but pretty funny).

Man, I love to travel.
Maybe next year, we'll be in London for the summer...who knows?!?!