Summer Fun

When the Type A's have a lot going on, we tend to get extremely focused and goal oriented.  Now that we have the house, and limited time on the weekends (and week nights) to work on it and to work on moving, we tend to shove all the activity in whenever we can.  We don't exactly stop and smell the roses, unless we're planting them in the mulch we just put down.

And I, for one, tend to miss the forest for the trees.  It is almost a discipline, making myself stop the frenzied activity and enjoy myself.  I have often thought of writing a post about it and calling it something like "the discipline of fun."

But today was different.  My supper club has been planning a family BBQ for quite some time, so G and I hit the pause button on life and enjoyed food, friends and the great outdoors pretty much the whole day.

Funny...Once I got there, I didn't miss the painting or the schlepping...

Back to reality tomorrow.

Harder than it looks

We kicked off this fine Saturday by taking Lucy Loo (who has a loose screw) to the vet.

Let me tell you how fun it was to wrangle her from her cage to a carrier while trying not to actually touch her because she's such a spazz.  We were sooooo validated when even our beloved and wonderful vet had to tote her around the office in her carrier rather than by actually picking her up.

The vet's diagnosis?  And I quote?  "Oh!  She's so cute!"

We were like, mm hmm, and can you tell us how to make her not hate us so much?  No luck there.  Time is all we have.  When we adopted her, the Dumb Friends League peeps thought she was about two years old but we thought she was younger and so did the vet.  She's somewhere between one and two - still a bit of a baby.

After a Sonic pit stop (duh), we schlepped some crap over to the new house and started our reno work for the day.  My chore, which I actually started yesterday, is to repaint the entire mantle.  Um, harder than it looks!

Before

G's task is equally as exciting:  replacing each and every screw holding the kitchen cabinets to the wall with stronger screws that drill into studs.  We learned during the inspection that if we left the weaker screws in and then filled the cabinets, they would come crashing down eventually.

I love the tile back splash!

We are realizing we don't have anywhere close to the amount of energy we had a few years ago when we moved into our VA house.  We used to work all day, then drive a couple of hours to the house, then work on it until late at night, and then we would both be at work the next day by 6:30 a.m.

These days we unload a few bags, slap on a couple of coats of paint, and call it good.

Now it's time to get horizontal for the rest of the night and study for the GRE read a book I'm using for my grad school critical essay.

At some point I'll have to summon the energy to make 75,000 deviled eggs for a picnic tomorrow.  But that'll have to wait because...can you hear that?...the couch is calling my name.

Four!

That is the number of places we will have lived between July, 2012 and July, 2013.  OMG can we please just settle down already?

We closed on the house this morning.

We moved into the apartment last September.

Before that we crashed with G's parents.

And, of course, before that we lived in our VA house.

As of today I have made the mental shift from "I heart apartment living!" to "Let's go to Home Depot and get paint!  I want to tackle the living room before we start on the front room!  You can do the measurements for the guest room!  And then look into ordering a new water heater!"

Because OMG we have a house!  

Life these days

Nontrad

I start my prep classes tonight.

My co-worker, C, goes, "Man!  It's going to be you and a lot of young people!"  I was like, thanks, and btw you're fired.

It has come to this.

And this.

Here's how disciplined and grown up I am: I am starting to tackle the math.  On my own.  Like, voluntarily.  And by tackle I mean stare at the page real hard.

It turns out that the GRE only tests math (ostensibly) at the 8th through 10th grade levels.  To which I say, "look at my high school transcripts, be-otches!"  Gawwwww.

But, no.  So I'm going to slog through work and then through class tonight.  They are brilliant and are starting with verbal reasoning so I think I'll live to see another day.  Wish me luck.

Purple Rain

B:  "I have a Prince song stuck in my head ---- "

G:  "Well keep it there."

A Little Something Different

Oh, I kid.

Today we did the same thing we do every Sunday:  sleep in, have brunch, lay around and read all day.

G got all cray cray and played my fave XBox game of his: Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution.  Why is this my fave, you ask?  Well I'll tell you!  It's because the characters all speak gibberish and the music and sound effects are neat - so none of it distracts me from reading and G gets to play headphones-free.  Everyone wins.

The only thing different about today is that we were lazy and opted not to go grocery shopping or to prepare in any way for the coming week.  I will regret this in about 14 hours, but for now, sitting on the floor in my pj's, I don't regret it at all.

We also finished the first season of Orphan Black and oh my Lord I have no idea how I'm going to wait practically an entire year for the next season to come out.  Geez it's so good.  I'm simultaneously thrilled and yet pissed that my co-worker C suggested it to me.  She should have had the common decency to wait until at least two, or preferably three seasons were released.  Dangit.

In closing, here's some more eye candy from yesterday's hike.

The clock is ticking.  We close on the house this week and begin the move.  No more walking to work.  No more hellacious beginning/end of G's daily drive.  No more apartment living.  Now's the time for you to buy shares of The Home Depot.  You're welcome.

Happy Sunday, peeps!

Be a Tortoise Not a Hare

Today we fought the mountain and the mountain won. 

We attempted to climb Bear Mountain in Boulder.  G researched it and spent the week telling me that all accounts pointed to strenuous and extremely difficult.  Overall it was a fair amount of elevation gain (over 2,500) but not at high altitudes overall.  Not even close to the altitude we dealt with last weekend.

The first mile or so was a gradual incline and a sweeping landscape with so many flowers! 

Eye candy! 

The terrain quickly went from this:

 To this:

 And this:

G was realistic, I was overconfident and got so lightheaded on the way up (we almost made it) that at one point we stopped to rest and I took my pack off and put it down.  I don't remember doing it.  Soooooo time to go back down.  Of the 6.5 miles total, we probably did between 4 and 5.

This hike was in "good" mountain lion and black bear territory.  I am always super alert during the first mile or so, and then by the time I slump my way up the mountain I think to myself, "If I'm attacked, I'll offer up my larabar and hope for the best."  I am literally too fatigued to care about being eaten by a wild animal.

I got a quick snap shot of the elusive bored game nerd, though.

Speaking of pics, we usually excel at the ol' self portrait, but today was a FAIL.  Check out the sequence:

We were finally like oh just forget it.

Next time, Bear Mountain!  We will so conquer you next time!

TGIF, people!

{I like this combination.}

What a Difference a Year Makes

It was a year ago this week that moving to Denver became first a possibility then a reality.  Within the span of five working days I had been presented with the opportunity, talked it over with G and expressed my interest, and then was officially given the promotion.

Just like that.

During that week, during the chaotic work days, G and I emailed back and forth continually:  Can we do this?  Should we do this?  We have to do this.  We're going to do this!  Wait - are we really going to do this?!

A year ago

The thing about blogging - or at least the way I blog - is that I present you with the acceptable and public version of my life and thoughts.  And that version in the past year has been I love Denver!  Denver is the best!  Living here rocks!  And that's the truth.  I have lived in places (um, Hawaii) that are far more exotic than here but I have to tell you, if I have any control over it, I'm here to stay people.

This is my city.  This is my tribe.  I have found my place and I'm so not taking it for granted.

We close on the new house next week.  We will move (ugh) again, for reals this time, for good this time.

Getting to know touristy 16th Street

What I don't blog about are the troubles and the drama and the chaos and dealing with levels of sadness and anxiety, and fear of the future, and losing Orca and being stuck with quite possibly the cutest bunny ever who refuses to even acknowledge us on any level.

I say this not to be a buzzkill but because I spent years of my life going through bad struggles, consuming struggles, while reading blogs about peoples' fantastic lives.  And it occurs to me (not that I'm fantastic!) that a lot of times I can come across like that, simply because it's the one dimension (of many!) that I put forward here.  The good stuff is the neutral stuff, the (mostly) impersonal stuff.  The diplomatic stuff.  The safe stuff.

So this is what they mean by "desert climate"...

I don't believe that happiness is everything and I don't believe that we have complete control over our lives.  Free will?  Yes.  Freedom of choice and ability to make the wisest decisions given our parameters?  Yes.  But blowing a wish out into the universe and then thinking positive thoughts about it and making it come true?  Not so much.

But for about two years or so before moving here, I knew, I just knew that I couldn't stay in Virginia.  At that point in my life I had spent about a decade living in places where I just could not seem to fit or belong, and I reached a new low point.  It was a lot more than location, but location played a part.  I always knew that if I picked up and moved somewhere else, my problems would find me, and I would have to deal with them in a great place just like I would in a not-so-great-place.  And that's true, so I worked and worked on solving some of those issues.

The truth is, though, that fitting into your location can contribute a lot to your quality of life.  And to your happiness and stress level and general well-being.  It's true.  Which is why I often say if worse comes to worse and I have to wait tables to stay here, I will.  I will be a poor college student (hopefully! coughGREcough) and I will hike on the weekends and I.  Will.  Love.  It.

The point of this post?  No idea.  :)  I didn't mean to smack you upside the head with some crazy seriousness.  Just wanted to clue you in that our lives are more complex than hiking on the weekends.

Those hikes though?  Pretty damn cool.

That is all.