Finding Our Place

Yesterday, G boarded the bun bun:

with her old lady meds:

and joined me here in our new city:

Today we hope to find a place to live.  If you're looking for me, I'll be the one hunched over in the corner breathing out of a paper bag.

Two Words: Illegal Pete's

Still dried out, no matter how much water I drink.  I have a sneaking suspicion that I will become fully hydrated on our way to the airport to go home.  C'est la vie, I guess.  Stay in there, little kidney stone!

I have two words for you, and they are:  Illegal Pete's.  As in, the amazing CO Tex-Mex joint.

Although Chipotle is my first love, I think I've found a lil sumpn for the side, if you know what I mean.  Yesterday a few peeps on my team (and me) had to leave the meetings in order to do some work in our new offices (which are currently being designed and set up for us) and so we decided to scope out lunch places.

I had a pork carnitas burrito with potatoes and I'm in mexican love with it.

This is the view from our office building!  Is it to die for or what?!

As we were checking out 16th street, we passed a restaurant with a sign out front that said:

Happy Hour

11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Happy hour before noon?  Sign me up!

BTW, the meetings yesterday were brutal.  Non-stop (other than our escape to Illegal Pete's) from 9:00 - 6:30.  But that's OK because here is what our meetings look like:

I wonder why I can't get hydrated?!

I know in these posts I may come across as a lush and I'm really not.  I'm really a take-a-couple-of-sips kind of gal.  But I'm in over my head with this crew, so I sip, sip, then gulp water.  Repeat.

My proud moment of the week?  I got up at 5:30 this morning and worked out for an hour.  Let that sink in.  5:30 A.M.  An HOUR.  Let's hope I don't cancel it out on 16th street today!

Here's the deal:  I'm loving Denver.  I feel like we're going to fit in much better here and I can't wait for G to get out here and experience it with me.  He gets in tonight and we start looking for apartments/rental houses tomorrow.  Say a little prayer, peeps!

I hope you are having a great humpday.  It feels so good to not be in the daily office grind that I don't even care that today is gonna be another long day of tedious meetings.

Dried out in God's country

This is what I woke up to this morning:

I'm completely in love and must move here immediately.

I also woke up with my face peeling off.  I've been here less than 24 hours and I feel like a shriveled, reptilian version of myself.  I was ravenous when I woke up and I don't think it is real hunger, but actually dehydration.  There is not a bottle of water to be found in this place and I wasn't sure about the tap water.  Then I remembered that I dumped a bunch of change out of my purse, so I grabbed it and bolted - and I mean bolted - down the hall to the vending machine.

Folks, this is what $4 worth of water looks like:

When I read the price on the vending machine, I actually said aloud, "TWO DOLLARS FOR WATER?" then proceeded to use all of my money to buy these precious bottles.  They will both be gone before our meetings even start this morning.  But so help me God, I've got one kidney stone that I'm determined to keep in there.  We don't need that puppy to pick up and move two weeks before Africa.  Or - God forbid - IN Africa.

Last night we walked a couple of blocks to a restaurant and the VA/DC peeps were relishing in the cool breezy weather.  I was talking about it to one of the Denver guys and he kind of rolled his eyes and said, "Yeah, this is like AFRICA HOT for us in Denver.  It's so uncomfortable.  We hate it."

I was like, come again?  And then I was like, you people need some perspective!  This is heavenly and I can't wait to live here!  Bye bye humidity and 5,000-degree weather!

I'm going to semi-hydrate and get ready for a day full of pretending to pay attention in work meetings.  But I'll really be thinking about this...

Hi from Denver! And Week 6: Double Fisting the Haagen Dazs

Hello from my new city!

This is me straight off the plane - luuuuuuuuuvly.

This is true bloggery, peeps.  Me with no makeup and unbrushed hair, POST-FLIGHT.  I have a few minutes before I meet my team for a loooong night of drinks and dinner (in that order) so I thought I'd fill you in on the last week of mayhem and chaos.

Week 6 of The Move Prep:

*We listed our house, kept our cell phones attached to us...and no one called.

*We finished up the manual labor and kept the house clean at all times...and no one visited.

*BUT - we got renters!  A family who signed a three-year lease!  Praise God and the Heavenly Host for that one!

*I haven't cooked a meal in days.  My waistline is paying for it and yet I could totally get used to this.

*You know what's wrong with Haagen Dazs and wine for dinner?  Absolutely nothing.

*As I type this, I'm in a good mood, but there is no downplaying the stress of the past few days.  It has been extreme.  Last Saturday, after about 4 hours of running errands, I realized that my shirt was on inside out.  I was like, Oh Screw It.

------And let me just say that life is soooooo all about perspective.  If I were reading these events on any of your blogs, I would be like, "OMG!  That's so exciting!  Their lives are moving at a crazy pace and their future is laid out in front of them like one big adventure.  Things are going to work out; they'll find renters; they'll find a great place to live and they have such a cute little bunny!----------

--------But since it's my own life and not how I romanticize your life, I'm more like, "OMG!  I'M GOING TO HAVE A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN.  HOW DOES ANYONE IN THE WORLD EVER MOVE ANYWHERE?!-----------

*And I wasn't the only one losing it.  G and I were talking about our upcoming bdays and he was like, we'll turn 34.  I was like, ummmmmmmm, don't you mean 35??????

*We met with the movers and arranged them to move us out - next week.  Gulp.

*We got our official Africa itineraries!

*We experienced what it's like to live in a really clean house.  It's very nice.  And very temporary.

*Work was off the charts crazy.  Like, hyperventilating and questioning my own sanity crazy.

*But that's ok because the clock is ticking, people!  And then I'm gonna be on a plane to the Dark Continent!

The view from my hotel room.  Kinda blah right now. 

*We have several appointments lined up at the end of this week to look for apartments.

I'm going to try to blog during my stay here!  Technically I'm here for a bunch of work meetings, but I'm actually consumed with soaking in my new town!

Talk to you peeps soon.

Ok, one more precious bun bun shot:

Read my lips: No More Cooking

It has been oh so easy to focus on the stress and chaos of the last few weeks, but one of the advantages of having to keep the house squeaky clean at all times is that it is impractical to cook.  So in an attempt to make life easier, we have adopted an all-take-out all-the-time eating approach.  Not the best for the waistline or the wallet, but it is absolutely fabulous for the convenience seeker.

Last night we splurged and had a good-bye dinner with some peeps at Volt (Bryan Voltaggio's place of Top Chef!).  Love, love and love.  G says it is the most expensive meal he never ate, but the foodies had an absolute blast, and we got to meet Bryan (!) who was extremely gracious and nice to take a couple of pics with us!

My friend S and I have discussed many a season of Top Chef together, so it was appropriate that we take this pic.

An action shot in the kitchen!  I was like, where is Tom?  Where is Padma?  Gail, is that you????

All of the ingredients were seasonal (of course) and the dishes were unique pairings of flavors.  The menu offered your choice of two 7-course meals (a protein-based or a vegetarian-based) and each course came with an entire new set of tableware and dishes.  Wait staff and wine experts were only a hand-wave away at all times, and it was a glorious experience.

I ordered the protein-based course and G ordered the vegetarian-based one, so that I could indulge in his as well.  I took just a few pics.

My first course, from left to right:  A corn "hushpuppy", veal carpaccio; a vegetarian "oyster" made from some ingredients that I can't remember.

My favorite course: goat-cheese stuffed ravioli with sea foam, bacon and local herbs.  Sea foam, people!  Seaaaaaa Foammmmmmmm!

One of G's vegetarian dishes: a cucumber soup with fresh carrot, ginger and local edible flowers.  We all took turns helping ourselves to G's dishes.

It was a pretty penny and kind of a last hoorah as we said goodbye to some good friends.  It was fine dining at its absolute best - wish you guys could have shared it with us!  It was a great, relaxing way to celebrate a quick wind down of the last six weeks!

Now I need to hit the gym...

TGIF, people!

Preserving the Mystery

And now for something not related to moving and/or renting the house...

A few months ago, I saw the movie "Prometheus" in the theater.  It was a good flick, but....I saw too much of the movie in the previews.  Granted, I did this to myself--I was pretty excited to see the movie, so I scoured the Internet for any previews, news, blog posts, etc that described the movie.  After it was over, I felt as if I had seen all the important parts in the previews, and what I had seen in the theater was the filler in between those parts.

Part of this is the movie studios' collective fault--I think that more and more, they are giving away too much in movie previews.  It has almost gotten to the point that the previews are an entity to themselves; indeed, several people I know said that they enjoyed the previews for "Prometheus" more than the movie itself.

So, here's my experiment:  the new Bond movie, "Skyfall", is coming out in November.  The first trailer came out a few days ago, and I watched it this morning.  This is a movie I would like to see; I'm not a huge Bond fan, but I think Daniel Craig does a good job in the role.  So I am going to do my best to avoid any news about the movie, and not watch any more previews (or re-watch the one I've seen already) before I go see the movie in the theater.

We'll see if that makes it feel as if I haven't already seen the movie.