Somewhere in the middle

I leave for VA in a couple of hours and I feel very "meh" about it.  In the past few months, I have gone because my workload has been overwhelming and these trips have been necessary.  While in the HQ office, I worked long hours, fell straight into bed at night, and the whole time was a blur until the plane ride home.  This time, I think, will be somewhat different because it is mostly training and transitioning so that someone else will do all this work.

There might be one or two happy hours already scheduled.  They know how to roll out the red carpet.

Plus, I have to say it's hard to leave my city now that spring has sprung.

I'm not dreading this trip, but I'm not exactly looking forward to it, either.  I'm somewhere in the middle.  It is a good chance for me to spend some face time with the majority of my coworkers; it's a chance for me to spend a few hours close to our old neighborhood; it's a chance to spice things up (job-wise) for just a few days.

My feelings also validate our decision to move here.  We were right.  We felt very strongly that we would like love it here, and we do.  I don't even care if it's just self-fulfilling prophecy.

Some more pics of a budding new season:

See you peeps on the other side.  :)

Also, we are revving up the Denver Supper Club blog.  Check it out here for some good recipes.

Cue the Lamaze Breathing

In order to prepare ourselves to meet with the realtor yesterday, we tried a new place for brunch:

G had the biscuits and gravy, I had Amsterdam Hash: potatoes/eggs/veggies covered with gravy.  It was good - the service was subpar to the point of being ridiculous.  But anyhoo - I kept telling G how amazed I was at the amount of veggies they put in everything.  Turns out it's a vegetarian/vegan restaurant.  Ha!  So, you know, now it all makes sense.

Know what's better than one mimosa?

Two mimosas!

I ordered one and the waiter (the like, one time he came to the table) said they were two-for-one, so he just brought me two.  Have I mentioned I love Denver?  Also?  I'm in short sleeves!  Yay, spring!  They're calling for snow later this week but I'll be in VA so I'll just pretend it never happened.

A modern-day hitching post:

It kills me.  I want 75 dogs and I want them immediately.  Orca can deal.

After brunch, we moved it on down to Dazbog and met the realtor.  Turns out that right now really is a good time to buy - (would a realtor ever tell you it's not a good time?)  But it's mostly due to the low interest rates.  They are half of what they were when we bought our first house, so it's worth our time and effort (since we're never, ever, ever leaving Denver) to scout around and see if we can find something.

The next step is to schedule an appointment with a lender after I get back from VA, get the finance ball rolling, and then start looking at houses.  I feel oddly, nay, alarmingly calm about the house hunt.  (Except:  the thought of moving again so soon makes me want to hurl.)  Maybe the whole thing just hasn't sunk in yet?  It's a seller's market, so there are lots of bidding wars for houses - something we have never experienced.  So maybe I'm nonchalant because I think even if we find something, we won't be able to get it?  Maybe I know G and I will argue so much since we want completely different things, that I just don't want to deal with it?

Anyhoo, I'll take this newfound cool and just go with it.  This never happens to me.

It was a beautiful day to sit out and sip coffee and plan for the mysterious future.

To take advantage of the weather and alleviate the stress, we went for a run in the park.  I would like to run more often, but I have IT band issues.  I've heard about the wonders of foam rolling, and finally broke down and got a roller.  For the past couple of weeks I've been using it at night after walking home, and although it hurts like crazy at the time, it really works!  It has helped me so much that I don't even feel yesterday's run.  So I'm hoping to run a bit more regularly, maybe 1-2 times a week, if that's not too much on top of walking to work and hiking on the weekends.  I'd really like to fit that in.

It is proof that there is a God, that I'm able to run at this altitude.  I only felt like dying about 7 times.

And then I went to supper club and cancelled out all those burned calories.  

Happy Monday, peeps.  I'm flying out tomorrow - hopefully for the last time in many, many moons.

Why You Can Never Go Wrong Reading Anne Lamott

The latest in my string of distractions from Game of Thrones:

Crooked Little Heart by Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott has published about 10 books or so.  Some are fiction, some are auto-biographical essays.  I have all of them but haven't read them all yet because I save them, hoard them like a dragon with her golden treasures.  Every now and then I bring one out, curl myself around it and just enjoy.

I knew one of her books would be just the thing to get my mind off far-away mystical battles and fights for the throne.  Crooked Little Heart is the story of 13-year old Rosie, an awkward, earnest tennis star, and her life with her mother, Elizabeth, who is a recovering alcoholic.  The book follows both of them and their various struggles in normal, daily family life, along with the cast of characters surrounding them: James (Elizabeth's relatively new husband), his goofy buddy Lank, and Elizabeth's best friend, Rae, an artistic Christian whose beliefs in Jesus confound the rest of the group.

Lamott has a gift for capturing and portraying ordinary life in an entertaining way.  Her dialogue is spot-on, and she just "gets" mannerisms, actions, and reactions of characters to each other.  It's hard to describe, but if you do a lot of reading, you know what I mean.  Her writing doesn't feel fabricated; it feels genuine; it feels like you just stepped into the scene, like you've probably lived the scene before.

A couple of snapshots of her writing:

"Hey, you two," she called down.  "Go to sleep!"  The conversation in the living room stopped for a moment; then the girls dissolved into helpless giggling.  When they were together, they could get lost in full-on absurdity, in the wonderful headiness of recognizing absurdity everywhere.  It was like emotional surfing for them - the vigorous intensity.  And it was safe.  Because when you played with such intensity, you had to do it with someone else; by yourself it led to total craziness, and you might not find your way back."
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"There was a snapshot of Charles in a rowboat somewhere, young and handsome, wearing an old-fashioned T-shirt, like a muscle-man shirt.  She almost said out loud to her mother that Charles looked like her dad would have looked if he'd lived another forty years, but if she said that, her mother would just try to make everything come out okay.  Rosie wanted to feel these terrible empty held-breath feelings, this extremely sad thing that had happened, Charles dying, and she didn't want her mother to take it away and define it for her and then hand it back.  She didn't want a guide."

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These snippets don't show you the dialogue, which is the best, or her descriptions, which will have you rolling.  But you get the general idea.  Also, Lamott has a knack for writing as both a 13-year old and a 30-something with equal believability.  Her writing is not contrived, and I appreciate that.

And just for fun, here's me and Anne a few years ago!  Blurry pic, but I have to include it!  Go read something, anything, by her immediately.  You won't regret it.

Elevation Gain

This is more like it.

I'm sure my hairdresser would be thrilled to know that as soon as she colored the gray did my hair this morning, I pulled it back and hit the trail.

We did a series of trails at Mount Falcon in order to gain some more elevation (this one was 7,300-7,500-ish).  It was also a mo-FRACKER at the end.  It was about a mile straight up into the sky that nearly did me in.  This time my legs were joining my lungs in a full-on strike.  I had to resort to visions of Sonic to get me through.  I'm pretty sure G was imagining orcs or the trench run or something.

Part of an old estate owned by a German family with a name I can't spell.

Denver is in the background but I'm still learning the settings on the camera, so you can't really see it.

See the top of Red Rocks in the middle of the picture?

Then G took the camera - thank God.

 

The spoils

Since we did a series of trails, we're not exactly sure how many miles we clocked - somewhere between three and four.  The plan is to gradually increase the elevation, so next weekend we'll try the 8,000-ft range.  Also?  Despite slathering on the sunscreen and being mostly in the shade, we both got burned...?  Like, for real, not just slightly pink.  What the...?

Lots to learn still.

We hit up you-know-what on the way home for drinks.  Now G is getting ready to go nerd it up and Orca & I are getting ready to finish our book so we can quit kidding ourselves and dive immediately back into Game of Thrones.

I travel to VA next week for work - hopefully this will be the last trip for several months.  I'll be transitioning a bundle of my HQ-related responsibilities to a new Director, and so this week shouldn't be very stressful (famous last words).  Also, instead of crashing in a hotel I'm staying with my carpool buddy M, just down the road from our house (our old house, I guess I should say?).  So I'll check in on it and force M to go to my old fave Tex Mex joint and custard place.  I love it when a plan comes together.

We meet with the realtor tomorrow and like I said, I don't have any grand expectations.  This rarely happens to me once I get something in mind, so I'm actually pretty stoked.  I think I'll be equally OK if looking for a house is a good idea, or if waiting is a good idea.  What really matters is that we dreamed of moving west, and now we're here.

And we're trying a new place for brunch tomorrow. 

TGIF, people!

Guess What! It's Snowing!

It's Tuesday in Denver and you know what that means - a snow day.

Not bad enough to keep us inside though.  Dang.

Keeping up on current events isn't my forte, but apparently CO is in a drought, so every little bit of water helps.  I also think this may be one of the snowiest Aprils on recent record for them - I mean, for us.

So I mentioned we went to a few of the outlet malls this weekend.  Randomness - check out this sign:

I couldn't help myself.  Nothing like a fat face on a Slim Fit sign.  And now I'll get a honkin Karma smack for making fun of the Make a Wish Foundation.

In other news, we are going to meet with a realtor this weekend to talk through the possibility of buying a house here.  I have no idea what to expect and am trying not to get attached to any sort of mindset; I'm trying to just see where this goes and what a wise decision would be.

We are interested, though, because it would be possible in this market to buy a house and pay less for our mortgage than we currently pay for our rent.  We'll see.  I'm not interested in the suburbs or in a crazy commute or in living out and away from Denver.  Which probably means all the available houses are millions of dollars and the size of our guest bathroom.

Getting our Hike On

It's a beautiful spring morning and the birds are chirping outside.  You would never guess we're supposed to get 3-7 inches of snow tonight.  **sigh**  Here we go again.  G with the hotel arrangements, etc., just in case.

But we went for a nice hike yesterday: We did the Flatirons Vista Loop by the Flatirons in Boulder.  In our preparation to do a couple of 14ers this summer, we are trying to increase elevation.  Denver is at 5,280 feet and Lord knows it took me a million years to get used to that.  So we're taking the increases gradually.  This hike was between 6,000 and 6,500.  We're planning one for next weekend between 6,500 and 7,000.  And on and on it goes.

It was a ~3 mile loop with some great views of the Flatirons.  It's a popular trail for runners, cyclists and dog owners as well.  It was very muddy due to the snow of late, but the views were incredible and it was the perfect day to get out in the fresh air and walk for a while.

Like true Americans, we hit up the outlet malls in Castle Rock after this.  :)  We had to find some work clothes, and then we just happened to stop at Sonic on the way home.  Not a bad Sunday.

Here's hoping I'm not walking home in a blizzard tonight.

Snapshots of a Saturday

Nice mixture of relaxation and productivity.  Alllll ready to go hiking today.  It would be great if the President or whoever would get started on the concept of a three-day weekend, every week.  Two day weekends aren't cutting it anymore.  Thanks.

Assimilating

In our never-ending quest to assimilate completely into all that is Denver, we went to a Rockies game last night.

I had to ask G what their colors are, and then dug through my closet for anything black and purple.  This is difficult because the only clothes I own are either for work, or working out.  There is no in between.  But I rallied nonetheless.

The good part about working with mostly guys is that they offer all kinds of sports-related tips which I usually ignore but which came in handy yesterday.  I told them I was planning to buy something Rockies-ish at the game and they recoiled in horror, telling me of a few shops just down the street the offered better merch at a better price, so I snuck out at lunch time to go buy a hat.

This is how I know I have assimilated:  as I was trolling around on 16th, I was getting so annoyed at all the tourists.  Ha!  Right?  That was me like 6 months ago!  But not anymore.

In the store, however, I was a fish out of water.  I finally broke down and asked a clerk to help me get the right sized hat.  He asked if I was looking for my children - I was like, noooo....?  Turns out I was in the kids' section.  Luckily, the adults section had the same hat, so all is well.

Sporting the flat bill because that's how I roll

I have to say, G is much more of a baseball fan than I am (surprise!), but the game was so much fun!  One thing I love about the sport is that it's so chill for the audience.  You sit outside, you drink, you eat.  You chit chat with whomever and enjoy the weather and watch for the occasional fly ball.  In the meantime, the guys on the field move around a little bit.  (I know G is filing the divorce papers as I type this, but let's face it, folks:  that's a classic baseball game.)

Tell me that's not a gorgeous sky!  See the mountains?

Look closely up top - see the blue line running left to right?  That's the mile-high marker.

There weren't many people at the game, but that's probably because it was like 40 degrees.  It filled up more throughout the game, but was still dead compared to the Washington Nationals stadium.  I guess that's because there are just a few more people living in D.C. than in Denver.  Which is why I heart Denver.

I woke up at 3:00 a.m. ravenous.  I think my stomach knows we're going to brunch this morning.  God bless Saturdays.

BTW, the Rockies won!  :)