In Search of a High Altitude Attitude . . .

Back to Sea Level

2011-05-08T21:25:00.002-06:00

Wow . . . it's been over a year. And . . . I'm now . . . back to sea level. Unexpected? Completely. Lots of changes. In April, with the economic picture at my employer looking even gloomier, and with the construction industry tanking causing Robert to get laid off, we decided it was time to leave Colorado and make a new start . . . but we were never looking at Arkansas. I was a finalist for a job in North Carolina . . . that unfortunately went to the interim GC. Then Robert was offered a position in Toronto (but I couldn't practice law there and, with a child to still put through college, I need to practice law for several more years.) Then Robert started looking in Texas, and I started a long process for a position in the Pacific Northwest. Out of the blue, in September, a former colleague told me of a position coming open back home, that, truly, was the only position I could imagine that would take me back to a state I thought I had left for good. I applied and within 4 weeks was making plans to move back home. And would my Canadian ever consider moving to the American South? The first time he ever set foot in the state was the day he flew in to look at houses with me. It was a bumpy time in the relationship . . . big changes. His green card had yet to arrive and, as ICE made very clear, would not be forwarded. So, could he move? He had just started a new job in Denver a couple of weeks before I accepted the job back home. His soccer development business he started over the summer was going gangbusters. What right did I have to do this so suddenly? Love was put to the test. And, thankfully, love won out. Robert threw all caution (reason?) to the wind, quit his job, and moved with me and Bug to Arkansas. The packers were scheduled for Friday, November 5. The green card arrived one day before . . . it was fated.

The loaders arrived on the 6th and mistakenly packed all the bedding and pillows we intended to sleep on that night. So . . . we improvised . . . boy, did we improvise . . . we drove to Colorado Springs to say bye to Robert's daughter and treated ourselves WITH THE BOXERS to a night at The Broadmoor . . . it was FABULOUS . . . absolutely fabulous. And the dogs got a turn down service with beautiful dogs beds, ceramic bowls, gourmet cookies, and gold tags identifying them as "Guests of The Broadmoor". It was hysterical, but wonderful. Other guests' reactions to the Boxers the entire visit was very funny. (Rich doggies, more than 1 person whispered as we passed -- hardly) Bug's birthday was the next morning, so we had the famous Broadmoor Brunch with Robert's daughter. We ate way too much food, said our goodbyes, and made our way back to the room to see if the Boxers had been good or if they had been taken to the security office for unruliness (which the brochure had warned of) . . . We opened the door to the room and two bodies bounded off of the very expensive duvets on our beds (so much for the nice dog beds).

That day and the next were LOOOOOONNNNGGGG days of driving before we finally arrived at our new hometown. Although we arrived on a Monday, we weren't taking possession of the house until Friday. So our very first home (again with the Boxers) was the Embassy Suites. It was a fast week, moved in over the weekend, and I started my new job on Monday (big mistake . . . huge). From then to now, it's been a whirlwind. On Thanksgiving night, Robert and I finally married . . . in our beautiful gardens that came with the house, under an arch he covered in twinkle lights, next to our waterfall that leads to our koi pond. It had rained all day, but quit raining 20 minutes before the Justice of the Peace showed up, and stayed dry until she left after the ceremony at which point the rains flowed again. Again, fated. It was a beautiful, quiet ceremony, attended by Bug and . . . of course, the Boxers.

Here we are in May, and things have not settled down in the time we've been here. Bug and I have both had some fairly serious issues with our spines, oddly enough. Robert worked non-stop on the house and its "projects" for a full 2 months before starting a job that has been difficult, to say the least. My job has been much more challenging than I expected. Bug is trying to make her way through new teachers, new and old friends, and new curriculum. We've had record snowstorms, tornadoes, and flooding, and some days it's really tough to remember why we ever thought we should leave Colorado. But, here I am . . . back at sea level . . . and anxious to see what the future holds.

The Tree at the Labyrinth

2010-05-02T20:12:00.010-06:00

Yesterday, the two groups going through the spirituality training I've been engaged in since January were carpooled to a sanctuary near Sedalia, Colorado, for a day of meditation and inner work. The sanctuary was the brain child of a woman who lost her daughter and was guided by her spirit to build a labyrinth to allow people to heal, and two attorneys who cashed in their 401K's to buy the land, build the sanctuary, and the various meditation areas that you find when you explore the paths on the land. The sanctuary is also supported by Douglas County and numerous individuals. Inside the actual sanctuary, there are bookshelves filled with books donated by people from all walks of life and all religions -- it's open to everyone, irrespective of personal beliefs, as a place to heal. It was an amazing day . . . in addition to the large group work, we spent about 5 hours in meditation utilizing different techniques in different small group sessions during the day: Nature, Qigong, Sanctuary, Labyrinth, and Writing. The time in the sanctuary, going through a cleansing and healing meditation, was the most powerful for me. I think I floated out of the Sanctuary down to the Labyrinth to go on a walking meditation. At the center of the Labyrinth, I received the answer to a question I'd been seeking. At the end of the day, before the groups met up again, I had my writing session where we were given two assignments: one, write about the experience of the day to be read by my main teacher and the other, to write from the perspective of an inanimate object that you had come in contact during the day. I wrote from the perspective of . . . .

The Tree at the Labyrinth
. . . . . I was here . . . waiting on you to lean on me. I saw you look around at the other trees, trying to decide which was "the best", but you were drawn to me, even with the curve in my trunk. You fell back against me, almost in exhaustion. The sanctuary experience was tough on you. It's hard for you to let go or release. It's hard for you to let someone see you vulnerable. It's hard for you to let people put their hands on you and not pull back --- you're so scared that when they touch you, they will see through your carefully constructed facade that you're strong, tough, independent, and don't need anyone else in the world . . . when, actually, you don't feel like you're any of those things at times and that you do need people. So, I was glad to be here for you today. I was glad you leaned on me and felt my sturdiness. You need to recognize your roots are as strong as mine.

I can't wait to return to the Sanctuary with Robert and Mattie and show them my beautiful tree. The one that supported me when I needed it so.

Creating A Vision Board

2010-02-15T14:27:00.008-07:00

Busy, busy past month . . . and haven't wanted to write much since Kayla crossed over. Our entire family, dogs included, have been in mourning and a bit out of sync. But, on January 23rd, I began a very personal journey of further developing my spirituality and beliefs. Not a fan of religious dogma, I'm studying under two gifted and wise teachers, and I'm on this journey with a group of 25 others. For the next nine months, we're going to engage in some butt-kicking, gut-wrenching introspective work. My first assignment was to create a "vision board". A vision board, in and of itself, is a simple concept: take a poster board, glue onto it pictures or words that represent what you want out of life, and consistently view it so that you begin to manifest those things in your life. There is a scientfic principal behind it --at the base of the human brain stem, in between the medulla oblongata and the mesencephalon, there is a small finger-sized control center called the reticular activating system (RAS) that sorts and evaluates the huge amount of incoming information your brain receives. Your RAS filters that massive amount of incoming data and also acts as receiver for information that is tagged as "important". According to one university researcher, your RAS can’t distinguish what is a real event and one you contrive, and, therefore, you can exploit this weakness to program it to seek out things in our environment that resonate with our personal goals, i.e., through the use of a vision board. For me, however, that science stuff just sucks all the fun and mystery out of it --- I prefer to just refer to it as the "law of attraction" that has received so much media attention over the past several years with the popularity of "The Secret". Anyway, I made my vision board, pasting onto it the things I desire most in my life --- my relationships, city I want to live in, places I want to travel to, wealth, healthy living, music, words that I want to frame my life, yada yada yada. I'm not sure, though, that I might not revise it. For example, I put on it a picture of a black 7 series, BMW (I once was given one for a weekend to enjoy -- ooh la la, what a ride), but, after reflection, I really don't want a $100,000 car ---- it, in no way, resonates with who I am. So, I think my "vision" might need revisions, but I've made a great start. I even put my board into the transparency cover on the front of my class notebook so that I see it every day and am, hopefully, manipulating my RAS to make this stuff my reality. Time will tell . . .

Goodbye, Sweet Kayla

2010-01-18T11:49:00.009-07:00

Today is a very sad day for our family. The matriarch of our canines, Kayla, crossed over this morning. What a beautiful soul . . . she would have been 16 years old in May. Robert got her when he was living in British Columbia, and she's been through a lot with him over the years. Always faithful, always loving. I've never seen a dog as crazy about food. She did this happy dance every time we would feed her . . . . bouncing back and forth between the 2 back legs and the 2 front legs, then twisting, and, if you weren't fast enough with the food bowl, barking at you to speed things up. And she had an amazing internal clock that, if we happened to be home, exactly at 5:00 p.m., she would come find you so that you could fill that food bowl. The Boxers, who previous to our family merger had been "pick at the bowl all day long" eaters, learned quickly to eat their food or it would be gone.

Over the holidays, we knew something was up because she stopped doing the happy dance. She stopped eating her food at one point, but we bought her a different food which she seemed to love, so we hoped she had just tired of the old food. However, a few days ago, she stopped showing interest in that food . . . then we found some soiled spots on the carpet . . . something was definitely not right. Friday night, when Mattie and I came home, Robert was on the floor with her . . . he said she had stumbled coming down the stairs and just stayed where she fell. She wouldn't eat or drink. Later that night, though, Robert's daughter came over . . . we were going to go skiing the next day, so she was going to spend the night with us. Kayla perked up a little when she arrived. The next morning, she even ate her breakfast and went outside with the other dogs . . . we thought maybe the previous evening had just been a sore muscle or hip. We had neighbors check on her throughout the day, and she seemed okay Saturday night when we returned from skiing. However, on Sunday, she barely moved the entire day. Wouldn't eat . . . even when I cooked her chicken, which she loved. Wouldn't eat her cookies. Wouldn't play. At one point, I tried to take her out to use the bathroom, and she collapsed at the edge of the patio. I got a blanket and put on the floor and carried her back inside. She didn't move all night and only drank a little water, no food. So, this morning, we called the vet first thing. No appointments available, but they said they could work us in on a walk-in basis. At 10:30, they called us back. The vet took her history from us, checked her heart and her kidneys and told us it was time. Her kidneys were hard and very small . . . and with the lack of output over the course of the weekend, signaled failure. Her heart was very slow and breathing labored. . . . She was suffering, which a grand lady like her should not have to do.

I've never had to do anything like that before.

My first dog, Bugle, went without my knowledge . . . my dad took him to the vet without me even knowing . . . and came home without him. I still struggle with that today . . . the never-getting-to-say-goodbye to my first best friend. My second dog, Bud, was living with my parents when I was at college . . . I came home for the weekend, and my dad told me that Bud was ready to die and that he had just let him out of the pen to go do it on his terms. I was dumbfounded and furious. My brother and I spent the entire day . . . until nightfall . . . looking for his body . . . never found it. My third dog, Murphy, my beloved Basset Hound, was staying with my first husband at the time he crosssed over because I had suspected my second husband, who I was married to at the time, was being abusive to him when I was not around --- this same husband is the one who beat me to a pulp one night for turning down the volume on our TV after putting Bug to bed. So I was not with Murphy either . . . he was 14 though and had lived a great life. My first husband very sweetly took him back to his parents' property in Mena and buried him there. The night my second husband beat me, he also kicked our Great Dane, Sadie, in the mouth as he crossed the room to take me out. So, when I left home to live on the road with Bug (my ex was threatening to kill me), we sheltered Sadie with a vet friend of mine so she wouldn't be hurt by him. Devastated and trying to live as a single parent with a 4-year-old, paying all the bills without any support, I found a couple in Northwest Arkansas who had Sadie's sibling and some other Great Danes . . . I gave her to them to raise while I picked up the pieces of a broken life. They loved her dearly, and I could never bring myself to ask for her back after I got back on my feet a couple of years later. She, too, crossed over before I moved to Colorado, but I wasn't there.

Long story to say that I was not prepared for today. But the vet was incredible. He's the same one who diagnosed Cooper with Addison's Disease, and he was compassionate, competent, and answered all of our questions before we could even ask. He shaved a little area of her beautiful golden leg and inserted the IV. Robert and I held her the entire time . . . . looking into those beautiful, loving brown eyes . . . telling her what a good dog she had been . . . how she had always done everything right . . . how much love and joy she had brought to everyone . . . how we were so thankful she wouldn't have to hurt or struggle anymore. We held her until the very end . . . one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do . . . watch the life go out of a living creature . . . one of our cherished family members.

Goodby, sweet Kayla . . . . we miss you so . . . .

Future You or Past You . . . which one would you rather talk to?

2010-01-13T21:54:00.001-07:00

Robert’s daughter gave me a book for Christmas entitled “What I Know Now: Letters to My Younger Self”. It is a collection of letters written by prominent, successful women and edited by Ellyn Spragins. The writers include Maya Angelou, Cokie Roberts, Olympia Dukakis, Madeleine Albright, Picabo Street, and other wonderful women, and with each letter, the author writes to herself at a younger age . . . giving her younger self a piece of information or advice that she wishes she had known “then” or the encouragement to get through a coming hurdle. The book stuck with me long after I had finished reading it because of the concept. . . . I have had numerous turning points in my life where I would have liked to have had the wisdom of my future. Times when I could have used the older, wiser me to let me know things were going to be okay. The proverbial “this, too, shall pass” might have meant more coming from “future me” as opposed to well-meaning friends. I loved the idea of the letter . . . it seems therapeutic. I loved the idea so much that I sent the idea to my dear friend who is chairing the literary festival in my former state. What if . . . you got women who are successful role models in the state and community to write those letters and read them at a public forum with teen-aged and college-aged women in attendance? . . . could it provide encouragement? . . . could it give them a tool in their war chests to use when life comes at them full force? When I was younger, I never had an ounce of appreciation for the real lives of the women I viewed as successful. To me, their lives seemed charmed. They, obviously, did not wear their trials and tribulations on their sleeves for the rest of us to see, so I assumed the absence of difficulties. So many times, when I was struggling over the years, I considered myself such a “failure” because I was dealing with real-life problems instead of having the carefree life I assumed came with success. As I’ve grown older and seen the challenges me and my friends have overcome, I know now that behind EVERY successful woman is a trail of difficulties she’s encountered and overcome . . . life’s little tests that have made her stronger and brought her to the success that everyone admires.

Shortly after finishing the book, I came across another concept. A local radio DJ found a website at www.futureme.org. With this website, you pick a date in the future to have an email delivered to you . . . it can be one week, one year, twenty years . . . it’s your decision . . . and then you write an email to yourself and have it delivered on that date. (Of course, if you’re picking a date far out in the future, you need to make sure you are going to have the same email address . . . and, of course, hopefully, you’ll still be on planet Earth at your chosen time. ) In any event, I think it has the potential to offer a similar benefit. . . . .

So, who would you rather write to? Your former self or your future self? Try it!

I'm Baaaaaack . . . . .

2010-01-07T20:31:00.005-07:00

One year and one month later, I'm finally making this blog a priority once again. I've missed it . . . not sure if anyone else has . . . but, as I looked back at it recently, I realized what a wonderful history of my time in Colorado it provided when I was writing. With my mother having died from an Alzheimer's-related complication, and having shown symptoms in her early sixties, my memories have become increasingly precious to me. Last year has to have been one of the best of my life, and I was so busy living that I didn't really record . . . well . . . anything. I have pictures from our travels, but outside of documenting in a journal one trip to Nanaimo for Robert's dad's funeral, I have nothing. So, while I originally started this blog so that my beloved friends and family in Arkansas would have a window into my life out west, the driving force behind my re-entry into the blogging world is to capture my own life in a format I can return to should the memories begin to fade.

It was a growth year, that's for sure. Robert and I moved in together on December 17, 2008, and started our journey as a family with Bug, 2 Boxers (Cooper and Chloe), and a Golden Retriever (Kayla). In that short time, an awful lot happened. We lost Robert's father to colon cancer in January. In February, Robert started a new job, and we bought a new car (one which I'm still trying to learn to like). Bug finished elementary school and started middle school. Robert suffered a torn plantaris tendon in his men's soccer championship game, two days before we were to leave for California for him to play in a long-anticipated hockey tournament with his former Canadian hockey buddies -- so our summer plans of tennis, hiking the mountains, and biking were over with a nasty slide tackle. In August, we started a soccer team - - - Robert became the coach of Bug's team, while continuing to coach a boys' premier competitive team out of Westminster. I (naively) took on the roles of team manager and fitness trainer. In September and October, Robert patiently nursed me through surgery and the yucky recovery thereafter. Over the course of the year, we traveled to Canada four times, Seattle once, and made lots of weekend jaunts to the ski resorts. We've had to deal with immigration issues, an "ex", and agonizing decisions over where, in the metro area, we want to live.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it all . . . but, it was an incredible year. I have the life partner and relationship I've dreamed about since I was a little girl . . . the one I could never find until I learned some really hard . . . life lessons. Bug. . . . . . finally . . . . . has the father and male role model that has never existed in her life. She has a smart, beautiful, and wonderfully talented "older sister" in Robert's 25-year-old daughter. She has a loving, athletic, fun "older brother" in Robert's 28-year-old son, who has a beautiful, sweet wife, from China, and the most adorable daughter, who just turned 2. We are a twenty-first century, multi-cultural, multi-national family. Robert and I successfully merged dogs, dishes, and lots of furniture. We triumphed over those inevitable first-year challenges . . . and there were some challenges considering our collective baggage of failed marriages . . . two each . . . (and, for each of us, our "second spouses" were real doozies). Yet, I've never felt so incredibly blessed in my life. I feel like I've found the yin to my yang (or is he the yang to my yin . . .?), anyway, it's the best. I have a peace about me that I'm not sure I've ever felt. Robert has said the exact same thing to me. My daughter has blossomed in ways I could not have imagined. So . . . a resolution for 2010 was to not let it get by me without recording some of these terrific life events . . . the triumphs and the tragedies. :) Make no mistake . . . I'm still in search of that "high altitude attitude" . . . I hope you enjoy the journey with me to find it.

Avs beat Canucks 5--4 in an overtime shootout . . .

2008-12-08T16:08:00.007-07:00

. . . and someone wasn't happy about it!!! LOL The Colorado Avalanche took on the Vancouver Canucks last night at the Pepsi Center. The Canucks are ranked first in the division, and, apparently, there is quite the rivalry between the two teams. Robert, being from Vancouver Island, is quite the Canucks fan. So off to the game we went . . . in opposing jerseys.

We received lots of looks and comments at the game since we were holding hands and obviously a couple. Other fans found it very amusing to see obvious rivalry in the relationship! Anytime a side would score, people would watch our reactions to each other. The Canadians in the stands were particularly outspoken and very friendly. Luckily for Robert, there were several Canucks fans behind us. One of them took this picture of us while we were still playing "nice", although he told me he cut me out of the picture completely since I was "wearing the wrong jersey."

One very cute thing that happened during the game. Bug (who recently has become the text messaging and emailing QUEEN) watched the game at home with the babysitter and . . . even though Robert and I were AT the game, thought she should email me the score everytime someone made a goal. After the first couple of times she did this, she texted "I will update you everytime the score changes." Again, WE WERE AT THE GAME!! LOL LOL I thought that was one of the cutest, funniest things ever . . . and, by gosh, everytime a goal was scored, I could see the red light going off on my phone. At one point, when we were tied 4-4, she even took a picture of the television screen showing the scoreboard and emailed it to me. With that kind of enthusiasm, Robert and I are committed to taking her with us to the games from now on.

And . . . Robert was selected to play with a Canadian team at an invitational hockey tournament in Santa Rosa in July. And he's invited Bug and I to go with him. So she'll get to see him play. He's supposed to be the "goalie extraordinaire" . . . . I saw one email someone sent out describing him as having "the reflexes of a cat" in goal. Whoo hoo! Can't wait to see that!

All in all, it was a very fun evening . . . although someone never did quite get over the loss . . .

Freezing in Denver

2008-12-04T12:47:00.004-07:00

Something not to do today in Denver . . . . it's 16 degrees and supposed to drop to 8. Has been snowing all day and expected to get up to 4 inches. I just want to go home, put on sweats, and snuggle with my Sweetie. But, being this is Colorado, everyone is in full work mode. No delayed school starts, no work closings . . . just business as usual. To top it off, our University president is having his holiday party outside at the zoo tonight!!! Snowing and 8 degrees . . . with an outside party. Granted, dinner is in a pavilion, but still. Trying to think of a way to graciously back out, but nothing's coming to me. . . . . Will make sure not to stick my tongue on any poles. :)

Birthday Weekend in Chicago

2008-11-14T12:30:00.035-07:00

Trying to find time to update my blog is difficult these days . . . but that's a good thing because life is filled up with some pretty wonderful times . . . for a change. LOL Anyway, we had an incredible birthday weekend in Chicago on November 7 - 9. Bug's birthday was the 7th . . . can't believe she is 11 years old . . . . for her special day, she wanted to go to Chicago, have her birthday dinner at American Girl Place, see Wicked before it closes there in January, and see her friend Emily who is her friend and our former neighbor in Cherry Creek.

We started off the day with presents at home, then off to the airport. Robert was 2 days off of crutches and in a walking cast. Luckily, Southwest let him pre-board and Bug went with him, so we got decent seats and all together.

We arrived to a chilly, gray Chicago. When you live in Denver, it is EXTREMELY rare to have a gray day. So rare that we were happy to see gray skies for a change. The city still had a tremendous energy from the election 3 days prior to our arrival and, in fact, Obama was speaking on the day we arrived. Our cab took us right by Grant Park where he accepted the presidency.

We stayed at the Millineum Knickerbocker Hotel on East Walton Place, just steps from the Mag Mile. The hotel was great. I especially loved our bathroom and now know what I want in my shower if I ever get to build a house. Shower heads everywhere! It was great! After checking in, we headed to the 900 Shops for lunch and shopping. We dined on antipasto, cheese pizza, and the "famous" chopped salad at Frankie's 5th Floor Pizzeria . . .

Afterwards, we shopped at Bloomingdale's where Robert found some really nice Armani jeans on sale and where, unfortunately, the sales person AND Bug overheard me commenting on how nice his "bootie" looked in them as he was walking away from me after he tried them on. The sales person found it very amusing . . . and continued to talk about it through the checkout process . . . and Bug found it very embarrassing and told me I was never to make those comments in public again. I thought I was making a private comment . . . but nonetheless, I was scolded harshly by my daughter. And Robert, well . . . he seemed to enjoy it all and apparently he thought he looked pretty darn good himself . . . LOL! (And he did!)

After shopping, we went back to the hotel for a short rest before hitting American Girl Place, which has moved from its Chicago Avenue location to the Water Tower Place on Michigan Avenue, only 2 1/2 blocks from our hotel . . . entirely too close as we went there 2 days in a row for loooooooonnnnnnggg periods of time, but I digress. Robert had never . . . . um . . . experienced . . . an American Girl Place before, so he was a bit overwhelmed as we walked through the door. Bug, however, was on a mission. She had been studying a catalog we received in the mail for a good 3 days, so she was off and running, armed with a purse full of her money and anticipating Mom would cough up some birthday goods as well. She bought clothes and a dog for Samantha, one of the dolls that's about to be archived for who knows how long (apparently taking a marketing ploy from Walt Disney). She tried on a number of clothes for herself . . . rejecting ALL of the clothes I liked, but "loving" the ones Robert picked out for her to try . . . hmmmmm. Then she bought another doll, Mia, bringing her total doll count to 6. And she bought the matching outfit for Mia that I had purchased for her, a very cute skating sweater, skirt, and tights. Next, off to the Bitty Baby store, where we bought Robert's granddaughter, Kalynn, her very first American Girl. It is so sweet! And we got Kalynn and her doll matching red velvet and lace Christmas dresses. Before dinner (and almost an hour and a half after entering the store), we went to the doll hair salon where Annalisa, Bug's "look-alike" American Girl, had her ears pierced and her hair styled . . . the doll, not Bug. Although the cost is very similar. :( At the hair salon is where Robert's eyes really started to glaze over and he began repeatedly asking for beer and chicken wings (which, of course, are not available at American Girl Place). So we quickly ushered him towards the cafe, where we had dinner reservations. I had ordered the birthday package, so Bug and Annalisa received birthday crowns, a birthday sticker for Bug, and goody bags for the 3 of us. Annalisa received her own chair at the table.

After appetizers of warm cinnamon buns and cheese, fruits, and meats, we had dinner . . . . tilapia for me and chicken pot pie for Bug and Robert. The adults enjoyed some champagne while Bug enjoyed AG's famous pink lemonade. After dinner, a number of singing waiters arrived with a birthday cake and peppermint ice cream . . . YUM!!

We stuck the daisies that were in our individual ice cream servings behind our ears for this picture. . . because at that point, the estrogen had completely overtaken poor Robert.

The next morning, we slept late and then met Bug's friend Emily and her mother Beth at L'Appetito in the John Hancock Plaza for breakfast. It was great to see our friends. Bug and Emily didn't skip a beat in getting to "girl talk".

And after breakfast, guess where the girls wanted to shop first . . . yes, American Girl Place. (sigh) I was tired of it after the evening before, but it was Bug's weekend so we headed back out to AGP.

Fortunately, the girls didn't spend too much time there and we were able to shop other stores in the Water Tower Place. We introduced Robert to Frango Mints. And Bug got some really cute clothes at Abercrombie (not Abercrombie & Fitch) and Aeropostle. Unfortunately, Beth lost both her parking ticket AND her keys that morning, so we spent an inordinate amount of time looking for both, but eventually they were found and we grabbed a cab and headed to the theater district for our 2:00 matinee performance of Wicked. Thankfully, we were able to get a snack of Garrett's popcorn right before heading into the theater.

Wicked was SPECTACULAR . . . as always. My third time to see it in the past 2 years, and I think I could see it every month and never get bored. The songs, the clever script, the costumes . . . just one of my favorite productions of all time. It was Robert's first time to see it, and he thought it was great. And . . . he liked the beer they served at the theater! LOL

After Wicked, we got Beth's car out of the parking garage and headed to a little French restaurant called Kiki's. The food was so incredibly delicious. Bug's roasted chicken came with a huge amount of "pomme frites", so all 5 of us snacked off of her plate during the meal! And the desserts . . . magnifique! My mouse chocolatte was tres bonne!

The next morning, Sunday, started out with Robert and Bug going on a sugar high. While I was showering, they got into the very rich truffles we had purchased at the candy store the day before, as well as Robert going after some gummy bears and both Robert and Bug opening the Frango Mints and Caramels. That pretty much set the tone for bad eating for the remainder of the day. :) As we set out on our last day in Chicago, the first stop was L'Appetito again for some coffee and . . . (sigh) cookies. (And it gets worse.) Next stop, the Hancock Observatory. 94th floor, please. (whew) Here is the picture taken of us before we got on the elevator.

The views at the top were fantastic. 360 degrees. We were given headphones and audio boxes (narrated by Chicago's own David Schwimmer of "Friends") to enhance our tour. We saw Lake Michigan and Navy Pier, great views of the city, and it even started to snow while we were there. And the snow was inverted because of the heat from all the surrounding buildings, so it was snowing upwards!

On one side of the building, there is a window washing display where you can take pictures. Robert and Bug got really silly . . . which one tends to do when one has ingested nothing but large amounts of sugar and caffeine.

After a very fun morning at the Hancock Observatory, we decided we needed to consume some of Chicago's finest hot dogs . . . so off we went to Portillo's, located at Clark and Ontario.

The hot dogs were awesome! (as you can tell by the happy, stuffed faces)

Not content with our stomachs being filled only with candy, cookies, hot dogs, and french fries, we next headed back to the Mag Mile for Ghiradelli ice cream. Sundaes for all! Bug got a little overwhelmed with hers . . . see the glazed eyes?

After some"guy" shopping at Nike Town and a few other stores, we decided to go on a Chicago Trolleys Tour. It was a lot of fun. We toured the Gold Coast, saw Oprah's street, visited the Mag Mile, financial district, and theater district. Got caught in some Bears game traffic, but it was okay. Was able to stop at one of the trolley stops and get some more Garrett's pop corn (as if we had not consumed enough junk food for one day already). But boy was I happy to get some Chicago mix . . . cheese and caramel. Robert opted for cheese corn, and Bug went with the traditional butter.

Finally, it was time to head back to the airport. A quick pic on the way back in front of the very beautiful Fourth Presbyterian Church on Michigan Avenue, the oldest surviving structure on the Mag Mile.

It was a great weekend in Chicago! One we'll remember for a very long time. We're already looking forward to a return trip . . . when it's warm, so that we can spend time on Lake Michigan and at Navy Pier.

Chicago bound

2008-11-06T14:43:00.004-07:00

Whoo hoo! Twenty-four hours from now I'll be in one of my very most favorite cities --- Chicago! Robert and I are taking Bug for her eleventh birthday. Tomorrow shopping and a birthday dinner at the new American Girl Place on Michigan Avenue. Saturday, meeting friends, more shopping, and seeing "Wicked" (and hopefully trips to get our favorite Chicago popcorn mix -- Garrett's cheddar and caramel). Sunday, more eating and more shopping. Aah . . . the anticipation. . . . I love Chicago . . . the people, the shopping, the arts, the energy. It's been a year and a half since I was there . . . on my birthday in 2007. Too long to be away. I want Robert to see the view from the top of the John Hancock Building and hopefully make a trip to the Art Institute. I can hardly wait!!!!

So glad I was there . . .

2008-11-05T18:19:00.005-07:00

This is Bug and I on the night of President-Elect Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. As I wrote in a previous entry after the convention, I was so hopeful that evening that I had just witnessed the next President of the United States with my daughter at my side. Thankfully, America, that dream came true last night.

I am so hopeful for the future.

We watched the returns from home last evening, Bug, Robert and I. We were settling in for a long night when, unbelievably, Charlie Gibson broke in at 9:00 P.M. and declared the election had gone to Obama. California's 55 electoral votes, along with some other states, pushed him quickly over the requisite 270. We were estatic!!!

I had moved some of my favorite champagne, Veuve Clicquot, from Arkansas with me and had been saving it for a special night and special someone. America's historic vote warranted opening that bottle. Robert took it out on the balcony to open it, and the cork flew all the way over on top of the neighbor's roof!!

Chloe has the biggest crush on Robert and EVERY SINGLE TIME I got up from the sofa, she took my spot! Here is a picture of her watching the returns with Robert . . . and one of her testing the bouquet of the Veuve Clicquot. LOL

I survived the sharks . . . the Avs didn't

2008-11-03T19:12:00.009-07:00

Lots of sharks in my life lately . . . First, on Friday, October 24th, Bug had her birthday party at the Downtown Denver Aquarium. A sleepover ( a misnomer because not much sleep involved) . . . but she and 4 of her friends had a great time. We started with dinner at Steuben's on 17th Avenue in Denver. The girls all ordered "The Bug Special", which is what Bug orders every single time we eat at Steubens . . . chicken strips, steamed green beans, and the best french fries outside of McDonald's.

They sat us at the back of the restaurant . . . imagine that . . . .just because I had 5 squealing, excited pre-teen girls . . . we were put in the back of the restaurant.

Here are Cat, Court, Izzy, Bug, & Ana . . .

Here is Bug with her cake . . . an extremely low fat cake composed of chocolate with chocolate chips in the batter cake (3 layers), with cookies and cream filling, topped by buttercream frosting. And the restaurant brought them all ice cream to accompany the cake . . . so thoughtful (heavy sarcasm here).

After what felt like a very long car ride with 5 squealing, excited pre-teen girls hyped up on LOTS of sugar, all while listening to the soundtrack of "Camp Rock", we made it to the aquarium where the girls changed into t-shirts and went on a tour.

After the tour of the aquarium and some games with the aquarium educators who, unfortunately, felt the need to bring a hideous, evil snake into the room, take it out of its cage and parade it through our group, we started making preparations to . . . sleep with the sharks.

As we lay in our sleeping bags (on the concrete floor!!), this was the view above us. And when all the lights went out, the sharks really started circling. As well as other extremely large fish and turtles. Once when I awoke, there were 3 sharks circling right over my head. Talk about a wake-up call. Barracudas, sharks, sting rays . . . all night long . . . in the dark . . .while sleeping on a concrete floor. But . . . the girls LOVED it . . . thought it was the greatest party.

The next morning, the Aquarium treated us to bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, bisquits, and juice for breakfast, then the girls were able to give the pirahnas their breakfast of shrimp, watch the tiger in the rainforest search for his whipped cream breakfast treat, and meet a macaw named Ricky.

It was a very fun birthday party . . . although my back took a few days to recover from the experience. LOL

And then last night, Robert and I went to the hockey game where the Colorado Avalanche played the San Jose Sharks . . . and the Avs got bit . . . I mean "beat" . . . 5-3. But it was still great fun for me . . . my very first professional hockey game. It was at the Pepsi Center, which is such a nice facility. And my guy was at my side, so it was a great night. Robert caught a t-shirt at one of the period breaks for Bug, so she was very happy when we got home. And I bought an Avs jersey to wear at the next game Robert and I go to as it will be against the Vancouver Canucks, his favorite team. Since he will be wearing his Canucks jersey, I thought I should have an Avs jersey on so we don't get pummeled by Avs fans. I'll make sure to get a picture of us so you can see. The game is in December.

This coming weekend, we're all 3 headed to Chicago for Bug's birthday trip. Dinner at American Girl Place on her actual birthday, then the next day we're going to shop, see Wicked, and have dinner with our friends that moved to Chicago in July. We're looking very forward to some Garrett's popcorn!

Wanted: Sleeping Pills . . . ASAP

2008-10-24T08:43:00.003-06:00

This will be me tonight, sleeping with sharks . . . . and eels . . . and pirahnas . . . and other slippery wet things. Bug decided some time ago that she wanted to have her birthday party be a sleep-over at the Downtown Denver Aquarium. It sounded very fun at the time, but now I'm having some anxiety. After visiting the Aquarium, I now know that there are snakes in the building. Hideous, grotesque, evil snakes . . . . snakes and tornadoes are my irrational fears, so please . . . no emails or comments about any value whatsoever of a snake. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to think about them. I don't want them in my world. Yet, tonight, I will be sleeping in an enclosed area with them in the building. I would rather put on a wetsuit and spend the entire night in the shark tank.

The Harry Potter scene where the glass disappears and the snake escapes keeps running through my mind. I'm convinced one is going to escape during the night, make its way to my sleeping bag, and bite me. Never mind that there are also tigers in this Aquarium (part of a rain forest exhibit). I can handle a tiger . . . . but not a snake. So . . . if anyone has any Lunesta or other wonderful sleeping aids . . . . please get them to me by 7:00 tonight . . . . that's when the Aquarium locks the doors . . . and there I'll be . . . . until 9 AM tomorrow morning.

what was I thinking?????

The reason I haven't been blogging lately...

2008-10-19T17:52:00.015-06:00

This is Robert. We met in Parking Lot D of Dick's Sporting Goods Park on the 4th of July following a Rapids soccer game and the largest fireworks show in the state. We were parked beside each other and could not even move out of our slots for a good 45 minutes or so. He reminded Bug and I of our friend Ken from Canada --- the height, age, hair color, and even his glasses were the same. And on the other side of us were some scary people, i.e., drunk and in a huge family argument. So Bug and I struck up a conversation with Robert. And . . . oddly enough . . . he's from Canada too, from Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. (How cool is that???) And a former professional soccer player for Canada . . . now a mechanical engineer living in Denver. As unnerved as Bug and I were by the drunken people, Robert was a complete joy to be parked beside. He also coaches youth competitive soccer, so he and Bug had a lot to talk about. I was very sad when traffic opened up and we were able to pull away. He was behind me and I could see his headlights for the next 15-20 minutes as we made our way through the lots and open fields the police had opened up to move the traffic jam. I thought about him for days. Bug kept talking about the nice man from the parking lot and how she wished he was her soccer coach. I even called Colorado Fusion (Bug's club) to see if he was going to be coaching there in the Fall . . . no luck. . . . But . . . . as fate would have it . . . .

In mid-September, I went for the first time onto Facebook, looking for a potential claimant to see if the person had posted incriminating remarks on a profile and . . . on a lark . . . typed in Robert's name and . . . . there he was . . . on the screen in front of me . . . . what to do? what to do? . . . After a very long while of trying to get my nerve up, I finally emailed him . . . . reminded him of the Independence Day parking fiasco and our conversation. Not too much later, I got an email back from him!! Yes! He remembered me! And was so sweet in his email . . . said he was flattered I remembered him and mentioned "fate". We exchanged email addresses and phone numbers . . . . started emailing and texting, and the next week, Bug and I met him at the Rapids game at half-time. We were unable to get our schedules together to meet up again and that Thursday following the game, he had to have surgery on a fractured ankle and ligament damage . . . soccer injury. I thought about him the entire day of his surgery and texted him frequently over the next few days. On Sunday, Bug and I went and picked him up from his house to ease his cabin fever, and we went and saw The Dark Knight and went to dinner. It was so comfortable being with him ---- felt as though I had known him a very long time.

The following Saturday, we made plans to go to the soccer game together. In the afternoon, Bug got a call from a friend to spend the night . . . she wanted me to call Robert and ask him if it was okay if she didn't go (she was concerned he might not want to go if it was just me!!!! Seriously, she said that!!!!), so I called him and he assured me it was fine if it was just the two of us. We had dinner beforehand then went to the game. It was cold and shortly after half time, he put his arm around me . . . and it was just the best feeling in the world . . . we fit together perfectly. Oddly, we attracted two different Rapids mascots who kept coming up to us, trying to separate us, acting as if they were going to put the moves on me . . . both felt terrible when they looked down and realized Robert was in a cast. But it was as if our energy had attracted them to us. I was able to meet one of his friends at half-time, who later texted Robert "nice catch", which I thought was really cute.

After the game, we drove through Starbucks for lattes, drove back to his house, and watched Jerry Maguire on TV. Apparently, it's a very romantic movie . . . LOL . . .because we were sitting so close . . . I don't think a piece of paper would have fit between us. The rest is history so they say. We've been pretty inseparable since and having a lot of fun.

Last Monday night, October 13th, we even celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving. Here are a few pics . . .

Admittedly, not a great shot here of me . . . .but all of you who know me know how much cooking stresses me out!!!

Robert brought me flowers and Bug a funny pumpkin . . . isn't it the greatest to open the door to a man bearing flowers???? Chivalry . . . it still exists!

Robert zapped Bug with a little whipped cream before we sat down to dessert . . . . my very first home-made pumpkin pie . . .

I'll try to blog more, but am enjoying spending so much time with Robert and Bug. Besides soccer, he's a hockey goalie on an adult men's team, rides mountain bikes and motorcycles, wind surfs, snowboards, water skies, snow skies, plays golf and tennis, and practices martial arts . . . so I'm thinking I have an active future ahead of me if things continue to go as they are. :):):)

Wish me luck!!!!

Playing hooky in the Rockies . . .

2008-09-26T22:05:00.014-06:00

Yesterday, my friend Tom and I decided we needed some outdoor time so we both took off of work, rendevouzed in Boulder, where he lives, and drove to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a gorgeous day, and we had high hopes of seeing elk and some changing aspens . . . . we were not disappointed. We went in at Cub Lake trailhead and within five minutes encountered these guys . . .

They were so gorgeous and not at all disturbed by us. Well, the male looked a little disturbed, but I suspect that is because other males were scattered around, in the trees, bugling, meaning this male would have to defend his place with the females by nightfall. (And the sound of bugling elk is pretty disturbing --- if Tom had not been with me, I would have been really freaked out.)

We continued on . . . this little guy was sitting on a rock and . . . again, not disturbed by us at all as I took his picture . . .

Not much later, I looked down and a snake slithered right by my hiking boot. I completely froze and couldn't find my voice. When Tom (finally) realized something was wrong . . . he looked down and saw the snake and said "Oh, no worries, just a rattler." ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME???!!!! "Just a rattler!!!!" I tell you . . . . these Colorado boys are a different breed . . . . just a rattler . . . . he then said, in complete awe, "Oh my God, you're trembling," as if that was a completely unnatural reaction to a . . . . RATTLESNAKE!!! He finally coaxed me onward with promises of our great picnic at the lake we had planned.

Unfortunately, all of the pictures of me are on Tom's camera, and he on mine. But I was very proud of myself. We hiked the 2.5 miles to the lake, and me with a fairly heavy pack on my back. He had one too, but the man is uber fit . . . former elite tri-athlete . . . . even beat Lance Armstrong in the swim portion of a meet once, only to get his booty kicked in the bike segment.

Anyway, we made it to the lake and laid out our blanket for the picnic. . . .

Tom scored huge brownie points when he pulled out a Diet Dr. Pepper he had packed for me . . .

We had lots of critter visitors, who apparently found us quite interesting, especially when we unpacked our food. Ducks kept landing in the water right next to us and waddling up; a mountain jay (which looks like a blue jay on steroids) tried to interrupt our party on several occasions and once when we were lying down, soaking up some sun, we heard noises and looked up and a chipmunk was within inches of us. And we could not shake him the rest of the picnic. I tried throwing some carmelized walnuts away from us so that he would spend his time gathering and hiding them, but he would just eat them and come back. At one point, he scooted under our blanket and just sat there like a lump . . . so we had our picnic . . . me, Tom, and our little lump right between us. It was so bizarre. I didn't take his picture because he was so close to us (inches away) that I was afraid he would freak out and bite one of us if he was frighted by the camera noises. Chipmunks, apparently, are known to carry rabies in these parts.

But we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, pigging out on crackers, Cotswald cheddar & chive, sundried tomato pesto, carmelized walnuts, scallopini chicken, pasta salad, and fruit. Tom had also brought some wonderful dark chocolate . . . . but we were too full and still had another 3 or so miles left in the hike. Oh . . . and we had a wonderful zinfandel from the Andretti Winery in Napa.

After lunch, we headed out to find Fern Lake Trail. And the ferns were so pretty, littered next to the streams. It was such an amazingly beautiful day. Unfortunately, we were having such a great time that we were late coming off the mountain and Tom's 14-year-old son was not thrilled about having to wait at school. Thankfully, Bug was already scheduled for extended care since I'm normally at work.

Aside from that timing glitch, it was a great escape from work and the city and one of the funnest days I've had since moving to Colorado. We were like a couple of school kids, playing hooky from school, laughing and enjoying each other's company, with seemingly no cares in the world . . . .just for a day . . . . but it was great to spend time in the beautiful Colorado mountains.

Food poisoning . . . .

2008-09-16T15:50:00.004-06:00

Geez Louise!!!! Bug and I went to a restaurant north of Denver on Saturday night to celebrate (1) her acceptance into a competitive children's choir; (2) her team's 5-0 shut out for the second week in a row in soccer; and (3) my having passed the horrible licensing exam that I took in August. So we were excited about our dinner. The restaurant we chose always receives rave reviews and is located in a community where I'm thinking of buying a home. Well, I ordered fettucine with calamari . . . . and it darn near killed me. I knew something was wrong when I started eating it, and only took a few bites, leaving more than 3/4's of the meal on the plate. But it was enough to get me. I woke up at 1:00 in the morning and it didn't subside until about 5 the next night. Bug was terrified, as were the dogs apparently. They (unfortunately) did not leave my side the entire time . . . . didn't matter if I was in the bathroom, or in the bed, or crawling back and forth in between . . . they were RIGHT beside me. I didn't have the energy to even speak their names, much less try to get them to move. Poor Bug had to take care of me, the dogs, and herself all that day. Although, clearly, I need to have a little nutrition talk with her . . . . learned yesterday that her diet consisted of brownies for breakfast, pizza rolls for lunch, and popcorn for dinner. That's my kid!! I threw up so much that I strained my vocal cords and have almost no voice now --- which everyone seems to find it very amusing when a lawyer loses her voice . . . Me? I'm not so amused.

And being laid up made us miss our hike on Sunday as well as the Rapids game. Not happy about that at all. Hopefully, we'll be back out on the trails this weekend, and there is another game Saturday night.

Anyway, I'm on the mend otherwise and not looking forward to eating out any time soon.

Second hike . . . Red Rocks

2008-09-08T09:25:00.009-06:00

Bug and I completed our second hike yesterday. We drove to Morrison and hiked the Red Rocks Trail and Morrison Slide. Unfortunately, after coming off of the Morrison Slide, I started down the right path on the Red Rocks Trail, then hesitated because I saw other hikers going the opposite direction of me. I asked "which way to the parking lot", not realizing there was a parking lot at another trailhead which looped into the Red Rocks Trail. So I made what ended up being a 2-mile mistake, which turned our 4-mile hike into a 6-mile hike. That cost me a "Camp Rock" DVD because Bug was NOT happy with me. This hike was much more strenuous than the one the week before. We ascended 600 feet over several switchbacks, and part of them were gut-busters to us newbies. And with my mistake, we had to ascend another 200 feet. But, it was good for us ultimately. And we saw the most gorgeous 8-point buck --- he came right down on the trail in front of us. Stopped and then headed down the mountain. I can't believe we were that close to him. We hear the elk are on the move in Estes Park, so we're going to head up there soon. And, in Colorado, the leaves change in September, so our goal is to be out in the mountains every weekend for the next several weeks . . . can't wait to see the Aspens change.

On Saturday, Bug had her first soccer game with the new team. They won 5-0 --- pretty cool! Saturday night we went out for Indian food and then played tennis. I have lessons again tonight and my double play on Wednesday. It's gotten so cool here now that I'm having to play in long pants and jackets. We actually had to turn the heat on in the house Friday night. Wild --- I'm use to Indian summers and air conditioning in September. I can't remember the last time I had the air conditioning on . . . . we're even having to close the windows when we sleep because it gets so chilly.

But for right now, I'm happy remembering the beauty of the Red Rocks. :)

First Hike in Colorado

2008-09-01T16:48:00.004-06:00

Yea . . . finally! I took my first hike in Colorado. Bug and I went to REI yesterday and I bought hiking boots. Thanks to my friend Brad, I knew what type of boot to get and to get waterproof vs. breathable. And he guided Bug and I where to start for a first hike. So, today we drove to Evergreen and hiked at Elk Meadows, a beautiful "open space" in Jefferson County. We parked at the base and took Meadows View trail to Painters Pause, back to Sleepy S and hooked back into Meadows View. It was great! A 5.5 mile hike with varied terrain, but not too great of an altitude ascent. It was pretty warm for the last mile and Bug got a little foul, but she was fine after getting back to the car and air conditioning. We saw lots of trail runners, mountain bikers, and even horses on our path.

Here are a couple of pictures from the hike . . .

After the hike, we were very hungry and found a great little restaurant called "Cuisine of Himalaya", which had Indian, Nepalese, and Tibetan food. I was so proud of Bug . . . she tried all new foods . . . . naan, spinach pakora, vegetables korma, saag, tandoori chicken, chicken curry . . . all from a buffet.

It was a good day. And, thankfully, it's September 1st. From May 2nd - August 31st is a tough time for me. Mom's birthday was May 2, followed by Mother's Day, then June brings Father's Day and the anniversary of my father's death in 2006, July is the anniversary of my mother's death in 2005, August 23rd was their anniversary, capped by Dad's birthday on August 31st. I'm sure at some point in my life, that "season" will become easier . . . . but not yet.

A day of the DNC . . .

2008-08-31T17:57:00.020-06:00

On Thursday, August 28, 2008, thanks to my dear friend Bob, Bug and I were fortunate to attend the Democratic National Convention and witness history in the making. It was such a great experience. I checked Bug out of school at noon and we drove back downtown for lunch and a look at protestors. Bug's favorite scene was when the mounted police arrived with the horses in riot gear --- neither of us had seen horses in riot gear before. All was peaceful, thankfully . . . . a few protestors, but nothing too over the top.

Here is Bug at our table at the Corner Bakery, where we had lunch before a quick tour on the 16th Street Mall . . .

On historic Larimer Square, all the flags of the United States were flying in honor of the convention. I took a close-up of the Arkansas flag . . .

More flags . . .

Bug and I left my office with my friend, Kevin, to walk to Invesco Field at 1:30. We were able to get through the gates a little after 3:00. It was HOT! And I had forgotten to bring sunscreen. Luckily, some was passed back through the line. And the DNC folks had huge barrels of water waiting for us outside Invesco. I felt very fortunate to get through when we did --- some people were in lines for much longer. When we arrived, the show started with various members of the military talking about why they supported Obama as their future commander-in-chief.

CNN's tent was right below us. Can you see Wolf Blitzer? I remember seeing him in Little Rock during Bill Clinton's campaign first Presidential campaign.

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, warmed up the crowd . . .

Unfortunately, I had put my camera back in my purse and couldn't get it out and unzipped before Olympic Gold Medalist Shawn Johnson had finished leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance, but did manage to catch Jennifer Hudson singing the National Anthem, and it was so beautifully done.

Sheryl Crow was great. I enjoy hearing her live more than just listening to her songs on the radio. She's so pretty . . . she came down the ramp in front of us all dressed in white, looking very tall and thin . . .

Stevie Wonder . . . WOW . . . I can't believe I got to hear him live . . . I use to sneak my sister's 8-track tape of his greatest hits and sing to the top of my lungs with "Sir Duke" and some others.

Al Gore . . . hmm . . . wouldn't our world be different today if he had been our president for the past 8 years? He gave an incredible talk, so impressive. . . . .

Joe Biden make another quick talk before Obama came out. There were a ton of speakers, not all of whom I'm posting. Some of the most poignant stories came from those of "regular folk" who have suffered because of the policies implemented under the present administration. Their stories were so compelling . . . several of them had been life-long Republicans . . . until now.

Here is Bug holding a sign they gave us at the convention. They also distributed American flags for everyone to wave.

I'm so sad that my pictures of Barack Obama did not turn out well. By the time he came on stage, around 8:00 p.m., it was already dark and the pictures did not turn out well at all. But he was so engaged, so captivating in his speech . . . . people all around me were so hungry for his message. Everyone there . . . all races, ages, socio-economic levels . . . you could see in their eyes and their demeanor . . . everyone there wanted change . . . someone to believe in . . . someone to help make day-to-day life a little easier. I have never felt such a collective "hope" in my life. Even Bug noticed it. And it meant a lot to her when Obama said, in a video message played right before he appeared, that he "was shaped more by the absence of my father than by his presence." She tugged on my arm and said as I leaned down "me too, Mom . . . I'm like him." . . . . I was so blown away that she said it, but even more so by the fact that she meant it. That old adage "that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger" is, apparently, a concept that a 10-year-old can grasp when she has lived it personally. So, I love that she feels a connection with Barack Obama and that she understands adversity can be a blessing in disguise.

Here's a shot of the stadium . . . . Can't you feel the energy?

It's going to be a long 10 weeks until the election. But my hope is that on August 28, 2008, with my daughter at my side, I personally witnessed the next President of the United States. . . . Thanks, Bob.

Late breaking news on the bird porn . . .

2008-08-27T14:41:00.004-06:00

Dave Barry (a journalist with serious tendencies, as we all know) has written a very insightful article about this disturbing issue:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/660704.html

I will keep you informed as news continues to break . . . . . :):):)

Stop Bird Porn!

2008-08-27T14:01:00.006-06:00

Just so all of you will know that truly significant issues are being raised in my fair city during the Democratic National Convention, a woman was handing out the below flyer on the 16th Street Mall today :

In case the print on the scanned copy of the flyer is too small for you to read, here are some of the more important messages (in English, as opposed to the Russian or other language portion):

"A private research group, the Good Conduct Society, has discovered Bird Watchers are more sexually active than others."

"The elderly find that Bird Watching is not strenuous. And this erotic experience can be enjoyed privately through binoculars."

"Most disturbing . . . are the groups of Bird Watchers seeking
vicarious sexual gratification in the woods. Shamelessly, they
blatantly observe God's defenseless creatures mating."

Of course, the sad part for me is that actual trees were utilized to make the paper on which this nonsense was printed. And now . . . whenever I'm on a hike and come upon a birdwatcher . . . the first thought that will probably go through my mind is . . . . PERVERT!

Thursday night . . . . looks like I'll be at Invesco

2008-08-26T21:30:00.003-06:00

Today, I got a call from my dear friend who is chief of staff for one of our U.S. senators. All the senators are staying at a hotel just a few blocks from my townhome, and he had some downtime. So we went for coffee, and he gave me 2 tickets for Barack Obama's acceptance speech Thursday night at Invesco Field. I feel so honored . . . there are thousands of people trying to get in . . . and he thought of Bug and me. The tickets themselves are so cool --- they're holograms, so when you move them, the information "changes". Now I just have to figure out how to get to Invesco and spend the day outside with a 10-year-old who will not understand the wait. But the opportunity for her to witness this part of our country's history . . . . well, it's a can't miss event. I'm so grateful to my friend. And I was able to visit with the senator he works for as well, who gave me a newspaper from my old home town . . . . it was so nice to read . . . didn't realize I had missed reading news from home until I had it in front of me.

Bug and I watched Hillary's speech tonight. I thought she knocked it out of the park . . . incredibly impressive, and I hope I have the opportunity to vote for her in the future.

Bug started soccer practice tonight with her new team. I was so proud of her ---- she walked into a group of girls who have been playing together for several years, and she just fit right in. And she played so well that the other parents were all talking about "the new girl . . . . she's really good." (They didn't know she was mine. ) One of her coaches has the highest coaching licensure there is and played pro and semi-pro women's soccer. The high school team she coaches has made All State in Colorado for the past 2 years. And she took a shine to Bug, which means she's A-okay in my book. :):)

And the park where Bug practices is so nice . . . I ended up jogging while she practiced and was amazed at how long I'm able to jog . . . . guess my blood has finally thickened up enough to give me the needed oxygen at this altitude. I was thrilled and plan to start jogging the 2 nights/week she practices. Between jogging, tennis, biking, and the workouts at the JCC, hopefully I won't totally suck on the slopes this season!

All in all, it was a very nice day.

My new passion . . .

2008-08-25T20:54:00.007-06:00

. . . is not a man (sigh). It's tennis. Which should prove much less heartbreaking in the long run. Bug and I both took lessons this summer, and we're both hooked. I started my second group of lessons tonight and will start playing in a social doubles group on Wednesday evenings. I'm so psyched about it. I still have a long way to go, but considering it's been 26 years since I was on the Mena Bearcat tennis team, I'm feeling pretty good about it. Doesn't hurt that I have two really cute coaches . . . Ricardo from Peru, and Bran from the former Yugoslavia. So . . . today the DNC was not part of my existence. I worked at the med center, went to tennis lessons, Bug and I went and got smoothies for dinner, and then walked the dogs. A very quiet Monday . . . very nice. Tomorrow, soccer practice starts . . . . can't wait. Tennis again Wednesday night. Thursday night, Bug and I are going to try a latin american cardio dance class called Zumba at the JCC, then TGIF. Whew . . . . I think I'll make it through the week. :)

DNC madness . . . it's started

2008-08-24T17:02:00.004-06:00

The Denver Post recently posted these pictures. The convention hasn't even started yet. I was supposed to have dinner with my friend that lives in a LoDo loft. She called and had been in grid lock for over 30 minutes with no hope of movement in sight, and her mother and baby in the car. She said people were abandoning buses like crazy. The protesters have blocked major arteries downtown and are resistant to police intervention. When the police on horseback were finally able to move one group, the protesters moved to another artery and cut it off. The police then arrived in riot gear . . .

This is where I work!!!! I've decided I'm not even going to try it tomorrow . . . . heading out to the med center to work instead. I was going to bike in, but I don't want to encounter protesters OR riot police. I'm just praying the protests are peaceful. On Friday, I received a call that 2 blocks away, on the 16th Street Mall, police were removing bricks that had been taped to the backs of garbage dumpsters . . . left by potential rioters. I'll be glad when Thursday is over.

Wash Park . . . last day before school starts

2008-08-18T21:28:00.004-06:00

Where, oh where, did the summer go???? I haven't begun to accomplish or do all I wanted this summer.

It's been a whirlwhind the past couple of weeks. The exam exhausted me (and I'll probably get another shot at it, unfortunately . . . will know in 4 more weeks) and then friends of Little Rock were in Colorado Springs last weekend. Bug and I drove down to see them . . . . went to the summit of Pike's Peak, where America the Beautiful was written, and walked through the incredible Garden of the Gods. It was so great to see them, but I cried the entire way back to Denver because seeing them really brought home how very much I miss my Little Rock friends.

Then, uncharacteristically, Denver turned rainy and cold . . . very cold. Until today, I've been in jeans and polartec sweaters. Low to mid 50's in temperature . . . completely bizarre.

I've had a couple of dates the past 2 weeks . . . the one last night was actually promising . . . with a German engineer . . . he is incredibly learned, very charming, and has a wonderfully infectious laugh. He lives near Boulder and has 2 teen-aged children, so it will be a bit of a challenge, but I think we're going to try to see if this could lead anywhere. We'll see . . . school starts tomorrow which means my schedule will be entirely consumed by work, school, soccer, piano lessons, choir, softball, and Girl Scout activities. It's ridiculous what we go through as parents to give our children as many options as possible.

So today . . . . I took off work, and Bug and I spent the majority of our day at Wash Park. It's a beautiful park in Denver with several small lakes/ponds, great bike trails and jogging paths, tennis courts, gardens, etc. You can see every breed of dog known to man there ----- Chloe loves to go . . . .there is a Great Pyrenees with a huge crush on her that we usually run into. :):) Anyway, Bug and I rode bikes for a long time, then we went to the boat house and rented a pedal/paddle boat ---- we had a blast out on the lake. Then we caught a movie, went to the library, played a round of tennis, walked the dogs, and finished the day off with ice cream. It was a great last day, if a bit exhausting.

Tomorrow . . . 5th Grade . . . . . . (how did it happen???)

Mint juleps and girl bonding

2008-08-06T21:37:00.005-06:00

Tonight was my book club meeting. I almost didn't make it. Just as Bug and I pulled out of the driveway, we heard tornado sirens. We were already feeling a little off center because it was raining . . . . . maybe only the sixth time that's happened since we moved here and the first time that I've actually seen rain puddling on the roads. But then . . . the sirens. Being from Little Rock, we knew to take them seriously, so we quickly pulled back into the garage and ran upstairs to turn on the TV and computer to see what was going on . . . tornado warning . . . . one spotted, but it seemed to be north of here. The sirens then stopped, so we headed back on our way. I'm so glad I did. Again, this group of women are so lively and empowering. And tonight there were new faces from the last meeting. The book we discussed was "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns. It's a great read of the South in the early 1900's. Highly recommend it. So, our hostess, Christa, made wonderful mint juleps for us, with mint she grew in her herb garden. It was a wonderful diversion from the 2 weeks of studying at night I've done recently for an ethics licensing exam I have to take on Friday. I probably should have been home studying tonight but, for maybe the first time in my academic and professional career, I put fun over business. I've never been too good of taking care of me if there was work to be done, but . . . . slowly . . . . I'm trying to change that.

But now, I'm home, Bug is in bed, I've checked email and updated this Blog, so it's back to studying. It will be over in 2 days, thankfully.

A trip to the Aquarium

2008-08-03T20:59:00.009-06:00

One of my colleagues invited Bug and I to go to the Aquarium this past Saturday. It was going to be a tight fit with me having tennis lessons from 9:30 - 10:30, and Bug's lessons starting at 2:00, but making friends is high on the list of priorties right now . . . especially since our best friends left to go back to Chicago this past Friday. So, my answer was a resounding "yes" . . . "we would love to go to the Aquarium!" And we had such a good time. My colleague has THE cutest 3-year-old son, and he swept Bug and I right off our feet.

Here are Miles, Catherine, and Bug in front of one of the exhibits:

The Downtown Aquarium is not as large as the Shedd in Chicago, or the one in Baltimore, but the exhibits are great and well-maintained. They even have large tigers in the Rainforest area . . . and I have never seen a tiger at an Aquarium, so that was cool. And there were lots of sharks, barracudas, eels. There even was an exhibit of a flash flood that got a bunch of us wet and scared the bejeezus out of us.

I love sea horses, and these guys are "Pot Belly Seahorses" . . . . (little beer drinkers maybe??)

These fish had HUGE popeyes that eerily glowed when Bug took her picture:

Bug wanted a picture of her and Miles in front of the clown fish exhibit. When she squatted down to be at his level, he squatted too. Very cute!

It was a very fun time. Bug was so captivated by Miles that she bought him a stuffed otter at the gift shop. We capped off our time at the Aquarium with a picnic lunch outside. Catherine's husband climbs huge mountains all over the world, and he's based out of Boulder. So we've been invited up to their place in Boulder next for a hike. I'm very excited about that. Bug hiked around Pike's Peak when she was at camp, but I've yet to make my first hike. Which means I've got to hit the Stair Mill at the gym.

It was a hot day, over 102 at the tennis courts, and Bug got a bit dehydrated during her lesson. So we cut it short and came home to air conditioning. Later in the evening, I went on yet another bad date. This one was with a PhD and a nationally known expert in environmental and enery issues and. . . oh my goodness . . . were we enthralled with ourselves. Geez . . . . luckily the food at Piatti was delicious. Other than asking me whether I had ever done any international mission work overseas . . . ??????? (what the *#@*???), I don't think he asked one question about me or my daughter. I've never had as many dates in my life as I've had the past 7 months, but I'm starting to think Colorado men are similiar to those in Alaska . . . . when I visited there a few years ago, everyone told me that, as far as the chances of finding a man in Alaska go, "the odds are good, but the goods are odd." Seriously . . . . . .

A "Gotta See" Sculpture in Denver

2008-07-30T11:06:00.004-06:00

This is one of my absolute most favorite sculptures in Denver. A 40-foot blue bear peering into the window on the 14th Street side of the Denver Convention Center. It's absolutely whimsical and wonderful and really speaks to those of us with a curious nature . . . because the bear is so darn curious, looking in the window like that.

The official name of the sculpture is "I See What You Mean" . . . but everyone here calls it "The Blue Bear". Denver artist Lawrence Argent crafted the big guy on commission for the City of Denver. The price tag was $424,400.

The official measurements: height, 40 feet; weight, 10,000 pounds; chest, 18 feet; arm span (with paws pulled in), 22 feet, 4 inches. It is made of molded fiberglass, covered by a blue cement-like coating.

He's completely precious, so if you're here for the Convention, you gotta go see him!

A week of soccer camp

2008-07-27T22:24:00.021-06:00

Bug attended the Colorado Rapids soccer camp this past week, every night from 5 - 8. My friends whose daughter and son also attended took her every night, luckily considering there was no way I was going to get from downtown Denver to Commerce City by 5 every day. But I dutifully drove every night from work to home to let dogs go to the bathroom to the soccer fields. It's been a long week. And then yesterday, they allowed the campers and their parents to sit in on a closed practice, followed by autographs and pictures. And tonight, a game against the Columbus Crew . . . which, unfortunately, we lost 0-2. But while the week was draining on me, Bug thrived under the direction of the players as her coaches. So sadly, Pablo Mastroeni and Christian Gomez were playing in the MLS All Star game and were not at the camp. And Tom McManus was injured. . . . But she received direct instruction from some amazing players. Nick LaBrocca, Steven Keel, Colin Clark, Ugo Ihemelu, Herculez Gomez, Mehdi Ballouchy, Omar Cummings, Justin Hughes, John DiRaimondo, Jacob Petersen, Cesar Zambrano, and some others whose names escape me at this late hour. Bug's favorite of late, Bouna Coundoul, is a goalkeeper, and so he did not coach her, to her disappointment, but he took pictures with her on Saturday. They all loved her new braces, which were put on Tuesday, because the bands are the Rapids' colors: maroon and baby blue. Here are some pics from the week:

Steven Keel and Herculez Gomez talk to the campers . . .

John Murphy, Director of Player Development and Head Coach of the Reserve Team was a tough cookie out on the field, but the kids loved him (and his Bronx accent) . . .

Mehdi Ballouchy and Nick LaBrocca sign soccer balls . . .

IT'S BOUNA TIME!!!! One of Mattie's favorite sayings . . . . Here she is with Goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul. He was very sweet with her, and after I took the picture, he kept saying, "But you didn't say 'cheese'," in his Senegalese accent. Cracked us up.

The highly acclaimed Christian Gomez (next to Bouna). . .

Our favorite Scot, Tom McManus, next to our favorite Brit, Terry Cooke (or, as everyone calls him, Cookie) . . .

Conor Casey, Steven Keel, and Jake Petersen . . .

Facundo Erpen and Colin Clark . . .

Justin Hughes a/k/a "Juice. Juice is one of the goalkeepers, but he separated his shoulder diving for a ball and had to have surgery right before camp started. The kids all loved his cool hair. I think he looked just like the guy who played George in the "George of the Jungle" movie several years ago.

The gorgeous Pablo Mastroeni runs laps at the closed session on Saturday . . .

Herculez Gomez and Bug at a Q & A session. Herc kept telling her questions to ask Mehdi that were meant to embarass him . . . which Bug didn't realize. Herc is like one of the kids . . . one that's always getting in trouble. :):)

Ugo talks to the campers . . .

Mehdi is very sweet, very shy . . . . from Morrocco. He took a shine to Bug and gave her lots of extra coaching. . . .

Bug and Omar. She loved his Jamaican accent . . .

Bug and Nicky (Nick LaBrocca) . . .

Coach Murphy holds the "applause meter" over Bug during the crazy shirt contest . . .

Kosuke Kimura autographs a ball. He won "best autograph" . . . his Japanese writing looks like a work of art . . .

Precious . . . . absolutely precious

2008-07-24T06:58:00.006-06:00

One of my assistants sent this to me. Even if you don't have Boxers, this is such a sweet video.

Click here: YouTube - Lets see the Dog Whisperer do this!!

I remember hearing the song for the first time when I watched "Three Men and a Baby" and just going ga-ga over Tom Selleck, Ted Danson, and Steve Guttenberg when they sang it to the little girl. Who wouldn't love to fall to sleep with those 3 singing to you? This guy in the video doesn't possess quite the same appeal of the 3 actors, but those puppies sure respond as if he did. :)

. . . And the way the Boxer puppies in the video have to put part of their body on another puppy in order to settle and sleep . . . . well . . . that's what my 70-lb. "puppies" do to me every night . . . . which is why I'm continually sleep-deprived. :):)

Bad news for U.S. Women's National Team

2008-07-17T18:10:00.002-06:00

Unfortunately, in another match against Brazil in San Diego, Abby Wambach broke her leg, tibia and fibula, in a crash with a Brazilian defender. She's out of the Olympics, and with her probably goes the U.S.'s chance of successfully defending their gold medal. Very bad news indeed.

Go USA!!!! Women's Nat'l Team Beats Brazil 1-0

2008-07-15T18:41:00.006-06:00

Bug and I saw the U.S. Women's National Team play Brazil in a "friendly" competition this past Sunday, just a month before the team heads to China for the 2008 Olympics. Amy Rodriguez scored the only goal of the match to beat Brazil. Bug and I were on the 9th row right behind the Brazilian team. Their coach seemed very unhappy the entire match. But, with on-field temps reaching 100 degrees and considering none of these women were use to playing at 5280 feet above sea level, the players all performed very well. Abby Wambach was great to watch. She has amazing footwork and ability to be where the ball is, despite her 5'11" heighth. Here are a few pics from before the game started.

Team USA

Both teams during pre-game national anthems

Team leading scorer, Abby Wambach , with 99 goals

A window opened tonight

2008-07-14T21:45:00.005-06:00

Lately, it has felt as though lots of doors are being closed . . . . without the proverbial window being opened. I sent the whiniest email to my friend Gina today . . . unloaded all my perceived injustices of the past few months . . . all of which has had me thinking this move has been a mistake. I feel so very much without a home. I love the weather and beauty of Colorado . . . most days, even when things seem to be at their bleakest, I still feel blessed that I'm living in such a beautiful state, with so many things to do at my fingertips. My daughter and I are living much healthier lifestyles in terms of eating and exercise. . . . But there have and continue to be so many obstacles. Everything seems to be a challenge. I miss my friends more than I could ever have imagined. I miss my parents . . . to the point of aching . . . I feel so very alone, without family. I was talking about this with someone over the weekend who also had lost both of his parents a few years ago . . . . even though you're in your 40's, there is a tremendous sense of being an orphan . . . . of losing the only 2 people in the entire world who will love you no matter what you do . . . and even though I know I'm very important to my daughter, I will never again have the importance of being someone's child . . . and that is a very huge loss . . . it leaves a void that simply no one else can fill.

On top of that . . . no spouse, no partner . . . no one to help take out the trash, lock the doors at night, help with bills or household errands or take Bug to school or athletic events . . . no one to make me chicken soup when I'm sick . . . or share a dinner with . . . or snuggle up to when it's storming or I've had a bad dream. . . . And no prospects in sight of that changing anytime in my future. I keep trying . . . I keep going on dates . . . and the next day I always regret going. The more I date, the sadder I feel . . . and the more I feel the loss of two men in my life that mean so very much to me . . . those chapters in my life are over, but it doesn't mean I don't have regrets.

Last week was extremely crappy . . . and on top of it all . . . the only two people who consistently have included me in their lives since we moved here, and whose daughter is Bug's best friend here, are moving back to Chicago in about 3 weeks. These people are my dinner buddies and biking buddies. We go to the pool together. We walk and meet for ice cream. Bug and their daughter were going to be on a soccer team together this fall, and we were going to carpool for practices and games. They're the only ones I would feel comfortable leaving Bug with if I were to go out of town ----- in short, they are my only support system here ----- and that will be gone in 3 weeks.

My job is less than satisfying. Even though I don't miss the crazy hours/7 days a week of my last job, I miss the intensity of the work, being a part of the administrative team, feeling needed, being consulted on major projects, and I miss the people I worked with . . . even the kooky ones that drove me crazy at times. Here, I'm a much smaller fish in a much larger pond . . . I don't have the trial practice I once did . . . and I guess my ego is taking a hit for it. The positive tradeoff, of course, is that I have more time for Bug and for a personal life. But feeling underutilized is never a good thing.

There have been lots of tears the past 2 days especially, and lots of Internet searches for reciprocity with my law license. But I don't want to go back to the South, and I think this is such a great state . . . if I could just find a way to make it work. Some of the other states that interest me do not have reciprocity, and there is no way I want to ever take another bar exam. And I don't want to drag Bug around the U.S. just because I can't find my happiness. She's going into 5th grade ----- if I move again, I want it to be permanent, and preferably with a spouse. So the tears are a result of not knowing what the hell to do with my life at the age of 44 and feeling like a complete loser because I don't have it together at this point.

But tonight . . . a small window opened . . . the mother of a girl on Bug's volleyball team asked me a month or so ago to come visit her book club. She remembered that I had said that one of the things I missed most from Arkansas was my book club. So she invited me to hers. I was hesitant . . . because this one is all women and mine in Arkansas was mostly men. . . . and I liked the challenge of holding my own with them . . . I don't read chick lit and have no desire to . . . and I liked the fact that we coupled our book club meetings with lots of wine, so the conversation always got . . . interesting. Anyway, I appreciated . . . very much . . . that this person invited me. I checked out the books for the next few months . . . very good mix of fiction and non-fiction . . . no chick lit . . . and the author of "Boxing for Cuba" is attending the one in September as he lives in the neighborhood. So . . . hmmm . . . might be okay. There is even a cookie swap for December, which made me feel some connection to Arkansas. Every December in Little Rock, there were several cookie swaps on the calendar for me or Bug and me. My friend, Graeme, throws the most wonderful cookie swap every year that had become my most favorite holiday party tradition. I just knew Denver would not have cookie swaps . . . it seemed too Southern. But yet, this book club is doing it . . . another plus.

Well . . . I went tonight. Thank God. There were 11 of us. And it was a wonderful group of women. Well educated, well traveled, well read. And a wide age range. One had just finished law school, and others were grandmothers, with many of us in our "middle years". There was a widow who moved here from California after her husband died. She grew up in Europe and had wonderful stories of living through some tense times. A couple of writers, one of whom is recently divorced. Some married without children, some with. One from Texas and one from Richmond, Virginia, said they liked that I was from the South. But we all had in common the love of the written word, from actual books we like to hold in our hands, not ebooks off of the Internet or from that new kindle thing Amazon is touting. Actual books with actual pages that you turn as the characters come to life.

The book we discussed was "Interpreter of Maladies", a collection of short stories by the fabulous Jhumpa Lahiri (author of "The Namesake"). The discussion was lively. . . . the noise level of 11 women can be quite deafening. The hostess had recently returned from India (the author's parents are Indian and a number of her settings are in India or are about Indian characters trying to assimilate in other places, usually the U.S.) . . . but anyway . . . the hostess prepared Indian foods for us and served Iced Chai . . . . along with lots of wine . :):) The women, all of whom were from the Hilltop neighborhood, different from mine, embraced me into their group as I would not have expected. In light of the despair and anguish I've felt lately, their warmth felt like a life preserver being thrown to me after swimming in very deep water for a very long time. I just gripped on and held tight all evening, and at the end . . . I felt like I was starting down the path of having some new friends, not just acquaintances . . . but people who were going to be part of my life. . . . I hope so. I really want good things to happen here, even if not in Denver . . . perhaps Boulder or Colorado Springs. I want to find happiness . . . . or at least contentment . . . in Colorado. I think tonight . . . that window I've been looking for opened just a tiny bit. I'm going to try to enjoy the fresh air.

Classic Cooper

2008-07-13T12:06:00.003-06:00

Bug just took this picture of Cooper, tired from his walk and resting on "his" loveseat. Can you see the mixture of intelligence and mischief in those eyes? . . . . That . . . . is "classic Cooper."

AAAArrrrrrgggggghhhhhh!

2008-07-08T11:43:00.007-06:00

My day has consisted of:

Waking up late

Leaving the house, late for work, stepping in dog vomit on the rug at the bottom of the stairs

Cleaning up said dog vomit, thereby making me even later for work

Getting yelled at by a construction worker on the way to work

Dealing with nasty lawyers, frustrating clients, never ending emails and phone calls at work

Going home at lunch to find bloody dog stools on the hardwood floors

Going to the vet where Chloe was put on a 4th medication

Coming home after the vet to a non-working toilet

Putting gasoline in my car at a cost of $72.74!!!!!! I've never paid seventy dollars for gas in my entire life!!!!!! SEVENTY-TWO DOLLARS!!!

Learning my favorite Rapids player, Pablo Mastoeni, is going to leave at the end of the season to go play for Italy.

Grabbing a pint of what I thought was chocolate Boulder Ice Cream at Marczyk's on the way home only to open it up, take a bite, and realize . . . it was Mexican chocolate . . . . meaning cinnamon in the ice cream. I don't do cinnamon with chocolate . . . . and tonight I needed that chocolate.

Walking down the hall to change out of my clothes and stepping in dog vomit in the hallway.

It's 7:00 PM . . . I'm going to rest for 30 minutes and then go work out at the JCC. I hope a machine doesn't fall over on me tonight.

Stealing away to Steamboat Springs

2008-07-06T18:45:00.013-06:00

This was the scene driving towards Steamboat Springs this past Tuesday. The mountains still take my breath away . . . and to see snow-capped mountains in July . . . . for me, there's just no better scene. I'll take mountains over the beach any day of the week. Bug and I spent Spring Break in Hawaii, which is . . . admittedly . . . beautiful . . . but I was so glad to see the mountains again after a week of "tropical paradise" . . . for me, there's no comparison. There is something very healing about mountains . . . being able to breathe in the fresh air. Anyway, Bug and I left Tuesday morning after dropping the Boxers off at the new PetsMart hotel by our house.

I had booked a condo at Trappeur's Crossing, which was close to downtown, had an outdoor swimming pool (not always easy to find in the mountains), tennis courts, and the ever important Disney Channel. After being at Sanborn for 2 weeks, Bug was ready for some TV time --- ugh -- but that meant I had precious reading time, so it was okay.

Our first night, we found a Mexican restaurant with an upstairs deck . . .

I intended to remember the name of the restaurant, but the margherita I had just wiped it right out of my head. I have an uncanny inability to hold my liquor in high country. One glass of wine or one margherita or other drink is my absolute limit . . . . I guess it is the altitude. Anyway . . . we had to sit quite a while after dinner and walk around downtown Steamboat before I felt comfortable getting behind the wheel.

Here is Bug, waiting for her cheese dip to arrive . . .

The horse sculpture, below, was my favorite piece of artwork in the town. The picture does not do it justice. And it was located in a plain little roundabout next to a strip shopping center . . . odd . . . but we were there a LOT . . . because . . . Ben & Jerry's ice cream store was there, as was the movie theater (saw Get Smart . . . just love Steve Carrell) and our favorite take-out place, The Drunken Onion. If you're ever in Steamboat, The Drunken Onion has THE best gourmet sandwiches, salads, and prepared foods for taking back to the condo. Truly wonderful food.

The town of Steamboat is so charming. We played miniature golf. Spent a morning at Strawberry Park Hot Springs . . . .had to go in the morning because . . . . as many people have said . . . clothing is optional after dark . . . and they're not the type of people you want to see without their clothing. But the hot springs were beautiful . . . and very HOT! Yow! The spring pools are graduated and, as we learned, the temperature gets a little cooler as you move further down the way, close to the river, which, by the way, was freezing cold. So odd to have them side by side, with such extreme differences in temperature. I bet Bug a dollar she wouldn't go into the river and go under water . . . . silly kid . . . she did it . . . for a stinkin' dollar! I only made it in the river as far as my shins.

The springs felt great to my shoulder which I injured in December right before the move and which I had never had examined until the Monday before we left for Steamboat. The orthopedic surgeon said the joint was terribly inflamed. I had re-injured it bathing Bug when her arms were broken. Anyway, my options were surgery (no thank you), a cortisone injection into the joint (had one before, thought I would DIE with the needle in me and couldn't move), or lots of Advil and Tylenol with the hope it would be better in a year or so (gee, thanks). I didn't know what to do . . . .I was tired of being in pain . . . . every time I rolled over in bed, the pain woke me up . . . it hurt to walk the dogs, exercise, pick up my purse, etc. . . . I told the surgeon I needed a few minutes to decide. When he left, I looked at my BlackBerry . . . my former fiance had emailed back about the new Hopkins medical show on TV (he was on faculty at Hopkins for 14 years . . . . had he still been there, I am POSITIVE he would be profiled on the show . . . phenomenal anesthesiologist, gorgeous, and still single) . . . . anyway, I quickly emailed him back and told him I was at the orthopod trying to decide what to do about my shoulder . . . .I hit the send key and in walked the orthopod . . . . "You're decision ma'am??" In fear, I said . . . Advil and Tylenol (apparently, physical therapy exacerbates this type of injury). So he's shaking his head and says "well, I wish I could do more to help you . . . . I'm pretty good with the injections and I can give you a numbing injection first before I go into the joint. And you'll have immediate relief." (pressure, pressure, pressure) Bug is sitting there wide-eyed, watching me. I'm having flash-backs to her last well-child visit when she had to get 3 immunizations and squalled like a baby, all the while I'm telling her needles are "not that big a deal". So, while she would never say it to me, I can tell she's thinking "what's the big deal, Mom?" Okay, now I need to set an example. . . . . . "Give me the injection and do it fast before I chicken out." (I feel my BlackBerry vibrating as the surgeon is cleaning the area. I'll check it after this is over.) This is horrible. Bug has flipped backwards in her seat after she saw the needle and has her head bent over gripping the chair. The male nurse is telling me "ma'am, it's extremely important that you do not move." The surgeon is saying "this is going to burn and you'll feel lots of pressure, but that should make it easier when I go in with needle to the joint." . . . . And I'm thinking . . . does vomiting count as moving . . . . how about passing out? I requested general anesthesia for the injection, but the orthopod was not amused. And OMG . . . . . it HURT!!!! But I didn't move except for the tears dripping down my face. Finally, it was over. My pain and tears quickly turned to being pissed off as I looked down and there were blood splatters all over my new Coach bag. The male nurse could tell I was not cool with this and helped me clean the bag. Never mind that it was dripping down my shoulder as well . . . . priorities. The irony of it all????? Remember the vibrating BlackBerry telling me an email message had come in???? Well, it was my former fiance, doctor extraordinaire, a man I trust implicitly despite our not being able to close the deal on the marriage . . . . and his message read (and I quote) "Definitely avoid the shot if at all possible! . . . . Remember the steroid injections can cause problems, too." (I could hear Alanis Morrisette singing in my head . . . . "it's a black fly in your chardonnay".) Well, *#*&%*, that's just perfect. The tears started anew. Oh well, . . .the good news is that I felt relief in my shoulder, was even able to play tennis after a couple of days. So far, no infection at the injection site. I don't even want to know what other complications could arise.

So . . . .that's why the hot springs felt so good to my shoulder. The hot swirling water helped relieve the soreness from the injection.

Another really fun thing we did is drive up to Steamboat Lake (only about 27 miles away, but it takes almost an hour to get there) and go horseback riding at Dutch Creek ranch. Here is Bug in front of the cabin where you check in and which also serves as the restaurant.

This is a view from the ride. You can see Steamboat Lake in the background. Riding through the Aspen trees was amazing. They make the greatest rustling sound with the wind blowing.

Bug is on BillBoard. I'm riding J.G.

My little wrangler taking a break . . . .

We rode up into the mountains. Saw lots of carvings by former elk herders who, apparently get bored and lonely in the mountains with only elk for company, so they carved elaborate drawings of women in the trees. Bug continues to ask questions about this . . . hmm . . . . We rode through lots of columbine, the state flower of Colorado . . .

After the 2 hour ride (which coming down the mountain . . . . a tad painful), we went back to the ranch for dinner. The best food we had in Steamboat . . . . New York strip, garlic mashed potatoes, grilled vegetables, and, for dessert, homemade apple pie with vanilla ice cream. Oh my gosh . . . .I had a hard time staying awake on the drive back to the 'boat (as the locals call it).

I was very sad to leave on Friday. I think we may have to go back next year and maybe stay for the 4th of July rodeo and festivities . . . . we'll see . . . .I'll have a hard time keeping Bug away from the annual Rapids game. After seeing the beauty of Steamboat (and getting to check out all the slopes in their "green" state), I'll have to schedule a weekend ski getaway up there next season. I'm told Rabbit Ears Pass is quite treacherous in the winter, but I'll figure something out. :):)

Here is the view as we were driving back. Still takes my breath away . . . . . . . . .

Happy Independence Day!

2008-07-05T18:08:00.010-06:00

This was a picture I took of the fireworks display at Dick's Sporting Goods Park last night following the Rapids game. The Rapids teamed with Commerce City to put on the largest fireworks display in the State of Colorado. And it was . . . spectacular . . . all set to music, from James Brown, to Bruce Springsteen, to John Philip Sousa, to Lee Greenwood, to Colorado's favorite adopted son, John Denver. . . . . It was so much fun to be singing "Rocky Mountain High" at the top of your lungs with 18,000 other people on the field! Even Bug, who's only 10, knew all the words . . . apparently they sang it at sunset on Saturdays at Sanborn. :)

Here is the big screen at Dick's that showed patriotic images while the music was playing and the fireworks were . . . shooting . . .

It was a great evening. We returned from Steamboat in time for a nap and then headed for the game. The Rapids beat New York 4-0. Tom McManus, Omar Cummings, Colin Clarke, and the new guy, Mehdi (can't remember his last name) all scored. One of the funniest highlights of the evening is when all of the mascots from the pro and college teams in Denver and Boulder took the field at halftime and played soccer. Rocky, from the Denver Nuggets, scored 2 goals, but our favorite was the Wooly Mammoth (LaCrosse) . . . he was so cute and chubby and played goalie. Since he couldn't move so fast, he turned the goal over so no one could score. It was hysterical when the other mascots noticed and tried to get him. It was really great to see all of the mascots together in their uniforms, trying to play soccer.

Pablo Mastroeni, my favorite Rapid, drew a yellow card last night for arguing with the refs. We did get horrible calls all evening. Our players were getting beat up and no fouls called, but if our guys touched the other team, a foul would be called. Pablo finally had enough and had his say. :)

Here are some more fireworks pics. Will write about Steamboat trip later.

Unity Party in LoDo

2008-06-29T22:08:00.003-06:00

Last night, I went to a "Unity Party" hosted by a LoDo couple. My friends, Rick and Beth, invited me. It was the most interesting, eclectic group of people. When we got off of the elevator to go to the loft where the event was being held, I was startled by a life-size cutout of Barack Obama . . . because the light from the loft windows was behind him, I could NOT tell it was a cutout and was very . . . well . . . startled. There were probably 20 people inside, ranging from ages 23 to somewhere in their 70's. The husband-wife couple hosting were completely charming. She's from Brazil and holds citizenship in the U.S. and Brazil. He's from England, and is not able to vote in this country, but passionate about it's politics. There was an elderly woman from Germany who stated that she would obtain citizenship in the U.S. ONLY if Obama is elected president. She and the Englishman both gave impassioned speeches about the U.S.'s reputation in Europe. Apparently, 4000 "Unity Parties" were being held across the U.S. yesterday. The volunteer representative assigned to "our" party was 23 years old, graduated from Brown University and immediately joined the Obama campaign as a volunteer and moved from New York to Denver to stay through the election. She was the most poised, well-spoken young woman I've ever encountered in that age range --- she was so well-versed on the issues, fielded questions from all of us "older folks" . . . and none of them were "softball questions". Two precinct captains were there who spoke about Obama, and there was a video presentation. Very interesting evening, very grass roots. Afterwards, my friends and I joined one of the precinct captains and two of his friends for most wonderful margeritas and an excellent dinner at Tamayo, on the upper deck patio. Almost a 4-hour dinner outside under the stars, with a breeze, great conversation, lots of laughter . . . it was a truly wonderful evening.

And the best part of all . . . BUG'S HOME!!!!!!! I woke up at 5:00 a.m., walked the dogs, showered, and headed to Florissant to pick her up at Sanborn Western Camp. I think I was the first parent to arrive. LOL She grew exponentially at this camp. The skills she learned with a horse, alone, just amaze me. And I saw this horse, and he is HUGE!! And she saddled and bridled him all by herself. We had a wonderful Thai dinner tonight . . . she said she had not had Asian food in two weeks . . . lol . . . I suspect that's true! Lots of s'mores though. I will sleep easier tonight with my kiddo safe and sound at home. :)

Moon River . . . wider than a mile

2008-06-27T21:00:00.005-06:00

Finally . . . I've started playing the piano again, and Moon River is my favorite song to play . . . and one of the few I can remember without going back to the sheet music.

My piano tuner, Dennis, told me the move from Arkansas to Colorado was VERY stressful (he said this often as though I was a bad piano parent) on the piano. Apparently, going from the humid climate of Arkansas to the desert of Colorado had a huge impact on all of its "insides". ??? I've had it tuned twice and worked on extensively, and now it sounds . . . okay. So I've started playing again.

In my house in Little Rock, I had a huge bedroom and had the piano in there with me and I loved it there. Could put Bug to bed upstairs at night, come down and go back to my suite, close the door, and play for long periods of time. It's very soothing to make music with your own hands. I use to play the flute as well, but "lost my lip" as well as my memory for the keys. But the piano is coming back to me. I'm working on Pachelbel's Canon and some other classical pieces. Would love to play jazz, but probably need lessons for that.

The past two weeks, being alone, have allowed me the time to focus on the piano again. . . . A little gift to myself. :)

Gearing up for the DNC

2008-06-26T16:33:00.005-06:00

Excitement and anticipation continue to build as my fair city approaches the Democratic National Convention. I'm representing one of the police forces contracting with the city to provide additional security. Groups from around the city are starting to send out bulletins to the downtown businesses. My building is right in the "hot zone", between the Convention Center and the Pepsi Center, so I'm trying to get a satellite office away from the downtown area for the week considering they're predicting my usual 15-20 minute commute to work will be a minimum of 2 hours. The protest groups are ramping up. 5 groups have websites devoted to how they're going to disrupt the convention. Then we've been warned that other groups have announced their intended presence, including both Pro and Anti-abortion groups, Anti-war groups, All Nations Alliance, Earth Liberation Front, the Animal Liberation Front, and the Anarchist Movement (there's some irony there, that the anarchists are organizing . . . LOL). We've been given a list of the hotels where the delegates are staying and how many will be in each hotel, as the protesters will be targeting them there, as well as at the convention sites.

I lived in Little Rock and was standing in front of the State House Convention Center the night Bill Clinton was elected to his first term, and was there when he announced for the presidency as well. I remember all of the national news media and some of the protesters, but it didn't seem so large or involved as this convention. I just hope everyone shows respect for life, if not respect for opinion.

I did it . . . I rode my bicycle to work today . . .

2008-06-25T22:29:00.004-06:00

It was National Bike to Work Day and, for the first time in my life, I participated. And it was really fun this morning, although there were goofballs out on the road that clearly weren't familiar with biking rules and fools without helmets . . . but overall a very nice experience. Channel 9 and some other sponsors had breakfast stations along the Cherry Creek path, which is the route I took into the city, but I was nervous about getting to work on time and being able to get one of the bike slots in my garage, so I pedaled through. The trip back home was more difficult . . . I was mentally drained from work, the backpack on my back seemed to have gained 10 pounds, I was pedaling against the wind, and it was hot. I'm not really use to Denver being so warm. But, the most important thing is that I did it.

I had 2 letters and a picture from Bug when I got home today. She sounds like she's having a blast. She has a favorite horse, Rafter, and has learned how to trot with him. She's also been digging for crystals and making candles. And . . . there was a dance earlier this week . . . and apparently the boys from the High Trails camp thought my Bug was great dance partner material. Hmm . . . not sure how I feel about those boys and dances . . . (would have loved to have been a fly on the wall though . . . LOL)

I had a very nice letter, too, from her counselor that detailed how Bug has been helping out and participating in all of the activities, and finally there was a letter from the directors that quoted Richard Louv and Graham Greene about the importance of children spending time in the natural world, away from cell phones, computers, and TV's. It was a wonderful letter. The quote from Graham Greene has stayed with me all evening, "There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in." How incredible is that? I wonder if Bug has had that kind of experience these past 2 weeks as she's been learning how entirely capable she is out in the natural environment. Although I'm always questioning whether I'm a good enough mother, or whether I given her the right opportunities, or have I hampered her too terribly by not having found "the guy" who will love us and share his life with us . . . but today . . . after reading her letters and the ones from the counselor and directors, and pondering Greene's words . . . I thought to myself, "you did good, Rhonda, by letting her have this chance to grow and find her strength, away from you". I'm hoping her door has opened and let the future in for her to embrace.

Where has the time gone?

2008-06-24T11:36:00.013-06:00

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I've posted anything. It's been just a blur of activity. All of the last minute preparations (and anxiety) associated with getting Bug to camp on Sunday, June 15th. Then dates, dinners with friends, and lots of exercise to pass the time have consumed my time alone.

I officially have a new favorite restaurant in Denver. It's called Bang, in the Highlands area at 32nd and Lowell. Phenomenal food! Absolutely wonderful. And the sweet potato toast is incredible -- could have made an entire meal off of that, but the tilapia and cous cous were amazing too. So those of you coming to visit, expect a trip to Bang. It's funky and fun. :)

On Saturday, I was REALLY missing Bug. I mean . . . looking in her room, looking at her pictures, re-reading her letters, crying . . . ugh . . . major league missing her. My very best therapy is shopping, so off I went. Mostly, I bought things to send to Bug in a care package. But also, I decided I should treat myself as well. Here is my bounty:

The Nike sports head phones are for my iPod to use while walking and working out at the JCC. Actually, I've been using Bug's iPod because she has a Nano with the cool arm band. I have the big guy that shows movies . . . . not the best for working out. Although, I'll have to remove my music from Bug's iPod before she gets home from camp. She gets irritated when I download what she terms "inappropriate music" . . . yes, I know . . . big time role reversal in my house. Anyway, I have a couple of "explicits", Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back", and "Nasty Girl" of which Bug would not approve, but boy are they fun to get down with on the elliptical trainer! LOL

The book in the picture is for my book club that starts up in July. We're reading Jhumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies". I haven't read it yet, but loved her book "The Namesake".

The cologne is Armani's "Code". The commercial real estate developer/tennis player I went out with last week smelled better than any man I've ever smelled in my life. It was great --- I kept inhaling while in the car on the way to the restaurant . . . a very fun, fast ride in his new Audi TT. Then, over dinner at Lola (another great Highlands restaurant), the breeze and the candle kept his cologne wafting towards me --- I finally asked him what it was . . . Armani (another Armani guy, go figure). Anyway, I went to Macy's on Saturday to ask if Armani made something comparable for women. The British saleslady put 3 Armani's on me, in different areas, told me to go off shopping and come back in 30-45 minutes as "Armani needs time to settle, dahling, before you know which Armani is you". Wow . . . am I "an Armani"???. . . hmmmm . . . so off I went. I debated and debated (i.e., sniffed myself repeatedly as I was walking through Cherry Creek mall . . . I'm sure people wondered), and finally chose Code over Diamond and the other one which name escapes me. The Code has a bit of orange blossom in it and reminds me of a fragrance by Escada called "Ocean Blue" that I haven't been able to find in years. The Diamond seems more of a winter fragrance. As I made the purchase, British saleslady said "so, you look very sexy, now you smell very sexy . . . tell me, hot date tonight?" Sadly, I told her "no", that tonight I was on my own. To which she replied, "no, dahling, just walk around a bit, you look very sexy, men will respond." Seriously???? Seriously??? I'm supposed to walk around Macy's or the mall . . . and pick up a date? Seriously? I don't think so. Was the fragrance supposed to be that powerful? Hmm . . . maybe . . . I remember my reaction to my date, and I wasn't super attracted to him (we had way too many differences on BIG subjects), but boy he smelled HOT! It didn't work though . . . I remained dateless Saturday night . . . no pick-ups (as if I would).

The final treat in the picture that I gave myself are the cupcakes from "Lovely Confections" on Colfax. These cupcakes are SO GOOD!!!!! I bought a chocolate and a carrot cake with cream cheese icing. By nightfall, I'm embarrassed to admit, all that remained were a few crumbs, which meant I spent extra time on the machines and skipped dinner absent a handful of wheat thins. In an effort to test the Armani Code, I did shower, dress up a bit, and take Chloe for a walk through Cherry Creek North during the evening. (Cooper is aggressive with other dogs, so I can't walk him through CCNorth, but Chloe is guaranteed some attention with her perpetual smile and chubby little Boxer body.)

The next morning, I woke up early, jumped on my bike and headed downtown on the Cherry Creek Bike Path. My intent was to ride into the downtown area and treat myself to an omelet at one of the breakfast places. But it was such a beautiful morning that I just kept riding. I rode upon a fox about to have duck for breakfast. I took a picture as he was scowling at me for interrupting his hunt.

Then I snapped some shots of some artwork along the river . . .

And the wonderful "Dancers" sculpture outside of the Denver Performing Arts Center . . .

Here is my building. My office is on the top (14th floor) . . .

Here is the beautiful South Platte River area right downtown.. . .

After settling for a scone (over the intended omelette), I grabbed a chai latte from Starbucks and headed down to sit by the water. There were the cutest dogs playing in the river, a gorgeous German Short-Haired Pointer and a very large English Bulldog.

The Starbucks I went to is located in the R.E.I. (Recreational Equipment, Inc.) building on Platte Street.

It is a beautiful historic building . . . huge . . . there is even a climbing wall inside, along with every possible outdoor adventure product ever made or sold. Let me tell you, this is where all of the beautiful, fit people hang out on Sunday mornings in Denver. I needed a drool rag! Good grief . . . I've decided all men are sexy in bike wear, helmets, and sunglasses. And they ALL congregate at REI on Sunday mornings to meet their buddies, drink coffee, and organize rides. I've definitely got to spend more weekend mornings at REI.

I continued my ride up into the Highlands area, which was quite hilly. My quads still are feeling that part of the ride, even today. But it was great. I found another ice cream shop to take Bug as we continue our search for favorite ice cream store.

It really was a wonderful experience. The ride home was a little tough because I had ridden so much farther than I ever intended, and I was fighting the wind the entire way home. I got home, walked the dogs, and took a much needed nap. Still thinking of the cupcake consumption from the day before, I went back to the JCC for a workout before settling in to watch "Dan in Real Life" (isn't Steve Carrell the cutest thing in this movie???).

Yesterday found me back at the grindstone of work. Too tired last night to even work out except for a couple of walks with the dogs. I'm so ready for Bug to come home. She's my very most favorite person to spend time with, and I want all the time I can get before the sullen withdrawn teenage years hit. My plan is to be at the camp by 9:00 Sunday morning --- cant' wait.

Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel

2008-06-11T21:56:00.003-06:00

It's 57 degrees in Denver. There is an amazing breeze coming in through my balcony doors and windows. Bug and I just returned from an hour and a half workout at the JCC. I actually feel good. . . . It's so nice not to feel overwhelmed or exhausted . . . which are what I've been feeling most of the month since Bug's accident. The casts come off Friday. We've purchased everything we need to for her camp, and we'll head to the mountains Sunday morning. (sigh . . . . ) There is light at the end of the tunnel. And . . . I actually have two dates lined up for the first part of the week. Hopefully, they'll both go really well. (fingers crossed) One is with the investment manager, who has been traveling in Sweden, Scotland, France, and about to head to Spain, but sends me interesting emails from each of his locations. The other is with a commercial real estate developer, who also happens to be a phenomenal, competitive tennis player . . . . who's offered to help me with my backhand. So . . . who knows . . . it will be nice to go out and not have to worry about babysitters and getting back home. :):)

Bug found two new specialty shops last night that I'm afraid we're going to be hooked on . . . one was an imported olive oil shop . . . oh my goodness . . . I'm being forced to cook in this city between the pasta shop and now the olive oil shop. The other shop was L'Occitane en Provence, where somehow the sweet little lady in the store managed to convince me that, indeed, I needed $78 of shea butter products for my feet. And I continued to thank her as I left the store because I was sure my feet would surely dry up and fall off of my body had I not encountered her and saved my very existence. She even had me promising to come back this weekend to try a body cream. So . . . I'm off to go exfoliate and slather my lower extremities in shea butter. I hope my Boxers (a/k/a sleeping buddies) notice my soft feet tonight.

Living a culturally diverse life . . .

2008-06-08T09:27:00.005-06:00

A colleague of mine gave me one of the greatest compliments I think I could receive the other day . . . . he told me . . . Rhonda, you are a walking example of someone committed to cultural diversity . . . you talk the talk and you walk the walk. I don't know if I am truly deserving of these words . . . I really don't feel I "walk the walk" as much as I should or could . . . but diversity is so important to me . . . to society.

That's one of things I've enjoyed the most about this city. It is so incredibly rich with diversity. Even with our own little small existence . . . diversity exists . . . for example:
I'm a "Methodist" by training, my daughter attends a Catholic school (Episcopalian in Little Rock), and we recently joined the Jewish Community Center for sports and fitness activities, somewhere I feel completely comfortable thanks to my former fiance who is Jewish . . . We have friends who are African American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, Middle Eastern . . . my daughter has been asked to play in a primarily Hispanic soccer tournament because we have Latino friends . . . In my daughter's class at school, she has classmates from Nigeria and China and classmates whose parents hail from Panama, Peru, England, Poland, Brazil, and Greece. She attended an incredible Chinese New Year's celebration with her friend from China. She's learned so much from her friends whose parents have the "interesting" accents and share their culture, dances, and dress. (She especially loves the head dresses of her friend's mom from Nigeria.) This wealth of interesting, diverse people has inspired my 10-year old to spend hours with her interactive "smart" globe my brother gave her to learn all about places I'm not sure she would have had an interest in otherwise.

I feel so lucky to have all of these people in our lives, and truly don't understand those who would close themselves off to a segment of society because of someone's color, race, national origin, or religion.

A dear friend of mine, a cardiologist from Syria, is about to go back there to visit his family. I hope he is able to return to the U.S. Our federal government has identified Syria, along with six other countries (Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Cuba, and North Korea) as state sponsors of terrorism. My brilliant friend, a Christian from Allepo, who works every day to save lives in the United States, would never be associated with terrorists or terrorism, yet the threat is very real that he will not be able to return to the U.S. at the end of his visit simply because of where he is from . . . it happened to one of our myeloma physicians . . . he's still in Syria, after more than a year . . . unable to return because the State Department will not grant his clearance. I will be very sad if I never get to see my friend again. I love his stories of Allepo. I love the way he says "good, good" as a response. (It sounds like "goo (d), goo (d)", long "u" sounds --- very cute.) I love the way he tried to incorporate "y'all" into our conversations . . . his imitation of Southern dialect is extremely amusing. He taught me to say his name the way it is pronounced in Syria, which is very different from the way Americans say it. (He and his colleagues from Syria all worked hard to assimilate after "9-11". He went with me to Razorback football games (would never call the hogs, but laughed hysterically when I did) and took me to meet the Syrian ambassador to the U.S., Imad Moustapha. When we went to dinner, he (a cardiologist!!!!) would eat hot dogs, meat pizzas, and steak . . . which always amazed me, and occasionally would slip into Arabic and realize it only when he noticed the puzzled look on my face. . . . lol . . . We were trying to plan a trip for him to come to Denver and catch a concert before he leaves for Syria . . . between both of our crazy schedules, I'm not sure he'll make it to see me. In any event, I will be praying for his safe return from Syria.

Walking through the neighborhood . . .

2008-06-06T21:18:00.013-06:00

Bug and I just returned from a fairly regular walk we've begun to take every night through the neighborhood. Except for last night . . . after a few weeks of beautiful warm weather with pleasantly cool breezes, yesterday it was COLD. After many nights in shorts, last night when I walked the dogs I was in jeans and a polartec sweater, and I was still cold. But today, all was well . . . the sun was out full force . . . the pleasant breeze was back . . . all the tony restaurants were in full outdoor dining swing.

For those of you coming to visit us this summer (and you know who you are), I'm including a few neighborhood pictures. Later, I'll include more pics from around the city. As soon as I can get back out on my bike, I'm going on a picture taking quest of all the great sculptures in the downtown area.

Here is where we live. . .

I love this street. It's quiet and the flowers and plants smell great as you walk by.

Close by is the upscale mall. This is my daughter's favorite neighborhood scene . . .

She says the "red star of Macy's" just draws her in (sigh, 10-year old shopping drama).

Here are a couple of the great sculptures of children in the shopping area. The first is Bug's favorite . . . it's called Dorothy and Friends (the second friend is a caterpillar crawling on her book). The second is in the middle of a fountain area with benches for sitting and listening to the water in the pools.

The next is a gallery I always want to visit, but it's always closed by the time Bug and I make it on our nightly walks. Will have to make a run on Saturday. It has the greatest energy when you stop and look in at the wonderful art . . .

The local library . . . very cool place to hang out . . .

A strong contender for our vote of "Favorite Ice Cream Parlour" . . .

Bug's favorite place to get a cheeseburger and fries . . .

Our super cool tea hang out . . .

And . . . finally . . . the reason Bug and I walk to our favorite places, as opposed to driving . . .

(Not) wishing on a star

2008-06-02T22:30:00.004-06:00

I just came inside from sitting out on the balcony. It's late and quiet in the neighborhood. I was contemplating the stars. I don't think I've sat still and watched stars in a very long time. And they actually twinkle here. I don't remember ever seeing a star twinkle (despite the nursery rhyme song).
. . .
Is it because I'm closer to stars here (5280 feet above sea level)?
. . .
Or is it because, in the chaos of my adult life, I've never taken the time to sit for as long as I did tonight and contemplate the stars?
. . .
Did they twinkle when I was little and I just forgot?

And though they were beautiful, for some reason the stars brought sadness to my heart tonight. I felt very lonely out on that balcony, even with my two trusty companions, Cooper and Chloe right at my feet. I think the stars reminded me that I had promised myself to make an effort to quiet my life, and I haven't done a very good job of that. Of course, when you get quiet with yourself, you are forced to examine your life . . . . and that's not always easy. Necessary, yes . . . but never easy.

I've made so many wishes on stars that have never come true. Tonight, I didn't even have it in me to make a wish. . . . another night perhaps.

I finally decided . . .

2008-06-01T21:46:00.004-06:00

. . . who it is that is my favorite Colorado Rapids player. My eyes are constantly drawn to him. He's probably the oldest player on the team (at the ripe old age of 31), but he is so skilled on the field and gorgeous to boot. His name is Pablo Mastroeni.

He's from Argentina, and I think has been picked for the World Cup team twice. Soccer is such a great game. My other favorites include: Bouna Coundoul, who is out for the next month or so as he returned to play for his native Senegal in some national games. Bouna is an unbelievable goalee; Tom McManus, a recent recruit from Glasgow, Scotland, who's goal against Chivas was voted MLS Goal of the Week last week; Christian Gomez, another Argentinian hotty who's tremendous in the midfield; and two Colorado natives, Collin Clarke and Connor Casey.

Today, the Rapids beat FC Dallas 2-1. It was a fantastic game. Can't wait for the next one. My daughter will be at a camp taught by Rapids players for a week in July. Hope Pablo is one of her coaches . . . . I may just have to have some one-on-one parent/coach conferences! :):):)

Do I Have An Internet Stalker??????

2008-05-27T21:23:00.004-06:00

A couple of months after moving to Colorado, it started to really hit me how much I missed my friends and wonderful colleagues in Arkansas. Over time, I started thinking of ways to reach out to people, stay connected (this blog being one of the results of that thinking). The first time I tried connecting "on-line", it was through an invitation my friend Stacie, who moved to D.C. the same week I moved out here, sent me for "Good Reads". Considering my love of reading, that's been great fun. I've made "friends" on the site (and have rejected quite a few that I suspected were not interested in the books I've read) and even found out about a few author readings in the area. That positive experience led to deciding to write this blog and also to my joining Classmates.com. I thought it would be fun to see who from my high school had posted information and see if any were in the Colorado area and, yes, I admit, I wanted to see if there was any information posted by my "first love", who was/is 4 years older than me and already playing football at the University of Houston when we started dating my junior year. Yes, he was listed, unfortunately (or fortunately) no information about him. Oh well, it would be fun to try to look up old friends.
So . . . I answered the silly questions that they ask you to answer and posted a picture, which took some time, so I decided to wait for another day to see which, if any, of my high school buddies had posted info/pics.
However . . . within a day or two I received an email that someone had "signed my Guestbook" and left me a message. When I went to see who it was, I recognized the name but could not, for the life of me, picture this person in my mind. Here is a "redacted" version of his email to me:

O.K. what can I say. This Is my last letter on this site. I apparantly found what I was seeking so now I must continue my journey else where. How befitting,since the only moment I really had back in Exeter, I mean XXXXX, ( they are or WERE somewhat similar) was with you (seriously , that was the closest I came to reaching out and stealing a kiss from a girl, and THAT WASN"T VERY DAMN CLOSE WAS IT?!)when I handed you your cap during the air guitar show, but you did have tempting eyes. Well, I went there to go here. You were an absoulte knockout then and you have only gotten more fanatically beutiful. Phenominal. Why? I dunno. Uhh, I know I went to a school full of supermodels. My Lorrrd was I nervous (scared to death, more like it) but I can tell you this, I did the Ridgemont High thing to every girl in that school but two (one I was-am(?) in love with-the other was you--way beyond MY imagination. What can I say, every guy in that school was the same way (puberty ruled). Well, I must say, it has been a real kicker you just happening along when you did. I don't know how you feel about yourself but just from what I saw of you in high school you seem like a winner and I hope your doing o.k. I don't know if you like distractions from your day but if you ever need to be distracted or if you need a really weird answer to any of life's questions you be sure and email me (I will do my best to put you to bed with a smile) at XXXXXXXXXX When I get my website back on space (if you live you learn.com), if I have your address I'll let you know. Right now I simply have too many projects to properly maintain it. Oh, yea, if you wondering what "ridgemont high" meant, rent the movie, and watch it with your daughters if you have such and they aren't grown. When you get to me just explain to them (for their own good) all men are like that--get used to it. Well, God bless and take care.

So . . . hmmm . . . didn't quite know what to think about a message like that from someone whose face I cannot picture in my mind. The yearbooks are packed away somewhere in my storage unit. And, being the guilt-laden creature I am, I was more concerned that I didn't remember this person and didn't remember an "air guitar show" and feeling bad that I was apparently so self-involved in high school that I didn't know this person had a crush on me. Looking back, I think I should have been more worried about the intimate nature of an email from someone I knew 20+ years ago. I didn't want to "start" something, so I just didn't reply to the email.

A couple of more emails appeared over the next few days that were fairly innocuous. Then this one:

HELLO. I meant to ask you when I visited your site last time, uh, oh, what was that question? Ohh no!, guess I've just been caught wanting to look at your site (your picture?) again. Myyy Lorrrd! I apoligize but ya gotta love this internet stuff! I mean, you know and I know I'll never get to hang with you, and youv'e heard the saying about how much sweeter a great wine gets!. Oh, gee, what can I say? Hopefully no harm done and hopefully someone got a little bit of cockiness. I mean, daaammmnnn! MMMyyy Lorrrd! Ya big tease! Don'tcha know any loser can get on here and stare at ya?

Okay . . . so now I'm beginning to get a little annoyed. I haven't replied to any of his emails. Wouldn't that suggest that I'm not interested? Why is he continuing to write to me?

Then, a few days ago, I woke up one morning and had a message from Classmates.com that I had a new message waiting for me. This one frightens me. It read:

There were two young ladies who were waaaaay out of my league at one time. NO more. I know I grew up way too fast which meant when you were 18 you had your 18 year old groove goin'. That was a long time ago. Welcome to grownup hood where feelings are real. And skills have been attained because of simply growin' up. I can't imagine you, therefore I am without any fanfare gonna get you girl, in an extremly pleasureably sort of way. That is if you allow yourself such gratification. God bless and take care.

I immediately reported this message to Classmates.com and asked if they would please block him from sending any further messages to my "inbox". I removed my picture and any information that might identify my location, but I feel that cat has sort of been let out of the bag. I've not heard from him since, but I'm really quite nervous about this person. I hope he was simply drunk or on drugs and really regrets having sent such a threatening email.

Luckily, I work with a local police chief on a regular basis. He's picking me up for a meeting tomorrow and I think I'll mention it to him. Maybe he'll have some good advice. If any of you reading this have some words of wisdom about this, I welcome them. . . . Just don't send me any scary messages!!!

Metrosexuals . . . . or Dating in Denver

2008-05-26T07:15:00.008-06:00

My dating life since moving to Denver has been . . . less than fulfilling. Since February, it's been non-existent with the near-death dog, spending all my time fighting identity theft and forged checks, selling my house in Arkansas, dealing with nasty neighbors, and caring for my daughter. But . . . those casts are coming off in June, she's going away to camp for 2 weeks, and, frankly, I'm hoping my love life starts improving.

Things looked promising for a while. In fact, within a 5-day period in early February, I had four dates (which actually stressed me out a little bit --- I'm not the best at juggling, especially men . . . in second grade I accepted I.D. bracelets from 2 boys, Stanley and Gene, because I liked them both and didn't want to choose OR hurt feelings . . . of course, I got busted on the playground and then had no boyfriends or I.D. bracelets . . . since second grade, I've never dated more than one guy at a time.)

Anyway, these 4 guys . . . . all seemed nice and interesting, all good-looking. I had hope.

One was a builder who was redesigning and rebuilding a river walk in another Colorado city. He was a great emailer, the phone conversations . . . eh . . . so-so, but the date . . . oh my gosh . . . one of the worst conversationalists I've ever encountered. Looooooooooong periods of silence and pretty much monosyllabic responses to the 500 questions I asked just to have some conversation going. I finally claimed an unforgotten commitment and scooted out of that one.

The second was the vice president of communications of a major telecommunications giant . . . this one had to be a great conversationalist, right? I mean, come on, he's VP of COMMUNICATIONS. . . . Well, he had a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas about women and relationships, and I could barely make it through the entree considering the doses of sarcasm he was heaping upon me. With this one, I claimed a text message from my babysitter (couldn't figure out how to make my phone ring) meant I needed to get home and check on my daughter. When we left the restaurant and were headed down the street, he noticed he had a ticket on his car. I left him standing in the street cursing and yelling after me he would call me and I could pick up the next dinner (yeah right buddy, in your dreams).

The third one was an airline pilot. Cuuuuuute as he could be, but there simply was not room for all three of us in any relationship that might develop . . . . the three being me, him, and his EGO. Wow . . . so I'm 0 for 3 in the dating bonanza. The next one is a lawyer. One of my own. That will break the streak of bad luck surely.

Not . . .

This one was my first encounter with . . . THE METROSEXUAL.

My favorite on-line dictionary defines the "metrosexual" as:

"a usually urban heterosexual male given to enhancing his personal appearance by fastidious grooming, beauty treatments, and fashionable clothes".

I'll say . . . . Denver is rife with metrosexual men. Now, being from the South, I have not encountered this breed of men too often. I've seen them when traveling, especially in New York, D.C., and San Francisco . . . but I've never dated one. And the last three men I dated seriously were all sophisticated, intelligent men, but they would (and did) bristle at the mention of ever going to get a manicure or a facial.

Well, Denver "date no. 4" was a full and proud metrosexual. The perfectly coifed hair and the white, perfect teeth (think Tony from "Dancing with the Stars") should have tipped me off. Within 10 minutes of sitting down to dinner, he felt the need to share with me that he:

preferred Armani over all other labels
regularly tanned
liked facials, manicures, and pedicures
and . . . this was the pièce de résistance . . . for some odd reason he felt I would like to know that he . . . regularly got his back waxed (at that point, the Cajun food I was eating started to crawl back up my throat at a rapid pace).

This guy even referred to himself as a metrosexual and said his children called him that all the time.

I'm sorry . . . it is not a turn-on for me when a guy has more salon/spa visits than I do. I mean, I can be all girly girl . . . I regularly get manicures and pedicures (and being from the South, it was engrained in me that one always gets a pedicure before visiting her gynecologist . . . it's simply not proper to put one's feet in the stirrups without silky smooth legs and painted toes). I periodically will buy the Crest Whitening Strips to make my smile a little brighter. I like to do my hair and make-up and dress up to go out, but this guy made me feel like a backwoods mountain girl. I had flash forwards of him using my facial muds, my exfoliating products, my concealer . . .ugh . . . I had a sudden desire to find a man who burped and scratched or at least didn't "WAX"!!

That was my last date. I went on a self-imposed moratorium after that. Admittedly, my life started falling apart at the seams at that time, which required all of my waking hours to address, but I put the dating game WAY on the back burner.

Shortly after that, an article came out in the little area newsletter about metrosexuals and how men in Denver were turning to not only manicures/pedicures/facials/spa treatments, but also makeup. Yes, makeup. Heterosexual men wearing makeup. I can honestly say I never want to date a man who wears makeup, and I'm a fairly liberal girl. I want a manly man . . . not a gross one . . . I truly don't want a burper or scratcher . . . I love sophisticated, well-groomed, nicely dressed men with clean fingernails but . . . no makeup please.

On Saturday, my daughter and I visited a local salon for full spa pedicures, including salt scrubs and hot paraffin treatments. As we're sitting there in the vibrating/rolling massage chairs . . . relaxing . . . talking girl talk . . ., in come a father and son, who take the 2 massage chairs next to us . . . and who are there for their full spa pedicures. !!!!!!! My dad and brother would have taken bullets to the head before ever even walking through the door of a salon, much less to go there for a father-son pedicure day.

An investment banker from Boulder has indicated he would like to have dinner when he returns from overseas travel in June. I'll be checking his hands and hoping for hang nails or bitten cuticles.

Learning to be grateful

2008-05-19T23:02:00.005-06:00

I haven't written in a while. Exhausted and overwhelmed are the pity party emotions I've allowed to consume my past week. On May 11, 2008, Mother's Day, I awoke before my daughter and decided to spend some time reading a book she had given me for my birthday. The name of the book is "This Is Not the Life I Ordered". I know . . . an odd present for a 10-year-old to give her mother . . . but . . . this 10-year-old has lived a lot of life in those 10 years and, unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, has seen her mother through the up's and down's. I had bought the book for a friend of mine going through a divorce and read a bit of it before putting it in the mail. My daughter remembered me commenting on it and bought the book for me. She even wrote an inscription on the inside of the book, and the date, as I always do with books given to her as a gift, and signed it "Bug", my nickname for her since she first learned to read --- the book was "A Boy, A Bear, and A Bug" . . . or was it "A Bug, A Boy, and A Bear" . . . or . . . well something like that. Anyway, she was only 3 and somehow, through her reading that book to me, her nickname became first "Buggy Bear", then "Buggy", and finally "Bug", which has stuck throughout the years.

I digress . . . .

So, I'm reading this book, and the portion happens to be on "gratitude". . . . how important it is to be grateful. How taking time out of your day to write down in a journal what it is you're grateful for is supposed to change your life. And they were words I needed to read. I've been through a period of looking at the glass "half empty". Master event planner for "The Pity Party". So, just as I was deciding I would start writing the life-changing gratitude journal, in comes Bug from her night's sleep with a beautiful homemade card and a box wrapped in shiny blue paper and a rose-colored ribbon. It had a picture of her taped on the bottom and an attachment that read:

This is a very special gift
That you can never see.
The reason it's so
special is
It's just for you from me.

Whenever you are
lonely
Or even feeling blue,
You only have to hold this gift
And know I
think of you.

You never can unwrap it.
Please leave the ribbon
tied.
Just hold the box close to your heart
It's filled with love
inside.

Yes . . . a very cool way to start Mother's Day. We decide our day. . . . First, a long bike ride, to be followed by lunch at a favorite restaurant, and, finally, a movie. We eat a quick breakfast, throw on some biking clothes, and hit the trail.

By 10:30 that morning, our Mother's Day plans were derailed . . . literally. Bug was riding in front of me on the bike path. I saw her tire veer off to the right into the grass and then, all in seemingly slow motion, I saw her try to correct and get back on the pavement . . . the tire caught at the pavement, throwing her off to the left. I couldn't get to her, damnit . . . why was everything in slow motion when I needed to reach her?? She landed on both arms, with her body propelling forward and to the left, and her head was scraping along the pavement. My first thought was "WHY COULDN'T THAT BE ME???" My second thought was . . . "the right side of her face will be destroyed from the pavement." I jumped off my bike and gently lifted her. She was screaming, but miraculously the helmet had taken all of the brunt of her fall to her face. Without it, I can't imagine. . . I don't want to imagine. Her legs were scraped and bleeding, but . . . her beautiful little arms . . . they took the hit. Both of them . . . . broken.

I managed to lift her off of the trail and onto the grass, and move both of our bikes so that no one else would be hurt. It was stunning to see the number of people who just whizzed by us without so much of an offer to call for help. Here I was at the side of the path holding a hysterically crying child . . . . and probably 10 people rode by us. Finally, an elderly gentlemen stopped and reminded me, in my distraught state, that I should call for help -- I had forgotten about my phone. But I didn't know where we were . . . we had just taken off on a path and were miles from home. Luckily, this gentlemen knew the cross streets and I was able to give the directions to the 911 dispatcher. Before I could even get off of the phone, I heard the sirens. Within seconds, literally, a fire truck, an ambulance, and 2 police cars were at the top of an embankment . . . it seemed like hordes of uniformed people were headed our way . . . I can not explain how wonderful they looked, all coming down that hill so quickly . . . just to help my Bug.

I had no i.d. on me, no insurance cards, but luckily my BlackBerry held all my pertinent information. After a traumatizing splinting of both arms and insertion of an IV, Bug and I were headed to the emergency room. Our bikes were left with the firemen, who said they would take them to the station. The x-rays confirmed the bad news. Both arms broken. (Along with the summer dreams . . . .)

I can not appropriately describe the past 8 days. But . . . it's not easy for a 10-year old to adapt to life without the use of her arms or hands, for the most part, for 4-6 weeks. It's not easy to have to give up soccer camps and tryouts and pool parties and riding your bike and not being able to play softball on the team you just made. For me, it's not easy feeding and bathing a 10-year old, brushing and flossing her teeth, taking her to the bathroom. Her school has not been the best to work with through this process, so I've been leaving work every day to drive back to the school and feed her and take her to the bathroom. She can't write, so she reads her homework assignment and I transcribe her answers. The teachers give her oral examinations (which I think has to be much more difficult). She's slept with me every night since the accident so I can make sure her arms are properly elevated above her heart like the orthopedic surgeon said they should be . . . which means I don't sleep much. It's hard not having Bug to help feed and walk the dogs or help carry in groceries or plant flowers or go jogging or start the tennis lessons that we were both supposed to start last Saturday. . . .

But you know what . . .

I am SO GRATEFUL!
I am grateful for that helmet. People who ride without them are certifiably insane.
I am grateful only her arms were broken and not her legs or her collarbone or her HEAD!
I am so grateful that this is going to make our strong relationship even stronger because we're both learning patience and appreciation and, yes, gratitude.
I am so grateful for the incredible friends who email and call and have sent cards and gifts --- you have no idea how much every little gesture means (even when I've been too tired to call back or reply to an email).
I am so grateful for our friends who left their family outing on Mother's Day to come get us from the hospital.
I am so grateful to the paramedic who gave Bug a stuffed teddy bear in the ambulance to help divert attention from the needle going into her arm and the nurse at the ER who splinted both of the bears arms so he would look like my daughter.
I am so grateful to the fireman who took care of our bikes and who all came out when we arrived to pick them up ---- 4 of them loaded our bikes on the racks and made such a big deal over Bug. (And, yes, there is a reason that "Fireman" was voted one of the sexiest professions. I can personally attest to this.)
I am grateful for casts that now come in colors that make little girls feel less like a freak -- Bug has one pink and one purple.
I am grateful for straws that allow a person without use of their arms to be able to drink from a cup. (This is what a difficult situation allows . . . you appreciate things you never think of.)
I am grateful for a job and a boss that allows me flexibility to be able to care for my child.

I . . . am grateful for the opportunity to learn from life's challenges.

Ice cream . . . . yum!

2008-05-08T19:23:00.002-06:00

My daughter and I are on a quest to find the best ice cream in the city. We love independents, whether they are bookstores, restaurants, ice cream parlors, pet stores, whatever. We much prefer to support a local proprietor over the big chains. (Not that we haven't had our share of Haagen Dazs and Cold Stone Creamery, which both are within a few blocks of our townhome.) Anyway, the Daily Scoop is a very strong contender, and actually they sell frozen custard as opposed to ice cream. But this is good stuff . . . usually they only serve 3 flavors per day, chocolate, vanilla, and one that changes daily . . . with a multitude of available toppings and a side of waffle cone they put in for garnish. There are strong competitors for the title of "Favorite Ice Cream" place. The gelato place across the street from my hair stylist and the ever favorite Bonnie Brae Ice Cream shop in Washington Park are STRONG contenders. We'll just have to keep testing!! :):)

Go Rapids!

2008-05-04T19:38:00.005-06:00

Attended a Colorado Rapids soccer game today. They beat D.C. United 2-0. The games are great. Held at a beautiful new stadium, Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado. My daughter's favorite player is Christian Gomez, no. 10. I still haven't decided on my favorite player, but do love to watch them play. I will no longer get to see Razorback football, so I needed a new "home favorite". After being told of a 12-15 year wait for Broncos season tickets, I turned to the Rapids --- good decision. I'm still psyched about getting to see the occasional Broncos, Nuggets, Avalanche, Rockies, or Mammoth games, but the Rapids are now my #1 team for which we have season tickets.

Was thankful for the game today. The weekend started out badly. First with a phone call that my storage company had to move all of my things to a new unit because of a water leak --- now I've got to determine what might be damaged/missing (as if I have time). Then, when we got home Friday, there was a nasty letter in the mailbox from the city stating that someone complained about my dogs barking and that if there are further complaints, I get to look forward to: (1) impoundment; (2) fine of up to $1000; and/or (3) jail up to a year. The thing that really tears me up is I know it's not my dogs --- I just don't know how to prove it. I do know that the "uppity ups" in this townhome complex weren't thrilled that "renters" moved in (everyone else owns), that I had a child, or that I have dogs. I'm hurt and angry over the whole thing --- if someone thought my dogs were barking, why wouldn't they have the common courtesy to come talk to me first? And why do bad things always come in the mail on Friday afternoons when you get home from work, it's too late to call anyone, and then you have to stew about them all weekend? This is the downside of living in this neighborhood --- the residents are extremely wealthy and intolerant of outsiders. Lots of "trust fund babies" and retirees. I should have known when, in the winter the other dogs had designer coats and boots, and I was out walking mine in 10 degree weather with just their dog fur. Guess it's time to start looking for a new place to rent. I do not want to give up my dogs.

A Snowy May Day

2008-05-01T21:04:00.006-06:00

I wish I had stuck my camera in my purse this morning, but it was one of those mornings. I found my daughter's monthly lunch form that was supposed to be turned in . . . . yesterday ("no late exceptions" in bold on the form). So, I not only had to make a lunch at the last minute, but now also was required to go to the office and plead for "the exception" so she could actually eat for the next month without suffering through my homemade lunches. And it's SNOWING, yes snowing, on May 1st. Actual snow. Huge white flakes. Which means traffic into downtown will be a bear. I'm already late before I even leave the house . . . . and, the icing on the cake, I have a trial today . . . my first trial with my new employer . . . in a town in Colorado I've never been to . . . and it's friggin' snowing . . IN MAY!
I race to school and park . . . oops . . . that's a fire hydrant (isn't there a law about that? . . . oh well, I'll just find another spot). My next spot invokes the wrath of the "carpool police" (this is only for people dropping off their children, you can't park here ). WhatEVER! At least my child can get into the school at this point . . . I still can't. So I drive and park . . . 2 blocks away . . . and now I'm running in my skirt and heels with the lunch forms . . . IN THE SNOW. I plead my case . . . whew! . . . they actually made an exception. Good, good, my daughter can eat, so now off to work . . . except the nice Catholic school office workers tell me I can not leave because it's time for morning prayer and the pledge of allegiance. (Are you kidding me? . . . No, I can tell by your stern looks that I, in fact, am under Catholic house arrest until we pray and pledge. ) Finally, I'm off and running . . . again in the skirt and heels . . . again IN THE SNOW . . . and wow, it's really cold and I left my winter coat at home . . . huh . . . why did I do that? . . . oh yeah, BECAUSE IT'S MAY!

My office is downtown on the top floor of a building. My back wall is nothing but windows overlooking the city. And once I had caught my breath, warmed up, and dried off, I was able to appreciate the snow. I have never, ever, ever seen such large, beautiful flakes. Some were as large as half-dollars. So sad I did not have my camera. Interestingly, there is a huge Four Seasons going up across the street from me (where, for just a few million dollars, I too could live in one of the penthouses and just walk across the street to work every morning), and the guy in the crane was working --- he has to climb an unbelievable amount of metal steps every day, higher than my 14-story building, and get in the crane to work. And he climbed those steps and operated the crane in that incredible snow storm. My colleague who grew up in Michigan said he'd never seen such a thick snow storm before . . . and he's from Michigan!

I reviewed my case, returned a few calls, and had to head out in the snow storm to a town I had never been to, to try my first case in Colorado. When I was driving into the outskirts of the town, I saw a Starbucks sign . . . aah . . . good . . . it's a civilized place. :):) I looked at my watch . . . yes! . . . . I had made good time despite the storm, there was time for a mocha . . . not my usual Starbucks drink, but I needed the combination of chocolate and caffeine to get through the rest of the day. When I arrived at the courthouse, I had to go through metal detectors, and something I was wearing (unknown) set them off, which meant I got to spend an inordinate amount of time with Barney Fife running the scanner up and down me. Finally, I was deemed safe to pass. On the way to the courtroom, I passed windows overlooking a courtyard with the most wonderful sculpture entitled "Called to Jury Duty" --- it was a huge bronze sculpture of ordinary men and women contemplating their call to justice. It really was riveting . . . again, remorse over not sticking the camera in my purse. Oh well, it was time to focus on business at hand. Upon arrival in any courtroom, my usual practice is to approach and shake hands with the opposing party and lawyer . . . there's no reason not to be civil, even if you're about to do battle . . . but, for the first time in 18 years of practice, the plaintiff refused to shake my hand . . . just looked me up and down with disdain. I simply smiled and lowered my hand (and muttered under my breath as I walked away, "that's fine because I'm about to squash you like the bug you are"). His unmasked anger throughout the proceeding worked in my favor with the judge. I prevailed, thankfully. My client was very happy. The day was looking up.

I drove back to the city, this time in rain. It rarely rains here. This is only the second time I've seen it since I moved to Colorado. Because I had left my umbrella safe and dry in the car, I was quite damp for my drive back. Ended up picking my daughter up on the way and just calling it a day. I was cold and tired. When we got home, I treated myself by actually cooking dinner. I had been saving some lime cilantro fettucine purchased from my favorite Italian boutique, Bella Pasta, for a special occasion. Tonight was it. I sauteed some diced chicken in olive oil, threw it into a sundried tomato alfredo sauce, tossed it with the fettucine (which gives off the most amazing citrus smell), and . . . aaaaaaahhhhh . . . it was good, and it was warm. I was so proud of myself for making it, I took a picture with the camera I had wished for all day.

It was raining and 38 degrees outside . . . no cycling or jogging tonight. So I grabbed a blanket, snuggled with Chloe, and watched Grey's Anatomy . . . thank goodness the writers' strike is over!

Chloe

2008-04-29T10:47:00.009-06:00

I don't want to leave out my other Boxer from my postings. This is Chloe. We adopted her from a Boxer rescue organization when she was almost 2. She is THE sweetest dog ever . . . can not believe someone would give her up. Chloe will turn 4 next month.

Like Cooper, she has some health challenges. A year after we got her, she started losing her hair. Diagnosis: hypothyroidism. So she's on monthly meds for life too. Then, this past November, she just wasn't "acting herself", so I took her to the vet for a check-up. She had a large amount of blood in her urine (not visible to the human eye). After 4 additional days and $1400 of diagnostic testing with a board certified internal medicine specialist, no diagnosis and no improvement . . . and we were days away from the move. I'm now taking her to the same vet who diagnosed Cooper with Addison's Disease, and he thinks he has a handle on it. She's now on another daily med which is supposed to be the equivalent of cranberry juice for humans. That, combined with a round of antibiotics and prednisone have resulted in a much lower quantity of blood as of last week. We're hopeful she's on the upswing. Again, this vet is incredible. Symptomatically, she acts like the old Chloe. She tries desparately to talk, and her favorite trick is to wait until I'm in the shower and then come open the door and stick her nose through the shower curtain. I don't have the heart to lock the door because she seems to enjoy bursting in on me so much. :) Both of my Boxers know how to open doors --- I've never had any other breed of dog that did that.

Here's another picture of her my daughter took that she calls "Snowy Chloe".

It's been a fantastic weekend . . .

2008-04-27T19:29:00.006-06:00

Yesterday morning, it was snowing. April 26th and it's snowing. ??? My daughter played a soccer game for the first time in the snow. And it was extremely windy. The parents were all huddled in our coats, gloves, and blankets on the sidelines while our children were in shorts and jerseys out on the field. Luckily, I had made my daughter wear leggings under her shorts, I gave her my gloves, and another parent had a hat for her to borrow. And her team won, 4-1. It was great. And it was the first of a doubleheader. So, after the first game, we raced to get something to eat and drove across town to the field where the second game would be played. And, miraculously, by the time the second game started, it was warm and beautiful. No evidence of snow whatsover. The girls were all shedding winter gear rapidly. We were down 3 players for that second game, and both of our fullbacks (including my daughter) were injured --- we lost 1-0.

On the way from the game, we drove by a bicycle shop. We've been shopping for bicycles, and this particular shop had been recommended by my friend Beth. Well, we had to stop. And boy did we shop. Ended up with 2 bicycles (at prices I'm still choking on), a Thule bicycle rack that fits into my handy dandy trailer hitch I had put on to move out here, 2 helmets, 2 bicycle locks, and 2 rackbars so I can actually haul these expensive little 2-wheelers on my expensive little bike rack. But I couldn't be happier. Until yesterday, I had not ridden a bicycle in over 30 years!! I was so nervous to get on the bike and ride outside the shop . . . but I couldn't buy it without riding it first, right? No, the cute salesperson wasn't going to allow that --- those guys are all about service, and he wanted me to have just the right bike. The first one did not work --- ouchie --- that seat hurt. The second one, I fell in love with and took right off down the street. I didn't crash! Yea! My daughter was so proud. And I was so glad I got them . . . she told the sales guy (who told me) that "the move has been really hard on my mom and really expensive. I didn't think I would get a bike for 2 or 3 years." So after I controlled the tears coming to my eyes after that comment, I gladly handed over my credit card. Here is my lovely new bike.

So today, we took a long bike ride. It was so much fun. And a picture perfect day, sunny and in the 60's. We rode to a park and played on the swings, then rode through the Rodeo Drive of Colorado, a/k/a Cherry Creek North, onto the bike path next to Cherry Creek. We had a blast.

I was so confident from my renewed sport (which brought back a ton of great childhood memories by the way), that I came home and fired up my Dad's Portable Kitchen that I had bought him many years ago and that I got after he died in June 2006. I had never used it, was intimidated by it --- I don't know why, it's a charcoal grill after all, and the owners of the company are good friends of mine and have given me all sorts of booklets, tips, and recipes, but I had never used it. I moved it to Colorado and bought it a nice heavy cover from Smith & Hawkins to protect from the elements, but have never used it. Well, today, I flipped that cover off, loaded the charcoal, fired it up and cooked hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner. And they were goooooooood! I'm so excited that I finally used it. I'm already planning what I will grill next!

After dinner, we took the dogs for a walk. And, what I've been hoping for ever since we moved into this area, an extremely cute man carrying his groceries approached and asked if he could pet our dogs. (Well, yes, of course, cute man . . . pet my dogs, ask for my phone number, etc . . . ) But I was being cool, making great conversation, excited that this guy obviously was a neighbor, and, at that moment, right when things were going so well . . . Cooper, in his excited state over the cute guy, lost all bladder control. And, because he was jumping and wagging side to side, urine was going everywhere . . . including on cute guy's shoes. (Sigh) Suddenly, he needed to get his groceries home. Darn it!!! I did not need my dog's urinary incontinence to blow an opportunity! Oh well, I'll just have to take some non-dog walks and see if I can redeem myself.

"Ma'am, we've made an arrest"

2008-04-26T07:27:00.003-06:00

Those were the words uttered by the Little Rock detective when I answered the phone earlier this week. The thieving woman who stole checks from my mailbox and used them was in jail. Yea!!!! Yes, since I moved, I have been the victim of both forged checks AND identity theft from a credit card. And . . . yes . . . it is the hell everyone says it is in trying to deal with it. When I moved from Arkansas, I did what you're supposed to do --- completed one of the forwarded mail forms with the Post Office and had my mail forwarded as of the day we left town. And I was living my new life in Colorado, thinking all of my mail was being forwarded. Silly me.

In early March, on a Friday afternoon (these things always come on a Friday afternoon, don't they?) I received a letter from Citi Cards stating they suspected fraudulent activity on my Shell gas account. Huh?? My Shell gas account wasn't a Citibank account. ??? And the numbers weren't the same at all. So I politely called Citi Cards to tell them they made an oops, and it must be someone else's account at risk. Well, lo and behold, . . . . it was my account. Unbeknownst to me, Shell gas company partnered with (i.e., sold my information to) Citibank to offer me, without my authorization or knowledge, a platinum Mastercard, with a $10,000.00 limit because I'm "such a good customer", i.e., "gosh ma'am, we were doing you a favor". Well, they sent the fully loaded, ready-for-purchases card to my old address in Arkansas. And either because there is an "insider" at the post office who lifted the card there OR because the post office stupidly delivered my mail to the mailbox of my not-yet-sold house, some evil, nasty person/people got the card, called the 800 number to activate, AND (slimiest of all) used my daughter's name as the password on the account. Then they proceeded to spend $9,600.00 in 8 days in February until CitiCards, in their infinite wisdom, thought "huh, something doesn't seem right here" and cut them off. The slimy, rotten criminal bought lots of gas, lots of clothes in Little Rock, lots of meals in Little Rock, Memphis, and New Orleans, and topped it all off with a $1400 limo ride in New Orleans.

As I'm trying to come to grips with what has happened and having to deal with the credit card people, the FTC, the Arkansas Attorney General, the credit reporting agencies, and local law enforcement in all the cities (because by gosh they won't cooperate and work together I've learned), I get a notice from my credit union 3 days later stating that I exceeded my limit on my Visa. What???? I never use my credit union visa. ???? Apparently, my credit union, also as a courtesy to me, mailed out 3 Visa checks for my use. The thoughtfulness of these companies in awarding me because of my great credit history has now resulted not only in theft of my identity, but also now stolen and forged checks . . . the same slime bucket or a different one . . . unknown at this point . . . (do I sound bitter? well that's because I AM!) stole the checks. This last slime bucket is the one in jail. She is not the smartest criminal because (1) she wrote a $2400 check to herself and deposited in her own account and (2) (and this is the one that makes everyone laugh ---- I'm not quite yet to laughter stage) she wrote a check to a photographer for a "sexy lingerie shoot" as the photographer described it. So the police have all of her lovely photos as evidence.

The police can't tie her to the credit card theft yet, but she has spent the past 2 weeks in jail according to the detective. I hope she rots there!! In the meantime, I continue to battle my identity theft. In the past 2 weeks alone, I've received notices from 3 other companies that someone has tried to open accounts in my name. My initial credit card fraud alert expires in a month, and I'm trying to get the 6-year one, but it is not easy to do. Everyone from the police to the FTC to the Attorney General has told me this will be a life long battle. I've spent over 10 hours just going through various accounts on my credit reports --- accounts from the past 22 years-- trying to make sure everything is as it should be. I've closed every account I had except for 2. No more gas cards, no more department store cards. 1 Visa and 1 AmEx. That's it for me. I'm in the process of trying to eliminate all direct mail offers and eliminate all unneccessary mail. For utilities and other bills, I'm getting them switched to on-line so I will not receive a paper copy in a mailbox.

This same thing happened to my niece in Fort Worth when she moved from her apartment to a house during the same time period. The Fort Worth police indicated they think these things are all tied to insiders at the post office who get your information that you're moving and then, boom, you're a target. I sincerely hope it never happens to you.

Cooper

2008-04-24T21:50:00.004-06:00

This is my male Boxer, Cooper. He almost died recently, and I learned he has Addison's Disease. His adrenal glands are completely shot, and he will have to take a monthly injection of Percortin, which I've learned to give, for the rest of his life. I'm very thankful to my veterinarian who diagnosed him in 2 days --- from my research, Addison's is very difficult to diagnose. Cooper is a "snuggler", and on this particular night, he just wanted to be held. I know that feeling . . . wanting to be held by your mom when you're feeling bad . . . I still get it and sure wish my mom was around for me to crawl up into her lap and be held. So glad I still have the memories.

Happy Earth Day!

2008-04-22T21:09:00.003-06:00

This Earth Day has been the most significant one to me yet, I think because I am living in Colorado. There are all sorts of promotions and sales in celebration of this day. My daughter and I visited our favorite independent book store that distributed free canvas bags to each customer with the purchase of a book. There is a huge push to do away with the plastic bags the grocery and big box stores use to sack your groceries and other purchases. Now, anytime we go to the store, we refuse a bag for our purchases unless absolutely necessary. As of today, we have enough canvas bags to begin carrying them to the grocery stores. And, being in walking distance of Safeway and Whole Foods, we try to only walk, not drive, to the stores. My daughter has become even "greener" since moving here --- because of her, I no longer buy plastic water bottles --- we refill our non-BPA Camelback bottles. I recycle, both at home and the office, and we're in the process of buying bikes so we can rely even less on the car. My new city is very bike-friendly, lots of lanes and trails for cyclists and walkers. We're both trying very hard to "reduce our carbon footprint". My downfall of the day was purchasing Thai take-out for dinner on the way home from the bookstore. If we had just eaten in the restaurant, we would have avoided those take-out containers. Darn it --- oh well, the fact that I'm even having the regret means I'm being more conscientious --- so I'll give myself a break. :):)

A New Beginning

2008-04-21T18:40:00.002-06:00

In August 2007, I decided to shake up my own world, move my own cheese. In the past 6 years, I've gone through a nasty divorce, a subsequent broken engagement, and the loss of both parents within 11 months of each other. Enough is enough. With the exception of 2 1/2 years in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after getting my undergraduate degree, I lived in Arkansas my entire life. While I've been fortunate to travel to many wonderful places, I've never lived anywhere else. So, in August 2007, I answered an ad in a professional publication and applied for a position in Colorado. Colorado! Could there be a more wonderful state? Lots of sunshine, lots of snow, beautiful mountains, environmentally conscious, easy to get in and out of in terms of air travel, and, best of all, no humidity or bugs to speak of. I didn't really expect to get the job, but it was time to start the process of getting on with my life . . . and it wasn't going to happen if I just sat back and waited. Tried that, didn't work. So, oddly enough, I got an interview . . . a phone interview. If you haven't been out in the job market for a while, as I had not, this is the new thing. A group of unknown people on the other end of the phone, asking you questions, listening to your voice, judging how you respond to questions (probably making gestures and facial expressions with each other that you, poor interviewee on the other end of the line, can't see). Somehow I made it through that process, despite my Southern accent, and was offered an in-person, all expenses paid interview. So I thought . . . well . . . I'll have a nice trip, get to practice my in-person interviewing skills, see a great city. Well . . . apparently the interview went well because three days later I received The Call. And . . . sometime after that (it all gets hazy at this point), I accepted the job, put my house on the market, and started getting ready for my next adventure . . . only this one wasn't going to be in the safe confines of a state I'd known all my life.

So, the morning after Christmas, the movers came and packed all of my things, except for the few things I would take with me . . . in a UHaul trailer that I would pull with my newly installed trailer hitch. On December 29, 2007, I loaded my young daughter and 2 Boxers into my car and away we went. We arrived to snow on December 30th. It's been an interesting 4 months. I decided to create this blog to chronicle some of my experiences as I attempt to assimilate to life in Colorado. This way, my beloved friends back in Arkansas can keep up with me and, hopefully, enjoy a little bit of my new state. Hope you enjoy!