Tuesday, October 22, 2013

365 Denver: 71-80

Day 71
Sunday, October 13
Family dinner!  Gathered with some friends for a delightful meal and some chill time.  I meant to take a picture of the food (chili, salad, cookies etc.) but forgot... so I captured the shenanigans that followed.

Day 72
Monday, October 14
When your boss asks you "Do you have any plans tonight?" sometimes it pays off to say no!  Free tickets to watch a preseason Nuggets game. :)

Day 73
Tuesday, October 15
WE LOVE FALL!

Day 74
Wednesday, October 16
We won the "Spirit Stick" this week.  Good job kiddos.

Day 75
Thursday, October 17
Dinner with Kirsten!!! We ate a Pho on 6th - a place nearby I've been wanting to try.  Delicious and I love Kirsten!

Day 76
Friday, October 18
Date with the ladies.  We decided to go get our nails done and go out for dinner.  It was so nice to be pampered and I said treat-yo-self and went for some gel nails!

Day 77
Saturday, October 19
Wonderful day! Slept in, run with Sally, dog park action, and an afternoon/evening with friends enjoying fall time festivities!  Spaghetti squash dinner, pumpkin pie from scratch, pumpkin carving, spiked cider, and Harry Potter.  Perfection. (My pumpkin is 2nd from the left - a witch!)

Day 78
Sunday, October 20
Brunch at Lucilles - a delicious and adorable Creole restaurant in Denver.

Day 79
Monday, October 21
Costume crafting + watching Great Gatsby w/Lauren.
I'm going to be a bird.  Lots of feathers...

Day 80
Tuesday, October 22
Best part of my day? Going to the mailbox and getting this!  Generally, it was just mail that was sent to my former address - but a reminder of home and a funny little note made my day! 

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Great American Beer Festival!

Last Saturday Lauren, Pam, and I went to the Great American Beer Festival.  Basically heaven for beer lovers... and I love beer.  Hundreds of breweries with thousands of delicious beers from all over the country come for this competition/festival!  You just stroll around with your 1oz tasting glass and try beers all night long.  We made pretzel necklaces (a common and popular item) to snack on.  Also, picked up some sweet SWAG.

We had a BLAST.
Had a friend-making "competition"... and made tons of friends. 
Tried too many beers to count and loved about 90% of them. 

Here are some highlights.
 Excited!  Also, I love the bear peeking in the convention center.  Somebody give that bear a beer.
 I thought I'd take a picture of my favorite breweries... but then they were pretty much all my favorite so I stopped.  But I was excited to try beers near and far - here's a new place to try in Golden!
 Some people dress up in weird outfits.  Why?  Who's to say.  But it's fun.
 We watched a family feud game between some brewers.  He is a brewer at a bar near my house! Made friends with him and tried on his hat.  It was sweaty.  Good shot of my pretzel necklace and accumulating SWAG too!
 Made friends with the Alaskan Brewing Company.  Spent a long time at their booth.  They were fun. And had mascots.
Shenanigans.

Love beer.
Love friends.
Love Colorado.

Monday, October 14, 2013

365 Denver: 61-70

Day 61
 Thursday, October 3
Skyping with Heather!  It is always sooo lovely to see her beautiful face.  Although it makes me miss her even more, it helps to make the distance less burdensome. Love love love.

Day 62
Friday, October 4
C IS IN TOWN!
So excited to see C!!  We met up with Lauren for dinner and drinks at the Cherry Cricket (often voted best burger in Denver) and met up with some other friends at The College Inn - both very close to where I live!  I love exploring this city, but most of my friends live on the west side (I live on the east side) so its especially nice when we explore by me!

Day 63
Saturday, October 5
I thought we'd have a nice fall hike... but then we drove into winter!  A snowy hike with C & Sal and then over to Oktoberfest with friends!  Sally wore her sweater and was adored by all.

Day 64
Sunday, October 6
Pumpkin patching & a BBQ with coworkers.  A lovely fall day.

Day 65
Monday, October 7
NO SCHOOL! Fall break - for some reason we did it today instead of Columbus Day...
Sal and I walked to Einstein Bros. for a whole wheat bagel with pumpkin cream cheese, coffee, and HP.  Delightful. 
Not having a car was quite frustrating today...

Day 66
Tuesday, October 8
Volleyball with a new attitude!  So there is this asshole on my team who always talks shit to me and makes me feel like crap.  But after talking about it with C I had new found confidence (and some beer didn't hurt either).  And it worked! I felt so much better about the whole session.
Afterwards, enjoyed some pizza from Fat Sully's with J - delicious and also located near me!

Day 67
Wednesday, October 9
12 days later I HAVE MY CAR BACK!

Day 68
Thursday, October 10
New cold weather running outfit!  And a much needed run with Sally. 

Day 69
Friday, October 11
Dubuque Fest of the West.
Dubuque is a nice little town in Iowa, and all the people from there who live in Denver get together once a year to celebrate the town with this strange little party.  Here are some Dubuquers.  I won a raffle too!  Cards that say "You're not a Dubuquer if you can't play euchre."  An entertaining, albeit strange evening.

Day 70
Saturday, October 12
OU v Texas - a disappointing game to say the least, but I managed to (easily) convince a few friends to come out to the OU bar in Denver!  It was a festive event with themed brunch items like the McTexassucks egg sandwich & Bradford Biscuits (& gravy).  
Later this evening was the Great American Beer Festival!! But it deserves a post of it's own.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

365 Denver: 51-60

Not the best ten days, but there are some shining moments.

Day 51
Monday, September 23
Watching the Broncos game with my friend Lauren... ordered a dessert and got this huge brownie.  Well done, bar dessert. 

Day 52
Tuesday, September 24
When you feel sick and buy soup on the way home... only to discover that can opener is on the long list of things still not found in your apartment... you make do with a knife.  I may have eaten a few metal shavings, but at least I had my soup.  Bed time: 8:15

Day 53
Wednesday, September 25
Rough day at work.... so I met J for a beer with Sal-pal on a perfect day for sitting on a porch.  

Day 54
Thursday, September 26
Another beautiful day!! Sally and I checked out the park a few blocks down.

Day 55
Friday, September 27
Pumpkin beer!  Met up with some coworkers for a quick happy hour and then a chill night in.

Day 56
Saturday, September 28
Good part #1: Hiking with J and enjoying beautiful CO.
Bad part #1: Feeling nauseous/runny nose for the entire hike. 
Bad part #2 (pictured above): While making a u-turn, my steering wheel broke... literally broke - just turns around and around in circles no longer connected to the wheels.  SO LUCKY I didn't get hit or that it didn't happen while I was on the highway or something crazy.  This is me, blocking traffic for a good hour.  Lots of honking.
Good part #2: Watching Sooner football with Kirsten and Preston!

Day 57
Sunday, September 29
Good part: Broncos game!!
Bad part: Feeling nauseous during the entire game.

Day 58
Monday, September 30
Sick sick sick.  Went to work... couldn't do it.  Took a half day and came home and slept all day long.  Sally wanted to play all day... and settled for window gazing.  J came and cleaned my apartment and did all the little things you don't want to do when you're sick.  Sooo kind and unexpected and appreciated. 

Day 59
Tuesday, October 1
Didn't go to volleyball for the second week in a row :/
Got in bed at 6:25 (pictured) and feel asleep about an hour later.
Fuzzy picture because I was too lazy to get up and take it and just zoomed in on my phone instead haha

Day 60
Wednesday, October 2
Operation No Work at Home: Mission 1: Epic Fail.
but first...
Did two home visits for students of mine today.  Visiting students' homes can be very effective for building relationships - I had never done one before so I wasn't sure what to expect.  Overall, it was a good experience.  Remember when you saw your teacher at the grocery store and it blew your mind that they had a real life too?  The opposite kind of happened to me.  It was really neat to get the glimpse into their "real life" and the homes were so incredibly welcoming.  As we were leaving one family said "You are welcome back any time you want.  Our home is always open to you." and the other students said to me "Make sure you come back soon.  And bring your dog.  And I'll make you dinner."

After work, met up with some friends with Sal at Denver Beer Co.  Didn't drink to help ward off the sickness, but sooo enjoyed just sitting on the porch in this beautiful weather and enjoying friends.  

I hate working at home.  It depresses me - legit.   Part of the problem is that I can't stay late at work because I have to let out Sally... but working at home just makes home suck.  In NYC, I decided to sanctify the home - have home be a happy place, stress free, etc.   Over my sick days, I decided I needed to do the same here.  So I finally found a coffee shop with wifi and food nearby that didn't close at 8... but there was no parking for blocks... so I gave up and went to a massive Starbucks and got the above picture for dinner... only to find out it closed at 8.  So I wasted about an hour trying to find a place to work and then only got to work for about 30 minutes, leaving me stressed and hungry.  Trying to make working less angry ended up making me pretty angry.  Le sigh.  Looks like I'll go into work extra early tomorrow.  Nonetheless, I'm dedicated to the separation... better luck next time.