Good Stuff

This weekend was full of good stuff. First Suzie, Jill and I had a nice dinner at North. i might have been a tiny bit under dressed for the joint, but in Denver you can get away with that. After dinner, this motley crew met up to catch a burlesque show. It was great, sexy but not vulgar, kitschy and a little bit campy. I left the show wanting to sign up for lessons. Sunday morning we met for brunch and endless mimosas. For a normal group of folks endless mimosas might mean two or three, but not us. Maybe ten mimosas and four hours later we left brunch to get on with the beautiful day. Some servers might have resented or relentless camping and blatant abuse of the endless mimosa situation, but our server was the most pleasant server I've had in a very long time.

Raise Your Voice

Though I had fantastic plans last night to catch a play in Denver with some friends, the uncooperative furnace in my lab had different ideas. So instead of dinner and a show, I picked up a bottle of wine, had a big bowl of popcorn for dinner, and hit the sack early. So, yeah, sorry to those of you who come here looking for excitement. But, early to bed means early to rise, and to great effect. It is a beautiful day here in Golden, Colorado, and I'm feeling particularly self indulgent. A nice walk with Murph kick started my morning, and instead of coffee I'm sipping a glass of wine for breakfast and watching Raise Your Voice. Shameful, I know. Before you judge me too harshly, I spent many years toiling away in the cello section in the dorkestra, and it was never as cool as it is in this cheesetastic teen flick. Plus I'm a huge sucker, even bad movies tug on my heart strings. Lets just add this to the list of things I couldn't do were I in a relationship, and then, it somehow seems OK.

Pinot, Malbec, Muscato Oh My

Considering how much of this I did last night at dinner: I am surprised I feel so gosh darn chipper this morning. Last night my parents and I went to dinner, I was planning on hitting up the local Mexican joint, Tequilas, but my mom sounded kind of disappointed when I said that. She's still bummed about missing out on restaurant week because I had the flu. So i got us a reservation at Vita, a she she kind of place in the Highlands. It was great. We had lots of great food, and lots of good wine.

Let Me Be The First To Wish Me A Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday today to Murphy, Sandy, Jill's mom Roxanne, Mariah Carey, Quentin Tarantino, that annoying guy I met on Monday who had no problem using ethnic slurs at a dinner with nine strangers, Jamie, 123 Valerie, and of course, me! I'm usually the kind of girl who celebrates her birthday with a whole week of shameless self-promotion. This year I'm kind of busy, so a long weekend will have to suffice! I think birthdays are a good time for reflection (and it's cousin direction) and this has been one amazing year. I have been trying to spend my free time having as much fun with my peeps as possible (forgive me for using the term peeps in an actual sentence), because I don't know how different my life will be next year on my birthday. I'm planning on moving and starting a new job, but who knows? I might accidentally fall in love, get married, and have some babies. I might inadvertently step out in front of a bus and check out for good. Wow, I didn't mean to get so morbid on you there, my point is just this; let's live every week like it's shark week.* The Festivities: Tonight I'm having dinner with my parents. Saturday night we are going to The Pink Elephant Room to see the burlesque troop Burlesque As It Was. We have a reservation and they'd like us to be there by 9 or 9:30, and don't forget they take cash only, so be prepared. Sunday morning we are going to saunter down to French 250 for brunch and endless mimosas. I've got my eye on the Croque-Monsieur. I think I could eat hollandaise sauce everyday. I think my pants might not agree. If I haven't invited you to join me yet, consider this your invitation! *Seriously, I can't stop watching 30 Rock. It gets funnier the more I watch it. But someone please, for the love of Pete, help me get Muffin Top out of my head, we're going on 4 days now.

Gloating About My Youthful Visage

I think I heard the phrase “You’re how old? Wow you don’t look it!” about twenty times in the past 24 hours. I heard it first from the bartender at the airport bar who served me a creamy Guinness. Then from the seven 22 year old boys I had dinner with Monday night. Then from interviewers several times yesterday. I could see them doing the math in their heads, and since they can’t ask, I volunteered the information. So impending birthday or not, I am leaving Chicago feeling sprightly, young and super cute (because of my cute interview outfit). Metallurgy is a pretty dirty business, so it’s fun to get dressed up for once. BTW, big shout out to the lovely lady who invented Spanx. Bless you. I was the only person at the interview (there were nine of us) who’d ever been to a steel mill before. If you’ve never seen an operating mill take my word for it that it is an awesome experience. And I don’t mean awesome in the parlance of the ‘90’s, I mean awe-inspiring awesome. Particularly a big operation like this one, where the steel is made, cast and rolled all in one place. We’re talking giant slabs of steel, ten inches thick and 30 feet long. So hot that from 100 feet away they still let off enough heat to make your face hurt. Those huge slabs are then roughed and rolled thin (about a half an inch) and then rolled up into those huge rolls of sheet metal you see hauled by semi trucks. These rolls come out of processing still hot, a thousand degrees, and take days to cool. It was really fun taking the tour with these kids who’d never seen anything like that before. Walking the length of these huge mills, jaws dropped to the floor. Especially the mechanical engineers who don’t really know anything about the steel-making process (it’s just like magic!). **As far as the ugly shoes are concerned, I don’t think I’ll burn them. You never know when I’ll be in need of leather-soled shoes again, and it was bad enough spending perfectly good money on these, I’d hate to do it twice.

Muffin Top

I'm at the airport right now waiting for my flight to leave in about an hour. I always think it's funny that I tent to arrive at the waaaaay too early, while Jill tends to cut it waaaaay too close. As a result, I end up sitting around waiting forever, and she ends up missing some flights. I'm sure there is a happy medium in there somewhere, but I like to think of that little dichotomy as a sort of metaphor for our relationship. We've been friends for more than 20 years, so you'd think we'd have more in common, but, not really. I am the proud new owner of what might be the worlds ugliest shoes. I bought them for my interview tomorrow. They are hideous. My slacks are a little tight too. I don't wear them very often, so it's always kind of a crap shoot. I tried them on last night and this popped into my head: But that might just be because I'm OD-ing on 30 Rock lately.

Oh Blerg

He called and wished me a happy birthday today. I suppose that would be nice if today was my birthday.

Delete

A few months ago The Boy dropped completely off the face of the earth. Not that I really blame him. There was the unfortunate "job" incident, the drunken Christmas cards, the mixed messages, and the fact that we never once hung out while we weren't wasted. Still, when I found out he started dating a 42 year old I'll admit I felt a little rejected. But there was still MySpace, and The Crazy. Between his MySpace updates, friend status', and bulletins I want to smack him in the mouth. So I did what might be the utmost in passive aggressive childish behavior. I deleted him from my MySpace friends.

My Pre-Weekend Update

I'm super stressed about work right now. My bosses must think I don't do anything at all. They keep giving all of the credit for the work I've done to my two undergrad assistants. The other day in a meeting one of my bosses actually gave one guy a pat on the back (literally, not figuratively) for the oxidizing roasts he did on the ore. Or, more accurately, the roasts I did on the ore while they were all at a conference. ------------------------------------------------------------------- On Saturday night this little guy started chatting me up at the Leslie & the LY's show. He was very pleasant, and after the show I joined him for a drink at this great underground jazz bar next door. He was fun to talk to, and I gave him my phone number. However, I didn't expect him to call, because at some point during our conversation I said he was "just a little guy." Now, you know how much dudes love that. And even though I like little guys, how was he to know? So imagine my surprise when he called me up for a date this Saturday night. I'll let you know how it goes. I already laid the ground work though, I'm interviewing for a job out of town, I don't know how long I'll be in Denver, I'm not looking for anything serious.... ------------------------------------------------------------------- Next Monday I'm heading out for an interview in the Midwest. I'm flying into Chicago, but my hotel is in Gary. I was hoping my hotel would be somewhere near the airport. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't care one way or the other, but I was looking forward to meeting up and enjoying a cocktail with this guy. So that's a bummer because now I don't think it is going to happen. But wish me luck on the interview!

Twitter

I'm trying to get into the whole Twitter thing. So far I'm not sold. With the interviews I have coming up and the prospect of moving to a new city, I've started following some other bloggers in cities to which I might potentially move. Just trying to get a feeling of what people do in different parts of the country. I can't quite get past feeling a little creepy and stalker-ish, especially because I hardly ever update. So if any of you are also trying out the Twitter, you can follow me. If you want to. Not that I'm very interesting.

That's a Nice

I missed a call from my dad this morning:

Hey, this is your dad. It sounds like over the past few days you've had a lot going on, kind of a rough time. It sounds like you needed a hug, so that's kind of what this is, a sort of virtual hug since I can't be there to hug you for real.

Awww. It actually made my eyes well up. Thanks.

A Whole Lot of Random

1. From Monday night's Big Bang Theory on CBS:

There's this farmer, and he has these chickens, but they won't lay any eggs so he calls a physicist to help. The physicist then does some calculations and he says "I have a solution, but it only works with spherical chickens in a vacuum."

2. I am sort of hooked on this brilliant blog, We Feel Fine

Every few minutes, the system searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling". When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the "feeling" expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.).

According to the site Ft. Collins is the world's saddest city but also the world's 5th most loved city. Boulder is the world's loneliest city. Denver is the worlds angriest city. What struck me the most is that even though it varies, when I've visited the most prevalent feelings are usually sad, lonely and guilty. 3. This is really disturbing me: 4. These new advertisements for border patrol that they are now running make me a little sick to my stomach. It's not like someone hung up a sign welcoming your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free...... oh, wait. 5. It's killing me not knowing what he whispered in her ear at the end of Lost in Translation. 6. Speaking of movies, I think I'm going to rent all 6 Star Wars movies and stay in bed all weekend watching them. 7. Apparently a new spin off of 90210 is planned. 8. As is a remake of Dune. 9. Also they made a Cutting Edge 3. Talk about a movie that really doesn't need 2 sequels.

Hidden Treasures

Josh's latest video made me think about my absolute favorite thing that has ever happened to me while I was reading a book. I'd be reluctant to say that I have a favorite author, but were I forced to choose I would choose David James Duncan. He hasn't written many novels, but the ones he has written are outstanding. The first book of his I ever read was The River Why. I read it one year after the summer camp counselor I had a big fat crush on recommended it. A few years later I read another of Duncan's novels The Brother's K. This might just be the best book I've ever read, I love it. Well, if it's possible I fell in love a little with one of the characters, Everett. It is a long book, but the kind of book that makes you feel lonely once you've finished it. I have read it many, many times, that's just my way. So I'd read the book over, and over, and over, each time discovering something new about the story or the characters, when I decided to branch out and see what else Duncan had in store for me. His only book that I'd not read was a compilation of short stories and writings called River Teeth. Not my usual fare, I decided to buy it anyway. So one morning, with a fresh, hot cup of coffee and Kitty curled up on my lap, I dove in. I liked some stories more than others, but I liked one story best. There it was buried in the back of the book, a little treasure. A short story about Everett, my favorite character from my favorite book, and the story of his time in jail (three years for dodging the draft) while his father died. I cried when I read it, and not only because it was a little sad, but also because it felt like it had been written just for me, because each time I finished my favorite book, I missed the characters. (It wasn't written for me, I know, I'm a little obsessive about my books but I'm not crazy.) It was a wonderful surprise. And I thought of it because I'm Josh's opposite world twin with regard to reading. He won't read a second book by the author of a book he really enjoyed. I not only reread books I love until they fall apart, but I snatch up every thing the author has ever written that I can get my hands on and devour them as well.

Happy Early Birthday To Me

Although I found out that the pair I wanted didn't come in my size, I decided to keep an eye out for another pair of Heelys that I liked. Well I didn't have to wait very long, I found these on sale ($29.99!) this Saturday and I decided to seize the day: Well first things first, I totally understand why they make these for kids, it is not as easy as it looks! That didn't stop me from trying, and after a couple of hours I managed to roll unassisted a few feet without falling. That's not to say I didn't do my fair share of falling. In fact, I ate shit right outside of the Cherry Cricket in the middle of the street right in front of two very good looking young men who had no qualms about openly laughing at my misfortune. Still, totally worth it. P.S. Yes they're men's shoes, but it's not like I'm trying to wear them with my little black dress. P.P.S. Ivory, I hope we can still be friends.

Random Saturday

What a lovely Saturday we had. I headed over to Suzie's bright and early. Lisa was in town and we were meeting Nicki to do Suzie's final fitting for her dress, and to try on some more bridesmaid dresses. They both found dresses that will look great on them. After a few bottles of champagne and some catching up Suz and Lisa went to meet Emma while Jill and I went to the mall, then we rendezvoused at the Cherry Cricket for beers and burgers. Mmm. Later we met some friends out in Denver before I left to go see Leslie & the LY's at the Larimer Lounge. It was definitely worth the 8 block walk in the freezing rain and snow to see this show. What a trip.

Just a Little Trim

I've been waiting ages to get paid so I could go get a hair cut. I went in for a little trim and instead the stylist chopped a mess off. It's a little shorter than I wanted, but I really love it. I'm terribly cheap and I just can't bring myself to pay $100 for a haircut. For a $15 haircut I really have no complaints.

Easter Celebration

What better way to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus than with a sale on personal lubricant at the corner store.

Welcome Baby Schwab!

Beautiful Emma: Photo credit: Jamie Schwaberow

Gathering Dust

Last June, Foss General Store, a Golden landmark, closed it's doors to business. Prior to closing they had a huge going-out-of-business sale. I took advantage of the sale to stock up on non-perishable necessities. I bought bottles of contact solution, the lotion I like to use, toothpaste, deodorant all for 80% off. What can I say, I'm cheap. I went home with boxes of stuff, my medicine cabinet stocked to the gills. I also stocked up on condoms. Pleased as punch with my bargain hunting, I told Jill about it that night. She laughed at me, and made a joke about how, now that I had all those condoms I'd probably never have sex again. We laughed and ordered another round of drinks. If I'd only known. Fast forward to March 14, 2008. I haven't used a single one! Those boxes of condoms sit untouched, stacked in my medicine cabinet, mocking me every day. Every single day, but especially on days like today when I break out yet another bottle of contact solution (my third since June), but those boxes sit, unopened and collecting dust. Just like something else I can think of, but don't need to mention. You're smart folks, you can make that inference yourselves.

I Am So High Maintenance

I have thought long and hard about what I want for my birthday, and I decided on these: But they don't come in my size! It is so uncool being a grown-up!

Weekend Plans

This weekend some exciting things are happening. 1. Kate is visiting tonight. 2. My friend Frannie is in town Thursday night. 3. Lisa is coming to visit from Texas (I foresee excessive champagne consumption in our future)! 4. Leslie & the LY's are playing The Larimer Lounge Saturday night. 5. And then on Sunday... taco bar at Ivory's!

Peter Pan Syndrome

I was going to do this on my birthday in a couple of weeks, but I want it healed up before my interview on the 25th, so...

Hump Day

Cookies!

You remember how, when you were little, your mom would be cooking dinner, and about twenty minutes before it was ready she'd catch you nosing around in the cupboards and just as you're about to eat a cookie she'd say "Don't eat that you'll ruin your appetite!" Well it's awesome now that we're grown-ups, there's no one to stop you from eating all the cookies you want. Although, there's also no one to keep you from ruining your appetite.

The Tapestry

I like to think of my life as a pie chart. Equal parts career, family, friends, love life, and personal fulfillment (personal growth? hobbies? happiness? Not sure what to call this piece of the pie). Right now I feel so balanced and happy. Everyday I feel so full, I almost feel bad for being so cheesy right now, but you know how when you feel love you also feel like spreading it around? So, here is the breakdown: Career: Obviously awesome. I am about to finish my masters degree and I have two awesome job interviews (I travel to Chicago in two weeks and Rancho Cucamonga was by phone this morning). I haven't ever felt as smart and capable as I do right now, and I truly believe that if neither of these jobs work out, then it is because the right job is just around the corner. Who am I to question the workings of the universe. Family: Also obviously awesome. Wonderful parents, and right now they are as excited about everything that I have going on as I am. Friends: Could a girl be any luckier? Although maybe it's not luck. Friendships as great as these are a reflection, I think, of valuing my friends and putting in the work necessary to maintain them. Granted, these great gals make the maintenance easy. Love life: Arguably my biggest failure, but I guess I don't feel that way. I think people have exactly the kind of relationship they want. A talk with my friend Kate the other night yielded these little gems: 1. She said that if I spent as much time talking to boys in bars as I do mugging for the camera I'd have a lot more dates. 2. I often form crushes on men that are both emotionally and geographically unavailable. Maybe it's not them, maybe it's me. Can you say commitment issues? I don't mind too much. I suppose if I wanted a boyfriend I'd have one. What I have instead is a crush on a boy I don't know (see Katie's point #2) and plenty of time to spend with my friends. Which shouldn't be underestimated. Since I may very well be moving soon, I'd like to spend as much time as possible with them before I leave. It is worth pointing out however, that this is the only piece of the pie that might need a little work. Meaning, you wouldn't even believe how long it's been since I've had sex. Not that it's really any of your business. Personal fulfillment (personal growth? hobbies? happiness?): I was on a date the other night, and he asked what I liked to do for fun. So I told him. After giving him a long account of things I do for fun, he replied "well, self sufficient aren't you." I guess so, but I'm happy. Please don't get me wrong, I do have the occasional bout of loneliness. I just have them a lot less than I used to. And I have the perfect antidote. A favorite book, nice clean sheets, and a good snuggle down with the menagerie usually do the trick. My dad likes to say life is a rich tapestry, and right now that feels so true.

What a Sweet Talker

What a wonderful weekend. I didn't do much of anything on Friday night (in bed bright and early), I didn't do much of anything on Saturday night (in bed bright and early), I made up for it a little with a wonderful Sunday funday spent at Steubens . We stopped in for lunch, really just an excuse to get out of the house for a couple of hours. And maybe to flex the old flirting muscle a bit. Five hours, lunch, dinner, and many, many free cocktails later we left. It was one of those weird days when complete strangers were buying us drinks left and right. That might not sound like a big deal to you, but here in Denver it sure is a rarity. When the time came to leave, the dude on the bar stool next to me asked "well what are you doing now?" I replied that I was heading home. "Really, alone? I hate sleeping alone......" His voice trailed off leaving the air thick with his expectations. Ummm, yeah. Do dudes really think that making small talk for a couple of hours over some beers if going to make me all of a sudden immune to their charms? Did he really expect me to reply "Oh really? Well I hate sleeping alone too, would you like to join me?" Not likely. Home by 8 to watch the season finale of Breaking Bad (which, if you haven't been watching, is awesome, watch it On Demand right away), and in bed by 9.

Saturday Night

Tonight I: Watched 2 movies Ate 10 Peeps Drank 1 bottle of champagne And now I think I have a crush on Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Beer Goggles

Oosh, I think I need to have my dating license revoked. The postmortem on my date last night went something like this: Me: Dude, he was forty! Jill: Ugh, well did he look forty? Me: Absolutely. Jill: well you didn't have to talk to him at the bar Me: What! You are the one who made me go talk to him, your words "go talk to the guy and put him out of his misery" Jill: Well you didn't have to give him your number Me: I couldn't tell he was forty! Jill: Me neither, the bar was dark! Me: You are the worst wing man ever. Meanwhile, my mother piped in that she doesn't think I should date men over thirty. Never mind that she's four years older than my dad. She thinks I should only date younger men, three years younger to be exact. That way they don't die on you too early. Her words. So, now I guess I'm looking for 25 year olds.

A Little Metallurgy

When I finally went to bed last night, early-ish, I'd already worked 45 hours this week. I'm not complaining, really, because for the first time since I changed thesis projects I finally feel like I'm making some progress with my research. I'm working on writing my thesis (slow going) but it's finally started to become a real thing, not just a bunch of bullshit. This is the coolest thing I think I've ever made. It is a scanning electron microscope back scatter electron image of a particle called an oolite (and shame on me for neglecting to add a micron bar, this whole picture is about 400

μm long). I Used a type of analysis (called EDX; energy dispersive x-ray analysis ) to determine the amount of Fe, Al, P, O, Si and Ca in each ring.

That might sound really boring, but it took me forever, and it's really cool. Trust me.

OK, it's not the coolest thing I've ever made, not even close, but it is the coolest thing I made this week. My boss got all pompous and impressed and said "Now this is really university stuff!" Which is about the highest praise I've ever gotten from him.

Gray Area

I think the most frustrating thing, when you are interested in someone new, especially someone you don't really know, is the ambiguous reference to a woman. Having many male friends myself, I don't automatically assume if he mentions a woman that she is a girlfriend. But you have to admit it is a real possibility. Unless he says "My sister Donna," "My friend Annabel," or "My coworker Lynette," it's a real gray area. All of those names sound like they are straight out of Beach Blanket Bingo, apparently it is 1965. Anyway, it's a little too obvious to ask, "Who's Anette? Your sister?" Then you risk sounding all hopeful and desperate. And while the whole rejection thing doesn't really bother me, I'm not really trying to beat it's door down and shake hands. Maybe I should worry more about my date tonight than about whether or not some guy I don't even know has a girlfriend. Because frankly if I don't know him well enough to know if he is single, I probably don't know him well enough to have a little crush.

Wheezing

I woke up this morning at five am because I couldn’t breathe. I have asthma, I haven’t had an attack in ages, but I recognized the tightness in my chest right away so I reluctantly dragged my wheezing ass out of bed to go dig around the medicine cabinet for my inhaler. Three puffs and ten minutes later things were back to normal. I decided to head back to bed for a couple of hours, I know I’d have a long day ahead of me, but on my way back to bed I notice that the sky had that early morning quality it only has in the middle of winter when it’s snowing a dry, light snow. I climbed back under the covers, but not before I swore at myself for leaving my winter coat out in the car, I’d need it in the morning when it came time to scrape off my windshield.

NONE!

I rescheduled last weeks date for Thursday. I'm a little nervous about it because he seems a little too keen to go out with me. The last time that happened I met The Bartender who is still, by the way, crazy. Little recap, I went on four dates with this guy more than two months ago, and he is still sending me nasty emails. Here is the latest, received this evening:

It is funny how many times I try to get people to be upfront in life and they just won't do it! Integrity is everything and for some reason, you have NONE! I truly hope you are ok, but that fact that you completely blew me off is bullshit!

That's right folks, I have no integrity. And here I thought I just didn't want to go out with the guy again. I guess that just wasn't an option.

The Rest of Saturday

A funny thing happens when you start drinking in the middle of the day. Next thing you know it's 7:30, but it feels like 11:30 and you're kind of wasted. We left GCB and thought it best to go and get some food in our bellies. I think this kid is really, really cute. It might have just been his temperament, he was very pleasant. Once we got back to my place we got down to some shenanigans; more dominoes, lots more drinking, truth or dare, and finally sometime (probably around 10:30, but it felt more like three in the morning) we broke into the pool and went swimming. Yes we are very mature. I shot a lot of video, and I'm trying to edit it down into something watchable... It's funny, sometimes I wonder what we act like when we're all liquored up, and now that I know, I'm glad I can't usually remember. I'm still working on the rest of the video, but here's a clip of me telling the story of the disastrous time I went skydiving with Mak and Kate. It's kind of obnoxious, so you might not want to watch it.

Where My Nerds At?

So I have a pretty active imagination. That, my very early morning and way too much caffeine (and the resultant crash once said caffeine wore off) all converged today during a lecture about magnetization and hysteresis and their effect on hydrogen induced fatigue in pipeline steels.....zzzzz. Right. Sorry, I dozed off there for a sec too. I kid, it was actually a very interesting lecture but for about ten minutes in the middle following a comment by the lecturer about the way grains of materials align themselves and a joke he attempted about gangs and their alignments, well, i started thinking about gangs. In my head the type of gang I'd be in is less of a drug-trafficking, cop-killing type gang, and more of a singing, dancing, West Side Story kind of gang. But we'd have gang signs just like the hoodlums have. Being that we'd be a dorky science-y engineering type of gang, only one gang sign came to mind. Anyone? Anyone?

What A Way To Start The Work Week

This morning, bright and early I headed in to work to finish some sample prep. I needed to head in to the research company where I used to work so they could do a type of magnetic separation that I don't have the equipment to preform. I got there nice and early so I could spend a little time catching up with my old boss before dropping the samples off and heading back to work. I was waiting in his office with my coffee when who walks in? The Ice Dancer. I haven't seen him since he broke up with me a year ago. For the longest time whenever I thought about him I was overcome with the urge to smack him in the mouth (mostly because of how he broke up with me..."I'm not coming over. Ever" No more explanation.) I didn't feel that way today. I just felt nothing. Well, I guess I actually felt a little sad for him. Here is this funny, brilliant guy wasting his talent working as a technician at this rinky-dink research company in Golden. He's a wonderful writer, and super smart to boot, so I guess I had expected him to have moved into his field by now. So, I sipped my coffee, made a little small talk, and smugly walked to my car, feeling sorry for him. Then I caught my reflection in my car window, realized I look like a crazy old bag lady, and suddenly felt a lot less smug. Maybe he was feeling a little smug too, no?

Sunshine

There is an old joke here in Colorado "If you don't like the weather... just wait five minutes." This weekend was a perfect example, Saturday it was sunny and 75 degrees outside, today, snow. So, Friday night I got home from work late, sevenish. I still wasn't feeling great and decided to stay in, I was bit by the cleaning bug so I took advantage of the mood and clean, clean, cleaned my apartment. Laundry, vacuuming, dusting, mopping. All done. I went to bed early and woke up Saturday morning feeling great. I had a long to-do list of homework all ready to go. I was planning on finding a new coffee shop and camping out to get some work done, but when Jill called (on her way home from snowboarding) and suggested some GCB, well, it was too nice out to be productive. So, beer and dominoes in the sunshine it was.