I’m Gonna Be a Producer

Yes, you read that correctly. I’m finally putting my college degree to good use (so stop worrying Dad) and accepting a job in the TV field. Officially I will be the Special Projects Producer for Dish Network’s Blockbuster Movie Channel. My new job starts at the end of the month.

So a little background, a long, long time ago (2 years) I did some temp work for a guy named Scott who hosted a TV show with celebrity interviews about upcoming movies. He also worked at Dish Network and hosted their On-Demand “what’s coming” show. I don’t know why he picked me (okay I do) out of all of the applicants, but he did. And he liked me (for some reason) and thought I did a good job. After I finished my work from him he kept me around as a babysitter/driver for his kids which was nice (since I was broke). He even got me an interview at Dish Network for a Marketing position back in 2010. That never panned out, but we kept in touch.

So I’d been working at my ski job for a while and one day out of the blue Scott calls and says he needs to talk to me. He presents me with the opportunity to join his team in creating original content for the brand new Blockbuster movie channel. He wants me, flat-out. Needless to say I’m flattered. Here’s a person I met a few years ago that I made a big enough impression on that he remembers me and chooses me to be on his team. Amazing. Mind-blowing even.

After a lot of consideration, a few computer assessments, an interview, a drug test, and a hassle in getting my college transcripts, I finally got a job offer. And after even more time considering, making pro/con lists, and getting advice from family, I accepted.

So what is this position exactly? Well besides the fact that it’s brand new and doesn’t have anything to go by, it’s a writer, researcher, and maybe editor position. We’ll be producing behind-the-scenes and on-location content, I’ll oversee studio and location filming. There was a hint that I could eventually get in to interviewing. And of course some travel (yes!).

So with the big (huge) change that awaits me there are a few other factors I get to start looking at. First off, where I’m currently living I’m looking at an hour commute to work. Now this may be no big deal for you Houstonians who commute every day, but I’ve been spoiled with no commute for several years now. Even in Austin I was at work in 20 minutes during rush hour. An hour…time to buy some books on tape. So a move will be necessary before summer.

Then there is the whole cultural aspect. Dish Network is a huge company, and very corporate. They require business casual (no more jeans *sad*), they require you to badge in by 9am or you get a demerit, and they only have 5 holidays in the whole year.

The announcement went out earlier this week to my current office that I was leaving. There was a lot of mixed emotion. A lot of people were genuinely happy for me and excited for my new opportunity. Others I think are happy but they keep making jokes about me quitting. And then there are a very few who took a while to process the idea and were very quiet about it. I will admit I was a little scared to tell the office, as I didn’t know how they would react, but the overall positive vibe has made me much more emotional about leaving than I expected to be.

So that is my big, new life change. Thanks to everyone for their support and congratulations. I’ll have more information/details after I’ve started and I promise I’ll let you know what’s happening. It’s scary and exciting all at the same time, and a great way to start of 2012 and my 25th year.

A Late Entry to 2012

Wow, I don’t even know where to start. It’s been forever (seriously forever) since I’ve sat down to write anything. A quick recap since Thanksgiving: Parents came up for 10 days to ski (mostly without me), took a snowboard lesson at Breck and did 3 boxes and 2 jumps in the park(!), went home for Christmas, and spent New Year’s in Aspen with Roark. Sadly I have no pictures from any of these events, so writing a blog about them would be pretty lame and wordy. Maybe readers like that, maybe they don’t, but there we are.

So let’s start off with a look at last year’s resolutions:

1) Make it down a Black run on my snowboard, with good form the entire time. (Sadly we’re still working on this, but can I point out again that I did 3 boxes and 2 jumps in the park, all by myself? I think that’s pretty cool)
2) Plan and take one amazing vacation, preferably to a place I’ve never been (Seattle?). Score on this one. I took two (count ‘em) trips to Seattle this year. Also made it to Aspen twice, once for work and once over New Year’s. Sure that was only 1 day in 2011, but as a bridge I think it still counts.
3) Accept dates when I’m asked on them. I got a lot better at this. I went on some dates with a few guys I never would have considered, and ended up dating a few regularly through the summer. Heck, I’m still dating one of those, not super seriously, but it’s going very well.
4) Learn a new skill and perfect it. I learned to crochet in December. I’m not perfect yet, but my scarves are looking pretty good (3 and counting!)
5) Work on my time management skills, especially at work. As long as I have a set deadline, I’m pretty damn good. It’s those “when you can” tasks that still kill me.

So all in all I’d say I’m a little disappointed in how I did, but crossing out 3.5 out of 5 is still acceptable. What should we work on this year?

1) Make it down a Black run on my snowboard, with good form the entire time.
2) Plan a ski trip outside of Colorado (bonus points if it’s someplace I’ve never been)
3) Learn how to make one signature dish, perfectly.
4) Read at least 15 books, but none can be from the teen section.
5) Go skydiving.

I think that’s a nice list to get me through 2012. I expect big changes this year. Big, good changes. I know I was looking forward to last year, and it turned out to be a really good year. Lots of fun, no regrets. This year I hope will be even better. Let’s see what happens.

The Last Thanksgiving

This year was the first time I’ve been home for Thanksgiving since college. It sounds weird to say that. It’s even weirder to know that this was only my 5th trip back to Texas in over 2 years. Anyways, home for Thanksgiving, and I couldn’t have picked a better year.

As those of you who follow college football know, Texas A&M has said sayonara to the Big 12 and has decided to try it’s luck in richer pastures (SEC). While the good Aggies extended an invitation to the University of Texas to continue their traditional Thanksgiving game, the Longhorns decided to be complete jerks and tell them “sorry, but no.” So ended the 3rd longest college football rivalry (can you believe #1 and #2 are Minnesota v Wisconsin and Missouri v Kansas?). Knowing that tickets would be hard to come by, I relied solely on my sister, who came through in amazing fashion. And that’s how I ended up at Kyle Field, College Station, Texas for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving day was postponed for our family. We spent a few hours at the grandparent’s house and watching the parade, but at 1 we jumped in the car to trek to the stadium. We wandered around the Texas A&M campus for a while, joining tailgates of friends and doing the traditional pre-game activities. While wandering around tailgates I ran in to a few old friends from high school. Now since I haven’t stayed friends with many people it was a nice little game of catch-up. Nothing too bad, until you realize that you’ve covered all the “how’ve you been, what’re you doing, where’re you working” questions and the conversation dives into discussions of their latest adventure together. That’s pretty much my cue to leave.

Pre-game activities in College Station involve a lot. There’s the team walk in (led by the band), the corps march in (led by the band), the fly over, and a resounding yell practice just before kick off to get us all in the spirit. Students at TAMU don’t sit down during the game so we were standing the whole time. We were also crowded in to the stands tighter than sardines. You wonder who thought it would be a great idea to shove 88,000 people in to a stadium. And then I was the only one in a 5 person radius wearing orange. There were a few others here and there, but I felt very, very alone.

The game started off pretty bad for the Longhorns but true to form, A&M screwed it up in the 2nd half. After three interceptions which really helped Texas we found ourselves with seconds left on the clock and 1 point down. A 40-yard field goal kicked ended in victory for Texas and a lot of dejected A&M fans. Sorry guys, but you kinda deserved it after halftime.

The half time performances were some of my absolute favorite. UT went first and created a huge Bevo on the field, then they presented the A&M band with their flag (UT marches with flags for all the Big 12 Teams), and spelled out “Thank You aTm” on the field. The Aggies took the field and the first thing they did was saw Varsity’s horns off, quite literally, while playing their fight song. They did end the routine with the 4-way cross, which is quite and amazing site to see, so I can’t hold that against them.

The weirdest part about winning at an opposing stadium, is that there’s really no celebration. I was too far away from the Longhorn band to join in with the fight song or school song, and by the time I made it down to that end of the field they were packing up to leave. At that point all you can do is get out of there without accidentally invoking the wrath of the losing team and one of their hot-headed supporters.

After the game I went back to Houston for a few days to hang out with family. I got to see two of my cousins that I haven’t seen in a year and my grandparents which was really nice. I’ll be back in Texas in 3 weeks, which is crazy to think about. Trip #6!

Passion: Love or Lust?

In the wake of the new Twilight movie, and several of today’s movie’s in fact, I started thinking about how relationships are being portrayed to our society. More and more often I’m finding characters who instead of growing to love each other, immediately feel this dying need to be with their beloved. For better or for worse.

The newest Twilight, Breaking Dawn, is the conclusion of the girl/vampire love story. Since the very beginning they have felt some desire, some constant need to be close to each other, but there’s no explanation behind it. Unless you count “your my own personal brand of heroin” a reason. But heroin is bad for you, it kills you, and that’s what their love does, time and time again. In the four books (five movies), we will see each of the main characters attempt to end their life in their quest for perfection. Bella herself almost dies 3 times, and the last time was probably totally preventable (birth control anyone?). In this last installment we see her waste away as her daemon of a baby eats away at her. And while her love is fighting for her life her best idea is “you can still have a piece of me.” What is that? I understand love is about making sacrifices, but sacrificing your life isn’t one of them. That’s a Catholic notion that the baby is better than the mother and if you have the choice to save one you save the mother. That’s insanity. And doesn’t Bella know Edward will just try to kill himself again, like last time? Then your baby is an orphan. Great plan.

But I digress. I’ve noticed how many movies coming out recently involve two characters so much in love that they make sacrifices to continue their existence together. Like Crazy and The Adjustment Bureau both feature main characters who, after meeting, feel they cannot be separated. What is that they binds them so close so quickly? Is it love or is it lust? Maybe it’s just the fact that I’ve never been with a person I feel the need to spend every waking moment with. Maybe once I find that person I’ll realize all these writers weren’t crazy to depict it this way. But probably not. In all these stories of love at first sight and passionate desire ever notice how often the main characters almost die? Of course maybe it’s because these girls keep falling in love with supernatural creatures. True Blood anyone, The Vampire Diaries?

What are we teaching our daughters and sisters with these stories? That if you don’t feel an immediate connection with someone than he’s probably not your one true love? That once you find that one person you won’t have to worry, he’ll die to protect you, to make sure you’re happy. Who wants to have a relationship where your one constant thought is “I’m not good enough, they’re too good for me, eventually they’ll figure that out and leave?” How does that make anyone happy? Are we just filling our heads with impossible notions, what will this do to future generations? Will the marriage age rise and rise until everyone just settles with the person they happen to be with at that time? Or will we see kids getting married younger and younger because they just know that the person they’re with is their end all be all, only to figure out their underlying differences years later, shooting up the divorce rate again?

I long for the days when the stories were more honest about love. Pride and Prejudice, Emma, When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail. And for the guys out there, even in The Matrix it took Neo and Trinity some time to figure it out. All these stories depict the two lovers coming to the gradual understanding that they love this person they’ve spent most of their time fighting with. There’s still a passion, but instead of being an immediate bright flame, it smolders for a while, growing stronger. And in most of these the main characters grow to be friends, then lovers. Isn’t that the advice we’re always getting, marry your best friend? In the long run, which of these two relationships do you think is going to last? I vote Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy will have a longer, happier marriage than Bella and Edward.

But I can’t help to consider what the population has to do with finding your “one.” In the days of Jane Austen there were less than 1 billion people in the world! Wouldn’t that automatically make your chances of finding your one true love much better? Having to sift through 500 million potentials seems much more probable than the daunting task of finding that one in 3.5 billion who is my perfect match in every way. I used to wonder why girls got married so young, or to people they’d only been courting for a few months, but looking at the numbers it make so much more sense. It is completely probable that given geographic location and family standing the person you settled down with 200 years ago was your one true love.

I’m not looking for anything right now, but when I find it I hope it’s the slow burning passion that will last a life time. Let the kids have their lust, I believe in love.

Running On Fumes

I’d first like to apologize to those readers I have left for my long absence from this blog. I have been, quite honestly, running on fumes for the last few weeks. My schedule has looked something like this:

Oct 22 – Team Training – Copper Mountain
Oct 23 – Team Training – Copper Mountain, Ski shopping w/ Jacqui
Oct 24 – Pub Quiz (playing)
Oct 25 – REST
Oct 26 – Team Training – Copper Mountain
Oct 27 – Team Training – Copper Mountain (on snow)
Oct 28 – Halloween Swing Dance
Oct 29 – JLD Volunteer, Halloween Night
Oct 30 – Broncos Watch Party w/ Maggie
Oct 31 – REST
Nov 1 – Pub Quiz (hosting)
Nov 2 – Film Fest Volunteer
Nov 3 – Steamboat (work)
Nov 4 – Steamboat (work)
Nov 5 – Film Fest Volunteer
Nov 6 – Film Fest Volunteer
Nov 7 – JLD Training
Nov 8 – Pub Quiz (hosting)
Nov 9 – SOS Volunteer Orientation
Nov 10 – REST
Nov 11 – Date (?)
Nov 12 – JLD Volunteer, Film Fest Volunteer
———————————-
Nov 13 – Film Fest Volunteer
Nov 14 – JLD Fundraising Council
Nov 15 – Pub Quiz (hosting)
Nov 16 – Provisional Social
Nov 17 – Adviser Meeting
Nov 18 – 21 – REST!!!!
Nov 22 – Pub Quiz (hosting)
Nov 23-27 – HOUSTON!!!!

Now I’m not complaining, really. I like having a busy schedule, I like having things to do, something that will get me out of the house. However, I will admit, I haven’t done laundry in almost a month. My house hasn’t been cleaned (dusted, vacuumed, scrubbed) in over a month. I let dishes sit in the sink for days at a time, because the few nights that I have time to cook dinner I don’t have enough energy afterwards to clean my pots & pans. That is very much not like me. I always have pots and pans cleaned before bedtime. At the very latest the next morning…but not right now. I come home from whatever event I was at that evening, throw on PJs, have a glass of wine while catching up on my missed TV shows (Revenge, Big Bang Theory, Office, Community, Pan Am), then crash in bed to hit snooze 3 times the next morning and start all over again. On the bright side, I really enjoy everything that is keeping me so busy right now. Let me elaborate:

Team Training – Copper Mountain: You may remember my post about Team Training from last year. This year was more of the same, but so much different! Since our Meeting/Event Coordinator left my boss Sara and I have taken over the planning of these events. Since I’m trying to convince the office I’d be good in that position, and since Sara said she’d be training me for it this year, I expected I would be told to go up for the first weekend. When Sara made no mention of it I casually suggested that I had nothing planned that weekend, so it might be good for me to come up and see a day. A day turned in to both as I helped with check-in, room set up, and other general tasks for the first two days. I came back to town for the week and then went up with the office on Wednesday for the supplier reception and on-snow portion. Again I made sure I was at Sara’s side, showing her that I can do this job, that I can handle what goes in to a meeting. Whether she saw it or not is yet to be determined, but I made it my job to be on my best behavior and super helpful. As always the snowboard team had a party, this year the theme was Ski Movies. Thanks to my mom, I had a perfect and authentic 80s ski movie outfit (not making fun of you, I swear!). I loved it, the ladies loved it, the teams loved it, it was awesome. And now I have it in reserve for any other time I need an emergency costume (seriously Mom, not making fun of you).

Halloween: The Friday before Halloween, my friend Preston invited a group to go swing dancing at the Denver Turnverein. Now I haven’t been dancing in ages, and I haven’t been swing dancing, properly, since we learned it in 7th grade PE. The night ended up being just a small group, but after a quick refresher from Preston I was back in the game (mostly). And besides one serious creeper the people were very nice, I got asked to dance, and I had tons of fun. It really makes me wish I went proper dancing more often. The next night the Geeks asked me to join their group of Jawas as they trolled around town for Halloween. We all had our brown cloaks from Beer Fest (we went as monks) so we just added some gloves, masks, guns and LED lights for eyes. People loved us and it was a pretty cool group costume, definitely not one I’d seen before. Aside from a few passive-aggressive remarks from John (who’d recently told me I was a crappy girlfriend. News to me, I didn’t know we were serious) the night was pretty good. Preston and Jason are definitely to thank for making sure I didn’t go home early, which I was definitely planning on doing. They rock.

Steamboat: My boss Sara and I took a work trip to Steamboat, really quick, overnight last week. We want to start visiting the division offices to see what they do on a daily basis and learn how we can help them more from the national office. We took a trip to Truckee to see the Western division in September, and decided to visit our Rocky Mountain office before we couldn’t travel anymore (we’re pretty much chained to our desks from Thanksgiving – Spring Break). Having never been to Steamboat before it was pretty cool for me to see the town and the mountain. The office visit went really well too. It’s great to be able to put a face to a name, since I talk to these people on the phone every day. I think we learned a lot about how a division runs, what their focus is and how events are put together and run on a division level. Highlight of the trip was driving past the barn, where the famous Billy Kidd picture was taken. I even got my own picture which I sent to Mom, she was super jealous.

Film Festival: For the third year in a row, I decided to volunteer for the Denver Film Festival. After being Jury Coordinator, and on special events last year, it’s weird to be just “one of the crowd.” My former Volunteer Coordinator moved on to bigger and better things, and the new girl doesn’t know me from Eve. I even went to introduce myself to her, tell her my experience and at the end of our 3 minute conversation she’d forgotten my name. After some begging and pleading I was put on the Red Carpet team and in the Filmmaker’s Lounge. Red Carpet is not like what I’ve worked before. At AFS I helped walk celebs down the carpet, get the media in place, do check in…for this event I was a seat reserver. I checked badges and made sure nobody sat in these 10 seats! Very different. On my first shift at Filmmaker’s Lounge I went to check in and realized that in my 3 years of festing I’d never once gotten a t-shirt or had to go to volunteer check in for a shift. Little things you don’t think about until they happen. On the bright side I’ve met some really cool people (nobody famous), saw some old friends, and got to see some really good movies.

I’ve seen Like Crazy, a movie about a British girl and an American boy who fall in love. She over stays her student visa, is deported from America, and they spend the next 6ish years trying to be together while living continents apart. No ending, I hate no endings. The Decendents is the new George Clooney flick that’s been getting some Oscar buzz. It’s about a man who’s wife is in a coma and he has to start taking care of his children. He finds out his wife was cheating on him and has to decide what to do while dealing with her impending death. One of his daughter is played by the girl from “Secret Life of the American Teenager” who I found to be very bland in her TV role, She does a semi-decent job in this movie. Definitely worth the watch. Last night I saw The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: An Urban History, this documentary was about the public housing project in St. Louis. Within 20 years of it’s being built it had fallen in to disrepair and was condemned then razed. The “solution” to the slums only lasted 20 years before it was declared a failure. The film looks at the lives of those who lived there, why they were there and what went wrong. It was a really moving story, and I’m still thinking about it the next day. Basically the failure of Pruitt-Igoe was the city planners didn’t understand what was happening to the world after WWII and their plans for Pruitt-Igoe were outdated before the ink was dry. As my post-college interest in sociology has grown, this film has been a real eye-opener in to cities as they were, what they strived to be, and what the ultimately became. Tonight I’m going to see my last film of the festival Goon, described as an updated, Canadian take on SlapShot, should be fun.

Junior League: As a provisional in Junior League you’re required to do so many things, Provision training, a Done-in-a-Day, two shifts in our resale boutique, 12 hours of community service, etc. My adviser gave some great advice at the beginning of the year, “if you ski, plan on having no weekend from December-March, plan your hours accordingly.” Not to mention I’m one to get all requirements out of the way early (that’s why senior year of college was strictly electives!). So I’ve been registering for a lot of stuff to be done before Thanksgiving. I’ve gone on my Provisional Retreat (September), worked my two shifts at our Second Time Shop (slow, but not too bad), and attended a Provisional Social and Fundraising event for “League Experience.” Adviser meetings will be done throughout the year and I found a program that teaches underprivileged kids to snowboard for my 12 hours of outside credit, which I’ll be doing Saturday in Jan/Feb/Mar.

This past week I attended JLD 101, a course that teaches provisional members about the different councils they can serve on next year and how placement works (lottery, scary!). This morning I volunteer for my Done-in-a-Day shift at Read2Kids, a program that goes in to schools and has a book fair (books are free and they each get 3!), arts and crafts, and a performance from a local theater group. A couple of the Denver Broncos cheerleaders even showed up for an autograph signing. I must say, I was super excited when I saw this on the schedule and immediately decided I wanted to do that. I was manning the 3-7th grade table and it was so awesome to see that books I read as a kid (Ramona, Super Fudge, Boys Start the War, the Boxcar Children, Junie B. Jones, Nancy Drew, the Baby-Sitter’s Club) were on the table. And when I suggested those books to kids they kept telling me “I’ve read that, I’ve read that.” It was so awesome. I’ve been saying for years that when I have kids I’m going to start stocking up on “old school” kids stuff because I think it’s great compared to today’s books/tv shows/movies. But to know that kids today are not only still reading these books, but like them and are super excited to get new books for themselves, it was an incredibly touching experience. It gives me hope for today’s youth and tomorrow’s children.

So that has been my life for the past month. I do apologize that I haven’t been writing as much. I have a few ideas rattling around that I hope to get down in the next few weeks. I’ve got a trip home booked for Thanksgiving. This will be my first Thanksgiving home since college, it’s a little weird. I must say I was a little beside myself when Mom told me to book the ticket, especially since she and Dad are coming to Breckenridge the first week of December, but I wasn’t going to argue. And it all worked out for the best. Mack Brown in all his stupidity denied A&M the chance to play Texas for the next 5 years. Thanks Mack for screwing my family Thanksgiving tradition. My sister however, in her brilliance, found me a reasonably priced UTvATM ticket for Thanksgiving. Sure I might be sitting in the Corps section, in burnt orange, and my team will probably lose, but damn it to hell, I’ll be THERE and it will be totally worth every penny.

Alright, now off to another Film Fest movie and then hitting the sack. I’m counting down the days until next Saturday, when I can finally, finally, FINALLY sleep in!

Snow is Falling

Snow has been falling in the high country off and on for the past few weeks and Denver finally got our first winter storm warning. Rain to turn in to snow Tuesday night. Which means fresh snow on Thursday for Season 3-Day 1!!

As it is finally snow season a lot of things have been ramping up in preparation. Work has definitely gotten busier, with phone calls, orders, emails, and just the general everything. Since our Meetings lady retired in June my boss and I have taken over the events for the season. Task #1 was prepping and executing Team Training. There will be more about that later this week since it’s a whole week-long and the best day is Thursday. I did go up to Copper Mountain this weekend to help with check-in, opening day meetings, and the team dinner. I got up to the lift this morning (but didn’t get on the hill) and they were blowing snow at the base. It’s amazing to see that happen at this time, especially since last year the season started so late (in comparison).

The other cool thing with Team Training is that events is something I’m interested in at work. Getting to assist with the planning and execution of this is going to be a great learning experience. Hopefully this will continue with all the events we do this season.

When I got back from Copper I met one of my new Junior League friends at Ski&Golf to outfit her for the season. She’d picked up a board/boot/bindings on the super cheap and needed the jacket & pants to go with it. She’s from Florida so I felt her pain when looking at everything and just getting overwhelmed. Luckily we were able to get her in to some really awesome Bonfire pants & jacket, base layers, and a nice pair of Hestra gloves. Shopping with her also taught me that I can sell gear because I sound like I know what I’m talking about. Just imagine if my job was to learn about all the DWR and jacket features. I’d be unstoppable! Not a bad idea actually…

And after talking in to all that gear I’ve guaranteed myself a snowboard buddy for the season. Not that I couldn’t find anyone, but having a guarantee is always nice.

So that’s a really quick update of my life (okay, this weekend). I promise I’ll attempt to write more going forward, I’ve got some cool stuff coming up. The end of Team Training, the Denver Film Festival, early ski/snowboard season, Junior League functions, volunteer opportunities, Thanksgiving & Christmas trips home, M&D’s vacation up here, and hopefully a ticket to the last UT/A&M football game (cross you fingers).

I keep looking at my calendar and I’m finding myself having to carve out time just to stay at home and do laundry. Not a horrible problem to have, but I do enjoy my down time. Speaking of, it’s about time I head to bed and try to get some sleep.

Junior League: Not Just For Old Southern Ladies

I’ve mentioned a time or two (or ten) how hard it’s been attempting to make good friends in Denver. I’ve even mentioned how much harder it is to make good, close girlfriends.

The girls I’ve met since I’ve moved here have fallen in to one of three categories, a) they think I’m nice, and they’ll be super friendly when we see each other, but aside from an occasional planned group meeting never call, text, or email. Their lifestyles are about 10 years ahead of mine. b) they think I’m cool, and they think I’m an okay person, but I’ve learned that some girls just can’t or won’t invite other girls into their group easily. It’s hard to win their trust and it’s even harder to keep it as they might find any slight reason to send you packing. c) they think I’m nice and cool, they’re usually transplants themselves figuring it all out. Without a core group already formed it’s really easy to make those in-roads and forge a good, strong friendship.

Feeling a little down on myself and needing a strong support group of women, I finally took my mom’s advice and checked out the Junior League of Denver. My mom had been in Junior League while I was growing up and my time spent in National Charity League (Cotillion) was very similar. JLD is a group of women whose goals are to support volunteerism and leadership within the community. This national organization is an amazing networking tool, educational resource, and growth opportunity for its members. Because Junior League can be found in every major American city (and a lot of non-majors) it’s an organization that you can stay in, even if your job transfers you across the country.

Now I will admit that I was very skeptical at first. I’m already a member of a club of women that are all older, married, and many have kids. I didn’t want to be in a group where my basic lifestyle removed me from most conversations. After attending an information session I was pleasantly surprised to see many girls my age, many of them single, and most of them new to Denver. Score 1, Junior League. At the same time I was scoping out the Denver chapter, my sister was attempting to get in to the Tulsa chapter. I thought it would be kind of fun to go through our provisional year together so I bit the bullet and applied.

Now the Denver Junior League is much easier to join than say, the Houston one. Because the organization is still growing provisional members don’t need to be sponsored by multiple active members. The requirements are also less than if I was joining the Houston chapter. And bonus, if I ever move back home transfers in good standing are almost always accepted in to the new league.

Last weekend we had our Provisional Retreat. Here we met our advisers and our groups for the year. I was very happy to find that my group consisted of 9 young women, most in their mid- to late-twenties, and many of them were single. Also with one exception they were all transplants. My formula for finding good girl friends paid off with my grouping. Not to mention they were a complete blast to hang out with. We spend the weekend getting to know each other, sharing stories, learning about the League, and laughing. There was a lot of laughing. By the end of the retreat I knew I’d made a great decision and that I was finally going to be able to get a strong support group, something I’ve been craving for the last two years.

It’s still early on in the season, I haven’t done too much with my requirements yet, but I’m working fast, knowing that ski season will keep me occupied many weekends this winter. I’ve volunteered at our Second Time Shop, a resale boutique we run, and I’m signed up for a Read2Kids event next weekend where I get to help kids pick out books and do activities! Coming up later this month we have a Provisional Social and an event called Frosting which is a cocktail party/fundraiser. I’m really looking forward to getting involved with the Junior League, making new friends and getting to keep busy (even more than I already am). I have a feeling this is the start of something good.

Cops Have Been Called

Last spring I got new upstairs neighbors. Their license plates read “New Jersey” so I started calling them my Jersey Shore neighbors. Who knew how true that statement would be.

The first time I knew we were going to have a problem was a Saturday afternoon. I was sitting in my living room when all of a sudden there’s muffled yelling from upstairs, then the sound of a door slamming and him stomping down to the parking lot. He was carrying something under his arm, a big box it looked like. She followed on to the porch overlooking the lot and was screaming “Go back to your WIFE! I hate you!” Intriguing no?

I went over to my window, and this is the one advantage of the garden level apartment. I’m eye to eye with everyone’s feet so no one notices me peeping out of the blinds. Mr. Jersey took a few steps back towards the porch, lifting the box over his head, yelling, “You want This?” before heaving it at her on the balcony. It hit the wall with a thud. She was quiet for a moment then went right back on yelling. Now both of their cars are parked in front of my apartment window. As I watch he reaches in to the back of her convertible (which has a broken canvas roof), pulls out one of those metal tiered basket units (the ones you see in bathrooms) and starts hitting her car with it. He beats so furiously it breaks and a piece flies off and hits a car two spots over. Then he drives off.

I reported this to the apartment management, but they didn’t really do anything about it. They just advised that next time I call the cops. Mom also advised I park my car very, very far away from them.

About a month ago I was getting ready for bed and heard the tell-tale signs of a fight winding back up. It was maybe 10pm, when the apartment is supposed to be in “quiet hours.” There was yelling, door slamming, and then they were outside, this time with her son in tow. Her son is probably a little older than me, but he’d been staying more frequently at his mom’s place (I’m 90% sure Mr. Jersey isn’t his dad). I couldn’t tell what started the fight, but Ms. Jersey had stormed over to her car and Mr. Jersey was trying to calm her down. The son was on the phone with his girlfriend, telling her he’d been kicked out of his mom’s apartment, that she was drunk and irrational. Mr. Jersey gave up trying to talk her down and came over to the son, demanding to know if he was calling the cops. From inside the apartment I was very close to doing just that.

The two men talked about how Ms. Jersey was drunk and just needed to calm down. (Mind you, this entire time she’s sitting in her car with it running, headlights blasting in to my living room.) Mr. Jersey offered the son a ride to a hotel and they went inside to pack his bag. I’m not sure how the whole issue was resolved that night, there was some more bickering before the men left and finally Ms. Jersey turned off the car and went to bed.

Last night however, was the last straw for me. I had gone to bed around midnight, hoping to get a good night’s rest (something I’ve been missing this week), before getting up for a volunteer shift with Junior League (another post, I swear). I was sleeping when suddenly in my dreams I started hearing doors slam, I attributed them to the fact I was in a camping lodge or something. Then finally there was a slam that shook the apartment and I woke up. It was 2:30 in the frickin’ morning and they were at it. Doors slamming, feet stomping, yelling so loud I could almost make it out through the floor. This continued outside the apartment before he stormed away, but then he came back, pounding on the bedroom window (right above mine) demanding his money.

No more. It was 2:30 in the morning, they had woken me up and at this point I was livid. I called the non-emergency cop line and reported there was fighting going on upstairs, that they were yelling and throwing things. I almost ran out and waved down the rent-a-cop who was driving by at the time (and didn’t stop) but decided to stay safe in the apartment. By the time the cops got here a few minutes later Mr. & Ms. Jersey had quieted down, but I knew he was back in the apartment. I was sitting in my living room knowing the cops would probably come talk to me.

I heard knocking on the upstairs door, knocking, knocking, no answer. One of the cops came down and knocked on my door. I answered, told him what I’d heard, told him this wasn’t the first time, but it was the first time I’d called it in because of the time of night. They thanked me and went back up, flashlights on, casing the front of the apartment. Finally, from inside my apartment I heard a cop say “We can see you! You need to open the door.” I heard the door open and the cops go inside looking for evidence. Shortly after the cops left Mr. Jersey got in his car and drove away, he was still gone when I woke up this morning. I heard Ms. Jersey sobbing through my vent.

I know this will sound cold-hearted, but I really have no sympathy for this couple any more. I can look the other way for one or two disagreements, but when things start getting thrown around in the middle of the night… Let’s just say that it wasn’t a fun experience being woken up like that. I’m not one to call cops just because. But I’m so sick of them and their fighting and their Sunday morning love-making (which I can also hear, muffled through the floor) that something just snapped. No more Miss Nice Girl.

Summer Winds Down

Summit county had its first dusting of snow this week. I have less than 45 days to get in shape for ski season. Overnight temperatures are dropping and I put my down comforter back on my bed so I can sleep with the window cracked. The end of September signals the true end of summer, and this past weekend was our last hurrah.

I will mention that I started the weekend very poorly. On Wednesday I came home to a leak in my bathroom ceiling. Apparently the tub seal for the upstairs apartment leaked after my neighbor took a bath and it decided to land in my tub. Not what you want to come home to on any night, but especially when I’m hurried out the door for pub quiz. Maintenance came and cut a hole in my ceiling and now I’ve got a tarp over it waiting for the sheet rock guy to come patch it up. Which will hopefully be tomorrow.

On Thursday John and I went to the Burton Snowboards premiere of “Standing Sideways,” their new movie. I said, and was seconded by many magazine reviews, that this was the best snowboard movie I’d seen in a while. They didn’t spend too much time on any one rider and gave us a look at a lot of the up and comers on the team. The ones you don’t really hear about often. I was disappointed that there wasn’t a single girl in the movie, but that’s the sport I guess. We’re still fighting to be heard in some circles. After party was tons of fun too and I’m happy to report not a single unfortunate run in the entire night. Nice change from last year.

Saturday the geeks and I were invited to participate in a scavenger hunt for a fellow quizmaster’s birthday. I was recruited as the “driving bitch” for the day and played my part marvelously if I do say so myself. I even helped out figuring out a few clues (What reincarnation of the Doctor did Christopher Eccleston play? 9th!). Our second clue we had to recreate a screen shot from Star Wars so I was Leia for a few minutes. Our third clue however we got a little mixed up on. We thought the clue was a clue, not an answer, so we ended up 5 miles in the opposite direction. By the time we figured out we were in the wrong place we were two clues behind the other teams and asked “if [we] even wanted to keep playing?” We decided no and drowned our sorrows in a beer tower at the Lobby, not a bad way to end the hunt.

The end of the evening included the boys’ last Mile High Movie Night on their deck. And the last one ever since they’re all moving at the end of the month. The theme was country and we were scheduled to watch Young Guns and Blazing Saddles. I’d never seen Young Guns before, and I have to say it was equally hilarious and enjoyable. It was definitely an 80′s western movie. Just when you felt like you were in the old west the synthesizer music pulled you right back out. A few plot lines were a little tangled and I had a few problems with character development, but looking at the movie on a whole it was fun. We debated watching Blazing Saddles or going for Young Guns 2. Ultimately I ended up acting out a few scenes from Blazing Saddles and we all adjourned to the roof (we’d been inside) for some conversation before calling it a night.

From here on out I start traveling a lot. I have 3 business trips/overnights, 3 trips to Houston and an over night retreat between now and Christmas. Should be fun. Work is starting to get busy again and will continue to pick up through the holidays. So good bye summer, you were good. I’m going to miss the heat as we head in to the winter, but the winter brings snow and my passion for Colorado. Such a double edged sword.

Seattle in September

So very shortly (like a week) after I left Seattle in June, Roark invited me back up for a visit. After checking travel dates and getting the hint that early September is primo weather in the Northwest, I book a flight up for a very long (5 day!) weekend.

I got up there on Wednesday and after having a nice little backyard BBQ, Roark and I decided to venture down to Belltown for some drinks and more good weather. After asking several questions about Geeks Who Drink and my role there I finally decided we just needed to go to a quiz. So we popped in to the Frontier Room where Quizmaster Scott acted as master of ceremonies for the evening. With only two people we ended up 7th out of 11 teams which I consider a victory. You can read all about the quiz here, I even got a little shout out!

Thursday we went towards Pike’s Place Market, thinking that during the middle of the week I might have a better shot of getting in to the original Starbucks. Score for mid-week vacations. There was no wait to order and we got our drinks fairly quickly. The original is much different from any other Starbucks I’ve been in. Knowing from the “history” of Starbucks that Howard Schultz based his original on the espresso joints in Italy it makes sense. But I think the average customer would be a little thrown. We went down to the waterfront and hopped on the Bainbridge Ferry so I could see the city from the water and just get another view of everything. Pretty cool, reminded me of a much less dramatic Satan Island Ferry. Afterwards we headed to Safeco field to watch the Mariners play the Royals. And they won, which is good, considering they’re at the bottom of the NL West. I got to see Ichiro play as our seats were right above Right Field on the baseline. Also, the Mariners have a player named Kyle Seager, who had a fan club with signs that I ran in to after the game. Kismet maybe?

Friday Roark suggested renting a canoe and paddling around Lake Washington by the university. I wish I’d know, I could have brought boating clothes, as is I was very unprepared for such an excursion, but it was fun anyways. Saw lots of ducks, I haven’t seen ducks in ages. And lily pads. But no frogs, bummer. We walked around Washington campus afterwards, which is so nice a pretty. It reminds me a lot of the east coast schools. University Gothic architecture, lots and lots and lots of green space, tons of open “quad” areas. If I could choose based on campus alone, UW would have beat UT hands down. (Plus I look so good in purple!) Friday evening we headed out to Ballard to meet my friend Jen. Jen and I knew each other in high school and thanks to the magic of Facebook have been able to keep in touch over the years. So when she moved to Seattle and I was visiting we decided to get together for dinner. We ate at this cute little Italian joint, Volterra and then wandered the area before claiming a booth in a bar down the road. It was great to see with Jen, meet her fiance, and catch up on what was happening in her life.

Saturday I talked Roark in to heading to the EMP (the music/sci-fi museum next to the Space Needle). We wandered through an exhibit on Avatar, well the technology of Avatar. Lots of behind the scenes on how they shot the movie, which was interesting, but takes away my dream of what movie making should be. Technology huh? Wandered the Jimi Hendrix section and Nirvana/grunge of course. I will say I’m still not sure what the allure was of the grunge movement, but maybe that’s just not my kind of music. It was someone’s music and that’s all that matters. Upstairs, the sci-fi exhibit on display was Battlestar Galactica, a show I’m not familiar with, but Roark is. He went a little gaga over the model ships and the Cylon statue. I read all the little trivia facts trying to figure out wtf the show was about. Going through the exhibit I’ll admit I was intrigued and could probably be coaxed into watching the first few episodes. We made a little stop by Gasworks park too. We’ve driven past it multiple times, but finally we stopped, got out and wandered around for about an hour. In that hour I saw 2 brides, 1 pirate ship and multiple SUPers. I don’t get SUP, thankfully Roark doesn’t either. We both agreed that we’d rather be sitting on a boat with a beer. That evening we ended up back at Teatro Zinzani, the dinner theater where Roark knows the manager. This new show was written and directed by Tommy Tune and starred Liliane Montevecchi. It was absolutely amazing, and dare I say funnier than the last show, even if neither of us got pulled up on stage (thank goodness).

Sunday I flew home. Yes, on September 11th. I will say, it was probably the safest day in the last 10 years to be on an airplane. TSA was out in full force and everyone seemed a little on edge. The “Fasten Safety Belt” light was on for most of the trip and the flight attendants wouldn’t even let you up to use the bathroom. Before we left they even kicked a family with an unruly kid off the plane. Not sure if the crying kid was the reason, but the fact that we taxied for 15 minutes and went back to the gate meant something was up.

All in all great vacation to Seattle. Now that I have vacation time I’m so excited to be using it for fun things. I did manage to completely tear up my feet by day 2. I don’t know what went wrong, I was wear my super comfy Vans, but I ended up with 3 huge and painful blisters. So painful I had to break down and buy a pair of sandals because I didn’t bring my own and couldn’t wear shoes for longer than 30 minutes. Other than that one bad thing, the weather held out the whole time. It was sunny and between 75-80 degrees. Plus did I mention the sleeping in? 5 days of sleeping in, much needed in my opinion. And now it’s back to work and back to the real world. Or time to plan the next trip. One of the two.

Duck Butt!