The Garden Groweth

Remember when we planted a garden?

It grew.

And it’s produced some things.

Mostly zucchini.

This photo was taken moments after I discovered and picked our first zucchini! We were so excited because we had no idea if anything would come from spraying water on these plants all summer.

Since then, there have been dozens. 

These are some baby ones, not quite ready to be picked.

I’ve made two batches of zucchini bread, grilled zucchini to include in a salad, frozen some, thrown some away that went bad, and Trevor made stuffed zucchini the other night. Zucchini!

And besides that, we have some butternut squash! Four to be exact. One is a runt.

 

If our garden looks a little untidy, as though we just threw some plants in the ground without planning what should go where or allowing enough space for them to grow big and wide, that’s because we did. We’re beginners.

And, that pretty much sums up our garden experience. We have 2034982309 zucchini, four butternut squash, lots of what I think are cantaloupe plants that have taken over the backyard but have yet to produce, and one “mystery vegetable” plant that I thought was a tomato but has only grown yellow flowers so far.

We’ve also grown some grass! Turns out if you plant things and spray them with water regularly, a lot will grow. Including weeds. I’d say our weed to grass blade ratio is currently at 1:1 (hence no photo.)

I’ve discovered I somewhat enjoy yard work. Too bad it’s one of those things that just goes on the list of “things I’ll do when I have time.”

 

 

Birthday Celebrations

Trevor’s birthday is coming up, so as part of his celebration we drove to Ft. Collins to do a little hiking followed by a tour of the New Belgium Brewery.

We got lost looking for our intended hike, so we just pulled over on a dirt road, got out of the car and walked up a mountain. Trevor often has “bear went over the mountain” syndrome, where he likes to climb to the top just to see what the other side looks like.

So we did.

Here’s what we saw:

Have I mentioned how much I love summertime in Colorado?

Summertime in Colorado

Last night, we went to a concert. The main act was Devotchka, playing with the Colorado Symphony. It was wonderful.

We were at an outdoor venue called Red Rocks. The scenery, the weather, the music. Completely amazing. I wasn’t able to capture all of them, but I did take some photos.

Hooray for summer!

Beginnings

As I’ve mentioned, life has been going through some changes for me. In the past 3 months, I’ve started a new job and moved.

In their own way, these changes came from a lot of planning and preparation. And so, if you think about the entire process of their evolution, they are not entirely “new.” For example, while I am new to this job, it’s something I’ve been working toward for a while. My experience helps me know what to do. Moving in with my boyfriend is something that felt right and logical due to the rhythm of our relationship, and came from a foundation we had already built.

But, as far as my day-to-day living routine, my physical location, and what my life feels like, these things are new. And I am at the beginning.

And just like my garden pictured above, the beginning holds so much possibility. So many things could happen: In the fall, we could have a harvest of delicious fruits and veggies. All the work, time and money we put into planting the garden could reap grand rewards. Or, our plants could wither in the summer sun, leaving us with some expensive, showcased dirt. And anything in between.

I find at the beginning, things are exciting purely because you don’t know which way they will go. So many things can happen, which also feels scary. No one can predict the future, and it’s even harder to do when things are new and you have no idea what to expect from them.

But, I’ve got a really good feeling about these things. So far, so good, you might say.

And my word for the year, my ‘New Year’s Resolution’ as it were, was “Joy“. And, I’d say that it seems pretty accurate so far.

While I can’t predict the future, I really think that these beginnings have great things in store.

Well, besides the garden, which is already competing with some hungry squirrels.

“Don’t be scared of what you cannot see, your only fear is possibility.” -Pete Murray

I live alone

I am a 29-year-old woman, and I live alone.

With my dog.

Most mornings, I go running in the dark (or light…depending on the time of year) with my dog toward Wash Park. In the old days, I used to run all the way to the park. Now we run until my dog poops and then we turn around.

I like to listen to really bad music loudly on my iPod while I’m in the shower. I’ve been using Pandora for this purpose lately.

I play ball with my dog every morning before I leave for work. There is a big area behind my apartment that is semi-fenced in. He gets very dirty because it’s often muddy and then he tracks said mud all over my floors.

I like to eat my breakfast here while watching The Daily Show from the night before. Then, I leave my dishes in the sink to wash later because I never feel like I want to spend time doing that in the morning.

I have two closets full of clothes and shoes in my bedroom that are all mine.

I have five closets total in my apartment: two for clothes, one coat closet, one broom closet, one randomly huge closet, and one linen closet. When people come over, they think I don’t have very much stuff. It is all in the closets.

I can’t control the heat in my apartment and I like to sleep when it’s cold. So I often have my windows open all year round. I also use a fan most of the time. I like to be really cold so I can snuggle with my extra warm down comforter and have my dog sleep next to me.

On weekends, during the day I really like to nap or watch re-runs of Gilmore Girls.

On weeknights, I like to watch an episode of Medium in bed before sleeping.

If I don’t have dinner plans or anyone else to cook for, I often will eat fried eggs and toast or cereal for dinner. Or sometimes I sneak through the Taco Bell drive thru.

I don’t have cable and exclusively watch Netflix or DVDs.

I like to take baths at night if I have time.

I LOVE to go to bed ridiculously early. Ridiculously. Like 8-year-old child’s bedtime.

I really love watching embarrassing TV. Right now I love watching old episodes of Jon and Kate Plus Eight.

I often only clean if someone is coming over.

I have waay too many toiletries and store them in a set of drawers in my bathroom and also I use over half of the space in the linen closet for these items. I don’t know why I need so many. I probably don’t use half of that stuff. But some of it are travel-sized shampoos, conditioners and lotions that I’ve collected for future use.

On weekends, I do like to run to the park and will often run the entire 4 miles around the park. It’s the prettiest park in Denver.

I park on the street and sometimes have trouble parking close to my building. I also always, always feel like I’m carrying a million things and will strategize as to which things I have to bring in vs. what I could grab another time. Then I haul things up two flights of stairs.

I have my own balcony that I never use.

I will not eat at the table unless someone else is here.

I like to watch TV and browse the internet simultaneously.

This is my last week living alone. I can’t imagine what is in store.

Spring = Spring into Action

This blog has certainly become a dormant hobby of mine. It’s been quite some time without a post of substance. I can’t possibly catch you up on everything that has happened, so I am writing a post about everything that is going to happen.

To be honest, I feel a bit overwhelmed.

Here’s what’s going to happen:

• I recently resigned from my current position to pursue something new and exciting! Yay. So I will need to wrap up this job to start my new job on April 1.
• But not before I go on a quick roadtrip to Zion National Park next week.
• A week after I start my new, exciting, challenging position, I have to report for jury duty.
• A couple weeks after that, I may be traveling to Maryland for a work training.
• In May I will be moving out of the apartment I’ve lived in for two years to my boyfriend’s house. This means not only sorting through and packing all of the things I have accumulated over the past couple years, but also helping my boyfriend fix up his house so that it feels just a bit less like a former college dormitory.
• The move coincides with the weekend that two of my good friends are getting married! So, that will be an eventful weekend.
• After moving, there will be more house projects to work on, plus an adjustment period because my boyfriend’s former roommate will continue living there until August. So I think I will be storing many of my things in the garage until then.
• But, we will be in Ecuador for two weeks in July so at that time I will only need the things I can fit in a suitcase.
• Oh yeah, sometime between now and then I’ll be planning a trip to Ecuador.

Should be a relaxing few months. But, full of new and invigorating adventures and opportunities, for which I am always grateful. 

Trevor’s two cats and my dog helping us choose a paint color for the living room.

 

2012 in Review

2012 was a great year (just not for blogging.) Here’s what I was up to:

January:

February:

March:

April: Not pictured.

May:

June:

July:

August: Not Pictured

September:

October:

November:

December:

In 2012 I learned a new job and industry, I visited the continent of South America for the first time, I made new friends, I reconnected with old friends, I learned about myself and relationships.

2013 is shaping up to be an even bigger adventure. So many good things to come (including turning 30…yikes!) My New Year’s Resolution for 2013 is to be grateful, even when it’s scary.

Happy New Year to you.

A Tale of Two Airlines

It was the best of flights it was the worst of flights…

Let me just put out there that I know I am not as much of a flight connoisseur as some. I don’t travel regularly for work, I haven’t even ever earned enough frequent flyer miles to use on anything.

However, I do have good observational skills and strong opinions. I have done my share of flying internationally and a bit of flying domestically. And with my recent flight to Buenos Aires fresh on my mind, I would like to offer you a tale of two airlines: A comparison of flying British Airways versus flying United.

The comparisons will be mostly anecdotally based, so please rest assured no science or study besides personal experience is behind this review.

To give you an idea of my experiences, I have flown British Airways at least four times back and forth from Madrid (stopping in London) and at least twice back and forth directly from Denver to London.

I’ve flown United many-a-time domestically including to Tulsa, OK, Maui, HI, and Boston, MA. I’ve also flown internationally on United to Australia and back as well as most recently to Argentina. So here we go.

LOGISTICS: Flight Times, Delays, Luggage, etc.

British Airways: In all my times flying BA, I don’t think one flight has been delayed enough to disrupt my travel plans. There was a time when the partner airline I was flying from Madrid (Iberia) delayed the flight from Madrid to London for no apparent good reason (I think they saw the schedule as more of a guide than a strict way of operating) and I almost missed my connecting flight in London to Denver. But, I sprinted through the airport made my flight. My luggage did not make the flight, but somehow BA found a way to get it delivered to my doorstep late that night.

United: Many of the flights I’ve taken on United have been mostly or almost on time. But I’ve also experienced some major delays. Once, when flying home for Christmas from Boston, my flight was delayed 5 hours and was very nearly cancelled (note: if you can avoid flying United in the winter, do. It was not because of bad weather in Boston nor Denver that the flight was delayed, it was in Chicago, United’s hub.) Another time, when flying to Australia, they noticed there was a problem with the plane after everyone had boarded and the doors had been shut. For security reasons, they would not re-open the doors. So our time locked on the plane was increased by about two hours…but you know what’s that when added to a 16-hour flight?

Then, most recently, our flight back from Buenos Aires was moved from 8pm on a Wednesday night to 6am the following morning. A mere ten-hour delay. In United’s defense, they did give us a hotel voucher, a taxi voucher to and from the hotel, and a food voucher for eating at the hotel. But, obviously I would have rather gotten home ten hours earlier. United apologized for this while on the flight and gave us a website we could go to where they would give us something to make up for their mistake. I entered my information on that website and am waiting for someone to contact me….still.

Then there was a time when they canceled a flight I’d booked and forgot to tell me that they put me on another flight that left two hours earlier. I didn’t know that until I went to check in online that same day. Not only was I not going to be able to make the flight, but it was not a non-stop flight as I had booked. I called to get rebooked, and while they found some “direct” flights for me, they didn’t find any non-stop ones. Eventually, I demanded a refund for half of my fare and booked a flight on JetBlue with that money.

I will say this: United has never lost my luggage.

FLIGHTS: On-Flight Entertainment, Food, Service, etc.

British Airways: It’s no secret. I like to fly British Airways. I like the seats; they are comfortable and have amazing adjustable headrests. I like the package of goodies they give you: toothpaste, toothbrush, socks, headphones, pillow, blanket. I like the in-flight entertainment: Tons of movies and TV shows all on your own private screen, all on-demand so you can start and stop whatever movies you want whenever you want. I like the food: no need to request a vegetarian option, they always have one. The food is actually amazingly edible and they serve wine with the meal for free. I really like to cuddle in with my movie list, eat my dinner with wine, drink some English Tea after the meal and then drift off to as much sleeping as I can. I also find the flight attendants to be very courteous and polite. They seem downright chipper.

United: So, one time when I flew to Australia, it was a really long flight and the plane was really old and the only in-flight entertainment was a couple of movies that played on a screen I couldn’t really see five rows ahead of me. That was kind of a long time ago, so let’s forget about that. But that’s where my expectations were when I boarded the flight to Argentina. To my amazement, on the Argentina flight there were individual screens for all the seats. There were about five movies to choose from, and they played on a continuous loop. So if you didn’t start watching right at the beginning, or if you fell asleep or went to the bathroom, then you missed out. But you could watch again when it looped all the way back around to the part you missed! The food was OK, although be sure to order a vegetarian meal, because if you don’t luck out and get some leftover ones then the flight attendant will quite rudely tell you that you need to order those in advance because this is ‘Merica and we love meat! Just kidding, she didn’t say that but she was rather rude and unaccommodating. The seats were pretty comfortable, though.

BONUS STORIES:

British Airways: One time on a flight from London to Denver, a guy sitting by me couldn’t get his on-demand TV to work. The flight attendant was hesitant to move him to another seat because he was sitting with his fiancé, to whom he had become recently engaged. So she asked me if I would move, and I said I would because seriously, I love on-demand entertainment and would feel horrible denying someone that through the flight. She ended up moving me to first class, where I got to lay down on a flat bed, enjoy a down blanket and noise-reducing headphones and was served ice cream as a middle-of-the-night snack.

United: One time, a flight on United had almost finished boarding and they were doing the final call. No one was still in line out in the terminal to get on the plane and there was just one guy running to catch the flight. In his hurry, he accidentally went to the right instead of the left. Meaning, he walked over the first class red carpet instead of on the economy rug that I think the employees spit on when no one is looking. Rather than look the other way and let this guy board, they refused to take his ticket until he had gone back out and come in through the economy side.

So there you have it. As you can see, it’s kind of a toss-up for me as to which airline I would rather fly. Feel free to chime in with your own airline stories and misadventures.

My Trip to Argentina and Uruguay

One of my goals for 2012 was to visit South America. It was one continent that I had never seen but always wanted to. I made it to London twice last year, so I thought that one trip to South America couldn’t be too hard to pull off. Right?

It just so happened that a friend of my boyfriend was living in Buenos Aires and he had his heart set on visiting him. So we made plans to go.

We decided to go for two weeks. A very long time in normal work world, but if you’re going to fly for 14 hours to get somewhere, you want to make it worth it. We also didn’t want to spend all our time in one city so we planned to visit several cities in Uruguay in addition to visiting Buenos Aires in Argentina.

We flew to Buenos Aires and Bryce met us at the airport. We spent the first four nights with him at his apartment outside of BA and he had cleared his schedule so that he could show us around the city. He had learned so much about Argentina and its history, that it was quite an educational tour.

Here is one of the parks in BA that we saw when Bryce was touring us:

We visited several markets and ate empanadas and pizza and saw statues. One of my favorite things we saw was this fancy old cemetery. Here are Trevor and Bryce in the cemetery:

Another highlight was the modern art museum. I think we were all really impressed with the collection there (and the price of admission, which was less than $2.) There was a room in the museum with walls decorated with charcoal. It wasn’t exactly an exhibit, but it was the only part of the museum where you could take pictures, so I did:

We also had time for some Buenos Aires nightlife. Some of Bryce’s friends were going to see a band play. It started at 1:00am (the time customs in Argentina reminded me a lot of Spain). So since the metro, or Subte as they call it, was closed and we didn’t want to wait forever for a bus, we walked.

When we got there, we were unsure whether it was a house party or a show. It seemed like a really big house, but they were selling drinks. At any rate, we had a good time:

The fourth day we were there was a holiday, which allowed Bryce to not have to work. We took a day trip to an island called Tres Bocas. It was a nice nature break from the big city.

Trevor and me in Tres Bocas:

That was our last day with Bryce and the next day we took a ferry up to Montevideo in Uruguay. Still a big city, still a bit European, but it felt smaller and more relaxed than Buenos Aires. We were able to get tickets to go see the orchestra our first night there. We went because it was cheap (about $7) and because the theater was supposed to be quite old and beautiful.

It was great! And that night they had this amazing pianist from Charleston, SC who was only 17! It was quite a fun outing.

We spent one other night and day in Montevideo. We basically walked around a lot (it was COLD! A cold front moved in and I had to wear two coats. Did I mention it’s winter in South America?) We walked along the coast for a long time. We saw another museum. We ate food and drank drinks.

Then we hopped on a bus and headed up the coast to this beach town for rich people called Punta del Este. In the summer it would have been super expensive and packed, but since it was freezing, it wasn’t. Here is a famous landmark there…it’s a hand reaching out of the sand:

That’s Trevor by the thumb. Here is a closer look with one of two stray dogs that followed us around. I don’t know why they chose us, but they literally followed us from the beach, across two streets back to the bus station until we got in a cab. There were lots of stray dogs in both Argentina and Uruguay. It was not something I was used to seeing a lot of. It made me miss my own dog, and wonder about his life before I found him. Anyway:

We stayed in an amazing hotel in Punta del Este. It was designed by an artist and was right on the water. Beautiful.

It was a bit isolated because it was far outside of the city. And the taxis there were not cheap, it was about $25 each way into the city. So pretty much we were stuck there for the night.

So we ate a big lunch in the hotel’s restaurant:

As you can see, it was pretty packed. Our lunch was pretty expensive, but delicious. Then we rested, visited the building’s museum about the artist, walked around a bit to see what we could see, and decided to go back to the restaurant for a quick snack since they closed at 8 and didn’t serve dinner.

All we wanted were croissants, but our waiter informed us they were out. He offered us toast, but instead I asked just for a sandwich with cheese and tomato. Trevor thought it sounded good and asked for one as well. The waiter double checked that we wanted two sandwiches and we said yes.

When he brought them out, they were huge. We could have shared one, as we weren’t hungry, only snacking as a preventative measure since we were stuck there. But we ate what we could. Then we got the bill and discovered our “snack” cost us about $50. Live and learn.

On the upside, here are some of the views from our room:

Another favorite part, was our room number. There wasn’t one. It was a drawing:

We liked to joke about ordering room service and having to explain that we were in room number “fish and hooks”.

Anyway, after one night in luxury we were ready for something a bit more low-key. So we hopped on another bus and headed further up the coast to Punta del Diablo. This was an extremely tiny town, which felt even tinier due to the fact that it was the off-season.

We stayed in this really great hostel that had two buildings: one right on the coast and one a couple blocks in. The main operation in winter was out of the non-coast building, but Trevor and I were staying in the one on the water (we were the only ones staying there!). It was quite a social environment: we sat and talked to the Americans working there, to a guy from Brazil, a girl from Australia and another girl from Germany. There was only one restaurant open in the entire town and the hours were a bit sketchy. So we cooked the first night and bought dinner at the hostel the second. When the cook at the hostel found out we were vegetarians, he whipped up an amazing carrot/butternut squash soup that was a bit spicy and came with a fried egg on top! We were happy because vegetables had been in short supply in the land of steak, pasta, pizza and empanadas.

Some pictures from Punta del Diablo:

At first we were only going to stay in Punta del Diablo one night, but we liked it a lot there and also there was a horseback riding adventure we really wanted to go on, but wasn’t until late in the day on our second day. So we stayed another night and caught a super early bus the next day to go back to Montevideo and then catch a second bus to go further south to a town called Colonia. I would say it was worth it to get up super early and ride a lot of buses all at once for the horseback riding:

I love horses and horseback riding but hate when the trail rides are all boring and slow. This definitely was not the case here. Trevor and I were the only ones in the group, our guide was super nice, and we stopped halfway through the ride to drink wine and have a snack.

There was no trail: we just rode up the beach and then into a national park. It felt very laid back and fun. We never had to sign any waiver saying we wouldn’t sue if we got hurt. Which was refreshing, but seriously after drinking the wine we started trotting and cantering a bunch and I almost fell off a few times. I hung in there, though, and only ended up with some sore legs.

So after our bus rides, we ended up in Colonia in the mid-afternoon. It was a historic, small town with cobblestone streets and old buildings. It was nice.

Here’s Trevor on the Calle de Los Suspiros (the street of sighs) looking at a cheese menu. We had lunch at a highly recommended place that served fancy cheese and wine. We had so much cheese for lunch. It was good, but very cheesy. The wine was amazing.

After lunch, we hopped on another ferry and went back to Buenos Aires. We spent two more days and nights there in a bed and breakfast. We had dinner with Bryce again and spent some time getting lost since we didn’t have him as a tour guide during the day. Buenos Aires is a huge city!

Overall, it was a great trip. I’m glad to have visited at least a couple countries in South America, but I definitely want to see more of it when I can.

My New Commute

This week, my office moved from a slightly suburban area in Cherry Creek to the heart of downtown Denver. I was not exactly looking forward to the switch because my easy 7-minute commute with free garage parking was changing into a slightly longer and much more expensive venture.

Fortunately (albeit at the last minute), my company decided that they will give all of us an extra $140 a month to do with as we wish to cover the costs of parking/transportation to the new office.

Now, in my life I am motivated by many things. But few things motivate me as much as saving money does. So when trying to decide my best plan of transport to the new office, cost was the chief factor I took into consideration (as well as time-saving since I have to get home to my dog).

Parking downtown in our building costs about $175/month. Meaning, even after I get an extra $140 in my paycheck, I would be down $35. I hate regular monthly expenses. They make me cry.

If I take the bus (about a 30-minute commute total) then a pass costs me only $80.

If I ride my bike, then I pay nothing. Win!

My sister got me the cutest cruiser bike for Christmas. (You can see a photo of me with my bike on my friend Amy’s blog. She blogged about my new bike commute!) Since Christmas, I’ve only ridden it a handful of times: a couple of times to volleyball and once on a bike date.

I’m not very good at riding a bike in a city. The majority of my biking experience is in the culs-de-sac of my childhood. I don’t know how to interact with cars, how to cross a street, which sidewalks are acceptable to ride on, what the signs with bikes and numbers mean, how to carry a bag while biking, what to do when I wear a dress or a skirt, where it is legal to park a bike, bike parking etiquette, bike maintenance, etc.

But I am now a bike commuter. Fortunately for me, my bike commute involves two blocks of city streets/car interaction. That’s it. There is a bike-acceptable sidewalk that I ride from my house to the Cherry Creek Trail, then I ride that trail for a few miles, exit and then go only two blocks to my office. Score!

Slowly I think I will catch on to these bike rules. For now I am trying really hard just to act like I know what I’m doing, which I don’t do very well. I did wear a dress yesterday, which I think went relatively well.

It’s nice to have some exercise built-in to my day. When winter comes, I will have to change my routine, probably opting for the bus or hitching a ride with co-workers. It’s nice to have so many transportation options! Keeps things exciting.

At least for now. Ask me in three months if getting to work is still exciting.

Read more about my journey into bike commuting on Amy’s blog (and see the picture!)