HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Today it is going to be 75 degrees...ON HALLOWEEN...IN COLORADO! If you grew up in Colorado you will remember planning most of your costumes around your winter coat. I can't tell you how many times I was a clown because you could get a snowsuit on under the costume. Oddly this has nothing to do with the crippling fear of clowns I now have as an adult. Boyfriend and I are staying home tonight to hand out candy...mostly because all the parties we are going to are tomorrow. As a rule of thumb I always buy candy that I won't mind eating. With it usually being in the 30's for Halloween the kids give up early and you are left with a bunch of candy. This year we only bought 2 large bags of candy. I am starting to question if that is going to be enough. I figure with the heat wave we are having that there are going to be a lot more roving hoards of costumed kids out for a high fructose corn syrup score.

Chapter 33

Happy Birthday to Me Happy Birthday to Me Happy Birthday Dear Melinda HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! Today is my 33rd birthday. I am not anywhere close to where I thought I would be in my life at this point. Last week Boyfriend put it to me this way... "Think about reading a book that you love. There has been some twists and turns...some good and some bad. Then you turn the page and start chapter 33. You don't know what is going to happen, but you get the feeling that it is going to be the best one yet."

Birthday Cake

Tomorrow is my birthday. I am going to be 33 and figured I deserve some cake for making it this far. So I woke up early and baked a Red Velvet cake. I make it from a recipe of my mom's that she has had about as long as I have been alive. Hands down this is my favorite cake. It gets its name from obviously the deep red color...but also if you bake it correctly its velvety texture. If you bake it too long it gets very dry and crumbly...not good. I was a bit tired this morning so I did not take the time to decorate it all fancy like I did with Boyfriend's Cake. I think it came out looking pretty good anyway. Plus it matters more what it tastes like rather than what it looks like. After tasting this cake I have had several people ask for the recipe. I don't like to give it out...but if you badger me enough I will write it down for you, sans the 2 ingredients that makes this Red Velvet cake different from any other. Yeah I am one of those people. Just ask and I will make you a cake.

Sleepless about Seattle

You can always tell how stressed I am by my sleep patterns and the length of my finger nails. It is 5:30 am on Saturday and I have already been up for more than an hour and my finger nails have been chewed down to the quick. Every thought I have turns to this impending move. In just 9 weeks I will be packing up the last of my things and moving to the Pacific Northwest.

I have such mixed emotions about leaving Colorado. I am excited and scared to death at the same time. When I think about leaving I think about all the things I have managed to not do in my 30 years of living here. I have never been to the Great Sand Dunes or Mesa Verde, I have never skied at Crested Butte. The list could go on forever. I guess not having done these things gives me incentive to come back to Colorado.

Boyfriend is going to be heading up ahead of me. He will be moving all of our belongings the week of thanks giving. I will then follow with the few things I have left here sometime between Christmas and New Years. I have furniture and belongings spread between my ex husband's house, Boyfriend's house and the house I am in now. The idea of consolidating all of these things into one place seems so daunting.

I have slowing started to tell friends that we will be leaving. Most are excited for us, happy to know that they now have a place to crash when they come up. Others have told me flat out that I can not leave. I have built up a really good group of friends over the last 2 years and I am going to miss them them dearly. But I also know that we will all kept in touch and visit whenever we can.

There are going to great strains on the relationship as we adjust to life in a new city and living together for the first time. We are both looking at it as it will only strengthen what we already have. Boyfriend and I both have so many demons here in Colorado. We are both looking at this move as a way of starting fresh.I need to keep in mind that this move is going to be a positive thing. I can so easily get caught in a web of what ifs.

I was looking for a project of sorts and I guess this is it. I am being given a second chance here to do all the things I have wanted to do but have been either too lazy or scared. There is nothing like being given a two handed Elaine shove out of your comfort zone to make you change your life.

Pancake Blaster

Text conversation I had with Jenn whilst on my way to work... Me: Hey? Jenn: Hey. Me: Whats up? Jenn: Nothing...you? Me: Going 2 work Jenn: I am making pancakes with batter that comes out of a can like cheeze-wiz ME: Hmmmmm...did not know they came that way Jenn: Me either! Amazing what you will find at Costco. But unfortunately it is not called pancake-wiz like you might expect Me: Still sounds yummy Jenn: Jealous? You know you are Me: I am Jenn: AND it is organic. Me: That is awesome Jenn: Yes it is awesome Me: It truly is Jenn: You will have to come over to my house for pancakes...i have one more can of them left.

Good News?

As I mentioned here about a month ago, We have been waiting to find out if Boyfriend got a job up in Seattle. He gave me the news today...via email

Me: Due to stress and the office move I no longer have any fingernails left

Boyfriend: okay, you should not chew on your fingernails....chew on some gum....

Me: There are a lot of things I do that chewing gum won't cure.

Boyfriend: Hmmmm... Good thing that I don't stress to keep you balanced somewhat... imagine if we both stressed out all the time????

Me: I was not always like this...

Boyfriend: yea, we're going to have to break you out of that mold... before you start eating your fingers...

Me: Well...if people would stop giving me things to worry about.

Boyfriend: i can understand that. December 1.

Me: What is December 1?

Boyfriend: when my first day will probably be in Seattle.

Dinner with Friends

Boyfriend is going to be away on my birthday weekend so he suggested that we go out for dinner last night. He had decided that he wanted to take me to my favorite sushi restaurant. He had wanted it to be a surprise, but having only been there with me once he could not remember the name of it and where is was located exactly. After asking many of our friends he had to break down and ask me. We very rarely go out on "date nights" so I was happy to have a reason to wear heals and lipstick. Boyfriend was able to keep one thing a surprise though and had a few of our closest friends meet us there. I have an uncanny way of finding out about surprises and had even asked him earlier in the day if it was just going to be the two of us, so it was a very pleasant surprise to see them all there. It was a good evening of sushi, drinks and friends. Boyfriend was very sweet to set the whole thing up. After dinner Boyfriend and I went home, had a few more drinks and ended up dancing around the living room to 80's music in our underwear. It was the perfect way to end the night.

Musical Taste

I have it...Boyfriend does not. Okay that is not entirely fair. We have a lot of the same music in our respective itunes. But sometimes he gets into a groove and it is like he is a 14 year old girl. I am not too worried as of yet. It is when he starts listening to Hannah Montana that I will worry.

A Project?

So I just finished reading Julie and Julia by Julie Powell, which has also apparently been made into a movie. Anyway it is a book about a secretary at a government agency who decides to cook her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child in one year. That is 524 french recipes in 365 days. The book is hilarious...I am talking laugh out loud funny. I was a bit sad when I finished it because it was like knowing you were not going to be able to talk to someone you have so much in common with anymore. It is nice to know that someone out there swears as much as I do. I am damn good at swearing. Not many people can utter an entire sentence using nothing but variations of the word fuck. Example. "Fuck fuckity fuck fucker fuck fuck fucked FUCK". I know it does not look like I said anything there...but truly it speaks volumes. Having the mouth of a Sailor is probably the only thing that Boyfriend does not find completely adorable about me. So back on topic. I identified with so much of what Julie goes through. I am basically an over glorified secretary (that is operations manager to you) that is unhappy with my job. She has a loving supportive husband, I had a husband who's idea of being supportive was saying "yeah you should do that." Although now I have Boyfriend who is supportive to the point of being pushy like Julie's husband. There are more things we have in common but I am not giving a book report here. So she decides to cook her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking as a project to pull herself out of the funk that she is in about turning 30, maybe having kids and her job. (Okay maybe I am giving a book report.) I am going to be 33 in a week and a half, I am divorced, childless and hate my job. So I got to thinking maybe I need a little ol' project of my own. I want something that is going to pull me out of myself. So internet (by internet I mean the 2 people that will actually read this) it you have any ideas let me know.

My First Broncos Game

A few weeks ago Boyfriend's friend Kelly offered him her Bronco's tickets. Boyfriend asked if I wanted to go and I jumped at the chance. I had never been to a football game. Now I am not just talking an NFL game, I had never been to any sort of football game. When you tell people this they look at you like you have been living under a rock. How can one be a Bronco fan, live in Colorado for 30 years and never have been to a game?!?!? Needless to say I was very excited! In Colorado we had been having unseasonably warm weather. The last three weekends had been in the high 70's to low 80's. What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon...in the sun watching football. That whole week the weather was great. Come Friday the temps had dropped about 30 degrees, a bit chilly, but still sunny. Saturday we woke to rain and a high of 38 degrees. I was starting to worry about what it would be like the next day. On Sunday we woke to gray skies, again highs would be in the 30's, but it was not raining. So we threw on the winter coats, gloves, hats and at the last second tossed a blanket in the backpack. We rode the lightrail down because we were too cheap to pay $30 to park, plus we did not want to deal with traffic. It was about a 25 minute ride to the stadium and the closer we got the more my excitement built. It was a cool feeling walking into Invesco Field at Mile High for the first time. You could feel the excitement coming off of the fans. We got there a little bit earlier so that we could walk around a bit, get a few beers and get to our seats so we could watch the teams warm up. Pretty much the same MO we have for Baseball games. The seats we had were on the 48 yard line...sounds great huh? Only down side was that they were in the 2nd to last row from the very top. The seating on the upper level go straight up at a pretty steep incline. You feel as if you are about a mile high (get it mile high...) and that if you lean too far forward that you will pitch straight down. Now I know it sounds like I am complaining...but I am not. The seats were actually great. What you are seeing in the pictures is how the people on the field actually looked. If you have ever been to Invesco field you know it is the loudest place on earth. When the team took the field only about half the seats were filled, but the roar of the crowd made it sound like it full. Once everyone is in their seats the roar is almost deafening. But it is what you expect...the stadium was built to be the loudest in the NFL. Then there is the sound of "Rocky Mountain Thunder", this being the sound of 74, 000 fans pounding their feet on the steel floors every time the opposing teams offence begins a play. It was cold as hell and there was an icy, wet mist spitting from the sky, but we did not care. So how did the Broncos play? They sucked! They started out strong, but you can not expect to win a game when you keep turning the ball over. So they didn't win, but we still had a great time. I really have to thank Boyfriend for treating me to my first football experience.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!

I think that it is only natural to want to sing Saturday Night by the Bay City Rollers when one thinks of Roller Derby. My Friend Tracy is a member of a dance team called The Belles who happen to be the cheerleaders for the Rocky Mountain Roller Girls. Tracy had invited us to come watch her team preform this past Saturday night. I had never been to a Roller Derby bout before and wanted to check it out. Boyfriend was totally game for coming along. I mean what guy can resist hot chicks in tiny school girl skirts on roller skates that may or may not get in a fight, then add cheerleaders on top of that. art by Jay Vollmar www.jayvollmar.com Once you figure out what is going on it is really easy to get caught up in the action. There was a diverse mix of people there and the crowd really gets into it. I found that by the end I was kind of wanting to join a roller derby team. I mean I can roller skate and I have a bunch of pent up aggression...what could be a better outlet. Plus I already own some of the necessary equipment.

In a word

As Snoopy would say...BLECH!

Love Notes

I have a bit of a thing for greeting cards. I have a drawer in my desk that is full of them. Birthday, Mother/Fathers Day, wedding, new baby, Valentines Day, thank you, etc, etc, etc. You name the occasion and chances are I have a card for it. They run from your plain old greeting card to cards that could be framed and displayed as art. I was going through this drawer the other day looking for a birthday card when I noticed there were no fewer that 10 romantic type cards. Some are sweet and some are naughty, all were purchased with the intent of giving them to Boyfriend. Instead of jotting a quick note and signing them "Love, Melinda", I instead throw them into the drawer amongst the Happy Birthdays and Congratulations. I am not sure why I don't give these cards to Boyfriend. I am a sappy romantic that holds on to cards and mementos of the things we have done together. Boyfriend is not romantic and I think I am afraid to give him a card that has how I feel spelled out. Maybe I am afraid that these expressed emotions would end up being thrown out. I am not sure if that says more about me than it does about him.

Sunday night is football night

This is the 151st picture I took of Boyfriend while he was trying to watch Sunday night football in the dark. This is the 152nd picture I took of Boyfriend while he was trying to watch Sunday night football in the dark. I am not so sure that he was all that much into me blinding him in 10 second intervals.