is this thing on?

Last night I went bowling with some friends at Elitch Lanes. It was the first time I'd been back to the area where the original Elitch Gardens Amusement Park used to be and I have to admit, it was a pretty nostalgic and sad moment for me. Roller coasters are a big deal in my family. Anywhere we go, if there is a roller coaster nearby we hunt it down and conquer it. We went to Elitch Gardens at least once every spring/summer and used any excuse to go. I went with my girl scout troop, I went with my closest friends, I went with my family, I went there on school field trips. I always looked forward to the long trek to Denver to visit my favorite place. At the risk of sounding dramatic, Elitch's was more than just an amusement park for me. It was the site of my first love affair with rollercoasters and lucky for you, I feel like sharing today. You see, being short is not something that happened later in life for me. It's not like I was tall for a while and then just stopped gr...

The theme around here lately is "Simplify". If I had to pick a moment everything started snowballing in this direction it was April 2011. My Nana had just died, I started reading "The Hunger Games", and then Good Friday and Easter came. All of it caused me to reflect a lot (and have a lot of nightmares about an apocalyptic dark ages descending upon us). I began to find myself imagining my day without certain luxuries. What if I went to wash my hands and nothing came out of the faucet? Would I even know where to go to find water? I found myself going on long walks around my house to 'scope' out the land to see what I could forage and shuddered at the thought of killing one of our resident bunnies or prairie dogs. Anyone who knows me really well knows that I tend to go to extremes in most cases. I am always preparing for the worst because I'm a planner. Planning makes me feel like I'm in control and I like control. Control feels safe. If I drive ...

I’m in the mood to blog today. It’s probably because I feel so melancholy and uncomfortable in my life lately. I blame it all on the staycation I took at the end of March. I’ve always longed to take a week for myself to focus on enjoying my house and my life instead of filling all of my paid time off with lots of travel. This year I received an extra week of vacation for reaching my 5 year anniversary at work which means I could still travel the same amount and also live out my dream of a solo staycation. Folks, it was magical. Too magical. It’s now 38 days later and I’m still not ready to be back at work. Here’s what I learned in the midst of the magic: 1. I don’t mind cleaning the house when I have the time to do it at my leisure 2. I don’t mind cooking or grocery shopping when I have time to do it at my leisure 3. I don’t mind exercising when I have time to do it at my leisure 4. I eat better when I’m left with my own pantry/refrigerator and don’t have coworkers constantl...