this is it

the past couple weekends have been lonely. and i'm trying to occupy myself. this afternoon i went to go see "this is it". my friend Tina went to see it, and she recommended it. i could say a lot about this movie. it was very entertaining. i had goose bumps the whole 2 hours. when Michael Jackson was in his element, he was in his element. his dancing, his singing, his dancing. the work for this show, the final product would have been amazing. it is so so very sad that it was never completed. i can't even imagine what the final product would have been. just seeing the rehearsals were breath-taking. the costumes, the make up, the stage. the story being told. so much can be said about Michael Jackson. but what i believe will be remembered is what was told in this movie. to love one another. to take care of each other. to take care of the earth. while the movie was coming to an end i was thinking about how their are/were so many parts of Michael's life that could be made into different movies. that there are so many unanswered questions.
if you love Michael go see this movie. if you love music go see this movie. if you love dance go see this movie. if you love this earth go see this movie.

"Godmother"

Book Review

Godmother

by Carolyn Turgeon

I got this book while I was in Albuquerque from my friend Shaun's girlfriend. She reads a lot and gets books cheap because she works at a book store. She gave it to me to read, with the promise that once I finished it I would pass it along to someone else. (hint, one of my faithful readers will be getting this book shortly in the mail!)

This was a really good book. It's about Cinderella's fairy Godmother. Her name is Lillian, Lil for short. Lil is actually two kinds. She was born a fairy who can turn into human form to fulfill her god motherly duties. As a fairy you are assigned a specific job. Lil's job was to get Cinderella to the ball, so that she could meet Theodore (prince charming) and live out her destiny of becoming a princess! On the day of the ball where all of this is to take place Lil runs into the prince in her beautiful human form. Lil and Theodore have a love at first site moment and share a kiss. Lil quickly knows this is against fairy code and stays focused on her task at hand - get Cinderella to the ball! Because of Lil's human feelings, she ends up getting kicked out of the fairy world, and has to lead a life in the human world.

Current day Lil is a little old lady working a book store in New York City. She keeps to herself, and loves her work. She leads an empty life, and is lonely. Then one day she meets Veronica. A young "Sex and the City" type girl. Lil knows immediately what she has to do to redeem herself from her long lost love from so long ago. She sets Veronica up with George the owner of the book store.

I didn't really like the ending of this book, and it left some questions unanswered. But it doesn't take away from the context of this book, so I would definitely recommend that you check it out!

This book is a little bit confusing at first because the author goes back and forth a lot from the fairy life to the human life. But the way she describes things is beautiful! This was a very enjoyable book to read, and reminds us to keep our eyes open because we never know what's out there in this big world of ours. This book is a great combination of reality and fantasy, and in all is a love story. Which, in my opinion you can't go wrong with that.

not looking forward to this

i'm being reminded that Colorado has very long winters. starting now. we have pretty high chances of getting snow starting in October all the way through April, sometimes May. in all honesty snow in Colorado isn't that bad. because of the snow that accumulates here the state has the resources and equipment to get rid of the snow. and each year when the first snow comes i have to remind myself of that, because i always get super nervous.
since late last night it has been snowing in Denver. and it isn't suppose to stop until tomorrow at around 6pm. right now i have about probably 10 inches outside of my house. the real crappy part is i live in a cul-de-sac, so my neighborhood is last to get any sort of snow pushed aside.
when i got home this afternoon i had to go to my backyard to brush of my Directv dish. the snow we are getting are the big fluffy flakes. so things look very pretty.

that's all for snow randomness.

go me!

I went to the gym today.
That's all.

all organized

in general i'm a very organized person. sometimes it takes some motivating, but for the most part i keep things in check.
twice a year i switch out my closet. summer clothes for winter clothes in may, and winter clothes for summer clothes in october. it was time to fold up all the summer clothes and bring out the winter clothes. question: am i the only one that does this? my closet isn't big enough to keep all my clothes hanging. and in the past when i've told my friend Tina i do this, she always says to me "april, when you have kids you won't do that." she thinks it's crazy i do this. but this is something i've done for as long as i can remember. and when it is finished, i love it. right now my closet is so nice and organized, it feels great!
this is what i did today. i cleaned out my closet and got rid of a lot. i tried on a lot of old pants and was pleasantly surprised by how many old pants are new again! in addition to that i have officially gotten rid of my "fat" pants. ...all the pants i had to buy when i gained this extra weight. that felt GREAT!

all the clothes i'm getting rid of

too bad i wasn't motivated enough to fold and put the clothes i'm getting rid of in bags, and get them moved out of my room! i am organized but i am also lazy. ...the goal is to get the clothes moved out by the end of the week.

on a side note, i didn't see P this weekend.
i'm calling it officially done.

~something I love~

let me start off by saying i am not a girly girl. i don't like smelly things. i don't like smelly soap, or lotion, or smelly candles. i'm not huge into hair and make up or fancy things. but this. this i love, and it is surprisingly so.

it is Mrs. Meyers Clean Day Lavender Liquid Hand Soap.

i drink a lot of water. and i mean a lot. it is all i drink. i drink it all day at work, and because of that i go to the ladies room a lot. ...a. lot. like 6+ times in a 8 hour shift. because of that i wash my hands a lot. and someone (i don't know who) recently put this fancy soap in the restroom. i had no desire for it since i don't like fancy soap so i never gave it a try. well, this week i was washing my hands and thought "what the heck? i'm going to try it." and i. love. it. seriously.
one of the main reasons i don't like smelly stuff is because to me it smells bad. it is too strong, or the scent is just weird, or something. but this. this lavender smell is perfect. and what i like about it even better is the smell stays with you. so after i wash my hands when i go back to my desk, if i get a whiff of my hands, i'm like "....oh that smells goooood." it is truly heavenly. so i decided to look it up on the internet and the products are sold and weird random stores. one of which is bed, bath, and beyond. but only specific bed, bath, and beyonds. for me it is the one in cherry creek, which is a good 20+ miles away from me. but i had a 20% off coupon and i decided i had to have this product in my home.
not only do these products smell good, but they are also very earth friendly. they use only natural ingredients and the products are biodegradable.
in addition to the hand soap they have liquid laundry detergent and dish soap, along with lots of other cool stuff that i'm sure i'll try at some point in time. but for now i'm sticking with the hand soap! you should check it out and get some for yourself!

what to do?

so here's a little bit of an update on my love life, or lack there of. so last i saw P was on Tuesday September 29th. Three and half weeks ago. I still think about him but I don't necessarily miss him. throughout the past 3 1/2 weeks, there has been very little contact. he's sent me a few texts, and i've sent one text, and one email. then this morning he calls me and leaves me a message. he CALLS me! this is very unexpected because so much time has pasted. he wants to see me tomorrow. i don't know what to do. i feel like so much time has pasted, that i think - what's the point? ...but then, i think it would be nice to see him. so i don't know what to do. i've been going back and forth about it all day. my mind is not made up. i keep thinking i know what i'm going to do, but in all honesty i have no clue.
you could say that i'm trying to "move on". a couple of weeks ago i posted an ad on craigslist. ...i know i know, probably not the smartest thing. but i can't expect prince charming (or just a regular guy for that matter) to knock on my door can i? i did meet a guy last sunday. we'll call him D. my ad had 2 pictures posted so this guy knew what i looked like when he replied. we met, had a good/normal conversation, it ended with him telling me he would call me this week to go to a movie. he has yet to call me. i called him today, let him know that i was making my weekend plans and i was wondering if we were getting together. i'm pretty sure i won't be hearing from him.
i am looking forward to tomorrow. i have a good productive day planned, regardless if i see P or not. who knows i may just do what i was planning on and just have it be an April day. but April days are lonely and sad.

The Places I've Been: CO

Denver, Colorado is my current "home". I've lived here since July 5, 2002. But lets go back in time to when I very first visited Colorado. I believe my first trip was a family trip on a train to Ouray, CO. I think I was in middle school. It was beautiful. I remember really enjoying the train and atmosphere. I remember seeing the waterfall that is (or was at that time) on Coors Beer cans.

My second time to Colorado was specifically to Denver. I flew here Spring Break of 2000 (I believe) to meet a boy I had been chatting with on AOL. Crazy, I know, but it was fun.

My third time here was in May 2001 (I believe). My friend Sarah called me up at 10pm one night, asking if I wanted to go on a road trip the next day to Colorado. I said, "Heck yeah!" This was probably one of the funniest trips I have ever been on. It was last minute, and oh so much fun. We stayed at a hotel, went out drinking, and spent the night dancing! That was my first experience with Denver nightlife.

My fourth, fifth, sixth, and probably seventh trip to Denver was 2001 up until I moved here in July 2002. And now comes the story of why I moved to Denver. When people ask me this question, I ask "do you want the short story, or the long story?"

Short story: It was close to home, but away from home.

Long story: Back when I was 21 my everyday friend was Shaun. ...you know, the friend you spend time with every single day, who just gets you, who you can talk to about everything, or just sit and play rummy for forever. Well that was Shaun. We were 21 at the same time, so that also meant going out drinking every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. ....these times were so much fun! I worked full time, and I really don't remember working! We would go out all the time, and there were nights I slept on his couch, and nights I wouldn't get home until 5 in the morning. Anyways, Shaun has a brother Jason who he is extremely close to. Jason and his wife Rachel live in Denver. When Shaun and I first started hanging out, it was always "Denver this, Denver that. Denver is SO much better than Albuquerque. April lets move to Denver." Point being, Shaun always talked about moving here. I didn't really think much about it. I had never really thought about moving away from Albuquerque, but it was known that when/if Shaun moved up to Denver I could follow him. Our conversations about Denver were always a lot more serious when Jason was visiting Albuquerque, or if we were visiting Denver because of Shaun's close relationship with his brother and wanting to be near him. Well back at the beginning of June 2002 Jason and Rachel were in Albuquerque to go to a friends wedding. While Shaun and I were driving back from this wedding, we had another one of our "serious" conversations about moving to Denver. Shaun made the point that now was a perfect time for me because I was unemployed (I had just quit my job.) and could easily find a job in Denver. I figured I had nothing to lose. The jobs I was applying for in Albuquerque were not good jobs, so that night I went onto monster.com to see what the Denver market was like. I ended up applying for a handful of jobs. A few days later I set up a job interview in Denver, and did my first drive up all by myself. While I was here (Denver) I applied for a few more jobs, and checked out some apartments. Back in Albuquerque I got an offer letter on the job I came up for the job that I had interviewed for. It was a job with Safeway Select Bank(a company that went out of a business 4 months after I moved). It was official I was moving! Everything happened so fast that I didn't have a chance to really thing about it, and whether or not this was what I really wanted. I just went with the flow and did it. I figured since everything was falling into place so easily and so quickly, it was meant to be. The whole process took exactly 1 month. I moved up here with nothing. The only piece of furniture I had was an old entertainment center Shaun had gotten from his cousin's garage sell. Once I moved my mom bought me a bed and my dad bought me a chest of drawers. 7 years later I have well furnished house, and Shaun?, well he still lives in Albuquerque.

balloon boy

people here are calling it "the boy and his balloon". not balloon boy, because, well the boy was NEVER in the balloon. i suppose i'm adding fuel to the fire, because this isn't news, yet here i am giving it attention. here in Denver my news of choice comes from 9 News. I'll randomly go to 9news.com to check out the days events. On Thursday i decided to check it out around lunch time when there was this coverage of a balloon in the sky and a 6 year old boy trapped inside. your first thought is "oh my god, how did THAT happen?!" then you start freaking out about this poor boy, and praying that he is ok. 9news reported that it was "the family" (when the story was first reported the family hadn't given there name, or the boys name) who originally contacted 9news to have there helicopter go up and help rescue the boy. i'm hoping that this was the second telephone call that the family made, and that the first call was made to 9-1-1. in my opinion that is the first red flag. why would your second telephone call be made to a news station? ...because you want this to be news. and why if you seriously thought your little 6 year old boy was inside of that balloon would you want it to unfold on TV. ...to have the balloon land, and searched with a high possibility of a life-less body found inside. ...because you (the family) knew that when the balloon landed there wouldn't be anything to find because the balloon would be empty. funny how all the pieces are slowly coming together, isn't it?

when you see that balloon land, it is apparent that nothing was inside. did you see how smooth the landed was? if a 6year old child who weights 37 pounds were inside the landing wouldn't have been so smooth. ...and of course reports have now come out that that balloon never could have carried a 37 pound anything in the first place.

it was also originally reported that it was the 6 year old and his older brother who were outside playing when the balloon got lose. but then a video emerged where the dad was also outside, and he saw the balloon get lose and float away. at that moment how do you not know where your kids are at? how is that you could think one is inside? i don't get it.

i'm kinda over the whole story. it was exciting watching the balloon live, and seeing it land live. but now i'm done. one of the funniest jokes i've seen in regards to "balloon boy" was Saturday night on SNL during Weekend Update. You see Seth Meyers with a picture of the balloon on the screen and he says "And on Thursday a boy hid in his attic." The below clip isn't the one i just mentioned, but it was another funny part of Weekend Update.

the numbers

so i'm on this journey that seems like it is literally taking fooooooooorever. and to be honest i hate it. ...and i love it. but i more so hate it. but i know i will love the end result which is why i guess i am continuing on. last august is when i conscientiously decided to lose weight. i bought a scale to weight myself and started to consistently go to the gym. over the past 14 months i've lost 27 pounds. which sucks. just plain sucks. especially since i have 80 more pounds to go. right now i'm trying to really pay attention to what works and what doesn't. i have a few things working in my advantage and working that for me, and not against me. one big part is of course food. they say you don't even need to work out to lose weight, you just need to to watch what you eat. so that's where a lot of my focus is right now. among other things. i'm also going to work on setting realistic goals and weighing myself more frequently. my goal is 15pounds for every 12 weeks. and that is what i'm working for. a lot of people have seen a difference, and i'm finally getting rid of clothes. being home last weekend was very rewarding in regards to hearing compliments from people i haven't seen in a good amount of time. i'm also getting compliments from people at work who see me almost everyday. i guess the good news is that i'm trying, and people are noticing my efforts even though the results aren't numerically where i want them to be. so i just wanted to document where i am on this journey thus far. and ways on how i can step things up with the end of the year near.

twenties girl

Twenties Girl

By Sophie Kinsella

I really liked this book. I picked up this book without reading anything about it, but based solely on the author. When I read the title "twenties girl" I thought that that meant a girl in her twenties. Well now that I have read the book, it is actually about a woman in her twenties who is being haunted by her great aunt who recently died and lived through the 1920's. When I first started this book and the family is at Sadie's funeral, I didn't really get it. Lara's great aunt lived to be 105 and they were all saying "good bye", but none of them really cared because none of them bothered to get to know "great Aunt Sadie" who lived to be 105. well during the process of this funeral Lara gets an excruciating screaming sound in her head. the screaming ends up being a 23year old great Aunt Sadie. this part was kinda hard to get used to. you learn that this younger version of Sadie is a ghost, and can only be seen and heard by Lara.

once we realize Sadie is "alive" she is frantically in search for a necklace that she has had since forever. she is screaming and screaming looking for this necklace that has disappeared, and she is begging Lara to stop the funeral in order to find this necklace. Lara does stop the funeral (you'll have to read to find out how) and begins the journal of finding the "dragon fly necklace". through this journey Lara gets to know and builds a close friendship with her great Aunt Sadie, finds an unexpected love, a new business, and some very dirty family drama. ended with a love for a very special piece of art.

this book was really good. it was different, which i liked and it incorporated fashion and music from my favorite past generation, the roaring 20's!

This is the fourth book I've read by Sophie Kinsella, and I have to say I really enjoy her.

i so called it!

The next Bachelor is Jake! Which was my prediction back in June! I have to say I feel pretty darn cool. Seeing the rest of the Bachelorette and how Jake handled the whole Wes situation etc... honestly I'm not really looking forward to this new season. Jake to me seems kinda boring, because he is that super nice, good guy. But, there is no edge to him. Now don't get me wrong, I will watch it, but I think Reid or Kiptyn would have been a better choice. And I'm sure the producers will create some sort of drama for us to watch.
Good luck Jake!

the birthday girls!!!

Friday Oct. 9th

The main reason for my trip to Albuquerque last weekend was to help one of my bestest friends celebrate her 30th birthday! Michelle and I have been friends since kindergarten. Yes, kindergarten. 25 years ago! There have been SO many times in my life where it was Michelle who was there for me. Because we have been friends for so long we've been through just about everything together. There are only a handful of people out there that I can be totally honest and open to. Michelle (and my mom) is one of them. We are different in so many ways, and our lives have gone different directions, but that hasn't stopped the connection we have and the life long friendship we have created. With absolute confidence I can say we will be friends for life.

My Mom and Michelle have the same birthday!

Happy Birthday Michelle!!!
I love you!

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

Saturday Oct. 10th

Very early Saturday morning my mom and I got up to meet my friend Shaun and his girlfriend at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. (Before I go on let's get one thing straight. It is the Balloon FIESTA. NOT festival. Thank you.) New Mexico doesn't have a whole lot to offer. But this is something that you can't find anywhere else in the world. For that reason it is something I think everyone should see at least once in there life.
The last time I went to the Balloon Fiesta was 6 years ago. So this was long overdue. To enjoy the full effect of this International event you do have to get up early. The balloons fly early in the morning because that is when the weather (wind) is the calmest. Mom and I got up and to Balloon Fiesta Park at 6:45am. Just in time to see the dawn patrol.
I took lots and lots of pictures. Here is a small sample.

Honorable mention of course goes to the Balloon Glow. The balloon glow takes place in the evening. The balloons stay landed and they light there fire. It is beautiful.

Mother/Daughter Weekend Conclusion

Friday Oct. 2nd

Shaun, Christine, Mom, and I
Went to go see Kooza! Awesome show.

Saturday Oct. 3rd

Mom and I shopping at the Outlets in Silverthorne
Mom and I walking around the Vail Village

Tuesday Oct. 6th

We enjoyed the sights and smells of the
Denver Botanic Gardens

no gym required

i know i have so much to catch up on. and i'll get to that eventually. but not right now. i'm currently in Albuquerque for a few reasons, and i've had a crazy week. so i hadn't had a workout since Monday. i had no plans for this afternoon so i brought my mom outside to the beautiful Albuquerque afternoon for a walk/jog around the park near my parents house. I think I did 5 or 6 laps around this park, and if felt so good to get some good cardiovascular done.

birthday cake

My Mom's birthday is Friday. So yesterday I baked her a birthday cake. I saw this Skor Cake and immediately thought of my Mom. She looooooves chocolate. One warning about this cake, it is huge! I brought majority of this cake to work today for all of my coworkers to enjoy.

Happy early Birthday MOM!!! I love you!

Race for the Cure II

Today I finished my second Race for the Cure! This event is so much fun, and I completed it this time with my Mom! We had a great time. We didn't start the race until 8:15am, and we were right in the middle. So needless to say we walked the 5k, with one small area jogged on Colfax. It was so memorable to have my Mom there with me, to share in this amazing event.

Mom and I at Mile 2

Preliminary numbers show almost 54,000 people

A good time!

We are so cute!

Shopping with a View

Today my mom and I traveled up to Silverthorne to do some shopping at the outlet mall. It was a lot of fun and the weather was perfect and the leaves were golden. After we were shopped out we traveled a little bit further West to Vail to walk around the Vail Village and enjoy a super yummy dinner.

...Pictures to come!

October 2, 2009

Last night I had a fabulous double date with my Mom, my friend Shaun and his girlfriend Christine.

...Details to come!