Happy Birthday Nick! 
We had a great time at (Grateful) Dead Tuesday at Zio Romolo’s on Nick’s birthday. Good friends, good tunes, good times!
First, thank you for all the kind and supportive words that have come my way since my post about leaving my job. I have the best friends a girl could have and since I’ll never be able to put how much love I feel to them, I’ll just move along.
Second, I want to invite everyone to join me at the Holiday Handmade event this weekend. Fancy Tiger, two of the cutest shops in town, is hosting this alternative craft fair this weekend with 50 local crafters selling handmade goods. It really does make a difference where you spend your money and this is a great opportunity to support local small businesses.
I found these statistics after seeing similar ones posted at the adorable Wildflowers shop in Congress Park:
“From a 2008 study by analysts from Chicago-based Civic Economics — reveals that, of every $100 spent at a locally owned, independent merchant, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures. This number drops to $43 per $100 for purchases at retail franchises.”
This holiday season I’m challenging myself to think outside the mall box and check out my local shops. I have found that Denver has a very talented and growing population of creative folks making things by hand – scarves, screen printing t-shirts and sweatshirts, making dresses, art, hats, wallets, jewelry…the list goes on and on! I’m excited to check out the event this weekend. If anyone out there wants to meet up, let me know. And if you’re not in Denver, check around your city or town and see if there is something similar. There does seem to be a movement afoot. I didn’t get to see it but earlier this year there was a movie being screened here called “Handmade Nation” that explores the handmade push.
Also, if you’ve never checked out etsy check it out. Everything on there is either handmade or vintage and you can search for just about anything and you’ll probably find it and you can even get things specially custom made for you. Want a unique gift for a musican friend? How about a custom guitar pick from http://www.etsy.com/shop/AndrosCreations . Want a photo of someone making a heart shape with their hands? Done: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26844820&ref=fp_feat_8 . How about a hat with the bike on it that you can pick up at their shop in Denver? http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=35569490. Cute art for your living room, a party dress and some buttons. The sky’s the limit! You can also search by location so you can still shop locally over the internet! Last year I found a perfect gift for Nick for our anniversary on etsy and it was a Denver crafter who had a brick and mortar store over by REI so I was also to just go pick up the item which saved me from having to pay for shipping and helped save some resources (packaging material, fuel for UPS truck, etc.).
Happy beginning to the holidays!
I gave my two weeks notice at the soul sucking job today. This is one of the last steps towards cutting myself free of some fairly damaging ideas and pressures and expectations and although it is scary to be quitting a job in this type of an economy I couldn’t feel any more sure that is the right choice.
This career path has never been one of my own true choosing, but at least when I started this job it was fun and the people were great to work with and for. And to be honest, there are still a few people at this job that I will truly miss because they have always been nice to me and treated me like an adult and not a 7th grader. But there was a slow shift that resulted in my bringing to fruition many people’s lifelong dream of becoming invisible. So invisible that certain people would walk right past me without saying a word to me but greeting the person behind me. Or so invisible that they would talk about me to each other, painting me in a terrible light, with the door open where I can hear everything they are saying…and then lie to my face about it when I confronted them. Even this morning when I tried to tell one of them that I was leaving he interrupted me midway through my very first sentence and told me he’d come to my office to talk to me about it later and then never did. I’m so unimportant that it wasn’t worth hearing me finish my little speech saying how I appreciated the flexibility with school the last 6 months and opportunities I had there. I’ll put a dollar on it that in a month he will ask where I am and someone will have to tell him I quit. Even though I tried to tell him myself. I just don’t understand how humans have gotten to a place where common courtesy and treating each other with respect is such a foreign concept. When did we stop being nice to each other just for the sake of being a nice person?
I’ll never know the answer to that question but I can celebrate this milestone on my new path. I’ve applied at some retail establishments and I’m just going to roll with whatever comes my way. I know that some people think going into retail during the holidays would be there own personal hell but I’m really optimistic at the opportunity to work on team that talks to each other and makes eye contact, says thank you, smiles and helps people. Even if it’s just helping them find new ski pants. Sign me up! I’m also working more diligently on finding a place to teach yoga either a studio or co-op or gym.
When I feel that little tinge of freak out coming on I just read and reread this Jon Krakauer quote from “Into the Wild” that I’ve put in on the front of my micro binder to read every day at school:
“…make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly to things which you may previously never have tought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and is incredible beauty.”
This journey is a still a long one but taking this step feels equivalent to having caught a 5 mile lift in the direction of my “goal.”
Tonight in yoga my amazing teacher Tina had an underlying theme of reaching out to each other and supporting one another. It was a wonderful experience to be between 2 good friends for a class like this one. I want to thank all my friends for being my support, my cheerleaders, my shoulders to cry on, my family. You’re each a blessing.
My latest favorites:
album The Empty Northern – Gregory Alan Isakov
album Carried to Dust – Calexico
Album Lovely Creatures – Bob Schneider (esp. the song Bringdown)
Closer to Love – Mat Kearney
Don’t Wanna Cry – Pete Yorn
Down in a Hole – Ryan Adams
Eet – Regina Spektor
What I Wouldn’t Do – A Fine Frenzy
The Chain – Ingrid Michaelson
Dying Day – Brandi Carlile
And in a totally different vein…Lady Gaga’s new song “Bad Romance” is on repeat quite a bit. Like Drea, I can’t stop watching the video and it’s my new favorite dance around the house song. Along with K7’s “Come Baby Come” which is a nice throw back to the 90’s. FUN!
Suzie and I stayed up really late to attend the Horse Feathers show at the Hi-Dive Friday night. I thought they went on at 10…nope…they went on a midnight. What? I’m not 21 anymore dammit, midnight feels late! But I love the Horse Feathers so Suz and I left the hipster madness, crossed the street to have a cocktail at Beatrice and Woodsley and caught up with one another without having to yell for 2 more hours. If you’ve never been there, go soon. It is a gorgeous restaurant with a delicious sounding and reasonably priced menu. We got there too late to try out anything except cocktails and dessert, but if those were any indication of the full menu’s goodness, then it’s going to be tasty!
We headed back over to the Hi-Dive around midnight and Horse Feathers finally took the stage. Love, healing, beautiful. I know I went on and on about them in an earlier blog post but I can’t say enough good things about them. I was using a new lens and I don’t really know how to use all the manual settings on my camera so I didn’t have a ton of luck getting great shots. But a few did come out. Thanks again to Ross for letting me borrow his new piece of glass.
LLS- I was thinking of you…hope to see you when you’re home for Christmas!
Suz – thank you for being such a good sport!
Playing with the lens that Ross very graciously let me borrow and play with. Abby and Ross are pretty much the cutest couple. Thanks for coming over for dinner you two! What a fun night!
These prayer flags are the guest book from our wedding. One of the traditional Nepalese prayer flag beliefs is that as the sun and wind and elements weather the flags the wishes and prayers written on them are released into the universe. I highly recommend this guest book idea.
This little bridge crosses the little water feature and leads to the gazebo. This picture is for my friend Joel…who is welcome to come over to cross the bridge anytime. :)
I just couldn’t get enough of the colors in the front yard. So pretty!
Nick and I attended a couple of Halloween parties this year. We both tried to make costumes out of stuff we already had or could borrow so we weren’t spending a bunch of money. Nick dressed as a Mormon missionary and I borrowed a friend’s Brownie outfit (thanks A.T!). I worked on earning my dance badge at the first party and my photography badge a the second! Thanks K, K and Sarah for hosting such fun parties!
Below is Mike and Suz’s sweet Bronco pumpkin…which for a time provided light when the power went out. Spooky!
Same bike and same street as the previous post…just taken 24 (bike) or 48 (street) hours later. A visual explanation of why Denver doesn’t have a lot of snow plows.
