a year of looking at things a little differently
I am HIGHLY recommending the song “The High Road” by Broken Bells. Very. Highly.
Their full length album comes out in March, but if the single is any indication of how good the album will be…whoa.
I’m also enjoying the Bat for Lashes album “Two Suns.”
Friends, new and old: Jill, Drea, Kat, me, Abby
TAGE!
Birthday girls!
The pictures above were taken by my friend Brian Landis Folkins. The pictures below were stolen from Drea’s blog since I didn’t plan ahead very well and charge up my camera’s battery.
Jill, Suz, Drea
Ivory and Sameera
Thanks to the Bannock Street Garage for hosting us!
“U.S. cell phone users have contributed more than $5 million in $10 increments to the Red Cross for Haiti disaster relief, by far the largest outpouring of support via mobile devices in history.”
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/14/online.donations.haiti/index.html?hpt=T2
I found a link to Chris Sacca’s site on Dooce’s blog that gives ideas on how to help out those in need in Haiti as they struggle to recover from the devastating earthquake. You can click to his site directly or I have summarized two ways you can donate via text message. I don’t know who Chris Sacca is but he seems super passionate about helping and has some additional ideas on his site you can check out. I did option (1) and the whole thing took about 15 seconds and the $10 donation to the Red Cross will show up on my cell phone bill (and the cell carrier keeps nothing…the whole $10 goes to the Red Cross).
1) Text “HAITI” to “90999″ to donate $10 to the Red Cross — This is legit. It’s on the American Red Cross twitter feed. You can also make secure donations on the Red Cross website.
2) Text “Yele” to 501501 to donate $5 to Yele Haiti – Check out more on Yele Haiti.
My mom, sister and I went in together to get my dad Beatles Rock Band for Christmas this year. It was a big hit!
Mom, Dad and I rocking out. We needed Tricia there to sing to make it a true full family affair.
Here’s what I’ve been up to the past couple of weeks.
Nick and I went to Crested Butte for some skiing and we drove through these types of conditions on Monarch Pass to get there:
It took us about 5 hours and 45 minutes to do the normally 4 hour drive. Luckily Nick loves driving through conditions like this and sees it as an adventure. Plus he’s a good driver so I felt mostly at ease with the situation. The photo above is hardly the worst of it…there were times when we couldn’t see anything and were just using the force. Apparently, to actually close the road there have to be enough semi trucks (who like idiots didn’t put on their chains like the sign said they had to) stuck so that no other vehicles can get through. We passed 3 that were stuck and none of them had their chains on. I don’t get it.
I shopped and prepared gifts for Nick’s side of the family who we had to ship gifts to as we are spending Christmas in Colorado this year.
We went to a super fun holiday party at our friends Pam and Ryan’s house. Live music, good friends, great party!
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.
