Fall in Colorado

Clearly I have gotten lazy on this whole blogging thing! It's not that I've been busy it's more that nothing has really been going on. I did have a temp job for about 5 weeks doing customer service/data entry stuff up in Boulder. It wasn't a bad job but it did require me to sit in front of a computer for 7 hrs straight and talk on the phone A LOT. Two things I don't really like to do :) The guys I worked with liked sports so that was nice. Finally got to talk to people in person about sports. My roommate leaves the house on Saturdays when Florida plays because I apparently get really into the games. I try not to and tell myself at the beginning of the games to just sit there and watch and stay calm but when refs make bad calls or players make dumb plays I can't help myself! I've titled this blog "Fall in Colorado" but I feel like a lot have days have been winter. Apparently I am in for a big surprise when winter actually gets here. It has already snowed here and when I wore a sweater and winter coat to work I got made fun of and they asked what I was going to do when it actually got cold. I guess 27 degrees isn't cold to them but to this Florida girl it is!

I have really taken advantage of living in Colorado though these past 2 weekends and have gone hiking 3 times! It's pretty tough and I feel like my legs are going to fall off while I'm hiking up these mountains but it's totally worth it! One day I'll actually hike a fourteener but not it's not going to happen this year! Lyndee and I went to Saint Mary's Glacier last Saturday because I wanted to see fall leaves. Well, we didn't see any! I felt like I was in a blizzard because it was snowing and windy but Lyndee told me not to be dramatic. :)

The next day I went hiking up the Royal Arch trail in Boulder. It was a whole lot warmer and I got to see my fall leaves. The trail was about a mile long and it was like climbing a steep staircase the entire way!

I have started going to the young adults small group at the church I attend. It's really good despite the people being more on the younger side than me. I have had quite a few awkward moments the last couple of weeks. Well, not really awkward for me because I don't care but I think awkward for them. We break up into guys and girls for prayer time and this one girl feels the need to say whatever she thinks so 2 weeks ago she was talking about how nice everyone looked (mind you, I was wearing jeans, my "football is everything" hoodie and had a braid in my hair because I hadn't washed it in 4 days) and she went around the room saying what was nice about each person. When she got to me she says "and you, with your um, braid!" It was funny. Then this week when we split off all the girls started talking about their first dates, one asked me about mine and I said I had never been on one and that same girl says "oh, I am so sorry!" I was like "It's ok, it's not like I have a terminal disease. I'm ok with it!" :) Anyways, I feel like this next picture is going to be me when I'm old and I'm actually looking forward to it. Lyndee and I saw this lady one day when we were out yard saling. She was just sitting in her driveway watching cars go by I guess. The funny thing is it wasn't even cold that day so I don't know why she was dressed like that.

Lyndee and I went to this thrift store we really like in Denver called Gone for Good. They always have the neatest things and they don't price anything, the more you get the better deal they give you. I found these hiking boots for like 8 bucks on Friday. They were originally purchased in 1991 for 180 dollars. While they aren't the most fashionable boots they are in really good condition and hiking boots aren't cheap so finding a pair for 8 dollars is a steal and I couldn't pass them up.

Well, I'm going to head to bed. I'm exhausted from my hike today! Mom, I will try and be better about blogging. Miss everyone!

Finally!!!!

I finally got a permanent job! It's part time but at least it's something. I will be working as a Recreation Attendant at the Marriott International in downtown Denver. Basically I just have to keep the pool and recreation area clean and stocked. If I want extra hours they said I could help out in the laundry dept which would give me some experience to maybe be able to finally get that job on a cruise ship that I want! The only downfall to this job is my in time will be between 6-7am and my supervisor went to FSU! I don't know which one is worse!!!! My temp job I had at Adams County Human Resource Department was good. I got really bored because it was just filing and thinning out case files but it paid so I can't complain and I was able to listen to 2 books on my ipod while working. :) Lyndee, Erica and I got a new roommate for a few months. Her name is Nicole, she went to Africa with Erica last year and lived up in the mountains north of Boulder but her lease was up and she needed a place to stay for 3 months while she finished up this teaching assistant position at a baking school in Boulder. It's nice because it will help us with our bills AND she brings home baked goods everyday that the students make. The summer is in full swing here and there are some days I feel like I'm going to melt b/c it's so hot! Who doesn't have AC in their house?! or at least ceiling fans?! Good thing we have a basement to hang out in. It's literally at least 20 degrees cooler down there most of the time. Denver has movies in the park every week during the summer so Erica and I went to watch Forrest Gump, one of my favorites, last Sat and tonight they are doing a light show and fireworks downtown at the capital building and the Colorado Symphony is going to be playing. These are the things I like about living near a big city, always something to do!

Having Faith

There's this picture thing I saw on Pinterest that says "Faith in God Includes Faith in His Timing". I have been trying to focus on that and some days are fine and then some days I get really stressed out and think maybe I made the wrong decision by coming here. God has had a different time frame of things than I would have liked but I got a temp job for 3 weeks doing some administrative stuff at an office near here. I'm pretty excited about it because 1. I'll get out of the house and 2. I'll be able to pay some bill :) I start on Monday and it's from 8-4:30. Not too excited about having to wake up early but I'm not going to complain. They are hiring 4 of us to do some work for a project the company is working on which will be fun to have 3 other people who are in the same boat as me. Maybe they will be my age and I can make a few friends! I'm also excited because my last "2 week" temp job lasted 6 months and I'm the one who had to quit. 

The unemployment time has been a nice relaxing time and has allowed me to start my training for my half marathon that I probably wouldn't have started because I wouldn't have wanted to workout before or after work but now that I've started and gotten up to 4 miles I'm not going to stop. My pace has improved to about 13 min miles so I'm happy about that. I still have to walk parts of the hills but I can at least run up half way now. 

A couple funny stories from the last few weeks. 1. Lyndee had a friend from Norway here and the day she left she told Lyndee that she liked me and I thought I was nice and that you couldn't even tell I was homeschooled cause I wasn't weird. I guess even Norwegians think homeschoolers are weird. 2. Yesterday I was sitting in this old yellow chair we have in the living room watching Prison Break and eating my Chick-fil-A when all of the sudden my chair just falls back! It was so funny, Lyndee actually peed her pants. The thing I was most worried about was spilling my Chick-fil-A sauce because, even though I had asked him for extra, the guy only gave me 2 packs! 

It's been a few weeks since I've blogged! I was busy for about 8 days entertaining my sister, niece and nephew while they were here!We went to Pike's Peak, Garden of the Gods, Boulder, Denver Zoo, Children's Museum, Red Rocks, Hiking, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed their visit!
Yesterday started my and Erica's official training for our half marathon in August. Running at this altitude and will all these hills is tough. Doing 2 miles killed me and I can usually do that pretty easily in Florida. My goal for the marathon is to avg an 12/13 min mile, which sounds like a lot but right now my avg is 18 min mile so bringing it down 6 mins would be a lot for me. I guess I should really say my goal is to actually finish the 1/2 marathon in one piece and basically not die :). They only give you 3.5 hours to run the 13 miles so it'll be a close one I think.
On Sunday night I met up with my best friend from Kindergarten, Lesley Atkinson. It's crazy what social media can do for you these days. I saw that she was visiting from Charlotte and she invited me to go see a NC bluegrass band at a club downtown. We haven't seen each other since elementary school but it was like we had been friends this entire time. She took this picture of us and sent it to her mom and said "Guess who I'm hanging out with?" and her mom replied "Jamie Damcott". Guess I haven't changed much in 20 years. :)

I'm still a little anxious and nervous about not having a job but I am learning to trust that God will provide for me and am very blessed that I have the support of my family about the whole situation and am thankful that they aren't hounding me about it. I'm very thankful for the family God has blessed me with! I do miss the little family gatherings but hopefully soon I will have my own "family" of friends here (stupid Broncos, sent my husband away from me).

Go Braves!

I got to go see my Braves play tonight. It was quite the exciting game. We came back from being down 6-0 to win 12-9, a fan got hit by a foul ball and had to be carried off by a stretcher (not sure exactly why though), it started raining in the 8th inning so they delayed the game and then it started hailing, a fan near us got kicked out because he brought in a bottle of liquor (which is prohibited). Another exciting thing is I got to see Chipper play one last game before he retires at the end of the season. It's crazy to think about him not being there because he's been with the Braves the entire time I've been a Braves fan! He debuted with Atlanta in 1993 and spent his entire career with them. It's nice to see that some people and teams are still loyal these days b/c that just doesn't happen anymore, especially if your career is 19 years!
In other news, I still haven't found a job and am getting a little discouraged about it. I do have to go take a test on Microsoft Office for the city/county of Denver for an admin position. It says it's going to take 3 hrs to take the test which is crazy cause my NATA test was 3 hours and I feel like it was a little more important. :) Anyways, please just say a prayer for me that I will get a job and be at peace about things.

exploring my creative side

I bought a dresser off of craigslist on Wednesday and decided to repaint it to match my room. I am quite proud how it turned out since I am not normally that creative. I only had to go to Home Depot 3 times on Thursday for supplies and called my mom and dad a dozen times to make sure I didn't mess anything up! I still need another tall dresser because I don't have a lot of closet space but I do have a lot of clothes. I am going to wait till I find a free or cheap one then paint it to match as well. I have seen a lot of refinished antique dressers on craigslist for like 150+ and feel like I should go into business myself buying up old dressers and redoing them. It's really fun and rewarding.

WICKED!!!!!!!

As you all probably know, Wicked is my favorite musical out there and I was so excited when I heard that it was going to be in Denver while I was here. I had already planned on buying tickets to a show and really wanted good seats but they were 200 dollars and Erica (and myself, really) couldn't afford the 200 dollar seats so we were going to just get the cheaper 60 dollar ones. Well when my friend Kori was here she told me about a lottery they do for the shows. I had heard about that but thought it was only for shows on Broadway in NYC. For those of you who don't know what the lottery is, 2.5 hrs before each show you go to the box office and put your name in a drawing and then 2 hrs before the show they draw names and you can get up to 2 tickets at a discounted price. Every place is different, in Orlando they were free I think but here they were 25 bucks, which still is REALLY cheap! So, Erica and I decided to go today after we got done yard saling to try and get tickets for the 2pm show. I hadn't showered since Thursday so I looked pretty rough but I didn't care. Erica's name got drawn so we got 2 tickets. We came home, showered and got dressed and headed back downtown and got there literally 2 mins before the show started. Our seats were FRONT ROW!!! Granted the view was obstructed but all the main parts were done far enough upstage that we didn't have a problem seeing anything. It was so AMAZING, I want to go back everyday and put my name in the lottery but I know I can't afford that even at 25 dollars. I will try and go again to see it though before it leaves town on May 20th.

Pike's Peak

Today I went to visit Pike's Peak with Kori, a friend of mine that I worked with at Disney, who is making her way across the country on her move to California. I picked her up at 7:20am to drive down to Colorado Springs for our 9:20am reservation to ride the Cog Train. It should have only take an hour and a half but we got stuck in the rush hour traffic of Denver and didn't make it there till 9:22am. Luckily, they held the train for us.We were people running up to the train with everyone sitting on board staring out the window at us looking very angry that we made them 2 mins late. On board we were seated next to a lady and her parents from Russia. I didn't catch the moms name but the lady's name was Olga and the dads name was Nikolai. I thought that was pretty funny because if I was to think of any two Russian names those would be the two. :) The ride up the mountain took about an hour and a half. The scenery going up the mountain was gorgeous, this Florida girl hasn't seen mountains like that much. Speaking of "Florida Girl", I was not very wise in my shoes of choice for the trip. I knew it was going to be cold on the top of the mountain but I figured we were only going to be up there for 30mins so it wouldn't matter too much which shoes I wore so I chose my Chacos. Well, I chose wrong! I got off the train at 14,110 feet above sea level and it was -5 with the wind chill! We stood outside for like a minute to take a picture then went inside to buy some of their "world famous donuts". We stayed inside for about 20 mins then went outside to take a couple of more pictures before we had to board the train to go back down. We were only out there for maybe 8 mins but I thought my toes were going to get frostbite and fall off they were so cold and hurt so bad! I didn't even take that many pictures because my hands and feet weren't functioning properly. I don't know how people can hike and camp in that kind of weather. Anyways, my toes are still attached to my body and aren't discolored or anything so I may have been over dramatic with the whole situation :)

After Pike's Peak we decided to go to Garden of the Gods because Erica had told me that it was really pretty. We pulled in and parked at the very first parking area and took a lot of pictures of the area and of this rock called Balancing Rock. After we got done with our pictures we loaded up and started back towards Denver. We were so excited about that one rock that we had seen that we didn't even realize that there was WAY more to Garden of the Gods than that. I'm glad that I will have more opportunities to visit there when other people come to visit. We also tried to visit the Seven Falls but it closed at 2pm today for renovations or something and we got there at 1:55pm. I will be going back there though because waterfalls are one of my favorite things in the whole world!

I really enjoyed seeing a friend from Disney here and can't wait for many more visitors. Colorado is such a fun and beautiful state. I know I will miss the beach a lot and may have a tough time dealing with the cold weather at some points but I am very happy with my decision to move here and can't wait to see what God might have in store for me to actually do here.

Getting Settled

I am getting settled into my place here in Arvada. I bought a night stand off of craigslist and repainted it. I did not realize that the paint was oil based so when I went to clean the roller I squeezed it with both hands and turned my hands black. Obviously soap and water wasn't going to work to get the paint off and I couldn't drive to the store to get mineral spirits and both my roommates were gone so I had to go to the garage, without using hands to open doors, and dip a paper towel into the gas tank of the lawn mower and wipe my hands off. That helped with the paint but then my hands smelled like gas. I must have washed them a thousand times and applied 4 layers of lotion to get that smell off. Lesson learned though, I will never squeeze a roller with oil based paint again. I am pleased with the outcome of the night stand though and look forward to finding a dresser to refinish as well.

Starting my life in Colorado

The first few days in Colorado have been filled with trying to find furniture for my room. I have now become a Craigslist stalker, and we all know I'm good at stalking, so that when the right dresser comes along I will be the first one to get it! I found a night stand for 10 bucks that I'm going to paint to match my black and lime green theme I have going on. Erica and I went yard saling yesterday but since it was Easter weekend we didn't find much. Erica did get a snow shovel. She said she would teach me how to use it but I think I will let her handle that. :) I am trying to adjust to the cooler/dryer weather here. My hair has so much static in it and I'm sleeping in sweats and a hoodie with four blankets on my bed. Erica also informed me that we don't have AC in the house which apparently is common here b/c it doesn't get that hot.

Friday night we went to a Good Friday service and on the way we drove past Mile High Stadium. Almost shed a tear since I will never get to see Tebow play there as a Bronco. He isn't the reason I decided to move to Denver but it sure was going to be a huge perk to be able to see him play. I am excited about all the sporting/theater events I will be able to attend. The Braves are coming to town at the beginning of May and Wicked is here April 11-May 20! I need a job to pay for all these events. I did have an interview on Friday but I'm not crazy about the job and my wise mother said that I shouldn't just settle for any job just to have a job so I think I will wait till something exciting comes along. I have been extremely blessed to have such supportive parents that didn't hold me back from quitting my job and moving 1500 miles from home without having a clue what I'm going to do for a job here. They know know I'm a gypsy at heart :)