Calvin the Chemist.

I met him at matchbox on a tuesday night.
The music was loud so we had to yell,
"SO WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO FOR FUN?"
I yelled.
He liked to drink IPAs and watch football.
Typical.
He was obsessed with the book "On The Road" by Jack Kerouac, and I am certain that is the reason he moved to Denver.
He kept the periodic table in his pocket.
One time he asked me if I would like to go on a "hammock date."
"Hammock?"
Yeah, like the thing you lay in.
"A hammock date?"
yeah - dammit - just meet me at Cheesman park at 6pm. I will be....in a hammock.

I did. And he was.
We drank wine and ate cheese and it was the best hammock date I had ever been on.

advice for a twentysomething.

I recently read this article in Elle magazine about "how to make it in the world" and i tend to agree with most of these.
1. never waste time looking for a job when you can invent a job.
2. never invent a job that does not help solve one of mankind's problems.
3. never forget, as you prepare your Facebook marketing campaign: women want to be thinner, and men want to be taller.
4. never go with what you love. go with what obsesses you.
5. never worry about failing. you will fail. just fail smarter the next day.
6. never listen to your boyfriend when he complains that you're working all the time. keep working.
7. never wear black. wear red - hot, cheeky, dangerous red. people will be less likely to forget you.
8. never aim for catchy. aim for true.
9. never ask customers what they want - as steve jobs said: "people dont know what they want until you show it to them."
good to know ;)

fifty shades of red.

once a year gingers from all over the world meet up for a weekended in breda, netherlands in honor of their species. doing whatever it is red heads like to do. and so it is a somewhat unusual place to find yourself, but not completely out of character. lindsay and i casually walked into the mez on the opening night of the Red Head Days with an open mind. i willingly accepted the invitation to go along with lindsay full on knowing that a) i am not a red head and b) i havent traveled with lindsay since the incident in costa rica in 2010. but you know, if someone asks me to go to amsterdam for a weekend and im not doing anything else, there is a 90% chance i will say 'yes.' and despite some rough patches our friendship has endured, we still have the ability to have fun together. now, even though the festival hand book said "non-redheads welcome" - i felt a little judgment as we stood by the bar. observing the demographic, i would say about 80% were full on proud red heads and 20% - other. i felt judged, not in the way that everyone stares at you because you are the minority, but more so in the way that nobody looks at you and that i should probably leave. the speaker comes out to welcome everyone. introduces the documentary "being ginger" by scott p. harris. scott grew up a bullied teenage ginger and now has a lack of self confidence and trouble finding a date. "at one point the principle gave me a permission slip, so that i could eat lunch in the hallway by myself." jeez. the gingers loved it. next is the "jolly percussion band" (description from the festival book). six good looking dutch guys having the time of their lives. i felt a little better seeing that only one of the band members was a red head ;) we spent the rest of the weekend socializing a bit. mostly with our non-redhead couch surfing hosts who lindsay had previously stayed with and have since become friends. if you are a red head i highly recommend gathering up your fellow red head friends and attend the red head days. i learned that red heads ARE fun and cool and although i spent some time trying to make friends with them, they are intimidating folks. and it probably didnt help that i called one of them "ron wiesly" to his face.

Friends of Red Rocks.

while tail gaiting at an alan jackson concert (yes, i went to an alan jackson concert...i grew up country!) we encountered a "recycling club" - which, mind you, i have had experience with recycling clubs before - so i made an instant connection. after handing over our empty beer bottles i found out that the incentive of the recycling club is free concert tickets. and as i am writing now, months later i am an official member of the organization that is - "friends of red rocks." i awkwardly show up the last saturday of every month and pick up cigarette butts from 9:30-noon. about 80% of the people there are a little bit quirky. there is a lady in her mid thirties. probably single. who continually refers to red rocks as "her"....saying "she has just been so good to us, we really have to give back to her" and she refers to herself as a nurse to mother earth. totally. and then there is the lady who - every month - hands out fliers about "yes on 64" - which is to legalize marijuana. this is her full time j.o.b., she explains. as i politely declined (as i obviously didnt have pockets) she informs me that i could fold it and put it in my obvious shirt pocket of my old roommate jeremy's grey v-neck. duh. last week as i held my trash bag and tidiously picked up little pieces of trash a guy walks by and laughs. he says, "ha - i remember when i got a DUI and had to do that." wait, what?! that didnt even occur to me that it totally looks like i am doing community service. i am here to keep red rocks CLEAN! do you know how much SHE has given to US!? you are welcome people. and i am slowly becoming one of them. i mean i may not consider them "friends" (yet) but it doesnt matter. i get a sense of joy just being at red rocks. enjoying the fresh air. this week, i spontaneously decided to join the manual labor group closing off trails and using large tools. i kind of loved it. and this may all sound crazy. but this week i will be going to mumford and sons - for free. worth it.

cherry amoretto jello shots.

this morning i had a jello shot for breakfast. dont judge me, i can do this sort of thing because i am an adult people! also there was no one home to tell me that i shouldnt have a jello shot for breakfast. and the only thing i bought at the store yesterday was jello and hummus and i didnt want to eat hummus for breakfast.

and so i considered the current situation i am in - which is the transition of my next chapter in life. everyone is on their next chapter. my little sister is going to college. josh and hannah are buying a house. tayler moved in with her boyfriend. soo...i need to think of MY next chapter. quick. what IS MY NEXT CHAPTER! i mean it will involve moving. it has to involve moving. ugh. i have honestly never been too keen on the idea of buying a place. i was, you know, just plannin on renting. forever. until i realized how much it cost to rent and live by yourself. $700 plus...which could be the same price of a mortgage. should i get qualified and buy a place?? buy myself or with people? and with which people? people i can eat breakfast with? i love community right? how great would it be to have a place i can decorate and make my own! should i find roommates? im from here, so you would think it should be easy to find friends that i can live with. although it turns out - my blog about finding a travel buddy - is comparable to finding a good roommate. who even cares, im never here anyway. i just want to live somewhere cool and ride my bike everywhere and grow a little garden area. maybe have a jello shot. with or without roommates. i will be writing a post about the next chapter...in 4-6 weeks.

hopefully.

eating and living the southeast asia way.

im thinking of starting a book. about...eating and living the southeast asia way. i have many theories about life and health and i am very curious in homeopathic remedies and traditional chinese medicine. although i would like to know more about it...i am continually hmm...i guess discouraged in the american way of eating and working and living. if you have seen or read any of the documentaries such as "food, inc" then you know how processed and over manufactured and corparte our food is. cooperate america has taken over and their goal seems to be to feed the most amount of people in the cheapest way, making the most money. over the last few years people are suddenly gluten and dairy sensitive. i noticed that they even had gluten free communion at church!! jeez.
for a person who could live off of bread and ice cream i have been ignoring my own digestive issues. hoping that my body is going through some sort of phase, if it is the more processed food maybe my body will adapt. when most people travel to third world countries they worry about eating the food and drinking the water. but i didnt restrain myself much as far as the food goes. of corse we bought the bottled water. but we tried to eat like the locals. it is an essential part of traveling for me. truly experiencing a new place and culture. i knew that bread or gluten and dairy were not going to be super common in places like vietnam so i was anxious to see how my stomach would be. and for the entire month i was gone i didnt have any issues. my diet consisted of mango smoothies, pho, spring rolls, rice, meat, veggies, eggs here and there cooked with the meat, pad thai, more soups. more rice. more veggies. and beer. i also realized how little sugar i ate while there. maybe this southasian diet is the key to my indigestive issues. or maybe it is just the processed foods. it is hard to say exactly but unfortunately the day i came back to the states i felt sick. i have been doing my best to incorporate more mangos, boba, spring rolls and asian messages in to my daily life. but im also thinking of seeing an allergy acupuncturist in boulder. ill let you know what they say :)

we need to change the way we eat. change the way we live and change the way we treat each other. - tupac

same same but different.

ive been dying to write about something other than downtown living mishaps and suburb settelings. it's about that time where i start to long for the challenging adventure of being somewhere new and far. for the last how ever many years i try to go somewhere for at least three to four weeks. i think of it as sort of a yearly cleanse from the comforts, and sometimes closed mindedness, of my own culture. i really just long to learn and experience something new. adventure can be the best way to learn...even if you just learn a little something new about yourself. while planning - there is always anxiety in the uncertainty of the trip being less fulfilling than expected. as i try to be open minded and laid back i am grimly aware of how much weight and importance a travel buddy holds. i have known and experienced traveling with different people and types of personalities - and from this i have realized how picky i am in my traveling realationships and otherwise. i try to be more of a "yellow" personality - motivated by fun. which i sometimes confuse with being laid backed. but inevitably i am motivated by selfish reasons and what i want and need. and sometimes i just need peace and quiet. i just need my travel buddy to leave me alone :) ha. dang it. i will continue to strongly believe in experiencing life with people you love. and ive always believed that traveling holds a strong testament to the complements of a couple or of a friendship. as i prepared for my three week trip to southeast asia i was in need of a companion for the first week. a fellow flight attendant and friend was more than willing to see the world and i welcomed her company. with more of a carpe diem outlook on life this year, i tend to say yes more than i perhaps should. how long will i have this job and will the opportunity come up again to go to vietnam? life is a constant question and saying yes is less of a fear and more of a challenge. i was secretly challenging the capabilities of myself and the lessons the world has to teach me. i am up for anything. who wants to go vietnam!? i have heard people who love vietnam and people who have hated it and i was ready to make my own opinion. we landed in hanoi in hopes of spending the night in the beautiful ha long bay. we were on a tight schedule and so when the weather wasnt ideal we were merely teased by the beauty the bay holds from a packed mini van of tourist just like ourselves. if you have never backpacked before then you might not know that you are 7 times more likely to become friends with a backpacker when traveling then you would with someone you meet in your own home town. so, vietnam immediately became a short lived week of me and my travel partner chelsea making our way down the coast meeting friends in every city we stayed. some were fellow travelers, some were vietnamese. all were very freindly. the trip was more of a sample...a mere taste of what vietnam has to offer and only left me wanting more. cant wait to go back!