November...

November is here in Colorado... and this weekend definitely did not feel like fall.  It was around 70 degrees everyday this weekend!!! Starting with Friday and going all the way through today (Monday).  I like 70 degree weather, but I really, really like fall weather much more. Hmmm...
This weekend was great! It consisted of great food, amazing company and fun times with friends. Jay and I had a super delicious sushi dinner on Friday night... mmmm, yum! Bring on the sushi!! We followed it up with some homemade apple crisp, made by ME! Woot! Nothing says fall like apple desserts.

Homemade apple crisp!

 Jay liked the apple crisp so much, that when I left on Saturday night to go pick up my mom from the airport, he dug right in and finished almost all of it! Luckily for me (and him) he left me a small amount to enjoy after our second amazing dinner of the weekend. But first, we spent some time soaking up the warm sunshine and enjoying the fall/summer weather.

Flip flops in November!

Saturday night we had dinner at this tiny family owned Italian place by Jay's house. They always have great, warm you up, homemade Italian dishes. Both of us went simple, with Chicken Parmigiana and cheese Tortellini. Incredibly tasty and just what was needed to go home and snuggle up on the couch. The best part about the warm, warm days we've been having is that the 40 degree nights seem that much cooler and make it that much better to snuggle up!!

 Sunday was spent getting ready for a dance competition (details and pictures to follow in a different post).  It was a loooooong day, especially for Jay.  He is one amazing and patient fellow. :) Of course, as a reward for both of us, a homecooked meal was on the books for Sunday night. Mmmm... first up, baked butternut squash and apples. Yum!

 Our main course was a roasted pork loin... super juicy and tasty.

 We paired the whole meal with some delicious microbrews and a great movie. It was the best way to finish out our weekend. Like I said, great weather, better food and the best company a girl could ask for!

Girl's Night

Last night was a dance night. Like I've said before... 2 hours of pushing myself to learn new steps and tricks and perfect (or attempt!) the ones I have. Last night was a prep for our upcoming competition on Sunday. Which really consists of running steps in the order they will be at the competition and focusing on the little things that can be changed in a few days.

The best part about Thursday night dance nights... is not only the dancing and seeing everyone there, but its the "girl's night" my friend Stacey and I squeeze into the night.

How so?

Well... Stacey picks me up from work and we have a 20 or so minute drive over to dance. This whole drive is spent catching up on gossip, venting, whining, laughing, yelling, and just plain hanging out.  Its great. By the time we arrive at dance, I am already in a great mood.
Then we dance.
On the way home... its much of the same. We talk about class and how things went. If they were good or bad, what is frustrating, confusing, funny, etc. We usually complain about our stinky feet and giggle like a couple 14 year olds all the way home.

Stacey and I after Estes Park competition

Last night... Stace came over to my apartment and we vegged out on the couch and watched the end of 30 Rock and ate apple crisp. Tasty.
Because of this... we have decided to implement a girl's night. On a night thats not a dance night. Movies and food and good company. I am looking forward to the start of this!!!!

Stacey and I after the Rapids game!

Irish Dance 101 - part 2

To continue the thread from before... in Irish Dance, we compete with both softshoe and hardshoe dances.  Softshoe dances consist of 1) reels 2) light jigs 3) slip jigs 4) single jigs.  Hardshoe dances consist of 1) Treble Jigs (aka Double Jigs or Heavy Jigs) 2) Hornpipes 3) Traditional Set 4) Tipping Reels (aka Treble Reels) - these are typically only danced for "specials"

There are different levels in competition dance as well.
Beginner I: starting level, must place 1st or 2nd to move up
Beginner II: next level, must also place 1st or 2nd to move up
Novice: a slightly more competitive level, must place 1st with 5 or more competitors or 1st or 2nd with 10 or more competitors to move up
Prizewinner: the most competitive level before Championship. Must place 1st to move up
Preliminary Champion: must place 1st twice in order to move up
Open Champion: the highest level of competition

In the levels of Beginner I through Prizewinner, all of the different dances are competed. Once a dancer moves into the Championship levels, only one softshoe dance and one hardshoe dance is competed.  I have not made it to the Champion level yet, so I am not sure of all those specific rules, but maybe... one day I will be able to share more wisdom. :)

If you're at all interested, youtube some videos of the different steps. I find it interesting to see the steps put with the music in order to differentiate the subtleties.

Dance Education - Irish Step 101

Since dance is such a passion of mine, I though I would share information about this activity, tradition, sport... whatever you want to call it. Let us start at the beginning, shall we?

Irish Step Dancing has its roots in Ireland (duh!) and over the years it has grown into a worldwide, internationally recognized sport/activity.  Let's start with the dances.  There are 2 basic types of dances in Irish. Hardshoe and softshoe.  Hardshoes are also called heavy shoes or jig shoes. The shoes we wear now are made with leather soles and uppers and fiberglass tips and heels. This way we make as much noise as possible.

Hard shoes

Softshoes are the soft version of our dance shoes. They are usually made of soft leather and have no hard sole.  Softshoes are also called ghillies. Not to be confused the Highland Dance (scottish) ghillies. There is actually a difference!  There are laces that lace from the beginning of your toes and go up around the ankle of the foot.  Everyone laces and ties their ghillies a little differently, but below is a perfect example of softshoes.

Ghillies

I am sure you are  incredibly curious about what we do with these shoes... right? Well that, is a topic for another time. :) Short and sweet, just to keep you interested. Or something like that.

Conflicts

After much discussion, this morning, with my amazing friend Claire, I pose this question:
How do you deal with Conflict?
Do you ignore it, stick your head in the sand - ostrich style?

Do you face it head on, come out swinging - boxing gloves and all?

Or do you escape from it, by either removing yourself (physically) from the situation  by going for a drive, run, walk...etc, or by removing yourself (mentally) from the situation to focus on other people's problems and troubles?

Despite the fact that I deal with conflict everyday, in my professional life, being a Conflicts Specialist... I rarely have to deal with conflict in my personal life. I always like to think that I would tackle my personal problems the way I tackle professional ones... head on. But it appears I am more of an escape artist. I would rather deal with and solve other people's problems (both professionally and personally) than face my own. What does that say? Does it reflect poorly on me? Or does it just show that I am more comfortable with other people's issues, problems, conflicts and drama then I will ever be with my own?

I may never know why I choose to deal with Conflict the way I do, but I can now recognize that I need to start facing my issues rather than trying to fix everyone else's. Focus on me... what a novel idea. A smile for now, a thought for later.

Halloween!!!!!

A quick snapshot of my fun and fabulous Halloween night. I didn't get the chance to meet up with all the friends I wanted to, but I hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween. Can't wait until next year!!!



Medusa's killing stare



Quotes! "Bob Ross"



The Queen of the party!

Medusa (Me) and Bob Ross

Happy Trees!

A Halloween Kiss



Medusa and Mad Hatter!!!



The Mad Hatter...goes mad?

Pepper Potts and Iron Man!!!

My Contribution

Friday at work, we had a little mini Halloween party. Every person was asked to contribute something, food or drinks... etc.
Thanks to Miss Stacey Pings http://www.staceypings.com/ I made this fabulous concoction:


Halloween Bark!!

Halloween Bark. Melted dark chocolate, chopped up pieces of Butterfinger, Heath Bar and Peanut M&Ms all drizzled with milk chocolate. Yummy?  Everyone in my office seemed to think so. Faces and fingers were smeared and covered with chocolate.
Easiest dessert ever. Seriously. I even made a batch where the bottom layer was broken pretzels. Even better than the original version. Seriously, try it!!

One of my favorite holidays

HALLOWEEN! I love, love, love Halloween. I really do. Its one of my most favorite holidays, really only superceded by St. Patrick's Day, but thats a whole 'nother story.  I love Halloween for the sheer fact of getting to dress up. It brings me back to my childhood, when I would spend Saturday afternoons playing dress-up with my friends. I love the idea of taking on a different role, becoming a different person, wearing someone else's clothes (figuratively) for a day/night. Sadly... Halloween is seen by many as a girl/woman's opportunity to dress like a slut. Ugh. Not a fan. For those of us who like to dress up, its a fine line between dressing like a slut and dressing like a grandma.
You get costumes like this, which cover a decent amount:

But then you also get costumes like this... and how is this appropriate?

Wowza... well I am one to dress up, but lets not make a spectacle of ourselves! :) Seriously though, here is a glimpse at my past choices...
Last year's costume: Betty Boop!

The year before... a geisha!


I seriously could go on. But I think I walk the line pretty well. All things considered. I am interested to see what people come out as this year. I am personally excited about my costume... and I have some friends who have been prepping theirs for weeks as well.  I am looking forward to being a character for a night... Who are you going to be?

Craziness

Yesterday was an interesting day. And by that I mean... my former roomie and best friend Heather (the one who is leaving me shortly to travel the world) was in a car accident! Gah! She is ok, but boy is she incredibly lucky.
She was on her way to work yesterday morning and we have been having some really windy days. As you get closer to the mountains, the wind gets worse... and thats what caused one of those bright orange construction barrels to get blown out onto the road. Heather swerved to avoid it (yes, she should have hit it, but thats never your first reaction). Then she swerved back into her lane because she hadn't checked the middle lane before swerving... but all the swerving made her lose control of the car and it flipped! Holy shite!  She ended up on the right shoulder of the road and got out of the car. The only injuries she suffered were a small cut on her head and a small cut on her thumb. Seriously. Lucky. Thankfully.
We went to clean out the car yesterday, since its most likely (I meant certainly) totaled. This is what I found:

The almost undamaged side of the car

the totally blown out back windshield and trunk that won't  close

squished tire and Wall-E light (it sticks out :))

Scraped and squished driver's side

So, like I said, she is fine and totally lucky. She has a few staples in her head where she cut it. And thats it. I totally woke up a few times in the middle of the night to make sure she was still breathing (she is staying with me until she leaves). Obviously she was fine... stiff and sore this morning. Umm... yea, no more car accidents Heather!

Weekend!!

I love my weekends... I really do. This weekend in particular was pretty fantastic. Saturday morning was a whole lot of lazing around, getting some cleaning done and watching loads of recorded tv. DVR's are amazing inventions!!!
My awesome dancing buddy, Stacey and I, headed to dance class on Saturday afternoon. It was a rough/tough class for both of us... but with the upcoming competition, it was not one we could afford to miss. It was a small class... which meant we danced more than usual. But it was good... :)  After class we both went our separate ways... to relax before heading to the Rapids game that night!
I picked boyfriend Jay, up from his jobsite... we had some food, showered, changed clothes and headed out to Dick's Sporting Goods Park to watch some soccer action from 10 rows up at midfield!!! Sweet seats thanks to our friend Anne. :)

Stacey, Jay and I enjoyed a cool night, some good soccer, mini doughnuts and lots of laughs!!! We were hoping for a 4th, but enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. (Thanks for the pics, Stace!)

                               

                                                          Stacey, Jay and I

Sunday was spent sleeping in... with homemade breakfast (eggs, bacon, yogurt parfait) and our (Jay and I) version of mimosas. Pineapple orange juice with 99 Bananas (a banana flavored alcohol). Yummy!!! The rest of the day was supposed to be spent watching football. We started with the Bears v. Redskins game (diehard bears fan!). Which was disappointing... but not nearly as much as the Broncos game that followed. Wowza. That was painful to watch. So we didn't watch the whole thing. Instead... we watched anything else. Despite the poor playing of our respective teams... it was a nice and relaxing Sunday.  Hopefully the rest of the week will be similar!

Friday... you should be so easy

My boyfriend texted me Friday morning to let me know that his car was in the shop and that we might need to change a few plans as he was going to be without transportation for the next few days. Why, might you ask? Because, sometime between midnight and 8am, someone stole the catalytic converter from underneath his 4Runner. What?!?! I didn't even know that was something you could steal. Apparently you can. And... apparently it is incredibly expensive. Poor boyfriend. :(

for those of you who are as clueless as I am :)

But really, it made things difficult considering he had some jobsite work to do... that was nowhere near his place. Luckily, it was only a few blocks away from mine. Taxi service to the rescue!!
While I was waiting for him to be done with work on Friday night, I put my domestic skills to work and made... PEPPERONI ROLLS! Yum. I am obsessed with these anytime my friends and I hit up Old Chicago's (because their "Chicago-style" pizza is not even close).

Once everyone was fed and no longer working... it was a cool night, so snuggling on the couch in front of the tv was the perfect end to a crazy day!

Confusion

Yesterday was a brilliantly gorgeous day in Denver. 70s, sunny with a slight cool breeze. Perfect fall weather, right? Fall? Hmm... its something like that. But, yesterday was gorgeous, so I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and stroll along 16th Street Mall during my lunch hour. Its fantastic, there are so many food carts out and the leaves are changing and people are everywhere. The Mall has such a strange mix of business people, workers from the stores and restaurants, children and teens out of school... the Greenpeace people, the save the Children, save the Environment, save the __________, and once in a while you get the "You're Going to Hell" unless you find Jesus people.  But really... its fun to look and watch and see.

Yesterday... there was a new group of people on the mall. Anti-abortionists. Now, this is not a rant for being Pro-Life or Pro-Choice. To each their own. Seriously. No, this is about the fact that out of the 6 people standing in a one block radius... 5 of them were men. Men holding anti-abortion signs. Men yelling out anti-abortion slogans and propaganda. Men. Wait, pause, Rewind. Men?? Men don't have babies, do they? Men don't have a uterus, or have to carry a baby for 9+ months... do they? I was under the impression that it was a thing for women to do. So why are there MEN out on the mall spreading anti-abortion sentiment?  I was confused. I was even more confused when one of those men yelled out, "I don't believe in murdering my baby, aren't you glad nobody murdered you?
                          I nearly died. I don't believe in killing MY baby...? His baby?
                                                          Confusion.

A huge part of my life...

...is Irish Step Dancing. Irish Step Dancing? Yes, think "Riverdance", "Lord of the Dance" and Michael Flatley. Except.... those are all very modern forms of Irish Step Dancing. The rest of the world dances and competes with a much more traditional style of dance. Traditional music (usually played on the fiddle or acordian), traditional tempos and step styles. I LOVE it. I really do. 

                       (a feet shot I took of dancers from my school's showcase)

I have met some amazing people who have become fantastic friends through dance.  Thursday's are the one week night that I dance. Class starts at 5:30 and ends at 7:00. An hour and a half of being up on my toes, dancing, learning to fly through the air, twist and turn in ways I never thought possible and spending time with some of the most amazing people I have ever met. My class is made up of all ages. From 8 to 30. Crazy, isn't it?  Most of the time the age difference is not noticeable. Everyone dances at the same level and works to push themselves and everyone else harder. The only time the age difference is noticeable... is at competitions. I recently just registered for our next competition (feis in Irish, pronounced fesh) and it turns out I will be competing in the 13&over group. 13? Umm... I am literally twice their age. This should be interesting....

Nevertheless... I love dancing, so as long as I don't squish a small child in competition, I am sure it will be fine. Hehe...we hope!

Hump Day

Its Hump Day!! Hooray for being half way through the week. Wednesdays are usually a day off (after work) for me. I can be productive and clean or do laundry, or I can sit on my bum and do absolutely nothing. To be honest, I usually choose the latter. However, today will be a bit different... my baby brother and I are going to have some serious hang time. Baby brother, is not so much a baby (but he always will be to me), is heading downtown after school today!  My big plan? Bake and cook! Brother is trying to learn to cook and bake on his own, so I feel as a big sister I should impart whatever wisdom I might have to offer. :)  Tonight will be blueberry muffins!

(Brother helping with a hot air balloon inflation)

Last night my friend Heather (the one who is leaving me to travel the world) and I decided to hit the movies. We went to see "Life or Something Like It", the new movie with Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. I was expecting cute and funny and totally Hollywood romance. What I got was cute and funny and INCREDIBLY sad. Seriously. I won't spoil the movie or ruin what happens, but just as a warning be prepared for some seriously tear jerker moments. Who knew? Crazy what the movies can do to you...

Now to get to work and continue counting down until the weekend!!

Getting Started...

It seems that keeping a blog is the modern equivalent of keeping a diary...except for the wonderful fact that pretty much anyone can read a blog, and a diary was always meant to be hidden.  Well, I was never one to keep things hidden, so read on if you wish! Really though, I have decided to start blogging in order to keep my family and friends from out of town, and even in town, updated on everything me. Haha, it makes the whole thing sound horribly selfish.  It turns out that my roommate of 4 years and best friend is going to travel the world. Yes, seriously. So... since I will no longer have her as a constant listening/talking companion, I turn my words and thoughts to the world wide web. I have no idea what will end up being written, but I plan to enjoy it as much as I can!!