Sorry for not getting my shit together and posting more often. Drew's right, it's a lot of pressure.

Last weekend I rode the Flavors of Fall wave, which was so goddamn fun I literally suffered from withdrawal for a couple of days. There's something about getting 15 great friends together to eat and drink amazing amounts of food and wine and beer and whiskey that reminds you how much better it is than Thanksgiving with ones actual family. (and we're already planning Volume 3, the Illinois edition)

Sorry if this post is about to devolve into some trite "gosh we're all growing up" reflection, but we are, and it's pretty awesome actually. In college DF cut his face open trying to jump over a stop sign and CB (not me) was nearly expelled from the dorms for setting the bathroom on fire. Now we are a lawyer, a writer, an architect, a husband, a designer, a former accountant who just quit to open a nightclub. Some of us are still students and many of us are still artists, and I don't think we've lost much of the spark yet. But now we're also people who rent tables and chairs and buy tupperware and make cupcakes that look like turkeys (though to be fair that was brett's sister who did that).

Over the weekend I spent a lot of time thinking about how lucky we were to have each other like this (And how lucky I am in particular. I elbowed my way into these kids senior year when they had all been friends since the dorms and it may have been one of the best things I've done).

8000 calories later I crashed pretty hard. A friend warned me that the new york blues hits everyone after a few months. There are so many people and there's so much to do all the time, so feeling lonely can be so much more isolating and confusing than anywhere else.

But, I'm snapping out of it and wouldn't give up the weekend for the world. And here comes the cheesy part where I thank you all and say happy thanksgiving. :)

monday, MONDAY!

Hello! A short and sweet post before diving into the week. Today is shaping up well. It's beautifully sunny but excitingly sunny for the first time. As a reward for this cold weather I got to wear one of my favorite shirts with those little holes for your thumbs in the sleeves (the kind that comes with the holes, not self made) As an added bonus, my favorite breakfast stand guy now knows my order without my having to say anything (he holds up one egg and grins while nodding and says "skim milk in your coffee?") All topping off a great weekend (I almost forgot to pull the fake spiderwebs off of my coat before leaving the house this morning.)

Hooray monday!

Dear Denver,
I'm not sure how to say this, but I think it might be best for us to have an open relationship for a while. I still love you and I think we have a great future together; no other city has dive bars like you do (I still have my first chip from the Park Tavern), I'll always remember my first trip on the 16th street mall shuttle and getting snowed in twice in one winter (hooray hot chocolate and snowmen in the park!). You're a beautiful and amazing city Denver, and I haven't even started talking about your people yet (definitely one of your best assets).

But (and I think it's better that you hear this from me), I've met another city. New York. I never expected this to happen. Like I said, there's no city like you, Denver. But New York, with its street fairs and block parties and concerts and literary festivals and all night transportation, well, to be honest it's pretty sexy and it's confusing me a little. And it's all happening so fast. It's probably just that it's so new and exciting, and eventually I'll realize what a terrible mistake I'm making. But for now, would it be okay if we took a little break?

This will be good for us I think, it will help us grow and appreciate each other more. And, well, I know Boulder's been looking cute lately and has always had a thing for you Denver, maybe you should spread your wild oats a bit too?

Don't take this the wrong way, you're still the number one city in my book, and I hope you won't mind if I still come visit. Let's just try this new thing out for awhile and see how it goes.

Big Hug!
Crystal

Not as scary as a revolving door but...

There are a few things that I’m pretty afraid of. Marriage, revolving doors, and death by an intruder are up there at the top of the list, but a close runner up is the fear that I’ll become an insomniac.

I love sleeping of all kind (going to bed early, sleeping in, cat naps, power naps, napping at lunch time, napping at night before going out late, etc.) and I’m miserable when I don’t do enough of it. The idea that I might have the opportunity and desire to sleep but simply not be able to is for some reason horrifying. (watching the insomnia scenes in Fight Club is painful)

So the fact that for the past month or so I’ve had only 1-2 nights of good uninterrupted sleep is a little worrisome.

Here’s a list of absolutely true things that have kept me awake or woken me in the middle of the night, from the past 30 days. Let me know what you think. I've only got 22, probably because I left out the best ones ;)

1. Contacts were in plastic cups next to the bed and I was afraid I’d knock them over and be blinded and useless
2. Cell phone was dead and there were no other clocks, so I was afraid of oversleeping
3. Suddenly terrified of becoming a “bad person”
4. Good book
5. School
6. Work
7. Working while in school
8. Simply too drunk to sleep well
9. Number 8 again, a few times
10. Moving to NY
11. Leaving Denver (slight permutation on 10)
12. Sharing bed with snorer
13. Sharing bed with blanket hog
14. Sharing bed with unintentional spooner (Lindsay, I’m calling you out on this one)
15. No bed at all
16. Afraid of falling in love
17. Afraid of not falling in love
18. Too hot
19. Too cold
20. Thunderstorm
21. Cats using bed to stage ultimate feline fighting championship

Choose your path and follow it, take your pill and swallow it. (Alternate title: A Girl and Her Volvo, a tragic love story)

Hi Friends-
Sorry for the long hiatus. I haven't been posting fun blogs for you to read because I've been SPENDING ALL MY TIME WITH YOU INSTEAD.

So it appears the Volvo Gods have caught up with me. After tempting fate myriad times in the past few weeks (how was I supposed to know it was REALLY going to run out of gas) the folks who gave me the car more than a year ago, called me today and, um, kinda sorta want it back. Yeah. Which is excellent timing because I just spent a ton of money on it, I'm halfway through my cross country road trip and my every possession is stuffed inside (save one running shoe, which got left unwittingly under my bed in SB).

But it's hard to stay mad. Life is pretty excellent, I'm psyched about what the next few months will bring, I just got back from a pretty fabulous whirlwind trip to Vegas (thanks), and I get to hang out in a great city for the next few weeks.

Funny post will be coming soon, but for now this is all I got.