virtual tour of my life

I am loving my new life! I keep taking little trips around my neighborhood to see what is within the realm of my community, and I cannot believe how great my little corner of Denver is. It is full of funky little shops, restuarants, coffee shops, coffee roasters, wine shops, tobacco shops, and chain restuarants that are apparently only allowed to live here if they are in a cute little brick shop. I am a very short bus ride away from a great part of downtown, and I live caddy-corner to the best coffee shop chai I have ever had. The weather here is almost always beautiful. Granted, it is snowing as of now, but the storms are quick and short lived between beautifully sunny days. All I need now is a bike, because apparently and driving is literally much more inconvienient here than driving or walking. So, have a little glimps at my surroundings.


Welcome to the corner of Logan St and 2nd.

Go ahead and take a peek up the street towards the city, downtown denver in the backdrop.

Now go around the back of the house to get to the upstairs unit, where I live!

Enter into the kitchen and dining room.





...into the living room...

And my bedroom!

Now go back outside and down this little path for two blocks...

And get to Broadway, a street full of coffee shops, old book shops, old clothing stores, restuarants, wine bars, sports bars, and the most excellent, fancy and wonderfully stocked Good Will I have ever seen.

And then enjoy delcious Thai food like This with your friends.

Nothing is Free?

Today I was taking the old girl out for a spin...and by old girl I mean my ragged little Honda. I have tried to give her a nice break since the huge trek across the West. I was hoping that lightening her load and giving some time off would somehow magically repair the shakes that she was displaying throughout my entire journey. However, cruising slowly through the parking options of Boulder proved otherwise. As Christy and I parked the car and prepared to go enjoy a nice cup of joe, Christy's fresh pair of eyes spotted a tear in my front left tire. So, slowly and lovingly I made my way to a tire shop in Boulder. As soon as I arrived to Barney's it became quite clear that this may be the friendliest, and most joyous tire shop in existence. A lovely woman looked at my tire, looked at my car and assessed the situation. I would need a new tire (and by new I mean a new used tire), an alignment check and a tire rotation. So, I handed over my keys and took a stroll to kill time. Upon my return, while pulling out my wallet, she simply explained to me that there would be no charge. "Consider it a loan," she said, "and come see me if and when you want new tires."

What?

journey woman

This blog is coming to you straight from Denver! Today I moved into my new home after spending last night in Boulder with friends, which among other things served to prolong my exhaustion from a week of stomach flu-ing, saying goodbye to my fellow Mariposans and driving several thousand miles in a heavily weighed down Honda that refused to let me drive over 60 mph.


Over all, I can say that my trip out here was a complete success. I literally spent most of my drive giddy over the incredible views that awaited me around every corner and the energy cketing my life out into unknown territory and adventure. I drove 11 hours the first day, from Mariposa to Mesquite, NV, a charming little casino town cloudy with cigarette smoke and buzzing with fancy old women gambling at six in the morning. I woke up early and spent a whopping 15 hours driving on day two from Nevada to Colorado. Every moment of my drive was quite enjoyable until the last few hours during which God decided to switch things up on me a bit. My warm, sunny and dry drive through the desert and snow dusted hills almost instantly turned into a painfully slow creep up and down steep Rocky Mountain summits on a road that was either black with ice or a lineless white platform shooting straight down. And while I was driving slowly and with much caution, the horribly inconsiderate 18-wheelers all around me did not seem to be so phased by the roads, and continually shot past me on both sides. Apparently I am was the only person on the road concerned with the absolute inablitly to identify a lane. I decided to top off the night by getting lost and sidetracked onto two different freeways, touring myself throughout the Denver area on a snowy evening. Alas, fifteen hours and two granola bars in, I arrived to my wonderful family of friends in Boulder.

I spent today moving into my new home in Denver and chit chatting with my new roomies, a family of four who I am finding to be more incredible every time I come in contact with them. And now that the daunting task of hanging up my clothes is over, I am at peace in this place and so beyond eager to see what is here that is worthy of the huge fuss God ruffled into my life to plant me in Denver.

Today I was sitting, rather basking in the sun on the front porch of my Catheys Valley home doing my best to drink in the sunshine while simultaneously thinking through the very long and cold drive I am about to make to Colorado. It is the barrier of fear and loathing that stands between me and a very much needed move to Denver. Somehow enjoying the outrageously innappropriate February heat and sun sparked a desire in me to finally begin a blog, which I am now regretting as it forced me to move from my cozy catnapping place to a cold, dark corner of my house. And it turns out, I am no good at blogging. I have spent the majority of my initial session trying to figure out how to not make my blog automatically translate itself into Hindi. If you are reading this in English, I guess I figured it out.

I decided a month ago that I was going to move to Denver, really this time. I have faked the decision to move out of Mariposa several times this year, all with no fruition. But, considering I have packed belongings and set a date, this time seems to be real. This has been a long month of saying goodbye and closing up my year of life here in the little mountains. I don't think I am doing a very good job of processing emotionally what is about to happen in my life. Good thing I am going to have a long and lonely drive half-way across the county to think about it. I am on a countdown of life as a californian. Six days left to go and this decision is all of a sudden seeming really, really big.