Parade of Green

I started a one sentence journal, an idea I got from The Happiness Project. It’s not necessarily a thankfulness journal where I remind myself to be grateful for the things in my life. Instead, I try to sum up the day or event that happened in one sentence. I started this on the fifth of March and let me tell you, if someone found this journal they would think my life is somewhat bent; but fun.

I hope to be able to look back at my sentences and remember the events, thoughts, and feelings of the day, and then the years. So far, it seems to be working. For example, my sentence last Saturday was: I don’t like parades as much as I remembered.

You see, Bobaloo and I went downtown for the St. Patrick’s Day parade. I had visions of sitting on a blanket on the curb. As a child I would catch candy, plug my ears during the marching band, and hoot and holler when my favorite floats passed by. Everything about the parade was splendid from the fancy princess waves to the mini Shriner cars.

It’s a gloomy awakening when you realize that you are not six anymore and parades just don’t do it for you anymore. The noise, the crowds, the children with kazoos all make for a frenzied display. It didn’t help that this particular parade was completely random. Seriously, everyone was in the parade. Instead of watching the whole four-hour ordeal, we tooled around Denver in green and watched the monkey business that is St. Patrick’s Day. All in all, our St. Patrick’s Day adventure was amusing and I cannot wait to go back next year.

Have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day and I’ll leave you with a blessing from the spoon-holder in our kitchen:

May your troubles be less,

And your blessing be more.

And nothing but

happiness,

Come through your door.

Bookish

The summertime reminds me of books. I love to read. Everything from the feel and smell of the paper to the little black letters dotted across the page mesmerizes me. I read a lot more in the summertime than I do in the winter. I like to sit on my patio, have a cigarette, and read. My favorite summer memory is going up to the Poudre Canyon and reading on a rock by the river while Bobaloo fished.

The first book I remember reading with my mom was Big Bird Follows the Signs which was a captivating little story about Big Bird getting Prairie Dawn’s cello to her concert on time and the importance of reading signs. I remember how my mom’s voice sounded when we came to a sign in the book. She would annunciate and heighten the word, STOP! GO! THIS WAY! or whatever the signs happened to say. Sometimes she would make hand motions to add a little pizzazz to the story.

My dad was never a big reader, but I remember him sitting down to read me Ramona and Her Father. We sat on the couch and took turns reading the pages in the oh-so-grown-up chapter book. Do you remember Ramona Quimby? I loved her and the overconfidence she radiated. I secretly wished I could be that bold.

I lived next to three girls around the same age as me growing up and their dad Steve would take us to the library every once in a while. For my birthday they even gave me a library bag. I would always check out more books than I could possible read by the due date. I was afraid I would run out of books and always wanted to save the best ones for last.

In high school I would skip school to drive to the library and read what I felt like reading. T.S. Eliot, Edith Wharton, and Daniel Quinn filled my brain. I wanted to be a poet. I wanted to eat, sleep, and breathe books. Then at some point, I got a life.

These days I read when I can, when the spirit moves me to. I have a list of classic literature I am working on reading before I die. I cannot wait for long summer days to read while Bobaloo fishes or to lie in the sun and finish up a novel over a weekend.

With the approaching warm weather, I could use some good suggestions. What are you reading?

Weekends

I started my new job and so far it’s going great. The best part of it is getting done at 3:30 during the week and having weekends off. I had almost forgotten what that was like to have precious weekends and I have been filling them up with all sorts of fantastic things from alpacas to a frozen dead guy.

The first weekend off included a trip up to Boulder. Bobaloo and I toured the Celestial Seasonings factory and learned about tea. They had a peppermint tea room that was incredible. With one draw of breath my sinuses cleared and my eyes became teary. The day was followed by some poking around in Tables and Teacups one of my favorite antique stores. We didn’t find any treasures but we sure built up an appetite. After antiquing, we headed to the Pearl Street Mall for some grub and ended up at this wonderful Mediterranean restaurant where we feasted on tapas, cheese ravioli, and lamb shank for Bobaloo. The day ended with the beautiful ride back to Golden.

The Olympics, grocery shopping, movies, and staying warm in the apartment took up a couple of weekends. But it was great to hang around the apartment and not have to worry about getting out of bed early or showering. I have a general rule of only needing to shower once and throwing a hat on the rest of the weekend. Lazy days can go by so quickly, I blink and am back to work on Monday.

One weekend, Bobaloo worked on Sunday so we packed in all of our fun on Saturday. We started at an alpaca extravaganza at the Boulder fairgrounds. Can you believe it? It was an entire extravaganza just for alpacas. We made our way in from the muddy parking lot and checked out the unassuming and dreamy animals. Now, I would like an alpaca farm. After we had enough of the alpacas we headed to a restaurant called The Gondolier. Garlic knots, mushrooms, a caprese sandwich, pasta, and dessert filled us up and we were ready to return home. We topped off the evening on the couch with a movie.

Last weekend took the cake! We went to our first Frozen Dead Guy Days up in Nederland, CO. It is a whole festival dedicated to a dead guy that is frozen in a Tuff Shed until he can come back to life. Crazy Norwegians! We checked out the hearse parade and the polar plunge. Brrr.. There was food and drink galore and a lot of people. The sun was shining and people were having fun which made me eager for summer.

How much fun can I pack in to two days? Apparently quite a bit. I am looking forward to this weekend to see what’s in store.

6 Lessons of Sobriety

If you made a certain resolution to quit certain beverages for a 100 days, you are on day 70. Just to let you know. 30 days left? Piece of cake!

It’s been a strange 70 days since I stopped with the boozing. My ears still ring at 5 o’clock on Friday. Every once in a while I have a hankering for a cold beer or a rum and coke. The cravings have subsided greatly from the first couple of weeks. The first two weeks were the most difficult. It was bizarre to order non-alcoholic beers at happy hour and keep drinking and drinking and never catch a buzz. Lesson 1; Coca-Cola gives you more of a buzz then non-alcoholic beer. There is a bar in town that serves Coors NA and that is my drink of choice these days. Lesson 2, non-alcoholic beer is a sipping drink; all it does is make you need to pee.

The strange part about going to the bar sober is having in the past had buzzed conversations with people you now have no idea who they are or what you were babbling about. Lesson 3; sober conversations are more memorable but not nearly as exciting. I have also noticed people are curious why I am not drinking, when I tell them it’s a new year’s resolution they seem disappointed. It has taken bar patrons a little more time than usual to warm up to me and to start chatting. Lesson 4; making up a more interesting reason for my sobriety might lead to more friends.

Driving home after spending a few sober hours at the bar is quite the experience. Driving without paranoia and how quick the ride goes is amazing. Lesson 5; getting home sober is good. It is odd to have a kiddy cocktail (Shirley Temple) nightcap instead of a couple of beers to top off the night. I don’t wake up tired and go to work hung-over. Lesson 6; moderation would be a good virtue to permanently have.

The strangest thing about my sobriety is that I am always hungry, and hungry for sweets. I am generally not a sweet tooth but these days give me chocolates, give me cake, give me ice cream and I will down it. I thought quitting drinking would lead to me dropping a couple of pounds, but instead I think I’ve gained a couple. Lesson 6; weight gained is well worth it, yum.