the past week

So not a lot has been going on in the past week. Eric and I took our little mini-trip to Vail and it was...fun. Like I said before, he won us tickets to see Ben Harper so we got a hotel room for one night and even went a little fancy (although there aren't really any un-fancy options in Vail). We ended up getting there around 3pm but their check-in time isn't until 4 (weird, huh?). So the lady said our room wasn't ready and we could explore the hotel if we wanted. So we walked around for a little while and then Eric casually asked her if she'd just let us know when the room was ready, so she found out it still wasn't ready so she bumped us to another, much better room. We were pretty excited, it had a fireplace and a whole lotta room. We were going to be on the bottom floor, but now we were on the top floor with an awesome view of the chairlift (the hotel had it's own chair lift, how cool is that?). So we hung out there for a few hours and went to their jacuzzi and steam room. Then we headed out to Vail Village to grab some dinner before the show. Now I've got some complaints about the skiing/snowboarding life in general (ie, it's only a sport for RICH white people) but one of the things that bugs me the most is that these places are supposed to be luxurious right? Well we wanted to grab just a regular old dinner, nothing crazy nice. But one of the cheapest spots we could find was still about $25/plate and the food was crap. I feel like just because it's Vail, they're not held up to any kind of standards you know, because it's VAIL. But anyways, we took a 1/4 mile snowy walk over to where the concert was, which had already started (at 7:30). The concert was pretty good, I love Ben Harper, but the crowd definitely left something to be desired. Like I said, it's just a bunch of rich white people and at the show it was mostly just rich white high school/college kids. Who were drinking and being fools. So after the show we headed back to the hotel and hung out in their fireside lounge until we got sleepy and went to bed. The next morning, Eric went skiing and I opted to use the money that skiing would've cost to get a hot stone massage instead. I'd never had a hot stone massage before, it was lovely and I'd recommend it for everyone. So yeah, after that we checked out and headed home. It was a nice, short trip to Vail but I think I'm kinda done with the whole ski scene. I don't really like to ski, personally. I don't like to do things I'm not good at. And I'm not good at skiing. It's especially hard when everyone you go with is super good at skiing and then you're just stuck on bunny hills and greens and they're doing black diamonds. So yeah.
Other than that weekend trip, my life has been pretty much the same this past week. I took the Morgan Stanley job, which I'll be starting on Wednesday of next week. I'm pretty much the opposite of excited about it, but it'll be good to have my own money in my pockets again. And besides, it's only temporary and I can quit whenever I want.
This weekend my friend Ted is visiting from San Jose, CA. It's supposed to be nice and warm but I think those dumb boys are going to waste the nice weather and go skiing instead of something awesome like hiking. Oh well, what's a girl to do? I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'll leave you with some peaceful mountain scenery.

return from vacation

So I'm back from Florida. Overall it was a great trip. We had amazing weather pretty much the whole time; hot and sunny days turning into cool and rainy evenings almost every single day. And not once did it rain during the day when we were wanting outside time. Any of you who have been to Florida know that this is quite the meteorological accomplishment.
It was really good to see my family but I would like to reiterate the point that I do not regret moving 1500 miles away. I'm sure it's the same with everyone, but I can only take so much face time without wishing I were elsewhere. I love my mom and sisters very very much, but we are oh so different in far too many ways. My mom and I had a talk about it and I told her sometimes I feel like I just don't belong in the family, the others share many of these very specific traits that I just somehow missed out on and that really irk me sometimes. Like poor time-management skills. It took us 4 times as long to do pretty much anything than it would have taken me to do on my own. But all my bitching aside, it was really great to see them. My sisters are growing up, people. It's scary.

Aly's two friends ended up coming along (they're the two on the right in the above pic) and it was very interesting to me to see how she acts around her friends versus how she acts around me. She is pretty much the opposite of who I was in high school. She's a cheerleader, she loves country music and hanging out at Wal-Mart, her boyfriend is completely devoid of any personality, etc. But I know from hanging out with her on my own that there's so much more to her that she doesn't show to people her age. I wonder why. Mary, on the other hand, is pretty amazing for someone her age. She's very funny and wise and just has a great outlook on life. She reminds me a lot of Heather when she was that age, but in a much more positive light.

The trip ended up being very strenuous physically. We went on a 10 mile bike-ride around Sanibel island's nature preserve one day. Another day we went kayaking for 3 hours. I'd never kayaked before but I really really liked it. I'd do that again in a heartbeat. Other than that, we didn't really do too much touristy stuff. We had A LOT of beach time, which is really what I was hoping for. I got a nice brown layer of tan, which I'm certain will disappear within the next couple weeks. I got to eat a bunch of delicious seafood, which is a rare and expensive pleasure out here in landlocked Colorado. So yeah, overall the trip was great. I'm very glad that I went and I wish I could do it more often.

In other news, I got a job today. After looking for over a month, I finally landed something. I'll be working (temporarily) for Morgan Stanley as a consultant. It's just pushing paperwork I think, but I really truly need the money right now. It's far from my dream job and I'm very worried about settling for something I'm pretty certain I'll dislike, but it's just so damn tough out here, I couldn't find anything else. So I'm going to give it a shot and if it sucks, I'll quit and keep looking. Wish me luck on that front, it's the biggest stressor in my life right now.

Other than that stuff, not much else going on. I'm taking the CBEST on Saturday and then Eric and I are headed up to Vail. I've never been to Vail so that should be fun. Eric won us tickets to see Ben Harper there, who I adore. One of the best live shows ever, he's amazing. We are staying at a ski-in/ski-out resort, which I've also never done. I'll post some pictures of that for everyone.

And finally, I'll close with a lovely beach scene for those of you who won't get to enjoy such a treasure anytime soon. Auf wiedersehen.