oh i give up

no paragraphs I suppose...whats that about I wonder?

alright that didn't work... testing... testing..

testing 1 2 3...

testing something about this paragraph business.... hello hello

We should have known better...

So more adventure today! We drove into the mountains to check out Deer Creek Canyon and noticed while we were in the foothills that our gas light was on. We decided we should continue and fill it up on the way back. Continue up we did. No, our car didnt break down. We pulled into the parking lot that looked like the place we were supposed to be going. I grabbed our backback full of four bottles of water, a flint, some bandages and some neosporin spray and we studied the map infront of the trailheads to choose our route. It was 90 degrees out and the air was almost still. We took ten steps onto the trailhead, stopped and took a look around. This didn't look like the other hikes we'd been on that took us up rocky mountains (literally, they were covered in rocks)with trees and creeks. This seemed more barran. And it was hazy outside because of the heat. We quickly made a decision to get back in the car, go get some gas, and find another spot to explore nature for the day. After coasting down the mountain road trying to hit the gas peddle as little as possible we came to a 7eleven and filled up the car. As I was filling it up I suggested that maybe we get sushi before Rach headed off to work tonight. In her appreciation, since she likes sushi way more than I do, she suggested when I got back to the car that we go to the aquarium today instead of go hiking. The aquarium! I've been wanted to go since we got here! Woohoo! Goodbye haze, black bear warnings and heat stroke, we're goin to the aquarium! We drove back to civilization and in fifteen minutes found ourselves in the aquarium parking lot. Almost forty dollars later and a parking voucher that promised we'd pay $7 more on our way out, we were in! We had so much fun. Funny how for some reason, I don't feel as bad for the fish in the tanks as I do for the mammals in the cages at the zoo. All the fun and almost no guilt! We saw lots of fish, turtles, sharks, stingrays, sharks, snakes, SHARKS, and for some reason we didn't understand...tigers. One of the tigers had the same birthday as me! I still didn't understand what they were doing at the aquarium though. We were having a wonderful time. Eventually, towards the end we came to a tank with a bunch of different fish in it. all the tanks were only around four feet tall so if you reallly wanted to...you could touch the top of the water. There was a really cool looking yellow fish swimming on top of the water back and forth. I reached my finger out and touched its back very lightly and respectfully. Its back was very hard, almost like a shell although it didn't look like it had one. It must be internal? Well I got such a kick out of this that I called Rachel over to feel the fish. While we were peering over looking and skimming our fingers over the water to attract the little fishes attention we heard a very stern womans voice behind us say "Please don't touch the fish. Thank you!" Yikes! Busted! Jeez, there weren't even any signs to say not to do it. We weren't hurting them. It's not like we were grappling and trying to fish them out. I turned around to find some old, blonde bitch standing there wearing a tee shirt and fanny pack pushing around her old blonde friend in a wheelchair. When I say old, I don't actually mean old. I'd guess fifties or sixties, but hey, that's older than us. Did some bitch in a fanny pack just reprimand me in a public space? "Do you work here?" I replied, knowing quite well that she did not. "No". she said. "But does that really matter?" There was a pause. I couldn't believe this woman! I'm not some little 15 year old punk! I volunteer and use words like please, excuse me and ma'am and sir! Then as I'm registering all this she has the nerve to tell... "you should know better". I should know better! I don't even KNOW anyone more repectful or polite than myself, not to toot my own horn. And this STRANGER is telling me that I should know better. I told her to mind her own business and walked away. I dont' know why it bothered me so much. I was really angry. She talked to me like I was her child's friend. I went over my thoughts with myself. Was I angry because she was right? Should I know better? Was I doing something wrong? Wait...no! I wasn't doing anything to hurt the little fish. I was simply putting out my finger so that its back would graze my skin on its way by. I've learned to walk away when I get mad because I know my temper can escalate quickly. But I really wish I had told her that I was an adult and what I was doing and that she had absolutely no right to talk to me the way she did. She obviously thought I was younger than I am which bothered me even more. Damn this childish demeanor and adoloescent charm! After emerging from the path that brings you through the aquarium we came to something that would definitly cool me down! There was a little pool full of stingrays for you to guess what...guess what they were there for....TOUCHING!!! You could touch them! Ha! In your face fanny packed witch! I'm gonna touch the stingrays and you can't say anything! Not only could you touch them.. you could feed them! For less than three dollars you were given three dead little fish, each about the size of an adult pinky. A poster told us that we should hold the fish by the tail between our fingers while we were making a fist. Just the way you'd hold a key to punch an attacker...or some lady who can't mind her business! Feeding and touching the stringrays was a blast! You just held your fist under the water and they'd rub their nose on your hand, then swim over your hand so you can't see it (which is scary) and then it eats the fish. They were huge! And so soft and silky! It was the best part of the day and exactly what I needed after being yelled at for touching things! Because I have the best girlfriend EVER Rach let me do two fishes and she did it once. She's the best. After feeding the stingrays we got pretty hungry ourselves and decided to keep the aquarium excitment going by eating at the aquarium restaurant. Well, THIS we should have known better. The food was pretty bad and kind of expensive. We both expected it to be bad anyway, I mean, c'mon, its the restuarant inside the aquarium. But at least we got to watch sharks swim around while we were eating our horrible food. Now rach is at work and I'm home again watching TV. I've really gotten into Lifetime lately. The show REBA is actually really good! It's just way to hot to go outside! We might go out with Liz tonight which can only ensure two things. A great night and an awful morning. But, nothing good comes free right? Oh I almost forgot! Remember yesterday when I bought Rachel that good luck statue from Mt. Everest Imports? Well I used that information today to get me Nosz! Pernounced.. Noses. Nosz is my new, little stuffed stingray! I plan for him to live in the car, but for the time being he'll sleep with me until the excitement of a new stuffed animal leaves me. He was only two dollars more than Rachel's statue and we bonded in the gift shop regardless of the fact that Rachel was trying to rush me out before I got attached to anything. She should have held my hand and pulled me through so I couldn't grab anything! I mean, it's her fault... she should have known better... -lj

reflection

I took some time last night while Rach was at work to reflect and read over our blog from the beginning. It was so much fun to do! We worked so hard on this adventure idea and were so excited about it! How can we give the idea up after only three months? We spent three times that long planning it! I say we must go on and I insisted to Rachel when she got home that she should take time to read our blog as well. It just gives a different perspective. One that we had a very clear view of only a few months ago. This is such a cool idea! What twenty five year old wouldn't want to go on a two year (give or take) long road trip! The experiences and friends we will walk away with after this will be far more valuable to us than going back to school right now before we're ready. We had already pretty much decided to continue on adventure a few days ago but reading the blog sort of set a reset button for me. It restored me to my original factory state and reignited my passion for what we're doing. I'm so glad I did it. Anyway...I apologize to readers that blogspot does not let me make paragraphs while I'm writing. Sometimes the lack of paragraphs make it hard to follow when I all of a sudden change subjects. If I could separate my ideas into paragraphs for you to be better understand, I would, however, I cannot. So...switching topics... the movie yesterday was amazing and so funny. It was touching, very clever and if anything, left Rach and I wanted daughters rather than wanting to be actors. But remember when I said I couldn't wait for the cartoon in the beginning? Well, there wasn't one! Maybe I was wrong- I guess it's not a Pixar movie. Regardless, I was very disappointed because i just LOVE those little short cartoons. I want to get that DVD of them that one an Oscar two years ago. I find short cartoons so intelligent and imaginative. So, moving on, after the movie we decided that our little travel bug was hungry. Two nights earlier we had watched our (or maybe my) hero, Anthony Bourdain eat at a sausage cart placed somewhere on the 16th Street Mall. The 16th Street Mall is sort of Denver's Times Square. It's the tourist strip but its still full of fun shops, the book stores, restaurants, the movie theatre we go to (a lot), piano's in the middle for anyone to sit and play and a free bus that runs up and down the street from Capital Hill to the little canal. Don't picture Times Square in your head. If there's one thing about Denver its that its clean clean clean and does NOT resemble New York City. This explanation having been said, Rachel and I decided to find this sausage cart that Anthony Bourdain showered with praise. We decided to walk toward Capital Hill since we were closest to that. No go, it wasn't that way. So we turned around and walked down the street in the opposite direction. We went into one of my favorite stores called Mt. Everest Imports and Rachel bought a little good luck statue. This store has imports from Nepal and Tibet and smells like inscence. I've always loved this store. So now with good luck charm in hand (which cost us $5.34, 34 is my lucky number!) we continued down the street. No cars are allowed on 16th st, only those free busses so the middle is a free, safe space. In about two blocks we saw an information booth and walked over to inquire about this sausage stand we'd seen on Travel Channel. The lady knew exactly what we were talking about! "You must mean Biker Jim." Yes! That was the guy's name! She took a little black and white map printed on a piece of computer paper and marked an "X"on the corner of Arapahoe and 16th. She handed us the paper and wished us a good day. We kept walking and finally found the stand! We knew it was the right one because we recognized the sign in front. "Elk and jalepeno, Alaskan Reindeer..ALWAYS" Yep, this is what we were looking for! This is the stuff this adventure is about! Although this was the right cart we were disappointed that a nice looking guy around our age wearing a green shirt promoting recycling, replaced the famous Biker Jim we were excited to meet. We chatted with the guy and he explained that he sort of worked the cart for Jim now because they were busy getting a restaurant built. This guy seems really passionate about the cart and it seemed he'd been working with Biker Jim for a long time so we found him a very acceptable substitute. We wanted to try all the sausages since lots of them were proteins we've never tried, but they seemed so big we only chose two. We chose the Elk jalepeno and the Alaskan Reindeer. He asked what we wanted on them and we told him to be in charge of that. They came with a squirt of cream cheese and carmalized onions. We're not crazy about onions but if there's one important thing we've learned working in restaurants, it's that chef's do things for a reason. If it normally came with onions, then thats how we were going to eat them. I had been eyeing some picked relish the whole time and threw that on the reindeer one. (A move I will regret) We found an empty table on the side walk with an umbrella and sat down, super excited for a culinary adventure which is our ABSOLUTE very favorite kind of adventure. They weren't quite as good as we expected and we had to spend a minute scraping that super sweet pickle relish off the reindeer but they were still pretty good. Our mistake was trying these spicy, meaty, hot sausage/hot dogs on a 100 degree July day. The reindeer meat was especially delicious. It was really sweet and juicy. The elk was a little gamier but still full of flavor. Next time we definitely want to try the rattlesnake/pheasant sausage and I want to try the reindeer one without onions. I get why they're there... I just can't help it if I don't like them! We practically had to roll ourselves back to the car we were so full. Even though it wasn't as good as we thought, we think under different weather conditions it could be so we totally plan on going back till we try all of them. The experience gave me yet another reason to want to move to Alaska for a few months... Reindeer meat is really really good! Today we're going to check out some hiking grounds we might want to take the Popson parents when they come next week. It's going to be so fun to show them around and for them to see where we've been living. I wish my parents could come. My biological parents! Last time I was with the Popsons I was instructed to refer to them as mom and dad. Well...as dad. I need an arm around my shoulder and a "moment" to start calling Karen, mom, which I will force her to do next week. Another night alone tonight for me while Rachel goes to work. Don't be surprised if you get a second post today! -lj

our new LOST

It appears we've replaced ABCs LOST with our own life size version. We seem to find ourselves at a cross road at the moment and every twenty minutes we want to go a different direction. Do we stay? Do we continue? Do we go back to NY? It's a very tough call and depending on our surroundings at the moment, they all have their times of making sense. We've still got this acting bug napping at our feet whenever we see a good movie or watch a musician perform. We feel a sense of comfort and fun when we're out with Liz, Rachel's boss/our best friend here. And when we watch Anthony Bourdain travel the world and experience things that eventually mold him into the super totally awesome guy that he is... we want to keep this adventure going no matter how far away we feel it takes us from growing up. I keep trying to justify that traveling can be a way of growing up because it makes you smarter, more aware, well traveled (obviously) and more adventurous...not to mention more understanding and more tolerant of things you perviously didn't understand. My life has always seemed to just work out well when I follow my heart so why wouldn't this? I like relying on my instincts and making decisions based on gut alone rather than throwing reason into the mix which never really did anyone any good in my opinion. As much as I'd love to sit here and philosophize my life into understanding in blog world, Rachel and I must leave to catch yet another movie. It seems to be one of our favorite things to do. It's the new Pixar movie which is a guaranteed good time. I'm looking forward to not only the movie but the touching and adorable cartoon that will play before the movie begins. I love that Pixar has those! Thankfully cartoons don't make us miss acting the way real people movies do, so I'm excited for a good day! -lj

dogs

Well I am up bright and early on this Monday morning because for some reason Joanna and I feel the need to be nice to our neighbors and offer to dog-sit for them. Let's start at the beginning. Betty left Wednesday night for California. Thursday morning, Beau (her black lab) had diarrhea. All day Thursday...same thing. When we returned from work Thursday night he left lots of presents, or should I say puddles, all over the carpets in the living room. Of course strategically missing the easy-to-clean hardwood floors. So friday comes... and the same events occur WHILE JOANNA WAS HOME!! So it's not that he couldn't have made it outside. Now, i'm taking is personally. Well then our neighbor Dory comes over and says that her house sitter cancelled can we go down and feed her sharpee and beagle until Sunday. "Oh sure", we say. "No problem". Haha. What a joke. We refer to the beagle as big girl. She is 13 years old and literally would eat shit if it were on the menu. She will grab anything and everything she can and shove it in her mouth. The sharpee, or wrinkles as we called her, on the other hand is extremely sensitive and wouldn't eat no matter what we did. Poor Joanna laid on the floor for an hour so that the dog would feel comfortable with her. She has a little more patience than I do clearly. The next day she was on their back porch trying to get the sharpee inside and stepped in shit. The owners don't walk them they just have a doggy door to the back porch where they have 3 dogs relieve themselves. So now it's Sunday morning. Before agreeing to help Dory and knowing what a pain it was we had told ANOTHER neighbor Vicki that we would watch her Jack-Russel-Terrior for her. So at 9:30am Sunday morning here comes full of life, and barks, RIDLEY!!! Oh great a little dog running around sick Beau barking her brains out. So we head back over to Dory's, attempt to feed them one last time and are relieved that at least that is over. So Jo and I decide that since we have the day off until 5pm we will go to the zoo. So we leave Beau and Ridley home to play with eachother and embark on our journey. The Zoo was awesome =) We had a great time. We get back to the apartment with just enough time to quickly get ready for work, when oh, big shocker, the dogs pissed and pooped all over the rugs in the living room. Apparently they had a territory-marking CONTEST!!!!! So, we attempt to clean it all up, eat our subs, shower, get ready, and take them for a walk. VERY LONG STORY SHORT......They are now punished to the kitchen while we are gone and I am up so early this Monday morning because a little doggy doesn't like to stop barking until you wake up. CONCLUSION------ we will have a cat. And only a cat. I apologize for the vent but geez. What a weekend. Lilith Fair tomorrow =) and all puppies back to their owners. Thank god. Happy Monday everyone.