and then that was fun?

What a week! First Rachel hurt her hand. Then she got food poisoning. I had to call out of work one night so i could take her to urgent care to get fluids. Then that night her Poppy died. We flew to PA two mornings later. The services were so nice. They did the 21 gun salute because he was a WWII vet. It was really ebeautiful and even though we were in mourning, the Popson are ALWAYS a blast so fun was to be had no matter what. Man, I love them. Then we rented a car and drove to see the Cappola Clan. That was really great as well although poor mommy just got knee surgery and is in pretty bad pain. We left with the sun the next morning and Rach went to Buffalo and I flew back to Denver because somebody's gotta support this family! ;) Now I work and wait for my love to return. she's coming back on monday and when i tell you i'm counting down the minutes, you better believe I mean it. I'm not used to having my full time buddy so far away. We've really become part of eachother in four and a half years. Working a double tomorrow so hopefully my mind will be distracted. I really do love my job. Very much. I got so lucky. The girls I work with are absolutely amazing. Doing chores now so rach has a clean home to come back to. see ya later! -lj

Last Easter

So that's me and pop last easter. Like I said, that smile lights up a room.

Best girlfriend ever!

She's the best girlfriend ever, not the worst!! It was an accident... it's my fault I can't catch haha She is taking amazing care of me. It will be better before we know it. It seems very miniscule in the grand scheme of things. I talked to my Poppy today (my dad's dad) and he has decided to decline any further care for his health. Enough is enough. He has been through a lot in a past almost two years since his wife passed. Although it is painful and extremely sad to let him go, I can only be happy for him to reunite with his wife. My grandfather is one of the most amazing men I have ever known. His smile lights up the room and his sense of humor radiates no matter what the circumstance. He has love and cared for his family his entire life. He has taught me things that I will never forget. I would not be who I am today without his guidance. He fought the good fight but now it is time to go in peace. I wish more than anything that I could be with my family right now, but I know they will be ok. Trying to stay strong sitting home by myself all day. Thinking about them every second. Love you all. *Rach

worst girlfriend ever

So I know I'm supposed to tell you all about Tuesday. We went canoeing, to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack (it was really good!), and then went to Film on the Rocks and saw the Princess Bride in an ampitheater carved into a mountain with 10,000 other people. All very very fun and magical. And how do I pay back my girlfriend? By forcing her to play catch with me today. Even though I know she hates it and is scared of the ball sometimes. I made her play. The wind was too strong for frisbee so I made her play catch with the football. And what do you think happened? She jammed her finger after I threw it, probably, too hard. Her poor little thumb started swelling immediately. And she was so brave! She didn't cry or anything, she just held it and told me she heard it break. I sat her down and told her to hold my water canteen on it which was still a little cold. I rode my bike as fast as I could home and got the car and went back to the park to get her. We looked up an urgent care and took poor Rachie and her hippo thumb to get an x ray. It's not broken, just badly sprained but she's in so much pain and has to take a few days off work, which if you know Rach, is a BIG deal. She has the strongest work ethic of anyone I know and taking off work for an injury is NOT high on her list of things to do. My poor baby. Send your loving wishes. -lj

birthday week

My deepest apologies to those of you who read our blog on our daily adventures. I have not forgotten you. As all of you know, it was my birthday on the 12th and being the diva prince that I am, there were days of celebration, and I couldn't find time to blog. But here I am. Ready, again, to share our happiness with you. My birthday celebration started Friday night after work with a shot of 99 bananas with Rachel in the kitchen. 99 bananas is a 99 proof banana tasting poison that one get buy in the liquor store in a tiny, airline suitable bottle. We had seen an empty one carelessly discarded on the ground one morning while walking Beau and then coincidentally found ourselves in a liquor store later that day buying ingredients for mojitos. We saw the bottle and thought we'd like to try it. We saved the bottle for the stroke up midnight that marked my birthday beginnings. We filmed the moment and plan to share it with you. It was like swallowing fire that had been disguised as liquid banana by some evil force that likes to watch adults cry. But let me yell you, if you're looking for a quick buzz and don't have a lot of time.... this little bottle of liquid hell is an excellent route to go. My birthday morning we woke up at 7:30 to cold air and rain clouds. We were scheduled to volunteer at one of the gardens on the garden tour that was being sponsered by the Conflict Center that my pal Julie interns at. She was the volunteer coordinator and we had signed up for this way in advance. We drove to the conflict center to receive further instructions. Turns out, Julie assigned Rachel and I to the Children's Puppet Theatre in Denver. We were the only volunteers assigned to this specific garden. Our only job was to hang out there for three hours and say hello to people coming to visit the garden. Nice and simple. It was cold and rainy the whole time so Rachel and I spent three hours sitting in the little puppet store attached to theatre. For about forty five minutes our inner children/inner actors came to life and we played with all the puppets, giving them voices and personalities. This soon lost its charm and we sat on some steps and played the geography game. About five people probably walked through the garden all day. While we were there, we got a text from Rachel's boss Liz. The original plan of the night was that Rachel and I were going to work the private party at BOA. We'd get to be together and we'd get to make some money too. Liz texted Rachel to tell her that because of the weather, my help wouldn't be needed but if I wanted to come in around 8 or 9 I could just hang out. This put a damper on the rest of the day. I didn't want to just to stand around a party and watch Rachel work. I understood but it still made me sad and kind of put a damper on my mood for the rest of the time. After volunteering was over and the afternoon volunteer came to relieve us, we went to brunch and drank a bloody mary. Still in a bad mood and no sun to cheer me up, we went home and relaxed until Rachel had to leave for work. After she left I was pretty depressed. It was my birthday and my plans had changed last minute and I couldn't be with Rach on my big day. I was even too upset to call Julie to see what she was doing. It's a good thing I didn't because after only an hour Rach texted me to see if I could be at Boa at seven. Turns out they really did need that extra person. Well, I didn't have to be asked twice. I threw on a black button down, sprayed some good smells all over and was outa there! The party ended up being a blast. While Rach barteneded I floated around doing anything that needed to be done. I served, cleaned, bartended a bit, and spent a lot of time as the dishwasher which was actually really fun because I'm not used to being in the BOH (back of the house). Drinks for the staff started flowing a little before 10. By 2 am the party was still going but we had had enough and were free to leave. The party was so much fun, it felt like we were at a party rather than working one. I went home feeling satisfied with my birthday night. I still had more celebration to come though, Rachel promised. I had to wait until Tuesday though for our schedules to realign and for the sun to start to shine! I'll tell you about Tuesday tomorrow. Cross my heart. -lj

She makes me brave!!

So after hanging out for a bit last night with Jules and Liz (my bosses), Joanna mustered up the courage and told them for me. Of course I was sitting right next to her. She is just better with words sometimes and making things sound nicer. I am so glad she did. They were really really cool about it! If anything they're just sad that we are leaving!!! =) So I keep my job and my friends and now no secrets. Phew...that's a load off. I would have been really upset if it didn't work out. Happy Thursday everyone!! =) Love, Rachie

A couple other things...

So as the days pass I am becoming closer and closer to the couple that I work for. They befriended Joanna and I instantly and have just been a lot of fun to be around. I love going to work and care about that restaurant a lot for only being there a short time. I have run into a bit of a debacle. We plan on leaving at the end of July, and our new friends have no idea. I want to tell them as our friends but am scared to tell them as my bosses. I don't want to screw them over and want them to know that I will work my butt off for them until we move on but I have scared that then they will just let me go. Honesty is always the best policy, I know, but what do I do? I don't want to lose them as friends. Aye. On a happier note... Jo and I went biking today down to Sloan's Park. It was really pretty. Great few of the mountains and of the city. And Joanna made a little video for you haha so I thought I would post it for ya. Enjoy a good laugh on her =) Love, Rachie

...the rest of the story

Hey guys... rach here. Figured I would pick up where Jo left off on our trip to Colorado Springs. So...as she said... when we arrived at our Bed and Breakfast the owner greeted us with open arms. The place was gorgeous and perfect. Very quaint and well kept. After setting down our things and freshening up we left to go Horse-back riding. Long story short... 2 hours on a horse is way too long. Fifteen minutes to a half hour is about sufficient. Plus after that amount of time, aside from the fact that you feel awful for riding the poor thing, your butt is throbbing, all they do is fart and poop, and the guides yell at you to keep them from eating. It was an experience to say the least. I kept wanting to go faster but there we were trotting along at the end of a line of 10 or so horses. We were unable to hear the guide in the front so we learned nothing haha. She was however named Ryan and from Texas and a close second to the beauty in the Diner haha. Oh... and my horses name was BITTER and Joanna's was BONITA. Not sure which is funnier or whose suits who better but we found both pretty comical. It seemed as though most people were matched up pretty well with their horses... in personality and size. We were far from miserable and laughed at the whole experience sore butts and all. It was cool going up on the trails and rocks. Just, as I said, a little too lengthy. But I have to give Joanna credit for booking the long one thinking that she really really wanted to make me happy =) So... back to the B&B we go to shower and google places to eat Dinner. After 45 minutes we discover a resort called the Broadmoor. Really fancy and expensive... perfect for Jo and I haha. We found a place located in the resort called Summit. Joanna obviously loved the name and she wanted oysters haha. We pulled in and laughed our sore butts off. The parking lot had about 10 cars in it. Everything from a lexus to an audi to a benz to a lincoln. And there we were, pulling up in our 2002 Honda, dirty as ever with a big bike rack on the back. It was amazing. Who says you need a million bucks or a fancy car to eat a nice restaurant? Not us =) We walked in and the host promptly asked the name on the reservation. She then asked the hostess to please seat "The Cappola's"!!!! We liked the way that sounded. Our server immediately said "Good evening ladies", and was amazing. Joanna's cranberry mojitos were awesome, the beer and wine that I had hit the spot (including our awesome server bringing us a bunch of tastings), the oysters were good, the lobster mac and cheese seemed promising but was just whatever, the blue shell crabs were boring, the Halibut was bland and the Scallops were good only because of the Scallops themselves. But we are starting to get used to being disappointed with food. We're not in New York anymore. However that will NOT stop our search! I'm determined to get a good meal. Hopefully for Jo's birthday... which is SATURDAY the 12th for all of those who may not know =) So, dessert was the best part, which he gave us for free along with some dessert wine. Again, amazing server. We gave him a huge tip and headed back comfortably full despite some mediocre food. The next morning we woke up to the smell of homemade waffles, eggs, bacon and coffee. We sat with two other couples, one of which just got married the night before!! We were very jealous of them. But along with everyone else that we met in Colorado Springs, these two couples were extremely nice. We enjoyed an incredible breakfast, chatting about our lives and our adventure. All of them thought that what we were doing was really cool. So after breakfast we hit the road back to Denver. It was an awesome trip and one we will probably never forget.

the springs

I am no longer listening to anyone's mumbo jumbo about gay-hating, conservative, religious, uptight or rigid places. Colorado Springs is the last place I will visit with any preconceptions or negative expectations. We had an absolutely amazing time. Our check in time was at 2pm and we arrived around 1. We had skipped breakfast so we had both been craving eggs and talking about it increasingly the whole ride from Denver. We decided we had plenty of time to eat and we were very excited to find a diner only blocks from the B&B. We parked the car on the street and ended up making the decision that we needed a designated places for quarters (if i write that in the blog it will help me remember to do it). Finally after crawling around the car for a few minutes, we were legally placed and had plenty of time to finally have breakfast! The outside of the diner was really colorful and you couldn't see through the windows due to an excess of advertisement. It was hard to determine what to expect, but we knew that if it was a diner, it could make us eggs. Inside there was blasting rock music, and a very unique atmosphere. It had a really young, Colorado feel to it. Very excited for what we just walked into, we were seated and immediately became engrossed with our menus. Everything sounded good and some of the items boasted a "Famous Green Chili Sauce". We started to notice all the accolades displayed on the walls. KING'S CHEF DINER- WINNER '08 BEST GREEN CHILI IN COLORADO SPRINGS" I don't remember exactly what they said, but thats the general idea behind all these posters and banners. Then, after barely a minute comes the waitress. If this blog site allowed me to write in paragraphs, I would use a few spaces to pause here. Our waitress swaggers over covered in tattoos, with a not-on-purpose swoop half covering one eye. She asked us how we were doing today. We both, I think, had to take a second to remember who we even were so that we could locate an appropriate answer to her question. I don't actually remember what answer we gave. We managed to communicate that we would like coffee and water to drink and we'd need a few minutes to decide what we wanted to eat. We had a quick moment when she left to discuss how attractive our server was got back to looking at the menu. She came back with our coffee and water and we had not decided yet what we wanted. She said she'd give us more time. Again, we needed a moment to discuss again how attractive our server was. She came back to the table to take our order. To take our order, she sat at our table in the seat next to mine. This surprised both of us. Most of the time sitting or squatting at a table while taking an order is strictly forbidden. We ordered and smiled and she left. Our server looked like a mix of Scarlett Johansen and our friend Danielle from NY. This is NOT an unattractive combination. It was one of those people that fit into the "top 5 best looking people you've seen this year in real life" category. But it wasn't even just that. This girl seemed really cool. She was a vegetarian (which i always find a great quality). She just seemed like someone me and Rachel would hang out with in NY. It was really refreshing and surprising to have our first Colorado Springs encounter to be such a positive one. It made us both feel a little guilty that we came in with pre-experience judgement and expectations. One refill of coffee later our food came out. HUGE portions of eggs, omelette, toast, hash browns and sausage. The food was really good. We chatted for a little while about how we regreted not getting that famous green chili sauce. We'd definitely have to come back before leaving Colorado to try it. We paid and said goodbye but realized when we got to the car that we still had 20 minutes to kill. We were right downtown so we decided to walk around. First of all, Colorado Springs is gorgeous. It's at the base of Pike's Peak, which is one of those mountains taller than 14,000ft. It's the mountain, supposedly, that inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write the song "America the Beautiful". It's so clean and clear, and that huge mountain, covered in jagged rock and snow is just so close! The streets are busy with friendly looking people shopping, dining,or walking their dogs. We turned our first corner into Tejon St. This seemed like the main street of downtown. The first thing we noticed was the sidewalk. Someone had sidewalk chalked a series of rectangles in rainbow colors and the word "RIGHTS" under it and below it. Whichever direction you walked on the street you could see the word facing upright. This is the last thing we expected to see after our anti-gay warnings. As we walked we discovered this was written on every corner. It's pride month and we were happy to see that there was a an active community in the area. We've learned now that Colorado Springs gets this anti-gay reputation because it is the location for "Focus on the Family". I plan to look it up tonight and learn more about it, but what I've learned so far is that it is a program, or camp, that is supposed to treat homosexuality. If you or a loved one are suffering from homosexuality, there is help for you. FOCUS ON THE FAMILY can help ease the symptoms of homosexuality and make it possible for you to have a better life. Homosexuality is not your fault, it is a chemical imbalance which causes confusion. Promiscuous behavior. Drug use. An Unsafe environment for children. Attention seeking behavior and the overall disrespect for everything and everyone. If you feel any of these symptoms please call now. FOCUS ON THE FAMILY is clinically proven to reduce the effects of the homosexual imbalance. At FOCUS ON THE FAMILY we believe that you can be normal. Through therapy and prayer, FOCUS ON THE FAMILY will help you overcome homosexuality so that you can can stay with your family. Call now. I've always been really interested in these kinds of places. A few years ago I tried to find one online. I wanted to attend one so that I could then write a book about it. I couldn't find one. I don't know how I didn't come across it. I want to find out how long the programs are, and what's entailed. I don't know if I'd actually want to go to one anymore, but just learning about it sounds really interesting. So anyway, we got back to our B&B right at 2. Our host, Conchita, opened the door and knew who we were. She was so sweet and the house was beautiful. So far so good. I'll write about the rest of the trip later or tomorrow. This is even long for me! -lj