the great outdoors

So today we were finally able to play outside. We've been here almost a week and the weather has been awful the whole time, which is extremely rare for Colorado. The day started with meeting Adam, Rachel's friend from Buffalo who lives here, and Andy, his roommate for brunch at a place called Hi-Lo. We chose this place for brunch because of their super awesome totally cool brunch special which was three for one drinks. Three drinks for the price of one. We ordered the first round and received some very generously high in alcohol drinks that were also very large. Cheers. Denver is fantastic. I opted not to finish mine because I knew there was a fun day in the park ahead and did not want to get sleepy. My comrades however, continued to drink and be merry and all three of them ordered a few more rounds since, hey, it was three for one anyway. Then the bill came. $110. This must be a mistake! we say. After all, it IS three for one drinks and this waitress obviously forgot to push the "brunch drink special" button on her Aloha (restaurant touch screen program) and accidentally charged us $7 for each individual drink. We politely told our forgetful waitress that we were charged too much. Turns out..our bill was correct. The reason our drinks were so generously high in alcohol and very large was because the drink special is very sneakily three IN one. Three drinks....one glass. Our table had actually consumed 27 brunch drinks and were only charged for 9 at $7 a pop. Very very sneaky. Now that I think about it, four people that consume 27 drinks before one in the afternoon deserve to get ripped off, so I guess I'm not that mad. After brunch we went to Washington park where Julie, my americorps life partner, met us and we played frisbee and football all day while lying in the sun with Beau the dog and drinking cold wheat beer from the can. Yet again, I decided to consume only one beer. However there were no beers left when we headed home, so you do the math. After a few hours in the park and some pretty nice tanning time (burning time for Rachel, Adam and Andy), we all went to a nearby place for dinner. I had the BEST beef brisket sandwich. The secret to this sandwich....the mustard. And very beautifully cooked meat. I couldn't finish it though due to me appetite that has been decreased from the altitude. But let me tell ya... it was really really good. More good news today! The first restaurant I gave my resume to, Trattoria Stella, called me today and left a message. I called them back and left a message. Awkward. I'm thinking I might just walk in there tomorrow or call again. I really want to work there. Cute little italian restaurant... and no uniform. Thats the kicker. Totally looks like my kinda place and i felt i should work there that first night we were here and ate there. Wish me luck everyone cause this job would be pretty perfect for me, Alright I think thats all for today. It was a good day. My girlfriend looks great with a tan so for the next week or so I'm sure she'll figure out that she can get me to do anything she wants good health to all my friends and family lj

withdrawal

I really really really miss the city and brooklyn and my apartment and my friends and my life. Which was inevitable I guess. Creating new things here has just been going slow. Not to worry... I have a great girl holding me up =) Happy Saturday everyone. Love Rachie xoxo

my luck

So in her last post I see that Rachel told you about my ID story. I couldn't beleive I lost it. I mean, I am very used to losing things. I am the most forgetful and losing things prone person I have ever encountered. But less than twenty four hours after recieving my little plastic lisence sized packet full of things including a photo copy of my drivers lisence? C'mon! I really started thinking there was something wrong with me. How could I have forgotten where I had put it! I've been attempting to be more responsible with my things since a realization occured to be in Chicago while I was "high above the influence". (My realization was that I have to present myself with challenges in order to grow). My new challenge was not to lose important things! I was extrememly disappointed in myself as I began to worry more and more that I was failing the challege worse than a chef perparing the mystery ingredient three ways. (my top chef following pals with understand that). Finally I decided to take all the blame off myself and put it onto the universe. It must have fallen out of my pocket. No matter how resonsible you are you cannot defy the laws of nature and suspend the law of gravity and keep your falling belongings in your pockets. So after the gym we decided to swing by the Thai restaurant we had dined at the night before. By the way, the Coconut and Lemongrass soup was superb. Rachel parked infront of the restuarant as I prepared to go in and ask if anything had been found the night before. As I approached to the door I had a vision. I lowered my outreached hand away from the front door handle and turned around and walked across the street. There, sticking about two inches out from underneath a cars tire was my little plastic packet. It took a small yank but I was able to get back in the car with a "see? nothing ever happends to me" look on my face. It was a priceless moment. Now moving on in a less short story sort of way. We shant be doing the walk in the morning becaues it was cost us 100$ There will absolutely be another cause we give our energy too I promise you all that. Two local businesses have my resume. I printed out and planned to distribute 20, however the downpour ended with me and rachel in our kitchen sauteeing scallops and boiling lobseter tails. After dinner came a discussion of how our lifestyle must change until we have moneny coming in. At the store today we bought several cups of chicken ramen. Tomorrow is supposed to rain and is saturday. Ya can't job hunt when its pouring and you shouldn't apply at restaurants on saturdays anyway. America can blame greedy investors for thier economic crisis but I'm going to blame climate change for mine. It's raining...what can i do? Well, ok, fine. Tomorrow I plan to spend many hours completeing corporate online applications for companys such as chipoltle, grocery stores, blockbusters, the usual local corporate stuff. Let's hope that luck of mine holds out. don't judge me. Ohh.. and if no body has seen the youtube video of greyson michael chance singing paparazzi I really suggest you see it. Pictures of the apt will be up soon. Love to you all and to all a goodnight.. LJ

oh today...

Up and at 'em nice at early to make it to a "bodyflow" class at the gym at 10am...only Joanna couldn't find her temporary gym ID that we were just given yesterday. Could have went without it but if you know Jo she had to find it. After a half hour of looking and missing class... we didn't find it. Went to the gym anyway... very out of shape lol but glad to be back getting into shape. Then decided to swing by the restaurant that we ate at last night in case it fell out of her coat by accident. Well the restaurant didn't have it... but underneath the tire of the car parked out front did =)... yeppp Joanna's luck as always... it was on the ground tucked neatly underneath a random car's wheel. So... now she has it. Like nothing ever happened haha. Then we decide to walk around and look for jobs. First restaurant I walk in to... he used to go to Cafe Orlin all the time. Amazing right?? Nope... he hired two girls earlier in the day. But he said he wish he hadn't so at least I got a compliment. But its gonna keep me positive. Oh we would have kept walking around but ten minutes into our search it starting down pouring and didn't stop for 2 hours. So... we went to the grocery store... picked up some lobster, scallops and cod... a cheap bottle of wine and had ourselves a nice night in =) Hopefully we will get out of this apartment soon. Nice weather is supposedly coming. Have a good weekend everyone. Missing orlin and my dangs a whole lot. xoxo rach

rocky mountain high

So I think at this point I've already proved the idea that nothing turns out the way you thought. I thought I would blog everyday. I apologize to the 4.2 people who probably follow the blog and are disappointed when they check for an update every morning. More specifically....mom..i'm sorry. I will try harder. I truly will. The road trip was a success. Which was even more impressive than the amount of miles we drove, our gas estimate in dollar amounts was off by only a dollar. I think this is quite impressive and think this sort of accuracy should land me a job working with the government. Jokes and secret desires aside, the road trip really was quite fun. It was an important lesson to be shown to us right in the beginning. Although the cities may be the topics in our travel book and our destinations may be points set out on maps... the richness of our experience will live in the people that we share our adventures with. Spending a day with Joni reminded me of how important you can be in your community and of how important civil service is. Spending time with Emily reminded me that i can accomplish anything. And that the bonds between myself and these two girls can never be broken. I learned that seeing Dang in Chicago was the absolute best part of being in one of the most famous cities in the country. The experience is going to be primarily people based. Although, there WILL be several nature based experiences for SURE I am very much looked forward to hiking with julie on sunday. I am very very much loving our new dog BO. He his my new friend and he understands the importance of taking time out of a busy day and playing games . I have recently bought a yoyo to keep me busy, I will know trip by the end of the summer no job yet, so hard to walk around the streets with resumes when its rain/snowing. it makes you look and feel pathetic. i sense jobs coming though.....we'll get em. oh yes. for now it is organizing, the gym, playing with the dog and loving each other. tonight we rented IRONMNAN..i have very excited to see the second one possibly tomorrow. i have free passes to a movie, and i'm quite excited to see the sequel. we might register for a walk against abuse on the 15th. more about that soon . more abount everything soon, cross my heart. -lj i miss my flip friends

Dear Mr. Blog

Ok Mr. Blog man... I am not good at writing on you haha But I promise to try harder for those who don't have facebook and can only read the blog. Hi everyone!!!! We made it to Denver on Sunday =) It really is amazing here. We live in what I think is the Brooklyn of Denver. It's only a couple miles north of Downtown and is really nice. There are two streets (32nd ave and Tennyson) that have all sorts of restaurants, coffee shops and other little shops. The mountains are breath taking. The weather has been cold and weird. The "locals" say that this is abnormal for here and it should be much better. So... we've been helping our roommate Betty get through and organize her endless boxes. We thought 7 years worth of stuff was a lot... times that by about 5. But we've had fun. After all, organizing is my favorite. Oh well Wine has helped too haha The night that we arrived I finally felt the feeling that I've been waiting for. I felt so free and light and ready for anything. The "We made it" feeling is just indescribable. However, by the next morning I was back to my old ways of worrying, planning, questioning and craziness. But thanks to my lovely girlfriend I realized that I am going to ruin this whole thing if I don't allow myself to sit back and enjoy it. So i've changed my mood, and gone with the flow. I'm just as scared and uncertain as a lot of other people my age. I have no clue where I'm going to work but that's ok. We're not really spending a lot at all. Everything is so so so so so much cheaper. But there are plenty of jobs to be had. The weather held us back cuz it was so cold and rainy. Ok i'm giving excuses... we're going out tomorrow!! haha Sunday we plan on going hiking with Julie... On joey's birthday Julie planned a volunteer thing for the three of us =) and on July 13th we got 4 tickets to Lilith Fair which is cool and you should look it up and read about it. We joined 24-hour fitness today because we feel gross from not working out or working... its month to month and only $60 for the two of us. Amazing and worth it if you ask me =) YOGA AND BOOT CAMP HERE WE COME haha Now that Jo and I finally have some alone time we are really enjoying eachother. I didn't realize how used to "us" time we got until we were surrounded by people for 3 weeks straight. No offense to anyone of course. I love and miss my friends and family and NYC a lot. Even more than I expected. I have a lot of irreplaceable people in my life. Hopefully I can just add to my long list =) Well, i'm rambling and very out of order but at least here's an idea of what is happening. I miss chicken sandwiches... i miss the subway... The mountains look fake... people are so nice here... THERE ARE POT STORES!!!!...i don't even smoke but thats cool haha... oh and one beer gets you drunk cuz of the altitude. Ok gotta run... i'm hungry. Oh apparently the altitude make me starving all the time... yet makes joanna not hungry. Great haha. Ok love you all!!!!! xoxoxoxoox Rachieee poo***

Chicago =)

gotta run

gotta run out so pictures are to come!!

At sit 'n' chat in Monroe before we left for Buffalo

First couple days... =)

Hi everyone! Jo pretty much said it all but I figured I would put a couple pictures up too. Erie was awesome... a big thank you to Gina for having us after moving in 3 days prior. She bought a house!! Can't wait to see it all finished. They were great hosts. Wilmington, as she said, really is a great town. Everyone here has such pride in where they are from and it was amazing to see first hand. I feel like I've been in a NYC bubble too long and that there is so much more out there...even though us arrogant new yorkers (or maybe just this arrogant new yorker) think we've seen it all. Everyone was very welcoming and had open arms to us throughout the evening. The best was when an older man called me a hippie. Never in my life would I consider myself a hippy but back in his day... this is what hippies did. (aka my parents haha) Anyway, I feel like I'm really learning a lot and it has been very eye opening to talk to locals all about their lives. My judgements of things that I know nothing about are being lifted and my mind is open. It's a pretty cool feeling. I didn't realize how much of a brat I was haha. So here are a couple pics, from buffalo and ohio. Didn't get our camera out once in Erie for no particular reason other than we just aren't used to having to take pictures all the time and forgot lol