Life in the Fast Lane: Part 1- Colorado and Craziness

Life since the new year has been slow and fast all at the same time. It is amazing- my concept of time. Ben always makes fun of me. I legitimately think that 1 month is a long time; however, I am constantly planning months in advance and I get uncomfortable when I don't have a plan for where I am going next. I lovingly blame this on my father who constantly asked me what my plans were while I was growing up. Or if I told him what my hopes were, he'd say "sounds like a plan!" So anyway...I feel like a month is a long time. Probably because I am in a long distance relationship. Also, probably because I am constantly living from big moment to big moment. So when one big moment is done, I am waiting in constant anticipation for the next big moment. Usually, I have one or two big moments a month. That means that those 2 or so weeks of down time in between are excruciating to me. I don't do down time well. I feel lazy. I much prefer to be busy and stressed than not busy and stressed (note- I am almost always stressed about something). Yet, whenever I start a new month, I'm like "WOW! It's already March? That month just flew by!" Anyway- lesson is that my concept of time is warped.

So I haven't blogged since January. And I am angry at myself because SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED in the last few months and I feel like I won't be able to recall each moment as detailed as I would have had I blogged about it sooner. Oh well. The memories will live on in my mind and heart.

Colorado Trip- Ben and I took our first BIG TRIP together in January. We've gone on a few, fun and short trips before: Visiting Door County (Where Ben grew up), A trip to Green Bay for a friend's wedding, and Ben took a trip to Nebraska over the summer to visit me at Brownville where we also explored around Omaha. Anyway, this time...the trip was further, longer, and more elaborate. We had to book plane tickets, drive down to Chicago, leave the car with Ben's mom (who lives in Chicago), have her drive us to the airport, get through ticketing, security, etc, deal with plane people, get picked up by my dad...yeah...this was bigger than anything we had ever done together. But what we learned is that we were good at it! Good at being able to plan this together. Plus, we had a TON of fun traveling. Chatting, people watching, eating airport food, finding where we were supposed to go...It was fun! Not to mention the fact that I am usually travelling alone- so, it was fun to have somebody around for a change. Anyway- we got to Colorado and spent our first day bumming around the house and Greeley. Ben got to meet the puppies- Sadey (the black lab) and Blue (the malamute/husky). He also got to spend more time with relatives he had met previously (Mom, Dad, Caleb) and meet new ones (Jeremy, Grandma). Jeremy came in all excited because he just accepted a job offer after a long, difficult search for work. Caleb had been pretty sick lately, but was feeling a little bit better after having had a treatment over the weekend. Caleb, Ben and I spent the next day in the mountains. We went to the Stanley Hotel which is the hotel that The Shining was based off of. We enjoyed the tour- learning about history and hauntings along the way. We went as far up the mountains that we could for January. The next day was explore Greeley and Loveland day while I spent quality time with old friends and family. After that was Denver day- Ben and I saw a Van Gogh exhibit at the Denver Art Museum, as well as explored the rest of the museum. Our mutual love of art is something that really connects us. We could (and DID!) spend hours at the museum talking about various works and discussing what we admire about them. We gorged ourselves on BBQ near 16th Street Mall, spent some time in Cherry Creek Mall, and then had some yummy Mexican food for dinner with one of Ben's friends from college. The next day it was a snowy, blizzardy mess. So we spent the day lazing around Greeley. Dad had a great idea of going to the Model Train Museum which Ben LOVED. He later told me that it was his favorite part. The whole trip was awesome. I got to spend a lot of time with family. Ate lots of food at Grandma's and various yummy restaurants. We did a lot of fun things, yet we were not stressed out or too busy. We then left Colorado and spent the night in Chicago with Ben's mom again, watching a Green Bay Packer game. It was a fun and fantastic trip. And I was so happy to have an adventure buddy.

The rest of January was spent starting up After School again at Hawthorne, starting tutoring again, modeling, planning Culture Night, and applying for a second job. Not to mention stressing over money. (When am I NOT stressing over money?)

February came and it was cold and brutal and evil. I got really sick at the beginning of the month. A sickness I am still battling today. It was weird. I got sick, almost got completely over it, then got sick again, almost got completely over it, and then got sick again. I am finally starting to feel like I am getting over it again so....*fingers crossed* ....this BETTER be over now! I had a few interviews for jobs. It was nice, but stressful. I knew I needed another job, but it is hard when you have a regular job that is the priority. I dunno...

I helped a theatre acquaintance with a scene she needed to direct. I played one of the characters in the scene and she directed us and then asked for feedback on her directorial style. It was SO NICE to be able to break down a character, break down a scene again. I was sad it was only for one night. I was ready to memorize the whole play and put it into production! Being out of college has sucked a lot of life out of my artistic soul. I am dealing with it as best I can, but it is hard. I picked up my guitar again and am attempting at learning chords and songs and such. I am slow, but I am getting it.

Valentine's Day came and Ben and I didn't really do much. We hung out the weekend before, but the day of we were our normal 2 hours apart. So we dealt with it the best way we could- by watching a movie "together". We watched Finding Nemo and talked in the telephone the whole time. We made little comments or quoted the movie. It was fun and, actually, special because we did the same thing with The Princess Bride back when I was working in Tulsa for the summer just after we had met. That was a year and a half ago. So it was fun to do it again.

I remained busy- planning Culture Night, starting up with a new round of volunteers, and stressing about my Mid-Term Evaluation.Culture Night was a big undertaking. Luckily, I had help. But I feel like I didn't have ENOUGH help. I made phone calls begging and pleading for volunteers to serve food or be a room monitor. The phone call yielded results, but only little results. Out of probably almost 100 phone calls, I managed to get about 10 volunteers to help our after school staff and a few teachers. This may seem okay in theory, but in practice, we could have used another 10-20 volunteers to make things run smoothly. With food from around 15 places and over 15 performers and an expected attendance rate of 100-300 people, Culture Night got the most of me. The weekend before Culture Night, I decided to go to Stevens Point to see Ben. He had off that weekend. And since accepting a second job (Victoria's Secret!) that I would start in March, we weren't sure how often I would be able to make the trip up there anymore. So it was the final weekend before scheduling would get significantly tougher. So I traveled to Point on February 22. Spent the evening at Pete's, watching Ben DJ and hanging out with some of his friends and his cousin. What happened next? Pretty much anyone reading this is going to know...however, they won't know HOW. So...stay tuned for "Life In The Fast Lane: Part 2- The Engagement and Beyond." :)