Yet another Rockies game! However, it was someone else who had the tickets this time, and gave them to my team. My boss and 2 co-workers made it out on a Tuesday (yikes!!) and got a nice hook-up with seats. My boss was able to get an upgrade because he helped someone in the Rockies box office with their training program, so we had AWESOME seats! We’re generally a silly group of people who work hard but then like to relax and so of course we had a blast. The fun didn’t stop, even though we hit massive amounts of traffic on the highway on the way home. Next time, we’ll go to a game where we don’t have to work the next morning – we were all dead.

I was also invited to go see Brett Dennen in concert in Denver with a friend in early June, very last minute, and it was a blast as well!! In fact, because I went, I saw that probably one of my top 10 favorite bands was playing at the very same theater later in June – PANIC! AT THE DISCO!!!!!!! I have loved them since 2006! I went home and promptly bought 2 tickets because I couldn’t wait and it’s a good thing I did because it sold out!!! I blogged about it here, and took Susanna with me! It was seriously the most fun I have had in the past year.

And lastly, I surprised my sister with a dinner at the Penrose Room – a restaurant at the Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs. It is the only 5 Star and 5 Diamond restaurant in Colorado! I won it as a prize for winning Employee of the Month in May, and decided to share it with her! She had NO idea what we were doing and I kept sending picture clues to her all day to keep her guessing. She was completely surprised and excited and was extremely happy. We ending up eating (in varying portion sizes)- caviar, lobster, rabbit, halibut, filet minon, and more!

Yet another barrage of photos (this time from June):

Catching you up!

I haven’t really been blogging on here because of my running blog, http://learningtorun.blogspot.com, but then again, I’m not quite as busy as most of my peers! Most of the things I do are normal, everyday things, which aren’t really that interesting!

However, I have been pretty busy the past few weeks, so here’s an update…I've broken it down so it's not a marathon blog!

May:
My company has 4 tickets to the Rockies, and allows employees to sign up for one game per season (based on availability) on a first come, first serve basis. I was able to get tickets for an afternoon game on a Saturday, which is great because I hate driving all the way down from Denver really late and especially if I have work the next morning. Susanna had just been there one week and I invited her to go because she didn’t know about baseball!

We got there and it was overcast for most of the day, until it started raining around 3 or 4! Bummer! The worst news was that we were both wearing flip flops because when we left, it was nice and warm, but at the game, our little toes got cold and wet and it was pretty rough. Susanna had purchased a foam finger for one of her roommates and found that it made a very nice temporary “sock”! I had thought ahead to bring a rain jacket (someone tell my mom!) and Susanna had packed an umbrella, but forgot she had it until she had been sitting in the rain for a while (oops!)

All in all, even though it was overcast and foggy and wet all day, we had a really great time and it was a great baseball experience!! May was also when I started Yoga (shocking!) and my Couch to 5K program. I am proud to say that I have stuck with both, except that I will not be doing Yoga this week so that I can practice running some more, because I have my first 5K on Saturday!

I also went to an event in Denver called the Furry Scurry! This was before I started running, so I did not run this but it was event to raise money for animals in shelters and it was HUGE!! There were thousands of people and tents set up, and Bailey and I spent almost 2 hours just wandering around – he even got to have a cup of doggie ice cream because it was so hot out! Well, that and I love him to death and spoil him like crazy.

Then, I brought Susanna to something called Territory Days. It's held every year over Memorial Day in Old Colorado City, Colorado. It's basically a gigantic street fair meant to celebrate when the city was the capital of the Colorado Territory. The weather was perfect and it was just a lot of fun! (Even though there were large crowds!).

Let the photo montage ensue:

Panic! at the Disco - BEST. CONCERT. EVER.

So I love Panic! at the Disco. Duh.THEY. ARE. AWESOME.

And yes, you have to have the exclamation point in their name, because that's legally how you write it.

Back in college, circa 2005, a friend of my boyfriend at the time knew that I liked "punk" music (Bowling for Soup, Blink 182, Simple Plan, etc.) and she handed me a purple burned CD of this group called Panic! at the Disco and told me I should listen to it because I should like them.

I had vaguely heard of them before in passing, but really had no idea who they were. At first, I thought "this is way too weird for me" and slightly wrote them off. But the more I listened to it, the more it grew on me until I loved them!! I hadn't really heard about them a few years later though, and they fell off my radar.

Until I was invited at the last minute to a concert in Denver with a work friend. It was for an artist that I had never heard of, but as we drove past the theater, I saw Panic!'s name on the billboard for a future date in June and FREAKED OUT!!!! Now, he had never even heard of them, but it was like they jumped right back onto my radar and I wondered what had happened to them!

So later that night, I did some research and found out they came out with a brand new album in March of 2011!! So I immeadiatley purchased this album on iTunes and bought tickets the very next PayDay. (This turned out to be a very smart move on my part because it sold out!!!)

I bought 2 tickets figuring that I would find someone to go with me, and at the very least, I would just go with myself. Either way - I WAS GOING. (Fortuately, my office has a super cool intern working with us who I really get along with and she was game!!) And…the best part????? She took video of a lot of the songs and I can not WAIT to see them!!!!!!

Turned out to be an AWESOME move!!!!!! The concert was last night and it lived up to every expectation - in fact, I'm sure it actually blew any expectations off the road and then waved at them as the concert passed them by - it really was THAT GOOD. At least for me.

So if you feel like it, go check out my photos from the event - but be advised, they were all taken from a cell phone camera at a distance, so apart from the colors, they probably won't look that different to you. But it will be an amazing experience that I will never forgt, and will NEVER regret doing.

New running blog!!

I have now created a blog just to chronicle my running program - leading up to my first EVER 5K that I've signed up to run in July. Then, the future will be determined once I reach it! Please follow the blog at:

http://learningtorun.blogspot.com/

I will still be updating this one from time to time, with non-running related news, but I wanted to keep that one separate, as it is a separate part of my life right now. Thanks for checking in and following this blog!

Reading Update

I am addicted to Emily Giffin. It first started with Something Borrowed. I saw a preview for the movie coming out soon, and wanted to read the book before the movie came out. It was an impulse buy and - I finished the book in 24 hours.

It was that good. Another amazing impulse buy (like Eat, Pray, Love).

So then, the next night, I couldn't wait and went to Borders and got the sequel - Something Blue. It's a followup to Something Borrowed. I got it on a Friday - finished it Sunday afternoon. Less than 48 hours. Must be a new record for me.

Now I'm addicted. She has 3 other books out there - Baby Proof, Love the One You're With, and Heart of the Matter. They're all seperate plot lines from the first two, but I realized that I really liked how she wrote.

I just bought Baby Proof online 5 minutes ago. I didn't want to spend the full $15 at Borders, so I found a website selling it for under $4 - including shipping!!! It's used, which doesn't matter to me. It's still the same book! Plus, after I read them, I plan on trying to sell them online, so I should get some money back. Good deal.

Can't wait!! Only 7-14 days til Baby Proof arrives, and when it does, before I even finish it, I'm ordering another one because I know it will be done in less than 2 days!!

I've said it a million times...

But I really need to get back to reading. Recently, I read "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I watched the movie and then bought the book online on impulse.

Best. Impulse. Buy. Ever.

Anyway, I saw a movie preview for "Something Borrowed". And I then (impulsively) bought it online from Amazon.com. And I know, I'm years behind the curve, but at least I'm not a bandwagon fan, right?

I read several reviews, and it seems like it's a very popular book. Plus (duh!) it's being made into a movie!

So between Emily Giffin and Elizabeth Gilbert, I've got a great series of books to start on either way! Not to mention the 18 books I already have stacked up at home to read, but at least it's a start!

Any thoughts/feedback/opinions on "Something Borrowed"??

Brief Update

Well it' s been more than a month again. And I can't say I haven't visited this site during that time; I have been catching up on your blogs! I keep checking the website and reading other blogs and thinking "wow I'm boring". But you know what? I've never been happier. I recently got out of a bad relationship. It's like a breath of fresh air. I spent almost 2 years being miserable, but now only have to think about ME finally. I recently moved into my "own place". Granted, my parents own it, but now (again), it's finally all about ME and what I want. (On a side note, I went out and bought a combo modem/router So, as I promised over a month ago, I will update you all on the remaining "topics" I had listed:

• Recently, the lady who runs our employee events and employee newsletters (things going on at work, weddings, babies, etc.) moved to another department in the hotel. So her role was open. It was filled briefly by someone else at the hotel, but she then decided to go back to her original department, so it was open again. Basically, I was handed all of the newsletters and any kind of graphic design stuff that the position used to do! Another lady I work with got the party planning stuff (which is fine with me) and now I get to be much more creative. It's GREAT!


• At the time I wrote my last entry, a Hungarian named Luca was living with my parents. She came to the US a year ago to work at the hotel, and my parents became her "host family" - basically, when they come work in America for a year, they're away from all their friends and family, and my parents would have her over for dinner, and to do laundry and basically be there for her. It was like having a roomate! She's my same age, and we talked about boys and family and life. She went back to Hungary, but it was nice having her around!


• My New Year's resolutions (Yea, they're pretty much all broken by now). Not much else to add. But again - I'm just happy.


• Don't remember about my reading list - but I haven't touched a book in a month. I should really start reading again!


• Phone Saga - I switched to a Samsung Instinct back in October. I hated it. Other than the phone calls and texting, it didn't do a single thing I wanted. So I switched back to a Blackberry over a month ago. Again, another breath of fresh air. I LOVE it!!! And I have 2 sparkling rhinestone-type cases. HEAVEN.


• Necklaces - for about a month back in Feb/March, I was making beaded necklaces like nobody's business. Well, that has slowed down a bit, but it was creative and sparkly and it felt good.

Whew. Well, that was my list. Hopefully another month won't go by before I blog again.