I started this blog because my best friend, Erin, started one and I was envious of her awesome posts. She's always got great little questions to ponder and other fun suggestions. You should check her out here. Buuuut, I have done a piss poor job at keeping up with mine. It has been a whirlwind of events since I started this blog and haven't really had time to keep up with it. So, here's a quick (or not so quick) 4 month recap:
In November I was still working away. I had been at my job for 11 months, which seems crazy! I got to meet the Denver Zoo's two Asian elephants, Mimi and Dolly, as a thank you gift for the educations help with raising funds for Asian Tropics (Their new exhibit, planned to open in 2011). Talk about a cool experience! Other than that November was filled with fun, friends, and food. I went skiing in Keystone for the first time and took a tour of the Molly Brown house for the first time. All good fun! I wasn't able to go home for Thanksgiving so Erin and I made a feast the weekend before, where I had my first thanks pocket in 2 years. mmm mmm mmmm! I had to work on the actual Thanksgiving day, but managed to sneak off around 1 and joined my co-worker, Katie, for an "orphan" dinner at her friends house. I would have loved to be home with my family, but it was a nice alternative...with delicious food! :)
December was the craziest/shittiest/most hectic of them all. On December 2 my sister gave birth to the most beautiful baby boy, Jakob Locke. On December 4 he passed away. I flew home on the morning of the 2nd and was lucky enough to spend some time with my precious nephew. It was the greatest and worst two days of my life. Funny how that works, isn't it? You can read my sisters story at www.teamjakob.com. I stayed home the rest of the week to be with my family. Family from all ends of the country flew in, which made it a bittersweet situation. I was very glad to see them, since I wouldn't have gotten a chance before I left for Australia, but I hated that it had to be on these terms. It was the craziest week of my life, that's the only way to put it. There are too many thoughts to write so I will just leave it there. Please check out my sisters site and become a member of Team Jakob and be sure to educate yourself and others on Vasa Previa. From there it was back to Denver for a week, where my friends and co-workers were so helpful in keeping my spirits up. A week later it was back to Minnesota for Christmas. That was a hard hurdle. I know my sister will read this, and that she is sick of hearing it, but her and Seth were so strong throughout the holiday season. (ha, I said it!) Both her and Seth were still ripped up and their wounds were raw but they tried to appreciate it as much as they could, for Jake. After Christmas it was back to Denver for my last week at the zoo! This week was filled with fun and pictures at work. My last few days just crept up on me. I rang in the new year with some good friend in uptown, which was just what I needed. It was so much fun, even though I did lose my camera memory car. How...?
January- This month was a fresh start. December had been such a bad one I was determined to make this a good one. My last day at the zoo was on the 3rd, and was such a fun/sad day. I got to hold all my favorite animals and start to train my favorite volunteer into my old position. (Kim, the keystone skiing girl, was a volunteer in our department and has now taken over my position) It was my one last sunday funday in GAH! But when 4pm rolled around and I had to clock out for the last time I was not having so much fun. I was so excited to move on to my next adventure but leaving the zoo was far from an easy task. We met up for happy hour later, which lightened the mood, and then headed off to a drag show later that night. It was a blast! The next day I had lunch with some more zoo friends and then packed my life up. I went skiing one last time in Keystone and then hit the road back to MN. I forgot to mention that after Jake we decided to book a family cruise, a mental vacation if you will, so I HAD to be back in MN in time to catch the flight to Florida. Well, my usual travel luck kicked in and a massive snow storm covered the entire stat of Nebraska. I made it to Lincoln (barely!) the first day and could only make it to Omaha (again, barely!) the next day. With time running short and no weather change it sight I parked my car in NE and hopped on a plane to Minnesota. I obviously hadn't prepared to do this, so all of my clothes were vacuumed in space bags in my car. I was like a hurricane ripping my car apart in the parking lot. Surprisingly I managed to grab enough to make due for the cruise, except for a bag to check it in. I handed the lady at the luggage check a reusable grocery bag tied in a knot, she gave me quite the look. With that crisis averted it was home to MN to pack for the cruise and then enjoy the next task of getting to Florida. My family flies standby, so a seat is never guaranteed. My mom, sister, and I were flying together and my dad, brother, and brother-in-law were flying together. Lucky for the ones with me and my awesome travel luck. We couldn't get on a flight, so we ended up having to buy a ticket to Florida (within 5 minutes of closing sales). We ran through security and luckily made it to the gate in time. It was smooth sailing from there to Orlando. Not so much the for the other group we later found out. My dad, brother, and brother-in-law's flight was delayed for an hour, they left my brothers suitcase at home, and the rental car place ran out of cars. So maybe it isn't just me with the terrible luck, it must be a hereditary thing? An Escalade upgrade, a night of sleep, and a day of shopping fixed that all. So, then it was off to Miami for our bon voyage...except it was 40 degrees...and windy. This was not starting off on the best foot. It felt more like an Alaskan cruise, not a Caribbean cruise! Oh well, we still had fun. It warmed up by day 2 so overall it was just fine. We went to Cozumel, Belize, Honduras, and Grand Cayman with 2 days at sea. It was great, just what we needed! After the cruise my mom, sister, and I spent a few extra days with my grandparents in Florida and then it was back to cold Minnesota. I finally got my car back to MN (2 weeks later!) and started the massive unpack/repack process. I didn't want to leave too much stuff at home while I was gone for the next 1.5 years, so it was a massive purging. Boy have I collected a lot of weird, unnecessary stuff over the years!
February started off pretty much the same as January ended. Packing and seeing my friends before I left. As time went by I somehow managed to fit my life into roughly 200lbs of luggage (all thanks to my mom joining me and allowing me to borrow some (or a lot) of her baggage allotment. My last night in town was the super bowl so we combined it into a fun goodbye/football party. The Vikings didn't make it to the bowl so we didn't really care too much. :) It was really nice to see everyone one last time over some delicious food and good wine. And then, after months of anticipation my next stop was Australia!
January- This month was a fresh start. December had been such a bad one I was determined to make this a good one. My last day at the zoo was on the 3rd, and was such a fun/sad day. I got to hold all my favorite animals and start to train my favorite volunteer into my old position. (Kim, the keystone skiing girl, was a volunteer in our department and has now taken over my position) It was my one last sunday funday in GAH! But when 4pm rolled around and I had to clock out for the last time I was not having so much fun. I was so excited to move on to my next adventure but leaving the zoo was far from an easy task. We met up for happy hour later, which lightened the mood, and then headed off to a drag show later that night. It was a blast! The next day I had lunch with some more zoo friends and then packed my life up. I went skiing one last time in Keystone and then hit the road back to MN. I forgot to mention that after Jake we decided to book a family cruise, a mental vacation if you will, so I HAD to be back in MN in time to catch the flight to Florida. Well, my usual travel luck kicked in and a massive snow storm covered the entire stat of Nebraska. I made it to Lincoln (barely!) the first day and could only make it to Omaha (again, barely!) the next day. With time running short and no weather change it sight I parked my car in NE and hopped on a plane to Minnesota. I obviously hadn't prepared to do this, so all of my clothes were vacuumed in space bags in my car. I was like a hurricane ripping my car apart in the parking lot. Surprisingly I managed to grab enough to make due for the cruise, except for a bag to check it in. I handed the lady at the luggage check a reusable grocery bag tied in a knot, she gave me quite the look. With that crisis averted it was home to MN to pack for the cruise and then enjoy the next task of getting to Florida. My family flies standby, so a seat is never guaranteed. My mom, sister, and I were flying together and my dad, brother, and brother-in-law were flying together. Lucky for the ones with me and my awesome travel luck. We couldn't get on a flight, so we ended up having to buy a ticket to Florida (within 5 minutes of closing sales). We ran through security and luckily made it to the gate in time. It was smooth sailing from there to Orlando. Not so much the for the other group we later found out. My dad, brother, and brother-in-law's flight was delayed for an hour, they left my brothers suitcase at home, and the rental car place ran out of cars. So maybe it isn't just me with the terrible luck, it must be a hereditary thing? An Escalade upgrade, a night of sleep, and a day of shopping fixed that all. So, then it was off to Miami for our bon voyage...except it was 40 degrees...and windy. This was not starting off on the best foot. It felt more like an Alaskan cruise, not a Caribbean cruise! Oh well, we still had fun. It warmed up by day 2 so overall it was just fine. We went to Cozumel, Belize, Honduras, and Grand Cayman with 2 days at sea. It was great, just what we needed! After the cruise my mom, sister, and I spent a few extra days with my grandparents in Florida and then it was back to cold Minnesota. I finally got my car back to MN (2 weeks later!) and started the massive unpack/repack process. I didn't want to leave too much stuff at home while I was gone for the next 1.5 years, so it was a massive purging. Boy have I collected a lot of weird, unnecessary stuff over the years!
February started off pretty much the same as January ended. Packing and seeing my friends before I left. As time went by I somehow managed to fit my life into roughly 200lbs of luggage (all thanks to my mom joining me and allowing me to borrow some (or a lot) of her baggage allotment. My last night in town was the super bowl so we combined it into a fun goodbye/football party. The Vikings didn't make it to the bowl so we didn't really care too much. :) It was really nice to see everyone one last time over some delicious food and good wine. And then, after months of anticipation my next stop was Australia!
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