dirtyrome

this morning i was walking down a capitol hill alley from my friends house to my car. it was a gloomy beyond gloomy morning for denver and that mixed with the dirty streets of capitol hill made me feel like i was in rome again. and i don't mean dirty in a gross-you-out kinda of a way, or anything against capitol hill, more that the patina of it's walls, sidewalks and streets have aged and been used well enough to give off this feeling. a streets of italy feeling. it is no secret that rome is a dirty city. i was appalled when i first got there and startled by the truth when a roman friend of ours mentioned that graffiti was the wallpaper of the city. i'd like to give romans the benefit of the doubt that they have been occupying this city for their 2,763rd year and it's no doubt well broken in.

a few unglamorous shots of rome that i love:

our local lunch market: campo de fiori

a roman resident


like i said, wallpaper.


an appropriately unkempt jollypower gym


a gypsy with a baby that stole my tears


wet clothes in Trastevere

yesdenver

i read this off of a site i stumbled upon the other day: Urbanophile

He’s very impressed:

I spent the past few days at a conference in Denver, Colorado. And, I’ll tell you, that city impressed the heck out of me. It’s a medium-sized city (just under 600,000 residents), and you can walk across its downtown in about twenty minutes. While the scale is much smaller than my hometown of Philadelphia, Denver seemed to be doing things other cities are only dreaming of.

Denver has a beautiful and efficient light-rail and bus system. The 16th Street pedestrian mall is vibrant, beautiful, and well-used. A free (!) two-way bus system runs every few minutes to take passengers across the fifteen blocks of stores, restaurant, entertainment, benches, trees, lamps, and chess tables. They also have bike sharing!

Cherry Creek and the Platte River run along the west side of the downtown with an extraordinary set of walking and biking trails. At the confluence of the creek and river, one encounters beautiful Commons Park and a stunning vista of the skyline. The gorgeous Millennium Bridge takes pedestrians from Commons Park to the pedestrian mall. The scenery is beautiful, all the while, surrounded by the Rockies.

The architecture definitely impresses. I am not usually a Daniel Liebeskind fan, but his Denver Art Museum is stunning. The new, edgy buildings of the civic center mix well with the historic architecture of the state capitol and other older government buildings. The Denver Convention Center is also a pretty exciting building (yes, that’s a big blue bear pushing against the wall).

Everywhere I looked there was major public art. This is a city that clearly cares about creating a beautiful place for its citizens and visitors. Meanwhile, a host of new condo and apartment buildings are filling in the landscape, bringing more residents downtown.

some things stated i agree whole heartily with and others i struggle to accept. thank you for your rave on denver, as i do just love this city.

take itback now

another thanksgiving. another trip to albuquerque. in case you were unsure, that's in new mexico, which is one of the 50 states. believe it or not, more than one person on my account has been perplexed when informed that one does not need a passport to get into new mexico territory. travel people, travel. Geo-safari. u.s. history. map of the united states. all of these are great resources to understanding such things. my personal favorite being the Geo-safari. i freakin loved this gadget when i was in elementary school and what a better toy than one that teaches as you play with it. to this day things that i have learned from my Geo-safari have come into motion at some crucial times, like bar trivia the other week. countless state capitols, state nicknames, location of states and the list goes on. not sure where i was going with this, but just wanted to say out loud that Geo-safari was one sweet toy.

well, albuquerque was great. a lot of these good things, a few of those good things, unexpected wonderful things all makes for a nice thanksgiving break. we took a day trip to sante fe, which is probably one of my most favorite hidden cities and is the united state's oldest capitol city but Geo-safari didn't teach me that tid-bit. sante fe boasts huge amounts of culture it's intoxicating. the food is traditionally southwestern and smothered in green chile, or you can get red chile, or even go for a combo of both, which is called christmas for obvious reasons. the churches are on axis, the city takes great pride in local art and cherishes the days of georgia o'keeffe. what is it about a place that keeps you coming back for more? it is the things that are constant and never see change or the things that are always evolving and the moving parts that helps make up the whole?

i think i wanna go back to rome.

but that might be selfish. there are so many other places to go that deserve attention and admiring. i'm confused by the people who travel to a certain destination year in and year out. never considering another option for the eyes and soul. i'm assuming it fills a part of them with the longing of familiarity.

skiingneedspeople

yesterday was the first day to ski for the season. rather early if you ask any local, though no complaints here on that. i need all the practice i can get. we got picked up early and headed for Keystone, one of five mountains that we are able to ski at endlessly for the winter.

so, as i was steeping my green tea this morning i nonchalantly noted to someone at work who had asked about my weekend that i went skiing yesterday. no big deal, just a light response. soon after i realized, what a great way to fill a sunday morning and afternoon. up early, drive off into the mountains, locate some snowy hill, elevate ourselves on a whole new kind of public transportation, objectively fly down and try not to die. good news is i didn't die or launch myself over the edge, hip hip hooray. i probably should have gotten out of control at least once and had a tumultuous fall. maybe next time.

it's funny if you think about the whole process of skiing. and just to clarify: skiing also means snowboarding. it's just silly to write out both and since skiing is an older pastime than snowboarding it thus gets the privilege of being used. maybe we could make up a new word, our few options would be skiboarding or snowing [um,no] or i guess boardski. i kinda like boardski, but it sounds more like a frat boys nickname. well, you get the picture. oh gosh! wait a hot second, i did see one dangerous soul going down the slick mountains on a skateboard. no joke, this boy was on a skateboard minus the wheels and boots not even strapped in. we can call that snowskating or deathskating. anyways, back to the matter at hand, skiing. tons of people come, pile on too many clothes and entertain themselves by making a constant loop up and down the mountain. i could probably say that basketball is about a silly of a sport as it gets, or football, or even tennis even though tennis is a huge part of my childhood, most of these sports all have the same thing in common. it is all about containment and people are really trying to get after each other whether by physical beating or nailing balls at the other. kinda fun, if that's what you're into. skiing is not about any of that stuff. one of the beautiful things about skiing is that a mass of people are attempting to conquer the mountain and the natural conditions that she emits. helping each other out with technique, skillz, balance, an understanding and so on. skiing needs people, the mountain is activated when people are blazing down it, and no one would want to ski for more than 20 minutes all by themselves. so is this just a theme "to see and be seen"? not quite sure, but i do know that this great activity operates with a community of people, and all are welcome.
some words to live by when in any given week [you or i] might be climbing, playing soccer, running or skiing, understand that "the human body does not wear out with use. on the contrary, it wears down when it is not used."

don'trush
[wow, wrote this a while ago and forgot to hit 'publish'.welp, what can you do? can't delete it. ]

2post1day. such a rarity.

fast track is a term i've head in college counselor's offices and quite frankly i'm not a fan. this directly correlates with adventuring. you just can't rush these things. unless of course there is no other way. like, if you are going to college on the coast of california and you come to find out your city will soon be floating away into the pacific, then you best be gettin' things done. fast. alright, that is a bit extreme but the sentiment it the same. there is no need to push the time where we are engaging with nature. it's not like a hit list of things to accomplish when you are a mega-tourist for the weekend in boston.

horseshoe

denver international airport is in a bad location.
arkansas was nothing less than wonderful.
flying is fun when you have a dave.
flying is fun when you have drink vouchers.
fayetteville is home of the razorbacks and we just beat a&m.
fayetteville feels like home.
rick's bakery makes my tummy happy.
horseshoe canyon ranch is a hidden gem in the ozarks.
climbing lets you enjoy god's beauty.
climbing for 24 hours is no easy feat.
climbing for 24 hours strictly on sandstone makes your fingers/hands/palms feel like they're on fire.

but you will recover and eventually climb again.



i stole this picture of horseshoe.

onwardtosteamboat

a place i've mentioned before annnd abbbsolutely adore [low-al, that's for you] is steamboat springs. and it is only a breathtaking three hours drive from denver, assuming your jetta can make it up the passes. mine just cleared. whew!

so we loaded up some friends, a few bikes and were off into the night. what is it about road tripping at night that makes waking up at your destination so much more of an excitement? well, duh that's easy, it's because you can't see what's around until the sun shines upon it the next morn. having this feeling while being surrounded by mountains makes it to my top five reasons to wake up in the morning. right up there with christmas tree festivities, a packed day of climbing and perhaps french toast. you just never know what you are going to get, but you can bet it's going to be good. like perchance i will get a Huffy, or i'll lead a great pitch, maybe even put bananas in my french toast. there is always a twist of fate when it comes to waking up early and crossing that over unknown expectations. well, not sure there is quite a thing as unknown expectations. that is a horrible contradiction. isn't an expectation something you expect or assume to happen? so how could it be unknown, if you are knowing of it? obviously i'm not doing much mental editing here. i guess it would be more true to say i had expectations of undergoing a supreme time and wasn't exactly sure how that was going to be achieved.

no matter what difficulty trail you ride as long as it posses some level of danger and you act dangerously, mountain biking is the ultimate thrill. i guess you could say the same about skiing since a lot of ski runs are transformed into mtn. bike trails in the winter with thanks to the change of seasons. but i'm still not completely convinced. check back if i survive this winter's ski season. so we located a great "beginner" trail just out the back door of our place and began to snake our way up and down, though mostly up, into the routt national forest. the tall grasses sweeping at our sides and the aspen's yellow leaves shining from above, it was a touch magical. the trail was so nice, i did it twice.
wait a sec. i think i stole that from newyork newyork.

welp, no digital camera + no disposal camera = no pictures.

lumpyridge
it's friday; we do haiku.

estes park locals
new sights of rocky mountain
death to the approach

shit, don't you deck now
twin owls are a lovely sight
one-hundred foot crack

[how does the rule go with contractions? don't = 1 syllable, while do+not = 2 syllable]

augustair

i can't help but believe that nostalgia's thick as the august air. well, maybe the august air in texas and not so much colorado. nonetheless, something about the combination of a dense draft and the sweltering heat gets down to our core that evokes this nostalgia. which ever it may be, the most insane smallest of details come to the forefront of my mind and i have no idea why.
the sound the boardwalk made when my friends and i ran up to the rotating spinney ride at fiesta texas.
the cold concrete on my feet when i walk outside onto the patio at my grandma's house on a winter day in albuquerque
the crunching leaves under my shoes as i waltz out of studio on a friday afternoon to a deserted campus.

i drift off to reminisce and are amazed at the minute things that consume my head. it simply amazes me. this past weekend i went home to san antonio and it, for obvious reasons, couldn't have come at a more precise time. i talked and laughed with great friends, danced in my mom's new house, swam in a pool for the first time this summer, and attended church with david robinson. for so many reasons i couldn't live in san antonio, though the city fills a part of me that reaches the spots only nostalgia sees, and that's something to speak of.

yes, it's the alamo and yes i've only been there once. sad, yes i know.

suchbeauty


...and the wildflowers are coming up everywhere—lupine and wild iris and Shasta daisy and a dozen others. The aspens have their heart-shaped leaves again, trembling in the slightest breeze. Massive thunderclouds are rolling in, bringing with them the glorious sunsets they magnify. The earth in summer is brimming with beauty, beauty of such magnificence and variety and unembarrassed lavishness, ripe beauty, lush beauty, beauty given to us with such generosity and abundance it is almost scandalous.

i stumbled upon this description of our wet colorado spring and its astounding aftermath. i want to understand that beauty is more than: being essential to god; it is the essence of god.

youwannago?

what gives a person natural impulse? is it the things they have done that day, or the day previous or even the last 1,671 days previous of that which create this natural tendency to act with impulse and spontaneity? when we act spontaneously, often the repercussions of our actions are not known, or else we might not act out in such a way. when driving home from winter park this weekend and coming upon the mt. evans exit my friend shouts out..you wanna go? it was getting later in the day and i know the drive up isn't a super short one and man i'm really hungry, it would probably be in our best interest to skip out this time. maybe next time when we are heading back this way with a few hours of daylight left and the gorgeous colorado skies are beaming at us on a not too hot summer afternoon, yes then we will go. awhat?! who am i and why am i thinking such thoughts? against my awful judgement we took the exit and drove just shy of 14,000 feet. we saw echo lake, the chicago lakes, summit lake and even frolicked around to catch some great views of guanella pass. mmm mmm this place is beautiful. hopefully my spontaneous self that i know is in there will always be at the forefront.

anewmexico

sometimes it only takes a day's travel to get back to where your heart belongs. lately my mind has been in a place of oddity [for me at least], a place where people annoy me, time can't stop for even a few minutes and joy is mostly found when alone or around a 'few'.

do you ever think you find yourself in that the dilemma of desire is too much to live with, and so we abandon and disown our desire?

last weekend i flew down to albuquerque and got the chance to spend some time with my grandmother. i know i have been told more than once and by more than one that i ask A LOT of questions. do i? the majority of conversation with her was no different as i was enamored with her life and the smallest of details that got her to where she is today. her's is such a journey to be appreciated and so amazingly well remembered that i was left pondering past years and realizing that what i could remember did mean the most to me. funny how that works out.

i went for a trail run in the sandia mountains and couldn't have felt better about getting out in the southwest desert heat, jumping over boulders and running up the sand of a trail. i didn't see another person on the trek which was fine by me and i somehow managed to get terribly lost in the thicket of cactus country. awesome.

[sandia mtns.]

intothesun

oh my, montana is one overlooked state! i can't believe how many older people [whatever that means] said that they had never been there. a few drive throughs, even less visits, no live theres and plenty of never beens. i felt privileged. the destination was just shy of the canadian border and the plans were to beat ourselves up with bikes, trails, rivers, rafts, fishing rods, tents or no tents, and the most of which beauty.

Our experience of beauty transcends our ability to speak about it, for its magic lies beyond the power of words. Perhaps that is why it is so healing—beauty is pure gift

there is so much that we adventured i could write a short story on the trip and i'm sure still leave something out. we were mostly flying by the seat of our pants but one sure thing we planned was a bike ride from the west end of glacier national park to the east side. for the most part each national park has a designated road that winds you throughout giving unapologetic views of its pleasing landscape. most who travel this route do so in the comfort of their vehicle and hopefully at least with windows down. we had something else in mind and thought what better way than to experience glacier on bicycles. grand idea, right? well, currently my max mileage has not quite hit the double digits since i so wonderfully live 4 miles from work. needless to say, ready i was not. however, 32 enduring yet beautiful miles later we made it up to the 6,646 ft. pass and luckily oxygen was on our side since we live in the mile high city. it was such a heighten sense of accomplishment that we passed out for two hours right off the foot traffic of so many visitors at logan's pass. once refreshed we began the descent. i can barely explain the rush and feeling that surged though me when i flew down the other side of the pass. definitely a little scared at times but tried my best to not hold the brakes and keep my eyes on the road and off the beauty for fear of the most epic fall of my lifetime. a significant less amount of time it took us to crawl up glacier and 17 close calls later we exited the east side of the park. to my surprise the atmosphere on one end was drastically different than the other; we entered in density and exited on expanse, though both stunning in its own respect. we then proceeded to hitchhike....with our bikes.... but that's another story.

coloradosummer

oh sweet summer season, i have been anticipating your arrival.
to me summer is a time for days at the pool, grilling, riding bikes, fireworks, lake trips, camp, lazy afternoons, spontaneous nights, chicken salad, swings, all things fruit, playing tennis, bare feet, playing tennis while barefoot and dad getting mad, though this is just naming a few.

i remember when i was living in rome and other people i was studying with would dash off for single weekends at a time to other countries. and i'm not talking just the next country over. i'm talking like far across europe. it was cool and i'm sure they had a blast but i suppose i was more interested in what italy had to offer and what was just a bus a train and a jump away from rome.
as much as i wish i was still in school for the summer vacation and all that has to offer; i really can't complain too much. living in colorado is currently enough satisfaction. so, this summer i really want to traverse through this state finding little towns perfectly situated in the mountains, climbing to summits that lets me see for miles and even exploring more of denver. though most importantly, hoping to be constantly consumed by the beauty of colorado. so come on, work with me weekends.

let's go here:

steamboat springs
lumpy ridge
denver public library
durango
put my foot on the four corners
buffalo exchange on 13th avenue
black canyon of the gunnison n.p.
botanical gardens
summit of mt. of the holy cross
oh, and plenty of garage sales.

but first, an enterprise to montana.

passdeindependence

colorado has approximately 53 mountain passes. dang! that's a lot. this is just one:


as i was skimming through them i was trying to think back on which passes i had previously been to, though sadly couldn't recall more than about 5.
the pass of a mountain can often be compared to a saddle point and is almost always at alpine tundra, the point where there is no tree growth because of the high altitude. were talking high, at least like 8,000 feet sky high. here's a reference point--san antonio sits at a mere 650 feet above sea level. and well, who doesn't like to get up real high? hope i'm not being too much of a biased climber.
Q: why does one climb?
A: to get on top of something and all the gratifying emotions that comes with that.

i recently went to independence pass, at 12, 095 feet, located in between leadville and aspen colorado. [i sure thought the rocky mountains would be a little rockier than this] this place is b-e-autiful and beyond any doubt deserves a trip back to. this pass is colorado's highest paved road sitting in the sawatch mountain range. we totally lucked out and got to go the "short way" since the pass had just reopened memorial day weekend. apparently this area gets a hefty amount of snow and is only open from late may until early november. the intentions for the trip was to climb, nothing new there but i can't help but rant and rave that the places climbing take you to are worth the journey on its own. you get to camp on the arkansas river, you are perpetually effected by the elements [this is a soul awakening good thing], sit by a fire and drink p.b.r. oh, and look at sights such as this:

perhaps from here on out i'll pay more attention to the passes i'm driving on and stop to soak it up.

roadtrippin'

oh what a spontaneous road trip offers! no expectations, no real road map, no specific time frame. heighten senses emerging around each corner, abnormal amounts of cd listening, all that good stuff. the reason for the trip was to climb, simply climb. oh, and the destination was arkansas.

after some fast decisions, there was no turning back and we set off probably too late but who cares right? there was somewhere to be gettin' to. nothing, not darkness, not sleep deprivation, not even a pitcher of long island ice tea was going to hold us back. i was traveling with a person i could talk to for the 12 hour drive and still have more to talk about after arriving. remarkable i must say. i came to realize a lot of things about traveling and more specifically road-tripping that had previously crossed my mind but never made it to words. life on the road is quite a capricious lifestyle and nothing i have fully experienced. i can tell however it breathes new life into ones soul. i suppose the closest i have come to this is living in rome, but funny enough didn't operate a vehicle for 6 months so no road tripping, just train tripping.

i had never made this drive before so even though the majority was what some would say "the most boring drive in the US" across the flat midwest, i didn't mind it one bit. we caught the sliver of a moon and an uncommonly pink sunrise. pulling into fayetteville and more specifically driving around the university was so odd. just plain odd. it made me happy, sad, nostalgic and maybe a few other things. i should have taken a few hours and walked around campus but choose a nap instead.

the crazy thing about this trip was that i was going back to a very familiar place to do something i had never done there before. we left for horseshoe canyon ranch in the morning and spent 2 days there. we climbed, we climbed in the rain, we made new friends, we watched the rain soak into sandstone and tried not to get too upset about the predicament. even though weather conditions hurt the climbing situation it was still great to get out of the city life and into a slower pace. isn't part of the program in spontaneous action to be accepting of change whether you prefer it or not?
step 1: assess the situation.
step 2: do what you can/want.
step 3: be happy.
if you can't do these things i believe life on the road is not for you. but what do i know? i haven't been there.

citybythebay

did you know that 1/4 of the homeless population alone lives in san francisco? jeepers, i didn't. new news to me. in fact, i learned tons of new things this past weekend. the starting conversation for traveling to san francisco was for an architecture convention, real cool, i know. though at the root of the trip was so much more. a time to check out a new city, meet up and frolic with great friends, surround ourselves with thousands of others in our profession, a three day work week, and to be near the ocean [feeling a little land-locked in colorado].

i do not care what the population of san francisco is, but i relish in the fact that it is the second most dense city in the united states. to be exact 17, 323 people/sq.mile. for some reference new york city has 27,147 yankees /sq.mile and not to hate on texas, i am one myself, and their obsession with sprawling, dallas has 1,391 texans/sq.mile.

san francisco california did not capture me like other u.s. cities i have spent time in and was a little surprised by this. sometimes i think other circumstances can affect our initial feelings and lingering feelings on a particular place. maybe it was the constant mist in my face that was not so desirable, sadly weather and the like can change our outlook on a city, just as i don't have the fondest memory of chicago because of the constant freeze numb feeling that was on my body any and all times i was outdoors [92% of the time]. but as, to me, the best reminder of travel is that it "in fact doesn't matter where we go, but who are with that really counts" and this speaks right to my soul. i was in s.f. with two awesome girls and in chicago with 30 of my closest architecture peers. i could write a short novel on the memories.

obligatory bridge picture

don't get me wrong, i liked s.f., just not madly loved. maybe i wasn't able to grasp the city as a whole and that frustrated me. though a few things i thought were just great was: the public transportation, golden gate park, cultural influence and FOOD. i suppose with a good authentic mix of culture there is bound to be tasty food. we ate food that we choose from a menu written in chinese resulting in a lot of pointing and head nods in china town, bubble tea in japantown and so much more. if i were to ever move to s.f. i would affix my residence in close proximity to golden gate park. when you are in the park you get lost in it and can barely feel that a metropolis is near. this is a huge urban park and lets you escape the city life and play under the dense landscape. american public transportation is trying. in a few cities it works, really works and i believe s.f. is one of them. it was super easy to comprehend and not once did we get lost or turned around, um well maybe once. as a whole the bus system works well with the metro or b.a.r.t. as it is called there and i'm sure this is much appreciated but the san franciscan commuter. maybe i should think about taking public transportation more or even just once in denver. well, as stereotypical as california can be i didn't get that vibe in san francisco and truly admire the city for it's authenticity.

academy of the sciences | renzo piano

webike

today i biked to work. never done it before and now probably never gonna stop.
one of the best things about riding a bike is that you're out in the open. the windows are always down and you can easily roll through 'optional' stop signs at your discretion.

sidewalk, road, sidewalk, bike lane, someones driveway, jump a curb, park trials, road.
wherever you wish, you can go. i'm in a state of liberation when i'm moving on a bike. not only will i be starting my day with exercise and a daily dose of sunshine but i will save some money on gas and even more thrilling, opportunities to explore new places my car won't take me. and there are countless ways to get to work. today i took the "don't really pay attention to street names and just head in the general southeast direction to work" and this panned out great. i passed an inviting little park that i will have to stop and spend some time in soon. i'm sure next time i ride to work the course will be different and hopefully lead me to something alluring.

i hope to bike to work as much as possible since the weather is so accommodating and blissful this time of year. everyday is not realistic since there will have to be days for appointments, days of rain, days of meeting friends for lunch and of course days of friday happy hours with no desire to obtain a BUI. until i learn to fix a flat i will be commuting on my hybrid but really relish the day when i can get my 1975 trek rolling smooth. just a few tune ups and maybe even a fresh paint job should do the trick.

trueinspiration

i recently had the opportunity to hear erik weihenmayer speak and wasn't going to miss it. truly inspiring. on top of this, i was excited about the location: historic east high school at city park in denver. yes, i am a dork who takes such interest in local architecture.
just in august 2008 he completed his voyage to climb the seven summits- reaching the highest mountain on each of the seven continents.

[in no order]
mt. kilimanjaro | africa
mt. mckinley | north america
vinson massif | antarctica
elbrus | europe
kosciuszko | australia
carstensz pyramid | austral-asia
[when in the hoo-hah did we get a new continent?]
everest | asia
aconcagua | south america

fewer than 100 mountaineers have accomplished this triumph.


"people get trapped into thinking about just one way of doing things"
-erik weihenmayer, blind rock climber

yes, you read that correctly. he, in fact, is blind. making this feat all the more unbelievable and astounding. his words touched me deeply in my passion for seeing more of this world and climbing to the summit of life's many pursuits.

desertclimbing

only a white-out blizzard could come close to stopping me from getting into a car and driving straight west into the rocky mountains. but with great coincidence a spring snow sprung on denver early thursday morning and apparently this was even uncommon for denver. AWESOME, not. not awesome. do you know when you have something on your mind that is heavenly and soon to be happening and you will learn to do a triple back flip over night to bring it to fruition if need be? well, going to moab was that. once the idea is instilled in the brain even 12" of non-plowed snow roads won't hold you back. and it didn't. so maybe against out better judgment we set out.


our destination was moab, utah and this place turned out to be even more entrancing than i had imagined. nothing is better than topping your expectations. we set up camp on the colorado river and strategically located ourselves near the only bouldering around and just a short drive from the crag. the city of moab itself caters to the outdoor enthused souls and is sprinkled with the everyday tourist here and there. though mostly around town are avid mountain bikers, off-roaders, hikers and even ballsy base jumpers [one of which we saw].oh, and of course trad|sport|boulder climbing lovers. you can feel the energy and the passion that each collection of people has for their respected extreme sport.

we climbed slab, we climbed cracks, we traversed on flakes, we took the wind head-on and reached the top of the most pleasant multi-pitch climb i've encountered so far and all the while rejoiced in the fact that we were of the few denverits who were not treading through countless inches of snow. yee haw! however, one thing i do recall missing a sight of: a sunset, unforgettable or just the same as any third tuesday dusk of the month, i didn't see one. well, there it is, i've got to go back and see a sunset and of course check out more of what moab has to offer. if you are close you should not pass up this treasure in our country.

picture skills: pat harris :)

lunch funSchlessman

who says you can't have an adventure on your lunch break?
I simply can NOT stand going to the hangout/break room, grabbing my lunch and plopping back down at my desk to stare yet again into the oversize monitor. which by the way does not lend itself to being discrete enough to watch humorous you-tube videos or anything else as equally inappropriate in this office. and plus, I'm on a busy corner that gets a lot of foot traffic, yeah as opposed to bikes or scooters..just sad.
so usually, when the weather permits and it most often does in colorado, i venture into Lowry. formerly the lowry air force base but permanently closed in 1994 and just missing the awful developer's suburbia sprawl that leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. lowry has truly been well executed as an urban development neighborhood and i like it. the feel, the flow, the functionality, the uhhhh aged flora. okay that was a stretch. but there are many aspects of this denver tract that i admire. and i work here, so bonus.
one place i go often, say a couple times a week especially in the winter is the public library. this is just a small branch of the mondo size dowtown hub library and i believe is designed with the reader in mind. i usually drive there which i am a little ashamed of but yesterday walked for the first time. i guess i value the library time a little more than the stroll to get there and plus i can't be taking 2.5 hour lunches, unless i fall asleep in the park, then its more than okay [which has been accomplished many a time]. so the Schlessman library is always packed with all sorts of folk. the lowry up scale type, border line homeless, small cute children, elderly, business men and women on lunch breaks, nannies with 6 kiddos and i'm sure many more stereotypes if you observed enough. essentially all the combinations of people in such a small well flowing place is an attractive atmosphere. It makes sense that "in a complex social fabric, human relations are inevitably subtle. it is essential that each person feels free to make connections or not, to move or not, to talk or not, to change the situation or not, according to his judgenment."[pattern language:the flow through rooms]
even just an hour of my day spent diving into books on foreign countries, religion, wine and|or magazines on climbing, improving physique or revamping and making the most my hall linen closet makes me love life a little more. and as taking the place of a top favorite pastime of 'going to barnes and noble to read books and scan through magazines' you can now leave debt free with books [i think like 15] in hand. well, i have accumulated a few small late charges. eeeeeee.

dexternew home

the unavowed secret of a man is that he wants to be confirmed in his being and his existence by his fellow men and that he wishes them to make it possible for him to confirm them, and . . .not merely in the family, in the party assembly or in the public house, but also in the course of neighborly encounters, perhaps when he or the other steps out of the door of his house or to the window of his house and the greeting with which they greet each other will be accompanied by a glance of well-wishing, a glance in which curiosity , mistrust, and routine will have been overcome by a mutual sympathy: the one gives the other to understand that he affirms his presence. this is the indispensable minimum of humanity.
[house cluster:towns:pattern language]

For some odd reason, I like moving. Yes, organizing, boxing, transporting, de-boxing, and re-organizing. I think it is the modest idea of simplifying your possessions that i am most attracted to. and disgustingly enough, we as humans are a representation of our possessions. well, as it goes moving means that you are relocating to a new place. we all know how i feel about new places; new place is synonymous with fresh adventure. park hill is the setting and sweet is the vibe. the developmental high for park hill was during the City Beautiful movement creating tree lined streets up and down. this is where you feel like everyday is that perfect sundays drive.
i can't wait to live and venture through out the streets and into the local flavor of this historic district.

here's the house. come visit! vegetation to come.

haikus are funrunning is fun

cold night, treadmill sucks.
temperature means nothing.
running from the porch.

up hill. fox sighting.
enduring promenade stretch.
snow paved. downtown glimpse.

sketchy sweep onward
liquor store frenzy. dead lot.
dog walkers, relieved.

a pace to the beats.
problematic. deep long breath.
last lap. refreshed bit.

as winter set in, any running i was doing came to an abrupt halt. there were less sunshine hours in the day and it was near black when i came out of work. my options were: wake up earlier to run... not happening. i tried it, nothing was accomplished. option 2: run indoors on the treadmill while trying to keep my mind on anything besides the fact that i was moving on a lame piece of anchored equipment. while this lasted for like two workouts i was slowly opting to not run at all and were definitely feeling the side effects. to me, you either run because you have a lot of extra time so you decide to fill it with long running/walking excursions [at least how i thinkof them] or you MAKE time for it because you feel its a part of who you are. i might be crazy but i missed running. so i did the unthinkable and signed up for a half marathon. wowzers, i better get my butt in gear. shortly after, my last and final option popped into my head: i will have to run at night after any other obligatory happenings are over for the day, no excuses, and this will have to happen in a safe environment since running at night, alone, near train tracks and being female is never smart.

so i got in the groove and choose my trail. it is just a loop that keeps you on the perimeter of the development i live in and i'm guessing is roughly a mile. but who's keeping measure anyways? it allows me to get out and be free for an hour right within a few steps of my own residence. this small adventure i take before turning in for the night lets me digest the day or wander about nothingness. nothing but my feet hitting the gound and my body in motion. maybe i'll visit sometime during the day, i'm sure it will be notably different and maybe even unfamiliar.

eldoradocanyon
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there are so many places to climb in colorado it's out of your mind. even all the 'close' places haven't seen my eyes. or better yet, my eyes have not yet feasted on and my mouth hasn't drooled upon. ALL saturday [unintentionally, but sweetly] was spent climbing at eldorado canyon. i honestly had no idea how close i was living to such great climbing. driving there was nothing too exciting, just through the dry brown colored hills of the denver outskirts. then, as approaching the foothills the base of the mountains just seems to open right up and just enough for you and your vehicle to slip on inside. and then... wa-la.bam.boom.bam. you're there and it would be crazy to look back because there is so much ahead.
that day we were placing our own gear into fissures in the rock and hoping that the decision made every 8' or so was a good choice. more simply, we were traditional climbing. however, i was just following so the pressure laid very lightly on my chest. still, such a great first experience trad climbing and in the magical slippery sandstone world of eldo, i couldn't ask for much more.

set alarms. get there early. kinda. hike to crag. climb. mind wanders into bliss. reach summit. check out view. descend. gather gear. ride home. eat lots. happy.

i like this scenario. but i forgot to throw in there that you are always meeting new people and making friends, even if you will never see them again. two sets of guys were following us on the 6 pitch climb we were getting after and one pair was climbing slightly like morons. what can you do? so we climb on, reach the top and do check out the view with a sublime sunset. the two, non moron climbing guys arrive and we all hang out. then the others follow shortly and beg us not to leave since they won't make it out with enough light to guide the way and are unfortunately headlamp less. once his partner makes it up and over he informs us that he left a piece of gear that he couldn't take out. i think this guy was a second time climber, err maybe third. so we wait some more and get to check out all the lights coming on across the city which is always cool from some 300 feet up. oh dear. we have to get down some how and suddenly its not so cool. stories of people having to often camp out up there is coming out and it makes sense if you don't know the way only marked by carins. but we set off ever so cautiously and arrive, who knows when later, injury-free. lucky us. very lucky us. no more traveling without my headlamp from here on out.

cold nightsshelf road

pitching your tent on a 4" layer of snow doesn't always give someone the comfort that it's going to be a cozy night sleeping. things that make this thought go away. . . the stars, someone to curl up next to, climbing in 60 degree sunshiny weather, burnt food tasting like pure campfire [yummm] and knowing that you are in the middle of a knockout landscape. a little shivering in your sleeping bag is minor compared to these luxuries. i've been to shelf. rd. three times since i've moved to colorado and it is pretty much an awesome place to spend a weekend climbing camping and hanging out with friends. it's a relatively short drive from denver and takes you right into the heart of the Wet Mountains. a perfect get-away location for the weekend. the whole idea of being far away but not too far to drive for two days, but just far enough sort of thing. it's the whole process of getting in your car and moving yourself to a new far off location that sets your mind right. i don't feel that this could be achieved by spending the night in your local park or wooded backyard. but maybe that is the imagination i've lost since i was six =( i believe the authenticity in people have the opportunity to come out when placed in nature. this is outside of our everyday environment [or so the majority] and allows the soul to open up to new heights. at least this is true for me and i love it. and for the bonus, the shower you get to take once you get home is always and over again 'the best thing'.
so we camped. climbed to our hearts content. burnt our own food and ate it. star-gazed. drank some snow-chilled beer. had a blast. and least of which tried to stay warm.

on another note, but still in the frame of mind. i've been thinking about urban camping and all that entails. urban dictionary defines it as camping in an urban setting by sleeping on rooftops, under bushes, and in public parks.hmmm...looks like fun.

skieldora

this past weekend was quite an wonderful one which involved a new city scene for a night, a new skiing town for the adventuresome and new humor for the soul. my friend got this killer of a deal where we could stay the night in boulder and ski our hearts out at eldora mountain. off we go..

words that come to mind when i think of boulder is energetic, esoteric, hippie but not hipster and flatirons [that i want to climb]. such a gem of a city that i think dearly of and love living within a short drive to. i admire its density mostly achieved by the 1960's 'no growth policy' and the innate desire for locals to transport themselves via bike or foot from here to there. the balance of college town thrown into the mix is always one that confuses me. maybe it's because boulder is just not fayetteville [my college town], so i try not to dwell on that too much. i think if i ever moved to boulder i would HAVE to go to school. if only they had a paramount masters program for urban design i would be moving tomorrow and enrolling yesterday. so it goes, i will just visit.
well, pearl street was a blast, people watching mostly and strangely enough it was a little dead for a friday night. then the hour struck 11 p.m. and from every which way crowds of vibrant people filled the streets. it was activated and showing its true colors.

skiing on minimal sleep is not recommended...ever. lazy and skier are not a good combo. surprisingly, the small amount of sleep i got sufficed for the day, lucky me. my skiing experience goes no further than steamboat so getting to adventure around a new mountain was great. the runs were much more hidden than i was used to which allowed my mind to wander and thoughts just took off as the snow fell around us. i love how a place can do this to the mind. new places evokes new thoughts and stifles unwanted ones. [even though i'm not having many of those these days] i guess that proves that adventuring into uncharted lands, for the individual of course, is stellar for the soul.

move overgolden

the ability to get in my car and drive 10 minutes west and be at the base of a climbing destination is remarkable! the best part of this particular destination is that even though how close it is to 'home' you still get the feeling that you are out of the city. which ever town you are coming from it doesn't matter. only thing important is that you are up and away for a warm winter sunday afternoon. the town almost directly below is Golden. home to coors beer, intelligent Mines students and apparently jolly rancher candy that i am ironically eating right now [weird]. then looking southeast you see denver and all its flat glory. if you look hard enough you might see the kansas state line. okay maybe not. it really is a great view onto all of the infrastructure and even the sad and ridiculous amounts of suburbia sprawl. this concept of the 90's never ceases to fascinate me. anyways, golden is fun, its cute but i whole-heartily think that it should be denver. now if you just close your eyes and think for a second [i understand this might be hard if you have never been to colorado and more specifically denver and even more specifically golden and most specifically north table mountain] that we super-impose the urban city of denver and i suppose a few of the metropolitan surroundings of my liking, right there at the foothills of the rockies. i can see it now.

why did this not happen? isin't it all about 'location, location, location'? don't get me wrong, i like denver, i love denver. i just think if it got up and ran 8 miles west it would be a dream city. and we would go climb during the week at lunch and rarely return. the boundaries would be the mountains and also our backyard, quite literally.

why do cities land where they do? duh. because of gold and such discoveries. but if i was the founder of denver colorado i would have chosen the mountains over the gold.

taa-da. the city.

an old locationfor a new year


who doesn't love the newness of anything? one can easily argue that broken-in and familiar is the best way to be, but there is just something great about the beginning of anything. so after an awesome new year's eve in denver i headed out new years day morningish to steamboat springs; a breathtaking mountain town that holds ALL of my colorado, prior to living in colorado, memories. a familiar place for the newness of this year: perfect. steamboat is the only place I had spent more than a layover in and is no doubt a sensational town. I hadn't visited in 5 years and even while every inch was capped in shining snow it all still felt so familiar. There is nothing like coming back to a place and your senses awaken through a nostalgic heart. The same view on the main street upon entering the town, one of two lone grocery stores was still standing firm in the same place I had remembered, and why wouldn't it be? the swimming pool with the giant slides that mark the right hand turn to my aunt and uncles house had changed. WHAT!? no more sweet slides. though do not worry, i soon found out there was just a renovation. a little sad at first, but after a visit to relax in the hot tubs, it still held its original presence that i could recall. there was one wonderful addition, a climbing wall that sat at the edge of a monstrous hot tub and when you could no longer hang on or rang the bell of victory you could just take the plunge. miraculous! brilliant invention of hot-tubbing and bouldering. i hope to see some of this in Heaven. okay, back to the city. ahhh yes, steamboat, so quaint and still capable of soaking up some 12,000 visitors on any given winter weekend. the skiing- remarkable and in the summer there are endless adventures to get lost in. hopefully i will make a few more trips before the snow melts.