Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Once Upon a Time I Thought I Might Be a Guy Magnet

...except replace guy with natural disaster.

All I'm saying is the two springs when I lived in Hawaii we had tsunami scares. I move last winter, and was there a tsunami scare this past spring? (please note I'm using seasons for a frame of reference, not because Hawaii actually has seasons). Now I'm in Colorado and this is the year of the wildfires. Don't worry Californians, I am not planning to move out there. Y'all have enough smaller earthquakes already without me...not to mention I have no desire to put up with the ridiculous SEC vs.PAC 10 12 arguments (if you can call it that) much less deal with who the "real" USC is (it's South Carolina, by the way). One key difference is that the tsunamis never really turned into anything. This fire is definitely real.

 Let's time travel back to Saturday. After a fun night Friday including karaoke where I gave one of my more emotional performances of Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and a few hours sleep, I woke up early to get my friend to the airport. Then I drove back to the Springs and got some Chick Fil A breakfast. I get home ready to sleep but then a new friend was all "wanna do a hike or the incline or something" and I'm all "sure! I haven't done the incline yet!" I blame it on the tired. The incline is a mile straight up where you gain 2000ft in elevation. It's like Koko Head in that it's all steps from rail ties. For whatever reason I thought it would be fun to attempt this on a day when we were well into the 80s by 8am and were on the track to set heat records (which I think it did). When we're driving I almost suggested that we go do the Waldo Canyon Loop instead (the only other hike I've done...a leisurely 7 mi loop with some good shade breaks along the way) but I decide to just buck up and face the stairway to heat exhaustion. On the way up the incline there was no fire, then on the way down there was. I know the fire started as the "Pyramid Mtn" fire and they evacuated the hikers safely out of Waldo Canyon but my black belt skills are (admittedly) a little rusty so facing a possible arsonist (they don't know for sure the cause, but it wasn't lightening and there have been arson-fires around) in hand-to-hand combat was just not something I needed to add to my plate. What has happened since is better seen through pictures.

***These pictures aren't mine. Snagged from facebook, more specifically from a Gazette page. Pictures are credited on the fb album.
Most Likely from Saturday, the first day



This picture is from a friend's fb,
but I don't like to use names on here so I'll call her M.

Looks like the incline...that stupid, stupid incline... 


On Tuesday evening, homes started to burn. I believe some belong to coworkers and other coworkers live nearby. 

I'm a couple miles from the mandatory evacuation line so have started to at least pack up some important items. I'm on the phone with my mom last night:

Me: Don't worry, I'm going to pack up important things like my birth certificate, passport, koozie collection and laptop

Mom: Stay safe, and oh! Bring that cute dress I send you too! You can't let that burn.

At least priorities are in check.

Needless to say the theme around here is pray. Pray for the firefighters (a co-worker's husband went to join the front lines last night). Pray for their families. Pray for the evacuees and that they are all safe because buildings can be rebuilt. Pray for the city/state/fed officials involved as they try to balance keeping us informed and endless inquiries all while still being responsible for managing/running a city. Pray for rain (sans wind).

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Once Upon a Time I Was Reminded that I Don't Understand Fashion

Another fabulous girls weekend is in the books for me and the college BFFs. This year we went to California to visit the BFF who I lived with all 4 years of college then some until she got married. It was sad when she was moving out. It kind of felt like a break up as we were trying to figure out who actually owned what movies (we developed quite the collection) or who gets to take the needlepoint hanging we bought at Goodwill because we didn't really know how to decorate walls with nice stuff. And we told people my grandmother made it so they'd feel bad if they laughed at it. Ahhh memories.

Well we were going to hang in San Francisco one day. One stop on the docket was the mission district so the stylish NY friend could get her fill of hipsters. Stylish NY friend and photography friend were on top of their wardrobes and wore their skinny jeans and flats/boots (respectively). Since (I think) I know what's "on trend" after 6 months on the mainland, I decide to wear my skinny jeans too. I still don't own boots for them because I just don't think my feet/calves can handle it (that's a different story) but I figured my slippahs would work just fine.

We get out of the car in San Fran and I noticed something subtle, but different between my skinny jeans and the 2349834987 other people around wearing them. Mine didn't hug my leg all the way down. Starting around the knee, mine just sort of went straight down. I didn't want my BFFs to know that I was just realizing this (not to mention one BFFs 5mo baby was with us and I'm pretty sure I nailed my "cool aunt" first impression and didn't want to ruin that) so I played it off in conversation:

me: [...]yeah there was the time when I realized that what I thought was my obligatory pair of skinny jeans weren't actually skinny jeans....what do you call the jeans I'm wearing? I'm pretty sure it's boot cut.

stylish NY friend: those are straight leg.

me: yeah I wouldn't ever wear boots with these. How embarassing (note to self: NEVER admit to tucking these straight leg jeans into those cheap snow boots you bought that came to a weird, non-in-style height)

Needless to say I did not blend in with the hipsters, at all.

Now I have Googled "are straight leg jeans in style" and can't get a straight answer. (I love puns! Especially unintended ones! I went back and italicized it once I realized what I did there). All that comes up are ads for Chicos, JC Penneys, and some of those "cool mom" blogs where the mom is all "I refuse to wear mom jeans! I wear straight leg!" Apparently a lot of moms wear straight leg as an anti-mom jean movement but I ask you this:

If moms are all wearing straight leg, does that make straight leg jeans the new mom jean?! I kind of think so.

Ugghhh...my go to pair of jeans are mom jeans. Of course I discover this right after I was assured that it's ok to buy clothes with a Talbots label even though I'm only mid 20s and not a mom or married.