accidental

since I’ve been gone

Y’all, for realz. I’m going to write a post. An *actual* post, not one that’s just a sentence past Twitter’s 140-character limit. I need to get back in the habit, because this site is as much for my bad memory as it is for you (“you” being the handful of people who are still reading this because you’re either related to me or you like boredom).

So, here’s some highlights of recent months:

• Nathan came to visit. Nathan is Jason’s cousin, and he and his wife Amy are two of our most favorite-est people on the planet. He came out to photograph a wedding, but we got to kidnap him for a day and give him the full-court “move to Denver” press. First stop: Steuben’s for brunch. Taste of Colorado was going on that weekend, so after brunch we wandered through the crowds before heading into the Art Museum. We had a glass of wine at the wine bar across the courtyard, margaritas at The Rio, and finally made it home to get cocktails and steaks at LoHi Steakbar. And then we delivered him back to his lodging for the evening and made nefarious plans to do things like find jobs and a place to live for him and Amy. There might be a private wiki involved. I have no further comment.

• We went to Breckenridge for Oktoberfest. For being so close to them, it’s sad how infrequently Jason and I go into the mountains. But this trip cultivated our steely resolve to do so more often. We shared a condo with Jay and Alex and Kevin and Shelby and Alex’s sister Erin and her friend Melissa, and several other friends also came up and either spent the day or got condos of their own. And it was a blast. We drove up Friday night after work and hung out, then spent Saturday drinking from steins and eating giant pretzels and funnel cakes and hanging out listening to polka music. Shelby got more than a little sick with a migraine that evening, so we stayed at the condo and ordered takeout with Kevin while everyone else went to an alternate condo to have a little house party (which Jason joined while I watched the UT-Texas Tech game), and then the next morning we had breakfast (an ordeal summarized by mentioning a breakfast place in a mountain town probably doesn’t get tables of 12 or have an hour wait very often in the summer) and headed home. Next summer – more mountains!

• I might be moving into a new office. It’s all very speculative at this point, although more of a reality than it was two months ago. But… there’s this shopping area relatively near us called Belmar. Apparently, it used to be a different, more run-down shopping area, and some developers swooped in and have replaced the old with a main-street style design with stores big and small and restaurants and a Bally’s Fitness and a bowling alley and a movie theater and fun new-urbanist lofts and townhomes and apartments (and in the winter, they enclose an area of the development and create a man-made ice rink). The idea is that Belmar is the downtown for Lakewood, a Denver-adjacent suburb (and the fourth-largest city in Colorado, I learned this week). One additional component of the whole development is the Belmar Arts District, mostly comprised of a section of storefronts called Block 7. Block 7 was set aside by Belmar’s developers as a place where artists and designers could have their offices and studios, and rent prices are suppressed thanks to subsidies. Right now there’s a range of photographers and designers and seamstresses (and even a place that sells Japanese tchotchkes, although that place is closing). And, until last month, there was a double unit (1200 square feet) occupied by a husband-and-wife design studio. They used half the space as their office, and the other half was a screen printing studio and gallery where they held classes and events. They had outgrown the space, and when they moved into their new location, it created the first Block 7 vacancy in 2 years. So I applied immediately. I bought a stainless steel portfolio from Meininger’s, lined it with fancy paper, created a simple identity system, and turned their two-page application form into a 20-page application. And I was worried that it wasn’t “enough” to stand out. Turns out, I was fine – I was called in for an interview with the leasing committee last week, and they said my application was the best, by far. I don’t know if that translates into getting the space, but I’m hopeful – we should find out in the next week or so whether I “won.” In the meantime, I’m on pins and needles, and I’m getting anxious about the amount of money we’ll spend to move in. My business insurance is going to increase by a fair chunk since I need to bump up my liability coverage and add things like workers comp insurance and auto coverage (even though I have no employees or a company car – it’s required per the lease). I also have to pay for new signage going in (the developer is splitting the cost), and furnishings will also be needed, both office and retail (did I mention half the space will be a store?). And I plan to lease out some of the extra space to other independent designers, so I’d have to work with the developer to clarify the terms of the lease so I can sublet (it came up in the interview, and they didn’t seem to think it would be a problem). Belmar’s goal is to have someone in the space in time to take advantage of the holiday shopping rush, so the timeline is extremely accelerated. But mostly – I’m excited.

• I’m the new Events Director for AIGA Colorado. Because I needed more to occupy my time, of course, I volunteered for this position (the rest of the board was elected earlier in the year, but no one stepped up to handle events). As luck would have it I started working in the middle of a busy period, with four events in my first month. But things are starting to get into a rhythm, and I’m learning what I can and can’t do and who I should be contacting when. I see this position as an opportunity to influence the standing the design community has in Denver and Colorado, and to interact with both my peers and those I admire within the industry. It’s a two-year job, so I’ve got a lot of time to get good at it.

9/11/01

I was at the ACC Rio Grande campus, in the library – Calculus was first thing in the morning, and then I’d hang out before catching the bus down to Central Market for my shift. I had checked my e-mail and hit the news sites before class, and at that point all anyone knew was that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. No terrorism, no foul play, no hijacking… just… a plane crash.

Everyone in my class had heard about the crash, and everyone had different bits of news reports to share. The teacher sensed nothing would get done and dismissed us early, and I headed back to the library to check e-mail again. A crowd was gathering, and the library staff pulled a TV cart over and turned on the news. Everyone was rapt. Every space was filled with someone sitting or standing or leaning, watching the TV. And we watched, live, as the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed. People gasped, others were crying (including me). We were all frozen to our spots, watching as the news channel looped the video over and over – the crashes, the collapse, a plane in Pennsylvania, the Pentagon, the debris, the people running through ash, the people jumping from the windows… When the announcer broke in to show the collapse of the North Tower, at first we thought it was just another replay. Both towers? Both towers collapsed?

I wanted to stay in the library; I felt like I was rooted to my spot. But I was broke, and my job was expecting me. Most places were closing or already closed, but our store stayed open – people would need their olive bar mix and their organic tamales. But no customers came in, and everyone was in a fog – crying, hugging one another, whispering, shuffling around with nothing to do. Finally, in the middle of the afternoon with no sudden burst of grocery traffic in sight, our managers closed the doors. I was living with my brother at the time, and I rode the bus home and camped out in front of his TV. Where the videos were still looping without end.

too boring for twitter

• I’ve noticed my writing is “swooshier” when I write with a felt-tip pen than when I write with a ball-point pen.

• If Jason beats me home from work, I can tell he’s home because the shade on our front window is open. And when I get out of the car, I can hear him playing the piano.

• Pretzels covered in peanut-butter yogurt are delicious.

• I suck at parallel parking, even in our tiny car.

• I often, if not always, judge books by their cover. The designer’s curse.

• It’s been so long since I’ve been to the gym that I’ve lost my membership card. I hope they give me another one, because my membership doesn’t expire until August 2011.

• I dance around our living room. A lot.

• Every time my leg feels the slighest bit numb, I’m afraid I have another ovarian cyst. That’s how we discovered the last one.

• Jason won’t let me get a scooter. He’s been hit by cars twice – once on his bike and once on foot – and feels the damage would only get worse if I were going faster.

• I have little willpower to stop the buying transaction if something I’m thinking about buying comes in lime green.

• I’d be a lot thinner if I were allergic to Mexican food. And gravy.

• Jason once found a list of the things I wanted in a husband (I was only 14 or 15 when I wrote it). He still teases me about how few of the criteria he meets.

too long for twitter #11

How many people do you know that have Hanson, Girl Talk, Jump Little Children, Neil Diamond, Cookie Monster, and the soundtrack to “Hairspray” in their iTunes playlist simultaneously? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Special snowflake, right here.

too long for twitter #10

So you know, nothing in your “winery-themed” kitchen actually looks anything like a winery. Wineries don’t need valances or wallpaper borders with wine bottles all over them; they have the ACTUAL BOTTLES.