rooster & moon

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Let me introduce you to my new favorite Denver coffee shop/bar.

Blog readers, this is Rooster & Moon. Rooster & Moon, meet my readers.



Now how did this coffee shop work its way into my heart so quickly? Well folks, it has a PBR lounge. Yes. A whole room devoted to PBR. It's like I died and went to heaven. PBR heaven.

If studying becomes too cumbersome and the weight of the world (the bubble that is grad school) is pressing down too heavily on your shoulders and coffee just isn't cutting it, you can grab yourself a beer or something stronger. Perfect.

(via yelp)

Also, there a ton of outlets so you don't have to spend time searching for one and then awkwardly asking a stranger if you can reach behind them to plug in your power cord. Oh, and the coffee is pretty good too! (I recommend the Mocha Teen Hunger Force)

They also have happy hour. And bar trivia. And food. Do you think they would mind if I set a cot up in the back?

Rooster & Moon is located at 955 Bannock Street Denver, CO 80204. Go! Now!

snowshoe adventure

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Last weekend my friend Sarah came to visit. (Sarah is also very good friends with my sister & her husband). Good times were had by all.

This is Sarah. She's pretty awesome, if you couldn't tell.

Before she arrived we decided we would go snowshoeing- something that I've always wanted to do and now I can cross off my Denver To Do List. So Saturday morning Sarah, Emily, Greg, and I headed to Sports Authority to rent equipment (only $10! and you can fill out your information in Magyar! (only I would be excited about this)) and headed West into the mountains.

We ended up pulling off to the side of the road near the Arapahoe National Forest, strapped on our shoes, and tramped off into the woods.

Sometimes you just gotta blow.




Not bad, huh?

Forging our own trail.

This is what happens if you attempt to do downward facing dog in 4 feet of snow. It took an embarrassingly long time to get up. Do not try this at home.

Try snowshoeing. It's good fun. You don't fall down as much as you do when you go snowboarding for the first time. Therefore, snowshoeing > snowboarding. Plus, it's budget friendly.

There are a few videos from this adventure, and I'll try to post them quickly.

how to write a letter

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Proper letters are a dying breed. And it's a shame.

Texting and e-mail allow us to send messages at lightening speed without thinking about what we have to say (you could also argue that my blog is the same way, fair enough). So let's think about what we write and share our deep and profound thoughts with someone on paper!

I'm going to humor myself and say that, as a reader of my blog, you're the kind of person who appreciates personalized gestures. Therefore, I challenge you to craft a thoughtful letter and send it to a friend. Who doesn't like receiving mail? It's a pleasant surprise these days when you receive something in the mail that is actually worth opening. Plus, stationery is fun.



In order to ease your transition from e-mail to real mail, I've written a small guide on letter-writing. Behold:

Basics:
  1. Find some sort of paper product that you can write on and send via the postal service.
  2. Locate a writing utensil. Pen, pencil, lipstick, etc. Your choice. Handwritten is always best, unless your handwriting is illegible, in which case, utilize your favorite typing machine or hire a secretary.
  3. Write about your life. Share an interesting anecdote. Make your friend smile.
  4. Ask your friend about his/her life.
  5. Encourage your friend to respond in a similar fashion.
  6. Sign it and voila! You have yourself a letter fit to be sent.
  7. Address it- remember, this is an important step. Once, my friend forgot to put my street address so the envelope just said Lauren S--- Chicago, IL...it didn't make it to my apartment.
  8. Apply the proper postage.
  9. Pop it in the mail and you're all set!
Extras:
  1. Card/Paper Selection: Tailor the letter to the recipient's likes. For example, Sarah, who likes Russian nesting dolls, would enjoy this cute stationery.
  2. Include something extra in your letter: a recipe you tried and liked, a photo from the last time you were with your friend, a newspaper article that you thought he/she might like- anything!
  3. Seal it with a kiss. Or a wax seal.
Good luck!

major pettigrew's last stand

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Herein lies my review of the last fiction book I will probably be able to read for a while.


 I finished Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson on my flight back to Denver. And since then, fiction has not been part of my reality. It's quite a tragedy.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand is the story of, you guessed it, Major Pettigrew, a 68 year old, retired widower living in the small English village of Edgecombe St. Mary. The major is the quintessential English gentleman- he's polite, reserved to the point of frustration (for American readers, at least), and has a dry sense of humor. He befriends Mrs. Ali, the local shopkeeper, who is also a widow, but happens to be Pakistani- an odd paring in the eyes of the village residents. Their friendship develops despite the numerous challenges faced by difficult family members, nosy neighbors, and personal tragedies. Does their friendship turn into something more or are they torn apart by circumstances beyond their control? I'm not telling! You'll have to read it to find out.

I recommend it. I think it's a very well written novel and you become invested in the lives of the characters, which, at times, can be a bit vexing. I think you'll enjoy it too!

backing up: a tragedy in two parts

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You've probably had your computer crash on you, right? It happens to everyone. You lose what you were working on, and maybe all of your other files, but after that you learn your lesson and back up all of your files. Or so I've been told.



I have yet to learn that lesson.

In my final semester of college my laptop crashed. One day, I tried to turn it on and it made the strangest noises I've ever heard; a sort of, loud, clicking sound- the kind of sound you never want to hear your computer make. Well, I took it in and there was absolutely nothing they could do to fix it, nor could they recover anything from my hard drive. All my music, gone. All my photos, gone. My entire undergraduate career, gone! Poof! Vanished into the abyss.

Well, then I got a new computer. And my last semester is saved on it and my computer hard drive backs up to a Mac Time Capsule when I'm home. But when I got to grad school the next fall I had the genius idea to save all of my papers and such on a flash drive, because a flash drive won't crash on you. I mean, you could lose it, but I wouldn't do that. (Where did this idea come from? Who knows. I can be a real idiot sometimes.)

Well, I didn't lose my flash drive. But it no longer works. Seriously? 2/3 of grad school- also gone! I have the hard copies of most of my papers, so I suppose I could retype them all...that sounds super fun...

So maybe now I'll learn to back up my work. I think I'll upload it all to google docs or something. Any preferred methods? I need your wisdom here, because obviously I am seriously lacking.

back to school

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Well friends, one week down, eight and a half to go (in this quarter- 20 weeks until I graduate- eek!).


This quarter is even busier than the last. I'm taking three classes: Human Rights & International Organizations, Non-Profit Management, and Post-Communist European States. I think they'll all be pretty good classes. I'll get to focus on what interests me more so than other quarters. Woohoo!

I'm also working two jobs. Yes, I am a glutton for punishment, but grad school doesn't pay for itself. In fact, my two jobs barely make a dent in my tuition- that's crazy.

And I should probably start to look for jobs. This is a very scary thing and I do not think I am ready for the real world. Maybe I should apply for a second masters?

Let's hope I maintain my sanity or else you'll soon be reading the ravings of a mad grad student. Oh, you thought you already were? You haven't seen anything yet!

skippy dies

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I finally finished Skippy Dies by Paul Murray. It's about a young boy, Daniel 'Skippy' Juster, a second year at Seabrook College in Dublin, who, well...dies. It's about life (and death) and surviving, or not, being a teenager.

Skippy does die. But not soon enough. Well actually, Skippy dies in the first chapter of Paul Murray's debut novel, but then Murray goes back and over the course of, oh, I don't know...400 pages, gives a very detailed narrative of the better part of Seabrook College's second year class. Hormonal teenage boys = ew. (Do I sound like a teenage girl there?) Then around page 405, we're back to Skippy being dead and then the whole cast of characters, minus Skippy, of course, has to deal with the ramifications of said young boy's tragic demise.



All in all...Skippy Dies is a decent read. It's not my favorite book of 2010 (yes, I did finish this in 2010, albeit just barely). I'm not a huge fan of Murray's writing style; it's a bit erratic and long winded at points... The overall story of the book is enjoyable and if you are willing to work your way through 660 pages, I say, go for it!

Up Next: Oh who knows. I'm back in school people. School = the death of reading for pleasure.

resolutions

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So I've come with a few resolutions to be, hopefully, started/attempted immediately.

To achieve the proper mindset, please listen to "I Can Change" by LCD Soundsystem while reading this.

  1. Cultivate more personal relationships instead of using the internet so much.
  2. Spend at least 20 minutes a day reading the news- actual news.
  3. Be gracious.
  4. Continue to bring back the art of correspondence. Want to be pen pals?
  5. Improve my yoga skills.
  6. Expand my vocabulary and remove all words that sound like they would come out of the mouth of a very immature 14-year old boy (i.e. "boning").
  7. Read more books.
  8. Dress less like a homeless person, and more like a person who is looking for gainful employment.
  9. On that note, find a job.
  10. Run another 5k this year- but actually run the whole thing.
  11. Become better friends with fruits and vegetables (aka eat healthier)
  12. Volunteer more.
  13. Watch less trash tv (sorry, Real Housewives, we just may have to part ways)
  14. Spend less money. For real. Austerity measures need to be taken asap.
Perhaps I'm being a bit ambitious. Oh well. Wish me luck!

What are your new year's resolutions? Does anyone actually ever achieve the goals they set for themselves on January 1?

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