Mara's Website

I've been up to a whole lot, but not a whole lot of picture taking, so you'll have to accept my apology here for that!

Over the Christmas week I went back home to Charlotte, NC to visit my family (since HP shut down for the week). It was a nice and relaxing time and I got to see my folks' new condo! Swan-ky! :) We cooked, played pool, sat around, went to basketball games (where I ran into a guy I used to play pick-up ball with at HP Ft Collins! He had since moved to Charlotte. What are the odds?), walked around downtown (where their condo is), played Clue and I got to scrapbook. All-around good week at home.

My sister, Leah, and I at a Bobcats basketball game.

Denver life has been treating me well. I've been pretty much going non-stop (not that this is a ton different from normal, but it feels like that much more so!). Not only am I trying to find time to see all my friends in Ft Collins (I drive up normally just one day a week, but am finding myself going up a little more often to visit with friends), but I've been meeting new friends here too! I've gotten connected in through online social networking groups which has been fun (can you say wine and chocolate tasting? Woohoo!) as well as meeting friends through friends, etc. I even got on a women's basketball team through friends of friends. :) It's been a ton of fun!

Anika is quite happy with her new digs being so close to City Park. Being so close to the park means *I* run a lot more (which means she gets to run with me), and there's a great 4 mile loop all the way around the park, so this is a nice lunchtime activity while I'm working from home! Plus there are squirrels galore (and many dogs to sniff), so she's in high heaven! Plus living in an apartment means I have to walk her more often, so she gets lots of walks. :) Plus I've met a number of people here who like to snowshoe, so Anika has gotten up with me quite a bit there too!

There are tons of things to do in Denver for me as well. :) I've been dancing a lot (80's, salsa, thriller... yes, you read that right. But more on that later...). I'm training for an olympic distance triathlon (there is a great recreation center system here, so I can go swim and whatnot for *dirt* cheap!) which also includes nice long bike rides by using the trail system in Denver. It's been fun exploring! I've been able to catch some good live music (including happening to drive by the theatre that is 4 blocks from my apartment while on my way to a dentist appointment and noticing that one of my favorite new artists was playing that night! How convenient!), go see rollerderby (highly entertaining. I recommend it to anyone!), attend both drag queen bingo as well as go to brunch at a place where drag queens serve you (while basically harrassing you. It's *hilarious*). Needless to say, these are things I never did in Ft Collins! :)

The food in Denver is *amazing* too. I've been trying out a ton of new places and have a list a mile long of new other places to try. But, it doesn't stop me from cooking lots (which has been lots of fun. My newest passion is stir fry since it's quick and easy and one of my favorite stores in town (which carries lots of international food) has *the* best stir fry sauce ever. :) And just in case you're wondering why all the exercise I'm getting doesn't necessarily mean I'm losing any weight, there's a cupcake shop (actually, TWO cupcake shops, but one is far better than the other) about 3 blocks from my apartment. And these aren't just any ol' cupcake. They are *epic* cupcakes. HOLY COW! I even met a new friend at a party talking about these cupcakes (she's also a huge cupcake fan. We quickly became friends and met again over tea and cupcakes). Take a look at these suckers! They know me well at Lovely Confections Bakery. :) Someday they'll have a frequent buyer card and Porche (shop owner) will owe me many back-punches on my card. :)

I also managed to find time to take a whole week and do a training in order to study, take, and PASS(!) my PMP (Project Management Professional) exam (which basically means almost nothing, but apparently every job requires it these days), so I am thrilled to be all done with that one! :) I have been scrapbooking a bit recently too (working on all my childhood albums. It's quite funny to see myself in the 1980's). :) It's also been a very busy snowboarding season for me. I've used my pass this year more than I ever have before. It's been fun actually getting halfway decent at the moguls (on a snowboard, none-the-less!). Which leads me back to Thriller dancing. "What? What is the connection there?", you ask. Well, on one of my trips up to the mountains with a couple friends of mine, John and Will, I tried to teach Will the Michael Jackson Thriller dance while we were on our lunch break... in the ski lodge. :) Nobody seemed to really pay much attention to us, but it was HILARIOUS! (at least we thought so). :)

Which also leads me to the fact that I now have a boyfriend. :) "What? I'm missing the connection here again!", you say. Yes, after dating not-so-great-for-me (and some not-so-great) guys for many years, I have an actual boyfriend who is awesome! His name is Will (yep, the same Will mentioned above who did the Thriller dance with me). Yes, he works with me (yes, we talked about this before actually dating) and I've known him for many years (he and my first roommate in Ft Collins, Vicki (the one I visited in Cameroon), used to work in the same group). So we've known each other for years, but never really hung out outside of work before. We just started to this year by going up snowboarding together, hanging out in Denver together, going to parties, learning the real thriller dance (check out www.thrilltheworld.com), etc. :) And yes, he lives in Loveland (basically Ft Collins in terms of how far it is from me in Denver). Ah, gotta love it- move to Denver to date someone where I was already. :) But I'm having a *ton* of fun, he makes me laugh my butt off (and will need to continue to do so at the rate I'm eating these cupcakes!), treats me better than any guy I've ever dated before, is smart, nice, athletic, and all-around awesome guy. And we were friends first, which is really nice. So yeah. This is him (on my "celebrate passing my PMP exam" snowboarding weekend up at Breckenridge)

So yeah, in general, life is really great right now. I *love* living in Denver and the life I have here. Wouldn't really change a thing with that at all! In the process of planning a trip to Germany (for the wedding of a friend of mine from high school as well as to visit my college roommate from freshman/sophomore years) and Poland (and maybe hit the Czech Republic for a hat I really want), and hopefully also a road trip to the Pacific NW to visit friends there. I'll quickly be out of vacation time. So yeah, lots of fun stuff going on! Now if only I can find a house I love at a price that I also love...

Hope you are all doing well and I will get writing back to all those emails you've sent me soon!
Love,
Mara and Anika