Peace on Earth

Is there anything more peaceful than fresh snowfall? The tranquility, the solitude, the silence. A perfect world in white with only the tips of the fir trees showing. It makes Christmas music acceptable (even in October) and seems to clean the world to start afresh. Candles scented like pine trees, hot apple cider on the stove with cinnamon sticks and Henry trying to eat the pumpkin I was carving are memories from this year already.

Halloween begins the holiday season and for many of us this is the first year we don't live with our parents while celebrating the holidays. Henry and I will be flying to Arizona to spend Thanksgiving with my parents and Graham to continue our holiday traditions. I'm currently in the process of making my case for them to visit me for Christmas- 65 and sunny just doesn't say "sleigh bells and mistletoe" like 30 and snowy.

But even though I will be flying to my parents, I no longer live with them. Henry and I are creating new traditions with new friends and neighbors. Henry, with the discovery that he loves pumpkin, has created the tradition of eating ALL of the pumpkin carvings. It's strange to buy decorations and think you will be using them next year. In college we bought chintzy 99-cent decor that would be thrown out when we moved to a new place. But now I will be in the same place for the holidays of 2010 and will pull out my holiday mat again.

But back to Peace on Earth. The pure and peaceful beauty of 10 inches of snow at sunrise today was a retrospective reminder of where I am now compared to the first snowfall last year. I am in a different state, a different state of mind and feel the peace that is only possible with contentment. I am finally content with who and where I am and, while I might now know where I am going, I'm just not too worried about it.

So as the snow in Boulder melts, I want to wish the solitude, peace and beauty of a perfect, white world to each of you.

When do you ever see "100% chance of heavy snow" as the forecast?

With 5 inches on the ground and total accumulation expected to be close to 15 inches, we are officially having our first big storm. Henry is a huge fan so expect more snowy pictures tomorrow! For your entertainment, I pasted the weather report above.

Shower of love

The long-awaited shower remodel is finished and I'm thrilled! Not only will I be able to turn around without hitting my elbows, but it won't leak and looks a million times better! Enjoy the before and after pictures.

Paige, my friend from K-State and Paris, flew out for a weekend of shopping, eating, drinking and girl talk. Perfection. Henry and I loved having her here and I think she had a great time as well! I also officially realized (as if I didn't know before) that I am such a senior citizen when it comes to staying out after midnight. Between getting up for my job and waking up early with Henry on the weekends, my life after 10:30 is nearly non-existent. Thanks to Paige for getting my rear in gear for a night of fun after midnight!

And with her departure today, Paige will end my string of fall visitors but as soon as big snow arrives at the resorts (They only have a few feet. Only. haha) I will be getting visits from my skiing and boarding buddies!

Lists have been all the blog-craze lately so here's a fun one: Things I'm "into" right now...

1. Raisin-colored nail polish

2. Taking off said nail polish after sign of first chipping

3. Saving $$ for a pair of Old Gringo cowboy boots

4. J Crew striped button downs for work

5. Local beers

6. Searching for the absolutely ideal coffee shop

7. Taking Henry on a new hike each week

8. Learning new Final Cut Pro and In Design techniques for work

9. Working my way through all 5 seasons of Boston Legal (current DVD: Season 4, Disc 3)

10. Making new Boulder friends

Thanks for reading, enjoy the new pictures and cheers to the K-State win on Homecoming!

Love and Happiness,

Emily

Joy from Mom

She came, she saw, she left, she got stuck on the plane, she came again and she left. That was about how fast the visit with my mom went! Although the scheduled visit was a short one, she gained an extra day when her plane had computer trouble and instead of sitting on there for 5 hours while they fixed it she came back to my house and spent the night!

It was great to have her here and "grandma" and Henry had a blast. We ate at the Brasserie, shopped on Pearl, hiked the mountains and more. We actually had a few laughs at Henry as the "granddog" and when my mom said what she would like her grandkids to call her my response was "Mom, Henry can't talk yet. He's a little behind..."

Our next rendevous will be when Henry and I fly to Arizona for Thanksgiving! I'm excited, nervous and aggravated about taking Henry on a plane but more on that later.

Right now I am looking forward to my next visitor: Paige!! For those of you who don't know Paige, we met on our K-State trip to Paris and have been friends ever since. I pick her up from the airport Friday night for another fun-filled weekend!

Recently I had a request to write about life in Boulder. What a great idea as my last Boulder-specific post was months ago.

So, by popular request, a list.

"You Know You're From Boulder When..."

1. Boots are year-round acceptable footwear

2. When people ask you what you do for fun you respond with a list of outdoor activities

3. You look at people's license plates when they cut you off driving. If they are a tourist you let it go. If they are from CO you honk

4. You know the busiest place at rush hour isn't the street, it's the Whole Foods grocery store

5. Buying non-organic is harder than organic because EVERYTHING is organic

6. Smoke in the air is no longer cigarette smoke. It's always that other smokable substance...

7. You get mad when your dog can't go somewhere because everywhere is dog-friendly. (Seriously, the Ann Taylor in Boulder allows dogs)

8. Seeing a "McCain for President" sticker is like seeing a three-legged person: you better take a picture because it doesn't happen often.

9. People take pictures standing in the street where you park because it's that pretty.

10. Dredlocks don't make you do a double-take or even go "whoa, look at that guys hair". TONS of people have them.

11. And finally...you know you're from Boulder when you feel very lucky every day. :-)

A few updates

Hello all!

Gosh, it's been a while. After the first snow, it warmed right up to a beautiful 60 degrees two days later!

Updates on three fronts:

Mom's visit- The snow melt is perfect timing for my mom's visit this weekend. I believed her when she said she would cancel her ticket if snow was predicted. The forecast is sunny skies and unseasonably warm temperatures at 70degrees.

Bathroom Remodel- So Henry and I are excited for "grand ma" to visit and I am VERY excited for my bathroom remodel to be finished! I will post pictures of the final product next week when the tile is dry. While it is not cheap to remodel a bathroom, I'm a girl and I love my bathroom and it needed some serious TLC.

Work- I am so lucky to still be enjoying my job. I realize not only how lucky I am to be doing something I like but also to be using my college major.

And quasi-related to work, law school! I officially turned in my application to CU law yesterday. It was a strange feeling of mixed emotions to drive through campus. Do I want to be a student again? Do I want to pay to do something instead of being paid? Should I give up my job? What exciting jobs would be open to me post law school graduation? Lots of thoughts. I'll keep you all posted on the application process as it rolls along. Right now my thoughts go out to Princess Alice as she prepares for law school finals!

So...who is getting excited for Full Moon (Twilight 2) to come out in November?? I am!

Boston Legal quote of the day/week/blog post:

"Denny Crane: You hear the one about the fella who died, went to the pearly gates? St. Peter let him in. Sees a guy in a suit making a closing argument. Says, "Who's that?" St. Peter says, "Oh, that's God. Thinks he's Denny Crane."

Judgy-wudgy was a bear

After reading (and posting a ridiculously long comment) Julie's blog about the latest homeless American Girl Doll, I couldn't help but wonder are we as Americans digressing each day? In a country where Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerburg, Larry Page and others invented extraordinary pieces of technology, (if you have googled and checked facebook today on your Mac you've used all of their products) how can we cultivate a generation of little girls who want $100 dolls that are supposed to be homeless people? This is a serious lack of good judgement and someone needs to be judged for it.

I was talking to a new Boulder friend this weekend about the difference in how Europeans judge people vs. how Americans judge people. In Europe, particularly Paris, citizens sit at sidewalk cafes for hours for the sole pleasure of picking apart the passerby. Is this rude? No. It's the culture. Now many of us have sat at Starbucks, the Classic Cup on the Plaza or any other sidewalk cafe and commented "cute shoes" when a girl walks by. But what if our comment was "Elle ne sais rien" or which would basically translate to "Did she look in the mirror?" We would be considered rude. This judgment is why Paris is the capital of the fashion world- people look in the mirror before they go out.

So my point: what if we applied the same judgmental attitude to our intelligence? Would we become the intelligence capital of the world if people knew they would be judged for being deliberately stupid? I can only hope a store clerk somewhere is thinking "Elle ne sais rien" when she sees a mother buying a homeless American Girl doll for her 8-year-old.

Americans are judgmental in their own way. When President Obama went to Denmark to lobby for the 2016 Olympic Games to come to Chicago, we judged. We called it "Obama's Olympic Mistake" when he didn't "succeed" by getting the games in his hometown. We are very judgmental.

It's high time we started to be judgmental for the right things, like a lack of good judgement.