Well I was hoping to score some tickets to see Phish. But I received this notice: “We regret to inform you that you did not get the tickets that you requested through Phish Tickets.”
They just started touring again and as a result all the tickets are hard to get. Too many damn hippies. I have been listening to some live stuff they recorded in Hampton VA at their first show in years. Its good stuff if you like a “Jam Band”. Its definately not something you’d hear on the radio as most of the songs carry on for at least 10 minutes and usually longer. I’ve found that its good music to listen to when I drive to work (45 minutes) or have a project at work.
I’ll keep trying for tickets. Red Rocks is by far the coolest venue to see a concert at. Open air music in Colorado during the summer is one of my favorite things.
We have been very busy lately with a variety of projects in addition to our jobs. It has been tough to readjust to work every day after staying up late because of the time change. Not only that, but Britton developed a cold and was coughing every night this week making it really hard to get enough sleep. Some of the extra projects in addition to work have included: teaching aerobics (as I have for about 8 years), working on finishing the basement at our rental, going to community meetings, and helping out my parents when my dad’s surgery was unexpectedly canceled.
Britton and Damon
Additionally, Britton’s friend Damon came into Colorado from Santa Barbara, California. Our friends Eric and Elaine just had a baby, so he wanted to come out to visit friends and celebrate the new arrival. We also have to go to Fort Collins tomorrow to look at a chicken coop we found off of Craigslist, go to the bank and I have to go to an event for work for a few hours. With this busy life, no wonder it has been so hard to keep up with the posts!
We arrived back at DIA in Denver at about 8:00pm to cold weather. We were just starting to get used to the time difference, so it felt like it was 11pm to us (Puerto Rican time) -the weather difference was easy to get used to! The flight was uneventful, but as we went from Puerto Rico to Miami and then Miami to Denver we saw a definite shift in people, and we knew we were back in plain, sterile, straight (roads) and fairly uneventful Colorado.
We were trying to describe the difference of Puerto Rico and Colorado to people. It’s kind of like being in a dream world and then waking up in boring reality (or Greality -Greeley- in our case). Another way to describe it is going to Toon Town (PR) in Roger Rabbit and back to the regular world, or going back to the black and white part in the Wizard of Oz after seeing the Emerald City (Colorado is very drab right now with virtually no color and Puerto Rico is just covered in color and life). It is an awesome difference where there is something new and unknown around every corner, but I suppose it is also nice to have a boring routine to go back to as well- like warm water in the sinks and showers, and where time actually means something concrete and not vague.
Our last few days in Puerto Rico we met up with Nick and Miri again after trying to see another movie that the theatre accidentally forgot to start (again time is something very vague there). We also met with Dios Dado and he took us to Lago Dos Bocas near Utuado and we took the free boat ride across the lake.
Orocovis town center plaza
He then drove us to Orocovis where we had Longostino (sp?) for lunch. It was real criollo Puerto Rican food, and very good. Orocovis is the dead center of the island.
Now that we are back, it is bittersweet. We were just starting to get the swing of that lifestyle and now we have to readjust. We still have a lot of pictures and stories that we’ll post in the coming days though. We left on pretty good terms with Awilda, all things considered, and we still may buy it. In Puerto Rico, you never know anything for certain.
It is still cold and snowy here, but let’s focus on fun! We weren’t sure what to do for New Year’s Eve this year. I have to work during the day until 5pm, so that kind of limited our travel radius some. When we went over to the boxing fight party the other weekend we decided we should all do something, but we didn’t know what. So, Sandi and I decided that we could just have it here in Greeley, and that our house would be a good location…So…We’re having another party.
Here’s the Invitation
When: Wednesday, December 31, 2008 from 6:30pm until???
What: A White Elephant Party (AKA Re-wrap your Crap Party -What is a White Elephant Party, you ask? Well, this means for every person who is participating you should bring a crazy, silly, wrapped present. The sillier the better. Examples include (to get those creative juices flowing); an avocado green blender, a trophy with someone else’s name, a strange painting that you would never hang on your wall, a duck call, plaid pants that are 10 sizes too big, an old Bronco’s helmet lamp, a toilet coin bank, etc etc (BTW, I have seen all of these!)
Where: Our house, Greeley, CO
Contact info: Britton’s cell or home #:
Additional info: Please bring extra drinks or food, if you would like. We will try to have champagne, beer, non-alcoholic drinks and snacks. Also, if you are planning to drink and don’t have a DD, you are more than welcome to crash at our place-please do so, it will probably be a crazy night to be out driving anyway. Please bring a sleeping bag if you are planning to stay. Also, if you have a favorite game (board game, video game, mind games, magic tricks?)bring it as well. But most important of all, bring yourself!
Tentative plans:
7pm-8:30: Hang out, eat, drink, be merry, talk, listen to muzack
8:30pm-10ish: White Elephant gift exchange
10pm-12: Play games, hang out, eat, drink, be merry, talk, listen to muzack
12am-12:05: Happy New Year 2009-ring in the New Year with friends!
12:05am-?? -Hang out some more, sleep?… lol
Please RSVP to me if you can so we can plan, but if you forget, no prob! Come anyway! And feel free to bring a guest if you want.
This is a sort of convoluted story that without the background is difficult to explain, but I’ll try my best.
As you probably know, Colorado has been in the limelight as far as national politics go. We had the Democratic National Convention here and Barack Obama made his acceptance speech. In the past couple of years we have had “W” himself visit Greeley, twice. And just this week we had Palin in Loveland (Monday) and Biden in Greeley (Tuesday). We are a hotbed for politics because we are a fairly “purple” state, especially Northern Colorado. (All this talk about red, white, black and blue makes me certain that politics is just one big brawl with a huge bruise in the end!)
This picture has not been edited in any way- It’s hilarious!
Anyway, while Greeley is generally pretty conservative, it has (surprisingly?) been one of the more progressive cities when it comes to tobacco policies (which is part of my job). Greeley passed the strongest smokefree policy of the state, led the way for Tobacco Free Schools and prohibited cigarette vending machines. Last year, around this same time of year, we took on US Smokeless Tobacco and along with huge community support and Tobacco Free Weld County Coalition, the City Council passed the ‘No Free Tobacco Giveaway Ordinance’ which prohibits giving away free tobacco to anyone in Greeley. One city councilwoman, Debbie Pilch, led the charge to help move this ordinance to the point where it would be voted on. In the end, this was a huge victory for the health of the public, and while this explanation gives it no justice, suffice it to say that it was not without controversy (and very stressful).
Fast forward to this year. We decided to support Debbie Pilch in her run for County Commissioner and placed one of her signs saying as much in our yard. This weekend we went to get our mail and noticed a ticket from our Home Owner’s Association’s management company that basically said, “Please remove your political sign from public view”. This is incredible! Whatever happened to freedom of speech? Well, it turns out that this ticket is completely illegal and the Colorado state congress even passed Senate Bill 100 (SB 100) for just this reason; that is, to protect homeowner’s rights that HOA’s were systematically ignoring. Now we have to contact our Management Company and explain this to them. And THIS is after we had to kick out the last management company (a neighborhood coup d’etat) for essentially stealing from our neighborhood (collecting unauthorized fees, fines, and much more).
The Sign in Question, Can you Even See it?
The Ticket
The moral of the story: I don’t think you can ever get away from Politics -especially without a fight!
Update: Still swinging away, Britton’s conversation with the management company went a little something like this:
So I called.
Me: “I live in clover creek and got a notice to take down my political sign”
her: “yep”
Me: “well….I don’t think you can do that. Its part of SB 100 that protects me”
her: “well its in your covenants”
Me: “well that’s not how it works (aka SB 100 trumps our covenants and bylaws) ”
her: “its in there”
Me: “that isn’t what I meant….tell ya what. Why don’t you send me the part in the covenants, we’ll start there
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The flight was uneventful, but as we went from Puerto Rico to Miami and then Miami to Denver we saw a definite shift in people, and we knew we were back in plain, sterile, straight (roads) and fairly uneventful Colorado.
