What makes it Home?

In just a few short weeks, Roger and I will be jumping in the car and trekking out west to start our year-long adventure of living in Boulder, CO. I've been pondering for the last few months what, exactly, I would be bringing with us. I've made lists and sub-lists of what will be stored, sold, donated, tossed, and finally, brought along. It was easy at first--dishes, naturally, and pots & pans, and clothing, and bedding. And skis. And work folders. Oh, and craft supplies. And what about baking stuff? And on, and on.

I started wondering about my $15 coffee maker. Does it make sense to schlep that across the country? Well, not really. But I don't like the idea of repurchasing everything once I get there, both for financial reasons and environmental. What would happen to it at the end of my year? But I also want to have the things I need and enjoy, and not feel like I'm camping the whole time!

Then, my sister Meg took a lot of that pressure off. She has graciously offered to start checking her thrift store in Breck for the things like a coffee maker, toaster, blender, cookie sheets and muffin tins. She already has enough dishes, glasses, and cooking utensils to outfit me. Both of our linen closets are stocked with LLBean sheets, so in a sense, her sheets basically ARE my sheets! AND she even emailed her close friends a list of what I'll need, to see what furniture they might be able to loan me for the year! Within two days, I had offers for a desk, stuffed chair, coffee table, dresser, TV stand, and TWO kitchen tables!

Now instead of worrying about the bare necessities, I get to bring the things that will make our condo feel like home. I've already started a list (of course!) of what that might include:
-set of 5 mixing bowls
-flour & sugar canisters I painted
-good knives
-dish towels (all in Ithaca colors, naturally!)
-a couple of my favorite mugs and pint glasses
-sewing machine & craft supplies
-stationery

What are the things in your home that make it yours? I know it will all come down to what can fit in our lovely little Subaru, but I am optimistic that I'll bring the right things, and fill in the gaps with loaned/thrifted stuff. What else would you add to this list?

And what kind of marketing professional would I be if I didn't take this opportunity to plug tomorrow's moving sale! 
http://burlington.craigslist.org/gms/3122655494.html 
This is a combination of my stuff and another friend who's moving. Spread the word!

Heat Wave

There's no denying it, it's HOT! My normally cool-as-a-cucumber Burlington set a new record high of 95 degrees for today's date. Roger has taken to napping on ice packs, and he refused to leave the house all afternoon. Y'know what this heat wave is making me dream about?

HUTSGIVING.

Just think of whooshing over all that icy Colorado snow as we ski out to the Section House, Thanksgiving dinner and birthday treats safely tucked in our packs, all smiles and chilly, rosy cheeks.

Only four months to go :)

Colorado Surprise!

Now a month after the fact, I'm finally going to tell you about my trip to Colorado!

Back in November, my sister Meghan's friend in Colorado set up a surprise 30th birthday party for Meg to take place in April - including surprise guests! Meg's best friend Jen, our mom, and I went out to Breckenridge, CO for an overnight hut trip with Meg and her friends. It was totally awesome! The "hut" we stayed in, the Continental Divide Cabin, is a beautiful log cabin that sleeps eight with one large main room, two smaller separate bedrooms, a wide sunny front deck, and a covered porch to walk to the outhouse. I'm just glad we were able to keep it a secret - I'm notoriously bad at keeping exciting secrets!

We drove 2hrs to Leadville, then snowshoed and skied out about 0.8mi to the hut, and even those of us accustomed to sea level did pretty damn well! The temperature inside the hut was about 40deg when we arrived, but after a few hours with the wood stove, it was over 70. Those ladies don't mess around - the party theme was "ugly bathing suits" (summer version of ugly sweater) and everyone was dressed to impress.

Rowdy games of Taboo, dinner from the grill, ice cream from snow, and plenty of wine made for a totally awesome evening. The next morning was pancakes and a snowshoe expedition on the trails around the hut. It snowed the whole first day and night, so there was plenty of fresh snow to play in.

I had SO much fun, I decided that I need to do it again. But my 30th is still several years away. Then I realized this year is my golden birthday - I'm turning 27 on the 27th of November! Thanksgiving in a hut? Yes please!! The dates we want are open for reservation on June 1st, so I've been doing my best to recruit my party guests. Yeah, a destination birthday party is a lot to ask for, but it's going to be a totally awesome time. Right now we are considering the Section House, which is a much farther ski, but the trailhead is right in Breckenridge, and we'll stay two nights instead of one. And c'mon - Thanksgiving in a hut!!

So many things!

After sneaking to Colorado and successfully surprising my sister for her 30th birthday, my mom and I are almost back home. A real post is coming soon, but I took advantage of the free wifi on the bus back from Logan to post these pictures.

Tuesday Trifecta

Roger's Colorado cousin. Brass Armadillo: Fiesta Heaven. My mile-high city favorite.

Inspired by the blog Orange Pattern

Tuesday Trifecta

Important things! Potent potable. Lovely day for a snow-shod stroll.

Inspired by the blog Orange Pattern

Tuesday Trifecta

The birthday girl. Ice cream from snow. Celebration!

Inspired by the blog Orange Pattern

email to my Mom

Hi Mom,
So crapola, I forgot to bring my bike rack back with me, and this is the only week to bring things in for the bike swap. I'm still going to check out the swap/sale to see if I can buy a roof rack for a reasonable price.

I think I like my plan of staying until September then heading west. That will give me the opportunity to build up my savings again (with the car maintenance expenses my bundle took a hit), enjoy the summer in Burlington, and have a more solid timeline to work towards. As we know, I'm an expert at finding ways to entertain myself, so even though I won't have the guys to fall back on, I hope I can make it a good summer. For example, I am totally IN LOVE with biking to work. My time is improving already! This plan also gives me plenty of time to get an apartment, job, etc set up in CO.

Just out of curiosity, I requested furniture moving/relocation quotes from a website. The one quote I got in so far was like $1,500...so, that's a bunch. Not that I have any point of reference yet - that might be fantastic. That's for door-to-door service from the Bur to Denver. The deal with this site is it'll send me up to 6 quotes from different companies so I can compare. Of course the best would be to fit everything intoy own car, but that clearly rules out my bed and chair...and I would probably have to leave much of my fabric. Of course it's just an IKEA bed and I could probably get the same one out there if I really missed it. I'll ask Meg, but just looking at the mileage it would be over $200 in gas for the trip, not counting food and lodging. So that brings the cost of just the move itself to $2,000. That's pretty much the extent of my savings at the moment.

On a brighter note, I did a little apartment hunting last night on craigslist Denver. Rents are a LOT lower in Denver. I know VT - Burlington in particular - is disproportionately high, but they had condo-like places twice the size of what I'm in now in the mid $500 range! Cool! I found several more house-like apartments on Capital Hill in Denver, the area I loved so much.

I guess my current issue is that I really love Burlington, like a whole lot. Last night I went out with Rachel to the Radio Bean, a bar/club a block from my apt for "Honkey-Tonk Tuesday." She goes every week, and introduced me to all her friends. There was a girl there I had met at Courtney's party, and a member of Mike's band I had met Friday at the Hot Buttered Rum show. Not that I think I'm destined to be life-long friends with any of these people, but I'm starting to find a network, make the connections among my friends, and friends of friends.

Why do I call this an issue, why do I see this as a problem? Because I want to give the Bur a fair shake. I want to fully enjoy my time here, and get all I can out of it. I guess I almost feel guilty for leaving too soon. That's how I feel about Boston - I can hardly say I lived there, because I was only there for...three months? And most of that time was spent in our apartment job-searching and researching compost. If I had known I would be there for such a limited time, I know I would have gotten out more, y'know?

So that's just some stuff that's on my mind these days. UVM has finals this week and next, then Johan's gone. Cliff is around for another week I think, then he's gone too. I guess that'll be the real test of...something.

Okay...back to work. I hope your day is going well.
Love
Lou