Poem on Sleeping While I Should be Studying

Too comfortable couch
Cookie Monster blue throw
swaddling me
wrapped in a cocoon of warmth
head nodding
eyes closing
Ah, why?! Why can't constitutional law invigorate instead of sedate?
an hour later
sugar and caffeine to the rescue

Okay, enough distracting myself with being silly. I better drink my tea and get back to reading!

Homemade Tamales

I never thought I would make my own tamales. It's such an authentic food and I've always been told that it's a time consuming process. So, I just figured, eh, I'll buy them when I feel like it and that's all I can do.

But then my son decided he really like them. If he's decided to order a large meal at a Mexican restaurant, he's likely to order a cheese enchilada and a tamale.

I like to make things for those I love, hence the freshly made tamales in my kitchen right now. I'm feeling vindicated because these are without question the best tamales we've ever eaten.

Thank you, Allrecipes for the base recipes that I modified. 

Tamale recipe used for the masa (cornmeal portion).
Recipe for slow cooker carnitas (pork), modified by adding about 8-10 slightly crushed juniper berries.

Life in High Speed

This year has been a blur.

I started with a new company last year, and have been really enjoying getting to know all about the company and my coworkers. There has been an incredible jump in my social life because of the new friends I've been making - and I've loved it!

A few new things I've done this year:

Shooting - At the range, lots of different handguns including revolvers and semi-automatics, up to a .44!). I have even purchased my own, which I love. She's my baby.

Argentine Tango - I've just taken one class, but since it's dance lessons in general that I love, I can really see going back some more. I need a new pair of shoes though. Any excuse to buy new shoes, I like. :)

Traveled to New Orleans - An amazing trip, with amazing people. Had a fantastic time enjoying the food and the sights. I can't wait to go back. Hurricanes, Muffalettas, the Garden District...

Traveled to Wisconsin - Land of the cheese curds and sturgeon spear fishing. My work has offices there and I went out for some training. It was great to meet my coworkers and showed me how invaluable it is to get to know people face-to-face.

And a few things coming up:

My first lone road trip - My son and I will be going camping at the Great Sand Dunes and then checking out Santa Fe. Can't wait, it should be a blast!

Georgetown Visit - Today I'm heading up to one of our small mountain mining towns in Colorado. Should be fun!

Gambling in the Colorado Mountains (?) - I haven't checked out any of our little (and few) gambling communities here in Colorado, but I want to! Just to play a few slots and maybe a few hands of poker or blackjack.

Back to school - I'm heading back after a nice summer off to continue working on my bachelor's degree in business. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel and I have some new motivation to get my classes finished in the next year and a half (my work is giving me a great opportunity to develop my HR/recruiting skills).

The only thing that I'd like to be able to add to this year would be meeting the right guy! Crossing my fingers and hoping (beyond hope) that I'll be lucky enough to meet a nice guy that fits my personality. In the meantime, though, I've got lots on my plate and will have no problem keeping busy!

Fly Fishing Pt. 2

I went out a few weeks ago and tried fly fishing for the first time. I loved it. It was so peaceful and it was as close to meditation as I think I'll ever get. (I'm a think-too-much typical Virgo. All you Virgos out there who can sympathize, can I get a woot?)

If you've never gone fly fishing, here's what it was like. I'm standing in the middle of a beautiful lake. The sun is shining and it's cool, but not too cool. I casting my line. Back and forth. Checking over my shoulder to see what my line is doing. Is it leveling out before I bring it forward again? No? Patience, rhythm..now it is. Ok...where are the fish? Looking, looking. Oooh, a little flip-flop in the water over there tells me where to cast! Cast, pull slowly in. Cast, pull slowly in. How's my back cast?

Rinse, repeat.

So, since I enjoyed the time so much, I decided to get some inexpensive used gear and get back out there. I got my very first fishing rod today! It's used, but a good one. It's a Sage Graphite III 586 (5 weight, 8' 6" long).

Now, I just have to get out there and try some more fishing. Oh yeah, and learn how to tie things on. And probably a million other things. But, here's to hoping I still get to have that simple train of thought each time. When work, school, parenting and dating don't matter and all I'm thinking is - where are the fish?

Fly Fishing

Me and my girls at Rocky Mountain National Park earlier this month. We took fly fishing lessons and had a blast. I now understand why people like fishing. It was the closest a busy-minded Virgo like myself ever gets to meditation.

What does Easter mean in an atheist household?

What does Easter mean in a house with atheists?

I am raising an amazing 10-year-old son. But I have this feeling like part of the "basic education" that I've been providing throughout his life has been conspicuously lacking in one major area.

I've taught him (and continue to try and teach him):

• how to treat others
• that learning is not just a pain in the butt for school, but rather an opportunity to explore the amazing world around us and that you can learn your whole life
• that friends can't be replaced, we need them and it pays to be a good friend
• that family is different than friends, and there's no replacement for family either (not even friends)
  
• that food is one of the simple pleasures in life and can bring joy
• that girls like boys and vice versa...and that it's a good thing
• that I don't want to look back at the end of my life and regret things that I didn't do because I was afraid
• that you have to see the original classic movies (even if they weren't amazing by today's standards) before you see the new remake...because I think it's right to give the old movies their due and the new versions often times are crappier (and, yes, he thinks the original trilogy was so much better than the prequels - which I wouldn't let him watch first)
  

So, I've covered a lot of bases, but one major area that we were educated in that he is completely lacking in is religion. I was raised in a Baptist Christian household. We went to church every Sunday. We prayed before we ate and before we went to bed. But really, inside, I was a young atheist. A doubter that felt like a liar when she prayed and wished that she didn't have so much cognitive dissonance when it came to her thoughts on God.

I came to terms with my feelings and am in a happy place now. But I've realized in the last few years that my son doesn't know the simple stuff - you know, Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, etc., and I'm doing him a disservice by not giving him some information about religion. At least for future Jeopardy questions, but mainly for the larger picture. Most people do believe in some variation of Christianity. And my son is completely out of touch with that world.

Perhaps I'll buy the book on Amazon on world religions and see how much it covers. Maybe I'll ask him if he remembers from last Easter what I explained about the holiday (and how it has nothing to do with chocolate, boiled eggs and rabbits). It would be a lot easier if we ate chocolate crosses and the risen messiah was the mascot instead of the "Easter Bunny."

For now, I'm going to try and come up with a new Easter tradition for us to enjoy. He's too old for the egg hunt and too young to appreciate a ham dinner with deviled eggs. His idea was to have it be a "code day" where we make new codes up. Maybe he's not so far off from what Easter is for many of us...a day with hidden meanings that are very separate from the original idea.

St. Patrick's Day - aka Find Cute Boys Not Wearing Green Day

People who work with me know. I'm boy crazy.

It stems mostly from the fact that I'm boy-deprived. I got divorced 2 1/2 years ago and although I've been on a bunch of dates, I haven't had a boyfriend. So, besides a few sweet kisses with one boy, I've been lonely. And, um..."desirous of companionship." (Which is why I stayed up later than I should tonight when I heard that Dwayne Johnson was going to be on the Tonight Show.)

So, all I have to say to the smart, cute, single guys out there: stop wearing green on St. Patty's day.

I took advantage and pinched at least four boys today. (It would have been more, but I had to run an errand on lunch.)

And, what do you know, you can't really pinch someone without striking up a conversation. I mean, it's sort of weird to just pinch and run, right?

Next year, I'm going to head into Boulder and find a busy place with lots of cute boys. I hope they forget to wear green.