Things I Won't Miss about the East Coast

Part of me feels a little bit like we failed the east coast. We never actually moved close enough to DC to really enjoy it even though we commuted in for work every day and we've only lived in the NOVA area for about six months. So it kind of feels like we didn't give it a full go even though we've been here for over two years.

But, this opportunity was just too good to pass up and we absoeffinglutely cannot wait to move to Denver. We are getting a little overexcited about it, let me tell you.

So, sorry east coast, we kind of failed you, but there are some things I will definitely not miss about yo' ass.

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Commuting! My daily commute to work goes like this:  get up at 5:45am, leave the house by 6:30am to get to the nearby VRE station, train leaves at 6:55am, get to Union Station around 8:00am, walk through Union Station and get on metro, get off metro at Dupont and walk to office, get to office about 8:30am. That's already two hours out of my day  just to get to my job. Commuting has really kicked our asses. We knew it would suck, but we didn't realize how much of our lives it would affect. I am adding an extra four hours to my day every day just to get to and from work. By the time we get home, we are exhausted and just ready to eat dinner and go to bed. If we moved closer to DC like we had planned before I got this new job, we still would have had an at least 45 commute on the metro with at least one line change to get to work every day which is still not ideal. Or cheap.

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Dealing with people on my commute. To be fair, I spend a lot of my commute checking out people's outfits and being really inspired in that way. But I spend an equal amount being super mothereffing irritated at those around me. People who take up multiple seats on busy trains people who shove others to try to fit into a stuffed car, people who talk super loudly on their phones on a quiet train, people who eat McDonalds in small spaces on the train, people who stop in the middle of the walkway in Union Station because they're lost, people who glare at everyone (seriously DC, you ever heard of smiling?!), people who put their purse on their shoulder instead of holding it in a packed metro and shove it into you at every jerk of car, people who stand on the escalators, people who fall asleep and snore on the train, and just, you know, people!

Also, and this one might make me sound like a giant turd, but I will not miss the crazy people. I feel for homeless people; especially in a cold place like DC, but some of the homeless people I walk by every day are not just homeless, they are straight up crazy. It's never fun to not feel physically safe on your commute. I have had people sit next to me on the train who, when you looked in their eyes, you knew they were cracked out of their minds, and there's nowhere you can go; you just sit on that train trying not to make eye contact. My work neighborhood is home to quite a few crazies, as is Union Station and I will not miss the uncomfortable feeling of walking by crazy people screaming BITCH at the top of their lungs on a daily basis.

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The 95. Don't even get me started on the whole HOT/HOV lane bullshiz. The 95 sucks and everyone knows it and it's the only way to get anywhere in Virginia. Boo.

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Dirty DC snow. I know this happens a lot of places, but it seems like here, once it snows, it never melts. This is what my entire work neighborhood looks like today. Just sidewalks filled with dirty ass snow. It's pretty gross.

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The allergies. None of us (Gizmo included) ever really had allergies until we moved to the east coast and now we're all periodically sniffy, itchy, and sneezy monsters.

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The cost of living. In Denver, we'll be living .75 miles from my work so I can walk to work everyday; which means we are smack down downtown Denver. This beauty shown above is only .86 miles to my current work in DC and is a dream on the inside and costs over $300 more a month for 400 less square feet and doesn't include parking, a gym, a pool, or any outdoor spaces. 

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Having to spend so much time indoors because of the weather. I'm okay watching 15 hours of Netflix in my pjs, but all the time indoors has been making Mike INSANE.

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The honking/traffic. 'Nuff said.

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The mosquitoes. This was more a Maryland problem than DC, but oh man did we get eaten up by mosquitoes the second it got a little warm. It was miserable outside all summer.

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The humidity. We're desert people and we never quite got used to humidity. My hair hates it and I hate it.

I promise to do a Things I will Miss about the East Coast post to try to counteract my bitchiness in this one, I swear.

Moving Right Along

So our move is moving right along (see what I did there?!) We were lucky enough to get to travel to Denver last weekend to check out the area and hopefully find an apartment. This was Mike's first time in Denver, so I was super nervous to see what he thought of it. Thankfully, he loved it and we found an apartment! The weather was not so stellar, but we are used to cold and snowy days from the last few years on the East Coast and we'll need to get ready for some snow storms if we're moving to Denver.

We were able to eat and drink at a bunch of great places (fat kids) and find what I think will be a perfect apartment for us (IT'S A TEN MINUTE WALK TO MY WORK HALLELUJAH!).

I'm super excited to become a part of this new, awesome team, especially since there are so many people on it that I can see Mike and I hanging out with and becoming friends with them. We have made no good friends since we moved here and, while we love hanging out with each other, you've got to have friends so you don't kill each other, right? We're excited for that possibility, but we also found our new favorite "old people who only hang out with each other" hangout when we stumbled into the nearby hotel The Brown Palace. We ended up hanging out there before dinner Friday night and for dinner and drinks Saturday night as well. There was this awesome guy playing the piano in the atrium who fell in love with us when we requested Vienna and super tasty drinks. The dinner was just straight up bananas crazy good and retro and fancy and we loved it. This place is historic and really cool and I can just see us spending way too many date nights alone having drinks here.

Also, a mom and her daughter were having a fancy tea next to us the second night and I think I saw Mike's ovaries skip a beat.

We left Denver with a cool ass downtown apartment lease in hand, even more excitement about our move, and about five pounds heavier.  Success!

Once we got an apartment, things started moving even faster and we are set to leave on our drive to Denver on the 8th. See you soon, Denver!!

The atrium at the Brown Palace

We sat in the booth where our waitress was proposed to, which made her super happy and she told us stories about all the famous people who have eaten there. Apparently, Boehner is incredibly picky, but a good tipper and Pelosi's secret service agents are hotties.

If you fly out of Denver, eat at Root Down. You will thank me.

Life Lately via the iPhone

Because, isn't this just the easiest blog post ever and always?

Food pictures for days! The best thing (for me) about my husband pursuing his love for cooking is that I get to eat it. Says the person complaining that her pants are too tight...

He has officially perfected the poached egg and oh man do I love it.

Brinner!

He made David Chang's ramen the other day and I didn't LOVE it, but everyone else did and it made the house smell amazing so that was fun. I'm just not a big pork fan, so I would probably like it better with just veggies or chicken.

It sure was pretty though and check out his 5 minute, 10 second egg! That pink and white thing was this nutso fish cake we found at a local Asian market. 

He made his own English muffins the other day in a new pan I bought him and they were tasty!

Contemplative Corgi photos are my favorite

Packing! Again! Gizmo is not pleased. He has barfed once already.

Snow! It's been very snowy here lately which is gorgeous and freezing and a tidbit inconvenient. Although, I will never understand why some East Coast people freak out so much about the snow. You live here, it's a normal occurrence, people.

The best part about snow is that you sometimes get to work from home because your train is cancelled for the day and then you get to work while snuggling a pug. 

And your husband makes you lattes with frothed almond milk. The best.

Work Inspiration for Laura

Hey look, I'm blogging again! And it's about clothes! Weird.

My lovely sister Laura wanted some inspiration for work clothes that are cool, but not too casual.

Here you go, L!

Inspiration  *  Dress  *  Boots  *  Scarf  *  Tights  *  Earrings

(I have those boots btw and they rock)

Inspiration  *  Pants  *  Top  *  Sweater  *  Shoes  *  Earrings

Inspiration  *  Skirt  *  Sweater  *  Top  *  Shoes  *  Earrings
(Top for warmer months and sweater for colder)

Inspiration  *  Skirt  *  Top  *  Shoes  *  Necklace

Reasons We're Excited to Move to Denver

We are pretty g-damn excited for our upcoming move. And here are some reasons why!

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The sunshine!

We have loved living on the East Coast for many reasons, but we realized after a while that the constant rainy/gloomy/freezing weather was really affecting our moods and energy levels. When we tell people we're moving to Denver, they always mention how cold it's going to be which makes us laugh because, hello, it's a high of 22 tomorrow. TWENTY-TWO. We can deal with the cold, it's the lack of sunshine that has really been cramping our style. Needless to say, moving somewhere that boasts 300 days of sunshine a year is getting us pretty excited.

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The beers!

I don't think this one really needs much explanation...

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Downtown!

If we stayed in DC, we wouldn't be able to afford to live where we work. The way it's shaping up right now, we will probably end up living within a mile or two of my work which has us right downtown. We'll be able to walk to my work and enjoy all downtown has to offer and not break the bank living there.

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The outdoors!

Along with the better weather comes more opportunities to get outside and get moving. We have become so lazy with our exercise and hiking since we moved to the East Coast two years ago and it's really been bumming us out. When we lived in Ridgecrest, we used to go hiking in the mountains almost every weekend and then would, of course, reward ourselves with breakfast and cocktails. We can't wait to explore Denver's parks, mountains, and hiking trails and then, of course, reward ourselves with food and booze.

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The food and bar scene!

One of the first things Mike said when I suggested I apply for the job that would move us to Denver was that Denver's food and cocktail scene was blowing up right now. We've got our priorities straight, I tells ya'.

(Ignore the weirdo in the green jacket)

Closer to our West Coast family!

My sister has been voting for this move ever since I first mentioned it and she's already figured out the train she needs to get to us. Get ready to see more of us weirdos!

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Being less than two hours away from Vail.

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And about 3 hours away from Aspen.

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And about an hour away from Colorado Springs.  I am already so excited to plan all kinds of day trips and romantic getaways to these nearby areas.

We can't wait! Now, I just wish the stressful move was over and we were there already....

Februaries

I love looking back at old pictures and blog posts and seeing how our lives have changed. Now that we're getting ready to move again (and also I'm bored today) I figured I'd go through and look at some old pictures from Februaries past.

February 4, 2008

We look like a couple of babies. We were living in Chico while Mike finished his Master's and were just a couple of young goobers.

February 8, 2009

Celebrating finally finishing my BA with friends and family in Chico.

February 27, 2010

Outside the ring shop after a day looking at rings "just to get ideas", Mike asked me to never take off this gorgeous ring and I of course said yes. 

February 6, 2011

My bachelorette party in Vegas was absolutely the funnest and absolutely perfect.

February 12, 2012

Enjoying some beers on a beautiful sunny day on the back patio of our house while I read grad school nonsense and Mike read for fun and the dogs lay around on the warm dirt. Love those kinds of days.

February 13, 2013

We've moved to Maryland by now and I'm home alone all day enjoying/suffering through unemployment. Taking the dogs for a walk in the sun was always a highlight of  my boring days.

February 2, 2014

Mike is really getting into cooking and making cocktails and I am reaping the benefits. After a city-wide search, we finally found pork belly to make Blais' baked potatoes stuffed with pork belly. Yum yum yum.

February 8, 2015

Enjoying our last couple of weeks in the East Coast with Mike experimenting in the kitchen. Today, was his homemade English muffins and eggs benedict. Delish!

Things Are Happening! Again....

So......we're moving again.

I know, I know.

It feels like I just wrote a blog post talking about us moving to Maryland and now I'm writing another one which makes me feel like we're a little nuts, but also a lot awesome.

This time, we're moving to Denver!

A couple of months ago, I found out my current position was going to be going away and I needed to start looking at other options within my current company. I shadowed a couple of the positions based out of DC and tried to figure out what would work best for me and my lifestyle. During that time, my manager mentioned that there was a job opening on her team at the corporate office in Denver. I had spent my first week with the company with that team, learning about our company culture and being trained and loved it. This team is amazing and really made me understand why everyone always says my company is so great to work for. After that week though, I went off to DC to work in my office alone with a team of people spread across the country. I didn't ever feel like I was getting the experience you're supposed to at this company and there were a lot of boring and lonely days. I knew if I ended up in one of the telecommuting positions in DC, that those days would continue even if I wouldn't be in the office alone, I'd be working alone most days and I wasn't thrilled about that.

I mentioned off-hand to Mike one day, "What if I applied for a job in corporate in Denver?" and his immediate response was a positive, "Why not?! That could be our next adventure." (The kind of partner everyone needs, I think." I mentioned my interest to my manager who was surprised, but happy. A couple days later I had my first over the phone interview for the position and about a week later I flew into Denver for several more interviews and to hang out with the team to see how I would fit in. Last Friday, I was offered the position and this Monday I accepted! It's all happened really fast, but I'm so excited to be a part of that team and for our next adventure to begin!

We're not sure of timelines yet because I'm still finishing up my duties in the DC office and we're trying to find an apartment in Denver, but most likely we will be there by sometime in March. I am, in true me fashion, freaking out and stressed beyond belief, but also super excited!