waiting for magic...

Posted by Dana at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments

It’s Christmas Eve and I’m sitting in front of the TV watching the Broncos win. Occasionally someone yells at the game, which gets Sadie going (my parents Australian Shepherd). She doesn’t understand the yelling and so she starts barking at us just to make sure she gets in her own two cents. I’m posting this on my parents’ computer, which means dial up connection and the pictures may have to wait.

It’s been a great week. Oh, crap, the Bengals just scored a touchdown. Here comes the extra point. Sarah says maybe they’ll miss. Dad: Yeah, that’d be a Merry Christmas. This is why I love being here; the extra point is about the only thing that you can count on in professional football (or as close as it gets), but we still like to dream. OMG and they’ve missed the extra point! 41 seconds left; game over, Broncs win. (I apologize for the football commentary but the excitement makes me lose my place).

So, anyway, good week. We had a blizzard. Two feet of snow got dumped on Colorado on Wednesday and Thursday. It’s the first time in my memory that there were that many road closures in CO. Usually the snow just isn’t all over the entire front range (the major cities and surrounding areas to the east of the mountains). I’ve been out cross-country skiing around my parents’ property a couple times. The snow is pure powder and I wish I had time to go up to the mountains.

I got to see most of my CO friends; a good time was had by all, but we’re a lot tamer than we used to be. They’re my second family here and it’s nice to be around them because I rarely talk about school. Okay, my first family wants to play Clue. Happy Holidays, all!

Posted by Dana at 7:34 PM | Permalink | Comments

So, for those of you wondering, I did in fact make it home to Colorado okay (oh, and BTW, I have a new phone). Thursday was a long day and I wouldn’t be doing it justice if I skipped right over it. The morning was fairly uneventful; I packed to go home, turned in my last minute papers, and dashed off to my last final to watch my students give presentations. The whole day I was anxious because I was planning on driving home on this day, on this Thursday, so that I could go to a Guster concert in Denver later that night. My final got over at 1:00 and the concert started at 7:30 (8:30 Iowa time). It’s a 10-hour drive to Colorado (and that includes speeding a lil). You do the math. I mean, I knew I wasn’t going to make it at 7:30, but there was an opening band, I figured hey no big deal (actually, I figured, this could be super close).

(I had the bright idea to buy the concert tickets at the venue when we got there, but last week Sarah called to tell me that it sounded like the concert was selling out. What was I to do? I couldn’t decide which was worse: getting to the concert in time and not being able to get in because it was sold out and we didn’t have tickets, or getting to the concert and it being over and having already paid for the tickets. I decided there was a certain priceless quality to going to a concert both Sar and I wanted to see, so I opted for the latter.)

So, around 1:15, my students had finished presenting. I dashed to my car (parked illegally on campus; no ticket…phew) and got on my way. I hit some annoying traffic in Iowa (lots of going 60 mph in a 70 mph zone) and I was starting to get worried. I figured the earliest Guster would make it on stage was 8:30, which means that I would have to be at my parents house by 8:00, which meant total, I needed to cut 2 hours off my drive, which meant…yeah, my drive was filled with math logic like this. I was doing about 90 (in a 75) once I hit Nebraska, but I saw a few people pulled over and decided that a speeding ticket didn’t really sound all that great. I set my cruise control down to 84 and literally one minute later, I got pulled over. The officer said I was doing 86 although I explained that my cruise control had been set to 84, he refused to knock down the ticket; his exact words were, “well I guess your speedometer is off.” I should have just stuck with 90! It would have cost the same. C’est la vie. After that, I didn’t want to risk getting pulled over again, so I stuck to 82 (was my speedometer wrong? I don’t know; I’ve never been pulled over in Iowa going 64 in a 55, but who really knows). I pulled into my parents’ driveway at 9:10.

Sarah offered to drive (in my mom’s car), and after being in the car for 9 hours, I decided, that yes, this was a good idea. We chatted on the way to Denver, and I figured that even in the concert was over, we could still have a good time. We had a little difficulty navigating downtown (some of the streets are based on the river and some of them are based on the grid, which means that there are intersections with 6 streets…that’s not easy). As we drove by the venue, we saw people walking out and my heart sank. Is it over? It looks like it’s over Sarah asked. Well, let’s check it out I said. Sarah didn’t want to parallel park so we just pulled into a Wendy’s parking lot to hop out quickly and double-check that the concert was over. As we moved closer, I listened to people walking away and heard them talking about the concert and my heart fell further still. Then, as we walked up to the door, I hear the unmistakable strains of Guster. Seriously? we say together.

We rush in and being short and smallish, managed to get places fairly close to the front. After the song was over and the lead singer starts talking, we realize we just walked in on the first song of the set. The concert was amazing. I laughed and cried and jumped up and down and sang loudly and heard all the songs I wanted to hear and some new ones from the latest album. We weren’t disappointed and I felt complete inside, something that doesn’t happen very much, as of late. As we were walking out of the concert, I felt my heart pound a little harder because we really shouldn’t have parked in the Wendy’s. Would the car still be there?

No. It was not there. It turns out, it had been towed 10 minutes after we parked it. We called the impound lot; they said they wouldn’t release it until tomorrow and only to the person on the title: my Mom. We called our mom to come pick us up and spent half an hour shivering in the Wendy’s parking lot waiting for her. Sarah was a little put out, but not much could kill my high. It was just so nice to feel that happy.

Concert tickets: $70
Three tanks of gas: $90
Speeding ticket: $120
Car impound: $210

Seeing Guster in concert with your sister: priceless

Posted by Dana at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments

I know, I know! I’m a bad blogger, bad emailer, bad facebooker, bad myspacer, bad phone call returner (btw: I dropped ye old cell phone about two hours ago and its no longer working). I’ve been so delinquent on my personal responsibilities. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’ll respond eventually :)

It’s been a year since Kate and I moved into our (now) fabulous apartment. A lot has changed. Right now my favorite thing is our (real) Christmas tree (oh, yeah, and having furniture; they rate at about the same). It’s got red and white lights and dozens of ornaments given to me by family members over the years. I love getting ornaments for Christmas. I feel like my life started when I moved to Ames. So many things happened all at once and the extreme change made me feel more alive than I had in years.

I think I’m starting to turn into a recluse. I don’t like to go out that much anymore and I really like being in the apartment. It’s so safe in the apartment. Last night I got to the bars, had one beer, and just decided that pretending to be happy and make small talk around a bunch of strangers (and a few friends) wasn’t worth the effort. So, I waited for the bus home and called Peter. Lately I’ve been talking to Peter a lot on the phone. It’s nice to talk to him after such a long time of really not saying much. Strange that after 4 years, Peter and I are really at a place where we can be friends. He and his family drove through Des Moines last weekend; I went to go meet them for brunch, thinking I would be hanging out with him and his parents. Instead, it was me, his parents, Peter, his mom’s parents, and his uncle (seven of us squeezed into a booth at Perkins. Ahh, brunching adventures). I wonder if it will be 4 years before I feel that comfortable talking to Rob? I hope not.


To go along with my new recluse nature, Kate and I have started playing scrabble. I’m too competitive of a player though. I played with George (my cousin in-law) over break and (gasp!) actually won. It’s so gratifying to win to someone who’s a sore winner. But he’s a good player and now I’ve got to hone my craft.

Also on the recluse front: I spent more time on homework this weekend than I’ve ever spent on a weekend before. Today I literally did school work for 14 hours (with just short breaks for meals). Time flies when you’re designing the world’s most frustrating powerpoint presentation. I find some homework to be addicting; the more I get into it, the more I lose touch with reality (which, lets face it, I wasn’t that in touch with from the start).

It’s cold outside and warm in the apartment. My toes are chilly and Kate stops every once in a while to tickle them. There’s a scrabble board under the tree and an empty Tivo box (which I have yet to set up because I have yet to figure out why it doesn’t love me because I have yet to find the time). My hair smells like dye. Kate is making old woman noises. Life seems so normal, but all I can think is: it’s been a year.

Posted by Dana at 7:49 PM | Permalink | Comments