Looks good in Boulder
Well, sure, I don’t have a job (yet). But, I’m tired of being mopey. Yesterday I met up with C-boo (Carrie) and Puff Daddy (her little Pomeranian) in Boulder to kick off a good weekend.
Puffy spend most of the time on a leash. He had hip surgery about five weeks ago and still limps a little. Carrie warned me that people in Boulder occasionally come up to her to let her know that he’s limping, which I guess is sort of sweet. Sort of funny. We had lunch at Chipotle (there’s an outdoor patio so Puffy could be there too) and then we walked around the Pearl Street Mall. We’d been strolling down the pedestrian mall for about five minutes when we hear…
Strange woman: Excuse me, I don’t mean to be an annoying dog person, but do you know that your dog is limping?
Carrie explains the situation and we walk away trying not to laugh. The rest of the day we catch the Hop (a bus) to the Hill (Campus Town), each some ice cream (I had Chai, which made me feel really Boulder-esque), and stroll through campus. As we are walking through campus we passed Mackey Auditorium. Carrie giggles. Does that look familiar? she asks.
Flashback: Three years ago, for my 22nd birthday, my friends decided to surprise me with a themed party (I find this especially sweet, even in hindsight because I love surprises). This wasn’t just any themed party, though. At the time I was in the height of my Alias obsession. They decided to actually send me on a “mission” that led me through campus. It ended with me being captured and taken up to the tower of Mackey auditorium to be interrogated (I made several unsuccessful escape attempts, was bound to a chair, and I definitely remember being threatened with a tube of toothpaste at one point). I was then strong-armed into Carrie’s car and driven back to our house on 30th. I also found out when we arrived home that the other members of my team, Tyler and Dos, had most uncomfortably shared a trunk ride home together. Oh the fun and nerdyness of it all.
After our stroll through campus, we walked back down to Pearl Street. It was a little windy and although I was wearing an especially billowy skirt, I thought I’d be safe. No no. Along comes a gust of wind and whoosh! my skirt blows all the way up in the back. I’m sure all of Broadway got a good look. The rest of the walk back was a struggle. Me holding my skirt (I had several more near misses) and my purse and glaring angrily at the stray breezes being blown by busses driving quickly by.
On the way back to our cars, Carrie mentioned that she had plans to have dinner with Ben (a friend of hers from undergrad, whom she met through one of her sign language courses) later in the evening. Although she asked me to come, I was already planning on going to an exhibit in Denver featuring one each of Shaw’s and Lynon’s pieces and had to decline. However, when we finally got back to Pearl she pointed out that there was a lot of time to kill between 3:30 and 7:00 so I followed her Northeast to his apartment in Gunbarrel. It was nice to see Ben again (quite frankly, it’s nice to feel comfortable in Colorado again and see old friends) and after a couple hours of fun conversation, apple juice drinking, You Tube watching, and Friends quoting, I headed back to Boulder to catch a ride to the Illustrator’s show with Shaw and Lynon.
We had some BBQ (okay, not as good as Battle’s, but I’m on the lookout for good joints now that Iowa has given me a penchant for this fine cuisine) in Denver. Kerry met us at the show. While the boys schmoozed it up with old teachers and fellow artists, Kerry and I reminisced, chatted, and discussed the various (and very interesting) art pieces. As we were leaving we picked up another art school friend, Colan (the Irish spelling) and hit the LoDo bar scene (Lower Downtown Denver historic district for the uneducated). We started at a bar called Double Daughters. I wouldn’t describe the place as goth, but it had a nice Tim Burton feel to it. There were black wire tree frames filled with white twinkle lights and wrapped with black gauze and splashes of red throughout the bar (the circular booths with thorn like triangle backs and what looked like a giant vial of lethal ruby liquid that they keep on tap--seventeen ingredients).
After leaving DD, we wandered around Denver a little bit before we settling on a pub-ish place. That finished off the bar portion of the evening and after dropping Colan (Kerry and I ran up to use the restroom and I stunned Colan with my nerdyness by recognizing his life-sized cutout of Boba Fett), the remaining four of us ended up back in Boulder and after some tasty guacamole, I snagged a place on the couch.
After a slow start this morning the four of us went to Pearl Street for some Chipotle. I was still wearing my same t-shirt and blustery skirt from the day before, but I had no other clothes to change into and it was just a quick lunch. That quick lunch turned into more chatting and walking along Pearl. We poked our heads into a few shops, listened to various street performers, and enjoyed the nice weather and smell of incense. We also ran into Ben who was sure to point out that I was indeed wearing the same outfit from the day before and perhaps I was in need of a shower (too true). After more meandering, my decadent lazy day in Boulder was done. I was feeling happy and at home. I was starting to feel like I belonged in Boulder.
Shaw said something in the car ride home that really stayed with me. You know what really bugs me? After you graduate with a degree, it seems like people expect you to fall right into a good career, a decent and applicable job. And you know what, it just doesn’t happen that way. Although this is somewhat paraphrased, these wise words really speak to something so true. I’m tired of feeling like there’s this expectation.
