snowday, rock climbing, 4Gs, and halloween party

10/25 - Katherine, Erin, Sierra, and I headed to downtown Denver in the snow and the freezing cold to the Tattered Cover... one of the coolest bookstores ever! Hung out for probably over an hour reading "Where the Wild Things Are," hanging out in bean bags and drinking hot beverages to warm up... I got the "hot apple pie," the best hot drink i've ever had, which is basically hot apple cider with a cinnamon stick and carmel in it.. AMAZING!! Then met up with 2 of Erin's friends, went to Hard Rock for the first time, and spent a whopping $13 on a stupid drink, all because I was trying to support Breast Cancer Research. Next time I'm asking for prices... Sorry, but my income just doesn't support that habit... lol

10/26 - Training all day, the soccer game for PT, I took a soccer ball to the face... then at night Erin, Sierra, and I had a mini rave in Sierra's room with glowsticks that someone sent her for Halloween... HILARIOUS!!

10/27 - Service project with Learning Landscapes at Munroe Elementary replacing a chemically-treated retaining wall with an untreated one so they could plant vegetables in the garden... Sounds easy enough right?? NOT!! would have been if the old wall was straight OR level... but instead had to dig 2 feet down, remove the old one, spend about an hour leveling the ground, and then dig a bunch more into the higher ground b/c the old one wasn't straight at all... oh, and there was a pipe in the way too... so we had to totally redesign how the wall was constucted so it could be level... complicated process, but in the end it worked out... and its going to mean more fresh vegetables for kids in a struggling neighborhood, so its all good. oh, and the best part... watching the 2 contractors that came to help us almost cut limbs off with a chainsaw. And the one guy put it down on top of the wall while it was running and leaned his face over it... DARWIN AWARD nominee...

10/28 - Most of our regular trainings were cancelled b/c the presenters couldn't get here in the snow, so we watched the movie "crash" as part of our diversity training requirements and had a discussion about racism, discrimination, etc. Then we had optional PT, which mean TACKLE FOOTBALL in the SNOW!!! YEAH! so much fun... not much running involved, more dog-piling every 5 feet and wrestling for the ball, but it was great.

10/29 - SNOW DAY!!! bummed around til lunchtime, then headed to the Gypsy House for some Hookah with Jamie, Mary, Chris, Katie, Erin, Shawn, and a bunch of other ppl from our unit.. (about 10 of us). Stayed for like 3 hrs just B.S.ing, then came back and went to the local bar/mexican restaurant across the street (the imfamous 4Gs) and got dinner. Got a quesadilla and played some pool with Jamie, first game of pool I've played in forever that was pretty even, because we both suck horribly... and I WON! yay!

10/30 - went rock climbing for unit time at rockin' and jammin' rock gym. I volunteered to belay, which meant I was there from 830-like 3 belaying for two units, about 100 people. It was really fun tho, and nice to be able to help ppl out that had never climbed before. And I did get to climb a few times, which was awesome, its been such a long time since I've been to a real rock gym.

After we got back, it became a mad dash to come up with an idea for a halloween costume, figure out how to pull it off with basically no money, and get to the AmeriCorps halloween party in about 2 1/2 hours... Decided that I was going to go as roadkill, don't ask why i don't know, but I loved it... took an old grey long sleeve uniform from the recycled uniform room, turned it inside out, used a friend's spare tire and $2 of black paint from the dollar store to make tire tracks on it. Wore a pair of grey pants, made a tail and some ears from another old uniform, and drew on some wiskers and a nose with a friend's eyeliner... all in 2 hrs time, and only spent $2! :-)

The party was pretty fun, kinda cheesy but it was to be expected. Hung out for a while and then about a quarter of the corps (about 50 of us) headed to 4Gs to party there for a while. Awesome Halloween round 1, round 2 in Boulder tomorrow!

will write more later... trying to catch up...