There's a time when you're right and you know you must fight...

I had set a goal to post a new update every week but as you can tell that fell by the wayside... A lot has happened so I will fill everyone in here:

Two days after my last post (July 8th), I headed back to the place I was living after work and really had the feeling that I didn't want to go there... I always feel that way but it was really strong that day. I should have trusted that instinct because I go in and the psycho woman I was living with was waiting and says "I need to show you something" so I followed her down to the bathroom where I was showering and she says "you haven't been closing the shower door so it's been leaking out and now I'm going to need a new floor, blah blah blah" so I said "no I close it, the door doesn't fit all the way into the frame" and I stuck my fingers in there so she could see... "oh well, we haven't had this problem before blah blah blah and you're going to have to take a bath from now on, blah blah blah"... So I had decided that I had had enough and called a friend who has graciously allowed me to stay with her and her husband while I look for another place. I told them I'd be out at the beginning of August but I haven't had any success finding another place so today they told me I could stay for another few months if I wanted. I had emailed another ward's bishop who forwarded my information to the ward housing coordinator who responded and said there are a few possibilities but asked what I was looking for. I responded but haven't heard back yet... I do like the area I'm currently in and would like to stay in this area, but it's a little better off and apparently poor people don't live here... :(

I also went home this weekend which was nice, except it was hot! The humidity was really thick on Friday (okay I think it was like 25% humidity but that's a lot for Utah in the summer) and we went to the "Bee's game" (they didn't actually play) that night and I thought I was going to melt! The trip didn't start off the best, first of all, the cheap parking at Denver International was all full so I had to park in the "economy" lot which costs $10 a day (it ended up costing me $36 to park there from Thursday night at 5:00 PM to Sunday night at 10:30 PM)! What a rip off! Then the security line was ridiculously long, which it always is at that airport... Then when I went to check my bag, they have my flight coming in at 8:30 instead of 7:00. I figured this wasn't too bad and went on my merry way... Well by the time I went from checking my bag to getting to the terminal, the flight was now scheduled to take off at 9:20. So I called home and told my Dad the status and got something to eat. After I was done, I checked the departure time again and this time it was at 9:40. Eventually it became 10:05 which is where it stayed but was not when we took off... We probably were boarding at around 10:05 and then didn't actually take off until after 10:20. So I didn't get into Salt Lake until around 11:45 PM. Other than the Bee's game on Friday night, we ate at Cafe Rio (which I have been missing), went on a bike ride in City Creek Canyon (which I once again showed how out of shape I am and only made it for 4 miles), went to Leatherby's, and went to Logan for a family reunion and visited the Logan city cemetery where pretty much all of my relatives are buried (I wanted to go see my cousin's headstone) and stopped at my aunt's house where we saw a snake on the way out and I of course had a little freak-out... I don't care what kind of snake it is, I hate them all! It was a great trip and I was very unhappy to be coming back to Denver! I have decided I need to get more involved in things and maybe I'll enjoy it more out here...

Work has gotten more busy which I'm grateful for! I am currently doing some research for my boss on populations we need to better target for mental health messaging, working on some curriculum for our WE CAN! program (it's a program for mental health consumers in the state of Colorado), and continuing on with the volunteer management system... I have decided I hate volunteer management so don't expect me to look for a career in that when I'm done!

The pictures are: the view of downtown Salt Lake up by City Creek and the state capital, there is an entire building there that wasn't there when I left 3 months ago and I bet the city will be completely different the next time I come home! My little bro and I after our pitiful bikeride (that was my fault), and then my little bro and I and my mom and I at the bee's game on Friday night.

You don't know what you've got til it's gone...

So first of all, I don't know how I never saw this background before... I looked all over for one relating to the Yankees and never saw one! This one is my favorite player, Derek Jeter their short stop who was just voted yet again to the upcoming All-Star game in St Louis (yes I assisted by voting for him several times). But enough about that...

As I'm sure you are all WELL aware, about a week and a half ago, one of the biggest superstars of all time died... At the time, I didn't think too much about it. I was actually more worried about getting home from work... It was raining/hailing so badly at one point you couldn't see out the windows of the building! When that haze finally settled down, you could see the parking lot and Colorado Blvd were beginning to flood in certain spots. As I drive a Honda Civic, this worried me more than just a little bit but I decided to find a new way home from work and I made it home just fine. On my way home, EVERY station in Denver was playing Michael Jackson's songs and were talking calls from HYSTERICAL people... I was actually quite shocked at how many of the songs I knew and enjoyed! This continued for the next day or so and I decided I needed to download his songs since I enjoyed so many of them! It's quite funny too, because here we are on July 6th and I'm still not sick of them! I wish I would have enjoyed his music more while he was alive. Love him or hate him, the man was a musical icon and truly THE King of Pop.

This has gotten me to thinking about many things, but one in particular: enjoying what/who we've got while we've got them. Not that I needed a high profile death to help me realize that. It has been a dream of mine for quite some time to move out of Utah and more specifically to move to Denver. As my previous posts state, I have a love/hate relationship with this city and the constant hate that started a few weeks ago continues. I grew to hate, not even just hate, I LOATHED being in Utah over the last few years for many different reasons but now I can see what I loved about it: the fact that there are mountains over the entire state and Salt Lake is in a valley (Denver is on the front range of the Rockies so everything east of it is completely flat... this is shocking as Colorado has a reputation for being so mountainous but I don't think they deserve it!); my family but most especially my Mom, living where I'm currently living and seeing somebody else's parenting style has made me appreciate my Mother so much more; I can find plenty of LDS roommates to live with; people do other things besides drink; the streets made more sense (although I'm picking up on it more here, but they tell you all the streets are in Alphabetical order and they are NOT! mostly they are though, but not always!), and I'm sure there are other things I'll think of later but this post is becoming ridiculously long! On the flip side, I really do need to start enjoying Denver and Colorado more while I'm here. We did go camping this weekend in the Comanche Wilderness Area which is close to Roosevelt National Park (I think) in Northern Colorado and I actually enjoyed it! We backpacked into our camping spot which was about 2 miles in... I made it the whole way without needing somebody to carry my stuff and I had close to 40 lbs on my back! This is quite a feat for me as I am horribly out of shape! (I'm surprised my CHES has not been revoked!)

Lastly, I have AGAIN given my 30 days notice to my land lady and this time I will for sure be moving out! Not sure quite yet where I will go but I will NOT be staying here!

Pictures: obviously Michael Jackson from when I liked him best because he's Bad! (okay sorry for that...), and one of the Rockies here in Colorado, the trees are red because there is a huge pine beetle infestation that if not corrected will destroy all the pine trees in the mountains. (the only way it can be stopped is if there is an incredibly cold winter this year, meaning it would need to stay below freezing every day... even though it's cold in the mountains, it usually does not stay that cold every day) The first one is me with Sophie (left) and Amanda (center) being silly (you can tell I was more cooreced to do this, maybe because I'm sober?). I didn't get very many photos so once I get more I will post them and explain more about the trip.