(no subject)
/HIATUS
So, I had wanted to go into elaborate detail about our New Year's trip to Colorado long ago, but obviously that didn't happen. Needless to say, it was ah-mazing. We arrived expecting it to be freezing, but it was actually warmer out there than it was in Georgia. This was probably due to the fact that Georgia was recovering from a heavy snow (unusual). Our friend Travis and his girlfriend Erin met us at the airport. Travis was sporting a luxurious new mustache-- giggle. We drove out to Boulder to stop by Travis' house, and then Erin's, and then stopped for some lunch. Boulder was beautiful. Mountains everywhere. When we went to eat in town, people were biking up and down the sidewalks. The whole vibe of the place was quite nice. Afterward, we went into Denver to go to to our friend Allie's house where everyone who was going to a show that night was convening. A lot of people ended up arriving, and I was basically engulfed in a sea of unfamiliar faces and medicinal-grade marijuana smoke. Before the show, Denver got its first snow of the season (and it was heavy), and we went to a motel where some of Travis and Erin's friends from out of town were staying. There was a lot of walking from place to place, and Nick and I opted to not where jackets because we assumed the venue didn't have a coat check, so I spent a lot of time freezing my sweet little patootie off. Everyone at the motel was drinking mushroom tea. Erin's friend Colby was burning palo santo wood, which is a wood from Peru that can be used for incense and smudging, and she gave Nick and I a few sticks. Afterward, we headed to the show. The first night of Tribe was a lot of fun, although a bit hard on my body. I was running on only a couple of hours of sleep and became drained pretty early on. We skipped all of the after-parties and opted to just go back to Allie's house and crash on the couch in her basement. The couch was hard and the basement was cold, so the first night's sleep was rather uncomfortable, but we were able to check into our hotel the next morning.
We woke up and called a cab to take us to the Doubletree. The hotel was extremely nice. It had a restaurant, bar and grill, Starbucks, and indoor pool. We immediately went to our room and ordered food and got some proper rest. We spent most of the rest of the day lounging until it was time to get ready for another night of Tribe. The snow was even heavier, and again we went out without jackets. I had nothing but a little shaw pulled over my tank top. One of Nick's friends, who ended up being the most terrifying driver ever, came and picked us up to take us to a local dispensary that would let people in without showing their medical cards. Nick was like a kid in a candy store. He got a few types of weed and Keef Cola. At the show, we tracked down two of our friends from Georgia, Patrick and his girlfriend Katie, and the group they were with and merged our two groups of friends. I was much more well-rested this time around and could actually enjoy the show more. Afterward, Patrick and Katie came back to our hotel with us to hang out for a bit. Patrick mentioned something about the coat check line being terrible, and it was at the moment we realized we had been walking around in negative degree weather wearing next to nothing for absolutely no reason.
The third day was an adventure. In the afternoon, Travis and Erin and Colby came over. The plan was to have a spiritual pre-party together. We were going to burn some palo santo wood and Colby had brought her massage table to do some Reiki healing. Everyone smoked beforehand, and then Colby set up her table. We had a little debate about lighting the palo santo because we were in a non-smoking hotel with a smoke detector in the room, but then decided it probably wouldn't go off. Wrong. A few seconds after we lit the palo santo, the smoke detector started wailing like a fucking tornado siren. Nick ran downstairs to try and get someone at the front desk to disengage it. The rest of us were standing around in the room with our hands over our ears trying to figure out some way to air out the room. Right as we got the smoke detector to shut up, a security guy or manager of some sort came bursting into the room, and he did not look happy. He immediately started complaining about the smell of weed, more-so because of the hotel being non-smoking rather than the fact that we had weed since the area has decriminalized marijuana use for medicinal purposes. We tried to tell him that the smell was the palo santo, which does in fact have a quite pungent smell, but that just made him angry that we were lighting anything in there. He started lecturing us about it being a fire hazard, especially since we had the massage table partially blocking the pathway to the door. He was equally upset about the massage table, I think because he assumed we had more people staying in our room than were supposed to be. We tried to explain the Reiki to him, but that just weirded him out. He was quite frustrated with the "damn hippies" he had in his hotel. He initially threatened to kick us all out, and then that he was going to charge $150 for the mishap, but we managed to talk him down on the grounds that it wouldn't happen again and we'd remove the massage table from the room. Luckily, it ended up being something we were all able to just laugh about.
That last night of Tribe was definitely the best. I was energized and warm (as this time, we actually wore jackets out and had them coat checked at the show). During the very first song Tribe played, a boy standing next to me had a seizure. He fell to the floor beside me. At first, I was in a panic and wanted nothing to do with the scenario. Then I realized this was dumb of me. I'm in nursing school and had all of my CPR and First Aid certification cards right there in my purse. I pushed some people out of the way to check on the boy, and one of our friends who happens to be a nurse in the ER was already down beside him. The boy's lips were blue. I asked our friend if the boy was breathing, and he was, so I immediately started yelling at people to get help. Everyone was just standing there screaming and waving their hands, which obviously doesn't do much in the way of getting security's attention since we're at a concert and half the people are doing the same thing just out of excitement. I tried to call 911, but my phone died right after the first ring. Finally someone actually left the crowd to go personally get security, and I tried to get someone near me to call 911. After at least five solid minutes of attempting to get help, security finally showed up and hauled the boy off. While I knew the boy was going to survive the incident, I couldn't help but be shaken for a while after. Nick and I were both wearing pieces of palo santo, and Nick lit his to smudge the area and remove the negative energy. The rest of the show was fantastic. Right before midnight, Tribe had Dom from Big Gigantic come and stage and play his sax with them. It was beautiful. They did the countdown and these huge balloons that were hanging overhead popped, showering the crowd with confetti and smaller balloons. For a good while after, you could hear balloons popping as people stomped the small balloons that were all over the floor. Shortly after we rang in the New Year, I became extremely dizzy and almost fainted. Nick helped me out of the crowd and sat with me at the handicap seats on the sides while I cooled off and drank some water before we rejoined our friends in the crowd.
After the show, we went to the motel where Patrick and Katie were staying to spend some time with them and their friends before we headed to our own hotel. Sleeping that night felt so good, as my poor pregnant body had really been pushed to its limits that weekend. We woke up bright and early the next morning to catch our flight back home. The whole experience was exciting, but it did feel nice to come back to the comforts of home.
Nick and I have a new (to us) home now. We've moved into one of the duplexes that Nick's dad rents out. It's smaller than our apartment, but I'm okay with that. The whole energy inside of the house just feels warm and cozy. The huge upsides are that we don't have to worry about paying things like rent and utilities. We've opted to not get cable and internet, less for money saving reasons and more-so because I prefer to not have them. They are such needless distractions in our lives. We're able to receive internet from a neighbor in one area of our bedroom (hence how I'm managing to update), and that's all we really need. I only really need the internet for school purposes anyway. The only real downside is that it only has two bedrooms, so we're going to have to do rearranging in order to make some space for the baby.
Speaking of the baby, I should be able to find out what I'm having soon. Everyone is pretty dead set that it's a girl, and as much as I want a girl myself, I'm not getting my hopes up. I keep trying to convince myself that it's a boy so I won't have to worry about being let down. That sounds terrible. Obviously I'm going to be happy with whatever it is, but you know... I haven't really been able to feel any distinct movements yet, but I've definitely been able to notice my growing belly. The craziest thing to me is that I can feel pressure shifts inside of me whenever the baby moves from one area to another. When it moves toward the front, I get a strong pressure in my lower abdomen. When it gets in position like that, I can lay on my back and suck in, and there will be this perfectly round ball sticking out from my lower abdomen. It's extremely hard, and you can cup it in your hands. It's crazy, it's like being able to hold the baby. I took a picture of it earlier, when it was especially balled up. Eventually I'll get around to uploading all of my recent pictures from my camera (which, honestly, aren't a whole lot because I've been seriously slacking).
Lastly, here are a few pictures from Colorado. Like I said, I haven't gotten around to uploading my own pictures in a hot minute, so these are all taken by other people. Don't judge my photography skills base don these!
Patrick and Nick.
Me, Katie, and Katie's friend Rachel.
Rachel, girl whose name I don't remember (shame on me), Katie, and I.
So, I had wanted to go into elaborate detail about our New Year's trip to Colorado long ago, but obviously that didn't happen. Needless to say, it was ah-mazing. We arrived expecting it to be freezing, but it was actually warmer out there than it was in Georgia. This was probably due to the fact that Georgia was recovering from a heavy snow (unusual). Our friend Travis and his girlfriend Erin met us at the airport. Travis was sporting a luxurious new mustache-- giggle. We drove out to Boulder to stop by Travis' house, and then Erin's, and then stopped for some lunch. Boulder was beautiful. Mountains everywhere. When we went to eat in town, people were biking up and down the sidewalks. The whole vibe of the place was quite nice. Afterward, we went into Denver to go to to our friend Allie's house where everyone who was going to a show that night was convening. A lot of people ended up arriving, and I was basically engulfed in a sea of unfamiliar faces and medicinal-grade marijuana smoke. Before the show, Denver got its first snow of the season (and it was heavy), and we went to a motel where some of Travis and Erin's friends from out of town were staying. There was a lot of walking from place to place, and Nick and I opted to not where jackets because we assumed the venue didn't have a coat check, so I spent a lot of time freezing my sweet little patootie off. Everyone at the motel was drinking mushroom tea. Erin's friend Colby was burning palo santo wood, which is a wood from Peru that can be used for incense and smudging, and she gave Nick and I a few sticks. Afterward, we headed to the show. The first night of Tribe was a lot of fun, although a bit hard on my body. I was running on only a couple of hours of sleep and became drained pretty early on. We skipped all of the after-parties and opted to just go back to Allie's house and crash on the couch in her basement. The couch was hard and the basement was cold, so the first night's sleep was rather uncomfortable, but we were able to check into our hotel the next morning.
We woke up and called a cab to take us to the Doubletree. The hotel was extremely nice. It had a restaurant, bar and grill, Starbucks, and indoor pool. We immediately went to our room and ordered food and got some proper rest. We spent most of the rest of the day lounging until it was time to get ready for another night of Tribe. The snow was even heavier, and again we went out without jackets. I had nothing but a little shaw pulled over my tank top. One of Nick's friends, who ended up being the most terrifying driver ever, came and picked us up to take us to a local dispensary that would let people in without showing their medical cards. Nick was like a kid in a candy store. He got a few types of weed and Keef Cola. At the show, we tracked down two of our friends from Georgia, Patrick and his girlfriend Katie, and the group they were with and merged our two groups of friends. I was much more well-rested this time around and could actually enjoy the show more. Afterward, Patrick and Katie came back to our hotel with us to hang out for a bit. Patrick mentioned something about the coat check line being terrible, and it was at the moment we realized we had been walking around in negative degree weather wearing next to nothing for absolutely no reason.
The third day was an adventure. In the afternoon, Travis and Erin and Colby came over. The plan was to have a spiritual pre-party together. We were going to burn some palo santo wood and Colby had brought her massage table to do some Reiki healing. Everyone smoked beforehand, and then Colby set up her table. We had a little debate about lighting the palo santo because we were in a non-smoking hotel with a smoke detector in the room, but then decided it probably wouldn't go off. Wrong. A few seconds after we lit the palo santo, the smoke detector started wailing like a fucking tornado siren. Nick ran downstairs to try and get someone at the front desk to disengage it. The rest of us were standing around in the room with our hands over our ears trying to figure out some way to air out the room. Right as we got the smoke detector to shut up, a security guy or manager of some sort came bursting into the room, and he did not look happy. He immediately started complaining about the smell of weed, more-so because of the hotel being non-smoking rather than the fact that we had weed since the area has decriminalized marijuana use for medicinal purposes. We tried to tell him that the smell was the palo santo, which does in fact have a quite pungent smell, but that just made him angry that we were lighting anything in there. He started lecturing us about it being a fire hazard, especially since we had the massage table partially blocking the pathway to the door. He was equally upset about the massage table, I think because he assumed we had more people staying in our room than were supposed to be. We tried to explain the Reiki to him, but that just weirded him out. He was quite frustrated with the "damn hippies" he had in his hotel. He initially threatened to kick us all out, and then that he was going to charge $150 for the mishap, but we managed to talk him down on the grounds that it wouldn't happen again and we'd remove the massage table from the room. Luckily, it ended up being something we were all able to just laugh about.
That last night of Tribe was definitely the best. I was energized and warm (as this time, we actually wore jackets out and had them coat checked at the show). During the very first song Tribe played, a boy standing next to me had a seizure. He fell to the floor beside me. At first, I was in a panic and wanted nothing to do with the scenario. Then I realized this was dumb of me. I'm in nursing school and had all of my CPR and First Aid certification cards right there in my purse. I pushed some people out of the way to check on the boy, and one of our friends who happens to be a nurse in the ER was already down beside him. The boy's lips were blue. I asked our friend if the boy was breathing, and he was, so I immediately started yelling at people to get help. Everyone was just standing there screaming and waving their hands, which obviously doesn't do much in the way of getting security's attention since we're at a concert and half the people are doing the same thing just out of excitement. I tried to call 911, but my phone died right after the first ring. Finally someone actually left the crowd to go personally get security, and I tried to get someone near me to call 911. After at least five solid minutes of attempting to get help, security finally showed up and hauled the boy off. While I knew the boy was going to survive the incident, I couldn't help but be shaken for a while after. Nick and I were both wearing pieces of palo santo, and Nick lit his to smudge the area and remove the negative energy. The rest of the show was fantastic. Right before midnight, Tribe had Dom from Big Gigantic come and stage and play his sax with them. It was beautiful. They did the countdown and these huge balloons that were hanging overhead popped, showering the crowd with confetti and smaller balloons. For a good while after, you could hear balloons popping as people stomped the small balloons that were all over the floor. Shortly after we rang in the New Year, I became extremely dizzy and almost fainted. Nick helped me out of the crowd and sat with me at the handicap seats on the sides while I cooled off and drank some water before we rejoined our friends in the crowd.
After the show, we went to the motel where Patrick and Katie were staying to spend some time with them and their friends before we headed to our own hotel. Sleeping that night felt so good, as my poor pregnant body had really been pushed to its limits that weekend. We woke up bright and early the next morning to catch our flight back home. The whole experience was exciting, but it did feel nice to come back to the comforts of home.
Nick and I have a new (to us) home now. We've moved into one of the duplexes that Nick's dad rents out. It's smaller than our apartment, but I'm okay with that. The whole energy inside of the house just feels warm and cozy. The huge upsides are that we don't have to worry about paying things like rent and utilities. We've opted to not get cable and internet, less for money saving reasons and more-so because I prefer to not have them. They are such needless distractions in our lives. We're able to receive internet from a neighbor in one area of our bedroom (hence how I'm managing to update), and that's all we really need. I only really need the internet for school purposes anyway. The only real downside is that it only has two bedrooms, so we're going to have to do rearranging in order to make some space for the baby.
Speaking of the baby, I should be able to find out what I'm having soon. Everyone is pretty dead set that it's a girl, and as much as I want a girl myself, I'm not getting my hopes up. I keep trying to convince myself that it's a boy so I won't have to worry about being let down. That sounds terrible. Obviously I'm going to be happy with whatever it is, but you know... I haven't really been able to feel any distinct movements yet, but I've definitely been able to notice my growing belly. The craziest thing to me is that I can feel pressure shifts inside of me whenever the baby moves from one area to another. When it moves toward the front, I get a strong pressure in my lower abdomen. When it gets in position like that, I can lay on my back and suck in, and there will be this perfectly round ball sticking out from my lower abdomen. It's extremely hard, and you can cup it in your hands. It's crazy, it's like being able to hold the baby. I took a picture of it earlier, when it was especially balled up. Eventually I'll get around to uploading all of my recent pictures from my camera (which, honestly, aren't a whole lot because I've been seriously slacking).
Lastly, here are a few pictures from Colorado. Like I said, I haven't gotten around to uploading my own pictures in a hot minute, so these are all taken by other people. Don't judge my photography skills base don these!
Patrick and Nick.
Me, Katie, and Katie's friend Rachel.
Rachel, girl whose name I don't remember (shame on me), Katie, and I.