Did I mention it was cold? Because it was pretty cold.

My roommate and my dog and I went camping Saturday night. I had to work all day, so it was dark by the time we got up into the mountains and had the tent set up and a fire going. It was pretty chilly, so once our fire went out we decided to go crawl into our sleeping bags and go to sleep. And I was like, great, I can't wait to find out what creepy things my roommate is going to do to freak me out a la Blair Witch, as that very morning he had woken up at 6 am and piled all of my dog's toys outside my bedroom door. ("I tried to set them all up so it was like they were looking at you," he said. "But they kept falling over.") If he was going to do a lame knock-off prank in our apartment, I figured he'd go all out once we were in the woods.

Unfortunately for him, we had other things to worry about, such as the low temperature that night being somewhere around 45 and the fact that our sleeping bags weren't as warm as we'd hoped. I spent most of the night awake, just as I thought I might, but instead of being paranoid about every sound I heard, I was alternating between trying to find a good way to keep myself warm and worrying about the dog, who I was convinced would freeze to death if not snuggled under my sleeping bag with me. This led to very little sleep in some very uncomfortable positions. But we survived and I like to think that it was better than waking up in a puddle of sweat.

In the end, I'm glad we went, because the mountains were beautiful this morning, and it was nice to take advantage of living so close to the Rockies. And also because I am really good at toasting marshmallows, and outside of camping that's not a skill I get to use very often. In fact I'm pretty sure I won't be using it again until it's warm outside.

Denver: Month Three

I don't know if it's because I spent so much of the summer sitting around my apartment looking for a job, but I can't believe how long the last three months have seemed. Even when I visited Ohio a few weeks ago for my cousin's wedding, I felt like I hadn't been home for months and months. I was shocked that everything was still so familiar. My parents haven't even done anything with my old bedroom yet! And then I remembered it had only been about 9 weeks since I left.

Here is a gratuitous photo of my family from the wedding. I love big group pictures like this.



My last day at Target was the day before I left, and I started my new job the day after I got back. I'm enjoying it a lot, so even though it took me so long to find a job it looks like everything worked out the way it was supposed to. I think my new schedule is going to help me settle into a routine, and I am nothing if not a creature of habit. Also helping: primetime television returned this week, and I'm pretty sure my roommate and I became friends over a mutual love of three things, one of which is good tv. (The other two are beer and Bob Dylan.) It's a shame I didn't make more friends while we didn't have cable because I'm looking at my tv schedule and I'm thinking I won't have a lot of time for socializing until the end of Lost in May. In fact it's entirely possible that my next monthly update will consist of nothing but television show reviews I copied and pasted from other websites because I was too busy watching tv to write my own.

Actually, that's not true at all--I have done a lot of fun things recently and have quite a few planned ahead. Two weeks ago I went to Red Rocks Amphitheater for Monolith Music Festival. More impressive than the performances (which were, for the most part, all really good) was the venue itself. They are pretty strict about cameras, so I didn't try to take mine with me (from what I could gather, it looked like anything with a removable lens required a special photo pass). I think being out in the mountains in the gorgeous end-of-summer weather got to us, tomorrow we are going to Denver's Oktoberfest and Saturday night we are camping at Rocky Mountain National Park.

The camping idea seemed like a great one, until my roommate had a second good idea, which was to watch one scary movie every night in October. We've been Netflixing things like Dawn of the Dead and The Omen. Then Tuesday, when I mentioned that there were days in October when we absolutely won't be able to watch a movie, we decided to get one out of the way. And, stupidly, we chose The Blair Witch Project. A movie about people who are attacked while...camping.

I'm really looking forward to Saturday.

I still haven't hung anything on the walls in my room, but I did finally go get my new drivers license. So it's only taken me three months. That's not so bad.

Buzzed

Moving in with my roommate has changed a lot of my living habits. Things like, now instead of having a single beer every five days, I have five beers every single day. (Kidding! Sort of!) The summer I lived alone in college, I survived on salad and strawberry shortcake. I was sort of headed back in that direction out here, but I always assume that my roommate is judging my eating habits ("You didn't have dinner. Strawberry shortcake is dessert."). It's okay, though, because even with all the beer I now drink, I have managed to lose enough weight to fit into the clothes I wore that strawberry shortcake summer, so let that be a lesson to you: if you are in need of an effective diet, live with someone who you think scrutinizes everything you eat!

(To be fair [and perhaps this is something I will expand upon in the future], as a male my roommate did not have to experience the soul-crushing body image issues that most teenage girls have to endure, and therefore never learned about the dangers of high caloric intake. I'm pretty sure he never even thought about those things called calories until, oh, about a year ago when his metabolism finally slowed down. I think because these adventures in healthy eating are so new to him, he feels the need to make sure that I also know how bad sugar is for you. Or that Coors LIGHT has fewer calories than regular Coors. Or that vegetables? So beneficial. Mind blowing, I know.)

But, I digress. The biggest change I've made is that I now drink about 300% more caffeine everyday. It was about 150% more when we first moved out here because my roommate and I share a love for Diet Cherry Coke. I am embarrassed to admit how many cans we go through in a week, but it is a lot more than you might think two people could drink. But then.

Then I started drinking coffee. My roommate used to work at Starbucks and coffee is one of his most favorite things, so his enthusiasm led me to believe that I was missing out on something. And I totally was. I like the way it is hot, and how it smells, and that when I drink it I am actually productive for the first two hours of work.

When I was visiting Ohio over the weekend, I tried to not drink any caffeine the entire time I was home. I got in late Thursday and by Friday night I had a splitting headache. I went to bed early to stave it off, but by Saturday afternoon it was back with a vengeance and I had to give up and have a sweet, sweet Diet Coke with my dinner.

I know it's unhealthy, but I can't help it. If only my roommate knew how bad for you caffeine is, I'm sure I'd be peer pressured to lay off it for a while. I'm sure he'll figure it out eventually, but in the meantime I am going to enjoy every single sip of delicious energy-boosting liquid heaven I can get my hands on.

Now pardon me while I go figure out how to get rid of these shakes.

Worse than spam email

When I got home from Ohio today, my roommate wasn't here, but he'd left a stack of my mail on the table. I'm not sure why, but he left all the junk mail for me too: a "household research survey," an ad about helping abandoned pets, and a couple of those magazines that sell really bizarre stuff you get when another company sells your mailing address. Some of it is addressed to me, but most of it was addressed to the person who used to live here.

And I don't understand, does he think I WANT a weird cat pillow or a t-shirt that says "She who must be obeyed"? Or detail our grocery shopping and tv watching habits? Or save little puppies?

Okay, so I sort of DO want to save little puppies. But that's about it.