Giving it away for free.

Denver's Museum of Contemporary Art (www.mcadenver.org) is literally two doors up from our apartment building, and it is a very cool space with rotating exhibits and lots of special events. Before we moved to Denver, I knew that I wanted to get involved in the community through volunteer work, and I immediately looked into opportunities at the MCA when we arrived.

The MCA relies on volunteers for almost all aspects of its visitor services, and, luckily, I was selected as a summer volunteer! Yay! I go to orientation on Saturday and I'm very excited to work with one of Denver's most exciting arts institutions while meeting new people!

Now if I could just find somewhere that would like to pay me to work! :)

Moving Pictures

I uploaded some videos of Chowder to my YouTube channel...

http://www.youtube.com/user/missmelissajean1980

He is a handful!

Chez Melisse

It's no secret that Tom is the chef in our relationship. He is great in the kitchen, and he can sometimes get a little possessive of his domain. He hates it if I ask to put the toppings on one of his pizzas. When he made homemade tortillas, he didn't like the way that I rolled them out. Since he prefers--and sometimes insists--on doing the important stuff himself, I've settled into the role of sous chef and my duties usually include chopping onions and grating large hunks of fresh mozzarella. The really glamorous stuff. I'm also really good at hovering in the kitchen, picking up dropped paper towels, putting the tops back on things and being a general dishwasher.

Truth is, I feel guilty that I'm not more proactive in the kitchen, and I genuinely want to improve my cooking skills. So, I decided that every time Tom returns from a business trip at a reasonable hour of the evening, I will make a new dish/dinner. It's a little tough because his ETA home is never entirely certain thanks to airport delays, so the past two meals I've made have been of the one-dish variety. Call them casseroles, if you will.

The first dish I made was Mexican Lasagna, courtesy of Rachael Ray. I'm not a fan of hers, but, as she might say, this is, "SOOOOOOO GOOOOOOD. MMMMMMMMM." Recipe is easy and it makes good leftovers. (I was not raised eating leftovers and kind of hate them, but Tom forces me to eat them and I'm finding it's not that bad.) I know that Mexican Lasagna is not exactly fine dining, but it's sort of a guilty pleasure and probably great to bring to a party or serve to groups. Here's the recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/mexican-lasagna-recipe/index.html

Tonight, I tried to get a little more adventurous, and I'm attempting Cooking Light's Sausage & Bean Casserole. It looks like it's going to be good, but I don't know yet because Tom's airplane is sitting on the runway at DIA, waiting for a gate to open, and I have to wait until he's on his way home to put this baby in the oven. Check out the recipe, though, and see what you think:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1673012

Hopefully it comes out good. I'M HUNGRY.

Bi-Polar Weather

The weather in Denver needs a strong dose of Lithium. I've never lived somewhere with more crazy, unpredictable and downright bizarre weather. This weekend we experienced 75 degree, clear-skied sunshine, freezing torrential rain and a nice little hail storm, and this past week the weather vacillated between sunshine, rain and snow with temps ranging from 30 to 80 degrees.

On Friday, I left the house around 3PM for a nice $50 pedicure. The skies were blue and it was warm enough for me to comfortably wear a jean skirt and flip-flops. Of course, I walked to the nail salon. My pedi only took about half-an-hour and when I went to the front of the shop to sit and dry my tootsies, I looked out the shop's window to find that the sky was black and it was pouring. Like sheets of rain coming down sideways. I panicked for a second about getting home, but (luckily) Tom was working from home and had already e-mailed me about coming to pick me up. Some of my other salon-goers were not so lucky. One girl rode her bike her there and was stuck - like me, she thought is was a beautiful day and didn't expect this meteorological moodswing. And this rain didn't let up after ten minutes of dumping. It went on for a good two hours straight. So strange. So inconvenient!

But I'm not complaining too loudly because when the weather here is nice, it's nice. I've never seen bluer skies and fluffier, whiter clouds, or felt such pure, unfiltered sunshine. I just wish Denver weather would start taking its meds and even itself out!!

Chowder!

This weekend we traveled to Canon City to meet Mr. Chowder! Might sound cheezy, but we are so in love! Although he is the runt of his litter and is tinier than his brothers and sisters, the Chow Man has no trouble keeping up with them and he's a very friendly, curious pup. We bring him home on Sunday and I think I might become one of those dimwit girls who carry their doggies everywhere because he's just so cuddly! Everyone keep fingers crossed that potty training is easy. I can't believe that I'm going to be an official dog owner in less than a week - YAAAY!

Unemployment: Pros & Cons

It's been a little over a month since we arrived in Denver and my quest for gainful employment has already had its share of ups and downs. I interviewed for and was offered a community relations position that paid okay but would require me to commute 45 minutes each way to a Po-dunk town in the middle of absolute, God-forsaken nowhere. After much discussion and a mini-meltdown (Tom is a lucky man!), I decided against taking the job because one of the positives about moving out here was that I didn't have to take the first job that came along and I didn't feel like that was the right job for me. But what if that's the only job that's going to come along? I've been torturing myself with that question, but I have to believe that another opportunity will appear... hopefully sooner rather than later. In the meantime, I need to embrace the more laid-back Denver lifestyle and attempt to enjoy unemployment instead of obsess over it. Much easier said than done...

Here's my breakdown of the pros and cons of being sans job...

PROS

• Stress-free evenings and Sunday afternoons. I mean, what do I gotta do tomorrow?
• Unlimited gym time. If I can't make money, I will be buff. I am making working out my unofficial job.
• No annoying alarm clocks and not having to make the decision to either sleep another 20 minutes or blow-dry my hair.
• Getting to see a lot of Tom, especially when he isn't traveling and is working from home.
• Discovering that I enjoy doing chores like making the bed, laundry, sweeping, dishes, cleaning countertops, etc. All this free time has awakened the sleeping clean/neat freak in me.
• Oprah. Yes, I am embarassed to admit this one. But she doesn't come on until 4PM, which is basically the end of the day, so I don't feel that guilty sitting down for a little tube time.
• I am reading books again. It used to be that I only had it in me to read the New Yorker each week, but now I've made a pact with myself to read books too. Currently reading: Little Bee and Housetraining for Dummies.
• The mall is not crowded on Tuesdays at 11AM!
• Enjoying the sunshine! Not being cooped up in an office from 9AM - 5PM gives me plenty of opportunity to get my vitamin D.
• Exploring Denver. I need to get a little bit better at this one. I've gotten to know our neighborhood, but there's so much more to see and discover.

CONS

I started to write this list and then I got freaked out and it reminded me that I need to be positive and not dwell on the negative. :) Anyway, you all know the cons - no money, guilt over not contributing, stress and uncertainty of the job search, daytime TV sucks, not having a set schedule gives me anxiety, etc.

When I'm at the gym at noontime on a Thursday and I look at some of the women who are there with me, I wonder - what do you do? how are you able to be here? is this just your life? or is this how you keep yourself sane? Because it's how I'm keeping myself sane right now.

I hope that everyone will remind me of how I was crabbing about being unemployed when I am working again. Because I know that when that day comes, I'm going to wish that I could stay home and go to the gym!

A few photos...

I'm not ready to post interior photos yet - there are a few things that we still need! But here are some of the exterior of our building and the surrounding areas...

This is the front entrance of our building and the bridge at the end of the street goes across the Cherry Creek. That's also the entrance to the Cherry Creek bike path.

An exterior of our unit, which is on the corner bottom level. Look at our little balcony and the floor-to-ceiling windows!

The access to the Cherry Creek bike and walking path, which wraps around to Commons Park, REI, Riverfront Park and where Cherry Creek meets the Platte River.

A view of where the Cherry Creek meets the Platte River. That's the big REI on the right and there is green space all around where people hang out. Kind of like Denver's version of the beach!