Girlfriends

I am sooo very happy to have met some great ladies through work- Kathi, Jenn, and Cherisse. Kathi is in her mid 50's and has been a God-send for me. She has some of the best advice to give and is always available to talk to whenever I need to vent, ask questions, or just ponder what my next steps in life should be. She is very inspirational in that she raised a son as a single mom and has had many hardships in her life, yet she has never given up. She has kept a sense of humor and a sense of hope through some pretty rough times. She is one of the most unique women I know, both in personality and in fashion. She keeps her hair short, she wears rings on EVERY finger, she has more sets of earrings than a Claire's store, and more shoes and hats than anyone I have ever met. She wears a different hat nearly everyday. She was very instrumental in helping me buy my car...and before that she would frequently give me a ride home from work because she knew how much I loathed taking the bus home. Kathi has a heart of gold and I am truly going to miss our talks when I move.

Jenn and Cherisse are both around my age, and the 3 of us have such a blast together. We have started spending more time together outside of work, and I've really been enjoying their company and getting to know them better. Jenn is a single mom to an adorable little girl, Ashlynne who is almost 5. Jenn just turned 24, but has already endured so much in her life. I really admire how driven she is. She has had some rough times since I have known her, but no matter how bad things seem to be, she is always smiling, and I really admire that. She and I can banter back and forth all day long. I am so happy she "gets" my sense of humor.

Cherisse just moved her from Southern California a couple months ago. She is such a firecracker! The epitomy of California girl- she loves being outside and on the beach and, of course, surfing! She is a fantastic recruiter, so it's been fun to watch and learn from her. She moved out here to be closer to her boyfriend and I admire the fact that she was OK with picking up and moving across the country for someone (sound familiar??). :) She is a total free spirit who shares my passion for travel- she spent 6 months living in Australia, and has traveled all over Europe. I love listening to her stories! They make me more determined to get out and travel more.

One of the things I have missed the most from Chicago is having girlfriends that I can laugh with. And both these girls make me laugh. Our personalities mesh so well- I love that the 3 of us have become completely comfortable around each other in such a relatively short amount of time. We had a girls' night out last night, complete with appetizers and wine at my place...then to the bars for some dancing. And dance we did! None of us have any shame on the dance floor. We were cracking each other up with our...moves. It was such a fun night!

It makes me sad that I finally found fun girls to spend time with here right before I leave for Nashville. But I am positive I will keep in touch with all 3 of them...and it gives me 3 more excuses to come back to Denver as often as I can!

Big day!

Friday was a momentous day in the world of Meaghan. To explain just how momentous it was, let me rewind the clock a bit. Those of you who knew me in high school may recall the awesome vehicles I drove. Just as a warning, this will probably be a long, involved blog. But the story is too good to not document.

When I first turned 16 my Grandparents surprised me by driving up to Decatur in their 1986 Ford Mustang convertible...and then leaving the car with me (well, the family, really, but I was the one of "driving" age without a car) to use. The Mustang looked much like this one- only blue.

My best friend Kelly and I had many, many fun times in that car. Those were the days of $0.98/gallon tanks of gas, which meant I could fill up for around $12. Kelly and I drove all over that summer- on our "Route", to Clinton to go out on the lake, to basketball stuff, etc...

Once we drove to Peoria to pick up Layta, our family's exchange student and got a flat tire on the side of the road, somewhere between Wapella and Bloomington. Did either of us know how to fix a flat tire? No, of course not. We were stranded on the side of the road. Fortunately Mom had given me her brand new cell phone to use in case of an emergency so we were able to call Mom and Dad and have them come help us. And what did we do while we waited for them? We donned some full-body mechanic suits that I had in my trunk (don't ask why...), hiked into a corn field to use the bathroom, stripped out of the mechanic suits, down to our sports bras, and laid out for an hour and a half while we waited for our help to arrive. If you can imagine, two 16 year old girls stripped down to their sports bras laying out on the side of Interstate 55 really drew a lot of attention from passersby. And not really good attention. We had to politely turned down several offers to "help" us. Parents- let your young daughters know that it isn't a great idea to follow in our footsteps. Girls, if you are reading this- learn how to change a tire...or at the very least, be smart enough to stay fully clothed when you are put in a predicament like we were in.

Believe it or not, that isn't the dumbest thing I did in the Mustang! The mother of all stupid moves came later that summer. I was working at LaGondola and was due into work around 4 PM. Kelly lived just a couple blocks from work, so I stopped by to say hello. We were blowing bubbles in her backyard (I know, how cool were we??) when we decided it would be fun to blow bubbles out the window of my car with the top down. So Kelly jumped in the driver's seat and we took off around her neighborhood. We were driving along, I was admiring all the pretty bubbles, while Kelly was complaining that she couldn't see the bubbles because they were all floating behind the car. So what did our genius, 16 year old minds decide was the perfect solution to this problem? Why, we would drive in reverse, of course! It seemed like such a perfect, easy solution to our dilemma. So Kelly kicked it into reverse and off we went. We were driving along, both enjoying the pretty bubbles, then...CRASHHHH! We hit a truck. A parked truck. On the side of a residential road. Genius, I tell you. The ironic part was that we were driving so slowly that there was absolutely zero damage done to the truck, and the Mustang only suffered from a cracked rear light. We contemplated running from the scene of the accident, but our guilty Catholic consciences wouldn't allow it. So we made the death walk- up the driveway, to the door of a stranger, to tell them we just ran into their parked car.

"How?" the truck owner asked. We proceded to tell her just a tiny white lie about turning around in her driveway (no bubbles were mentioned to protect the innocent...I mean, guilty) and not noticing her truck. She surveyed the scene, and observed that the damage was done to our car, not her truck. Then, she asked the question that Kelly and I still ask each other to this day- "Why on earth did you guys come up here and tell me? Why didn't you just leave?".

Needless to say, the incident didn't go over well with Mom and Dad. Shortly after the "Bubble" accident, I was stripped of my rights to use the Mustang and was instead allowed to use a beast of an automobile- our full size conversion van, also blue. It looked much like this.

Impressive, right? So I spent the rest of my high school years being the envy of soccer moms, while my Dad quickly became the envy of everyone at Wagners in his new ride. The carefree days of running the streets of Decatur were over. I now looked like I was eternally ready to pick up my 3.2 kids from swim practice and run to the grocery store for milk. It wasn't all bad though. When a big group of friends wanted to go to the movies, we didn't have to worry about taking several cars. All 15 of us could pile into my van, and off we went! The van will live in infamy amongst my highschool friends. We still talk about my "sweet" highschool ride to this day. In fact, the van will forever live in one of St Teresa's yearbook. In it there is a picture of my friend Nicki and I surfing on top of the van. Yes, surfing. Those were the days.

I went on to college in St. Louis, leaving the van behind me. None of my brothers or sister were ever allowed the...pleasure...of driving the van after me. I was the only Wingard child to have the pure joy of being seen around town driving a full size conversion van...I was probably the only 16 year old teenager in Decatur driving a full size conversion van.

Since then, I haven't had a car. Living in Chicago I didn't need one, but the past year in Denver has been difficult without one. Will has been gracious enough to let me use his car when I needed to get somewhere, but relying on someone for a ride all the time isn't fun. So Friday, I finally did it. I bought a car. It's a cute little 2004 Volkswagen Jetta, and I love it dearly. So dearly that I promise never to let bubbles within a 20 foot radius of it. And probably not Kelly, either. At least, not in the driver's seat. :)

Has anyone else caught Olympics Fever?? :) I'm normally not such a nut about watching sports on TV but there's just something about the Olympics that I love. Maybe it's watching all the different countries competing and the honor that goes along with winning a medal. Maybe it's the sappy commercials that make me teary-eyed no matter how many times I watch them (anyone seen the Visa commercial where the dad finishes the track race with his son? AH! Gets me every time!). Maybe it's the excitement of seeing if Michael Phelps can break the record for most Gold Medals ever won. But I think the main reason I love watching the Olympics is...because I don't have cable and NBC happens to be one of 2 stations that come in clear for us. :)

Just kidding! About the cable thing, at least. I really do love watching the Olympics. The Opening ceremony this year was just awesome! Chicago better be thinking already about how they can top Beijing's opener, should they get the bid for 2016. I would love to see Chicago or Madrid get the 2016 Summer Olympics. I love both those cities so much- it would be great to be able to return to either and watch the Olympics there. (I say I'd like either to win the bid, but I'm about 70% hoping that Chicago gets it.)

So in case anyone is wondering why I didn't blog about what an amazing, fun weekend Will and I had...it's because we were working hard at making permanent dents in our couch from our butts being glued there watching every hour of Olympic coverage that NBC has broadcasted thus far. And as such we barely left our apartment all weekend. We aren't even picky about the sports we watch- we have sat through multiple rounds of rowing, swimming, gymnastics, cycling, sabre fencing, beach volleyball, indoor volleyball, basketball, synchronized diving, and water polo. And we're only on the 4th day! The good news is that I am now an expert judge in multiple sports. So if anyone needs to know the intricate details of how to win a sabre fencing match, I'm your gal! :)

To quote my adorable niece...Uh Ohhhh.

I came home last night to an...interesting...surprise. There was a note on our door from City Gate, our apartment complex, checking in with us to see if we will be renewing our lease at the end of next month. That in itself isn't the problem. We know we won't be renewing our lease. The date that our lease ends, however, is a bit of a shock.

To explain this, let me rewind to last September. We were still in Chicago, planning our move out here. Steve, the assistant manager for City Gate, called to let me know we got the apartment we wanted and we discussed the lease length. At the time, Steve gave me two options to choose from- 11 months or 13 months. I asked him why 12 months wasn't an option and he went into some yadda, yadda, yadda details about how October 1 isn't a great time to try to rent an apartment out here.

So, long story short, we thought we had signed a 13 month lease with our lease ending on October 30th. Apparently, we have not. Another classic example of how fantastic the management has been at this particular apartment complex. And yes, I am being sarcastic. We haven't had the greatest experiences dealing with them. I got a copy of the lease last night, and sure enough, our move out date is listed as September 29th.

So, this puts a bit of a curve ball in our plans. My last day of work is scheduled for October 17. The plan was to leave that night for Vegas, see Jimmy Buffett out there, come back on Monday, pack up our stuff and hit the road by the weekend, arriving in Nashville in time for Will to go the the Titans Monday Night Football game with his dad. NOW, however, I'm not sure what we are going to do. Apparently move to Nashville a few weeks earlier than expected! I do have the option of staying with a work friend and then leave on the original planned date, but who knows at this point.

Ahh, life. Always keeps you on your toes! :)

Sweet Relief...

In honor of my dad, who loves to talk about the weather, I am dedicating this blog to the heat wave that Denver is currently enjoying. Finally, after 23 days of waiting, we are getting some relief from the heat! This is record-breaking weather we've been having out here. The temperature has been over 90 for 20+ days, and today it is actually supposed to drop...to the mid-to-high 80's. Whew! What a dip. Ugh, talk about a heat wave! I know I shouldn't complain since I don't have to deal with humidity anymore (for a couple more months, at least!), but man, it's been hot here! To be fair, we do have some humidity...this morning it's up to 72%. But it doesn't feel as though you are stepping outside into someone's steamy bathroom after they've taken a really long, hot shower.

Thank you, Lord, for creating semi-arid deserts that don't require humidity. I'm a big fan of the fact that my hair doesn't take on a life of its own and spiral into an out-of-control crazy, frizzy mess when I walk outside. I can deal with feeling like I am living in an oven, but I'm not sure I'm ready to return to the land of saunas. :)

So I thought I'd take a moment this morning to sympathize with all my fellow Midwest bloggers. I hear the weather there is just awful, too. Dad said the heat index was 109 the other day...that's quite close to what our temperature was the other day. Another friend likened the humidity in St. Louis to "chewing his air before he swallowed." Yikes. I hope everyone is staying cool and doing their best to beat the heat!

Camping, and Sand Dunes, and Taos...Oh my!

My bosses Carla and Echo took the company on a camping trip last weekend. We left early Thursday afternoon and headed up to the Cripple Creek KOA. Ironic to Will and I- we went there once in April and figured we'd never be back...and this was our 3rd time going there in the past 4 months!

Camping was great with the whole team! One of my coworkers Mark brought his bags game, so we played many, many rounds, complete with calistenics for the losing team. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I was often on the losing team so I did a fair number of leg-lifts and push-ups. We did some team building exercises, too. Those were equally competitive. We had to show our best dance moves, and prove our ability to shotgun a beer- I won that competition, hands down. :) Other than that we spent most of our time eating, drinking, and chopping wood to keep our campfire going at night. We all got to stay in cabins, so it wasn't truly camping, but we had a good time.

Saturday morning Will and I packed up early to get on the road to the Sand Dunes National Park. We bought a National Parks pass last fall and want to hit as many national parks as we can while the pass is good. We were just a few hours from the Sand Dunes from Cripple Creek. The drive is really, really pretty, but barren! We (well, I) was worried about running out of gas on the side of the road- even gas stations were few and far between. We did find a gas station...and paid the most that I have ever paid for a gallon of gas- $4.09. Gulp...will the prices ever go down?!

We got to the park around lunchtime, picked out our campsite, ate some lunch and took a hike up to a lookout point for a really cool view of the dunes. Unfortunately that is about all we were able to do at the park. There were some dark clouds looming during our hike, and we got back to our campsite with just enough time to put our tent up before the sky opened up and it started dumping rain. We tried to wait it out under a tree, then eventually moved to the visitors center. It looked like the worst was over, so we went back to our campsite, but the rain picked up again as soon as we got there. So we did what every rainy camping trip calls for- we sat in the car with a beer and worked out 5 crossword puzzles. Around 6:30 the rain still hadn't let up, so we decided to give up and leave the campsite. Camping in the rain with no fire is just not fun.

We were headed toward Canon City, where the Royal Gorge Bridge is (a place Will insists we go before we leave for Nashville- I'm not sure how I feel about walking across a 1200 ft. tall bridge) when I looked at a map and realized how close we were to New Mexico. I had never been to New Mexico, so on a whim we turned south and went to Taos! We rolled in around 9:30 and quickly realized that Taos was not exactly a happening place, particularly at night. And as our luck would have it, it was raining there, too! We just couldn't escape the rain!

We got a hotel room at the ever-so-nice Don Fernando Hotel after driving back and forth along the "downtown" street and not finding any place else. And instead of dining on tasty southwestern cuisine at a cute little restaurant we got Applebees to-go and watched a few episodes of "Myth Busters" before going to bed. Talk about a bust...Taos was definitely one on Saturday night!

Sunday we slept in and repacked our very wet tent in its bag. We left the sand dunes in such a haste we didn't bother to put the tent away properly. We were more concerned with keeping ourselves dry so packed up as quickly as possible. Then we drove through the downtown area again to get to the Taos Ski Valley. It looks much cuter during the day! We didn't realize that ll the buildings in Taos are built to look very southwestern-y.

The drive to Taos Ski Valley is really pretty! There is a national forest the whole way up and a really pretty river that runs right along the road. There was a bike race happening on the top of the mountain...but not much else. We spent awhile walking around and then decided to set off for home. Every ranch we passed I swore was Julia Roberts'. She owns a ranch just outside of Taos.

The ride home was really pretty, too. We drove right through the mountains and through a really cute little mountain town...too bad I forgot the name. All in all it was an unexpected trip, but I do love being spontaneous, so it was a lot of fun!

Mile High Music Fest

What an exhausting weekend! The first Annual Mile High Music fest happened- 24 hours of music over 2 days, and we attended both days, from start to finish. It was hot, loud, crowded, and tiring...and overall, awesome. :)

I loved that I got to see a lot of my favorite bands in such a short period of time! For being the first concert they have had like this in Denver, I thought everything went exceptionally well. There were plenty of porta potties (though they could have been more spread out across the park), there was a TON of space so you didn't have to be dripping sweat on your fellow concert goers, they had 2 tent stages set up so you could escape the sun and still listen to music, and there were several free water spots around the park. But Lord, was it hot!! Saturday the high was 97 and Sunday it actually hit 100 degrees! We were very responsible (unlike many, many people) and drank lots of water in lieu of beer so we could stay hydrated. That definitely helped us be able to hang until the bitter end on both days!

My only complaint about the event was the parking situation. It took over an hour to get out of the parking lot on Saturday! I don't think they were prepared for the number of cars that would be trying to leave at the same time. That was frustrating, especially since all you want to do at the end of a long day of sun and music is to climb into bed as quickly as possible! Sunday wasn't a whole lot better, but they did seem to move traffic more quickly, which was nice.

Over the course of the weekend we got to see Eric Hutchinson, Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers, Bob Schneider, One Republic, The Roots, The Black Crowes, Tom Petty, OAR, John Mayer, The Flobots, Dave Matthews, Ingrid Michaelson, Colbie Caillat, Jason Mraz, and Gavin DeGraw, Tea Leaf Green, and a few others. Not a bad weekend of music!

Will was a trooper and put up with me dragging him from one stage to the next, and didn't complain when I danced and sang loudly to my favorite songs. :) We had a great time hanging out with Jenn (one of his college friends) and her boyfriend Brian. We have similar tastes in music so we were able to see a lot of shows together.