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We had our housewarming party this past weekend and it went very well.

My parents drove from Grand Junction to attend. As a housewarming present, they brought all my junior high and high school yearbooks, letters, journals, all my college notebooks, plus a few items from childhood, including Holly and Heather Hobby dolls and my Cabbage Patch Kid, who was tragically named Merle Hara.

The most interesting box contains treasures I saved from my early high school years. Mixed in with magazine clippings of 1985’s most energetically pastel fashions was a list I made the summer before my freshman year of high school.
wake me up before you go go

I must have checked the goals I reached. I’d like to congratulate myself for the complexion improvement and the BLAST I had at camp. It is fortunate I realized how to spell candystriping, or my summer may have been much different than intended.

Part of me snickers at Young Gretchen fretting over memorizing the map of my future high school. Hubby thinks my dude-meeting goal is hilarious. I gave up making lists of my goals a long time ago, unfortunately. There is great value in the act of expressing the direction you hope to steer your life. I admire the optimism of goal-setters and would love to feel the rush of making a checkmark next to a goal, accomplished.

Elk run rampant

The headline of today’s Rocky Mountain News, circulation 800,000, is “Elk run rampant”. I love living in a place where shrubbery-eating elk are the top news story. Of course Denver has its share of crime like any major city and many times the news reflects the dark side of society. I know how blessed I am to live where elk can run rampant. As long as they stay away from my mums.
3-1
On Friday I helped chaperone Aidan’s class field trip, called “A Day Out in Denver”. I led Aidan and two other little girls around the sights, sounds, and smells of downtown Denver. We were dropped at Civic Center park in the morning and were told to meet at Union Station in the afternoon. We were given a guide book but a lot of freedom to explore. I was also given a medical kit consisting of a bandaid and a pair of latex gloves, which I used immediately after we got off the bus. One of the little girls had a scab on her arm that ripped open when it got caught on another child’s backpack. After I patched her owie and dried her tears we set off to explore.

Their favorite part of the Denver adventure was riding the free shuttle buses on the Sixteenth Street Mall. I tried to steer us toward walking as much as possible, so they could get the full effect of the city. Aidan and one of the other girls got pigeon droppings all over their notebooks when they set them down to write observations of the urban: pigeon poop stinks! buses stink! alleys stink!

We walked and I tried pointing out the historic and interesting architecture listed in the guide. They were too busy noticing Subway, Sonic, McDonald’s, Quiznos, Jamba Juice, Burger King, Ben and Jerry’s, Panda Express, P.F. Chang’s, Noodles & Co., Falafel King, Qdoba, Steak Escape, Taco Bell, the Hard Rock Cafe, the Great Harvest Bread Company, various delis, sidewalk cafes, and hot dog stands.

It was fun seeing Denver through their eyes. They were creeped out by a wig store, enchanted with sidewalk musicians, invigorated by bus rides, grossed out each time we walked by an alley, and exhausted by the time we were due at historic Union Station.

hee haw arapahoe

moo oh, give me a home

Lifenut

happy anniversary...we didn't think you'd make it!Lifenut is one year old today.

I’ve written haiku.

I’ve made handy graphs and charts.

Lists? Oh yeah! Here.

Posts that make me cry, even today.

Posts that make me sigh, even today. Sigh, part deux.

Posts where the evidence is still in my freezer.

Posts I had fun writing. U2!

Photos!

Posts that make me gulp and feel weak-kneed, even now.

Lifenut was originally going to be the spot where I wrote down all the things people were telling me I ought to be writing down. It has grown so much, from a place only my mother seemed to visit to a place a few more people visit.

I have “met” so many extraordinary women and men, fellow bloggers and readers. The greatest opportunity Lifenut has given me is the chance to read the thoughts and feelings of gifted writers. Some bloggers make me think and challenge me, others make me laugh, and many do both. I had no idea when I started this what I was getting into.