Weekend Things

My baby sister is officially 21-years old.  Ahem, too much celebrating means a later than usual “Weekend Things” post.  I don’t know how or when this happened but it makes me feel old.  Although, I got in a big discussion about how old I look when we were out celebrating this weekend and the general consensus was 18…

Friday kicked off with a little deal between Joey and I.  I said I’d go to the Rockies game and suffer being cold if we could grab dinner at Vine Street Pub before.  The wait for a table was 30 minutes, but we were able to sit right away out on the patio.

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A little chilly, but nothing my jacket and a good beer couldn’t fix.

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Reubens and burgers for the win!  Every time we eat at Vine I wonder why we don’t live in a quirky Denver house within walking distance.  Then I remember it’s because I’m not that wealthy.  And also because anyone who’s living that dream doesn’t seem to be in the market to sell it to me 🙂

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The game wasn’t half bad.  We were all bundled up in jackets and our Rockies blanket (I love that thing!) and the people sitting in front of us (in our actual seats) were only mildly annoying.  Plus we won!

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More winning on Saturday at the Nuggets first playoff game.  We won on a final second shot — so exciting!  In other news, I feel really grateful for Joey’s family, without whom I wouldn’t have access to such fun and exciting sporting events.

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The guy behind us missed out on an amazing photo bomb opportunity.

I have no idea how this happened, but I have zero photos from the 21st birthday celebration on Saturday night!  Although, this is probably a good thing — technology and alcohol usually don’t mix well.  The gist of it was late night appetizers and drinks at the 9th Door, which had the most amazing DJ mixing up everything from Britney Spears to Mumford and Sons (Joey and I were ready to book him in advance for our future wedding), then we hit up the Denver bars for Everclear cherries, birthday cake shots and the usual drunken debauchery.

I made sure my new-to-the-bar-scene sister learned this one important lesson: There is nothing like the camaraderie between girls in the women’s bathroom at a bar.  Nothing.

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Classier (and slightly more sober) celebrations occurred the next day at the Med.

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Highlights being a table for 5 next to a big window that allowed me to capture some lovely pictures.  Like this grilled salmon cobb salad (serious yum!), my dad and his paella and my sister actually cooperating and letting me take a picture of she and my mom.

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And then I may have snuck another one just for fun.

Although the dining out, game watching and bar hanging was all a ton of fun, the highlight of the whole weekend was hearing my sister say she had the perfect birthday 🙂

Happy Tuesday to you all!

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How did you celebrate your 21st birthday?

What was the highlight of your weekend?

If money wasn’t an object, where would you most like to live?

I Choose Hope

This Saturday will be the 14th anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School.  Although this incredibly heartbreaking incident wasn’t the first or the last tragedy of its kind, the anniversary always weighs heavy on my mind because it happened here in my beloved home state.  My sister’s birthday was the following day and she showed up to class carting cupcakes and brimming with birthday excitement, only to be met with a somber classroom and a teacher in tears.

I was in the 4th grade.  Too young to really grasp the gravity of the situation, and for that, I consider myself lucky.  Now, every year when the anniversary comes, I find myself another year older and with a greater understanding of what a tragedy like Columbine really means.  It means that there is pure evil in the world.  That human beings are fully capable of killing each other.  That pain and death are real.

When news of the bombings at the Boston Marathon reached me, these realizations were once again upon me.  When footage of the explosion in Texas came on the nightly news, I felt those realizations reaffirmed.  With an already heavy heart, I watched the bottom line scroll across, reporting the poison that had been sent to our president and the latest details on the murder of two District Attorneys.  It is too much.  It makes me worry about the fate of our world.  A world where death, destruction and hate exist.

I am an emotional person and I need to allow myself to be sad.  To feel every emotion that massacres, bombings and explosions illicit.  It’s okay to feel sad.  To experience moments of despair.  To worry that the world is growing more dangerous.  Those feelings and worries are real and we as human beings, cannot ignore them.  I know this.  But I also believe there is so much good in the world.  I have to.  There is too much evidence not to.  And I wouldn’t be able to move on if I didn’t.  As hopeless as things seems sometimes, I choose to be hopeful.

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Wishing you all a safe and happy weekend.