Boulder Parking Lot Redux

A while back I posted a rant about the various parking lots in the city of Boulder, and how they nearly drive me to madness on a daily basis. At first I thought it was simply the tight spaces of these lots that was making me so angry.

I'd like to add the traffic flow and exits of these parking lots to be on the same annoying plane as the tight spaces. For some odd reason, the majority of the parking lots in Boulder have one way exits where it's hard to actually get onto the neighboring streets. What is THAT about? Why did they get designed that way?

The worst offender is Target, or at least it seems like the worst offender as I frequent that store so much that getting out of that lot takes a lot of advance planning before you even pull out of your spot. Every exit is only to the right, meaning you have to go to great lengths should you need to go south or west (which I almost always do) after leaving Target.

And there are a host of other stores that can compete well in this category... Safeway, Whole Foods, Michael's, the new 24 Hour Fitness, Wahoo's, McGuckins (and every other store in that area) and so many more. After five years of living in Boulder I have become very accustomed to planning out routes and getting sneaky with my exits. In a town of 100,000 I have to ask myself why it is so hard to go to stores here? I just don't get it.

However I also realize this is just one of those things that I can't control and should stop getting angry about. I think when others come to visit and I hear myself trying to tell them tricks about one-way store parking lot exits is when it all comes to a head.

I would really love to have a conversation with the civil engineers and city planners who designed these parking lots and streets. What the F were you thinking?

Burning down the house

Last night you may have seen on the news (or closer friends may have lived through it!) that Boulder was in jeopardy of being damaged by some raging wildfires. There were two fires raging very near Boulder, both started apparently by downed power lines. Why would a few power lines have toppled over, you might ask?!?

Because of the frickin Colorado winds. Ugh.



I could see smoke from our office building yesterday in the hills north of our house and just north of Boulder proper. I didn't think too much of it except that after I picked up the kids from daycare and we were driving home I could see orange glowing and flames on the mountain. Delaney, the thrill seeker that she is, really wanted to see it closer. So I half-heartedly obliged her and we drove a little north on Broadway to check it out. At a certain point I started to get a bit scared as I gaped in horror at what looked like lava all over the mountains, seemingly only a few hundred yards away. Fire trucks zoomed past our car and traffic came to a standstill. I turned the car around and decided that Delaney and I had had enough thrill-seeking for one evening.

As I am prone to do in these situations, I turn on the TV in anticipation of news coverage and information. Some local channels were covering it but at primetime everyone cut away to their favorite shows. I guess the news would have to be pretty dire in order to cut away from CSI, right?

Delaney then proceeded to show signs of a bad illness, Garrett needed a bath and we needed dinner. So we forgot about it until the 9 o'clock news. When we tuned in at that point the winds had died down and even though 11,000 homes had been evacuated, no one was talking about fear of homes being destroyed. I thought of all our friends in Dakota Ridge and how we looked at houses in that neighborhood. We worried about our friend Matt's new brewery that was a hundred yards from the flames. The newscasters said that if winds continued or increased, and the direction changed, that the news might then change. Even though we were a good two miles away from the heart of the fire I stopped the television and had a talk with Kevin about our plan if we had to evacuate.

Kevin of course thought I was nuts. And he wasn't really engaging me in my need for the details of the plan, going from room-to-room to see what we would grab if time permitted. But I did it anyway. And I made him set out an outfit should we get the call. I grabbed the 4-5 jewelry items that were really important to me and a few documents and put them in one easy place. We talked about what we would do if we had to immediately get out (just kids and pets, in our PJ's), if we had 10 minutes and if we had 30 minutes.

It's pretty amazing to evaluate your house and belongings in that sense. I realized that I didn't care too much about anything in my closet. I could probably find better stuff at the store right now anyway.

The fire thankfully did not destroy any homes within city limits, although I think a bunch of houses up in the mountains suffered damage.

The fire did remind us of a few things, however.

That when push comes to shove, all we want with us is our family.
That we need to check up on our fire insurance coverage to make sure it's VERY good.
That we need a safe in our basement that is flood and fireproof.
That I want to take a bunch of my photo negatives in to one of those places where they convert them to digital. Then I will load them up onto Shutterfly.

I am feeling very lucky that everyone is safe and sound today. Of course Delaney is really sick with what looks like an ear infection, and we got almost no sleep last night, but I am still feeling very blessed today.

Music in North Boulder Park

One of our favorite things about our neighborhood is living near North Boulder Park. It's about a half-block away and it's a huge park complete with a playground, two softball fields, bbq pits, and plenty of place to lounge around. In the winter after a fresh snow it turns into a skate skiing course which is also a nice benefit.

In the summer our friends Steve and Colby Evans organize a great music series on Sunday nights called, appropriately, "Music in the Park". They usually feature talented local musicians who play for a few hours while the entire neighborhood congregates while camped out on picnic blankets. Most people bring food and drinks as well.

The park comes alive with children running everywhere, squeals of delight and conversation after conversation between neighbors and friends. It is hard to explain unless you live here and experience it how close-nit this neighborhood feels during events like Music in the Park. There are hundreds of people but yet it seems like I know just about every other family in attendance.

I snapped a few pathetic pictures last Sunday, they are terrible quality but you can get a general idea of the event. Delaney and I went together and it was hard to manage an active toddler and have any conversations, but still worth it to attend nonetheless.

Barenaked Fun

On Saturday I decided it would be a grand ole time to attend the free Barenaked Ladies childrens concert at the local Barnes and Noble. Kevin untypically let out a little groan of annoyance when I mentioned that we'd all be going to the concert. How could I resist a free concert that was right in our backyard, in an intimate setting?!? He begrudgingly agreed that it would be fun. I think mentioning that he wouldn't actually have to work around the house for those few hours was what finally sealed the deal.

Despite having to wait around to get a good spot for nearly two hours, it was a lot of fun to share the event with Delaney. They played for a half-hour which is desperately short by any concert standards, but honestly it was a challenge to keep her 100% entertained for that full half hour so I was a bit relieved when they say they'd be playing their final song.

There were a lot of kids in attendance and it was pretty clear that most of them had been taken there by their parents without a clue of what they were attending and why they should be there. I could hear conversations all around Boulder that went something like this:

"Kids we're going to see the Barenaked Ladies on Saturday"
"But why?"
"Because they're a great band and you'll love them"
"I don't think I want to go"
"Well, it's a Barnes and Noble so you can pick out something you'd like when we're there"
"Cool, I guess I'll go"

Boulder Parking Lot Pet Peeve

This will be mostly a regional post about Boulder, so I apologize for all of you remote readers as it will only be moderately interesting.

I cannot stand the parking lots in Boulder.

How can I make such a grand sweeping statement?!? For some reason it seems like all of the engineers in this town are out to screw the general public with their designs and parking lot plans. By and large every parking lot in Boulder is rife with issues. The two big issues are the tight design and tight stall spaces. But there are a host of other annoyances like entrances, exits, proximity to stores and general lack of adequate space to accommodate the people trying to go to those stores. By far my biggest pet peeve is that the spaces are so darn tight. It's like they think we all drive mini Coopers or Prius compact cars. Don't they know that this town is full of SUV gas guzzlers that practically take up two spots? You should see the parking lot at my gym (the Flatiron Athletic Club). At least 70% of the cars are trucks, SUV's, or large vans. So much for Boulder being a "green" leader, eh?

One of the worst things about the parking lots is that I have a number of nicks and dings in my Volvo doors because of the small spaces. I have tried to give up caring but every time I get the car washed I get a little depressed seeing all the dimples all over the car.

Here is my list of Top 8 worst parking lots in Boulder, although honestly I have yet to find a parking lot here that is acceptable so they could all be on this list.

1. Whole Foods. This is a true war zone. There are never enough spaces and I have seen cars parked half on the islands to try and get space. You really take your own life and your cars safety into your hands when you enter this parking lot.
2. Wahoo/Starbucks/Noodles/Spicy Pickle. This is on a much smaller scale than Whole Foods but really it could easily be the worst. Not only are the spaces small but the space to back out is nonexistent. AND it's got a funky design where you can get stuck in corners you don't want to be in and can't get over to where you want to go.
3. Vic's/Moe's/Wine Merchant/Breadworks. This one is right by our house and it's almost a joke how little space they have allocated for cars. I have witnessed a legitimate fight in this parking lot over a near pedestrian catastrophe.
4. Ideal/Pharmaca/Noodles. This is also right by our house and I am constantly amazed at how they put only waist high poles strewn around this parking lot that are perfectly positioned for smacking them with your car. Huh?
5. Sunflower/Lollilocks/Gymboree. This has only recently come on the list since Sunflower has opened. O man this parking lot is a cluster. The good news is that if you park far enough away generally you can avoid some of the madness.
6. Target. This isn't as terrible as it could be because they have at least allocated ENOUGH spots. But people are always battling for spots, it's always a zoo, the spaces are tight and my BIGGEST pet peave is that you can only make right turns out of the two exits in the parking lot.
7. REI/Bed Bath & Beyond. This is a very close cousin to #2 on the list and the spaces are so ridiculously tight that I actually don't get mad when I see cars straddling two spots. It makes total sense.
8. Safeway. I guess this one isn't too bad but it is always crowded (even at 10pm at night) and the spaces are tight. And people refuse to actually put carts away in the stalls which drives me nuts.

One glorious day

This past Saturday in Boulder was the most glorious weather day we have had in at least 3 months. Temperatures were in the low 70's, the sun was shining bright, and the breeze was moderate. As you know I've been complaining about the weather, and yearning for one of these days, for some time. And it didn't disappoint. It was the perfect day, and for more reasons than just the weather. Bear with me as I relive our entire Saturday.

We woke up early and decided to go to the Original Pancake House, a favorite of Kevin's and mine since our early days of dating. Delaney was a fabulous diner and was a pleasure to sit with (for nearly an hour) as she devoured her blueberry pancakes.

Part of the reason we chose that breakfast establishment was because Delaney was scheduled to get her first haircut at 9am in the same shopping complex. After breakfast we mosied over to the haircut place which Delaney took an immediate liking to due to the bright colors and huge animals you could sit on. I will try to post pictures of the event in a different post. She was adorable sitting on her little pink elephant and having the hairstylist treat her like a pretty princess. There was little to no fussing and she seemed perfectly content to sit there and let someone calmly cut her hair for 20 minutes. Other moms tell me this is a typicaly first-time experience and the resistance usually increases during every subsequent visit. But I enjoyed every minute of her first haircut, even knowing this was the case. The stylist put in some adorable "piggy tails" and fluffed up her natural wavy curls with some mousse. Kevin and I were all smiles.

Then we proceeded to go home and prepare for a family hike. Our house is very close proximity to some good hiking trails and it makes me so happy every time we can just roll out our front door and access open space so quickly. Delaney did great in the jogger and at a certain point during the hike up the trail she got out and helped us push the stroller. People were so plentiful they almost seemed like a swarm of ants on the trail. Dogs were romping everywhere, people were in shorts and t-shirts, and it felt amazing.

We came home and had lunch al fresco on our new backyard patio, which consisted mostly of cheese, crackers and fruit (which is typical for Delaney, but strange that we all decided to eat such ad hoc fare). I put Delaney down for her nap, Kevin jetted off on a bike ride with his friend Chris, and I smugly laid in my patio lounger and soaked in some amazing warmth and sun. I cranked through two Cooking Light magazines and a Real Simple. But mostly I just laid there and looked at the birds swooping through the air, the woodpeckers devouring our neighborhood telephone poles, and listened to flies and other insects come out of hibernation. I heard neighbors coming and going from their houses and kids riding their scooters and bikes around the block.

We regrouped as soon as Delaney woke up and decided to ride our bikes and the Burley down to Pearl Street for an early happy hour. One of our favorite happy hour establishments (Bacaro) sadly did not have their rooftop open for business, but they had a good front patio and we managed to squeeze into the last table available. Pearl Street was like a carnival it was so busy. It was strange because it almost felt like we lived in a remote, rural area where people migrate in from far away towns for some special faire or event. We ran into several people we knew and the ones we didn't run into we knew were out and about on the town as well. We ate like kings and queens for a total of $26 (risotto for Delaney, calamari and shrimp croquettes for an appetizer and two pizzas for dinner). For the quality of food and price I really don't think you can beat the Bacaro happy hour. The fact that neither of us were drinking only moderately detracted from the experience.

After filling our bellies we walked our bikes over to the Irish pub in town where we knew a young girl who would be doing an Irish dance performance. We knew other people who also came to watch and it was a nice social cap on a very fun outdoor day. Delaney was mesmerized by the dancing, stomping, curly hair bouncing in the air, and bright costumes. She was so enamored that it was hard to keep her from running on stage to try and join in with them.

Just about the only bad part of the day was getting a very reluctant toddler back into the Burley at the end of the evening. But the sun was going down and it was time to call it a night.

After coming home and getting Delaney tucked away, we decided to call it a night early and I ended up drifting off to sleep around 8:30. I haven't been sleeping very well and I was happy to fall asleep so quickly and soundly for the whole night.

When I awoke at 6am on Sunday I felt refreshed from my sleep, but extremly dismayed to see that snow was falling quickly and by 7am noticed we had about 3 inches of snow. Colorado is mean like that... it teases you with this wonderful weather and then slaps you upside the head the very next day.

But I'm still remembering the glory of Saturday. Hopefully it can get me through the week.

Things I love about Colorado

1. Wearing scarves. I love accessorizing with scarves. Anytime the temp is below 30, I wear a scarf all day. It makes it a little more bearable that it's THAT FRIGGIN COLD.
2. Looking at the mountains. They are pretty in the winter, pretty in the spring, pretty in the summer and pretty in the fall.
3. The months of May, June, September and the first week of October. Everything else is too cold or too hot.
4. Knowing where everything is in Boulder. I know where every shop is, every restaurant, every item in the grocery store, and even most street names.
5. Being able to walk to most everything we need on the weekends. The grocery store is often the only place I take my car on the weekends.
6. North Boulder Park -- this park is one block away and has wonderful events all through the spring and summer. Music in the park on Sunday is a favorite.
7. Sunsets -- we get some epic sunsets here, especially in the summer.
8. We are close to both coasts, and flights to the east are not that far and flights to the west are even shorter.
9. Pearl Street. We have a great downtown that is perfect for a rambling night where you don't know what you want to eat or drink. Plenty of good happy hour choices. Roof top bars in the summer. The Halloween festival, the Pearl Street Mile, and Concerts on Wednesday nights in the summer. I would miss Pearl Street if we ever moved.

You thought there would be 10, didn't you? Sorry. I'm stopping at 9.

Madonna knows ALL

How sad would it be if we couldn't drum up some old Madonna lyrics and think about the SAGE that was penetrating our ears for a few decades? I think the lyrics to one of my favorite tunes went something like "Some boys try and some boys lie butI dont let them play, only boys who save their pennies make my rainy day. Cause you know that we are living in a material world, and I am a material girl. You know that we are living in a material world and I am a material girl."

I think this song was from the mid-eighties. We thought THAT was the material world? What about NOW?

Bear with me. This is going to be a long one.

My life, as of late, has consisted of busy-ness intermixed with long boughts of internal swishy-swash thinking. I know that sounds like a very technical term, I apologize if you are not familiar with the process of swishy-swashing in your brain. Actually I'm not sorry at all. If you don't have the swishy-swash going on I suppose I don't wish it on you any time soon.

I generally consider myself pretty happy and content. I have a great husband, daughter, house, health, a brain that is ripe for the using and some great friends (who I haven't been in touch with very much lately). Unfortunately this year has brought a few things to the surface that for whatever reasons are causing the swishy-swash to happen. I guess it's best described as moments of happiness intermixed with feelings of frustration, discontent and yearning. Not depression, mind you, but thinking about what's missing, what I want and how to get it.

But I digress, let's get back to Madonna. I went off into internet wonderland for a few minutes there to see if I could drum up a pic of the material girl herself. http://www.madonnalicious.com/images/1985vt/virginmaterial35.jpg

One of the things I struggle with on a daily basis is our house. It's small by today's standards at 1500 square feet of living space. It's in the best neighborhood in town (in my opinion) and thanks to Kevin pushing hard for this house back in '03 we have made life-long friends in our 'hood. I love everything about our neighborhood. It provides a wonderful quality of life. But the houses are California-like expensive in our neighborhood. Ok, maybe not quite Calfornia crazy, but they are expensive. Upgrading in our neighborhood is not an option.

I want to stay in that house but also yearn for a tad bit more space for the young 'uns and our guests. I'm not asking for a LOT of space but another bedroom would make things easier. At least I think it would. And herein starts the swishy-swash. I want more, but is that REALLY what I want? Why do I find myself wanting, wanting, wanting? Is it healthy? For example, in addition to a bit more house, I'd also like to give birth to another child, quit my job (or at least reduce my hours further), go back to school, spend more time with Delaney, eat better, exercise more, read more, or some combination of all of those things. Of course if I were to get downright GREEDY I'd say I want to take more guitar lessons, learn Spanish, see more movies, travel more, organize more dinner parties, girls nights out, etc. And whether it's right or wrong I equate achieving some of these things with having more money.

After some swishing, I go back to swashing about how downright THANKFUL I am for what I DO have. 1500 square feet is definitely enough to raise a family in comfort. Having one child is a huge honor and responsibility and IF Delaney is the only child we are able to conceive, then we should consider ourselves blessed a thousand times over. My job isn't THAT bad and Delaney does seem quite fond of her daycare. It would be interesting to put 100 different personalities in my life and see which ones came out happy. I'm guessing the odds are in favor of them being more happy than not.

Are the things I'm looking for in the material world going to quench the yearning? If I had the flexibility to quit my job and go back to school full time would my swishing just switch from "If I had money I'd quit my job" to "If I had money I'd travel more"? Is it wrong to think in those sequential terms of "If I have this, x will follow."

DLS (dirty little secret) reveal for the day: I watch Oprah. Not all of them, but if the topic is interesting, I watch.

Oprah has had on Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love. (Love that book, by the way.) Guru Gilbert advises that you need to ask yourself "what you do really, really, really, want" at the end of every day and write it down. It can't be one "really". It has to be three in order to make it official. Maybe I'll start doing that and see by the end of two months what shows up most consistently. Because realistically I will not get everything on my wish list.

I guess one of the big struggles is figuring out if it's OK to have the yearnings for more without it bogging me down. How do I accept that not everything I want is going to happen? Write it down? Say it out loud every day?

Living in the material world does feel hard sometimes. Especially now that I have a daughter.

That's SO Boulder...

We moved to Boulder 3.5 years ago and there is nary a day that goes by that something "Boulder" about Boulder strikes me. I know that may sound strange to someone that doesn't live here but for those that do you probably understand exactly what I'm talking about.

I have lived a lot of places in my life, most of which were in California. There is the bay area, where I grew up, and then many different places in Southern California. Since I am a UCLA alum there were plenty of LA abodes, namely Westwood, Brentwood, West LA and West Hollywood (probably my favorite). Then also brief stints in Hermosa Beach and Newport Beach. There were aspects about all of those places that made them unique, but they were few and far between. There were the "Chanel zombies" at South Coast Plaza and Fascist Island, the faux beach bums of Hermosa, boutique shopping in LA, etc. But in all of those places it's more of a Californian generality than personality traits that make a city unique. A lot of money, sun, cars, expensive real estate, malls, pools, tans, great restaurants, etc.

This will no doubt be the first in a long ling of musings about Boulder. There's no way you can sum it up in one post. I have grown to like this town very much, and I feel like if we could just import an ocean here and if someone from our family would move out here, it would pretty much be the perfect town. Well, ok, and if there were just a smidgeon more diversity that might help too.

Last night I went to the Boulder Nordic Club Ski Swap and Sale. I have been wanting to learn to skate ski and figured I could get some good deals on equipment. Sample sales, or warehouse sales, in Boulder are crazy and they seem to happen everywhere. Having been to the GoLite, Pearl Izumi, Rocky Mountain Kids and the Boulder Twins Club sales, I can tell you firsthand that it is a mind-blowing experience you should try at least once in your life. It's mayhem to the fifth degree. For whatever reason it seems like Boulder likes sample sales because they happen all the time.

This is where I'll make my first sweeping generality of Boulderites when I say that this town is chock full of Type A personalities. What's life like if you can't make sweeping generalities about people, right?

Now I'll make a follow-up observation that sample sales and Type A personalities create a lethal combination. People everywhere scrambling to find that awesome deal on some piece of equipment that they really did not need before they entered the sale. But it's really about the competition of finding that athletic gear at such a super bargain. I would guess that maybe half (and I'm being generous here) of the people who attended that sale went with a specific purchase in mind. I was in a room full of athletes and wanna-be athletes excited about a bargain.

I've learned a few things about these sales and have acquired some rules about how to get through them that I'll hold off on sharing because I feel like it will just contribute to the mayhem. Posting rules about how to get the most out of them would just be feeding the fire, right?

Every time I go to a sample sale I feel like I'll never attend another one. But last night here I found myself again digging through used skate ski boots like I was a child diving for pennies at the local pool, or trying to find easter eggs in my parents living room. At one point I had on size 8 boots and a women approached me and said "are you going to actually BUY those?" with a longing look that said to me all I need to do was give her the ok she would have bent down and stripped them off my feet.

In case you were curious, it took me the full amount of the sale (2 hours) and 4 sales people later to leave with some pretty fancy skate ski equipment that hopefully will last me the rest of my life. Ok, that might be optimistic, but I can't bear the thought of going to another one of those sales. At least that's what I tell myself...