Goodbye Slump?

I saw this on Yahoo News this morning: "Michigan pulling itself out of slump". It seems that my old home state has finally gotten smart and has followed the trend of several other big cities, Denver included. Detroit is being revitalized as an intellectual center with museums, high scale dining and lodging establishments and attracting medical schools and so on. This has happened to Denver more than once. The "downtown" section of Denver affectionatly called "LODO" has been revamped as the place to be. Coors Field--home of the Rockies and Invesco Field--home to the Broncos are both in LODO along with impressive flats, awesome eateries, museums...pretty much everything you could want for an unforgetable night on the town. Denver metro has also made changes to the old Stapleton (before DIA) airport which now has sprung up with high end homes and shopping centers; Lowry Air Force Base is now a huge housing development; and right in our backyard...the old Fitzsimons Army Hospital is the new University of Colorado Health Sciences campus. This is where my new midwife is, in a spanking new (still under construction in parts) hospital.
My point? Congratulations Detroit for getting on board with the latest trend in urban redevelopment! Prosperity to you. I can't wait to visit and see all of the changes a few years down the road. It might actually be safe to roam after dark without a massive body guard!

It's my party!

Well, it's that time of year again...I am officially one year older today but still, a refreshing 28. I'll start to weep (maybe) when I hit the big 3-0.
In usual birthday fashion, the weather outside is yucky...we actually got SNOW yesterday! As long as these SNOW showers bring flowers next week, it's all good.

Anyway, the party is in full swing here. Yesterday at work, I was surprised by my co-workers with a yummy dutch chocolate cake with cream cheese icing and two kinds of ice cream. I was so touched not to mention being in chocolate lovers heaven. I savored every bite of my cake and there are leftovers in the fridge--right on!

Today promises to be a lot of fun too. My parents are making the 6 hour trek over from Montrose to be here for my special day. I have dreamt that my mom is either bringing or is going to make my traditional birthday dessert--fresh strawberry pie. One year, she even brought the pies with her from Colorado to Missouri, just for my birthday. How's that for a dedicated mom?! I don't know what all everyone has planned but you know something's fishy when your husband calls your mother at least twice in the past week or so. All I have to say is, "Bring it on!" I'm ready for some fun!

Pay Day!

I thought a little update was in order as to the outcome of my attempt to get some restitution from our apartment complex’s management company for my fall in March.  After making numerous phone calls which resulted in zero call backs or messages, I finally emailed the national headquarters for Equity (in Washington D.C. no less) apartments and stated the facts.  I warned them that if I didn’t hear something soon that I would be forced to take the next step which was to bring an attorney into the situation.   Wouldn’t you know…48 hours later, I receive a call from a Mr. Miller down in Atlanta, GA.  Apparently, he is a senior claims adjuster on behalf of Equity’s liability company.  After taking my oral recollection of what happened, getting his notes together as to how much work I missed and the approximate cost of my medical bills, Mr. Miller offered a very comfy settlement offer in lieu of going to court.  He said that his party (very legal sounding) was prepared to offer a maximum cash settlement of $1,500 and would I be prepared to accept it.  Well, to me, $1,500 seemed like more than enough to cover the hospital bills that were beginning to fill up our mail sorter.  Still, I wanted to be sure that I wasn’t settling for too much.  I contacted my insurance company and got a grand total from them for my time in the hospital and found out, that worse case scenario, I’d be looking at $800-900 with my portion being about $500 (with the first admission to the L&D triage, I hadn’t met the deductible, by the time I was in the ER, I had).  So, knowing that I was going to end up pocketing some cash, I took the settlement offer.  I mean, who really has time to miss work and go to court which could drag on for days---in Atlanta, GA?  Not I!  So, as I write this, I’m hoping that Mr. Mailman is depositing a nice flat envelope into my mail box!   It will be so nice to pay those medical bills and maybe, just maybe, go on a little shopping spree.  Babies R Us anyone?  See, sometimes, it pays to pull out the big guns—or at least threaten to!

A Day with the directionally challenged

I don’t know if I’ve shared a little secret with you all but---I’m directionally challenged & have been for some time. Don’t tell me to go north, south, east or west because I’ll have absolutely no clue what that means. Most of my close friends and family know to give me directions that include right, left and as many obvious landmarks as possible…otherwise, it’s hopeless.
Well, yesterday truly proved my affliction. I decided to have a fun day with Caitlin by taking her to the Downtown Aquarium off of Water Street in Lower Downtown Denver (called LoDo). I was proud of myself though, I knew that Denver was north of us and even printed off a map from Rand McNally. Of course, a map only works when you bring it with you! Nevertheless, I was able to find the aquarium (which is conveniently located next to the Denver Children Museum) without having to turn around or ask for directions. We spent about two hours there, Caitlin enjoyed a bounce in an Octopus jump house and we had a blast looking at fish, turtles and sea otters. We saw “Dory” and “Nemo” fish as well as sharks and some fish that were bigger than Caitie. At one point we saw a huge fish swim overhead as we were walking thru a tunnel. Caitlin loved watching the aquarium’s special attraction, two Bengal tigers, eat their lunch and kept roaring at them.
We ended our visit with a trip to an expensive gift shop where Caitlin picked out a portable aquarium that had two fish in it that looked like Nemo and Dory (that’s another story).
So, I hoped on I-25 and begin the journey home, or so I thought. I’m driving along and realize, I’m hungry. Just my luck that I see an exit for one of my favorite childhood restaurants, Cracker Barrel so, we exit. I had a wonderful dinner of ham, hash brown casserole, cornbread biscuits and fried apples. Everything was hunky dory as I got back on the freeway, going north thinking that I'd gone south to get to Cracker Barrel. I’m just cruising along, amazed that there’s not much traffic during rush hour in “downtown” Denver. Caitlin’s in the back seat, sound asleep and I’m enjoying the scenery. That should’ve been my first clue, Sherlock, there’s not much scenery in Metro Denver. However, I was totally oblivious. The next thing I know, I see a mileage sign that reads, “57 miles to Cheyenne” as in WYOMING! Holy crud, I’d gone about 35 miles in the wrong direction! I was heading north when I needed to go south! Oops! I quickly find an exit and turn around…going south. Finally, I pass the exit for the aquarium which slows down my racing heart and assures me that I’m going in the right direction. Just when I’m about 15 minutes from home, I see that the traffic up ahead is at a dead standstill. Lovely! Worse yet, I’m in the right-most lane and everyone is exiting off the freeway. I try to get over but I’m stuck…so I exit. Right before, I am able to see that there is a massive accident up ahead so I’m thinking…maybe it’s a good thing I got off.
So, here I am, innocently following the rest of the cars thru the Cherry Creek section of Denver (reminds me of the Walled Lake area of Michigan) with streets that dead end to go around parks, rivers, etc. This is where I get lost. I have NO CLUE where I am! So, I pick up my cell and call Ben. Let’s just say that he wasn’t much help since he didn’t have a good map and I ended up way south of our house. Frustrated and crying (by that point, I’d been trying to get home for about 2 hours), I call my mom who whips out her detailed Denver Metro map and saves the day. She got me home and had a good laugh about me being almost to the Colorado-Wyoming border. Now that I know how “close” we are, I may go to Cheyenne on purpose some day! So, while I had run seeing the northern parts of the metro area, I’ll be sure to pack a map next time! I think Ben is scheming to get me GPS for my car or something!