have fun don't die

- When I need to reach things on the top shelves of my kitchen, I take the spaghetti spoon and use it to knock the thing off and into my arms below. I learned this from my grandmother Donna, who may have been even shorter than me. Sometimes, once in a great while when I am not paying attention or in a rush, yes, things hit me in the face. Luckily it’s usually the little and light things, like cupcake wrappers and not a jar of Crisco.

- I recently started drinking hot tea. This is to combat my hot cocoa habit (which began as a way to combat my nightly bowl of cereal before bedtime habit). I’m a diehard coffee drinker and used to think that tea didn’t fit my personality (silly, I know). But I was turned onto tea by my new hair salon, which provides free hot tea by Aveda while you wait. And I found myself two cups deep and wanting to brew some at home. I could have waited for my next hair appointment, but instead I found a tea at the new Longmont Sprouts that I actually look forward to drinking every night — Yogi Egyptian Licorice. Warm and spicy sweet (moi?).

- Sugar, our Flame Point Siamese diva, is so pretty that he’s often called a she. And every month or so, I take him to the groomers to help keep his dander down (so I don’t die from asthma and allergies), and he comes back wearing an adorable bandana. “She did great!” the groomer always says. LOLz.

We have started Family Game Night at the house on the weekends. As a way to actually engage and interact with each other, turn off the various screens vying for facetime, and talk G-rated trash to each other.

We are fans of Life, UNO, and Connect4. The Kid wants the new Monopoly because now there’s a cat token (catlady 4evah). We scored a few new games over Christmas we still need to try like Jenga.

Confession: I’ve never played Apples to Apples. It feels like everyone has.

What family board games do you like to play? Growing up my brother and I loved to play Trouble and Guess Who (I’d love to find a Guess Who circa 1987 that isn’t branded with Dora or Star Wars or Harry Potter).

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December 8. Home: Name one thing you like about where you live.

Colorado. I’m a cliche. I love Colorado. It’s just so great here. I moved here because of a job I found on the Internet from the sugary beaches of Southwest Florida. I did not love Florida. I wanted to. But I knew myself, and I needed seasons. I needed the transition. I needed trees to bud, to bloom, to change color, and be bare. I needed snow and rain and wind as much as I needed sunshine. I needed mountains and plains more than ocean waves. I didn’t know all this was here when I moved to Colorado in 2004. I never skied or biked or ran or camped here. I had a one day interview where I spent most of the day inside a newsroom being grilled by potential employers, all who were very very good at asking hard questions. Lucky I had answers they liked. I got lucky. I got a job. That job got me a home. I can get the city life of Denver, the college town fun of Boulder and Fort Collins, the small town charm of all the little communities in between, and escape to the nearby Rocky Mountains when needed. I’m one of those people who love Colorado for all the reasons people move here in the first place — people are educated, happy, fit, foodies, social, techy. Which is just nice to feel comfortable. Nice to feel like my truest self.

Story: When I went home to NEPA recently, I got to talking with some friends of an old high school friend of mine. They asked what I liked to do for fun in Colorado. I told them I recently got into mountain biking and running, but I like camping when I can. Oh, he said, we don’t do that at all. We are more into the city life – New York, Boston, Philly. Oh cool, I replied. Yeah, Denver is a great little city. People really like the microbreweries. Oh, he said, yuck. We don’t like those kinds of beer. Give me Bud Light any day. Then I smiled because I didn’t have much to offer the nice man in ways of conversation. Oh, I thought, I don’t really belong to NEPA any more; don’t get me wrong. I love to go back. But I feel the pull to go west. I am from Colorado.