Plane, Train or Automobile?

I hate driving. Really hate it. Weird, I know, since the past eight years of my life I have not lived with 2 1/2 hours of my family. I used to not mind driving, but somewhere between the 10+ trips home per year from Kansas City and my car constantly getting battered, abused and hating me, my thoughts have changed.

So moving to Denver, it definitely crossed my mind on how I was going to handle the thought of a one-way trip to Lincoln being 7 hours....yuck! After driving out here I decided...unless there's an emergency, my car will never make that trip again. I'll just fly. Then someone mentioned Amtrak.

I hadn't thought about it much, but I looked up the train route and it goes straight from Denver to Lincoln - perfect! And is actually cheaper than a flight. It would, however, take longer - but it could be fun! I'd never ridden on a train before but always thought it was neat.....I'll give it a try! So I booked my trip home for Christmas on the Amtrak, ready to see if I would be a frequent railrider.

I was scheduled to leave Denver, Tuesday night at 7:15. I got dropped off at the train station at 6:30, only to find out that the train had gotten delayed in the mountains, and now wouldn't be leaving until 12:45. All we had heard on the news was about the snow in the mountains, but yet I didn't think to check to see if it would delay my trip. Lesson learned. By the time we finally got boarded and pulled out of Denver, it was a little after 3am. And in case you haven't tried them out, the benches at Denver's Union Station are not comfortable to sleep on - let alone try and take a nap! 

Needless to say, I passed out as soon as we pulled away from the station and pretty much didn't wake up until we got to Lincoln around noon. 

The trip back was much smoother. We departed Lincoln on time, and even got into Denver 30 minutes early. However, that one left Lincoln at 12:15am, so I slept the whole trip again. I didn't get to experience much of the cars - the dining cars (the bar as many people suggested), etc., so that will have to be saved for another trip.

All in all, the train was not a bad experience. I had nothing to rush to that was time-sensitive, so the delay was not a big hassle for me. As long as you're willing to be flexible, I recommend everyone trying it sometime! I imagine it's usually a pretty scenic route.....not through western Nebraska, though, of course. But if you do go - make sure and check the schedule before heading to the station. And remember, snow in the mountains is good...but not if it's going to disrupt my beauty sleep!

We Rocked the Boat..........or Sank It.

"Do you ski or board?" If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that since I decided to move, I could retire on a nice little island somewhere. Then when I answer, "actually I've never done either", people laugh and ask why I would move to Colorado. Okay, they don't really. But I've gotten enough weird looks to know that is probably what they are thinking inside their heads. So, yes. I decided to pick up and move my life from Overland Park, KS to Denver, CO without ever having been on skis or a snowboard. Deal with it folks.

After this weekend, that all changed.

This weekend I went with a group of friends to Steamboat Springs for a little bit of skiing and a lot of partying. I had heard from a couple people that Steamboat is not the best place for beginners to start out.....but I like to make things really difficult. I had been hoping to get up to one of the other mountains before, but it just didn't work out for me. So I booked my lesson for Steamboat and was ready to head up there! If only it worked that easy....


Friday morning, we headed to my car at 7am to load it up and get on the road. When we walked up to my car, something looked different. The fact that my passenger's side window was broken out was not something I usually see. That's right, some wonderful person decided to put together my Christmas list for me: a new passenger side window and a new Garmin. 

After moving my car, repacking a new one, and filing a police report, we finally got on the road an hour later. My boarding lesson was at 12:30, so I was freaking out we wouldn't make it in time. 


After finding our way to the resort, going to two different desks to check in, and then finding our way to the base of the mountain and ski school, we realized we didn't have our lift tickets. The lady at check-in forgot to give them to us. At this point, I was about to throw in the towel for the whole day. But we called the school, told them I'd be late, and went on a search for the tickets. By the time I got to the lesson, I was only 30 minutes late. But all I missed was learning about the parts of the board.....who wants to do that anyway?


After three hours of lessons, I still don't feel very confident going by myself - yes, I was the girl who made the instructor take me down the mountain every time. It only had a small part to deal with the fact that he was very good-looking and had a nice New Zealand accent, the rest was because I didn't think I'd be able to do it without hurting myself. All in all, though, I did pretty good. I still need to work on my balance and my stance. My body doesn't seem to agree with the rules of snowboarding.....when I need to go backwards, it goes forwards, and vice versa....that's sure to cause some spills. But I only fell twice - so I call it a success!


I passed on the second day of boarding because I was so sore. I decided to cut my losses, and losing the money I spent on the second day of a lift ticket would be better than any medical bills I would have because I couldn't move very well. 


The weekend was a great time, though. Met a lot of new people, finally learned to board, and had the most beautiful drive that I've seen in a long time....definitely nothing you'd see in Kansas! I recommend everyone to go out to Steamboat, even if it's just for the beautiful view! But before you go up there, make sure you take your Garmin out of your windshield. If you do decide to leave it in there - don't update your maps. Best $100 I didn't spend. Hope the non-updated Garmin was worth it to you!

Best Night Ever

Let's just get it out in the open. I don't think many people actually read my blog, and I'm about to cut that following in half: I'm a Duke fan. Not only am I a fan of the Blue Devils, but I've actually been a fan longer than I have of Kansas State. I'm not saying I like Duke more than K-State, but not many people can stand Duke....I happen to be one of them.

Sometime in middle school, I started to love the Blue Devils. I got selected to be a part of the 'Duke Talent Search' (as I'm sure did many others), but from that point on I wanted nothing more than to go to Duke, so I became a huge fan. At some point in high school I realized there was no way I could afford to go there, so I had to choose where my new loyalty would lie - and it landed with the Cats.


March Madness was always fun choosing my brackets then. And if you ask my dad he'll tell you, that for the past ten-ish years, I would always pick Duke to when the whole thing, whether I thought they could do it or not. I never thought K-State versus Duke would happen, so last year everyone started asking me who I would cheer for. After a lot of thought (don't yell at me, I really had to think about it for awhile), I decided....I bleed purple. I had to cheer for my Cats.

So last year when I saw that K-State and Duke would be playing in the CBE classic in Kansas City, I knew I would be there. When the schedule was released, and K-State and Duke would only play on the second night, if at all, I bought my tickets. At the time, I had already made my decision to move to Denver, but I knew I would make it back somehow. I mean, how often will this game happen? I told my friend Erin about it and she was in! She is a die-hard Husker, but is also a huge Duke fan, and last year, became a K-State basketball fan. Don't say she jumped on the Cats bandwagon, it's not like that at all - but we knew this was the match-up we couldn't wait for!

Shortly into the game, I realized as much as I love Duke, there was no way I could cheer for them - everything I had was yelling for purple! It wasn't quite the competitive game we were hoping for, but we had amazing seats in the 6th row and got to see two of the best teams in the country, and two of the best COACHES in the country, play.....and what a night to remember. The only thing I can hope for is that we get to take another shot at Duke - in April.

Go Cats!!

We had amazing seats:

Happy because Duke won:

Sad because K-State lost. We'll get 'em next time!

It Never Hurts to Try

For the past nine years, I've been a Saturn owner and couldn't brag about them enough. In high school I had a little four-door purple Sedan (and some of you really think I'm ever going to convert to being a Husker?), and about three years ago, I bought a brand new silver Saturn Vue.

I think the Saturns are great quality cars - so I'm devastated that they're now out of business and I'll never get to buy one again. Weird, I know, I just have really loved my cars! They are (usually) always reliable and I've never had major problems with them.....

.....at least not many. My purple guy (who I called Willie) never had major repairs, but my new one seems to have the weirdest problems. There is of course the infamous windshield bash, when a lovely fake St. Patty's day fan thought it would be a great idea to throw a barrel trash can at my windshield. That was a great gift.

More recently, I dealt with a broken heater core. On a drive to Manhattan recently, my car stopped defrosting, which causes issues when it's late at night, driving across the state. When I got back to Castle Rock, I took my car in for repairs and found out it was going to cost me $1,400. Awesome. Not that I didn't have the money for it, I just don't like paying for anything. What do you expect - it's the financial planner in me.

Randomly driving along the road one day, I remembered that back in February I had to take my car in for a recall to prevent the heater core from breaking. Funny, that I get that fixed and six months later, the darn thing breaks anyway. 

After many hours on the phone, I was able to get a hold of the right people and lucky me - I'm getting half of the repairs reimbursed!! I'm not usually one to ask for the money back, but since it cost so much, and probably shouldn't have still broken - I figured it was worth a shot. 

So HUGE thank you to David at McCarthy Chevrolet in Olathe, Jim at General Motors, and Sean at MedVed Chevy in Castle Rock.

It never hurts to ask!!! The worst they can tell you is no - something is better than nothing!

My First Visitor!

This past weekend I had my first visitor, my sister, come out and stay. For those of you who don't know, she's three years older than me and lives in Lincoln. We are identical yet polar opposites in so many ways, it's pretty funny, so trying to schedule a weekend we would both enjoy was quite the challenge. I like to be outside doing stuff, she'd prefer not to. She likes to go shopping, I get bored quickly. Don't get me wrong - I looooooove to shop. But somewhere between high school and now, my ability to just shop for hours for nothing in particular just left my body. I like to get in and out and move along with my day. So.....I wasn't sure what to do with her - because the hostess in me (which is not much) wanted to make sure she had a great time while on vacation.

When she flew into town Thursday, we went to Beau Jo's pizza. Before I even moved out here, I heard about this place all the time. This was my second time visiting and it left me as stuffed as it did the first time. I definitely recommend it - and for those of you who like the challenge....there's a 14-pound pizza you can try, if you dare!!

Friday, while I was at work, Mel walked around the 16th street mall and then I met up with her and some friends for dinner at Sonoda's for sushi. It was my first sushi attempt in Colorado - and I still love it! We were both pretty exhausted afterward so we decided to head home. Before we did, though, we went to the Tattered Cover, a bookstore in LoDo to check it out. Condoleeza Rice was speaking there that night - and although we didn't actually see her or stay for the speech, it's still pretty neat to say we were there (regardless of which side you're on).

Saturday I had quite the day planned for her. We got up early and hiked Castle Rock. This was going to be the biggest challenge of the trip. Castle Rock is only about a mile hike, but my sis wasn't feeling it. I can't believe she actually went! But she seemed to enjoy it (once we got done and were heading down) and maybe, just maybe I'll get her to try a longer one next time! Here's proof that we made it, with Devil's Head (or the Sleeping Indian) in the background:

After the hike, we did some quick shopping at the outlet malls and then headed north to Hammond's candy store. I read about this place online. Apparently it's supposed to be really popular, although every Denverite that I talked to and had never heard of it. They had free tours, and we both like candy so figured it was a win-win. The tour, however, wasn't that impressive - but we did get to see how they make candy canes! And this place makes 1,000,000 candy canes every year for Christmas time! Unfortunately, we didn't get to see them making any of their chocolate, but that's what we both went home with after the tour - and it's very yummy!!!! Here is stretching the white part of the candy cane. Interesting fact: the white actually starts at as a dark amber color, they stretch it on these machines and it adds air and makes it turn white.

After the candy factory we went back down to the 16th street mall to kill time before the hockey game. Little did we know, Denver was doing their zombie walk that night. I had never heard of this before (even though, apparently it's very common) and I will for sure be avoiding it from now on! Denver was trying to beat the record (set in Chicago at around 3,400 people) and I'd be shocked if they didn't get it. It was definitely entertaining but based on some of the zombies we saw, some people are very disturbed! A lot of people took red jello, pretended it was brains and were eating it - gross! My sister loved it - but I will be having nightmares for the next couple of weeks....thanks.

This one was probably my favorite. Mary Poppins: Zombie. She had the costume down perfect!!

To end the night, and the weekend, we went to the Avalanche game. My sister is a hardcore hockey fan - even does fantasy hockey - so she was in heaven all night! Especially because my friend April, hooked us up with awesome seats in the 4th row for the game! The Avalanche lost, but it was still a great game to watch and my sister loved it - which is really all that matters. Thanks April for the awesome tickets!!

All in all, it was a great weekend and I got to experience a lot of new things in Denver along with my sister! And we got what is turning out to be one of the last weekends in the city before we start to freeze our butts off - yay! So who's coming out next?!

One Month In.......and Exhausted!!

I'm way overdue for a post! For those of you that care and read this - I'm sorry! I'll get better, I promise. I've kept myself really busy which is why I haven't posted - but also means this could be a really long one.

Since my last post, I've gone to my first NHL game (Go Avs!), my first NBA game (Go Nuggets!) and finally rented all of my snowboarding game (pictures of the broken limbs to come later).

In my few short weeks in Denver, I've realized I should have moved here sooner (sorry KC friends)! I've had such a great time and met so many great people it really makes me wish I would have done it sooner. But hindsight is twenty-twenty. I told my friend the other day I feel like I'm on permanent vacation - and hopefully that feeling won't go away anytime soon.

I'm calling Denver the city of imports. I don't think I've met a native since I've lived here, except my boss, but she doesn't count. Because everyone was once new themselves, you make friends quickly. It's actually quite exhausting. I was initially worried about meeting people and finding things to do before I moved out here, but I've had no shortage of things to keep me busy.


Here are just a few pictures of what's been keeping me busy! 

The view from a hike we took at Spruce Mountain:

Not the best picture, but the ladies at my first Avalanche game.

My first Nuggets game!

I've never been much of a pro sports fan, I'd rather cheer for the player, not the team. There's not many options to cheer for being from Nebraska/KC, so I feel safe becoming a Nuggets/Avalanche fan. I also never really cheered for the Chiefs, even though I lived in KC for four years - but I haven't become a Broncos fan either! At least not yet. :)

I will, however, start to enjoy NFL only due to my new hobby of fantasy football. Now that I have a new 'recruiter' on my team, it's much more fun - because I'm #1 in the league!

Settling In

I'm overdue for a post, but I know many of you could care less about the 'work stuff' and want to know more about the 'fun stuff'.

I've been in Denver for just under two weeks and am loving it! The weather is great - and the views are even better! Especially from my office: 

 


I've worked a full week now and am starting to get the hang of things. It's definitely a big change from the financial goddesses!! There are no dogs in the office, not much noise, and not nearly as many funny stories being shared - but it's still a great place to be at. It's another small company, with four people, and I think I'll learn a lot and will be given the chance to make all of the client presentations. It's still early but I'm excited about what I'll learn from the company.

I've also been making my way around the city fairly well. It's hard to stay in the city and go out because I have about a 45-minute drive from downtown, but I've tried to do my best. I've been to a couple K-State football watch parties, BBQ'd at Wash Park, found an Oktoberfest to try out some local brews, and attended a wedding reception. Yes, I make friends fast. Okay, not really. It was a friend from college. But most importantly, I've bought all my snowboarding gear - including my ski pass!  

And most recently, went for a nice 4-mile + hike. In Colorado, you have no excuse for not exercising! The weather was perfect for it and I'm hoping to get a few more in soon before the weather gets too cold!

Road Rules/Lessons We Need to Remember

Yesterday was the big drive to Denver. No, I did not drive down I-80 with a big U-Haul. It was just me and my shoes, and a few boxes of clothes! It took me just under 8 hours to go from Lincoln to Castle Rock, and I did not get nearly as bored as I thought I would - yay! However, during the drive there were quite a few annoyances from other drivers on the road. So here's the list of rules/comments we should all consider when driving down the interstate:

1) Semis should only be allowed to drive at night. Those drivers are on the road more than anyone else, yet I believe they're the some of the worst drivers around!

2) If you're driving along and you catch up to someone and need them to get over the right lane so you can pass them, it's practically a guarantee that you'll tap your break, turning off cruise control, and THEN they'll move over.

3) On that note, if you don't plan on driving the speed limit, pull off or get over.

4) There are some drivers who ride your tail, but you can't get over because there's another car. When you do finally pull into the right lane, they most likely will not pass you. But when they finally do pass you, they'll choose to then cut you off, forcing you to hit the brakes - again.

5) A small reminder for everyone: Those dotted lines are there for a reason. You're not supposed to cross them unless your changing lanes. And if you're doing that, check to make sure there are no cars next to you first.  

75% of these happened in Nebraska, take that for what you want. :)

Time To Get Outta Here!

I've spent the past two weeks in Lincoln, hanging out with the family and friends. You could call it a vacation, although, let's face it - the reason I come back to Lincoln is NOT for the great scenery and beaches.

The day before I left for Lincoln, I had a going away party in Kansas City. My amazing co-workers (former, now) threw me a party and it was basically my excuse to get all of my friends together before I left. There was a monsoon in KC that night, so an extra thanks to everyone who came out in the crappy weather to say their goodbyes! I expect lots of visitors! Below are a couple pictures from the party:

And, my friend Ben came and gave me a nice gift. He said since I'm moving to Denver I have to get used to drinking Coors Light!

The first week in Lincoln went by pretty fast. I did a lot of 'catch-up' on sleep, made a day-trip to Denver (which resulted in a new job for me!) and hung out with friends. I was most looking forward to my Saturday, though.

My cousin, Jessi, has two little boys, Brevin and Pierce, whom I call my nephews, and I LOVE spending time with them. They crack me up all the time! I have wanted to take them to the Lincoln Children's Zoo for the longest time, and I finally got the time to do it. I remember as a little girl always going to the zoo and how it was the coolest thing ever. Well, it's a nice zoo, but definitely not quite like I remembered it. I kept walking through the zoo thinking "this isn't how I remembered it". One of the favorite parts was definitely the train ride. Brevin and Pierce love trains so we saved it for the end. Throughout our time at the zoo, Pierce came saying "Is it time to ride the train yet?" So cute!

There's a picture of me on this same turtle when I was about Pierce's age!

And finally......the train ride!!!

I loved my time in Lincoln, getting to spend a lot of relaxing time just hanging with the fam and friends, but it's definitely time to get on the road! It's quite boring while everyone else is at work and you're at the house all day - vacations aren't as fun unless someone is on it with you!

What Do YOU Want To Be When You Grow Up?

Not many people can say that they loved their first job out of college. In fact, not many people can say they even stuck with it for very long. I happen to be one of the lucky ones. About three weeks after college graduation, I went to work at The Planned Approach to be a financial goddess, and knew it was the perfect fit. From the job to the people, everything about it was great. So I new trying to find something just as great in Denver was going to be hard.

I never really had to do a job search the first time around. The position at TPA got sent to our department head at K-State, and I had the job before I graduated. I was in for a rude awakening this time around. Not only is it a tough economy to be even searching for a job, but I was job searching from nine hours away, and no one seemed to care about what was on my resume, nor were they interested in someone who wasn't even living in the city yet.

The biggest hurdle I faced was really deciding what I wanted to do. I had spent four years in the same position and I wasn't sure how much I enjoyed it anymore. With all of my work with Relay For Life, I contemplated going the non-profit route, and taking my fundraising and event planning to a professional level. I applied for a few jobs, but still wasn't sure what path I should go down. I'm the kind of person who sets my goal on wanting to do something, and then doing it. So to think that I might want to change career paths, or just spend time not knowing what I wanted to be when I grew up was a scary thing. It's the planner in me - wanting to know what's going to happen next. :)

I talked to many people about it, though, and realized that I was not alone, and that it was not just a case of the '20-somethings'. Everybody always questions if they should maybe be doing something different. So with that, I decided to continue on with the job search. I felt I hadn't truly accomplished everything I wanted to in the world of financial planning and I wanted to stick with it. I mean, I passed the 10-hour CFP exam, I wanted to make sure I got the most from it!!

I kept applying for jobs, and found one that seemed like a perfect fit. I applied for it on a Sunday morning, had a phone interview that evening, they called TPA the next day for references, did a couple more interviews and tests over the next few days, and she then decided she wanted to sit down for a face-to-face interview. Quite the whirlwind! So yesterday, I flew out to Denver for what ended up being a 6-hour interview, and today I got the offer. I am very excited to say that I am officially employed as a financial planning associate with Abacus Financial in Denver. I will be starting as soon as I move out there. Technically, I like to say I've only had three days of unemployment. :)

And if this job doesn't work out, I've still got my hopes set on the big lottery winning someday!!!!!

Is This Really Happening?!?!?!

Ever since I made the decision to move, I've had many moments where I thought - am I really doing this? I must be crazy!! I think about all of the great things that were happening for me in Kansas City - working my way up the volunteer path with Relay For Life, a job with great co-workers that cannot be replaced, and most importantly - some of the most amazing friends a girl could ask for. I never felt the love from them more than I did on Friday night. 

My co-worker, Janis, and her husband Matt, were so sweet and threw me a going away party at their house. So many people came to the party to show their support and say goodbye, and it was a great last night to spend in Kansas City! There were very few tears - mostly because when I felt them coming on, I would walk away and start a new conversation! :) But it really did make me feel like one of the luckiest people to have such great friends! And gave a good energy boost for the next morning, as my dad, sister and I packed up my house, emptied it out, and moved all of my stuff to Lincoln - where I'll spend a couple weeks hanging with the fam.

So again people ask, why would you leave?! I don't want to be someone who looks back at my life with regrets about what I could have done. You can make your life something great no matter where you are, and I'm sure that will happen in Denver as well. I guarantee there will be many more days where I get sad, miss everyone in KC, and question whether it was the right decision. But hopefully, the sadness will quickly fade as the new life begins.

On the drive to Lincoln I was listening to one of my favorite bands, Sugarland, and their song 'Settlin' came on. It is the theme song of my life right now and one line in particular sums up exactly how I feel: "Find what it means to be the girl, who changed her mind and changed the world".

A New Life Out West

For quite some time I've pondered the thought of moving to Denver. I had the opportunity to do it right after college graduation, but decided at the time, it was a better decision for me to move to Kansas City. Well, times have changed, and I've decided it's now or never. I'm making the move. I've never been a 'blogger', but a friend of mine gave me the idea to start a blog about my journey for everyone to keep updated on what's happening in this new life of mine. I make no promises to regular updates - but I'll do my best!

The question I've been asked more often than any other is: Are you getting married???? Really?! I laugh everytime I hear that. It IS okay for a girl to move her life just because she wants to! So let me answer all the questions now. No, I'm not getting married. No, I don't have a job out there. And no, there is no family out there. I just love Denver. Every time I go out there to visit friends, I always wonder 'what if'. And I finally decided that there is no better time to make this change than right now, so I will never have to continue asking myself "I wonder...."

When I first started telling people, I don't think anyone believed me. To be honest, I didn't believe it at first. Even though I knew it was happening, it took me a LONG time to finally say the words "I'm moving to Denver". One of my best friends got off the phone with me and told her husband, "She doesn't know it yet, but she's moving out there. She just hasn't convinced herself yet. But don't tell her I said that in case she still decides to stay!" For some reason, this story gives me comfort in knowing that although it is a huge leap and risk that I am taking - it's a good decision for me.

I've had a lot of people tell me that it's really brave of me to do this, or that they're proud of me for moving. I will never be a person that takes a risk by jumping out of an airplane, but picking your life up and moving 9 hours away? Sure, why not. There are worse things in life that can happen to a person besides moving to a new city and not enjoying it. I'm just incredibly grateful that I have an AMAZING support system of incredible family and friends who are making this transition so easy for me.

Let the fun begin!!