Action-Packed, No Regrets

After counting down the weeks and days, Friday finally came and my best friend, Hope, woke up super early to come fly to Aspen for her fall break. It was a jam-packed weekend giving Hope the ultimate tour of the unique Colorado city.

We started with a low key Friday night where Hope came to the office while I finished up work and then we went to CP Burger for a quick dinner, nothing fancy but really yummy food. We spent the evening catching up with each other and eating our delicious burgers. We then came back and layered up for the walking tour we signed up for. At 9 p.m. we arrived outside the Wheeler Opera House to begin our hour-long Ghost Tour of the city. We walked around hearing about the haunted Hotel Jerome, Red Onion, Ted Bunte serial killer and more. It was an hour filled with scary stories about murders, ghost and tall tales that haunt the city of Aspen. It left me glad that I wasn't sleeping alone in my apartment.

Saturday, was when the real action began. We rose early to go to Bikram, which was the longest hour and a half of hot yoga I have ever experienced. It was a great start to the day, but man was it long. Then, we set out on an afternoon of shopping hitting up every store in town where Hope put quite the dent in her credit card. We wrapped up the afternoon with a late afternoon walk on the Rio Grande trail before our girls night out.

Sunday we stuck to just working out and a nice dinner out on the town. We hiked up Smuggler Mtn. and took the Hunter Creek trail (an 8.5 mile hike that took us 3 hours). It was a bit slippery through the freshly fallen snow and all the rocks down the steep hills, but we made it through. We ended the day with a trip to yin yoga to stretch it out and rounded it out with a fancy dinner at Jimmy's.

Monday we went on another hike up Smuggler Mtn. but explored a couple different trails - the behind the sign trail and the tootsie roll trail. It was a shorter hike than Sunday coming in at 6.5 miles but still was a good workout. After our hike we returned to run errands and have another girls night in. All in all it was a fantastic weekend and I'm so happy I got to spend it with Hope.

Photos speak 1000 words

Despite the lack of feeling in my fingers, my aching ears and chill in the air I still continue to press down on my shutter button to snap pictures. Being able to freeze a moment in time is beautiful whether it is a sporting event, nature walk or family gathering. The fact that we have the ability to speak through pictures is a truly amazing thing.

Here are some of my photos from the soccer game at Aspen High School today. It was the last home came of the season and as tradition holds, senior night.

Another perk to my job...last Friday I got to enjoy a delicious lunch for free since I did a restaurant critique for my weekly beat. Here are the picture of the amazing food I got to sample:

Biscuit n' Brisket: cheddar biscuit, black kale and bbq briscuit 

Andouille corn dog with homemade mustard creole 

Green salad with tomatoes, parmesan, and a light balsamic dressing

Crab tacos with an avocado lime dressing

And last but not least, I wrote a features on water polo and snapped a few photos at that too...

Time Flies

Something I don't understand is how I have been in Aspen a month. I knew my weeks would start flying by and I would no longer be counting down my days here, but boy has this happened so fast. I am finally in my own rhythm and loving every minute I have here. I am taking life by what is thrown my way in the present and not missing out on a single opportunity whether related to my internship or not. I have gotten to the point where I can no longer keep track of what I am reporting on.

Some days have been rough where I am consumed by my past and what could have been. This has not only become a time where I am exploring what it is like to work in a professional newsroom, but it has become time for me to examine myself. I haven't been alone in a long time and even though I just started my fifth week here I'm still meeting people. I'm still learning what it's like to live by myself in a city that I have never been to before.

I am moving forward in life and becoming an adult. This experience is part of my college career and even though I am not starting a new chapter of my life in Aspen it is still a new chapter in the larger scheme of my book and for my time at DePauw. Time does move fast here, but now I am beginning my second month and it's a little strange. I thought I would be better transitioned and know more people, but even though I keep putting myself out there it is really difficult to meet people when your not thrown into a situation like a study abroad program or a program with other interns. It's a learning experience and I know when this is all over I'll miss it and be so thankful I had this experience, but being consumed in the middle of it going through some tough emotional drama it's hard to see it that way.

Looking back on my past week, I had some great articles published and took some risks. The weekend took a turn as most of them do when I have to entertain myself and come up with things to do, so I was a little homesick and missing what I just recently lost. Now it's a brand new week and I need to look forward. It's another week where I have great opportunities to publish more great articles, take risk and this weekend I get to see my best friend.

Bliss

I've finally had the perfect weekend even though I still have 8 hours left, but my next eight hours consist of watching the Cardinals, Bikram and watching my TV shows later tonight (Once Upon a Time and Revenge).

You may be asking yourselves why my week has been so great....well let me share:

Silver Queen Gondola Ride

We took an 18 minute ride up to the top of Aspen Mountain to see the amazing views and hang out on the sun drenched deck Saturday afternoon.  

Puppy on Board

Mack, a 13-week-old English Bulldog, shows his skateboarding skills at the top of Aspen Mountain. Mack is being trained as an avalanche retrieval dog by his owner Brad Dingess, a snowcat operator for SkiCo. "He's definitely an outside dog," Dingess said.

This weekend the Silver Queen Gondola offered free rides to the top of Aspen Mountain, so I obviously was all over taking the ride up to see the beautiful views. Everyone and their mom was up there, but it was a great decision to go up. There were so many adorable dogs and little kids hoola-hooping and having snowball fights. I definitely got caught in a snowball fight between another co-workers kids and my boots took some pretty hard hits. 

Mountain High 

Just one of the beautiful views from the top. Snow on the caps, sun high in the sky and hot cocoa makes for the perfect afternoon. 

Not only did my day include a great trip to the top of Aspen Mountain, but I started my day off with a great morning workout. I have been going to Bikram the last three weeks and yesterday was by far the best class I have had so far. I was able to push myself and reach positions I didn't know I could do. 

To conclude my Saturday, I came home to read my book and catch up on a TV show, Hart of Dixie, that I used to watch. 

Today has been another great day where I have had some great Me time. Aspen High School had their annual college fair so I stopped by to say hi to the DePauw admissions counselor and then came back into town where I had a nice lunch outside. It was my first time eating at a restaurant alone and it was actually really nice. I got to people watch and listen in to some of the other conversations around me. It also helped that my sandwich was deliciously yummy. 

It's been the first weekend where I have been completely happy to be out here by myself. I've gotten out of my apartment and hung out with people, but I've had some nice quiet time alone. 

Hump Week

My Top 5 favorite things that happened this week:

1. My grandparents stopped in and visited. 
Who doesn't love when their grandparents or anybody from their family comes and visits them? I got to play hooky and show my grandparents around town, go out to eat with them and relax by the pool on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon when it was 70 and sunny out. It was fun to be an adult and show them where I work and who I work with. I also got to talk about how much I love my internship and all that I am doing which makes me feel great about this opportunity that I have been given.

2. Took some pretty awesome soccer pics at this week's game. 

The team unfortunately faced another loss losing to Roaring Fork Valley 3-1. 

3. Had 3 stories published this week and 2 photos. 

Hunger Games: Hi2t at the Aspen Club Host Hunger Benefit Saturday
Town Tattle
Windwalkers Profile

4. Got to spend a lot of time outside in the gorgeous weather and see the fall leaves. 

5. Was reminded by my sorority sisters how much they love me and miss me. 

Despite it being a very odd week it's been a good one. It's officially the first week of the off-season, so things have been very quiet and slow. The newsroom has run into a lot of dead ends trying to come up with things to report about - except for the lovely government shutdown providing us with lots of news midweek. We've also had strange weather with another early October blizzard that set in last night. I got to wake up to about 5 inches of snow and there's supposed to be more coming down tonight. I guess this is what I get for not being in St. Louis and able to go to a World Series Game. The snow is pretty though. There is definitely something different about mountain snow and the snow that the STL and the Castle get. It's more powdery here and prettier looking.

I've had a lot of me time this week, which I've loved. I've gone to work, gone to hot yoga, and have come home and just relaxed. I have finally gotten used to living by myself. Now don't get me wrong give me all my sorority sisters in one house and I'll immediately take it, but I've enjoyed having my own space to come back to where I don't have to worry about other people interrupting me. I can watch TV, read my book, cook myself whatever I want for dinner and really just relax. I'm so busy at school that I very rarely have time to just relax and not worry about things, so it's been nice to go to work and come home and not have to worry about what's going on at work. I like having the separation.

I did discover one thing I hate today...cleaning an oven. First of all, I love to clean. I always keep everything very neat and organized, but there's something about really cleaning everything that just calms me down. Not only does it relax me, but I just love being in a place right after it's been clean and smells good. So, I scrubbed my entire bathroom, vacuumed, dusted, and cleaned my kitchen. I decided to be brave today and actually use the spray I have for my oven because I have only used it once because I was afraid it would burn the apartment down by how bad it smelled...and I was just trying to cook my mac and cheese. So, I sprayed it down and almost suffocated by the inhaling the lovely fumes and then I attempted to scrub the shelves and that was an absolute fail. And the catch, I'm doing the overnight cold oven cleaning so when I get up tomorrow I get to take a wet sponge and scrub the inside of my oven to actually clean it. Something to look forward too...

I'm actually really excited for tomorrow. The Gondola is offering free trips up to the top of Aspen Mountain, so I am definitely hitting that up. It's nice to finally be settled in and I really do feel at home here. It's going to be sad to leave at the end of this. I'm loving the experience and it's making me really excited to have a career in journalism. I'm not excited about the applications I have to fill out to apply for the internships I want, but I am excited to see if I get one for next summer. I can't imagine not working at a newspaper now...It's definitely the career I want with no hesitations.