Holidays in the City

Christmas morning Justin announced, “Santa brought me just what I wanted!”

2008 has by far been the most amazing year of my life. The Westin, the Brown Palace history tour, the Performing Arts Complex, The John Hand Theater, Justing turning 5, the Evergreen Players, fun at Chilli's, finding the bunk bed, Kara coming home, the new movie theater, Jacob moving in, steady work, slumber parties at our house, I love Denver. Today is the last day of 2008. I can only hope that 2009 treats me so well.

2009 Goals:
will lose 20lbs.
work for secure organization
be up by 8am on work days
drink less

I think that's good.

The $129 dinosaur

I took Justin to see Santa in Larimer Square yesterday. Right when we got to Santa, Justin decided he needed to go potty first. I think he was a bit nervous. After a quick trip to Starbucks, he marched right up there and sat on Santa's lap. Santa said, "My, how you've grown since last year!" He asked Justin if he brushes his teeth everyday, if he always eats his vegetables, and if helps his mommy cook dinner. Justin answered yes to everything. Then Santa asked him what would he like for Christmas this year.

Justin said without hesitation, "A remote control dinosaur." There is a very specific dinosaur at Target that costs $129. Santa said that his elves do make this toy, and that he'll try to bring to him, but that if he can't he'll bring him something else he'll really like.

I've already finished shopping for Justin. Me nor anyone else, has come close to getting him this toy. Should I do it? Does a five-year-old need a $130 toy? Does he need to learn a lesson about the impact of a poor economy? Or should Santa come through for such a sweet little guy? Even this morning he was reminding me that we need to leave two cookies and a glass of milk for Santa, and two carrots for his reindeer.

My Baby Love and birthday fun

Last Saturday Justin turned 5-years-old. The

following Friday I turned 28. Oh, wow. I was
so nervous that there wouldn't be very many kids at his Chuck-E-Cheese party. I had nothing to worry about. Eric, Emma, Austin, Malcolm, Sean and Adain Baker, Nico, and Charlie were all there to sing Happy Birthday to my little guy. He was so happy. The entire thing went so fast and I think everyone had fun. The after party was even more fun. Eric and Emma, Meto and Mona came over for a sleep over. They were busy bouncing around in Justin's room while the grown ups played cards in the dining room when, at about 9:00pm, KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!! Someone actually called the police over a 5-year-old's birthday party. Unbelievable. We had a great time. Jacob's brother, sister, niece, nephew, and sister in law were all there. and Memo, my sister, and Maggie. What a fantastic day.

My birthday was no less exciting. It was the best birthday of my life. Jacob brought me to the

Westin at Tabor Center for two nights vacation in Denver. Russ, Maggie, and Kara came over and looked at the view from the window. Our room looked right out onto Lower downtown, the Pepsi Center, Invesco Field, the Daniel's and Fisher Tower, and the Convention Center, strait out to the gorgeous Rockie Mountains. The next day, Jake and I went on a history tour of the Brown Palace. We were in the Reagan Suite when a follow tourist asked, "Is this were Barack Obama stayed?"

Our guide responded, "Oh, no. He stayed at the Westin, in Tabor Center." I jumped. Later we found out that the Westin was chosen by the Secrete Service as the safest and easiest to secure location in Denver. The hotel staff said they didn't even know which room exactly he was in. They had the entire 19th floor. We were on the 15th floor, and I'm sure Obama's view was the same as ours. It was the best view, and I'm sure he was very interested to see Invesco Field.

Oh God, I feel sick.

I might live in a complete dream world. I can't think of one person that I know who has been in a long term relationship and been faithful except for me and Jacob. What is more likely? That Jake is the only man on earth that doesn't cheat, or that I am living in a dream? Perhaps there are men out there who are faithful, but I certainly can't think of one, well just one.

the moment man

Tonight, Jacob and I are going to see him short film, "The Moment Man." It's a love story about a character, Barnard, who meets a girl at a grocery store and begins fantasizing all these scenes of the two of them. I've never dated an actor before. I've never acted in anything, but I've seen loads of movies and I totally believed Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Titanic.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=26352313

Holidays

The holidays are right around the corner again. This is the first time in eight years that Kara will be home. Right back to back will be Thanksgiving, Justin's birthday, my birthday, Christmas, New Years. As we were driving back from his mom's house Sunday night, Jacob asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday. I said, "Let's go to Vegas!""And do what?"
"Get married," I told him. To which he responded that there is already so much going on this month, that we have to have an anniversary another time of year. Fair enough. I was shocked at his response. I thought he would laugh off the idea of marriage, but he was very serious and suggested that April would be a better time. Justin was listening to my mp3 player in the backseat.

Ghost hunting

Searching the Denver Public Library catalogue online, I found a box of manuscripts belonging to Mrs. Tabor. I just finished reading, Silver Dollar, published in the late 1930s. The author had a real nasty tone towards Mr. H.A.W Tabor. I have been mulling over books and it seems that the later the publication date, the more favorable the characters of the Tabor Tragedy. At the library is box of Baby Doe's hand written notes, recipes, and even her books, newspaper clippings, and even her bible. The box is kept in a double vault on the 4th floor. To see the box and its contence, I had to fill out a form stating who I was, my affiliation, and show a valid government issued ID. Then I had to put all of my things; purse, coat, even pens and paper into a locker and go sit in a special room while the staff retrieved the box. I could only look at the box in the room. The contense were divided into folders, roughly in chronological order. Among the most interesting things were the wedding announcement dripping in silver, IOUs for the Matchless Mine, and printing of Silver Tabor's book. The most interesting this I found was Baby Doe's bible. There was a verse 4:14 that said something about God not punishing daughter for being harlots and prostitutes because it is men who encourage them, and it take two to tango or something to that effect. Mrs. Tabor outlined that verse, and wrote in pencil, "the men, too."
I visted the Tabor's grave at Mount Olivet Cemetary, and was suprised to find the Agusta's son Maxcy is buried right at Fairmont. Jacob and I had a hard time finding that grave because he is buried in his wife's family plot.

My four-year-old son

My son is four-years-old. He has no idea that Barack Obama’s skin color means anything different from his own skin color, and I don’t know if I want to tell him just yet. The historic accomplishment of Obama’s presidency is immeasurable, and no one can overstate the significance to African-Americans. But I wish we could move the emphasis away from his skin, to the man himself and America’s decision to move away from unilateral, divisive politics. It truly is a new day for America. Yes we can, and thank God we did.

This will be the very first Halloween that I am not taking my baby trick or treating. We've gone together every single year up until now.

This year Justin is High King Peter. We were watching the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe together a few weekends ago, and he told me, "See mommy, that's why they call him hiking Peter, cause he goes hiking!" My little angle. When I dropped him off at school today, his classmates were Spiderman, the Hulk, every superhero imaginable. My little Justin chose King Peter. That speaks to his class and taste, at only four.

At every election since he was born, I've brought Justin will me to vote. I'm not sure if he remembers any elections previous to this one, but I brought him with me and Jacob this year for early voting. To keep him busy, I gave him a small piece of paper and told him to write down who he's voting for. He protested, "I'm too young to vote." I told him to go ahead and cast his ballot anyway. He wrote in barley legible writing, "OBAmA." The election is in 4 days. He knows that pink is for girls, swords are for boys, coffee is for grown-ups, but through out the entire campaign, it has never once occurred to Justin that Obama is half black, and the historical significance of that. In a way, I don't really want to bring it to his attention.

I'm really hopeful this time around. With the presidential choice so clear, if the county doesn't elect Obama, then there is something fundamentally wrong with our democratic system.