I heart flip-flops.

With yesterday and today reaching temperatures over 70 degrees, I decided it was time to bust out my flip flops. Have I ever mentioned my love of my flip flops? Not all of my pairs of flip flops. There is just one pair that I have this incredible affection towards. I bought them in a sweet surf shop in Monterey, CA a couple years ago, after discovering on my Californian vacation that I had brought no comfortable summery shoes. I did bring a cute, new pair of sandals that I had never worn before on this California trip. I promptly threw them out in the hotel garbage after hiking my sorry ass up and down the streets of San Francisco one afternoon in search of a FedEx... And my feet put up with a lot. For me to throw out an incredibly cute pair of shoes, well, they just had to be THAT painful. Where was I... Oh yes, back to my favorite flip flops. So I buy these simple flip flops at this surf shop in Monterey and immediately fell in love with them. The rest of the vacation I think I planned all of my outfits around these flip flops. Even deeming it perfectly acceptable to wear army green flop flops with a nice khaki skirt out to dinner one night. I think I even donned them at the all-day Coachella festival in the desert. And, well, you get the point, I think my other shoes felt slighted that trip, not making any appearances on my feet south of Moneterey.

Let's backtrack here... Since I'm already writing incessently about my flip flops, I might as well give a little background information. I never liked flip flops till I met 'the ones'. Let's face it, the little thing that goes in between your big toe and the little piggy who stayed home is normally uncomfortable. These flip flops totally changed my outlook on flip flops in general. I now knew what to look for in a flip flop. I knew how to appreciate flip flops that treated my feet right.

What was my whole point of posting today??? Oh yes, it's so incredibly beautiful out today and I have been just loving wearing my flip flops and having the windows open and breathing the fresh spring-like air. I love it. I went out to grab some lunch and ate it outside taking in the sun and amazingly warm breezes. Springtime is the best. I shouldn't get too used to this though, as I'm sure it'll be back to cold and snow soon enough....

Such a productive weekend...

Anyone who knows me well knows my love of liquor stores. I thought I had it all, with DiCarlo's in Westmont, IL. Then I moved to Colorado and searched and searched for a liquor store and happened upon Superior Liquors off of 36 in Superior. I thought nothing could get better than Superior. Well, that was until I was introduced to Applejack's this weekend. This place is enormous- huge selection AND great prices. My allegiances have changed yet again...

No worries: the liquor store was not the highlight of my weekend. I also visited Sonic, my favorite drive-in fast food restaurant. And had crab legs for the first time ever, and they were soo yummy. No, the crab legs were not from Sonic, had those at a restaurant in Larimer Square, Del Mar's Crab House. Eating crab legs is so much fun. You get to crack, rip, and tear at the legs and eat with your fingers. And during all of this excitement, crab meat, shell, and juices are flying all over the place: hitting neighboring tables, projecting into my hair, hitting your chair, the floor, etc. I definitely want to eat crab legs more often now. I almost think I like crabs more than lobster. Then again, I have not had lobster in a really long time.

I also hit up the Denver Art Museum, aka the DAM. It's partially under construction, so all of their exhibits and collections were apparently not on display. It's definitley no Art Institute of Chicago, but they have quite a collection there. I started out checking out their European and American art, a meager grouping of no more than 100 paintings. Next, checked out the Asian art and then Pre-Columbian art art. These collections were vast and outnumbered the European and American pieces about 20 to 1. No kidding.

As I reflect back on the weekend, my 'productiveness' involved lots of booze, food, and art. Doesn't get better than that. ;)

Livin' on a Prayer

There is something to be said for the stamina and longetivity of a band that is still able to pack an enormous arena more than 20 years after their first big hit. Last night I had the pleasure of attending a Bon Jovi concert at the Pepsi Center with my friend Danielle. Admittedly, I didn't know what to expect, aside from some big hair and lots of denim. Oh yes, acid washed denim. And I was not disappointed. Let's say the Pepsi Center holds 50,000 people; a minimum of 40,000 were women, the rest a combination of male Bon Jovi superfans (and I have a photo to post later...) and on the other end of the spectrum: bewildered men that begrudgingly accompanied their girlfriends and wives.

Aside from the attendees, the production of the show was quite the spectacle. Granted, I am quite used to attending small, no-frills indie shows, so I think any concert at an arena as large as the Pepsi Center would be visually shocking; however, this was unbelievable. The lights, the huge screen, the video cameras, Bon Jovi suddenly appearing on mini-stages in the middle of the crowd... I have to say I was thoroughly impressed. Now, I know some people I told that I was going to see Bon Jovi kind of chuckled and were probably secretly (wait... no, publicly) mocking me, but I have to say it was really an awesome concert. He played all of the hits, we sang along, and let's face it, Jon Bon Jovi is looking pretty damn good for being 44 years old. Here are some photos from the show. I apologize for the poor quality, just had my cell phone with me.





I was truly looking forward to some fantastic people watching, but I honestly was so enthralled with the show that only a few people caught my attention. In general, there was a lot of big hair. There also were a lot of late 30's/early 40's women scantily clad drunk women. But, they were having so much fun, you can't fault them for that. Perhaps when I'm 40 years old I'll still be attending Radiohead shows; I hope I only have as much fun as these women did last night. The cherry on top was the superfan a few rows behind us. He was decked out in acid washed jeans, a mohawk style wig, bandana, and a jean jacket. He was too cool to wear a Bon Jovi jean jacket (unlike the INXS superfans) to the Bon Jovi concert, so on the back was an image in tribute to another band. Here's a pic of the superfan...

I'm Rich, Biotch...

Last night, I went to see Dave Chappelle at the Paramount Theater. Quite an experience, as he's touring with some of his 'Block Party' entourage. The opening comedian was decently good, though it was hard to focus on him due to the group of 4 twentysomethings that were seated directly in front of us (more on them later). Dave Chappelle came on next and the next 2 hours entailed him performing, which was great, and several other acts dotted throughout the show (Erykah Badu, some DJ, and some other rapper guy that has performed on the Chappelle show a few times). It was actually a bit disappointing because Dave only really performed a total of maybe 45 minutes. The set from Erykah Badu, which I was sort psyched to see, was a bit... hmmm. What's the word? Oh yeah, boring. Not that she doesn't have a fantastic voice. She does. Not that she isn't adorably cute. She is. Just that all of her songs went from one semi/potentially cool part to another with no hooks or climax. I kept waiting for each song to get really good and it just didn't.

Oh, so these twentysomethings in front of us. Oh wait, I'm a twentysomething. Oh well... They were quite a combination. We had the hippie boy that smelled like a skunk, an Asian gangsta DJ type of dude, and two girls that were somewhere in between and it looked like they hadn't brushed their hair in a few days. These people, who I might add were not sitting on the end of an aisle, got up throughout the evening a minimum of 20 times. No joke. I don't know if any of them really even saw the show. The hippie boy, also, when he was seated, could not sit still. He was constantly sitting forward, to the left, to the right, talking to his Asian gansta buddy, chatting it up with one the girls. And did I mention he was directly in front of me for part of the night? This meant that I had to do the same thing. When he leaned to the left, I went to the right. When he leaned to the right, I leaned to the left. I'm sure I was driving the people behind me nuts as well! Midway through the performance, the Asian gangsta guy got kicked out. Not sure why. Though he did get busted earlier in the night for taking photos on his camera phone. One of the girls almost left when he got kicked out, she grabbed her belongings, made the two guys sitting on the end of the aisle get up for the fiftieth time and then 10 minutes later she was back (and the two guys had to get up for the fifty-first time). I just don't think I can even justifiably describe the ridiculousness of these four...

For those of you who have not heard, Rob and I have broken up and he has moved back to Chicago. As this is a situation that obviously involves another aside from me, I wish to leave it at that in a public forum such as this.

Watching The Sopranos like it's my full-time job.

I just realized last night, after watching the season 4 premiere of The Sopranos, episode 40, I have spent 40 hours of my life in the past month watching The Sopranos. It really and truly is an addiction.

On the auction block

I created a little painting over the past month or so to donate to a charity auction AIGA is having this week... The theme was love or romance, or had to include a heart. Something along those lines. Above is my piece, entitled "emergence", and just thought I would share...

Worst TV Show Theme Song Award...

Goes to: Shop 'til you drop. You know the awesome game show where you get to shop. Not as cool as Supermarket Sweep, yet just as cheesy and fully equipped with the uber dorky, way-too-happy host. Wow, this is possibly more painful to listen to than the Kraft Crumbles' commercial take on EMF's Unbelievable (who would have guessed, they changed the words to "Crumbelievable"). Do you ever wonder who dreams up these jingles and pitches the idea without busting up laughing to the client? Even more intriguing are the singers and musicians that create the jingle. How do they make it through the recording process with a straight face? And the person that gives approval to actually air the theme song or commercial: how do they sleep at night???