And I'll get to that in a moment. First of all, I had a great weekend. Friday night we joined some friends and attended the Denver Modernism show. It took place in a warehouse type of building and was a glorious spectacle of mid-century furniture, artwork, and household goods. I oohed and ahhed over the Mies, Noguchi, and Saarinen. I think I just about drooled on every Eames chair I walked by. The event was complete with a Tiki bar (which had some amazingly strong drinks) and a hilarious retro slide show presented by the fabulous Charles Phoenix.
Saturday we had a classy night at the theater to see the Pre-Broadway production of The Little Mermaid at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. We went to dinner before the show at Kevin Taylor's at the Opera House. Kevin Taylor is probably Denver's most famous chef. Like a local Bobby Flay or Emeril. Because of this, I was expecting a fabulously divine and interesting meal. I've also been watching a lot of Top Chef lately, and I think this has made my expectations extremely high. Anyways, the meal was definitely good, but somewhat of a disappointment. Perhaps I was expecting too much, but I really thought for the reputation and prices, this meal should have kicked some major butt. After dinner we headed up to the Opera House to see The Little Mermaid.
It appeared that everyone, adults and the little ones dressed in their Disney princess costumes alike, overwhelmingly enjoyed the show, due to the standing ovation that began immediately when the ensemble came on stage to take a bow. Call me an uber-critic, but I don't give standing ovations to just anything. I was a bit confused when the mass public rose before the main characters had come out to take a bow. They were giving a standing ovation for the actor that raised the sail for 5 seconds in the beginning of Act I and the actress that handed Ariel a towel after she got her legs and washed ashore. Really? Were these actors deserving of a standing ovation? Did they really knock the socks off of us viewers so much that we (when I say we, I mean everyone in the theater aside from Brian and I) stood up the second they ran back out on stage for their final bow? Experiences like this, in a way, make me lose a bit of respect for my fellow theater-goers.
Don't get me wrong. The musical was quite entertaining. I was blown away by the sets- it really gave the illusion of an underwater landscape. And the transition between under the sea and up on land was quite smooth. The actress who performed the part Ariel had a killer voice and looked remarkably like the Ariel in the original film. My main complaint was the ending, and I will not give anything away, aside from the fact that it jumbled, quick, and all too-easy.
This brings me to the something that ticks me off. To give the illusion of floating or swimming, the actors wore Heelys: you know, those damn shoes with the wheels in the back of them? You see kids (and now adults) gliding around these on sidewalks, through the grocery stores, on their way to school, at the mall. Yeah, I HATE these shoes. I LOATHE them. But, I think that they found their one appropriate place to be worn: on stage in the production of The Little Mermaid. Makes sense. Does anyone else hate these shoes? I hate them so much that I hate the parents that buy them for their kids. I think I hate these shoes even more than Crocs (Which, as Colleen proved in Las Vegas ARE actually comfortable. Still not attractive, but comfortable). Actually I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I hate these shoes twice as much as Crocs. We were at the mall the other week and saw a Mom and child wheeling around on these stupid shoes, getting in our way, zipping in and out of the crowd nearly knocking over mothers holding babies and old men with canes. I exaggerate, but I have never seen something more ridiculous than a 40-some-year-old woman on Heelys. Ok, rant over.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Yikes.
It's been a looooong time since I've blogged. Definitely not due to a lack of fun and exciting things to share, but more because of the insanely busy past few months. The summer has been great, though, and is definitely passing by ridiculously quick.
I can barely remember back to June, but I do know I was in Dallas for a week for work getting ready for a HUGE meeting with one of our customers and also our biggest trade show of the year. The huge meeting went extraordinarily well, so all of the hard work and travel was worthwhile.
Early on in June, a college roommate, Deborah, was in town with her husband/film writer/producer/director for his movie's premiere at the Breckenridge Film Festival. We drove up to the mountains to meet them one evening and had a lovely night in Breck- my first time there too! Unfortunately, we had prior commitments during the afternoon, so we did not make it in town to see the actual movie's premiere, but we did get our very own DVD copy of the film which now I'm thinking I should have made Sean autograph for kicks.
The end of June brought us to the Chicagoland area via a roadtrip. I do believe I could be a truck driver if this whole graphic design thing doesn't work out. I started out at 630pm driving out of Denver and didn't quit till about 3 in the morning. I love roadtrips. Brian took over for a couple hours till we were almost to Illinois and then I grabbed a hold of the wheel for the final few hours into Chicago. We arrived at my parent's house about 9 in the morning on Friday and began our week-long whirlwind visit to Chicago. We attended my college roommate's, Daniella, beautiful wedding in Arlington Heights on Saturday. It was a blast and I got to catch up with a ton of Bradley folks that were at the wedding. Some I had not seen in years (like since graduation!), others I had seen just weeks before (Deborah in Breck)... It was totally fun and gorgeous and Daniella looked absolutely amazing.
On Sunday, my wonderful bridesmaids threw me a shower at my parent's house. We had quite a few people attend, including many of my family members from New England, Brian's parents, and of course a lot of locals! I was completely overwhelmed with the generosity of everyone. Such a wonderful day; it really made me feel like a bride!
The rest of the week was somewhat a blur, but I was able to catch up with friends downtown and in the burbs, Brian's parents, and all of my family that had came into town from RI and MA. The only bummer of the week was that we didn't make it to either Portillo's or Dunkin' Donuts while we were in town. :(
I know I'm really skimming over things here............. And I do apologize about that! After the wedding, I surely will have more time to blog! Anyways, the rest of July was fairly quiet, had a brief business trip to Pittsburgh. No, not Pittsburgh- Hermitage, PA. I just flew into Pittsburgh, then drove an hour to the little wee town of Hermitage, PA. Filled with VFW's and little cute New England looking houses, and itty-bitty stores. It really was darling; however, I spent 90% of my time inside an aluminum can factory attempting to do a press check on our Cantu Oil Sheen Can. They had some major issues there matching our colors, and me being the pickiest of pickiest, I absolutely would not approve something that was the slightest bit off. I ended up spending 11 hours at this factory sitting in their windowless customer lounge, drinking a ridiculous amount of Diet Coke. I did venture out here and there, donning safety glasses and ear plugs (sexy) to explore the factory a bit. That was the fun part- seeing how the cans start (looks like an aluminum hockey puck), then extruded, brushed, decorated, palletized, etc... interesting stuff.
And finally, my latest and greatest adventure has to be my bachelorette party in Las Vegas the first weekend of August. I had 5 great girls join me in Vegas and I'm pretty sure, from what I can remember, we had a blast!! We stayed at the Venetian, while the guys, who were having their own bachelor weekend, stayed across the strip at Treasure Island (yes, I know, now ti). We ended up meeting up with the guys quite a few times for drinks, dinner, gambling, etc. But during the days, we lounged by the pool, did some shopping, and slept in. Friday night we went to Tao for drinks and appetizers (HUGE disappointment with customer service there), drinks at the Wynn, then a late night/early morning dinner at Grand Lux Cafe. We called it a semi-early night at 2am in order to rest up for our Saturday night-o-fun.
On Saturday we lounged by the pool during the day, bumping into Kate Walsh from Grey's Anatomy who was also attending her bacherlorette weekend. :) That evening we went to Battista's Hole in the Wall for a delicious Italian dinner and then moved on to Tangerine at TI for some dancing and drinks. After losing the majority of my girls at Tangerine (most had early Sunday morning flights and/or were quite tipsy), Danielle and I headed out from there and bumped into the guys (or did I call them??) playing poker at TI, got the key to the guy's room that was full of beer and drinks and ended up hanging out up there for a while for some free drinks (not that free drinks are hard to come by in Vegas). After that, we went back to the Venetian and had a late night/early AM snack at 6am or so at Grand Lux Cafe. This really sobered me up... a bit... and then we found the guys and did some gambling at the Venetian, others played in the 7am poker tournament. I think I ended up getting back to my room around 830 or 9am. It was a LONG night!! But totally fun.
Our return flight to Denver was not till Sunday evening, so I struggled to get through the day without passing out mid-stride walking about the strip, at the booth at Denny's, and in the massage chair at Brookstone. We went to the airport early, with my newly purchased travel blanket from brookstone, and I slept in the fetal position curled up on an airport chair for about a half hour. After my little nap, I felt the need to devour some food and drink some more beer, so we hit up a little Mexican restaurant for dinner before getting on the plane back to Denver.
So, this kind of brings us up-to-date. Aside from another trip to Dallas, the past couple of weeks we've been taking care of final wedding plans and now we are 17 days away from our big day. I'm absolutely beyond excited and am just trying to savor every moment!
I can barely remember back to June, but I do know I was in Dallas for a week for work getting ready for a HUGE meeting with one of our customers and also our biggest trade show of the year. The huge meeting went extraordinarily well, so all of the hard work and travel was worthwhile.
Early on in June, a college roommate, Deborah, was in town with her husband/film writer/producer/director for his movie's premiere at the Breckenridge Film Festival. We drove up to the mountains to meet them one evening and had a lovely night in Breck- my first time there too! Unfortunately, we had prior commitments during the afternoon, so we did not make it in town to see the actual movie's premiere, but we did get our very own DVD copy of the film which now I'm thinking I should have made Sean autograph for kicks.
The end of June brought us to the Chicagoland area via a roadtrip. I do believe I could be a truck driver if this whole graphic design thing doesn't work out. I started out at 630pm driving out of Denver and didn't quit till about 3 in the morning. I love roadtrips. Brian took over for a couple hours till we were almost to Illinois and then I grabbed a hold of the wheel for the final few hours into Chicago. We arrived at my parent's house about 9 in the morning on Friday and began our week-long whirlwind visit to Chicago. We attended my college roommate's, Daniella, beautiful wedding in Arlington Heights on Saturday. It was a blast and I got to catch up with a ton of Bradley folks that were at the wedding. Some I had not seen in years (like since graduation!), others I had seen just weeks before (Deborah in Breck)... It was totally fun and gorgeous and Daniella looked absolutely amazing.
On Sunday, my wonderful bridesmaids threw me a shower at my parent's house. We had quite a few people attend, including many of my family members from New England, Brian's parents, and of course a lot of locals! I was completely overwhelmed with the generosity of everyone. Such a wonderful day; it really made me feel like a bride!
The rest of the week was somewhat a blur, but I was able to catch up with friends downtown and in the burbs, Brian's parents, and all of my family that had came into town from RI and MA. The only bummer of the week was that we didn't make it to either Portillo's or Dunkin' Donuts while we were in town. :(
I know I'm really skimming over things here............. And I do apologize about that! After the wedding, I surely will have more time to blog! Anyways, the rest of July was fairly quiet, had a brief business trip to Pittsburgh. No, not Pittsburgh- Hermitage, PA. I just flew into Pittsburgh, then drove an hour to the little wee town of Hermitage, PA. Filled with VFW's and little cute New England looking houses, and itty-bitty stores. It really was darling; however, I spent 90% of my time inside an aluminum can factory attempting to do a press check on our Cantu Oil Sheen Can. They had some major issues there matching our colors, and me being the pickiest of pickiest, I absolutely would not approve something that was the slightest bit off. I ended up spending 11 hours at this factory sitting in their windowless customer lounge, drinking a ridiculous amount of Diet Coke. I did venture out here and there, donning safety glasses and ear plugs (sexy) to explore the factory a bit. That was the fun part- seeing how the cans start (looks like an aluminum hockey puck), then extruded, brushed, decorated, palletized, etc... interesting stuff.
And finally, my latest and greatest adventure has to be my bachelorette party in Las Vegas the first weekend of August. I had 5 great girls join me in Vegas and I'm pretty sure, from what I can remember, we had a blast!! We stayed at the Venetian, while the guys, who were having their own bachelor weekend, stayed across the strip at Treasure Island (yes, I know, now ti). We ended up meeting up with the guys quite a few times for drinks, dinner, gambling, etc. But during the days, we lounged by the pool, did some shopping, and slept in. Friday night we went to Tao for drinks and appetizers (HUGE disappointment with customer service there), drinks at the Wynn, then a late night/early morning dinner at Grand Lux Cafe. We called it a semi-early night at 2am in order to rest up for our Saturday night-o-fun.
On Saturday we lounged by the pool during the day, bumping into Kate Walsh from Grey's Anatomy who was also attending her bacherlorette weekend. :) That evening we went to Battista's Hole in the Wall for a delicious Italian dinner and then moved on to Tangerine at TI for some dancing and drinks. After losing the majority of my girls at Tangerine (most had early Sunday morning flights and/or were quite tipsy), Danielle and I headed out from there and bumped into the guys (or did I call them??) playing poker at TI, got the key to the guy's room that was full of beer and drinks and ended up hanging out up there for a while for some free drinks (not that free drinks are hard to come by in Vegas). After that, we went back to the Venetian and had a late night/early AM snack at 6am or so at Grand Lux Cafe. This really sobered me up... a bit... and then we found the guys and did some gambling at the Venetian, others played in the 7am poker tournament. I think I ended up getting back to my room around 830 or 9am. It was a LONG night!! But totally fun.
Our return flight to Denver was not till Sunday evening, so I struggled to get through the day without passing out mid-stride walking about the strip, at the booth at Denny's, and in the massage chair at Brookstone. We went to the airport early, with my newly purchased travel blanket from brookstone, and I slept in the fetal position curled up on an airport chair for about a half hour. After my little nap, I felt the need to devour some food and drink some more beer, so we hit up a little Mexican restaurant for dinner before getting on the plane back to Denver.
So, this kind of brings us up-to-date. Aside from another trip to Dallas, the past couple of weeks we've been taking care of final wedding plans and now we are 17 days away from our big day. I'm absolutely beyond excited and am just trying to savor every moment!
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