The Old Razzle Dazzle

Early on this past October life was s l o w. I had nothing to write about, and the days were a lulling blur of work, work, sleep, eat. Late October, however, was a much different beast. My birthday came and went without much fanfare, and I suppose it will only become more obsolete as I add tally marks to my name. Then, a surprise trip to Aspen, Colorado, suddenly less than 60 days remaining in my current job, one final state exam to conquer, a garden in desperate need of weeding, and the general rounding up of class projects has invited the return of the mayhem that more and more regularly controls my life.

-If you don't care to read my political paragraph below, please skip down to the following paragraph--

Let's start with the most recent upheaval. The race for Presidency was settled Tuesday night, very late Tuesday night. I didn't stay up to watch all of it. After all, if the world is coming to an end, I want to get one last night of sleep. I think everyone knew in their heart of hearts that Obama would win again. I don't know why we don't just have the president serve eight years in office and be done with it. The majority of people, supposedly your "peers" - I say "peers" because if you've ever been to jury duty you know those "peers" might not have made it out of the Cro-Magnon stage of evolution - are complacent and uninformed. My mother likes to say, "There are two kinds of people, those who want a hand out, and those who want to work". The world, the government, your neighbor, all owe you nothing. What's worse is that all over Facebook people were posting their crazed comments throughout the evening. In the end, all my Liberal friends on Facebook were snotty, ungracious winner prancing about the Internet like the Cheshire Cat. My Conservative friends were mostly silent about the who thing, most likely for fear of being berated. However, in the end, the joke is really on the Democrats. What happened, after all the campaigning, after all the comments, and all the late night ridicule of the Republicans (I guess the Democrats never say anything stupid)? We ended up right back where we started. A Republican Congress and a Democratic, Lame Duck, President. Exactly the same as was for Obama's first term. Another four years of gridlock until someone better comes along. All I have to say is this: I am an American, I am a Republican, I am conservative to the core. I'm not ashamed to say I watch Fox News, or block all people who spout Liberal garbage from my Facebook newsfeed. I am thankful for every single thing I have. I work hard every day, and will dutifully will pay my taxes, even though they will jump by almost 20 percent this year. I love my country, and I will patiently wait another four years for times to get better and life to return to normal. I am a Republican, and I am waiting.

Perfect Pineapple Upside Down Cake

My birthday, as I said before was relatively quiet this year. Sushi on the night of with Mom and Dad, and then a family lunch Sunday afternoon. Mom made, at my request, a pineapple upside down cake for my big day, and it was fabulous. Made the traditional way, in a cast iron skillet, it is most certainly one of my favorite cakes ever. I received four birthday cards on the day of from various friends and family, which I snapped a photo of for the blog.

As for garden news, it has totally gone kaput. I was gifted with a major infestation of aphids on my zucchini and baby pumpkin plants, decimating the crop and leaving me with no other choice but to rip them up. I stuffed them in black trash bags and let the aphids bake in the sun for a while. Little buggers. My tomatoes were doing okay when I left on my trip to Aspen, but now that I am back, they have obviously fallen prey to the dreaded tomato horn worm. I half-heartedly sprayed them with some organic bug killer, but I'm not holding my breath. I have lots of baby tomatoes on my plants, but the sun just doesn't hit that area enough in the late fall, and I'm doubting I'll get anything from them either. I'm still crossing my fingers for a month or two of COLD weather. Let's kills all the bugs, and start over shall we?

Lavender in the Garden

But, the garden has not been an entire disappointment I have recently made a concerted effort to attract more bees to the yard, and boy have they arrived! Late in the morning they come to duck and dive around my red salvia, my mint bed, lavender, and rose plants. I happened to be out weeding the side garden the other morning, when all the sudden I heard the distinct buzzing of my resident bees. It started out as just one, who I named Fred. Up, down, zig zag, and around. He glided fluidly through the tall lavender spikes choosing a flower here, rejecting a flower there. I kept weeding, and we stayed like that for awhile, both working quietly in the beauty.

Fred didn't seem to mind me taking his photo over and over again. He was hard a work, and I could empathize. To think, only a year ago I would have run into the house, or tried to swat him away, upon his arrival. 

On a last minute whim, spurred by some flash of reasonable airfare, Mom, Dad, and I all headed to Aspen for a long weekend getaway. First of all, if you are not familiar with the town, it is a ski town in the winter, and a family hang out in the summer. Nestled high in the Rocky Mountains, it stays pleasant in the summer, and when you visit you are 100% likely to meet someone who is also from Texas. We love our cold weather. Anyway, Mom, Dad, and I happened to be visiting during the off season (fall), and it was dead. Once we had finally completed the four hour long journey from the airport to the town we were instantly upgraded to an awesome suite, complete with a living room, dining area, and two separate bedrooms. Many of the shops in town were closed, or had very abbreviated hours, but you cannot afford to buy anything in that town anyway. Let me explain. Aspen, is where the movie stars of the world come to ski or spend the summer. As your walking down the street your greeted with familiar, yet elusive names like "Fendi", "Prada", and "Burberry". While Mom and I did venture into most of these sanctuaries of plushness, there was absolutely nothing to buy. Besides, most stores didn't carry my size anyway.

Also, everyone in that town has a dog which they take everywhere, even into stores (yes, there was a dog in Burberry), and on top of that they dress them in designer fashions as well. P. S., do not, under any circumstances attempt to pet the animals. It was a fun, relaxing break from the everyday grind. The only downside was that I was sick the entire visit. Altitude Sickness hit me the first day (Aspen is over 11,000 feet above sea level), and I was never really able to recover. Still I tried not to let it slow me down and continued to walk the town and visit shops with Mom, not wanting either her or Dad to think me ungrateful for the unexpected holiday. Once we got back home (a cozy 575 feet above sea level) I was feeling right as rain.

This is Vail, Colorado. A midpoint of sorts between Denver and Aspen.

A Vail candy shop, which we had to stop in.

I think I'll get some of these and wear them for Halloween my first year teaching...

The whole town is of a German style.

Mom taking a photo of me taking a photo of her…it's all very postmodernist.

There were so many fabulous birds in Colorado. The colors I saw put our Texas birds to shame.

Notice the bit of cobalt blue on his wing?

Icicles hung from the pine trees outside of our suite.

The town of Aspen. As you can see, dead for the most part. It's a small town, but I'm told it's hoppin' during the seasons.

This was the local bookstore. Located in an old home, books were stuffed in every nook and cranny.

When we left Aspen, we decided to take the more scenic route through the mountains which takes you over the Continental Divide. Above and below are photos of the same batch of Aspen trees, just playing with color and lighting. The bottom photo is how they really looked.

Mom and Dad in the Aspens.

On our drive up to the Continental Divide, the Mountain scenes became more and more majestic.

Close to the top, very close actually, of the Rockies, we came upon this ghost town. No, it was not a replica. These were the real homes that people fought for their lives in. In fact, there was a sign asking people to not pick up any objects as this was an archeological site. When we were there it was 29 degrees outside. How they managed to survive there at all still amazes me. 

We're almost to the Divide. Looking back down into the valley before heading forward, Independence Village is down in the valley, to the left of the picture, behind the bend.

The top of the Rockies is barren. It's what I imagine Mars must look like. Trees turn to bunch of scruffy, scraggily plants, which turn to nothing but rock and snow.

This is the path to go out to a look out point. It was perilous, as it was covered in ice. I don't know what I was thinking.

There's the look out point. Dad tried to encourage me to turn around here, but I hadn't just made that whole trek only to turn around now. Maybe I should have though, because it was a steep drop down to that platform, and as it was covered in ice, I immediately started sliding! Stopping just short of the edge, I held on to the chains there for dear life while I took my photos. 

Snow patterns on top of the Rockies look like they would be more appropriate in the dessert.

In just a few short minutes of descent the temperature increased by twenty+ degrees and we were back down to only 10,000 feet above sea level.

We had barely returned home from Aspen when Halloween came knocking at my door. I stayed up late  the night before carving two pumpkins (nightmare!), and baking a "Halloween" cake (what was I thinking?!) to get my house in the spirit. The pumpkins turned out well, but I wasn't able to get any good photos of either. The cake on the other hand, was documented.

Chocolate cake with sprinkles on top. I'm kind of a nut.

Orange colored cake, too. I didn't taste like orange though, it was just a butter cake with food coloring.

I had a small bucket of candy in the unlikely event I had trick-or-treaters come to my door. As 7pm came and went I was thinking it would be another ho-hum boring year with no children coming to my door. And then, they arrived. The new trend now is for people to pile their kids into the car and head to another neighborhood to trick-or-treat. An acquaintance happened to mention the next day that she took her child to a different neighborhood than her own, a "rich neighborhood". I assume this is because the candy you can get from these areas is nicer (aka chocolate, not hard candy). My door too was crowded with children who I knew did not live in my neighborhood. While I don't like the message these parents are, or maybe, sending their children, the kids themselves were mostly all sweet and gracious. Lovely kids, really. I only had one show up in jeans, a t-shirt, and dragging a pillowcase full of candy. The last group came much later in the evening. They were Middle School aged, and upon my greeting, "Happy Halloween! I don't have much candy left, but take what you like", they crashed down on me like rabid dogs. Truly. Fists were shoved mercilessly into the bottom of my bowl taking the last remnants of candy. They were so wild in fact that many of the group did not have a chance to get any candy at all, AND they were so crazed, they actually knocked the bowl out of my hand. I had to snatch it back from one of the kids. As they turned to leave, this area had obviously been sufficiently raped and pillaged, one girl, the smallest of the group turned and looked me dead in the eye. There was no expression on her face, and I must have looked at her with the same blank stare. Her fist, still full of the candy she had worked so hard to swipe, reached back into my bowl and dropped a tiny Starburst back into it. Loudly it clinked, and off she ran to catch up with her group. Shocked by what had happened, I turned back into the house. I sat back down on the sofa and ate the last of my Halloween candy myself.