Kelly's Bachelorette Party - Part 2

....due to some serious space issues (probably as a result of the large video on this post), I had to cut this blog into two parts. Kelly's nemesis that evening....The Bull!!! Kelly getting ready to mount the bull. The crowd was huge, the pressure was on! She came, she saw, she conquered!!! This already about 1 minute in. The first 30 seconds of this video you think she has it easy and then all of sudden.....bam! After Coyote Joe's, we hit a little snag in our plan at the last bar, but no need to get into the specifics of that one. We hit two bars right next to each other....one was a dance club and one was more of a martini lounge. The owner of the martini lounge felt so bad about our experience with the bouncers a few minutes earlier at another bar that he gave us a free bottle of champagne. This also was about the time I started getting tipsy, so this was the only picture I got at those two bars.

My mom enjoying a glass from our free bottle of champagne.

And now we are on our way back to the house and well, you will just have to witness this for yourself.

And this is the point in the evening, when things started to downward spiral into "Girls Gone Wild." Example A: Kelly decides to limo dive, falls, lands in some girls lap, and I snapped this gem. Now I just need to decide like Spiderman, if I want to use my power for good or evil because I could cause A LOT of evil with this picture. Aunt Robin wearing the pink cowboy hat I can almost promise you that my mom attempted to hit a high note. Kelly and I have seen this face many times in church and we always know that means to plug our ears. Something must have been funny because Melissa, Katie, and Bridget are cracking up! Aunt Robin makes friends with Peter Pecker. My Uncle Randy better be careful, this guy was a smoooooth talker. Erin cracking Aunt Robin up This picture explains about the last ten minutes of the limo ride where Erin crawled across the floor (which had just been steam cleaned and her pants were soaked), physically assaulted "Peter Pecker." Look at Kelly's face....priceless! A cute picture of my mom in the cowboy hat

The Night of Terror

Boy oh boy did I have a night from Hell last night! It isn't often I have such heavy things to blog about, but today is a extreme exception. Let me begin this story by saying I live on the ground floor of an apartment building which is in a generally good area of town. I mean I can't really complain based on some places in the city I have seen. Let me also start by saying that Jon ALWAYS spends the night at my house on Sunday nights (at least for the previous 8 months), but this particular Sunday night he was really sick, so he stayed at his house and I stayed at mine. I was awoken abruptly last night by a sound near my bedroom window....a sound which if you have cats, you are very familiar with. I also began hearing my vertical blinds shuffle and sway, also a sight that is not uncommon with cats. However, it was the actions that followed that let me know, this had nothing to do with my cats. I have a portable air conditioner which sits on my floor, but requires about a 3-4 inch air vent strip which you close and lock into your window and which goes from the bottom of the window to the top (I have a window that opens and closes vertically). I flipped over in bed to look at my window and was prepared to yell at a cat when I saw the top half of the air conditioner vent strip fall through my blinds. I shot out of bed thinking it was a bad dream. As I tip-toed toward the window, I suddenly saw a face through the slits in my blinds. I suddenly felt the life drain from my body and before I had a chance to react, a man's hand shot through my blinds towards my face. I am convinced this was completely coincidental and that he was not reaching for my face, but trying to find something to grab onto in my apartment to help force his way through or further open the slot in my window with the force of his body. My first instinct was to punch his hand and arm as hard as I could, so hard in fact it slammed against the wall of my window (I am glad in a time of panic my first instinct wasn't to run away screaming like a schoolgirl). He immediately pulled his arm back through the window and took off running. He was wearing black pants, a black a shirt, and a black ski cap. I am sorry, but an outfit like that means you are up to NO good in this world!! I looked at the clock and it was 12:35 am. I called 9-1-1 and the cops came relatively quickly. However, that was the only quick thing that would follow that night. We had to wait for a finger print technician to come and dust for finger prints. This process of waiting for the technician and the actual process of dusting for prints meant it was nearly 3:00 am before they left. I was exhausted, yet wound at the same time. I just laid in bed wondering what would have happened if he had gotten in. Was he just a burglar or was he a murderer or maybe a rapist. I felt so mad that another human being could violate you in such a way and such a blatant disrespect for the law. I mean you hear about these things every day in the news, but when it happens to you, it just feels different. And not in a "oh, pooooor Keith" type of way, but in a "I am mad as hell and think I could kill this guy if he ever tries to return" type of way. I will keep you updated if they find this dude based on the fingerprints, but man oh man am I glad to be moving to the burbs with Jon and getting out of this apartment.

Like an episode of CSI, they dusted my ledge for fingerprints. You can still see the black residue.

This is the air conditioner vent strip that goes vertically in my window. I had my window shut tight and bolted up against this. You can see the finger print dust. This is the side that would have been facing the guy who pushed it in my window to try and get inside.

You can see that the strip's purpose is to let the moisture from the portable air conditioner unit be blown out via that giant tube!! They dusted the whole thing for prints.

Just a quick visualization to show how damn close my bed is to the window. Try waking up to some dude trying to bust in. You can just see the silver air conditioner unit itself peeking up in the corner of the picture....this is what the hose and vent strip attach to.

Just to show how close my apartment is to the ground.

And another....

That residue on the windows is the dusting from the technician. You can't see it very well in the daylight, but I can guarantee you I won't be trying to open my blinds tonight to take pictures, so this will have to do.

And again, if you can even see the residue....

Colorado - Part One - The Surprise

Okay, I am smart enough to tell you in the beginning, I don't think my life is interesting enough to support viewers, but this has now become more of a journal than a blog, so I understand if the length of this particular one forces you to look elsewhere for entertainment. BUT, a couple of huge events happened to me over the weekend and I don't want to forget a minute of it. The Surprise Jon had been telling me for months that I needed to "give" him Labor Day weekend, which included that he was going to plan an event of some sort, but be hush hust on the details. He even gave me a packing list on Thursday before Labor Day weekend which lead me to believe I needed to pack things for an Up North trip to go camping/golfing. Jon pulled off the surprise of the Century when I arrived as instructed at his work on Friday. He gave me plastic baggies and empty 3 0z. bottles and told me to put any of my toiletries in those bags and bottles that I wanted to take with me. And that moment I knew it must have meant we were going on a plane. And on a plane we went....all the way to Denver, CO. From there, we hopped in a car....errr....they were out of cars so we hopped into a mini van and headed to Breckenridge, CO. Friday Me sitting in the back seat of my car as Jon drove it to a Park N' Ride. Shocked out of my skull!! Me sitting at the airport Where We Stayed and How We Got Around

Our lodge in Breckenridge, CO. Ummmm, what can I say about this place except go there.....drop everything and go there now. Mountains all around you, cute little Main St. with shops/restaurants, and the room was awesome!!

Our Minivan. It is really hard to be 2 cool 30 somethings when you roll up in this bad boy and don't even have a damn kid!

Minus three cool points for the fatherly wave from within a mini-van, even though you are not a father.

Saturday The view from the bottom of Vail....yes, the bottom of Vail. What about the top of Vail you say??

Jon taking a Gondola ride to the top of Vail

The view from the Gondola

The views from the top are breathtaking!! A couple of ski runs behind me. Don't say ski "passes" or Jon gets his panties in a bunch! Let's just say he is an expert skier and I am not!!

Jon and I

Jon mountain biking....it was so gorgeous everywhere you looked.

Me on a mountain bike. So glad we were going down the hill and not up.

Okay, a SUPER DOOPER significant event happened between the mountain biking picture and the picture taken below, but it needed its own special post, so you will have to go to Part 2 to get caught up!!

Jon sitting in a patch of wild flowers with a view of the mountains.

Sunday

A group shot of all the riders including Jon and I. Look at that blue sky!!

Another group shot, a little more close up.

Me on my horse Stanford. I think he was like gay Stanford from "Sex and the City" because he had all kinds of attitude and did not want to follow the rest of the group. Good thing he had such an expert handler........me. That reeks of sarcasm!!

Jon on his horse Hawaii. Jon had to help me straighten out my horse a time or two by giving me some pointers.

Overlooking Lake Dillon just on the outskirts of Breckenridge.

It was one of those days in between cloudy, rainy, sunny, and I think this is the day we saw a rainbow....go figure!!

Okay, not a good picture of me, but nice scenery.

Monday

Jon on a ski lift up to Keystone

The view when you get to the top of Keystone

Our return to the overlook of Lake Dillon was on a much sunnier day! Rocks, water, trees, and mountains. Could you ask for a better picture?

And another....

And another....this place just makes it too damn easy! Loveland Pass is a big scary road that takes you through the mountains and was the main of getting to the big ski resorts until the tunnel was made. It is also the Continental Divide between the East and West.

Colorado - Part Two - The Proposal

So this is a two-parter blog. I had two fantastic things happen this weekend, the first one is in my previous blog entitled Colorado - Part One - The Surprise. This "Part Two" event deserved its own space which is the reason for this two act play if you will. Jon and I woke up on Saturday like any other day and went about our business as usual except that we were in freakin' CO.....wooo hooooo!! We drove to Vail and went up the Gondola, went mountain biking, and ate lunch. We then went on a hike higher up the mountain. Of course this is the time my body decides to reject physical activity....I was sweaty, my lungs burned from the high altitude, and every 10 steps or so, I had to sit down and take a break. Naturally, it took a while to get to the peak of the mountain. When we got up there, Jon pointed out a few things, and told me he wanted to show me one of his favorite spots (he has skied and visited this spot many times) on Ptarmigan Ridge.....a spot that holds great significance in his life due to its very existence in nature, but also the symbolic nature of the mountain itself. And he did not disappoint, it was extremely beautiful. He proceeded to sit me down and read me a wonderfully written letter that allowed him to say all the things he wanted to say without forgetting a single word. The letter concluded with a commitment proposal which is the equivalent of an engagement. I of course leaped out of my seat and said "yes," jumped up and down screaming like a psycho and followed it up with a rendition of ...."going to the Chapel and we're gooooooooooooooonna get maaaaaaarrrrrrrrieeeeeed." I later found out that Jon had pre-called my mother and father to ask their permission which was just the absolute icing on the cake!! We decided we don't want only one of us wearing an engagement ring, as is typical in straight couples. Soooo, we will be exchanging rings during the actual Commitment Ceremony we plan for next year. Jon and I are so excited to start this next exciting chapter in our lives and I will forever remember the who, what, where, and when of this fantastic, once in a lifetime experience. It was a living dream come true! Me still upright and walking towards the "eventual" spot and right before I started my downward spiral of having to sit and rest every 5 steps.

Jon looking fit as a fiddle and me taking a picture from the ground where I was sitting taking my 68th rest stop.

You thought I was kidding. I don't consider myself an unhealthy human being, but that high altitude can be a killer on the bod. The view while Jon read his letter and proposed. The heavenly view Jon looking like a load has been taken off of his shoulders after I said yes!!!! Okay, not my best picture, but we had to capture the moment somehow!!