Pic Updates

Rosia just developed some film from this summer so here's a random mix of pictures. Some are DC, NYC, CO.

You can tell which pics are on the east coast and which we are in CO by how clear or smoggy the sky is.

I’m now a Micro-Lender!

I’m reading Bill Clinton’s new book “Giving,” and one of the many things he talks about is a new web site that you may have already heard of, but totally blew me away, www.kiva.org.

Kiva is cool because it lets individuals make micro loans, starting at $25, to people in third world countries directly. You can browse profiles of people who need loans of any where from $500-$1,500 and read their stories. I made a $50 loan to a guy in Mexico who needs $1,200 to finish a construction project. This site bundles my small loan with that of other people across the web so that we can give people a real opportunity that they otherwise would never have. It’s remarkably simple, easy to do, and could have a real impact on poverty in the world today.

Kiva also collects the loan from recipients over the next year and will give out periodic updates on how their projects are going. While I personally am not concerned if my loan ever gets paid back I do recognize the sense of self worth and pride that comes from paying back a loan verses taking a hand out.

So last weekend I was in NC for work. I was in Greensboro, Biscoe and Charlotte and had a good time. I didn’t have time to visit my grandparents, which was a shame, or to take many pictures but here are a few.





The trip was good. Being on the road a lot can take a lot out of a person so one of the tricks I did on this trip was I went looking for opportunities to be of service. I didn’t have many but one thing I did was I saved my left-overs from the meals I ate there and left them for a homeless man who was sleeping on the bench near me. It was small simple act, but it really made my trip.

This was my first weekend in DC in a few weeks. Driving in DC is always a gamble and today I lost big. What is normally a 15 minute drive from DuPont Circle to Capitol Hill today took me an hour and 45 min. Being stuck in Saturday traffic is its own special form of hell and whatever I did to deserve it I’m sorry! For all the great things about living in DC driving is definitely not one of them. A new survey has DC traffic ranked 2nd in the country.

Birthday Mountain Adventure

I was in CO last weekend and Rosia and I went up to Rocky Mountain National Park. RMNP is one of my favorite places on earth. It’s hard to think that me, or any of my problems, are all that important when I’m around the mountains. The photos from my phone don’t even come close to doing the views justice. PLEASE just go touch them for yourself!!!!

RMNP has the highest highway in the country with parts of it hitting over 12,000 feet. Once you get up over 11,000 feet you cross the tree line and enter the tundra where the air is so thin trees aren’t able to grow. Even though there are no trees there are lots of small shrubs that take hundreds of years to grow only a few inches.

On our way up the mountains we stopped off in Estes Park, which is a small town just outside of RMNP. Apparently its elk mating season because elk were out in full force.

I had never seen an elk before, but 47 of them decided to take a tour of Estes Park the same time we did. They took over a local golf course and we watched a bull defend his heard from a couple of young bucks.

I loved being back up in the mountains, and closer to nature but this time coming straight from sea level the altitude really worked me over. It didn't dampen my trip at all but it did give new meaning to the phrase dizzying heights for me. I guess my east coast roots are coming through.

FL Trip

One of the things that bothers me the most about living in DC is how everyone always asks “so what do you do for a living” right off the bat, like people are their jobs or something. So on my blog I will NOT be talking about what I do at all.

I will however share some pics here of a recent work trip that landed me in St. Petersburg FL.


I was lucky enough to have to go down to FL and even though I didn’t have time to hit the beach it was really nice just to be near the water and get away from the city.







I flew to Sarasota on 9/11 not really thinking about what day it was when I booked my flight. It didn't really hit me either until I got to National Airport and the memories of six years ago came flooding back. I guess I wasn't the only one with strong feelings about that day because the airport was empty. There was NO line at the security gate and only 8 people on my flight. I wish all of my flights could be that smooth, but it was proof that some things can never be forgotten.

I'm Ready 4 Sum FOOTBALL!!!

Words can not describe how excited I am about football this year. I know what you are thinking “aren’t you a Redskins fan… maybe you shouldn’t get your hopes up?” Whatever, the past is the past and at this exact moment the Redskins have just as much of chance as any other team.

On a more personal note, this will be the first time in over four years that I’ll be able to watch every single Redskins game and absolutely NOTHING will be able to peal me away from the TV come game time!

Over the past four years, I’ve been watching other teams play and it was entertaining, but it really wasn’t the same. It’s just hard to get excited about someone else’s team. I can’t say with any certainty where I will be living in a year and half, but for now it is great to be back with the home team. GO SKINS GO!

I'M BACK

I took most of 2007 off of my blog and now I’m back. A lot has changed. I’m now back in DC and working an amazing job that I wont talk about here. Needless to say I love it and it is very exciting.

I’m living now in DC near eastern market and union station. I’m also really glad to be back close to my family and old friends. Here are a few pics I’ve taken so far.

Snowed In

***UPDATE***
I'm sorry to say that I will NOT make it home for Christmas. The airlines are already at near capacity for the next few days including Christmas and simply wont be able to add most of us whose flights were cancelled due to the blizzard. I'm sad I wont get to make it home for the holidays to be with my family and friends, but the spirtit of Christmas lives on and am looking forward to the holiday nonetheless.

Christmas makes me reflect on how lucky I am to have had so many amazing people in my life. I'm gratefull for all of them even ones I haven't seen for a while, are not speaking too currently, or will not spend time this holiday. I'm grateful to all of you that've you've blessed my life. Thank you!!!
****OLD POST****
So we've been hit by a blizzard.I was supposed to fly home tomorrow morning for Christmas and the airport is closed until at least tomorrow night at 7:00. They say we'll get at least two feet of snow and they are not sure if I can another flight home before Christmas.





So far Denver's gotten 24 inches of snow and Boulder has 33 inches of snow. My area got a little less. My car and other areas weren't as bad as it could have been because the wind was so strong it blew a lot of the snow off.


Here are some pics of the roads a block from my apt. The sun has started to come out and it is getting better. I am so gratful I didn't get stuck in the airport like so many people and that I have a grocery store two blocks from my apt. as well.





I've been looked up in my apt all day and clearly I need something constructive to do with myself.

Life after the campaign!

As the excitement and drama of the campaign fad, I’m beginning to put my life back together. Having done this a few times now, it’s surprisingly a similar experience regardless of weather you win or not (we lost this time). It takes time for me to learn how to have normal relations with people again as my blood pressure slowly returns to normal. What do you talk about if you’re not talking a candidate/ staff/ volunteer off of the edge, debunking the latest attack, bitching about the lack of proper media coverage, or struggling to stop a train wreck of campaign activity from happening?


I visited DC and Boston with Rosia. I have to say it was so nice to get away and be reminded that I had life before the campaign and will have another one now that it’s over. It was also great to see my family and old friends! My twin brother has turned into a computer geek and I couldn’t be more proud of him for it!




My biggest surprise of the trip is the degree to which I missed Boston. Up until the moment we stepped out of Logan airport I was fully prepared to return to Colorado and begin my life as non-political hack living the life of a happy Coloradian. I’ve started to learn to ski and have slowed down everyone who has taken me hiking, but I loved it nonetheless. The low cost of living and 300+ sunny days a year here go a long way in making me happy.

Yet, as much of a shock as it was to me, I cannot deny that after spending just a couple of days back in Boston I felt more at home and more excited about a city then I have in a long time. Boston has so many unique qualities that it’s hard to list them all here, but I was taken back by the architecture, culture, food, and energy of the City. Boston is easily the most beautiful city I’ve ever been too.



I was excited about living in Colorado because I wanted to live in the mountains. I wanted the experience of looking up everyday at those beautiful and amazing works of nature and be reminded that “oh yeah, there is something much bigger then me at work here.” Boston and Colorado are too different to even compare and I can’t say with any certainty where I’ll be in three months, but I’m throwing it out there that the temptation to move back east has set in!

PS

More pics to come

Nail-biter!

So I haven’t shaved, slept or been able to sit still since the election. Right now out of 1.5 million votes cast we are down by 31,000 votes; however there are any where from 66,000-100,000 votes still to be counted in heavily democratic Denver County. Denver has been breaking for us at a rate of 70% so if the actual number of votes left to be counted is 80,000 or greater we will win, if it’s less we will lose by less then 5,000 votes.

Wild Weather

This is the picture I text messaged my boss yesterday morning in case he was wondering why I wasn’t in the office yet. Wednesday was a normal Colorado day, sunny, clear and about 70 degrees. Late Wed. night, and into Thursday morning, we had a blizzard. Yeah, that’s right a blizzard. Some areas got as much as 18 inches of snow.

It wasn’t the first snow we’ve gotten this year, but it came so fast that our office building didn’t have time to turn the heat on, so Thursday we had the AC blowing full blast.

The difference between wintry weather here in Colorado verses back east is that today its back to being sunny, clear and in the high sixties. I still can’t get over how sunny it is here despite the crazy fits of snow. It’s like the best of both worlds here. We get the picturesque quality of snow, but none of the mess cause it’s gone in a day or two. Here is our candidate and another staffer blowing off some steam earlier today. Not even 24 hours laters and its hard to tell we had any snow at all