From my Ears to Yours

I'm currently stuck on these two songs by Florence + The Machine! They make me happy :-)

Happy Birthday! (And Merry Christmas)

Today (Christmas day) would have been my Grandpa's 90th birthday!
We went to the cemetery to sing happy birthday and leave a wreath on his grave (I also left him a cookie, as that was one of his very favorite things to eat)

Today was also a really great Christmas spent with my family! I seem to have made out pretty well in the gift department which also caused me to just be grateful for such amazing family, friends and boyfriend regardless of what they give me on Christmas, they give me love and joy every day (as cheesy as it sounds)!

Nostalgically Yours

Semester at Sea LipDub Ship Tour from Semester at Sea on Vimeo.


Seriously, guys, if you've got 10 minutes to spare, watch this video made by the Fall 2011 Semester at Sea students. It really cool and it gives you a great look at the SAS ship and just how cool the people are that participate in the program. Even though the kids in the video aren't from my voyage (was mine really 3 YEARS ago?! Yikes) it is SO representative of the energy, creativity, and adventurous spirit that it still made me tear up a little to see the ship again and all the students hanging out aboard the good 'ol MV Explorer!

Wait...3 years ago?! It's been 3 years since I traveled around the world on a ship? That's hard to believe. The good news is I'm still dreaming of more travel and adventures, I am still in touch with many of the amazing friends I made on that trip, and I am forever changed for the better because of that time in my life! I plan to have many more incredible adventures in my life but I know that Semester at Sea was one that is unrepeatable. I'll never get that same opportunity again. Saying that makes my brain say "dang, I wish I'd done more on the trip and seen more and I wish I hadn't gotten annoyed at my roommate that one time and I wish I had signed up for that one activity and hadn't spent so much time missing the boyfriend I'm not even dating anymore..." but this is where I remind my brain that for every little thing I regret on that trip there's 100 things that were amazing and far more worthy of remembering.

Just  a few of these... involve spending an entire day in an African sand dune playing in the sand with my friends, hiking to the top of Table Mountain in South Africa, playing volleyball in the "Sea Olympics" on the ship, staying with an incredible family in India (homecooked Indian food anyone?! YUM!) going to a hookah bar in Chennai, riding in crowded taxis and rickshaws - being jostled about on foreign roads hoping I end up at the right destination and trying to remember that the journey is the destination, listening to jazz music in a Vietnamese jazz club, eating pho, visiting the homes of two famous jazz musicians in South Africa, getting lost in Shanghai, Japanese subways, Disney World Tokyo at 6am, eating stingray in Malaysia, walking the streets of Langkawi in pouring rain to find a hotel (and finding one right on the beach for unimaginably cheap), having deep conversations with my roommate (miss you Estes!) and the rest of my worldly friends (Kristene, Betharoo, Roy, Kristene, Alison, Paul and more!), sailing through the Panama Canal and learning about locks, riding horses and ziplining in Costa Rica, Thanksgiving on the beach in Hawaii, playing spoons on the ship, taco day, movie nights (especially watching Elf in the union) and so so so sooooo much more!

If a kid entering college asks you for advice tell them what I always say: STUDY ABROAD! Just do it. No matter where you go (athough I would recommend SAS, of course) just study abroad. It will add to your education and change your life forever. You won't regret it. Or...if you're not a student, GO ABROAD! Work, volunteer, backpack Europe, just travel already!

If I had the money right now I would be traveling. Right now. But not to worry, because I know I'll get there! The second I have enough for a plane ticket to somewhere new I'm on it. It doesn't take a fortune to travel, guys! It really doesn't. Money is NOT an excuse for not traveling. When I'm not actually traveling I'm reading and dreaming about it and planning where I will go and always looking at ways to make it happen. Just make it happen! This world is huge and I intend to see as much of it as I possibly can while I'm here. You can always come home again after an adventure. Don't be afraid to leave home...it will always be there waiting for you when you return!

Happy Travels, all you beloved friends and family of mine :-)

p.s. here's a sort of related thought for the day: comedian Demetri Martin said "The definition of 'adventure' depends upon how boring your life is"...He is so right! I'm definitely inspired to always strive for greatness in my life AND my adventures!

True

HA!! :-)

All in the Family

If I'm going to start blogging again, I might as well get going tonight!
After spending some time with family lately, some of whom I rarely see, and some I see all the time, I had a great "a-ha!" moment that caused me to chuckle to myself and simultaneously feel infinitely better about myself and the choices I make in my life. What realization could have such an effect on me? It came to me all at once that I was born into a family of dream-followers and eternal career-changers. Of all my parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents not a one of us has followed a college degree with a life-long career in that same field. Many, many of us have college degrees...but you'd be hard pressed to find a relative of mine who sticks with a job, or even a career, for their entire life. It's been interesting to dissect my family in this way.  It comforts me when I agonize about not knowing what I'm doing with my life yet, to know I'm in good company. I admire every one of my relatives for following dreams, making choices, living with consequences, and pursuing adventures. I have been lucky enough to grow up with the freedom to truly be anything I want when I grow up, and the love and support I need to take my time in figuring it out. Not only that, I know that I don't need to pick a career and stick with it. I'm not bound by the confines of making the "right choice". Nothing is permanent anyways!

I'm at home in the company of teachers, librarians, pilots, electricians, computer nerds, translators, science nerds, maintenance workers, temp employees, retail workers, environmental specialists.... with degrees in linguistics, anthropology, teaching, nutrition, biology, sociology, environmental studies, spanish and some unfinished degrees...and some pretty talented artists, photographers, gardeners, musicians, writers, leather workers, quilters, athletes, dancers, cooks, veterans, travelers, and story-tellers in our spare time! (lots of us span many of these identities and will continue to invent ourselves for the rest of our lives)

Thank You...

Tomorrow is December, everyone!!! Can you believe it?! In honor of Thanksgiving and this year coming to an end, here's my list of the top 10 things I'm thankful for:

1. My family, especially the ones I don't get to see very often and who live in far off lands
2. Having a place to live with rent I can afford and that's just minutes away from work!
3. My awesome little car, Ron, just reached 150,000 miles and he's still going STRONG!
4. Reminders that if enough people work together, they can make a difference
5. My amazing, patient, goofy, and loving boyfriend
6. All the girls I work with, who make it worth showing up every day
7. The intimidating but liberating feeling that I can do, or be, anything I want when I "grow up"
8. The most supportive and awesome mom and stepdad any girl could ask for
9. My health
10. Adventures with people I love

Happy (late) Thanksgiving, and happy December!!! <3

Tastes Like Memories

A certain super-cool cousin of mine wrote a blog recently about her favorite foods. Not necessarily the most delicious or culinarily impressive, but the foods that hold the best memories in their taste for her. I loved this idea so much I decided to steal it and write my own list of foods that have the best memories for me. The ones I can just taste or smell and be transported back to that memorable experience. These foods all have a story. Maybe the story or the food will be familiar to you?!

1. Sonlight chocolate chip cookies (none other like them in the world)
2. fruit loops and diet coke for breakfast
3. Cracklin Oat Bran or "big Os"
4. homemade waffles with hand-whipped cream and Aunt Jemima
5. Papa John's pizza and deep conversations with my mom
6. Haagen Dazs' dulce de leche ice cream, eaten with a fork
7. Lucky Charms in the kitchen of the house on 17th street
8. graham cracker and homemade frosting sandwiches
9. chicken pot pie
10. peanut butter pie
11. totino's meat lovers' pizza, with the meat picked off and Demetri Martin comedy
12. chai and catching up with old friends
13. baked potato with A1 sauce
14. swirly bread
15. sleepy time tea
16. Smarties, lined up in a row by color
17. kraft mac and cheese in Britta's yard
18. otter pops
19. popcorn from the old air popper, with extra butter and salt
20. Christmas eve sugar cookie dough
21. crab apples from Grandma's back yard
22. brie, eaten with a knife
23. caramel frappuccinos and shopping with my mom
24. Peaberry's Frozen Bear
25. Jalino's slice of cheese pizza eaten on the lawn of Boulder High
26. toast and Lipton tea for dinner, MV Explorer
27. pho, Vietnam
28. McDonald's french fries while falling asleep in the car, age 3
29. warm milk to fall asleep, Jasmin's house
30. Junior Mints, at almost every movie I've ever seen in theaters
31. Dip n Dots, Louisville century 12
32. sea urchin on a dare, San Diego
33. Stingray and thai food, Malaysia
34. graham crackers and apple juice in Grandma and Grandpa's kitchen
35. Cinnamon apple spice tea, extra sugar
36. cinnamon pop tarts with Katie, college dorm
37. strawberry rhubarb jam - Grandma's and Gold Hill Inn's
38. homemade ice cream
39. raspberry lemonade and late night conversations
40. cotton candy, Denver zoo
41. free/stolen hot chocolate, Denver Botanical Gardens
42. Sherpa Sampler (with saag panir)
43. homemade pizza - every Friday
44. s'mores around the campfire (toasted on a rake)
45. candy and soda and sitcom theme songs with Tanya
46. Burger King on top of Victoria's peak, Hong Kong
47. sno cone on the beach in Hawaii (Thanksgiving dinner)
48. freshly baked chocolate chip cookies with a rum and coke, while deepening friendships
49. toasted pumpkin seeds
50. sipping ramen soup while watching Titanic, home sick from school
51. Illegal Pete's bean and cheese burrito and Boulder outdoor cinema - Usually Monty Python, Princess Bride, or Ferris Bueller

Boulder State of Mind

While I wait for an episode of Glee to load (yeah yeah, I'm a Gleek...especially because I use the word gleek) I think I'll write whatever comes to mind right now.

I've loved my time living with the wonderfully awesome Heidi here in Denver, but it is soooo time to move back to Boulder. While I love the apartment here and the roommate, and the fact that there's a Sonic down the street (orange cream slush = YUM!) it's been getting harder and harder to drive that 40 minute drive back and forth all the time between Denver and Boulder. I guess it's just an experience that needed to be had in order to come to this conclusion: I don't have to always live in Boulder, but as long as I'm in Colorado...Boulder it definitely is. No point in living NEAR the coolest town in the state if I'm not actually going to live there. Even if Boulder doesn't have a Sonic. It doesn't have a Trader Joe's either which I am increasingly sad about, nor is it the most diverse of people or the cheapest place to live, but what does Boulder have? It holds within its borders almost ALL of my best childhood memories, it has the most amazing backdrop of mountains, it has a good balance of cold and hot and in between weather and a ridiculous amount of sunny days per year, it has beauty and precise care down to a science of almost freakish perfection while still managing to be spontaneous and rugged, and still remains just the right amount of artistic and weird! I fall in love with Boulder all over again each day when I drive toward the mountains from my current home in Denver. Someone once asked me how I can stand to leave home to travel. I answered something like this: I feel compelled to travel to new and completely different places often, and never fear leaving my home behind because I know it will always be there when I return. It will always hold my childhood for me and keep it safe, and every time I come back it's still there to offer new memories and old comforts. Thank you, Boulder! I'll always come back to you no matter how long I'm gone <3

One Adventure Always Leads to Another

I've finally gotten in front of my computer to write a little about our trip to Oregon and Washington! Yesss!

After the last time we tried to fly somewhere, this trip was EASY! Direct flight with a far superior airline. We rode Frontier both ways and they even served us warm chocolate chip cookies! Then as we were landing back in Denver a flight attendant announced that "please remember that Southwest does NOT serve you warm chocolate chip cookies!" Noted.

Day 1 began at 4am. Yuck. It is VERY dark still at 4am. Anthony and I threw ourselves together and were out the door, walking with luggage and all to the Boulder bus station to catch a bus to the Denver airport. The scene of us walking down a dark street in what felt like the middle of the night with suitcases struck me as funny, like maybe we were two kids trying to run away from home. Not a single problem to the airport, nor on the flight in to Portland, OR. We arrived and Anthony's dad picked us up, drove us the 1.5 or so hours to the coast and I was immediately aware of not being in Colorado anymore, a feeling a absolutely love! (I love Colorado, but knowing that you're far from home on an adventure is a great feeling, so seeing different trees, landscape, and even the air felt different!) The pine trees were HUGE! Leave it to the northwest to have enormous trees. Another place on my list of where to go will be the redwood forests in California. I hear those trees are pretty big :-) Made it to the coast and it was locked in with fog but I could smell and hear that the ocean was nearby, even if I couldn't see it! First order of business at the beach cabin was bathroom, food, nap, then hit the beach for a long walk and exploring and taking tons of photos.

Day 2 involved sleeping in, heading into town to explore, bought a kite, walked along the beach more, flying the kite and sunbathing, going to the local grocery store to buy food for making dinner, as it was Anthony and my night to make dinner for the family. After much debating what to have and discovering that the local store has a distinct lack of meat other than beef and fish, we found some chicken for the grill as well as burgers. One of the most beautiful sunsets EVER!

Day 3 involved wet suits, surf boards, boogie boards, and a hike through the wilderness to find our car. SO fun and exhausting. The water is freezing cold, just like the water in Maine, and a lot of California. I haven't really experienced any particularly warm beaches. Guess I should head farther south for that. That night we also had a beach campfire which combined the deliciously familiar smell of campfire with the beautifully foreign scene of a beach and ocean...can't get any better! And of course, we made s'mores.

Day 4 was packing up the cabin, going out for an awesome (if delayed) breakfast in downtown Cannon Beach, then embarking on a 4 hour drive to Seattle in which I was bestowed the honor of being horribly carsick the entire time. Lame. Once we got to Seattle, though, we had a great dinner in downtown Kirkland with Anthony's parents and they showed me the waterfront and we walked around  down by the boats all docked, some with crazy partiers which seemed odd since it was a Sunday evening, but maybe when you have a boat and it's a beautiful night it doesn't matter if you have to work the next day. Seize the day!

Day 5 our first day in Seattle, borrowing Anthony's parents' Mini Cooper (I had no idea what a fun little sporty car those things are!) We first went to Capitol Hill, then downtown, to the Market, drank some coffee, visited a couple friends of Anthony in their downtown office where we discovered a few of Anthony's paintings were hanging, tried to find Dave Matthews' house...You know you've got an awesome boyfriend, by the way, if he spends half an hour driving around and around while you try to spot Dave Matthews' house...thanks babe! Then we drank more coffee. Had a really delicious dinner, check out some night views of Seattle, then ate at Iver's fish and chips place down by the water.

Day 6 we went out for breakfast in Kirkland, then drove to downtown Seattle, did a little shopping and wandering, drank lots of coffee, visited the U district (University of Washington campus and surrounding shops, restaurants, housing, etc) a crazy mountain bike course underneath a highway, went to Gasworks park, drove around some more, picked up my little buddy Andy who just arrived in Seattle to start college at Seattle University and went out for some of the most delicious sushi any of us had ever had, walked for a while, went up to Capitol Hill and hung out there for the evening.

Day 7 We set out for Bellingham, WA the home of Anthony's sister and her family, and Anthony's college, Western Washington U. Also visited a small rural town just outside Bellingham where some friends of Anthony lived. They were what I would call trendy hippie artists with two pet ducks. In Bellingham we went for a walk along the waterfront with Anthony's sister and her freakin' adorable baby and of course drank more coffee, went up to WWU campus, then had dinner at a local brewery, then hit up a wine bar downtown, then back to the brewery for a fun reggae night/hula hoop extravaganza.

Day 8 headed back to Seattle, went to the airport, boarded the airplane, ate some chocolate chip cookies on the plane, flew home, collapsed into bed in complete satisfied exhaustion!

During our trip to the northwest, we decided two more adventures to go on the list are to start in southern California and drive north all the way up the coast, stopping in wine country, doing some camping, and seeing all kinds of other beautiful places we find along the way. The other trip is to take the ferry from Bellingham to Alaska. Oh yeah, and to visit Vancouver also. So that's 3 adventures, or maybe one really big epic adventure! We'll see :-) One adventure always leads to another doesn't it?

Fall in the Air

Happy Tuesday evening!
I am SO glad it's cooler and a little bit rainy! There's that hint of fall in the air now that I absolutely love. It gets me excited for fall, pretty leaves, pumpkins, chai, and scarves. I had a productive day (after sleeping in until 11!) ran some errands, finished packing for Oregon and then went to Zumba with Sara. There's something about dancing around a gym with 40 other women (and one man) working up a sweat to great music that's so much fun! Hopefully I can afford to continue doing it.

I'm currently curled up in bed watching Rent and drinking tea, so it's a nice end to a great day. Ahhh... :-)

Hello Again

                                 


Hello world,
Have you missed my blogs?! Thought so.
Here's a 30-second update on things I've done in the past couple months (in no particular order). Ready...go!

-working for Celestial Seasonings and Augustina's Winery
-going to Zumba classes once a week or so
-moved to Denver (commuting...woohoo!)
-parents moved to Longmont
-helped them build a patio
-went to Casa Bonita
-went to some movies (Harry Potter midnight premier, Cowboys and Aliens, Boulder outdoor cinema movies...)
-celebrated 6 months with the coolest boyfriend around
-ate some waffles at Kira's house
-visited Colorado's very first and only Ikea store (totally overwhelming but fun experience)
-helped make cherry wine
-read some books (Wine for Dummies, Europe from a Backpack, The Know-It-All...)

And in two days I'll be flying to the Oregon coast with Anthony for a week of northwest fun and relaxation! I've got two weeks off from work and I intend to fully enjoy it! I can't wait to be on the beach in Oregon, a place I've wanted to go for a long time! We're also visiting Seattle and Bellingham, WA on this journey. Lots of cool places, nature, cities, fun people, beauty all around....sure to be lots to blog about and photograph!

Bringing Back Film Photography!

Ok, time to get back into blogging!

I'll start with a cool video:

it's about a photography project in Penang, Malaysia centered around film photography using everything from polaroid to disposable cameras. Film photography is losing popularity and these young photographers are trying to bring it back! another reason I thought this project was cool is because I visited Penang in 2008 on my Semester at Sea trip. It was an absolutely beautiful place and the people were so cool! It's fun to know there are creative photographers all around the world.

【樂魔 the Negative Effect】 from jimmy phua on Vimeo.

Keep on Running

Superheroes running the Bolder Boulder!

I ran my 11th Bolder Boulder this Monday and got Anthony to do it with me! This year was a superhero kind of year so we, along with another couple of friends, dressed up and ran that intense and hilly 10k race. It was pretty good weather this year. Just minutes before we were supposed to start we got some "big 'ol fat rain" as Forrest Gump would call it but the rain held off for the rest of the day after that. Later in the day some seriously brutal wind picked up and sadly Anthony and I had to ride our bikes home in the wind. Anthony being the pro biker that he is was far less distressed by the bike ride home as I was. I am no professional bicyclist, and was also very tired from my 10k run from earlier that day so if anyone saw an extremely discouraged wonder woman riding her bike uphill against the wind...that was me. But I surived and napped for most of the remainder of the day. All in all, it was a great memorial day weekend in Boulder, complete with the Boulder Creek Fest which always makes me happy I live here!

A Note on Luck...

Have you ever had troubles while traveling? Been stuck in an airport or whatnot? Most of my life I've had fairly good luck while traveling. I managed to travel around the entire world on a ship for four months with very few issues in the actual act of getting from place to place. Sometimes one sits back and thinks about how lucky they are in their life, but as far as travel goes I suppose I've taken for granted just how seemingly easy it is to get from one place to another. A good friend of mine just got married in Maine and I thought "great! I'll go to Maine for a few days, attend the wedding and have a great time!" No problem, right? I even decided to bring a date to this wedding, so invited my boyfriend to come along. We booked our flights months in advance and planned as much as anyone does for a five-day trip to Maine. Now children, someday you will learn that all the planning in the world can't save you from bad luck. If you've ever had a bad travel experience, read this and let me know if yours is worse....

It all started just hours before our plane was supposed to leave Denver. I got a call from the US Airways (yes I'll name drop in this blog...the world needs to know) saying that our flight from Denver to Charlotte, NC had been cancelled. Great. We were supposed to fly an overnight flight Denver to Charlotte, then Charlotte to Boston and arrive in Boston in the morning, bus to Portsmouth, NH and then rent a car and drive to our final destination: Wells, ME. A little complicated, but seemed do-able. No, no, no...not so do-able. So with our first flight cancelled, I had to spend three hours on the phone with airlines, airports, friends, and automated recordings. After many frustrating hours on the phone I found out that we could not get another flight to Boston by any possible combination of layover cities until two days later, a Friday. The wedding was on Sunday so we'd still make it but we'd have to cancel our rental car. Sigh. Oh well. So we waited two days, and finally Friday morning came, we woke up bright and early at 5:30am and walked to the Boulder bus station to catch our bus to the Denver airport. We arrived in plenty of time and when we reached the ticket counter it seemed that our plane was delayed to Charlotte, which meant we would miss our next flight to Boston. Of course. So we were re-routed to travel from Denver to Charlotte, Charlotte to New York and New York to Boston. Ridiculous, but oh well. As we got onto our flight to Charlotte they said the overhead compartments were full and we would have to check our carry-ons. This was unfortunate because we didn't have any other checked luggage, only carry-ons and we had to give them up. Lame. We then got to Charlotte, successfully made it on to our flight to Philadelphia but then our plane had to circle over Philly for an hour, causing us to miss our next flight to New York. This meant, of course, that our luggage went to New York without us. We were then booked on to a flight directly to Boston instead of New York then Boston. Great, except that our luggage was on its way to New York. We spend a few hours in the Philly airport, trying not to have a mental breakdown at the bad luck thus far...unaware that it wasn't over yet. We finally got on our plane to Boston and of course, more delays. We finally reached Boston around 2am. The buses to Portsmouth stopped running at 1am so we were thus stuck in Boston for the next four hours until the buses started running again. By this point we were smelly, messy, upset, and hungry. In desperation I called the only person I knew in Boston and by some stroke of unbelievable luck in a sea of bad luck, he answered and said yes he was still awake and yes he'd love to come pick us up and take us somewhere to eat at 3 in the morning. Atanu Roy...you are my savior! Bonus was that I hadn't seen Roy in years, and he was one of my best friends on Semester at Sea so he was a fellow traveler and such a selfless and compassionate friend to pick us up from the airport and take us to a Boston I HOP at 4am so we could eat. He then raised his status even more by taking us back to his apartment and letting us sleep on his couch for a couple hours, then took us back to the airport so we could catch our bus to Portsmouth. We finally got to Wells, Maine three days after we were supposed to with no luggage and 24 hours of airport grime on us. Our luggage finally caught up to us Saturday evening, just in time to shower and change and we were able to wear clean clothes to the wedding the next day!

Our time spent in Maine, while shorter than we hoped, was totally awesome. The wedding was fun, the weather was tolerable (could have been warmer but who cares, we got to see the ocean!!), and the people were as amazing as always. I'll write another blog about that, but this one's not over yet...

If you're still reading this, well, I have no idea why...but thanks! You'd think we'd had all the bad luck we could possibly have, right? We thought so too. We had tickets to fly home via Boston, Dalls, then Denver. Simple! Well simple if you're anyone but us. We got to Boston no problem, got on our plane, no problem, no delays, no problems. We got into Dallas and the weather took an unbelievable turn for the horrific. Our plane had to fly around Texas for over an hour waiting for other planes which had been delayed to get out of our way. By the time we landed, of course, we had missed our flight to Denver. But not only that, there were TORNADOS in the area. Awesome!! We had nothing to do but sit in a TGI Friday's and eat appetizers and drink cocktails for the night. Then we saw people walking around the airport with little army-style cots. We thought uh-oh, we need to get cots before they run out because yes, we had to sleep in the airport. We didn't get a flight out until TWO DAYS later. Everything leaving Dallas was cancelled and we were stuck in the airport with hundreds of other people. We got cots, had a couple more drinks, then unsuccessfully tried to find a hotel nearby with vacancies. No such luck. So we accepted our fate of sleeping in a Texas airport and set up camp in a corner which turned out to be next to the hallway where people with loud rolling luggage walked as they got off their planes that were finally arriving again to Dallas. We moved our sad little beds and paper-thin red airport blankets several times that night and got perhaps 2 hours of sleep between the both of us and were once again miserable. The next day we booked a hotel room for that night, then waited in a 3-hour long line to get our boarding passes printed for our flight the next day home to Denver. We then went to our hotel and slept the rest of the day, as we hadn't gotten sufficient sleep in the loud and obnoxiously bright Dallas airport. By now I'm tired of reliving this nightmare and you're probably tired of reading it so I'll sum up the last day of the catastrophes by saying we stayed in our hotel in Irving, TX that night, then made our flight to Denver very early that morning and finally arrived home to Boulder around noon.

All in all, it was the worst week of traveling I have ever experienced. No doubt. But the time we spent in Maine, like I said, was awesome. I'm thankful to have so many amazing friends who are willing to help out when I'm going through travel hell! Roy, Will, Jess, Ben, Kathy, Tom, Ron, and everyone else who helped us out, thanks so much!!! You don't even know. I wish you all nothing but safe and easy travels for the rest of your lives. And thanks to Anthony for surviving the whole thing with me! Amazing.

More blogs soon to follow!

*Peace and Love*

Familiar Faces

A couple weeks ago Anthony and I found this Pez dispenser which looks strikingly like our friend Connor! I think it's supposed to be Anakin Skywalker, but hey....if Connor made an angry face more often it could have been made to look just like him! I wish there was a Pez dispense that looked like ME! Jealous.

P.S. today was free ice cream day at Ben & Jerry's...only one of the best holidays EVER invented!

Here it Goes Again

Here's a picture of me trying to learn how to jump onto my slackline last weekend.

So here we go...blogging on my own again without the guidelines and structure of the 30-day photo challenge! I feel a little better about writing regularly again. Maybe that photo challenge was just what I needed to get myself back into the habit. I do love blogging and I love all of you for reading it, even if only occasionally.

I am currently back on the job market, trying to find something full-time but temporary. I'm hoping to work a lot over the next few months in order to get the money I need to do some Europe traveling in the fall. Hopefully something will come along soon! I have an interview with the YMCA next week for an assistant director job for their summer teen camp program, so please send good vibes my way for that one so I can finally bring this job hunt to an end for the next few months!

The great news is spring is here and hopefully it's nothing but nice, warm, weather from now on! Rain is ok....we could definitely use it...but no more snow, PLEASE! And the fun and exciting adventures for this summer just keep piling up, so I can't wait! Here are a few of the things I'm so excited for:

-trip to Maine with Anthony for my friend's wedding and a little vacation at the end of May
-Boulder Creek Fest on the last weekend of May
-running in the Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day
-seeing Iron & Wine at the Bolder Theater on June 4
-my friends Jaz and Jose's wedding on June 10
-Anthony's birthday on June 25
-spending a week at Sonlight being their photographer from June 26-July 2
-the 4th of July...I'm sure I'll find something fun to do!
-Jess is coming to visit on July 7
-Avett Brothers concert on July 9 with Jess and Seanna

How will I find time for a job with all these exciting things going on? I'm not sure, but I know it will all work out! I'm so excited to be home in Boulder for the whole summer for the first time in five years! It's a beautiful place to be and I get to hang out with some beautiful people. We'll just see where life takes me after this summer. Hopefully somewhere awesome!

Day 30 - Photo Challenge

Last day of my photo challenge!!! I can't believe I made it! I'm kind of proud, if I do say so myself, that I managed to stick with this project. Maybe tomorrow I'll write a little more about this whole thing. But today is day 30, and my last photo challenge is:

Post a picture of someone you miss



I have many friends who live and are traveling all around the world, and I miss them all. But today I've decided to dedicate this last photo to my Grandpa, Frank. This is my very favorite photo of him and in fact, it is actually my very favorite photo in the world. I hope someday to possess the original. Anyways, my Grandpa was a truly amazing person and I'm so glad I got to know him for the first 13 years of my life before he passed away. He was funny, smart, adventurous, and an epic storyteller. Not only were his stories epic, but also the way he told them was epic! He grew up in Alaska and had great stories of the wildlife (animals as well as humans) landscape and the impact the place had on him as he was growing up.

When someone has been gone as long as my grandpa has been, you remember the little things about them that made them who they were. I remember how much he loved cookies, the smell of the tobacco he chewed, the creaking sound his rocking chair made in the kitchen, and every time we said goodbye he would say "see ya later alligator!" with which I, of course, replied "after a while, crocodile!" It would take a lifetime to tell my Grandpa's story and the things that made him awesome, but for now I offer this humble little tribute to Frank Holder, a man of epic greatness and someone I miss dearly.

Day 29 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture that can always make you smile



This is Heidi. She looks a little bit insane in this photo, and I absolutely love it! And I love her! This was taken last week when we were playing in a toy store downtown. Heidi and I go on all kinds of great adventures, big and small. We're all about the adventures, and most importantly, about photographing them! This photo makes me smile because it's funny and because it represents all the fun Heidi and I have whenever we get together. Sometimes we have Christmas parties in September, and sometimes we go to amusement parks dressed like Minnie Mouse and Princess Jasmine. We go to museums, parades, hikes, malls, amusement parks, coffee shops, yogurt land, movies, and restaurants...and we always take pictures. Heidi inspires me, she makes me laugh, she listens to my stories and complaints, and she tells me hers. She sometimes talks to ostrich puppets, and she's always got a smile and an awkward story to tell me that makes me smile too! So today is dedicated to Heidi! And as the Urban Outfitters poster would say "I want to have adventures with you, because it's not one without you" <3

Day 28 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of something you're afraid of



Maybe not the most interesting topic today...but hey, I really am afraid of needles. Bleh. Just thinking about it gives me shivers. Getting shots and having my blood drawn...extreme trauma for me! Watching other people get shots, getting them myself, and just thinking about it. Ack! My other fears include spiders and papercuts.

Only two more days of this photo project, wow!! I'll try to make my last two more interesting than this one. I promise :-)

Day 27 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of yourself and a family member



This is me and my cousin Leah. She lives in California and she's pretty awesome!! Before Leah moved to California she grew up in Boulder (mostly) and she's always been around in my life! Despite a 10 year gap in our ages, we have finally reached a point where we are able to relate and have things in common and have TONS of fun!! I love hanging out with her two beautiful daughters and I also love spending time with just Leah. We go out for drinks sometimes and dance until we can't dance anymore. I'm also trying to get her into slacklining, and hoping she'll teach me the ways of rock climbing, so I can't wait for this summer when she comes to Colorado with her girls for a couple months! Love ya, cuz!

Day 26 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of something that means a lot to you



Besides my friends and family, one of the things that means the most to me is my education. I used a picture of a college classroom, but of course that is not the only place to do one's learning. I try to constantly be learning new things and making discoveries about my own opinions on subjects. I hope to return to college in the next couple of years, because currently I truly miss that great feeling of sitting in a classroom and learning something really fascinating/enlightening/angering/controversial/mind-bending! I love learning and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to attend college.

Day 25 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of your day



This photo is actually from two years ago, but it represents my day today. It was the first day of the conference on world affairs in Boulder, on CU campus. This is one of my favorite events in Boulder. It's kind of like the TED talks but a little different. People from around the world are invited to be on a panel at one or more "conferences" and there are panels about everything you can imagine from "life outside facebook" to "human trafficking and modern day slavery". The conference lasts all week, and there are constantly different panels going on so there's always something to go to if you have the time. This year I have found myself unemployed during the week of the CWA so I've been lucky enough to plan out my week's schedule based on panels that sound interesting. I always learn a lot when I go to the CWA and I love hearing about all these "world affairs".

Usually, for the CWA there are world flags places along the walkway in the Norlin Quad at CU but today I went to the conference with my camera ready to photograph the flags just for this blog post and the flags were nowhere to be found. Sad day! Maybe they are somewhere else on campus? Or maybe they hadn't gotten to putting them up yet? Anyways, I am using a photo I took in 2009 of the CWA flags.

If any of you are in the Boulder area I highly recommend going to the conference. We all need to hear what's going on in the world, learn something new, and have our thoughts and ideas challenged or reinforced.

Day 24 - Photo Challenge

Oops, I seem to have failed to actually post this 24th blog post on the 24th day...I was off by a couple hours :-/ but in all fairness I haven't gone to bed yet so I still consider it April 3rd until I go to sleep for the night! So here we go, day 24...

Post a picture of something you wish you could change



I thought in honor of how weird the weather was today, I would talk about how I wish I could influence or change it! Yesterday (pretending today is actually yesterday which would make 'yesterday' the day before...) was over 70 degrees, hot, sunny, gorgeous day! Then today I woke up to rain, which turned into sleet, which then proceeded to form into hail, then snow mixed with a little bit of thunder and finally settles in somewhere between snow and rain for the rest of the day. Probably the weirdest, most diverse 24 hours of weather in the history of the world! I'd rather go back to the 70 degree weather. But I think if I'm wishing I could change something...right now it would be the weather, so that I could make it whatever I felt like at the moment. Sometimes I want cold and snow, sometimes hot, sometimes rain...I never want wind though. That's my least favorite type of weather. Anyways, wouldn't that be nice to change the weather according to what you were in the mood to do and how you're feeling!

Day 23 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of your favorite book



This book combines many things that I love: Sociology, humor, and travel. Eric Weiner is completely hilarious and he analyzes various countries around the world for what makes its citizens happy. The best part is that Weiner is quite the cynic, so it's not as sappy and silly as it might initially sound. He has really great points and ideas about what happiness really is and how it changes from place to place and people to people. What makes us happy here in America is completely different from what makes the people in Iceland happy. And how do we know we're happy anyways? Even our measurements of happiness are different. It's a great sociological study on definitions of happiness but also of cultures and WHY we have different ways to define happiness. Please if you're looking for a great, funny, interesting book...pick this one up! It's great!!

Day 22 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of something you wish you were better at



There are many things I wish I was better at: speaking foreign languages, playing my violin, being patient, cooking...but one in particular that I really love and can't wait to get better at is slacklining. I got into it last summer, nearly a year ago, and it's SO much fun but really hard. The cool thing about it is that there's always room for improvement. You can always find something else to learn to do in slacklining. First it's just learning how to get up on the thing, then it's keeping your balance, then taking a step or two, then more steps, then getting all the way across the line, then you start learning tricks...I'm not that good yet. I'm still working on gettling all the way to the end of the line. But it's a really fun, laid-back activity that anyone can try, even if they're not so good (which no one is at first). I'll hopefully be slacklining all summer, so everyone come on out with me and try it! :-)

Day 21 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of something you wish you could forget



Something I wish I could forget is that this ridiculous band, 3oh!3, is from Boulder. Not only that, but they're using our area code as their band name. Sigh. How embarrassing. Now everytime I'm out of town and I hear someone say "Yay! 303!" They're not talking about how cool my area code is, they're referencing a bad electronica band and hoping I'll get excited with them for being associated with the band because I'm from Boulder. Sadly I'm not able to easily forget that this band is so bad and that they have ties to Boulder because they seem to be somewhat popular. I'm not against electronic music...only the kind with stupid lyrics and who use the Boulder area code as their name. Why can't we go back to the days of being as cool as the 505 in Albuquerque? Now that's an area code that stands on its own for being awesome. It doesn't have a band trying to steal its thunder. Oh well.

Day 20 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of somewhere you would like to travel



If you know me at all, you know that I want to go EVERYWHERE! There are so many places I want to go because I don't want to miss out on anything amazing. But for the sake of picking just one on this blog, I chose Ireland because it's first on my list of places to go right now. I'm currently saving up money to go to Europe with this fall and Ireland is the first place I want to go when I get there. It's one of the places I've always wanted to go because it looks so unbelievably gorgeous. Maybe it's how green it all looks in the pictures that makes me dream of being there. Coming from Colorado I don't get much green grass throughout the year, nor do I get much rain so maybe that's part of it. I also love Irish people's silly names and awesome accents. I also like thinking about how there are amazing things to see and do and people to meet there that I can't even imagine from my home in Colorado so I can't wait to get there and discover it all!

Day 19 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture and a letter



This was a confusing one today. Post a picture and a letter? There are many interpretations for what that means. Maybe write a letter to someone? A letter someone has written to me? I decided to post a picture of a letter...the letter I chose is 'S'. Why not?! Ok, so let me tell you about this S. A couple years ago I started taking pictures of things that looked like letters, and putting them together to create framed photos that spelled out names and words. I am not the first one to start doing this, but I like to make mine personalized for the people I make them for. So, this is one of my S's. I found it in a gate entrance to the cemetery off of Baseline near Chautauqua. I find letters all over the place, and once you start looking you'll never be able to stop looking at objects as potential letters. Here's an example of one of my finished products:

Day 18 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of your biggest insecurity



The fact that I had a hard time deciding what to use for this day's subject led me to inevitably fall on my "indecisiveness" as my biggest insecurity. It's something I've been working on for a long time. I think the problem is having so many options that I'm afraid of making the wrong choice. From what to have for breakfast to what career I want someday. But then again, it's great to have so many choices in my life because it means I'm lucky enough to have options. I've been trying to consciously make decisions, even little ones to improve my decision-making skills and go with my gut and "following my dreams", while also being practical.

Day 17 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently



It's been a year and a half since I graduated from college with my bachelor's degree. Since then all kinds of things have come up as potential plans for my life. It changes constantly and perhaps the thought of so many possibilities is a little daunting. Graduating from college marked a great accomplishment for me but also a scary threshold to cross. no longer being in school has been strange for me and has certainly impacted my life recently. In fact, I've started to miss college lately and crave that sense of constant learning. I don't miss the homework and tests, but I miss being in class and making intellectual discoveries and finding subjects I am passionate about. My hope is that I can take those moments where I find something I am passionate about and use that to figure out a career, or at least a path, for myself. I know I'll find something great, and in the meantime life isn't so bad either!

Day 16 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of someone who inspires you



This is me and Jess in NYC last summer. She and I go on some great adventures together. She inspires me to live my life, enjoy it all, be practical but not let go of my dreams, and she always stands behind me (all the way from Maine, where she lives!) in my crazy schemes. She and her husband gave up their garage for a summer so that I could live in it and spend a few months working and playing at the beach. Her generosity and friendship alone inspire me. But more than that, Jess is beautiful, adventurous, responsible, athletic, fun, smart, hilarious, caring, and a million other things. I've known Jess since I was a baby of only a few days old. She has always known what she wants and gone for it. That inspires me.

Thanks for being you, Jess! (LoL!)
<3

Day 15 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of something you want to do before you die



This is the annual Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling event near Glouchester, England. It's been a tradition for something like 200 years. It is my dream to someday attend, and possibly participate in, this ridiculous event. It's exactly how it looks and sounds...they roll a wheel of cheese down a hill and people chase after it. Whoever catches the cheese, keeps it. How could anything possibly be more awesome than this?! Seriously, guys. In fact, apparently cheese rolling is considered a sport....and a pretty brutal one too! But with the right padding and equipment, costume, and insanity, I think it could be one of the funnest things to do! So, if anyone would like to travel to England with me to do a little bit of cheese-rolling, let me know!

Day 14 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of someone you cannot live without



This is Mary and Winston. If I had a second set of parents I would choose them, and I'm completely positive that my life is far better because of them. In fact, I think there are hundreds of people who would agree with me. It would be tough to find a more caring, adventurous, loving, fun couple of people anywhere. They created from their own imaginations Sonlight Camp in 1979 and since then there have been hundreds (thousands??) of children and families touched by the incredible love that surrounds their camp. I started out as a camper at Sonlight when I was nine years old, and have returned every year since then. Every time I walk onto the property I am greeted by hugs and "welcome home" from Mary and Winston. This means the world to me. I feel lucky to have their love and support!

Day 13 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of your favorite band or artist



This mountain man with a beard of epic proportions is Sam Beam, creator and primary musician in Iron & Wine. Besides the awesome beard, I also love his music. If you aren't familiar, I guess it could be described as "folk" or sometimes "folk rock". His music is pretty chill and relaxing, so if you're looking to dance the night away (which I also love to do) maybe don't grab an Iron & Wine album. BUT if you're looking for amazing guitar, vocals, piano and a smattering of other awesome instruments, this is your band! He also has some pretty awesome/confusing/fascinating lyrics. It was tough to decide who was my very favorite band or artist because it changes all the time, but I decided on Iron & Wine because no matter how many times I change what type of music I'm listening to, I'm always in the mood for a little I&W. It never gets old for me, no matter how many times I listen to it.

In case you aren't familiar with Iron & Wine yet (and you should be) here's a link to listen to one of my favorite songs he does, maybe because it has a girl named Jennie in the song :-) it's called Kingdom of the Animals: Iron & Wine - Kingdom of the Animals

Day 12 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of something you hate



This guy loves money. He even has money glasses. He probably bought them, spent money on something as silly as money glasses! This guy is ridiculous. Something I really hate is money. Not just because I don't have any (although I don't) but because of the way our culture has shaped itself around it and become reliant on it for status, survival, respect, and success. When I was growing up my mom used to say to me "Live simply, so that others may simply live" and as I have gotten older I have come to rely on this saying to remind myself that there are some things I just plain don't need. Look at all the stuff we have in the world. It's insane! So much junk that's completely useless. Why does a family of five need five cars? And why do some people have to take the bus or the subway for hours every day to get to their crappy jobs while some of us have personal drivers to get to our office a few blocks away? If I may, I'll throw out a sociological term conflict theory. Karl Marx decided that it is inevitable that societies have conflict. It's part of what makes it a society. So is it inevitable that some people have way too much and some people don't have enough? Probably. But I still hate it. Sometimes disliking something doesn't need to be based on an ability to change it, but we can at least do our parts to try to be aware of the exponentially growing gap between the rich and poor. Maybe we can go through our closets and garages and basements and storage units full of junk and get rid of a little bit. If this junk is going to exist, why not at least put it to use by someone who would otherwise not have a computer or a coat or pair of shoes??

Day 11 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of something you love



If you didn't know this already, I love travel and adventures. This picture is from Semester at Sea - which seems to be popping up a lot in this photo challenge - it's a picture of a really great day I spent with friends exploring the sand dunes and beach of Namibia. Travel has become increasingly something I love to do and am quite passionate about. The thrill of setting out somewhere new and exploring is exciting to me, and it makes me feel much more connected with the rest of the world when I can see how other people live and open my mind up to things completely different from what I know.

I have three favorite travel-related quotes that I think everyone should consider:

"For the duration of my travels, I am becoming more of who I am"
-Mary Mann

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure - self-determined, self-motivated, often risky - forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind - and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” -Mark Jenkins

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain

Day 10 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of the person you do the most crazy things with

I know, this isn't one person....this is five. But I couldn't pick just one of these guys, we all collectively did some truly amazing and crazy things while we traveled around the world on Semester at Sea. This is Estes, me, Kristene, Bethany, Krista, and Roy on an evening out in Cape Town, South Africa in 2008. If it weren't for these five people Semester at Sea would not have been as amazing an experience as it was. Sure, traveling around the world is awesome, but it's even better when you're doing it with people as cool as these ones pictures above! The craziness was nonstop and always fun. From playing spoons in the hallway of the ship (with spoons we stole from the dining room, of course) to all cramming into a Namibian taxi cab and our driver getting pulled over by the police...we went through it all. We climbed mountains, braved Chinese and Japanese subways, played in the sand dunes of Namibia, danced in a Malaysian club, got stuck in a Vietnamese monsoon, shaved our heads, spent Thanksgiving day on a Hawaiian beach, and so many millions of other things. And we try our best to stay in touch even though we tend to rarely be in the same town, state, or country at the same time. Thank goodness for technology so I can keep these guys in my life! I love each and every one of you guys and thank you for every single adventure!!!

Day 9 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of the person who has gotten you through the most

Who else could I choose for this one besides my mom? No one else has gotten me through more in my life. Good and bad. She's given me life, neverending support and love, raised me, been a role model and a teacher to me, a friend, financial advisor, counselor, and everything else I need along the way in my life. It hasn't gone unnoticed that I have had support from my mom in everything I do even sometimes when it's scary to her. Because of my mom I've become an independent, compassionate, caring, person and I try my best to follow my dreams and be as good of a person as she is! <3

Day 8 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of something that makes you laugh

Okay Tanya...today is your day! What always makes me laugh? Your face.

What's there to say about Tanya? She's a crazy girl. I've known her for five-ish years. And of course the best of times spent with her were in the CU Parking garage where we both worked during college. Fun times in the parking garage!! How else can you possibly survive a job that requires a tolerance for boredom? By working with cool people who can make you laugh. Now post-parking garage we're still great buddies, we take photos together with our awesome cameras, and we love Dexter and Six Feet Under and singing 90s sitcom theme songs (you know which one I'm singing in my head right now Tanya) so pretty much....the "thing" that makes me laugh is Tanya. Lufff youuuuu!!!!!

Day 7 - Photo Challenge

Post a picture of your most treasured item

This is my mid-1950s German Rolleicord. It might be worth some money, but obviously that would be a silly reason for it to be my most treasured item. It means a lot to me because it belonged to my Grandpa. He bought it in the '50s and I inherited it several years ago, after his death. I'm still figuring out how to use it and all its little tricks, but it's really fun to play with and it does still work perfectly! It's in great condition. My Grandpa took good care of everything he owned. I can still find the large format film for this camera in a couple places and I love going out to take pictures with it, not only because it makes me feel like a super-cool photographer but I also like using something that my Grandpa used years ago to take really cool pictures and I can only hope to reach his level someday and if nothing else, maybe remember him again every time I take this out and use it.

Day 6 - Photo Challenge

Post A picture of somebody you'd like to trade places with for a day

Zooey Deschanel. Look at those gorgeous blue eyes! I'd love to trade places with her for a day, just to see what it's like. I love her big blue eyes, I love her style, her hair, and her singing! She's got a great voice. If I could sing, I would want to sound like Zooey. I also really like her movie choices.

Day 5 - Photo Challenge

Day 5: Post a picture of your favorite memory





Once again, it's difficult to choose just one memory of all my memories. I have been fortunate enough to have many amazing things and people in my life to create great memories...but where would I be without having had the opportunity to sail around the world for 4 months, visiting eleven countries and sixteen cities? It's the kind of thing that changes your life whether you plan on that or not, and not necessarily in the ways you think it will. It was almost three years ago that I turned around and smiled at my mom as I rode down the escalator in the Denver airport while she tearily took my picture. The memories within the trip make up some of the best in my life, but today for time saving purposes I will lump them all together and say that my trip around the world on the MV Explorer in the fall of 2008 is definitely one of my favorite memories.

Day 4 - Photo Challenge

Day 4: Post a picture of your favorite night

Well this was a tough one. I don't think I could possibly pick a favorite night of all the nights I've had so far in my life. But here's a picture of a particularly fun night spent learning to dance (in full costume of course) with my friend Zach (also known as BPZ by some) we were taught professional Czech ballroom dancing by our friends Zbynek and Dagmar - two real Czechs visiting for the summer. This night sums up what working at camp was like for me. I worked at Sonlight camp for 4 summers and spending our nights dressing up and dancing all over the place, creating lasting friendships with my coworkers was indescribable amounts of fun! Working at camp means hanging out with kids and having the opportunity to act like a kid - even when the kids go home at the end of the week. This photo was taken on our night off, in the summer of 2007, and I hope never to forget it or my friends from that summer. We had great times!

Day 3 - Photo Challenge

Day 3: A picture of the cast of your favorite television show

Okay okay I'm a cheater. I picked two shows. As I posted on day 1, I have a hard time making up my mind...and when I think of my favorite TV show I couldn't help but accept that both M*A*S*H and Friends popped into my mind simultaneously. But really, maybe that makes sense. Strangely, they have a lot in common and they both say something about who I am. Both have the ability to make me laugh and laugh and continue to laugh even after it's over. I cry every time I watch the series finale of either show and I'm not afraid to admit it! These two shows come from very different eras and have different value to me. M*A*S*H has a deeply rooted importance to me for its sense of humor and the significance of its bringing war into sitcom television and taking a critical but lighthearted look at how it affects those in the midst of the fighting and the absurdity of it all. Alan Alda....what can I possibly say about Alan Alda that could sum up how amazing I think he is?! And then there's Friends...which I had to beg my mom to let me watch when I was 12 years old and she thought maybe the show was a little too mature for me. This show never fails to make me laugh, and it's true that there is a Friends episode to reflect every life situation.

I have been watching both of these shows for many years and their abilities to make me laugh, cry, and think are their greatest appeals for me.

But since I wouldn't feel right not giving an honorable mention to a few other TV shows, here are my other top choices:

Boy Meets World

Six Feet Under

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

Freaks and Geeks

LOST

Dexter