Giant Steps

A Near Garden State Experience

2009-10-20T22:32:00.003-06:00

I mean sometimes it takes a year to have a post. and sometimes in that time all you can do is refer to another.

check it out. my talented and wonderful roommate sums up my recent days perfectly.

http://www.ducey.blogspot.com/

2008-12-09T22:45:00.002-07:00

It's been more than a month since I last posted. I have several reasons for this, really I do. but I'll give you one and I think the true culprit.

I have discovered the joy of DirectTV. I feel like I haven't left my house since Nov. 10, the day of Installation. what a glorious day.

the joys of fall

2008-10-22T12:26:00.003-06:00

Cooler weather does something wonderful:
1) I drink port-- current bottle is Graystone Lipizzan white port- delizioso
2) scarves come out of the closet
3) chai makes its way into my mug
4) chili is consumed

Auntie Dee strikes again

2008-10-19T13:15:00.003-06:00

I love this little girl. She is becoming so full of personality. My mom knit her this super cute hat.
She's started pulling herself onto furniture. as you can see she is so proud of herself. look at those teeth!
The next two photos are the first of my many attempts at taking pictures of the 2 of us. She loves my camera but often wants to peer around the camera at me taking her picture. So I tricked her and took them of the two of us myself. The second one is my favorite. I like to think that she is kissing my cheek, even though I'm pretty sure that she is just super sleepy and smashing her face into mine avoiding the sleepy eye factor.

grape season

2008-10-19T13:07:00.004-06:00

Crush season is coming to a close. Pressing the grapes is my least favorite part- that is what is coming. The above pictures show how messy this job can be. My arm, which looks like I have a skin disease, is covered with syrah juice. My face is covered with a combination of motor oil and grape juice. I wish I could say this was as messy as it gets...
Its amazing that it is the middle of October already. My dear friends Scott and Claire are here from Oklahoma. Its weird to think that about 6 months ago I was staying in their apartment in Bologna, ITALY. time flies.

driving

2008-09-29T13:52:00.002-06:00

I normally consider myself a pretty good driver, if not a cautious one. Yes, I have been told a few times that I like to drive fast. I can't help it if my car is an awesomely smooth ride and I find myself going faster than I thought.
Last night I, on my way home from friends, got caught speeding. I had been on the hwy approx. 3.8 seconds when I saw the Sheriff's car lurking in the shadows ready to pounce. I had no idea what the speed limit was at the time. I figured it was 55. wrong. 45. I was driving 62. good lord, in a construction zone. He was nice enough not to charge me double for the construction zone. yet it will still cost me an arm and a leg and a couple of points on my driving record.
I asked about driving school or something to help remove the points. he chuckled. I guess I'll take that as a no?!?

that is so Italian

2008-09-09T21:57:00.003-06:00

I'm enjoying a quiet evening at home, drinking tea, listening to some wonderful new music (Bon Iver-love it) after a full week of birthday celebrations... having fun can sure be exhausting. :)

I'm also reading the latest copy of food and wine magazine and found an article that I had to share a piece of with someone. The article is about Wine Scams- counterfeit, essentially.

"In Tuscany, where Italian authorities found quite a few Brunello producers making their fancy wine with cheap, non-Brunello grapes. You may ask, how did they find it out? The government's fraud-fighting tactics are quintessentially Italian- they began training police-men as undercover sommeliers."

love it. I was in Italy when this broke the news. It was such a big deal. I love the Italians!!

27

2008-09-01T09:34:00.002-06:00

I'm 27 today. Woo-hoo!

Happy Labor Day!

dee @ the DNC

2008-08-25T20:06:00.003-06:00

ok, not really at the Democratic National Covention. But its here in Denver. The city is a buzz and people are everywhere. People are so excited. Its so great to be a part of even if from a short distance of about 3 miles. We even got Obama pins in our tip jars this morning. I'm pouring wine downtown Tues. and Thurs. and plan on taking full advantage of the people watching into the evening...

my theme song has been playing in my ears for about a year now and I'm feeling it all the more as the birthday approaches. check out the song- Sara Bareilles "Many the Miles"

There's too many things that i haven't done yet
Too many sunsets
I haven't seen
You can't waste the day wishing it'd slow down
You would've thought by now
I'd have learned something

I made up my mind when i was a young girl
I've been given this one world
I won't worry it away
But now and again i lose sight of the good life
I get stuck in a low light
But then Love comes in

t-minus one week 'till 27. wooh!

A and Ro

2008-08-13T13:20:00.003-06:00

We went to Mt. Evans yesterday. It was fabulous!!
The girls leave tomorrow morning. We've had a laid back, enjoyable, laugh till you can laugh no more, party going, friend meeting, eating out kind of "holiday." Aine and Roisin have met the greater majority of my friends. Which is really something since each of my group of my friends hardly no each other- if at all. I should really work on getting my friends to mingle a bit. may be time for deanna to have a party of her own... my birthday is coming up I suppose.
Its been so great to have them here. Its hard to believe that I met Aine in Italy and she's here now in Denver. the apartment will be lonely without them.

mi amica

2008-08-08T11:11:00.004-06:00

so, I was missing my friends from Italy last week. And just like that, Aine emails and says she's coming. and not just coming but coming on Sat. could it get any better than this? tutto va bene.

2008-07-29T00:18:00.003-06:00

woke up desperately missing my friends from Italy today. I want to go back. anyone interested? who needs to work anyway??

sweet sunday

2008-07-14T11:28:00.005-06:00

After three very late nights in a row I had a sweet sweet Sunday with dear friends. Yesterday I said see you soon to Shalene at her "I'm freaking moving to Kenya" Party. It was a great time to enjoy her, her family and friends. Its hard to believe that the time for her to go has come already. Kenya has returned one friend to call another.

Then I spent the afternoon with Capp, Anne and Hazel. Man, that girl gets more fun and cute each day. She's eating solid food and I got to experience the sheer joy of watching her eat.
Can she get any cuter? We had a great time playing together.
We ate pizza, enjoyed their daughter, told stories and laughed. Just what I needed. I love our family dinners.

to be continued

2008-07-09T12:07:00.004-06:00

As I've mentioned before I'm trying to find a house to buy. People tell me "when you walk in you'll know" or "its like meeting your spouse, you'll just know" or even "if you imagine your life here in this house, the universe will manifest itself and make it happen". I haven't experienced any of those things in any form, particularly the universe manifestation (yikes). so I anxiously search unknowing what those emotions of "knowing" feel like.
over the weekend I saw a place that I thought I really liked. If I got the okay I was going to put in an offer. the space was layed out well, the kitchen small but functional, a few quirky elements- one who is quirky (like me) needs some quirkiness in their house, and a clean slate for a spacious back yard and potential for the most awesome great room downstairs. Then I go see it again with my lovely realtor and she sees so many things that I never think about or honestly know to even look at. and I walk out of the house I liked two days prior saying "oh yes, I see now that this is not a good house for me." funny how one morning in an empty house turns to one sleepless night of potential excitement and then in a blink of an eye I am on a continued search for another place feeling silly about my sleeplessness.

Yesterday Alex and I unloaded 50 cases of wine into the tasting room downtown. yep 50 cases or 600 bottles. I managed to come out with only one battle wound. I ran into a rack and have a purple and sore bruise. I am still pretty sure I am the clumsiest person I know. I keep hoping I'll outgrow that. but it seems unlikely at 26, don't you think?

she is just so cute

2008-07-05T23:36:00.004-06:00

Auntie Dee loves taking pictures of Hazel. This is my recent favorite.

I am trying to be good about updating my flickr page. She's just too cute not to have as many photos of her on the web as possible (just ask anne and capp), and I suppose a few of the happenings of my life, too.

time

2008-06-26T23:02:00.006-06:00

Doug (my younger big brother) and I haven't taken a picture of just the two of us in years... I liked how this one turned out. Although it was our second try, the first time I was zoomed in and ended up just getting one of each of our eyes and mostly 2 sets of shoulders behind us. maybe I'll psot that one, too. kinda funny, eh? anyway...
I can't believe it but, I've lived in Denver for 3 years almost exactly to the day, I've been home from Italy almost as long as I was gone, and I, despite some kicking and screaming, am approaching 3 years with Starbucks. yikes.
I have been thinking a lot about my trip to Italy over the last few days. I didn't really talk about it much right after my return, maybe I didn't know how to really talk about something so fresh or so crucial to some internal changing but I now have shared more in the last week than the 2 months previous. I was talking to Aaron Espe about the trip tonight and I was reminded about how quickly dreams and plans change. I've done (and am still doing) some crazy things over the last 5 years. I played saxophone with Claire in Bologna and really really enjoyed it. Just over 5 years ago I graduated from college with a music degree and now I don't play or sing any more. (well, I sing all the time just not for people) Aaron asked if playing in Bologna sparked any memories that made me say "oh yeah, this is what I do, I play music." I don't know, I certainly haven't taken the horn out of the closet since my return, so I guess not really. But its funny how certain I felt all those years ago about music, and then food, then wine- "certainty", I'm pretty sure that word doesn't exist in my everyday life... just ask my mom how many ideas I have- every week I have a new plan for my life.
It feels good to look back and see how all of those pieces of me still coexist quite nicely in this strange strange life of mine.
I've basically decided that I am far from hip enough to work on larimer square.

ooohh funny story. So I work at the downtown tasting room on average of once a week (at least so far) and both thursdays I've worked I parked in a lot that is $7 to park until 6pm, and both times I walked to my car at approximately 6:18 pm only to find that the ticket man is literally 3 cars away from writing me a ticket. I swear that the next time I'm there he'll recognize my car and think "dang it, that girl runs to her car and drives away before I can get her license plate to give her a ticket. I'm going to go directly to her car at 6:01 pm and slam a ticket on her dash. yeah, take that." well, mr. ticket man just try it. you just try it.

and I feel fine

2008-06-15T14:41:00.004-06:00

Life has been full. Wine festival season is upon us. That means that during the month of June we have major events every weekend. phew. 2 down 2 to go. AND we've opened a tasting room downtown at Larimer square. Its hard to believe that I work downtown sometimes... I always thought that I was not even close to hip enough to ever work downtown-let alone Larimer square. But I'm there pouring wine and selling as much as humanly possible. Its been fun- and kind of nice to have a new set of faces to pour for (and with).
Things have been, although busy, very good. I'm getting a little sun, riding my bike at every possible chance I can get, looking for a house, loving my realtor, and I just bought a pass to Elitch Gardens. I cant' wait to ride some rides and hang out in the water park a lot this summer.
I've lately been reminded that I am a few years older than some of my good good friends here in Denver. yet although I'm creeping toward the age of 27, I don't feel it. despite the house hunting I feel anti-grown up: could be the company, could be the change of some mentality since my return from Italy, or because I just bought a theme park season pass... HA!
All in all?
I love the summer, I love Denver and I'm feeling good.

the hunt continues

2008-06-04T18:13:00.002-06:00

So Victoria, my realtor, and I went to see 10 houses this evening. oh geeze, there is nothing worth even looking at again. but that's ok.

the hunt

2008-05-24T23:32:00.001-06:00

I'm starting the search for a house. yes, a real house for me to live in, oh and own. AAHH! am I really grown up enough to do this? I guess almost 27 (good grief, 27?) is old enough, right?!?!

sometimes you're just busy

2008-05-20T10:00:00.003-06:00

Sometimes when you arrive home from a long trip you become exceptionally busy. I've been watching my plants grow. (Well, let me explain. I had this small plant growing out of my bathtub when I left for Italy. I thought it would be funny to see what it would be like later- so I left it. Now mind you, I had someone coming to the apartment to stay while I was gone so if it got out of control it could be taken care of)

Then I came home and found it like this.
But since my return I've been to Rockies games, birthday parties, concerts, the first of my summer bbqs,

and of course happy hour with the girls from Starbucks. We went to Sabor Latino to have, in my opinion, the best Mojitos in town. They use real sugar cane!!
All in all since my return I've been difficult to reach. there was a lot to catch up on, I guess.

home sweet home

2008-04-26T09:50:00.003-06:00

For the last few weeks, I have had the pleasure of, in the first split second of waking up, not being totally sure of what city, let alone what country I will find myself in. But yesterday I had the joy of waking up in my own bed in Denver.

yep, I'm home. my 2 months of European life is complete. I'll get more photos posted to flickr soon... pro account here I come.

It will take me a while to process, pour through my 800 pictures a few thousand times, catch up on sleep, and realize that I'm home before life will be anywhere near normal again. But I'm getting a good start by working a huge party at the winery this evening. let the fun begin, right?

my phone is on and waiting for your call. ;-)

Thank you all for thinking of me and following with me on this life-changing adventure.

time really flies

2008-04-19T11:21:00.002-06:00

Wow, time really flies. I've been all over the place since my last post. I am currently in the magical city of Paris. But since my last post I was in Bologna (for nearly a week with my dear dear friends Scott and Claire- thank you again!) having some of the best food of my life, drinking wine, going to a jazz bar, playing Claire's sax in an Italian big band- i was totally amazed at how quickly it all came back to me, shopping, attending parties, dancing in clubs and really really enjoying myself. Then last tuesday I left Bologna and spent literally a few hours in Pisa admiring the Piazza Miracole which includes a cathedral, baptistry and of course the leaning tower. Then headed to the Cinque terre for a night and full day. That was a very relaxing and beautiful place. I wish that I had spent another day or two there. I hiked the trail between 3 of the 5 villages - three of the five because as I was literally dropping down into the 4th village I fell and twisted my ankle a little. i know, it could only happen to me... I was warned that the 4th to the 5th was pretty difficult and thought I better not chance it on a slightly twisted ankle. Then headed to Nice, France. Nice is nice. :-)

But now I'm in Paris. Went literally all over the city today. so much to see in so few days.

I'm headed to Switzerland on Tuesday and then to the airport to fly home on Thursday. I can hardly believe that 2 months are nearly up. Contemplated *missing* my flight and heading back to Florence and doing another couple of weeks of language school. But alas I can hear the states calling my name....

Biking, goodbyes and Bologna

2008-04-09T08:53:00.006-06:00

After many requests I, with some help from my friend Scott, have been able to put some photos on the blog and am working on my flickr site with a more complete set of photos. I should have that up with captions very soon. but until then please enjoy the photos that are there and captionless. www.flickr.com/photos/dtillion

This is the Chianti region. It was absolutely, totally and completely beautiful!

This is the duomo from my classroom window. A lot of the month of March was cloudy like this but I still think that it was a spectacular view.

This is Venice- the water taxis were expensive but for photos alone it was worth it. We had a wonderfully sunny first day and a not so sunny but pleasant second day there.

I've arrived in Bologna to spend some time with Scott and Claire. They are incredibly generous to lend me their futon for several days. It will be the first time I've spent the night in one bed for more than one night since the 28th of March. That's weird to think about. Even though I spent many extra nights in Florence I slept in a different room in my hostel every night. I guess that is the risk you take when booking a hostel on a day to day basis in a busy city.

After a lovely weekend in Venice with Aine I headed back to Florence (couldn't seem to get away from that city) for a couple of last nights. On Monday morning I woke up and headed to Ponte Vespucci to meet up for a bike tour of Chianti. What a great experience. It was a 20 km (12 mile) ride. Now, to some 12 miles is nothing... but to me (who is still a very inexperienced cycler) that sounded like a great and challenging ride. It was both. The countryside was breathtaking and honestly so was the last part of the ride. There were two hills in the last part of the ride that were slaughtering me. But I made it to the top and really really enjoyed myself. We made several stops on our ride. The first was a winery in the Chianti Classico region. The wine was quite nice a Chianti Classico and a Chianti Classico Reserva. I very much enjoyed seeing the facilities and a little of the Villa that is a very very fancy hotel. Apparently some of the suites go for 2500 euro a night. yowsah! Then we stopped in a tiny, cute hill town for lunch and coffee. ( a much needed break after all of the wine we had consumed). Then came the long stretch of riding... then at the top of the hill we had cokes and then headed back to the garage. It really has been a highlight to my trip.

I've officially left Florence and do not planning on stopping back there this trip. On my final morning I wondered the streets and reminisced about the past 5 weeks that I've been there (well the last week off and on but still). I walked by all of the places I'd visited, places I'd eaten, places I'd had a few drinks or some that I'd had too much to drink, places I had some life changing conversations and some incredible laughs. It was a great way to say goodbye to the city that I've come to admire and love. After my friends finished school we went to one of our regular lunch spots and I was faced with saying goodbye to people that have become very dear friends of mine. Despite my sadness of knowing that I may not see them again (at least for some time) I know that it is time to move on and see some more of this incredible country and continent.

Santa Maria novella

2008-04-04T09:26:00.002-06:00

Roma! What a city. I loved it! Ana and I packed into 4 days what two normal people could do in a weeks time. We literally ran from place to place. I was exhausted after our trip. It was a wonderful city that is full of life, history and a great deal to see. The weather was fabulous: I'm sure that it was in the 60s every day and I even got a little sunburn on my face- despite putting sunblock on in the morning. The Colosseo and the ruins just blew me away. It was quite an amazing thing to be faced with something that was so old and has so much history.
I am back in Florence for a few days. Of course the day that I arrive in Florence it rains- no pours! figures. But today has been beautiful.
I am staying a lovely hostel and have enjoyed a few days in Firenze by myself (at least in the morning while my friends are still in school). I walked along the Arno river this morning and then stepped into a few churches that I had not been in before. Then after lunch with my friends, I climbed the cupola, bought a new shirt, and headed to the last church on my list to see. Santa Maria Novella. While heading to the entrance I was stopped by a 75 year old Italian man (at first I was not surprised- I have often been stopped by Italian men) but this was going to be a different encounter, I could tell by the first words out of his mouth. He spoke to me about the church that I was about to enter and told me all of the artists that had paintins, frescoes, or sculptures within it. He asked if he could join me in the church and of course I could not turn him down. He told me to put on my jacket because it was going to be cold in the church. I, obeyed, paid for my ticket and in we went. He took me by the hand and spoke to me in clear, slow Italian and was my personal tour guide through this incredible church. He, Giulio, was quite a charming man. He told me that my smile lit up the church and that he was amazed at my knowledge of Italian (I didn't have the heart to tell him that I only understood about 1/2 to 3/4 of what he said... but I guess that doesn't matter). It was a wonderful afternoon.
Tomorrow I head to Venice with my friend Aine (from Ireland) for the weekend. I will return to Firenze for one last evening on Sunday and hopefully take a bike tour of Chianti on Monday before I head to Bologna on Tuesday.
All in all a glorious return to the non-student life. (although I miss working on my Italian everyday in school)
Ciao!

2008-03-28T06:34:00.002-06:00

My last few days as an Italian language student have FLOWN by. Today is my last day in the city for a while. Last night we had an "end of the term" celebration. There were about 15 of us that went out to dinner. Then a smaller group of us went to sing Karaoke. The bar was surprisingly empty and we were really the only group singing- as a thank you the bar bought us all a round. Then an even smaller group of us went to a discoteche. I know. What a night. I have to be honest. I didnt even make it to my last day of school. It was way too difficult to get up (after only a couple of hours of sleep) to go learn about the Future tense.... turns out there were only a few people that actually made it to class this morning anyway.
I had some excitement a couple of days ago, too. I had my wallet stolen on Monday. Well, I assume it was stolen. Its hard to say if I just totally lost it or if it was lifted out of my bag. But thanks to my fabulous parents all has been resolved well enough for me to continue on.
Today is sunny and warm with a few white puffy clouds. Not a bad way to spend my last few hours as a Fiorentina.
Off to Roma tomorrow morning. I cannot wait!