An update...

Hello to everyone again!

I know I've been slacking on my blogging duties, but here's a little update.

Things at work have finally slowed down, but almost to a pace that is too slow. Pretty much everyone has wrapped up their field projects and is back in the office full time. It's been kinda nice to be in Denver for a month or so now without having to travel anywhere else for work.

A few weeks ago, my old roommates from MN, Kelsey and Alana came out to visit me which was so much fun!! We went out on the town a couple nights and also made it up to the Red Bull Soap Box Race at Red Rocks park which was really fun. It was basically a soap box race for adults where they constructed these crazy racers and dressed up all funny to go thru the race. There were a few good crashes and a lot of laughs. We also went hiking down at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs which was a lot of fun too. The weather was great while they were here.

Last weekend, I headed up to Frisco, CO with a girlfriend from work for Halloween. I dressed up as a witch and we went to this little dive bar that reminded me so much of the Fulda bar..haha. We stayed at this really old and creepy bed and breakfast and really had a good time.

This Sunday is my birthday and my roommate and a few other girlfriends are going to this Holiday kick-off champagne brunch at one of the hotels here in Denver. Evidently, it is a Denver tradition and some guy cuts the cork off a champagne bottle and pours it down a 4-story high champagne glass fountain...should be really fun.

I'll be back in MN for Thanksgiving. Thursday-Sunday in Fulda and then Sunday afternoon and evening in St. Paul so I'm excited to see family and friends!

Hope everyone is doing well!
Amanda

What has it been? Three months now?

I can't believe it's already been 3 months since I've moved here. Time really does fly by.

I survived my "probational" period at my job so I'm now officially hired and have access to all those crazy benefits and things you get when you have a real job.

As for what I've been up to these past weeks, it's been kinda a whirlwind. After the DNC, I thought things at work would slow down a little bit. I've spent much of the last few weeks up in Leadville wrapping things up for the season. I think it snowed like a foot up there a couple nights ago, so it's good we got everything finished up. Speaking of snow, I've heard that some of the snow resorts are scheduled to open up this coming weekend! This seems crazy to me because I was just up in the mountains last weekend and there was absolutely no snow at one of these resorts. Even coming from MN, it's amazing to me that you can get a 40 inch snow pack in less than 1 week.

I drove up into the mountains last weekend to check out some of the fall colors and they were so beautiful. I'll attach some of my photos to the end of this post. I did some hiking up on Guanella Pass which is near Georgetown and also took a drive through Breckenridge and Fairplay. The Aspens were at their peak and were a blaze orange. SOOOO pretty. I highly recommend visiting CO in the fall.

A couple weekends ago, I went to visit some friends in St. Paul and to go to my friend Jackie's bachelorette party. It was so fun to see all the old gang and be back at my old apt. It didn't quite feel like home anymore, though. We had a lot of fun and some of my friends even sang to me at a piano bar.

I'm headed back to MN again this weekend for Jackie's wedding, which is in Fulda. I'm so excited to go back and stay at Mom and Dad's house, see my family and old friends, and even see Fulda. :) It really will be a fun weekend.

Like I promised, I'll post some of those fall pictures. Love and miss you all!!

Amanda

DNC Photos

Here are some of the photos from the DNC. Most everywhere I went I couldn't take pictues, so this is somewhat a limited view of everything I got to see. It was definitely a cool experience and it was fun to be among all the craziness.

Pepsi Center where the first part of the convention was held. This was

about as close as I could get.

Invesco Field right before Obama gave his speech. I got as

close as I could and listened from the outside.

Security was crazy!!

My badges that could get me anywhere...well, almost.

Our air sampling truck. This thing takes air samples as it drives along and detects anything harmful.

Protestors...they were everywhere this week! Snipers on top of a building across the street from the Pepsi Center.



The building I was stationed at during the DNC.







Some of our equipment. There was rooms and rooms of this stuff.

Check this out!!

The CBS channel out here in Denver did a story on my office and what we've been doing out here at the DNC. For those of you wondering what the heck it is I do, this gives you a pretty good idea. Unfortunately, I do not make an appearance as the video was shot during the day shift and I have been working the night shift.

http://cbs4denver.com/video/?id=45905@kcnc.dayport.com

The DNC

Well our efforts for the DNC officially began yesterday. The city is pretty much on lock-down with cops and swat teams everywhere. There are police on foot, horse, bike, car, basically everything. At my command post there are Secret Service people, Coast Guard, Denver police, EPA and FBI...along with any other government agency you could think of.

So far, things have been uneventful. Last night was actually alright and I was less tired than I thought I was going to be. Although, at about 6:30am I was really struggling to stay awake. I'm at night two right now and basically I just sit at the command post and wait for a phone call that tells us we need to go into action. I really hope that doesn't happen.

As for downtown, things are kinda a mess. Streets are closed, buses are screwed up, lightrail is shut down and the locals are just pretty much avoiding the area. Thing really won't begin to rock and roll until Monday when the convention actually starts.

I'll keep everyone posted and hopefully I'll get to take some pictures. Right now, I'm just adjusting to the night schedule and mainly focusing on staying awake.

Busy few weeks!

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted, but I've been really busy at work! We have a few projects we are trying to finish up and we are also preparing for the DNC. Lots of craziness.

Last week, I flew out to Utah at the last minute to help one of my colleagues take soil-gas samples. I was in Richfield, UT and for those of you who don't know where that is, it is about 3 hours south of Salt Lake City on I-15. A guy out there unknowingly purchased a property that used to be a dry-cleaners and turned it into a gymnastics school. The problem is, the dry-cleaners probably dumped cleaning solutions out the door onto the ground and now those chemicals are giving off gases that are rising up through the foundation into the school. These fumes are not good to breath and they are at really high levels that will probably need to be fixed. So I was there to take the samples of air and see how much chemical was in it.

The best part was that we finished our work one day a little early so we drove down to Cedar Breaks National Park which is part of the whole rock formation creating Bryce Canyon and Zion, which I love!! So beautiful and just an awesome drive. I love UT.

This week, I was back up in Leadville taking soil samples again. We are trying to finish up that project soon, but people keep requesting to be sampled so we are adding houses left and right. I am heading back up there Tuesday and Wednesday of next week to finish up and then it is full on to the DNC.

I am really looking forward to the DNC being over so that we can all relax again. Also, on Labor Day weekend, my friends Tarah and Kyle are coming to visit me, so I'm really excited about that!!!

I'll keep you all posted on the events at the DNC and what and who I get to see. I just hope crazy people don't do crazy things that I have to try and fix! :)

A visit from some familiar faces!

This past weekend my mom and sister came to visit me! They drove out from Fulda so they could bring me some of my last few boxes of things from MN.

They said the drive was awful and that they are never going back to Nebraska. :)

They arrived on Thursday night and after they checked into their hotel we headed downtown Denver so I could show them my office building and a couple of the sites. We capped off the night with some Mexican food and Margaritas!

Friday was an early morning as we had to be down in Manitou Springs (right outside Colorado Springs) by 10am to take the train up to Pike's Peak. We made it and although my sister Jess was sick with a cold and we all felt yucky because of the altitude, we had fun and got to see Kansas and New Mexico all standing in the same spot...pretty cool I must say.

After Pike's Peak we spent the day in Manitou Springs which is one of the cutest little mountain towns I've ever been too. Lots of hippies and locals. We stopped for a couple Coors Lights and burgers at a local bar where they played three Journey songs in a row. :)

Slightly exhausted, but still ready for more, we dropped Jess off at the hotel so she could sleep off her sickness and Mom and I headed to the mall. We all were so tired that night, we crashed early and didn't even eat dinner.

Saturday morning we piled in the car and headed up the very curvy and beautiful HWY 24 to Buena Vista, CO. This is where we were going whitewater rafting. We arrived to BV early and had a picnic lunch in the park and Mom got more and more nervous about the rafting adventure.

We got to the rafting place about 45 min early because Mom was worried we wouldn't have the right clothes. Everything turned out fine though, and I'd have to say we looked pretty professional!!

The rafting was a absolute blast!!! One of the most fun things I've ever done in my life. We did a class III rafting trip which is about a 6 or 7 on the thrill factor. The first 1/3 of the trip was pretty calm with a few bumps and rocks and I was beginning to think we had wasted our money. Boy, was I wrong! We got to the rapids and we were bouncing all over the place, going backwards and paddling like crazy. Besides Mom getting slammed into a giant rock and losing some hide on her arm and the little girl in our boat getting tossed overboard, we all made it thru just fine.

Mom had a great time and said she was ready to try a classs IV next time!!

After rafting we dried off and drove to Frisco, CO where we spent the night. We went out for an expensive dinner and sat on the patio watching the sunset over the mountains...GORGEOUS!

Sunday we woke up and headed downtwon Frisco for a little shopping, but to our surprise, there was a Corvette show going on so we skipped the shopping and looked at cars. There had to have been over 1,000 Corvettes in town that day.

The only bad thing that happened to us was that we got caught in a giant traffic jam heading back to Denver on Sunday night. What should have taken us an hour, took three as we were creepin' and beepin' for 70 miles. Not fun....in the future, I will leave earlier.

We concluded our trip Monday morning when we went out for an early breakfast before Mom and Jess headed back and I went to work. They decided to go up to Wyoming and thru SD for a little extra scenery at the Black Hills and the Badlands. What a weekend!! Pictures coming soon!

I was so tired last night I needed a vacation from my vacation!