Oh man. I don't think I can recall any other week in my life where I have been this busy. On top of preparing for and attending my first classes, trying reel in all the lines I put out for work, familiarizing myself with the area and its grocery stores, trying to cook and failing, and otherwise putting all the disparate pieces involved with moving to a new city and starting a new life into place, I have had maybe one hour total with which to rest or fool around on the computer. My mind is so revved up that it's taking me three or more hours to fall asleep after I lay my head on the pillow, which is something I -really- hope changes once things get more settled.

I've had a two day grocery ordeal involving a Japanese food store near downtown and two meals that I managed to only buy half the ingredients for each. Today I resolved to pick up the missing stuff from a local store, and set about making spring rolls. I've had a real hankering for spring rolls since I mentioned them before, something like a week ago, and have not managed to scratch that particular itch since I was denied them. When I was in Japan I had made them with my host mother, so I though, hey, how hard could they be? You don't even have to cook anything but the shrimp.

Well... It turns out I didn't quite remember what went into them, so I forgot some of the flavoring, bought cabbage instead of lettuce (I guess I'm making a cabbage dish soon) had absolutely no idea how to prepare avocados and didn't know I didn't know until I had mangled one, and ended up buying shrimp that was too curled and too small to be laid out the traditional way. Youtube gave me a crash course on avocado slicing, and after some experimenting the shrimp worked anyway. What was irredeemable was the sauce. It was terrible and I ended up just throwing it out. Without the sauce spring rolls are really bland, and without the greens they're even blander. Good thing I don't mind tasteless food. Plus, by the time I was done making a dozen of them I was too hungry to care.

I've taken a picture of the results of my exploits, along with a few shots of the interior of the apartment, but my usb cord is (hopefully) still sitting in my trunk along with a few other excess effects that I have not bothered to move in yet, so all that will have to wait. I also noticed that the lens of my camera has managed to pick up even more black spots, even in the protection of its case. Somewhat annoying, that.

I've now taken two of the three classes, and predict a heavier workload than I expected initially. Since the school runs on quarters, each class is only 10 sessions long, which sounds a little crazy, and probably is. Within those 10 sessions we're expected to do a large paper, a group project, and a few other assignments. I'm thinking I will not be able to pull of the procrastination game this time around.

There's probably a lot more that I'm missing, but that will have to wait for another day, as I'm tired, and want to spend at least a minute of this day doing nothing (probably will work on my budget spreadsheet instead). So here's a quick list.

Stuff I like about Denver so far:

• The road I take to school has a bike path, so when I get a bike the commute will be perfect.


• Driving back from part time job 1 I saw an entire family of prairie dogs chilling by the road. I think that's the first time I've ever seen a live prairie dog, and there were more than a dozen. Unfortunately one was flat on the shoulder. =s


• The people in general are all pretty cool, and the drivers are pretty sane, even considerate sometimes.


• All the curbs are slanted, so that I can relearn my parallel parking and it's cool if I go a little too far.


• There's a Japanese food store in the city. It's not really that close, but it's there, and it has a lot of good stuff.

Stuff I don't like about Denver so far:

• It's almost all road related. For one, I can't seem to get onto I25 south without spending 10 minutes criscrossing the damn thing. Ironically, the one time I did get onto I25 S without a hitch I really wanted to go North.


• There is no parking anywhere at all. I hate city parking.


• The building where I have my classes is as far from my apartment as it can be without being off campus. Ok, that's not completely true, but it is on the wrong side.


• I still don't have a room of my own. I'm managing fine, but I am really looking forward to being able to have a real space, and be completely moved in.

Phew, 11PM already. I've got an interview and a class tomorrow, and then I think I will set off on another culinary adventure.