It’s true. There are few places I’ve traveled where I haven’t fallen in love. With the city.

Maybe I’m lucky, I visit beautiful cities. Or perhaps, I can find beauty nearly anywhere.

When we went to Ottawa, I thought, man I could totally live here. I’m a sucker for a town with history too.

Even on the rainiest of days in Glasgow, I wanted to stay there forever. The old gray buildings that I wanted to touch and know their stories.

The places we saw in California and the towns here in Colorado. I think I could live almost anywhere.

Except Toronto. That place smells like pee.

It was important to me for my boys to get the H1N1 flu shot. They get the regular flu shot every fall, and with this flu running rampant in the schools, I felt I had to try and get them vaccinated. I know some people have strong feelings against vaccinations, but I truly believe they are doing the world good.

Our pediatrician warned on their website they were not getting enough vaccine for their high risk patients, and if you could find the vaccine, get it. I got a call from Tri-County Health that they would be offering free vaccines at the nearest middle school on November 9th.

I was completely unprepared for the afternoon/evening that lay ahead of me! I arrived at the school 15 minutes before the clinic opened. Well, actually I left my house 30 minutes before, drove 5 minutes, parked and walked to the end of the line. The line snaked all around the school. It was crazy long, and continued to grow long after it grew dark. We befriended the family behind us, their son the same age as Elijah. The grassy areas gave them room to run. The sun began to sink, and we still had not made it inside the school. We spent between 90 minutes to 2 hrs before we got inside the school, and then they REALLY began the snaking. By the time we were all the way at the other end of the school, I thought I might cry! We were hungry, our feet hurt and we saw no end in sight.

3 hrs and 30 minutes later we made it to the nurse. The silver lining in all this: my boys got the flu mist- no needles! At least I didn’t have to deal with crying kids as we stumbled back through the dark and tall grass to where we had parked our car.

Was it worth it? Time will tell. Had I been told when I arrived how long the wait would be, I would have turned around and left. Likewise, had I known I would be allowed to wait on school property early (say 1-2 hrs early), I might have brought my camping chairs and camped out.

I don’t like to exercise. Additionally, I don’t really like my body, so I am forced to do something about it. Eating less and going to the gym are my solutions. Let me tell you…going to the gym 3 days a week is much easier to trying to eat less (I really am trying).

I get bored pretty easy at the gym with no workout buddy, and while I enjoy step class, it isn’t offered at a good time of the day for me. I was thrilled to discover my gym offered a Zumba class. It’s offered at a good time for me, not conflicting with dinner plans or preschool.

I had heard about Zumba on Twitter, and was anxious to try it. A class spent dancing for an hour? Sounds good to me!

The class I attend incorporates different dance styles and music, and the participants range in all shapes & ages. We warm up to Tina Turner, do some salsa and hip hop and cool down with the Bee Gees. Everyone has a good time.

This makes all the difference in the world. I love going to the gym now, and hope soon to see the fruits of my labor.

Denver held their first Night At The Museums in 2008, and it was such a huge success, they brought it back this year. This idea was birthed in Europe, an evening where museums would stay open late, and patrons could shuttle from one museum to another completely free. Denver uses this event to help kick off Denver Arts Week.

I love this idea! What a great date night, where you can choose from any number of museums to suit your cultural taste, or give you a chance to explore someplace you’ve never been. Last we we took full advantage of the free shuttle from Cherry Creek Mall, but they were not anticipating such a response and the wait time was a little long. We explored The Denver Art Museum, and even ran into a few friends. Unfortunately time did not allow us to visit another museum.

Tonight we are skipping the shuttle, and driving ourselves to the Denver Museum Of Nature & Science. We haven’t been in a while, and have not yet seen the Expedition Health exhibit. Sadly, we missed out on getting tickets for the new Genghis Khan exhibit.

I encourage you to support your local museums!

Picture this:

A young girl, 16 or 17 years old, sees an ad for the chance to audition for a musical theatre company in her home town. Having gained a little confidence in choir class, she sets out to pursue her dream of singing and acting. She finds a pop song, one that she thinks would showcase her voice and practices for weeks.

The day of the audition, she heads down to the location. Frightened, she can hear a piano and other singers taking their shot. Shaky, her turn has comes. She enters a room, empty, except for a pianist and three very serious faces.

The piano begins to play, and the fear of this moment has been realized. Somehow she strains to sing the song, and time is moving so fast. Just trying to concentrate on the song is all consuming.

Once it is over, she feels awkward. She is told her choice of song wasn’t appropriate (they didn’t want a pop song). And in a Simon Cowell-esque tone, she is told even with lessons, they would not take her.

Defeated, she thanks them, and leaves the room. She leaves the building, and finally is able to cry.

Looking back, she is thankful that the only witnesses were those four people. Can you imagine, pouring your heart out on television?

As of this date, the young woman has sung in public a few times, but mostly uses her voice to entertain herself and her children. She is determined to take singing lessons someday.

Now that we have established I like to cook (we established that right?), I must share my concern about feeding others.

I love to invite people over for dinner. But tonight I am serving 8 adults & 4 children and I am anxious. I can make a meal for my family, but cooking food for that many people makes me stress a little. Especially children. My kids will eat anything, other kids I have noticed are not like my kids.

Tonight I’m making Chicken Parmagiana. I have only made it once before. I stress about my time management and whether the dish will be enjoyed. So to begin alleviating my stress, I better start prepping.

What kind of food do you make for a big group of people?

I have a reputation amongst friends and family of being the picky eater. Granted my dislike list of food is longer than the Nile, but I’ve spent the last 10 years or so trying to overcome that.

Funny enough, I credit the Food Network. When we moved to California in 1999, we discovered the Food Network. Shows like Emeril Live and Good Eats blew my mind. I grew up in a home where we ate out a lot, and food came in boxes and cans. We would sometimes visit my grandparents on the farm and eat food grown from the garden. Those meals were yummy.*

Emeril & Alton gave way to other chefs like Tyler Florence, Morimoto (and the original Iron Chefs), and Mario Batali. Now I watch Top Chef and remark on the chefs that I’ve heard of.

Once upon a time I couldn’t eat “fancy” food without it wrecking havoc on my stomach. Now the thought of Jack In The Box or Applebees make me cringe.

There are still many fruits & vegetables I’ve never tried, and ethnic cuisine is a slow process too. But the girl who grew up eating Minute Rice is making risotto this weekend.

I don’t dream of one day opening my own restaurant. I do dream about having my children experience food and get excited by it.

Eat well my friends.

“Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.” ~Voltaire

* I still won’t eat my grandmother’s signature dish, cabbage rolls. This upsets her.

My tweep Casual Perfectionist pointed out that a few years ago when she did NaBloPoMo there was theme. I thought to myself, would that hinder or help me? Today I ponder that very thing, wondering what do I write about today?

Last night, I dreamt I spoke to God. In my dream, he looked like Tom Collichio (let’s not ask why). I recall asking him about the direction I should go with my life. He didn’t answer much, would sort of look at me with a what do you think? look. As he walked away from me, I did ask him what my father thought about my choices. He assured me, my dad wanted me to do what made me happy.

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t wish I could call my dad. I try not to blame myself for all those missed opportunities to tell him things. I try to focus on one of the more meaningful conversations we had before he passed. When I asked my father, do you talk God?

He replied, yes. I imagine being faced with cancer and death being a certainty that the thought of an afterlife, or a life without pain would have crossed his mind.

What do you say? I inquired. My whole life, we had never spoke of God before. But I needed assurance that my dad had set things right when he had the chance.

“I ask him to look after you kids, and Debbie . And that when it’s time to go that I’ll go”.

I wiped tears from my eyes. “that’s all I needed to know”.

He died four days later. And after six years, my heart still aches.

Geoff says the only way I’m going to get better at writing is to do it often. So I signed up for NaBloPoMo, forcing me to post every day for a month. Overwhelming? A little. But hopefully I will reap a benefit from it.

Let’s get personal. I’ve been feeling like I’m living in limbo. With two years left on the visa, it’s go time on seeing if a green card is going to happen. When we tell people about our journey, our friends find it confusing that two productive, law abiding people would have such a hard time becoming citizens. Yeah, how do you think we feel?! Longevity and having American-born children mean nothing to the process.

Though my heart longs to be close to my family, I truly feel that we were meant to live in the U.S. So much of our life happened here. Not to say I’m completely opposed to moving back to Canada. I’m just not sure after 10 years that I could adjust to a country I don’t feel is home anymore.

Just as the move to America was lead by going where the science/job is, the same is true now. We will go where there is a job.

Let’s wait and see what the future holds….

…..I hate waiting.

I’m hoping in the next few weeks to revamp Age Of Melissius. I’m not yet sure how to go about it, because as Geoff put it, I’m a better tweeter than blogger.

Any input you have is welcome (be kind), and stay tuned friends!