Clothing, Cupcakes, and Colorado

Melbourne, Australia

I am back from an amazing week in Nevada’s Black Rock desert; Burning Man was everything I could have hoped or imagined it would be. I will save my words and photos on that week for another time, though.

Now, I am just outside Denver, Colorado, enjoying some rest and relaxation (when do I ever not enjoy it?) after the heat of the desert and the craziness of the partying. Aaron and I are watching movies, making jello shots, and slowly preparing for a road trip that will take us up to Canada – we haven’t decided whether we will go west, through Montana and into the Rockies of Alberta, or if we will drive east, allowing us to visit friends in Cape Cod, Montreal, and Toronto. Either way, it will be yet another incredible adventure in this year – in this life – of mine that keeps getting better and better, that keeps teaching me and opening my mind, opening my eyes, opening my future to things I may not have thought of or known existed before.

For the next week, however, I am content to just explore this part of Colorado, a state I haven’t seen since I was a little girl. I am excited to meet Aaron’s friends and family, to spend some time in the mountains, and to hit the pavement in a new city, always a fun ordeal. The only thing I was completely not prepared for was the cold – it was a full twenty degrees Celsius lower than Hawaii today, and, unfortunately, I only really packed for Hawaii. I felt the same way when I went to Melbourne this year during their winter, the only clothes on my back the ones I had been carting around with me through the hot and humid countries of Southeast Asia. I spent a large majority of my time in Melbourne ducking into warm coffeeshops and taking solace in warm streetcars (and don’t get me wrong, it was a fantastic trip). I’ve discovered that there are two things that help when faced with a travelling wardrobe crisis such as this: a lot of layering, and a little bit of shopping. Good thing I am very adept at both of those things by now…