Think happy thoughts.

Merry Christmas virtual world!

It's not a secret that this school year has been a rough one. Sure, it's a great gig at a successful high school. But I am light years behind in my relationships with students. And I can't seem to get my head out of the sand.

At Christmas, I end up sifting through my goodies from high school- trophies, photos, notes from friends during class, birthday cards ands graduation cards, and other bobbles and knick knacks. This year, the year I need it, I find some quality long-forgotten notes. And hid some not so great memories...

Kappa sisters wrote notes to graduating seniors and what do I find? Notes from sisters! About my ability to motivate, my sense of life and my pursuit of excellence. That I'm an inspiration and have a strong presence. A few were scared of me at first (imagine that!!?)- until I smiled or hugged them and personally knew their story. They were sad to see me go!

In short, in sweet notes written years ago, my sisters shared their love and respect for me. Now, those words mean so much in a time where I need to feel hope. I needed a boost- some encouragement that my purpose is to teach these hoodlums and inspire them, motivate them - when the times are tough. If that's the role I've been practicing for since college, or earlier, I need to get it together.

I need to find strength in my history and find motivation- the same motivation that I need to sell to teenagers. I need to recognize my ability to inspire and my powerful presence. I've been blessed with developing strong relationships quickly and also finding a way to help others find their path.

Someone help me. What is my path? Is it teaching?

Thanks to all those lovely sorority sisters out there who wrote me notes to wish me well for graduation, I know I'm into teaching and need to experience a rebirth. Those notes probably took 5 minutes to write, but today, 8 years later, I read them for 30 minutes.

And they've reminded me I'm destined to teach. So I need to suck it up and figure out a way to make this year better.

Food. And Denver food

A friend and I went out to eat tonight to catch up and eat. And we ate! It made me realize that Denver has a great variety of damn good food.

Tonight- Euclid Hall, but we got there and it was closed for a private event. Luckily, the guy gave us free drink cards. I'll take it. It's known for small batch brews from around the world with a great German menu.

So we ended up at Rioja. I've been waiting to go there. Mediterranean. They are known for their Colorado lamb. We went to Africa on that plate. It was full of spice and flavor. There was a sausage with a cream sauce, a few different sauces. A couscous bundle of joy and flavorful, roasted leeks. Ah! So good. And, the Thai scallops with a hint of pineapple and a small polenta with the scallop. Yummmmm.

A few other great finds:
Root Down. Linger. Olivea. Duo. Shells and Sauce. Denver Biscuit co. Lucille's. Jelly. Sushi den. Ale House. Any Mexican or pho on federal ave. Watercourse. Madison st. Über sausage. Sweet action ice cream. Table 6. Lala. Lola. St marks. Il posto.

There are more, yet to be discovered.

I love yoga, running and snowboarding. I get to fuel up at great places and then play hard.

Thanks to all our Denver chefs for making Denver a new foodie city!