Something happens when she hears the music...It's her freedom. It's her fire. It's her life.

I Love Flashdance. There, I said it. It may have overtaken Dirty Dancing as best 80s movie with the word Dance in the title.. it's close. Oh what a feeling. Jennifer Beals is 18 in that movie and she's a welder/exotic dancer who gets into ballet school. I'm 20, and I haven't done any of those things. I don't even live in a warehouse. I have so much catching up to do. I took a salsa lesson tonight, so I'm on my way.

I actually had a really good day. I learned how to shake my hips a little. I meditated. I actually got up early and went to the UU church. That was the first time I've been to church in over a year. It was really nice. I like All Souls a lot. It's huge for a UU church! Most of the churches I've been to in the west look like someone's house. This is like a real church. Pipe organ and everything. I helped in the kitchen before the service. It felt good to do something useful.

I'm getting more and more excited about this whole Guatemala thing. More and more used to the idea too. This is what I wanted to do. This has been my dream for a long time. As Flashdance teaches us, if you give up on your dreams, you die.

Now I'm rocking out to the Pixies and writing e-mails. Take your passion and make it happen!

I Don't Even Have a Small List.

Don't worry, I'm still here. My fabulous new life in DC has kept me from writing. Some would say that it was a lack of interesting news, but that's never stopped me before..

I've been keeping myself busy with staying up late reading, watching movies, knitting, and general interneting, and sleeping in ridiculously late. My mom pointed out today that it's like I'm in another time zone since my day starts around the time hers ends. I figure it gives her some alone time. I finished a scarf today (after learning how to bind off from a website, check me out!), and started another. I spent about a year and a half in this yarn store in capitol hill, and finally bought one skein of green yarn for $20. Now, $20 seems like a lot of money for a ball of yarn to me. Maybe it's just because I know that you can buy an entire scarf for that much, and you don't actually have to knit it yourself, but come on. I'm counting on cheap yarn in Guatemala. At any rate, this scarf was supposed to be for someone else, but I love how it's looking so much that I might end up keeping it. Who knew I would like green? Sorry Ian.

I was watching Beth's Project Runway on the tv tonight and I realized that all the beautiful tv people had one thing in common. They all had this passion for design that had been with them since they were children. They all talked about how this was some big dream for them, and design was what they always knew they were meant to do. This made me realize that I don't have any passions or talents like that. This leads me to believe that there may be something wrong with me. I mean, I have no idea what I want to do with my life. Not even a little idea, or a small list to chose from. I guess a more appropriate word for a small list would be "short". Suggestions?

Buy Some Snow Pants and Simmer Down.

This whole starting a new life in DC thing is going swimmingly. Sure I have no friends my age, but who needs friends that you can see. I've gotten approximately 1,000 angry e-mails and phone calls about how cold and snowy it is in Denver. It's like they're all surprised that it can get chilly there. You know what I have to say to that? Buck up! You live a mile above sea level! It's Colorado! And this is like the mildest winter in history. Y'all need to buy some snow pants and simmer down.

In other news, I've done more with my three days in DC then I did with a year and a half in Denver. I suppose not having school or a job to worry about helps. (Let's worry about how I'm messing up my future later) I joined a shiny fancy gym, which my mom calls "the dork gym." The dork gym will be good for my self esteem. Last night I volunteered at a soup kitchen with some other folks from All Souls UU church. Tonight I searched for and found an H&M (not totally the same as working at a soup kitchen, but rewarding in different ways), and saw a documentary called The Boys of Baraka.

The Boys of Baraka was excellent. There was some bangin' Krumping (see also Rize) which is one of those things that I'll always want to be able to do but will never really attempt. But really, how cool would it be if I was a Krumper? So cool. So the documentary follows a group of 12 year old boys from Baltimore who get sent (voluntarily) to a school in Kenya for two years. This program is supposed to give them a better chance at graduating high school in a system where 67% (can you believe that?) of African American males drop out before finishing. So they end up loving it and then the program gets shut down because of that whole bombing/violence/war thing, and you see how the kids have changed. I really liked it. I feel like it did a good job of balancing the realistic and the hopeful. Weirdly, it made me want to work with kids. I guess like everyone I come out of those things knowing that there's more I could be doing for the world. Hopefully this Guatemala thing will lead me into something good like that. The school is going to hook me up with organizations I can work with while I'm there and after.

That should wrap it up for now. I'm going to learn how to put on make-up tomorrow. As you can see, I'm having no problem balancing the cool things with the totally shallow. Which is good I guess since it was pretty much a constant string of the totally shallow in Denver.

That's all for now!

Comming Attractions: Erica goes to Church, Erica joins a radical knitting group

Happy Valentine's Day / Wah Wah Wah

I left Denver forever today! Maybe it's not forever, but for a while anyway. I spent the day listening to sad music on airplanes and eating fast food during layovers. It's the first Valentine's Day in a while that I haven't had a date. My mom is my valentine.

I'll have more to say on the subject of living outside of Colorado for the first time in my life when it's not 2am.

Smell you later Colorado, smell you later forever.

Living in the Brown Place is better than living in your car.

I've been staying in the Brown Palace (which I like to call the Brown Place) for the last three days. Whoa is it nicer than my car. I feel so much better with my mom here. I've been living it up and relaxing and taking as many baths as possible. It's been a pretty good few days. I'm staying in Boulder tonight, hopefully I'll get to see the last few Bouldery people I haven't yet. I've developed a musical obsession with Rilo Kiley. They're everything I always wanted Metric to be. That's not true, I still love Metric. That's all for now.

You Always Remember Your First Time

Hello world, it's your old pal Erica. Now that I've put that whole living in my car experiance behind me and have taken up residence (for the next few days anyway) at the Brown Palace, I thought it would be a good time to step into the world of blogger.com. I've been promising people for the past few months that I would start an online travel journal before I leave for my big adventure, and it seems that I have.

The story so far: I've spend the last year and a half living in Denver. I've been going to school at UCD, working at Starbucks (ugh), and dating/living with a wonderful boy named Will. I found myself at that time in a college career when one wants to stop taking electives and start working towards some kind of degree. Problem: I have no idea what I want to study, let alone what I'll be doing with my life once this college thing wraps itself up. Being completely level headed, I did the only logical thing- I dropped out of school, quit my job, broke up with Will and decided to move to Guatemala for the foreseeable future. Will and I got rid of the apartment on the 1st, and he moved into his own place a few blocks away. I've been staying with friends (aka living in my car like a crazy person). My mom got into town on business yesterday, and I've been staying with her in the Brown Palace on the government's dime since yesterday. whew.

On the 14th (I got valentine's day plane tickets for extra dramatic effect) I leave Denver for good. I'll be in DC until the 10th of March, and then it's off to Mexico for about a week. I'm going to drive from Southern Mexico to Xela, Guatemala. Wish me luck.