I've done a lot of traveling growing up, but I haven't lived in very many places. I grew up in Aurora, the suburbs southeast of Denver, and I moved to Boulder when I started college at CU. Living in Fort Collins has been an interesting experience so far. Thankfully, it's only about an hour away from Boulder and Lafayette (about 20 minutes east of Boulder, where my boyfriend lives), so I've been able to go back to CU for clubs and to see my boyfriend and friends on the weekends. I commuted from Boulder the first week, and it wasn't too bad, so I'll be able to save some money by going for a 2-month lease, instead of 3, and commuting for the last week and a half. The gas money is a little less expensive for me since I drive a Prius.

I haven't brought my bike up yet, so I've been driving everywhere. It's not too bad. Stephanie, my fellow DMP-er, says it's not as good on foot; she's thinking of getting a rental car. She doesn't want to ride her bike to work since it's quite valuable and she doesn't want it to get stolen (which is something she's worried about when it's sitting outside for 8 hours a day). My bike is much less valuable (by an order of magnitude) so I'm going to try to ride my bike to work once I bring it up. My worry is that I'll be too lazy and just resort to driving instead, as it's faster and requires less effort.

Since I don't have internet yet, I've developed a couple of work-arounds. I can now access internet on campus (I got an eid, which lets me connect to the campus wireless networks). It's similar to Boulder, in that you have to prove that you're a student in order to use the wireless. However, it's also more secure, because CSU actually requires that you connect using the VPN (Virtual Private Network). CU has a VPN, which I used to connect to my work computer remotely, but it wasn't required to use the internet. Last Thursday, before I had the eid, I went to the student center to look up a list of coffee shops with free wireless. They have computer terminals for students to use (for internet only); at CU we call them scarpies. So far I've gone to Mugs Coffee at College and Olive. It's very nice, with big puffy armchairs and such. The only disadvantage is that I can only find 2-hour parking nearby. I could walk from work, but I'd rather not walk 4 blocks alone in the dark! I might try biking up there, and see how that works out.

I'm kind of stuck in my project right now. I should probably make a list of things to go over. There's still the parallel computing textbook to read, and I can make more graphs once the next set of tests finishes, but I don't really understand the next project I'm supposed to be working on. I've been looking through the code, but so far I'm pretty lost.

I've gone out to eat with Stephanie a couple times. We've gone to a Mexican place, and this English pub-style restaurant in Old Town. Yesterday after eating, we walked around a bit and she pointed out a couple of stores she's been to; there was a store that sells stationery and candles and such, a few dress stores, and a few other things, as I recall. The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store seemed to be out of business, which was a disappointment, but further down the street we found "Kilrin's Chocolates" (which makes me think of Kivrin, the main character from Connie Willis' science fiction novel Doomsday Book). They have fudge, various chocolates and candies, and ice cream. I was thinking the next time I go there I'll get some maple walnut fudge and something for my boyfriend - maybe a jawbreaker.

Tonight I'm going to try to go to Mugs again; Thursday is online roleplaying night with my boyfriend and his cousin (and a couple other people). I'm looking forward to it.

I've finally started seeing my roommate a bit. My other roommate has moved out, taking the microwave, most of the food in the fridge, and a lot of dishes with her. But, my other roommate moved her TV downstairs, and I finally set up mine downstairs, so we've run across each other a few times and talked some. She's pretty nice, actually.

I rode my bike to work for the first time today. It's kind of sad that it took so long for me to bring it up from Boulder, and even longer to take it out of my car, and then even longer to actually bike to work. It was sitting in my bike lock outside my old apartment for about 3 weeks after my lease expired, and then I put it in my car, where it stayed for about a week, then took it and put it in my apartment in Fort Collins for at least a week. Oif.

My Fourth of July was good, but I've been doing a bunch of driving, and it was a tad bit stressful. Last week, I went down on Tuesday, did a bunch of errands in Boulder, drove to my boyfriend's apartment in Lafayette (about 15-20 minutes away), cooked dinner, went to the grocery store, baked cupcakes, ate dinner, watched TV, and went to bed. On Wednesday, I overslept, then drove down to my mom's house in Aurora, baked more cupcakes, frosted cupcakes, hung out with friends, had family drama, went out to dinner, drove up to Denver to watch fireworks with my Dad, and his mother, and his fiancée, and her parents and sister and ex-husband and twin 5-year olds. Then I drove back to Aurora, got about 4 hours of sleep, and drove my boyfriend to Boulder for work the next morning. It was not quite as relaxing as a holiday should be. I decided to take some time off from work. So, at least the weekend was quite refreshing.

Yesterday I moved the last of my stuff out of my apartment in Fort Collins. I've moved most of my stuff to my mother's house, and quite a bit of it is still at my boyfriend's place, since it's about an hour away (my mother is an hour and a half away). For the next two weeks I'll be staying with my boyfriend and commuting between there and here. It's 2 hours drive a day. I think I will welcome a semester without driving.

I only ever ended up riding my bike to work twice. Pitiful, I know. The biggest problem with riding my bike in Boulder was the big, steep hill you had to climb in order to get to campus. In contrast, the big problem with biking in Fort Collins was not the terrain, which was generally flat and pleasant, but the streets. I lived south of Prospect and west of the college, so I had to cross both Shields and Prospect in order to get to work. These are major streets, and not easy to cross on a bike. I once attempted to turn on the green arrow and scared myself half to death. Other strategies included crossing on the crosswalks, which took a really long time (the light at Prospect and Shields takes forever), or involved biking on the wrong side of the street, so I felt obliged to bike on the sidewalk instead of the bike lanes. I was rather uncomfortable with the whole thing, and it was just so much easier to drive to work, that I gave up. However, if I were living between Shields and Prospect, or if I were coming from North of the college, perhaps I would bike. It's definitely better than Boulder in terms of slope. No more struggling to bike to class as you climb the Impossibly Steep Hill!

Unfortunately, I did not see all that much of Fort Collins while I was here. Admittedly, I discovered some wonderful restaurants. The Egg and I, where I had breakfast yesterday, had a particularly tasty eggs benedict-inspired skillet; The Chocolate Cafe, as I keep gushing, has wonderful desserts; Kivrin's sells a lovely assortment of sweets, fudges, and other candies; The Pickle Barrel had lovely cheddar potato soup and sandwiches; Avogadro's had a nice tomato bisque and cheese fries; Pizza Casbah had huge, piping-hot slices of New York style pizza; The Taj Mahal has one of the best, most reasonably priced Indian lunch buffets I've ever tried; and Cooper-Smith's had a fantastic shepherd's pie. I also went out for sushi, had mexican at two different restaurants, and ate at Woody's pizza buffet several times with Michelle and my coworkers. At lunch we also went to a chinese restaurant (with great crab-cheese wontons, but Christie found an ant in her food, so we decided not to come back), and the Bluebird and Rainbow cafes, cute little places with good food. I've heard that Fort Collins has one of the highest number of restaurants per capita in the state, or the nation, I can't really remember. But, it's true; I've seen many, many restaurants while living and working here. An interesting thing about the restaurants here is that there are so many that are unique. I don't think I've been to a restaurant that I've seen anywhere else (though I do think there is another Egg and I in Boulder). I mean, you can find IHOP, Waffle House, Panera, Good Times, Starbucks, and the like... but the vast majority of restaurants I've seen have been unique.

I'm a bit disappointed that I was unable to get any of my friends to come up here (with the exception of Ian and Lauren, who joined me one night for sushi). I wanted to eat with them at The Chocolate Cafe. So far I've tried six different desserts: Raspberry White Chocolate Trifle, White Chocolate Lemon Pie, Chocolate Lava Cakes, White Chocolate Bread Pudding, Chocolate Hazelnut Ravioli (had by Stephanie), and Frozen Brownies (had by Christie). All of them were excellent, though I would not get the bread pudding again, as I found it somewhat bland. Michelle took us out last week before she left for Scotland. I didn't try Stephanie's Chocolate Creme Brulee, though she said it was good. I hope that the place does well. I can imagine it struggling for business, as I've never seen it with more than two tables filled (one of them my own), and often we're the only people there. It's new, though, and they seem to have applied for their liquor license, so they should get more business once they can sell alcohol and expand their menu accordingly. Maybe I'll come back after I've returned from Japan and see if they're still open and doing well.