“Tighter and shorter than what you normally wear is the rule of thumb,” C said a few weeks ago when I asked him what I should wear to Las Vegas.

I don’t know if that’s necessarily a “rule of thumb,” but I am ready to go with it and have packed both kinds.

We get on a plane to Sin City this evening for my first time and our first time as a couple with some really fun friends.  We’re celebrating October birthdays, a weekend of fun, and the luck of October 11, 2012 – 10/11/12.

Shorter, tighter and here we go!

I was washing my hands in the ladies room at work last week when a woman in my office asked me if I had lost weight.

“Oh!  I said.  ”Thank you, but no.”

“Well, you look great!”

Why thank you, I thought.  And then I caught a glimpse of myself in the full length mirror as I left the room.  I looked…thin.

I knew it had to be my shoes: nude pointed toe leather pumps.  I picked them up for an unimaginable deal ($15 on clearance) at Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse at the beginning of summer and haven’t looked back.  I love their height and their ability to go with just about any skirt or dress.

Black pointed toe pumps are essential to my office and every day wardrobe.  I have several pairs – from patent leather to kitten heal – and I’ve been sporting them since ’04.  But am I on to something with the wearing of the nude?

Maybe so.

Today, while browsing blogs, I came across this site which sells all sorts of lovely paper prints – calendars and note cards.

I have just added the notecards with the above print to my online shopping bag at Inslee By Design after reading the description:

My goodness.  If two people say it is it a fact?  I’m taking a Critical Thinking course through work for two days later this week, I’ll get back to you on that one.

I am smitten with Inslee’s whimsical illustrations and seemingly simple concepts of ladies in dress.

Happy browsing!

Have you seen this blog?

I adore it.

The Underground New York Public Library (UNYPL) is dedicated to New Yorkers who read on the subway.

I have never lived in New York City but I am a huge fan of public transportation in other cities I’ve called home.  I know how great it is to let someone else do the driving and get some extra pages in on my commute.  Especially before and after work, getting on a train or a bus is like a forced breather.

Being home over Labor Day weekend was a very good thing.  Fall was happening there and it was absolutely gorgeous.

I got that happy feeling I always used to get at the end of the summer in Columbia County.  School was about to start and our family had one last long weekend to celebrate by living it up at the lake and going to the fair.

I spent time with my parents on the boat napping and catching up.

And Micaela drove out from Boston and we cheered on the county fair together.  The fairgrounds looked a lot more crowded from when Chris and I celebrated our wedding reception just a few months ago.

There were cows and prize chickens, blue ribbon wool and lots of carnival rides.  Each day boasted amazing weather.  It was as much as my dad and the rest of the fair board could ask for, as great weather generally equals stellar attendance.

We took a drive down to Berkshire Pottery in Hillsdale and were driving back just as the sun hung low in the sky.

And I always come down with a mild case of homesickness after I get off the plane in Colorado.  I daydream of rolling fields of drying cornstalks and the evening autumn sun disappearing into the woods.

Then I snap out of it and settle back into life in Denver.  This past weekend I spent Friday night with girlfriends writing at a coffeehouse.  On Saturday, C and I rode bikes all over Congress Park, we tried out a new church, tested some sleeping bags at REI and then had dinner at My Brother’s Bar.  This morning we had brunch with C’s mom and her husband and then went to H Mart.

It’s good here.  Very good.

The leaves are just starting to turn in the mountains and Aspen is right on track to turn in the next two weeks.  From a thirsty deep green to orange and yellow.

And we’re lucky to be going back to Columbia County in two weeks for my cousin’s wedding to experience a little more of that beautiful fall.

Three cheers!

The night before last I woke up to what I thought was wind.

That’s what we get here sometimes.  Wild, whipping pockets of harsh wind that blow the cushions off the rockers on our balcony.

Lest you think Denver is like Annie Proulx’s literary Wyoming plains, we live on the seventh floor of a high-rise building.  It’s always a bit windy up here.

But it wasn’t wind I heard.  It was something I’ve not had in a long while.  It was rain.  And it continued.

At eight a.m., it was dark and cloudy and coming down just beautifully.  At 10, at noon and at three.  Still raining.

Everyone was talking about it.

Meeting after meeting yesterday people were saying how happy they were.  ”Isn’t it beautiful outside?”  We said to one another.

A project manager I work with said he prepared to drive his kids to school as they normally ride their bikes.  When he offered, his second- and fourth-graders both begged him to pedal in the rain.  ”We’re not made of sugar, Dad,” the fourth-grader said.  ”Rain is good for us.”

Indeed it is!

Last night I met up with a new friend at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

We walked and talked for hours, reveling in the garden’s beauty.  We watched the light change over this peaceful bit of the city.

The sky and sunset reminded me that fall is ready to come to Denver and I imagine, that after this dark summer, Denver is ready to embrace her.

The Gardens are such a gorgeous place.  Can you get over the magic of those twinkling lights in the trees?

I can’t either!

I pulled the trigger and bought a plane ticket for some end of summer Labor Day weekend lake time.

The last time I was at the lake was in May.  It was a week before my wedding and I was about to lose my mind.  I was torn between wanting to turn my brain completely off and fall asleep in the hammock with Fifty Shades of Grey and wanting to just get my bottom back to my parents’ house so I could connect to WiFi and continue emailing everyone and their brother about last minute reception items.

So after this long, hot, sad summer in the arid Denver desert, it’s with incredible happiness I’m arriving in Hartford on Thursday.

I need me some blue sky and big water.

Shrimp cocktail and white wine on the boat.

Snuggles with Glitter Kitty on the deck.

And the Columbia County Fair starts tomorrow night. I hope to be sipping on a 4H Milk Shed shake the minute I get in the gates.  I can’t wait to see Diamond Rio on Sunday with my cousins.

Weeeeeee!