Ahh, I had such a lovely weekend in Denver with Val and Tiff. Coming back to reality is hard! Can’t I spend all of my days feeling care-free with my loved ones? Le sigh. I’ll just have to settle with feeling very grateful for the time we had (which I am).

My week had felt so crazy with work, right up until the moment I left. I listened to a work call in the car, then got my computer out and got on a video call in the airport. Just… no. It shouldn’t be like that. It’s just one of those weeks in a season of blah.

Because I was working in the airport, I didn’t feel any of those excited vibes until I got on the plane* and put my work phone on airplane mode for the weekend. Also because I was working in the airport, I forgot to fill up my water bottle and felt dehydrated and crappy the first half of Friday. Lesson learned.

Anyway.

I got in Thursday evening and after we finally got my bag** we went back to Val’s house for dessert*** and chatting before going to bed.

On Friday we started painting right away (and did a stretch video and had breakfast). I’m teaching a rock painting class on Saturday and wanted to have examples to show the students. There’s something so lovely and relaxing about having a large stretch of uninterrupted time to sit, paint, and chat about whatever. The time stretches and I feel so in the moment. I cherish those times with Val and Tiff. You’ll see from the recap below that that is a lot of what we spent our time doing, and couldn’t be any happier that we did.

Val and I left around noon to get an amazing vegan brunch at Watercourse Foods, then walked to pick up vegan donuts at Voodoo, then went to the grocery store. We’d been planning to walk around a lake but the temps really dropped in the afternoon so we skipped it.

We painted more, then had dinner (I made vegan alfredo), then we painted again, and eventually went to pick up Tiff at the airport. Her flight had been delayed in LA because of snow in Denver. She landed about an hour and a half late, around 9:09, but then she was stuck sitting on the plane until almost 11:00! And it took her forever to get off! Poor thing. She kept apologizing to us but we didn’t care – Val and I got a bunch of steps in in the airport then sat and chatted. I mean, we’re together to do just that, so no bother, other than we felt cheated out of some Tiff time.

We got home past midnight (big thanks to Val’s husband Steve for driving us in the snow!), had pie, then sat and painted a bit, and went to bed past 1:30. I think I fell asleep past 2:00?! Eek.

On Saturday when I woke up I’d gotten less than 4 hours of sleep but my body was ready to be up so I got up and started painting. We painted all morning, then made crunch wraps for lunch, then made a trip to Walmart to get fixatif (and a waterproof phone case for me because despite having two I left them both at home), then I went on my 12 mile run to test out the lungs at altitude.

The start of the run felt hard. My breathing was off and I was like “well, shit, maybe I can’t run a marathon at altitude?!” Then I realized I was going up an incline and felt fine once I got to the top. The run then felt the same as it does in Illinois. I listened to a book**** for most of it, then switched to music for the end and was able to pick up the pace. I was so excited when I text Val and Tiff at the turnaround and they told me they were going to finish with me! They walked 2 miles out then ran the last 2 miles with me. I loved it! I’m so grateful I could get that run in and had nice weather for it (I was going to do it Friday but it was cold and windy and eventually snowy – the snow was all gone from the trails by the time I ran).

Denver Marathon is a go! And Tiff is planning to come out for it. Yay!

When I got back I cleaned up then… you guessed it – we painted! Oh! But Ella had Facetimed me so we all chatted with her and my snis for a bit which was a lot of fun.

We ordered burgers to be delivered for dinner, got back to painting (and starting watching Under the Tuscan Sun) and went to bed at a reasonable time. Go us!

Sunday was the only day we had plans – to get ear piercings! So we had breakfast, did a stretch video, painted, then left to get piercings. Even though I already have my ears pierced (when I was 16, with a piercing gun) and was just getting a second lobe piercing on each side, my body and brain was so nervous! Val and Tiff (and the ladies at the studio) were so sweet to me. When it was my turn the piercer asked if the lightning bolts I chose had any special meaning and I told her “Thunderstruck” is my power song and she asked if I wanted her to play it and I was like “Hell yeah!” and she blasted it over the entire studio and it pumped me up. After that I was giddy. I even gave her a hug (and a rock when I left which she seemed really touched by).

Val and Tiff’s piercings look so good! It was fun to go together. I wish my snis could have been with us (she just got her second lobes too).

After that we got chais then went to the outlet mall and Tiff got a matching Columbia jacket to me and Val (we like to match), then we walked around a beautiful lake and went back to the house and painted.

Then we got to have dinner with Val’s sons! They live north and south of her so one son drove in and rode with us south of their house to meet the other son at Zomo. It meant the world to me to meet her sons. Their family has such a special relationship and I love hearing about them and feel like I know them (I’d even brought a toy for one of her son’s cats!). And I feel like meeting them means I am growing my family a bit too. What a great night.

We got ice cream on the way home then painted and finished up the movie and behaved and went to bed at a reasonable time again.

I didn’t sleep well Sunday night because I’m a side sleeper but didn’t want to sleep on my newly pierced ears. Ugh. I finally figured out a way to make it work but woke up groggy and sad it was our last day together. Womp womp.

We had a lot to do Monday morning though. We resined a lot of our rocks*****, took a bunch of photos of them, had crunch wraps****** for breakfast, and packed (sad face). The morning flew by and before we knew it Val was driving Tiff and me to the airport. We said our goodbyes then hung out until Tiff took off. I’m glad I booked the same airline as her and we got to hang out a bit more.

Then I did a bit of work for Fake Meats, started to catch up on some social media stuff, and boarded my plane. Back to reality!

I needed this weekend so much. I always feel recentered after seeing them, and am grateful I get to so often. And grateful Val has a huge comfortable house with enough space for all of us. And I didn’t even mention how lovely her husband Steve was this entire weekend! (No surprise there – there’s a reason I booked a couples’ trip to Maine last year for us before he and Steven ever met – Steve is just great.)

And I am working on making my BFF Ali (their cat) love me.

When Val and I were driving on Friday (she let me drive her Jeep, woo hoo) I remembered years ago when friends were telling me about going to Colorado often to spend time with friends they had there and I had thought in my head “I wish I had friends in Colorado. How will I ever make friends there though?” Ha, well here we are. Now I have amazing friends in Denver, LA, and lots of cities all over the world. I’m very grateful (and will spend my time thinking about that and not how bummed I am the weekend is over!).

*I flew Southwest and the gal sitting next to me was the last person to get on the plane. She’d never flown Southwest before and didn’t know about the unassigned seats. I felt bad for her – she was so flustered! I told her to use the armrest and tried to give her as much space as possible. Then later she spilled her water on herself and me and apologized profusely. I told her it was fine and gave her a paper towel I’d brought. Really, not a big deal. About 20 minutes before we landed she said to me “thank you for being so kind to me – I’m an anxious flyer and your kindness made this much easier for me.” I thought that was so sweet! I was already planning to give her a kindness rock so I gave it to her then, then we had a lovely chat for the end of the flight.
**I got an AirTag and tried it for the first time on this flight. So when everyone from my flight was gone from the carousel I could tell my bag was in the airport. We eventually found it (with Southwest help) on another carousel. They tried to say our flight switched carousels (implying I was at the wrong one) but that wasn’t true – we think someone picked it up and moved it. Anyway.
***Val made a few noracooks.com recipes and they were SOOOOO good! Thank you Val!
****I was listening to A Court of Mist and Fury and when I got back I realized I stopped it at 99%! Gah! I finished it in the airport on Monday.
*****Resining in Denver is no joke. I cannot do it fast enough before the UV resin starts curing, even in the shade!
******I made 3 of our meals this weekend. So funny since I rarely cook at home. And now they know the two things I can make, ha.