A Whirlwind...

While it is terribly windy today...terribly, the real whirlwind was my Friday and Saturday. My dear girlfriend Ahna is less than a month away from her due date on delivering baby number two. We spent some time together over the Labor Day weekend, and I visited her bathroom when Thomas and I drove to Denver to fly off for ToddieP's wedding. But the ladies of the Columbine House decided we needed to collect ourselves in Castle Rock to appropriately celebrate Ahna and the new baby joining the family. We really needed to celebrate Oren, too, but his schedule changed a while back, and we goofed on not accounting for the shift. Friday morning I set the alarm early. I headed off about 7:15 am and drove north! It was an uneventful drive. I did spill my cereal, but I had a few munchies in a bag tucked in behind the seat. If not for my bladder, I could have driven straight through because I had a full tank of gas. I made it to Deb's house by 11:30 am and stayed for about 90 minutes. We sipped tea, nibbled on marzipan kartoffelen (marzipan shaped like little potatoes) and other goodies. It was great to catch up and talk. The next time I see Deb will be sometime after she returns from Indonesia in February! Next I headed to Golden, where I spent 90 minutes with my friend Cathy. She is my Rolfer (and really awesome, too), so our time together was both social and therapeutic. She worked on my wrists, feet, head, and shoulders. It feels good to restore my posture and such, as there has been much stress and change in the past six months. Hopefully it will not be another six months before she works on me again, but I won't see her until after she returns from Thailand at the end of the year. I squeezed in a short visit with my friend Andrea, who works at First Bank. It was a business call I had to make, so might as well make it at her branch and sneak in an update from her. It would have been fun to see the whole Davis clan, but I am always grateful for the stories of everyone. And like any good momma, she had pictures to show! From there I spent 90 minutes with my friends Nikki and Russ and their new baby, Henry. He is only three weeks old, so I felt especially privileged to see them and hold Henry. Despite carrying my camera around the whole weekend, often turning it on to share pics with friends, this is the only picture that I got: I was so glad to be there in person to hear the stories about how Henry entered the world...e-mail wouldn't have done it justice. And to see the happy family all together...priceless! Next up I spent a little over 90 minutes with my girlfriend Minerva. Traffic was in her favor to get to see me the longest! We drove down to DTC to have dinner with AnnaBelle. What fun for the three of us to be together again telling stories. We also had some really good falafel. And my last stop of the day was going to be Betty's house. When I called, she wanted to pick up some wine at Argonaut. I was also wanting to go there, but wasn't sure when I could squeeze it in, so we made a trip of it. I had also received an invitation to join Mary & Jennifer & Gabe at Sanchos. I haven't been to the Cho's in over a year, probably two, or maybe I am just being forgetful. Sancho's is a hippie bar on Colfax, and I spent a lot of time hanging out there during the ten years I lived in Denver, primarily during the Columbine House days. As it is located across from the Argonaut, Betty and I walked over together. She'd never been in there, but she is a great sport. We stuck around not more than 30 minutes, but it was fun to see everyone, say hello to the bartenders I had gotten to know, and get nostalgic. The bartender offered Betty a drink on the house, as they "take care of their moms." She declined, but we all thought that was great. She and I headed back to her house for a white russian and some Racko. You can bet I had sweet dreams after a full day of friends!