Denver

I have spent the week exploring Denver. We are in a lovely suite at the Grand Hyatt downtown. We used the suite upgrade that came with out hyatt card and it was well worth it. Michael leaves every morning in the car to go to work and I am left to my own devices for hours on end. It is amazing. It is decadent. I don't think I have been so alone since before I even got married. It feels so odd to be responsible for no one but myself. The hours stretch out before me in glorious abundance. I make choices on the spur of the moment that only please me. It is addictive. I feel so free. I revel in my alone time, though I am so happy at the end of each day, when Michael comes home. I love to drag him through the streets and show him the places I have discovered and regale him with stories of my day over fabulous dinners in amazing restaurants. This week has been so wonderful for us.
The kids have had a week full of fun with their grandparents which gave me the freedom to trust and release.
Denver is beautiful city with friendly people. It is very pedestrian friendly. I have walked all over the city, logging in many miles each day. Until today, each day has been sunny and warm with low humidity that gives me chapped lips, but great hair. Now a thunderstorm is surrounding my tower room, and I am sitting high up on my window seat in front of the big picture window, surrounded by golden lamplight while I watch Denver turn wet and grey.
I saw my friend Tate today. We went to college together and I have not seen him since, though I have missed him greatly. We wandered Denver and had a wonderful lunch where we shared everything and all the time we never stopped talking. The friends I made in the UofA theater program are lifelong friends whom I will always love.
My time here is almost over. We leave in the morning. I will miss the little routines I made for myself this week. Each morning I would wake and sit in bed, reading newspapers and sipping coffee until after Michael left for work. Then I would go down to the gym and workout and then come to the room and workout some more- as much as I wanted with no one rushing me. Then a shower and I was out the door with a tote bag over my shoulder and a vague direction in mind. This week I visited the Tattered Cover bookstore, wandered the 16th street mall countless times, toured the Molly Brown house, explored the Denver Museum of Art, sat in the park and did lots of people watching, checked out the Brown Palace Hotel, shopped at Marczyc market. I have also had some amazing meals. I had cauliflower buffalo wings at Watercourse, a fig and arugula pizza at Osteria Marco and the best dinner of sweet potato falafels, veggie sliders and chocolate dessert at Root Down. I had a ridiculously good lunch at Euclid Hall, an amazing gastropub. Michael and I even had time to go out and see not one, but two movies at the theater.
It has been a wonderful week and I was both surprised and pleased by all Denver has to offer. I am so grateful to my parents who encouraged me to come and to my in-laws for keeping the kids so I could sneak away.