if you're wondering if i sang john denver songs to myself all week, the answer is yes

**I wrote this post while sitting in the airport on Wednesday night.  My laptop died before I could publish it, so SPOILER ALERT I made it home early this morning and am now clicking publish from my home sweet home.**

Well, last we talked I had a freshly injured eye and animpending trip to Denver. 

I tried to go to bed early on Saturday night, but I had trouble falling asleep and then at 1 a.m., our power went out, which woke me up because it meant the fans shut off and the temperature immediately rose eight thousand degrees.  It came back on a few minutes later, only to go off again at 3 a.m.  It was out much longer that time, and at about 3:03 on July 22nd I discovered that Matt and I are vastly different when it comes to how we handle middle of the night power outages.  I laid there thinking of cool things like glaciers and popsicles and willed myself to fall asleep.  Matt leaped out of bed, looked out all of the windows to see if he could see if a fallen tree or downed line had caused the outage, and then got back in bed and asked me what I thought about the stocks that we currently own and the status of our retirement accounts.

I can't even talk about those things during daytime hours after eight solid hours of sleep, there is no way I can make a middle of the night analysis of such topics.

Before I knew it, it was the crack of 4:45 and my alarm was going off.  I got ready and was at the airport by 6:15.  I parked in economy parking, and what I didn’t account for was having to take a shuttle to actually drive me from the lot to the airport.  I got there, checked in, and then rode the escalator upstairs only to see the security line stretched back as far as the eye could see and hear the TSA agent yell to everyone about being short staffed.

It was about 7:05 by then, but I got in line and there was a sign on the wall that said from that point, it would take one hour to get through security.

My plane was boarding at 7:55 and taking off at 8:25, so I was cutting it about three hours closer than I really preferred.  But I tried not to panic and it ended up all working out, and I walked right up to my gate with literally ONE minute to spare.

I’ve never flown by myself before, which was something I didn’t think too much about until it came time to hoist my carry on suitcase into the overhead compartment.  I may have over packed by about 35 pounds.  It took two tries and I am not kidding when I say that people in the seats below me actually covered their heads.

I was in a middle seat, and the man to my left was wearing a GIGANTIC championship ring.  I could tell it was a baseball ring because it had a baseball diamond on it, and he was wearing a hat that said World Series 2017.  All signs pointed to a World Series champ being in my midst, and my hypothesis was confirmed when the drink cart came by and Mr. Baseball ordered a cocktail, and the flight attended told him the drink was on the house and gave him a fist bump.

I spent the rest of the flight concocting this story in my head about how he was so famous and when we landed I would ask him about the ring and then for his autograph, and I couldn’t wait for Matt’s reaction when I told him I flew to Denver next to a World Series champion.  Never mind the fact that we are smack in the middle of baseball season, or it's probably unusual for a World Series winner to be flying in coach.

So, we finally landed and I asked him about his ring and my dreams were immediately crushed because the ring was actually from a college baseball tournament.

He could have just told me he had been in the World Series because I totally would have believed him.

I managed to get my carry on out of the overheard compartment without dislocating my shoulder, and headed off to the hotel.  Unfortunately the weather wasn’t the best, which limited our exploring a bit, but we decided to explore downtown for dinner. 

After a bad night, a 4:45 wake up call, and a two hour time change, I almost fell asleep in my pork tacos.

The next two days were honestly a blur.  I was attending a conference about juvenile law and our sessions were one hour long and went from 8 am to 5:30 pm.  I was on information overload. 

I was at the conference with three coworkers, and we did manage to explore downtown Denver both nights and I just loved it.  Here are my main takeaways:

1 – People are SO NICE.  And happy.  They make eye contact and conversation and smile and hold the door and are just so polite and friendly.

2 – I did not see one piece of trash on the street or sidewalk or anywhere other than a trashcan the entire time.  That's not the case in Philly, and Matt said it was because Denver is so much smaller than Philadelphia is, but I think it's because people who live in Denver don't mind walking three feet to put their trash in a trashcan instead of just dropping it wherever they happen to be when they're finished with it or tossing it out their car window.

3 – You can park your car for an entire day in downtown Denver for $8.  EIGHT. DOLLARS.

With this morning came the monumental task of repacking my bag.  I texted this photo to my sister and asked her if she thought it would close.

She said there wasn't a chance, but she underestimated my zipping abilities and willingness to abandon a pair of giant, heavy brown wedges that never fit me right in a Denver hotel room.

(Now that I'm thinking about these photos, it is disgusting that I put that suitcase on the bed.  Gross.)

I'm waiting at the airport now with another colleague who is flying back to Philly.  It’s 4:49 p.m., and we have been here since about lunchtime.  Our flight leaves at 6, and with the time change, arrives in Philly at 11:49 PM, if it doesn’t get delayed.  That's a big IF, because Matt keeps sending me videos of the storms at home.

I just hope we don't lose power when I finally get there.

But just in case we do, maybe I should use this airport time to brush up the status of our stocks and retirement fund.