Both of Us .org

Greetings from Denver Colorado. JayBee and I arrived on Wednesday night. Our friend Laura greeted us and brought us into town from the Airport. Within short order we met up with another friend Carol (who graciously is hosting us at her apartment until we all travel into the mountains to our lodge). The four of us went to a gay pub called JR's, which JayBee considers to be one of the nicest gay pubs he has visited. Together we chatted and drank until the establishment closed.

We all had a good night sleep and embarked on a tour of downtown Denver yesterday. Laura took us down Broadway St. and then we met up with friends from San Francisco, Marta and Drew. We walked to have lunch and later visited the new library, taking pictures along the way. Midafternoon we then walked to the other side of downtown to a microbrewery called BadDog for a tour. The tour was fun, free beer of course is hard to turn your nose at. There was also a distillery next door that we toured and we got to see how whisky is made. The smell was incedible and the whiskey tasted pretty good too.

The walking and touring of the day wore us out a bit and we returned to Laura's apartment and waited for the arrival of some friends from Washington DC, Jason and Amy (affectionately known as 'Booty Girl'). Denver resident, Erin, also arrived for the impromptu gathering at Laura's apartment. The nine of us went out for Mexican food last night and we all enjoyed margaritas together.

Another good night of sleep brings the blogging tale to the present, Friday morning at Carol's place. Soon we will be gathering belongings and packing the autos for the drive into the mountains and the house we have arranged to meet near Frisco, CO. The plan is to arrive this afternoon, settle in and possibly arrange some skiing at Copper Mountain. I am a bit hesitant about skiing myself since I have never done any. There are a few other novices in the crowd if I need support, but we will have to see if I come up with the fortitude to go up the hill and ski this weekend.

A week from today JayBee and I will be in Colorado, and we will probably be driving with several friends into the Rocky Mountains to find the cabin that has been reserved. Both of us are really looking forward to the trip. This will be the first significant trip that I have taken since moving back to Minneapolis (JayBee went to Kansas in July for festival). It seems like the last 8 or 9 months have gone by very fast and we have been working hard. So we deserve this vacation, however it is far too short.

I have dreams about living in Holland again, where vacations are not short. Several weeks free in Summer, several more around the holidays, in total at least 5-6 weeks free time for the average person. Compare that to the standard 2 weeks in America. Who says we have a better standard of living here? It was only about a week ago I awoke from a dream in which JayBee and I were recruited to be teachers in the Netherlands. I had vivid images of locations reminiscent of home in Groningen. There still is a part of me that desires to return, even though we have a really sweet deal with the house and lifestyle here in the Twin Cities.

Sadly I have to put in some time at work tomorrow, although I did get to leave a bit early today. Working on the weekend is not awful, but I do find I need the time to recharge each week. It is quiet at work so it will not be stressful. Hopefully it will go smoothly and then I can enjoy the rest of the day.

Later tomorrow night we are going to the Northrop Auditorium on the U of MN campus to see Margaret Cho. She is joining in on the Midwest Bisexual, Lesbian, Gay, Transgender Ally College Conference, known as Alphabet Soup 2007. We saw one of her performances in Philadelphia over a year ago and really enjoyed her stand up routine. I have not followed her too closely since, but I imagine she must have a lot of new material.

This is the first time in over five years that I have experienced a Minnesota Winter. The season started off fairly tame, December and January were significantly warmer than normal. However, several weeks ago that all changed. The average high temperature for the last two weeks has been about 5 F, this is roughly 15 F below normal. One night it even dropped to -18 F. I am solidly against this cold weather hanging around much longer.

I have to attribute my angst for this weather to the past five years of living in much more temperate climates. In Groningen, the coldest winter temperature was about 20 F, and in Philadelphia perhaps it dipped to 5-10 degrees one or two nights the last two winters. I had heard that Minnesota winters had also been quite mild the last several years, and I was hoping for a continuation of this pattern. Alas, I am dealing with bone chilling weather.

I do keep in mind that this weather is not significant in any extreme. No record lows have been broken, not even close. The record low for the cold night I mentioned above (-18 F) was -33 F. My sense is that our cold snap is lasting too long. I expect perhaps a week each year where the temperatures struggle to get above zero, then a rebound to normal. This snap is going onto week three.

Diverting my thoughts from the cold, we have been enjoying the guest that we have hosted at our home in NE Minneapolis since last Sunday. Our friend Rick from Aurora, Illinois has been seeing our city and his other friends. We all went to a performance at the Guthrie Theater, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. The performance was very entertaining, and we were all satisfied.

The rest of the week was spent enjoying cookies, pie, pancakes, Thai and Mexican food. The time grows short as our guest is returning to his home soon. Perhaps this last weekend of his visit will be spent touring St. Paul and going to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The week has been brightened by our guest, and thankfully so, because my work has been busy and stressful.

Also, JayBee and I will take our first vacation from work within the month. It will not be lengthly, at least not long enough for me. For five days JayBee and I will be traveling to visit friends in the Denver area. They have arranged a cabin in the mountains for roughly 15 people. We will be hot tubing, eating, drinking, skiing etc. This trip is a continuation of the ski weekends in the Pennsylvania Pocono Mountains that have occurred the last two years. The difference this year is that two of our friends formally of Washington DC are now living in Denver and they had the inspiration to invite us all out there to gather.

Viva friendship!

Labels: cold weather, friendship, Minnesota, winter