a desolate city where it hurts to smile

I had what felt like a migraine today, if I get migraines - I felt headachy and out of sorts most of the day, which really cramped my style since I had intended to get a lot done and also treat myself to some fun. So, even though I slept for nine hours last night and woke up initially feeling #inittowinit, I had to take it easy this morning. I did get a cold brew, which made it a little better. And eventually I checked out of my hotel in Denver and drove to Boulder.

I arrived just in time to pick up Tomas for lunch at Torchy's Tacos. I met him in the parking lot of my old office, which is as close as I care to get to the office - while I intend to see several former coworkers this week, I'm exclusively seeing people whom I am friends with closely enough to talk about life and not just the latest workplace drama. I feel good about how much I've let go of the mess of my last stint at work, but I don't feel recovered enough to feel excited to see people who might remind me of what I left behind. However, Tomas and I have known each other for fifteen years (which feels impossible), so he barely counts as a work friend - and we barely touched on work, and instead spent an hour and a half talking about life and kids and parents and Iowa/Ohio vs Colorado vs California and all sorts of other topics. It was really nice to see him, and hopefully I'll make it back sometime (or maybe I'll convince him to stop in Iowa on his next trip to Ohio).

Then, I did a bit of shopping at the mall for old times' sake. This did not kill enough time, since my room still wasn't ready to check into, which was annoying because my headache was back with a vengeance and all I wanted to do was lie down. So I killed some time driving around, sitting in my car, and eventually getting another cold brew at Boxcar while journaling for a bit. Luckily, when my room was ready, I was pretty happy with it - I'm staying at a Residence Inn, and I have a couch and a desk in addition to a bed, so this is all great.

For dinner, I met up with Alice, whom I've also known for fifteen years - I managed the first team she joined in 2008, and managed her again in 2018, but we're solidly friends now and I was thrilled to see her. We went to River and Woods, which was one of my old haunts, and we had a really nice conversation about life and art and parents and Iowa/Florida vs Colorado and all sorts of other topics. I left feeling happy and less headachy, so I'm glad we were able to find time to get together.

And finally - happy birthday to [censored], who is [censored] years old today! And now, I'm going to go to bed early and hope that my headache subsides by tomorrow - goodnight!