olalla

I had a v low-key day that ended in the best way. I woke up and did some journaling while drinking free hotel coffee and looking out over downtown Denver, and the sunlight was good for my mood. Then I showered and packed up - I had to switch hotels this morning, which was pretty disruptive. But luckily my room was ready at my new hotel when I arrived at 11:30, so it could have been worse.

Upon checking in I discovered that this is the oldest hotel in Denver and they still use actual keys (on keychains!), which is bizarre. The room smells like ghosts or maybe mold, but otherwise it's quite nice. There's also a stuffed peacock with a full tail of feathers mounted in the stairwell, which makes me think I need one of those (living or dead, but if living it can't be housed in my staircase).

So I got safely ensconced in my new hotel and unpacked some clothes that I had packed half an hour earlier. Then I had a tasty omelette in the hotel restaurant. I was going to go to Cherry Creek and do some damage to my wallet by buying stuff, but I wasn't in the mood to spend frivolously since I can't wear cute clothes during WWIII anyway. Instead, I wandered around the downtown area, got some sun, and took a nap. 

Finally, I changed and walked over to LoHi to meet Katie for drinks and dinner. The walk itself was nice - about thirty minutes, over the Platte River (and the interstate, which is less scenic), and still sunny even though it was starting to cool off. 

Katie and I started at Williams and Graham, which is a speakeasy style bar hidden in what looks like a bookstore. Their drinks are great, although we avoided the weirdest ones (which involved asparagus, or goat cheese, or other ingredients that I prefer not to drink). I had rum (a Queen's Park swizzle) followed by whisky, which is not usually a good idea, but rum and whisky felt v appropriate for discussing how disastrous it is to be a federal employee right now. 

We caught up on like for the full two hours of our reservation at the bar, and then we walked down the street to Bar Dough, where we spent another two hours continuing the convo with some excellent pasta (gf gnocchi for me). It had been far too long since I'd seen Katie, and it will be far too long until I see her again, but our evening was just as great as always despite the heavy subject matter.

And now, I'm already in bed and it's time to sleep - goodnight!