Really Though

Music is Worth Living For by Andrew W.K.. Man's got a point

Huge week for me! Crazy long hours at work culminating in a trip to Colorado. It was my first time in that state and man oh man did I try to make the most of it. In theory we were only there Thursday/Friday, and then we could come back Saturday, but I pushed my colleagues to stay through the weekend¹. I am so, so glad I did. I'll just try and narrate the trip fairly linearly.

Colorado Springs

Obviously it was a work trip, so we started off with work. Nothing really exciting on this end. It went along just fine, no major hiccups. The techs and engineers at the site were great to work with. Sorry for being vague, but I'm not sure how much I can disclose, so I'll round down on the information side. We went out to a few chill places around downtown, but that wasn't anything special. Definitely would recommend going to eat or drink at Cerberus though, that was worth a mention. A fantastic, cozy little brew pub. Great outside seating and solid beer. Made me feel like I was really in the Midwest.

Initial context: I'm definitely a spontaneous person. I see things and just want to go out and do them/conquer them/solve them. I saw a huge mountain {Pike's Peak} and wanted to go up it. That simple. We actually got super lucky, as it turns out you can drive up this one. We got up kind of early the next day, and just tackled it. What an adventure! It was everything I wanted it to be. A beautiful, slow drive all the way up a massive mountain. It took about an hour and a half to get up there, including the time we took to stop and look around. Unfortunately, we couldn't quite make it to the summit, as the roads were too icy to continue.

Denver

Shortest stop for me but definitely not the least! Got to run into a friend from college and tour² a new city. Got stuck in the March For Our Lives ending diaspora. Wish I had a change to join them! Dropped off two of my coworkers at an AirBnB and went onnwards.

Fort Collins

Now we're getting personal again. I am fairly terrified of driving [don't tell my coworkers] so the idea of having a massive SUV all to myself was pretty shocking. It was an hour and a half drive from Denver to there. Driving was others wasn't too bad - always had someone to check where I was going and making sure I didn't kill anyone (present copmany included of course). Solo…. all my own! I had to blast some self-help music³ but I eventually made it. This was really the peak of the trip for me - I was seeing someone I had recently been falling into friendship with all over again. I have no problems sharing all my personal secrets online, but others might, so we'll call them M.

We had no real plans and it was exactly what I wanted. A couple awkward conversations, a couple hilarious ones. Some dogs, some beer, some outside sunlight. I really can't say how grateful I am for just being able to do nothing and not think for a weekend. Well, not think as much as is possible for me. Like I've alluded to before, if I'm not actively cramming my brain with overriding noise, some technical signal will alawys leak through. I did a pretty good job minimizing it though. It's one of those classic balances - you can't actively not think about something! What a riddle.

I've never had the easiest time opening up to people [maybe that's why I just trust the internet], so having a friend like M is still relatively new to me. I've had significant others, sure, but that had everything associated with it. Only trusting people with small portions and then seeing where it goes from there is new to me. It's probably just not me - this is a stereotypical guy thing. Lots of posts online claim to “feel bad for guys because they can't trust their friends with their real selves”. At times I think the feeling is stale, but then weekends like this happen. ~Maybe~ I'll keep trying. Strikethrough came about 5 minutes later =)