waking up to a nice frosty 5:45am morning, tiff and i got ourselves around to head for the airport. we thanked katie for her generous hospitality, and then it was off to CMH to catch american airlines flight 4320. just outside of canal winchester, our first entry for the day ["suitcase house?" "er... i meant... suitcase college. no, i mean, closet community...!"] was added to the quotebook. the Official Colorado Trip Notebook started with a quote the night before ["sleepy eye?" "what? no... C-P-A!"], with katie, over weird hot smoothee concoctions at tim horton's. ah yes... as always, it would be a quote filled trip. i would expect nothing less.

our flight to o'hare found us sitting in seats 13A and 14A, whereby i could easily poke tiff in the head at any moment and for no apparent reason. which i'm certain she enjoyed just as much as i. we easily received seat reassignments on the remaining flight, and good ones at that: three seats for the price of two! tall travelers rejoice! i think a book was being read somewhere to the left of me, but as i was pretty much crashed out over most of the central and mountain time zones, i can't be sure. views out the window [once consciousness resumed] reminded me remarkably, but not surprisingly, of the land where i grew up: flat as far as the eye can see, in nice neat gridlike patterns everywhere. well, except for the circles. i don't get the circles. i almost expected to see mel and joaquin upon arrival at DIA.

 
instead, we met up with christopher, snagged our baggage, retrieved the rental car, and headed to chris's apartment. [note: tiffany is acquainted with an ungodly amount of people named "chris". for the record: christopher = fiancé, and chris = best friend]. we dropped off his car and then it was off to red rocks to while away the afternoon. christopher had been to three[!] dave matthews band concerts there in early september, and he proceeded to reminisce and identify all eighty-three spots where he had urinated during that three-day span. trust me, it was just as heartwarming as it sounds. also of great note: i bought a pink hat there. yeah. I KNOW. we decided against the quazillion step journey to the stage, finished our tour, and headed back to chris's.

 
i finally met chris's roommate angie: truly, a pleasure. chris then treated us to a fantastic meal of smothered burritos... mmmmmmm. colorado folks, they like their green chiles. christopher departed and us four gals popped a movie in shortly thereafter. i crashed out almost immediately, BUT NOT BEFORE ANNOUNCING that i was likely going to crash out almost immediately. at some point mid-movie i heard whispers through a fog. "i think she's sleeping." "is she asleep already?" i parted the waters of consciousness in order to point out that I DID IN FACT TELL YOU PEOPLE I WAS TIRED ["no one ever listens to me!"]. colorado, day one: lovely.

a perfectly slow friday morning, and then it was off to visit the newly located denver seminary. shiny and new and a little bit bizarre for the old school alum, tiff was as much the tourist as tour guide. we found angie's office, then proceeded to explore campus. after browsing the bookstore, tiff caught up with some old faces while i chose to wander outside, snapping some pictures in the amazing weather.

then it was off to beau jo's, an old waitressing haunt of tiff's. though the day's service was a little on the absent-minded side, the pizza was excellent. after some touring near the original campus and a little window shopping in the quaint area stores, it was back to the apartment. instead of going to a dueling piano bar, we went a little more low-key due to those in chiropractic pain ["can i rub you anywhere?"]. after testing a korean restaurant near chris and angie's, the consensus was that the restaurant was nothing spectacular, especially when compared to the korean cooking of angie's mother ["i like your mom's pepperiness"]. we picked up an oreo crust peanut butter pie on the way home and had a viewing of the denver parade of lights ["you know, if i had the proper ear protection, i think i would really enjoy playing the cymbals"], followed by spanglish. that evening, i managed to stay conscious later than 9:30pm. jetlag: 1, mdog: 1.

more to come.