Weekend Recap: Sleepless on Friendsgiving

Another week has flown by, and I still haven’t done my weekend recap!

To be honest, I was pretty cranky this weekend. The East Coast travel is not sitting well with me lately, and even when I go to bed at midnight in Denver and don’t set an alarm the next morning, I still wake up at 5am 🙁 So much for me clearing my calendar to catch up on sleep!

Friday night, though, I was out late for a really fun reason: to check out the Pancakes and Booze Art Festival. Essentially, a ton of local artists come together for a show, but the $10 admission fee also includes free pancakes cooked up in the balcony of the gallery! I hadn’t been to an art show in years, and I had a great time seeing all the art.. even if a lot of it was way too “out there” for my very traditional style.

I didn’t end up buying anything at the show, though I did strongly consider buying a whale that was done in this awesome pointillism technique. It would look amazing in a kid’s room, but doesn’t really fit with my style for the living room / etc. So for now, I will hold off!

On Saturday, I did a ton of errands and cleaning around the house, and also made time for a walking date at Table Mountain with Amanda. Over the last few months, we’ve gotten in the habit of meeting here (about halfway between our homes) and sometimes going for a casual walk around the lower part  of the mountain, sometimes taking the steep incline to the top and admiring the view. But less important than the hike is how fabulous it feels to get out with one of my best friends and share everything that’s on our minds. There is something so cathartic about not only catching up, but doing it under the beautiful blue Colorado sky on a sunny day (which it is most of the time), and I just love it!

After I got back, it was time to get all dolled up and then head down to the south Denver suburbs. I usually don’t go further south than downtown Denver, but in addition to Amanda, I’ve made a few friends who live down that way and it’s drawing me out more and more! This time, it was for my friend Sarah’s Friendsgiving extravaganza – which was a blast. I made the caramel pumpkin gingersnap cheesecake that I bake every year for Thanksgiving, and it seemed to be a hit, as I had multiple texts/emails from people asking for the recipe. If you want a Thanksgiving dessert that’s incredibly delicious but also super easy (takes about 20 minutes of actual prep, plus about an hour of baking), I would highly recommend checking it out. (And if you’re looking for an entire Thanksgiving menu, don’t forget to check out my infamous Thanksgiving Excel that does all the prep work for you.)

On Sunday, I again hoped to sleep late – but woke up at 5am and felt really terrible. I could tell the lack of quality sleep was catching up with me, and sure enough, when I took a look at my Fitbit’s heart rate tracker, I saw that my resting heart rate was up eight beats per minute from where it usually is! My resting heart rate is usually so steady that a jump of even 2-3 points means I’m tired, so I knew this was bad news. As a result, I ended up canceling most of my Sunday plans to lay low and hope I’d perhaps get sleepy enough to nap. No dice… at least not until I curled up on the couch around 6pm to watch Netflix and then fell asleep… but was wide awake once I got up and headed to bed. D’oh!

Since it’s already Thursday, I can write an addendum to note that this week has been a bit better on the sleep front. I’ve been going to bed early nearly every night in Florida, and getting a solid 8-9 hours each night. So, I’m feeling a lot better today! But I’m writing this on my flight home to Denver, so we’ll see what’s in store when I get back to Mountain Time.

Looking on the bright side, I am thrilled that this is my last flight for a bit – I will get to spend ten whole days at home in Colorado before I have to fly out again on the 27th! Although I’ve been pretty stressed about Thanksgiving plans, I know it will all get figured out in the end, so I’m still optimistic about the week. Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday of the year, and if nothing else, I’m going to be very thankful for the opportunity to sleep in my own bed in celebration 🙂