My first weekend without my mom! And also, the first weekend it really felt like things were starting to get back to normal post-pandemic.
I kicked it off with a Friday night date to Old Town Louisville. We hadn’t made any reservations, which is normally no problem, but on this beautiful summer evening where so many people were vaccinated and mask orders were starting to lift… it was packed! It seemed everyone had the same idea to get out into the nice weather. We put our name on the list for a table at Por, then wandered around several other places, each time being told the wait was an hour or more. Wow! We were finally able to find seats at the bar at Agave, but right after we ordered our drinks, my phone buzzed with a text message from Por – our table was ready there. The bartender was fortunately willing to cancel our drink order so we could skedaddle, and we had a nice time sitting on the patio at Por – enjoying wine and people watching.
The next morning, my day was pretty packed. With the hot night, plus the wine I had the night before, I had a bit of trouble sleeping, and ended up waking up at 3am and reading for an hour before being able to get back to sleep. So I was really glad Sadie let me sleep until 7am Saturday morning, even though that meant we couldn’t run quite as long as I wanted, since we had brunch plans with my college roommate Claire.
Sadie and I headed out around 7:45am and found it was already pretty toasty. But we did a 13.1 miles (a half marathon!) by 10am, which was great. It was an absolutely beautiful day, even though it was really hot and sticky and not very fun for running. And in spite of the heat, we averaged a 10:04 pace per mile, which I was pretty happy about – especially since we started slower and picked up the pace as we went.
When I got home, I hustled to give Sadie a lukewarm bath to help her cool down – I always worry about her overheating with the Colorado sun! I didn’t get to shower myself before brunch, but Claire is a runner who was coming to brunch straight from her run as well, so I figured just changing into non-sweaty clothes would be fine. We were meeting up at EAT!, a local brunch spot I’ve wanted to try for literally several years. It did not disappoint!
The place was pretty packed, but I got my reserved table immediately. Claire was running a few minutes late, so I ended up getting an iced coffee because I felt guilty about taking up a table but not ordering. The iced coffee was delicious, though, so no regrets there – iced coffee always tastes extra delicious after a hot run! For brunch, I settled on the sweet cream pancakes with grilled caramelized pineapple and coconut syrup – it was excellent, and I was really happy with my brunch choice! And while it was a generous portion, it wasn’t so big that I felt gross after eating every last bite (oh yes I did), which was great. Plus, it was great to catch up with Claire – I hadn’t kept in touch with her during the pandemic.
In the afternoon, I headed back over to Old Town Louisville – this time, to meet my friends Heather and Cindy for beers on the patio at 12 Degrees (my favorite brewery in Colorado). Louisville wasn’t quite as packed as it had been on Friday night, and I loved their new Lars beer – which paired quite well with the Belgian fries I couldn’t resist ordering, even though it was a weird time in the late afternoon. Welp… guess that can be my dinner?
When I went home, I ended up having a little bit of Halo Top to round out my “dinner”. So, in sum, my diet for the day was: pancakes, beer, fries, and ice cream. Not so healthy, huh? And I wonder why my weight is up so much from where I was this time last year, when I was cooking everything at home and also not drinking. But it was a good day and I was really happy getting to see so many friends.
And that half marathon to start the morning was no joke; I decided to make Sunday into a rest day given how much my feet hurt from the day before. (Definitely time for new shoes!) I made some coffee and baked oatmeal, and was planning to cuddle up on the couch with a book, which sounded delightfully relaxing. But instead, I got the idea to take Sadie to the dog park before it got too hot.
I brought treats with me, thinking that I could use the dog park to do some training with her, but I was really disappointed to realize how terrible her recall is now that she’s more comfortable with me. (And, for my part, that I haven’t been training her on it very much.) We saw a lot of other German shorthaired pointers (GSPs) there – the first time I had seen any GSPs at the dog park since my very first visit several months ago. And then I developed a theory: that people with GSPs are more Type A, earlybird people, who are more likely to get up early and immediately take their dogs to the dog park rather than waiting till 10am. What do you think – is this crazy??
Sadie and I finished our walk and were heading to the car, when we saw familiar faces in the parking lot: my friends Sara and Torrey, with their new puppy Oshie! I was really excited to see them, so Sadie and I went for another loop with them, which was a great way to hang out with friends. While I had seen Sara recently, I hadn’t seen Torrey in so long, so it was great to catch up with him too!
We didn’t finish until a little after 10am, which threw off my plans to watch the Peloton Homecoming Event… but that was okay. Instead, I went home and skedaddled to get in a 45 minute strength training class with Rebecca Kennedy, then shower and have a quick bite to eat before heading down to Highlands Ranch for another friend Sarah’s baby shower. I got there 25 minutes late, which I at first felt bad about (and was stressing about on the drive), but I was actually one of the first people there for the open house-style event, so it was totally fine. I need to learn to cut myself some slack for stuff like this!
Sarah’s baby shower was my first real post-pandemic event… as it was for most people in attendance. At first it was a little awkward, because there were people there that I knew I had met before… but not for two years, and we hadn’t stayed in touch. Now I questioned myself – had I met them before, or just seen their faces on Sarah’s social media or something? But after a while, some people I knew very well started arriving, and it was wonderful to see them again.
The last year has definitely caused kind of a culling of friendships. Not necessarily intentionally, but I realized that there are some friends that I just hang out with at parties and events, but don’t necessarily have one-on-one conversations with on the phone to keep in touch. I of course stayed in touch with my close friends, but these friends-of-friends relationships were ones that completely disappeared thanks to COVID. Do I miss them? Somewhat… but I think I also enjoy a bit of time to myself. I left the party torn between wanting to make all the plans with the friends I hadn’t seen in so long (including Sarah, who used to be one of my closest friends!) but also not wanting to fill my calendar and lock myself into too much too soon. we’ll have to see how this shakes out…
(Here’s a recent article exploring exactly that conundrum.)
On the way home, I stopped to run a few errands – including a shopping expedition at Trader Joe’s in Denver, where I found the Platinum Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon I’ve been itching to try, after a meeting with the Trader Joe’s CIO where he said it was his favorite product they sell. I can’t wait to try it! But not that night – Sunday’s dinner was a quiet one with just me, Sadie, an Italian stir fry, and a book. Nice peaceful end to a busy weekend!