colorado

Your last night away from home puts you in an unfamiliar place, across the table from a face you haven't seen in six years and forty pounds. He is older and bearded, and the baskets of wings vary from sweet to hot, and the pomegranate margarita is exactly the kind of sweet, fluffy drink you want at the end of the trip when beer tastes too much like effort.

You explain your life to his girlfriend, with all its complexities and oddities and self-determined ethics, and what should have been a completely substandard hot tub visit due to lack of 'hot' turns into utter hilarity when the preteens invade the tub. The four of you mock them mercilessly, their senses of self-preservation so woefully undeveloped they do not even recognize your mockery.

Next to last city. Since a week ago today I have been in:

• Huntsville, Alabama
• Atlanta, Georgia
• Detroit, Michigan
• Minneapolis, Minnesota (technically Eden Prairie and St. Paul but who's counting?)
• Denver, Colorado
• Fort Collins, Colorado

I remain here until Saturday afternoon, when we'll switch back to Denver one last time. I fly home Sunday.

Everything intended has been done. 4x4 and Spitty are married. Class has been taught. Deep-dish pie accomplished with Dan and Stephanie. Shopping with jowilson done. Ethiopian food with all of the Minnesota folk. Drupal library meetup in Denver. There's more left to do, but all in due time.

At lunchtime, the raindrops were starting to find each other and think about congregating on windshields, and I thought about Chris, out west, half a world and a blizzard away.