Denver, Denver

It's a nice town. I can't really talk too much smack about the town since the rents now reside there and my brother will be finishing out high school. But really, what's there?

This past Thursday afternoon, as I arrived into Denver international, I was reminded, firstly, of how I dislike the new trend of placing airports significantly outside of the city center, so that major hubs can be established. And it is nice to be able to find a direct flight to Denver from everywhere, but is it really necessary to have my parents drive 45 minutes from their house to pick me up?

On the ride "home" (I had still never seen the place) we passed through older suburban neighborhoods, saw downtown in the distance, and passed easily on the four and five-lane highways that serve as the city's transportation lifelines. Our Toyota Highlander Hybrid got us home with speed without the guilt of carbon emissions from a non-hybrid SUV.

We got home and had a wonderful meal. Have you ever shelled out for a Butterball brand turkey? It was the first time that my family had done so, and I gotta say, I think it turned out very yummy. Even the white meat was extra juicy. Anyway, dinner was great and we had a very pleasant thanksgiving at our new home, just the immediate family. I was already kinda getting ancy by the end of that night.

The next day would turn out to be like all post-Thanksgiving Friday's - we would promise ourselves that we would get up with all the other deal-finders to take advantage of door-buster deals and then relent to get up around 9am and join the throngs of people circa 10am. Given my family's history of sleeping in, this in fact was, an early morning. So we arrived at the mall, a good mall, if I may so say so. It has everything to fulfill the shopping needs of the upper middle-class Denver suburbanites. I got some great Christmas shopping done. For once I think I'm going to get my shopping done before Dec 23; a drastic improvement on my behalf. I took the little brother with me and we brainstormed on good gifts for the immediate and extended fam. Having recently moved into my own abode, I was on a kick of fine home-living materials, so we hit up the Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, and Williams-Sonoma. I have to admit, I was more looking for myself, but my final purchases ended up being for family.

The rest of the Friday was filled with naps and disappointing football from the longhorns. Good thing the leftovers were still awesome at that point.

For the next day, my family had initially invited me to come try the new mountain that my little brother and father are going to try this season. It sounded like a great idea, until I heard multiple news reports last week reporting on the lack of snow in the Rockies. Great. Lucky for me, Wednesday and Friday brought significant snowfalls and the mountain declared the open season on Friday. But I hadn't bought any gear. Nothing. The fam has a lot of spare ski clothes, but not a ton, so without anything on my own, I decided it best to forgo the skiing. Sat was another day, mostly in the house, otherwise getting a fresh haircut, and watching the football team blow another come back.

I never made it downtown. Come to think of it, I never made it past two miles of the new house. Except for the ridiculously far airport, that is. And I do love my family, but I was only reminded of how when I did last live with them in high school, I was out of the house already most of the day, every day.

After a wonderful weekend in Denver, all I really have to say is that I'm def looking forward to Christmas back in TX.