A weekend of events, people watching

Well, I had a nice sociable two days this past weekend, and I got to do my favorite thing: people watch. 

 

As I sit in the 60-degree morning sun at the nearby coffee shop, I sip on my vanilla latte and watch an adorable pug puppy basking in the sun nearby while his human enjoys a pastry. And as the people watching distracts me from writing this column, I try to reflect on all I’ve seen and done over the past couple of days to make me feel so tired. 

 

On Saturday, I woke up with the urge to be in a clean apartment. Not to say our apartment wasn’t clean, it had just been a while since it was deeply, properly cleaned. I knew I had an hour before we had to leave somewhere, so I got up, put on the ‘80s rock music my mom used to blast on a Saturday cleaning morning, and went to work. Because it’s an apartment and not a house, it doesn’t take very long to get all the spaces picked up, vacuumed, and mopped into a clean condition. I was even able to squeeze in a load of laundry. 

 

By the time the apartment sparkled like a Mr. Clean commercial, it was time to get ready to go. Through friends of Jack’s mom, we were offered free tickets to the inaugural women’s Denver Summit FC national soccer game, played at the Empower Field at Mile High Stadium where the Broncos play. Talk about people watching. 

 

Because it was professional women’s soccer, the women and girls there highly outnumbered the men. It was pretty cool to see women of all ages, races, nationalities, and sexualities enjoying the proud moment of an inaugural professional women’s soccer game. However, it was 80 degrees with the sun pounding down on us midday, and with the score of the game ending zero to zero, it wasn’t as fun as it could have been. But it was still a blast. 

 

After the soccer game, Jack and I had time to snack and relax (I was able to finish the second book of the Game of Thrones series) before we headed out again, ready to be out all night. We first headed over to one friend’s house so the boys could play a drinking game called “Die,” where teams take turns throwing dice high in the air with hopes they will hit the other side of the table and bounce off where the opponent can’t catch it. 

 

The girlfriends and I chose not to participate, but instead sat on the comfortable patio and watched the men go into the longest game of Die as we chatted about books, jobs, and getting to know each other more. More friends showed up as time went on, and we eventually decided to let the host go to bed and moved on to another apartment, where we got food, vanquished thirsts, and decided where to go next. 

 

The “next” happened to be a bar closer to downtown, called “Happy Camper.” I don’t even know how to describe the place — half of it was on a covered patio, with turf, wooden tables, lights strung through the  vaulted ceiling, and rock and “outdoor” structures placed throughout. The bar portion of the place felt more club-like, if the club was for middle-aged millennials. The element I liked were the Christmas-type lights strung throughout the whole place. But with neon signs, mirrors, a DJ, and an interesting crowd of older people (older than me at least) dressed like they were 20 and giving off a semi-desperate vibe, the bar area of the place was not necessarily for me. 

 

On Sunday, I worked on the paper and took to the driving range to practice my very rusty golf swings before competing in an Easter golf competition with Jack’s family. We will see how it goes. Maybe at some point I’ll be able to catch up on sleep. 

 

My Determination: “He who hurries through life hurries to his grave.” ― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings