One Day in Colorado

 Today I am recovering from a lightning fast one-day trip I made up to Colorado on Friday. I flew up to Denver on Friday morning at 6 AM from Phoenix, gathered a rental car, and drove it to the Denver suburb of Broomfield where I attended the graduation ceremony of my twin nieces Maura and Sarah, who are the daughters of my sister Kate.

It was somewhat of a last minute thing, as I had received their invitations but mislaid them, and when I found them and opened them last Monday, I saw I had but four days if I wanted to attend. I used up a good chunk of airline miles from my credit card getting up there and back. I knew I would regret it sorely if I didn't go.

Fifteen years ago when I started this blog, I was living as a guest at my sister's house on her horse farm outside Boston. Maura and Sarah were delightful little three-year-old girls whom I tossed in the air the minute I met them, having arrived there after a cross country road trip after losing my job in Colorado and setting out into America (again). How long ago it seems, yet only like yesterday.

I hadn't seen any of my family in two years. The pandemic, and politics, had driven a wedge between us. My sister didn't know I was coming until a couple days before.

I was worried that my nieces--who once delighted at my presence--would look at me with the eyes of a stranger, as they seemed to do the last time I saw them, wearing masks in Estes Park, and cowering in fear behind their mother. 

My worries were unfounded. I recognized them in the parking lot of the event center in Broomfield and called out their names. They recognized me and I gave them big hugs, but without throwing them in the air, of course. How I cherish those memories.

I got to spend about two hours in total with all of them before heading back to the airport to catch an evening flight back to Phoenix.

"I need someone to cry at my funeral," I told them, after telling them how beautiful it was to see them.

Maura in particular appreciated that, as she wants to study forensic science in college. 

"You always had. haunted house vibe," I told her.