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Mom

Thalimer/Keane Trip Report, Pt I

Wednesday, Jun. 09, 2004 - 6:16 p.m.

Sunday, June 6, 2004 -- I had not flown anywhere since about 1991, so I'd been concerned about security issues.

The security check at SFO was actually pretty simple. A pain in the ass, but still relatively simple.(Upon reflection, that looks as if I received a glove test, which I did not. Yike!)

They do make you take your shoes off, but frankly, my shoes are more dangerous when they're off than when they're on. I passed through the security okay. I boarded, got an aisle seat, and we were off, on time.

Todd had promised to answer the phone if it was me calling, so that was nice to know.

Nevada and Utah sure look different from up in the air than they did when I was jouncing through them on a bus last summer. It was nice to see them again anyway.

The plane landed on time, the flight having been two and a half hours long, and I disembarked. Already, the heat and the thin air were starting to play tricks on me. Between the low humidity and high heat and persistent wind, I soon realized that it would basically be useless to comb my hair at all. And yet I persisted in this silly practice throughout my visit.

DIADenver International Airport is really pretty. It's got white peaks on its roof that are supposed to represent the Rocky Mountains.

I'm usually a doof when it comes to directions anyway, so when I got into the terminal, I immediately called Todd and asked him where he was. He told me he was waiting for me on the other side of the bridge. This is a walkway that straddles one of the taxiways, I think.

So I found the bridge, and was grateful to find that there were moving walkways, so I could just stand still and be delivered to the other side.

Todd Thalimer was indeed there, and it was a slice of heaven to see him there, and to go to him and receive his hug and his kiss, and really realize I was really in Colorado. Really.

The first place we went was Costco, so he could get an ingredient for the meal he was making for dinner. (Baked Spaghetti works best if there are actually spaghetti noodles in it.) The second place we stopped, briefly, was his workplace. He needed to check some online things, and since his Internet was not working at home, we spent about a half hour there so he could get some stuff done. I got to see his cubicle, and there was the little picture of us that I'd sent him, sitting right there in the frame, front and center.

Then we went looking for postcards for me to mail. We found some really wonderful ones at Walgreens, and since it was going to be awhile until dinner, I went ahead and bought a Carbwise bar and had some of that.

The weather was preposterously, anachronistically, paralyzingly -hot-. The air, at least what there was of it, roared at me like a lion every time I opened a door and went outside somewhere. Thank the gods Todd had air conditioning in his vehicle!

In the afternoon, we got me checked into my motel room at the La Quinta Inn in Aurora, which had air conditioning as well, and after I changed my clothing, Todd and I drove out to his home.

As my regular readers know, I've been doing Atkins since February 16th. I had lost just over 40 lbs since then, and am pleased with my lifestyle eating changes -- but Todd makes a dish the name of which makes people gain weight: Baked Spaghetti. And since he offered to make this for me, I did not say no. This was an officially scheduled dietary exacerbation, and I assumed I would be walking around a lot during these three days anyway, so what the heck.

While he prepared the meal, he'd take small breaks and show me his portion of the house. The centerpiece of the common area, at least for him and for me as well, was this beautiful glossy black upright Boston piano.

I have not played a 'real' wood and metal piano in over ten years. I just have not had what it takes to be able to find a piano somewhere and sit down and play it since my mother died in March of 1995. She had owned this lovely old upright Baldwin Acrosonic that my father sold upon her death. But Todd played some of his original work for me -- plus the song we wrote together -- and I figured that if he can be that vulnerable in the midst of his domestic situation, then I could be, too. So I did. I played him something that had come to me on the plane, so essentially we were both hearing its world premiere.

Dinner was literally stunning. We sat up in his room and ate baked spaghetti, and he turned on the television and we saw one of our favorite episodes of My So-Called Life. Todd had been the one who had originally turned me on to that series first-run, back in 1995.

sunsetAfter dinner, Todd and I went outside and stood on the gravel driveway and we watched the sunset. Although I did try and take a couple of pictures of it, the size and majesty of a sunset from there has got to be experienced in person. No camera, and no verbal description could ever truly capture what I saw.

We stayed long enough to see the stars come out, but Todd finally drove me back to the room at around nine thirty.

It had been a gorgeous day, and I was glad to be where I was, with a good friend, in a lovely place.

The next day -- we'd be going to see Keane.

---

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