**Trip Report: Part one of trip 1**

So for the past month or so, I have been travelling a bit. One trip was to Kansas City for a conference. No worthwhile pictures from that. I was in a hotel complex for two days venturing outside only at night to search for BBQ. It was an opportunity to network with other media advisors to take some comfort in the collective hell that can be our jobs sometimes. I roomed with an amazingly energetic newspaper advisor from an Ohio community college. I got tired just listening to all the stuff she is up to. Am I getting lazy or something? Maybe bitten by the tenured bug. Who knows. In all fairness I always have get a special place in my heart for sleep and mindless television. Why change now.

But I took two other trips in that brief time window. The first was to Colorado. It was a week long excursion packaged around a court appearance to respond to a petition from the ex as he is asking the court to relieve him of his legal responsibility to help the kids with college. I will get into that delightful experience in a later post. Outside of the court hearing and the prep time with the law firm, I managed to actually eek out some leisure time.

Right after arriving in Colorado and heading for Boulder, I took a detour into Denver and tripped down memory lane. Ironically, this memory was from a time I was married. Not happily, mind you, as I was raising two young'uns (no problem there) and caring for one 30 year old child. Doing everything in the house while waiting tables at night, caring for toddlers during the day, reading 800 pages a week of neo-marxist theory, post-structuralism, auteur theory and british cultural studies, cooking cleaning, chauferring to preschool, entertaining kids, driving an hour to class a couple times a week... made me a little cranky.

But, I have fond memories of the house I lived in. My daughter and son do too. They are the best memories of that time. It was the first house we ever owned. We made the downpayment with money my father wanted me to have when he passed away. At least, that is what my mother said at the time. It could be that she was just being nice about helping us, knowing we had very little money. I won't get into the whole common property law that divided the equity in the house (including that down payment from my father) between the two of use when we separated. But I was accustomed to the pattern of my ex benefitting from the efforts, generosity and good will of others. It is how he survives.

Ah, but the house.... We lived in this house for 6-7 years. I had to sell it after the split because the mortgage payment was only 100.00 a month less than my paycheck. And no help was forthcoming from you know who. It was a special place though.

So, I drove by the house. The fence in front is gone. The house needs paint. Ivy is growing everywhere. The rope from the old airplane swing still hangs from the maple tree. The greenhouse in back - a massive 20 x 40 foot monstrosity with an old hot tub enclosed in it - is long gone and replaced with a deck.

The top end of the block has several homes with the "tops popped." These were old ranchs that have been rebuilt into a two story homes. Sign of growth, I guess. But the neighborhood overall still has a mixed income feeling about it.


One of my favorite places to go with the kids was a little cafe by the hospital. This was the kids' restaurant training ground. My son went there when he visited Denver with his girlfriend this summer. I had to stop in and check it out. It hasn't changed a bit. The round table in the corner is still there. The kids would order pancakes. The waitress, who is STILL THERE, used to tease them and bring out cucumber shapes and place them on top of the pancakes in a smiley face, while commenting on them needing their veggies.
While waiting for the food, the kids were allowed one spoonful each of the peanut butter on the table. It was a favorite ritual, getting as much peanut butter as possible on the spoon. Annie's still has the BEST green chili in the world. It is the only green chili that is unequivocably better then mine. Apparently I am not alone in my absolute resolve about the quality of Annie's green chili. Our waitress mentioned that the owner has, on occasion shipped out orders of green chili on dry ice. It is that good.


The second day of my trip was spent working with my attorney preparing for trial. It was a Sunday. Fortunately the 300/hour rate was not compounded to time and a half. Not surprisingly, I took no pictures. I was too keenly aware of the billable hours racking up to think about marking the moment.

Monday I accept the gracious offer of my alma mater in Boulder and established a guest account so I could work on-line, on campus, all day. Dangerous having an office in the engineering building with the coffee cart one floor below. That means easy access to lattes and with a web cam mounted on the cart, one has the luxury of waiting until there is no line before running downstairs. I had three lattes that day.

Tuesday was trial day. It sucked. It was expensive. That is all I have to say about that for now. I will return to the topic. Believe me.

The rest of the trip report is coming. Stay tuned for roadtrip to New Mexico and the search for green chilis.