It gets crazier...

In ten days,I'm going to fly to a place I've never been, to stay with people I've never met, to eat food I can't pronounce, attend a concert I never dreamed I'd get to and try an activity I've never had the opportunity to try.

How cool is that?!

Or crazy.

Or both.

I like that sort of thing.


Once upon a time, there was a country girl from Broadus who had traveled the world and reconnected with a childhood friend, whose wife had a little blog called The Cohagen Chronicles.  The Chronicles were read surreptitiously and ravenously, because they were like home, only without all the guilt. 

After some time spent in sneaky reading, the girl from Broadus wrote the author of the Chronicles and confessed.  The author of the Chronicles had heard COUNTLESS stories of this chick (the Farmer's dad and her dad have been friends since college) and immediately forgave her and started a correspondence. 

The girls discovered a mutual love for (brace yourself) food, wine, travel, books, their home state of Montana and Texas singers, most especially Pat Green.  What are the odds?  Pretty good, actually. 

The girl from Broadus, as it turns out, is wicked to the core.
Evidenced by the menus she regularly sent to Montana, from French and European restaurants that she'd recently visited.
Evidenced by the picture of her personal wine cellar.
Evidenced by her rather casual mention of her hot tub.
Evidenced by sending e-tickets AND pictures of the CU-TTU game she attended, knowing full well the depth of my love for the Red Raiders.
Evidenced by her travel blog, of Europe.

In a fit of....what I can only surmise was winter insanity....the Farmer told me to use our credit card reward points to buy a ticket to Denver to see Sara Hagedorn, as my Christmas/birthday/Valentine's day present.

So I did!

Sara H., bless her heart, is in the middle of her doctoral (doctorate?) exams and I presume was too shocked and overwhelmed to come up with any sort of excuse to be out of the country at that time.  So she's stuck.  Ah, well....

BUT....GET THIS.....!!!!

Pat Green had the great grace to book a show at the Grizzly Rose (in Denver) at the exact perfect time.
That's RIGHT.
We have tickets.

You've never heard such screeching of delight!
And, I believe on one of the shaky-with-excitement emails, I counted no fewer than 56 exclamation points.
It's true.

AND she somehow convinced her husband Chad that we should go to a couple really incredible restaurants while I was visiting, as her Christmas present.

AND Chad (in a moment of what we can only surmise was winter insanity) mentioned going skiing while I was there.  Which I've always wanted to do, but never have.

AND we have several bookstores to visit.

AND then, there's the hot tub and wine cellar.

*sigh*

I certainly hope we get along...