There are tough days, but there are great days too. (Many more of them, actually.) Today was, start-to-finish, a Great Day.

It started with grabbing coffee with a new friend, Rebecca, that Toni was kind enough to introduce me to. We had a great conversation, which ended as they only can on Great Days.

Me: Tonight, Dan and I are attending a lecture about wildfires — I am really excited about it.
Rebecca: At Avo’s?
Me: …Yessss…
Rebecca: Uh, I’ll be there. My husband works for the Poudre River Watershed, he’s helping out with the event.

Of course he is! The wildfire lecture was very well-attended — maybe 120 people? — but of the entire city of Fort Collins, I had coffee with one of the 120 people who were going to attend that lecture later that night?

(The lecture was wonderful, by the way. One of the big take-aways for me is that, due to climate change, the act of fighting fires is eating up more and more of the federal budgets for forestry. As a result, organizations are starting to look for alternative fundraising sources to support prescriptive burns and other preventative measures, by approaching downstream organizations that benefit from a healthy local watershed. For instance: breweries!)

Dan and I also stopped by The Mayor of Old Town, by Rebecca’s recommendation. The first image in this post is from The Mayor, which has 100 taps, including 6 ciders. Dan’s pick was my favorite, a peach cider from Climb.

And finally, Dan has been throwing me puppy dog eyes whenever we pass Ramen Master. Tonight we made it happen. Tan-tan for the win.

When things click, they click. Which reminds me that I also had a chance to catch up with my friend Erika Kate — I cannot easily summarize that phone call, but I really needed it. Erika is patient and intuitive — plus she has moved around the country and understands the stress of it.

Thank you to everyone who responded to Monday’s post. I was reminded that 1) I’m not the first person to move away from home, 2) I asked for this adventure and need to give it time, 3) I have incredible people in my court, and 4) from time to time it’s cathartic to share a less sanitized version of this entire experience.