Tales from the Mile High City

We stayed up way too late packing to be grabbing bags and zooming to the MAF airport to catch a 7 a.m. Continental flight to Denver, but finally, we arrived in the Mile-High City, rented our car, and trekked on to the hotel. Exhausted, we ate a late lunch and hit the hay! Last time we were here, the weather was delightful, middle of summer, hot in the daytime, cool at night. This trip is somewhat different. Denver has endured some major snow here – all along the road are 5’ mounds of snow, artwork de la snowplow. And all the locals are griping about it.

It. Is. Cold. In. Denver.

The average temp since we arrived has hovered around a cool 24 degrees…and it’s supposed to drop below 10 degrees tonight, and snow. I did not bring enough warm coats for that.

Ready for some inside scoop on this oilfield gal? Janie. Hates. To. Shop.

It’s hard to believe, but I do. I dislike going in malls, and always have. Maybe it’s the tomboy in me – at heart, I’m a jeans, ropers, cute t-shirt, and ball cap with my ponytail pulled through, and hanging down my back kind of girl. (Oh, yeah…I cut my hair, some years ago – so that doesn’t work anymore.) I hate shopping. I will go into an anchor store that is in a mall, but rarely will you see me in the thoroughfare of a mall. I probably should sign up for therapy. My disdain of shopping adds a measurable degree of difficulty to dressing in a professional manner. We live in a smaller town, with only a few name-brand stores, so when we go out of town, time permitting, we might plan a shopping trip.

To get past my hate of shopping, I:

(1) Shop online, when necessary.
(2) If I physically go shopping, I plan ahead – which store, etc. (especially if it’s in a mall.) And that’s where I shop. No meandering.
(3) MLH goes with me. He has a great eye, and helps me tremendously

All that said, we had a lovely day yesterday. We were very productive in the morning, working on our respective projects. MLH closed an oil deal that he had been putting together. Time to celebrate! We enjoyed a late lunch at the Kona Grill, and were served by an absolutely awesome waiter.

We then shopped at three stores (two for me, one for MLH), grabbing Starbucks on the way out. Two stores were in an upscale mall – the other, in a very upscale strip shopping center (Maybe planners are catching on that malls just don’t work!). The sales clerks were absolutely charming. Talk about favor – all three stores graced us with extra discounts, over and above any sales prices, and then shipped our purchases home at no charge. Now that, my friends, is the ultimate in shopping.

At noon today, my national board meeting begins. Later in the afternoon, the meeting will morph into the Denver board meeting, and we have all been invited to the Denver chapter meeting. This will be an Operator Forum, where the local operators sound forth on their 2007 Drilling and Production plans and budgets. Operator Forums are usually very entertaining – the Bakersfield chapter calls their Operator Forum the “Liars Club”. MLH and I always look forward to meeting more of our peers and making new friends, so this should be fun!

So far, I like Denver. Onward, through the cold!