One Colorado Day 5

You know what time actually sucks? 4:30 a.m.

When discussing when to leave, we slowly creeped back from eight a.m. to seven to five thirty to five o’clock A.M.  So, a chorus of seven alarms went off at 4:30 a.m. this morning.  We were on the road by 5:15.  Anna got her coffee, Blake got his diet coke, we filled up the tank with gas, the rest of us got ready to nap, and we were set.  And now, five hours later, Adele plays loudly with Blake singing along beautifully and we are fully entertained by everything else Blake says. (The best of these quotes have been tweeted by Anna for the rest of the world to enjoy.) 

I can’t believe this trip has almost come to a close. 

Yesterday was another wonderful day in Denver and at the One Colorado office.  In the morning, we finished up odd jobs around the office.  

At lunch, we had our last coffee shop trip and headed over to St. Mark’s for a third time.  It was definitely the favorite from all that we tried.  I had an absolutely wonderful cappuccino and delicious raspberry scone.  Food has definitely been a highlight of this trip.  I’ve absolutely loved all of the fun coffee shops and restaurants we have tried.  I think it is fair to say the others feel the same: a decent number of the pictures taken on this trip have been of food and the places we have eaten.

In the afternoon we worked with Daniel, the One Colorado employee who gave the Gay-Straight Alliance presentation we attended yesterday.  He talked with us more about the work he does to make schools safer, more tolerant, and friendly for those in the LGBTQ community.  I’m so glad we got to spend some extra time with him.  While Kansas is not a state that will likely pass a civil unions bill on it’s own initiative, we too can improve our schools.

We rounded off the night with a lovely family dinner.  Shout out to Anna, Sacha, Audrey, and Myranda who cooked our delicious meal!  I haven’t been that full in quite a long time.  Then it was time to pack.  I made the mistake of allowing myself to place my sleeping bag in the back corner of the room; I had tossed all of my belongings around my bag and they were strewn around since they had not been in anyone’s way.  With that to deal with and my random rants to anyone in the room who would listen (I can’t seem to stop talking when I am sleep deprived), I finally managed to stuff everything back in my bag and I was ready for our 4:30 am wake up call by the time everyone else was ready to go to bed. 

I truly feel empowered by all of the knowledge I have gained from this trip.  This is such a touchy subject in our society today and I’ve never felt like I had the information to talk to others effectively about the issue or take part in making necessary changes.  In this week alone, I feel all of us have played a small role in the eventual passage of a civil unions bill in Colorado.  We will all be watching for the result in May.

--Micah