Hi Gram!
It’s been a while since I wrote. I took a few days off back in January for travel, and that was my undoing. After my travel, I was exhausted for a few days, then catching up felt a little daunting. As more days went by, the task just kept growing bigger until I didn’t feel like I could ever catch up. So today, I’m trying something different. I’m giving myself permission to just do a little bit of a summary. I think I’m going to do a few of these summary posts, maybe one a month, to recap the adventures and challenges I’ve had so far this year. Here goes!

The past month has been packed with fun, friends, and learning in Colorado. When I first arrived, I was welcomed by friends with game nights and dinners, a common activity in Longmont. I stayed at a friend’s house for the first week while they were out of town, then moved over to a different friend’s house for the rest of my stay. After all of my activity for the first few months of the year, it was nice to just rest and recover for much of my time, sprinkled with visits to share tea, play with kids, help with projects, work on puzzles, play games, and share dinners.

In the first week, I did a couple hikes, first with Carla and Robert and then with Ryan. These hikes are what some people call “level 2 fun” – a little grueling and painful when you’re in the middle and the end, but rewarding the next day when you can say that you’ve done it. Well, they weren’t entirely level 2. I had fun chatting with my friends and seeing the gorgeous scenery along the hike, so there was some level 1 fun woven in there too. I was definitely sore the next day, though. When I wasn’t hiking, I walked each morning around the neighborhood to keep the blood flowing. After my blood clot scare a few years ago, it’s important to me that I stay active and keep moving every day. Seeing mountains in the background and having the sun shining down helps the motivation too. We also had a few potluck dinners, where we’d share food, conversation, and laughter, and I spent a couple days just hanging out at HQ with my friend Amberly as we each did a little work on our computers and chatted when we needed a break from the screens. I read some books, designed a couple of t-shirts, watered some plants, helped a friend with some house maintenance and troubleshooting, did my brain exercises, journaling, and my other daily routines. Somehow, though, these mundane daily activities were more rewarding and enjoyable here. I didn’t have my house surrounding me, reminding me of a thousand other tasks and distractions. I had friends that I could chat with between and during tasks. I had the mountains in the distance when I was walking or driving, reminding me that I was that much closer to nature. It was really enjoyable. Oh, and I did a few podcast interviews and acted as a sounding board with a few friends on their real estate and FI journeys. I can’t imagine a better way to spend a few summer weeks at the end of June!

As July rolled around, some of my friends started arriving to get ready for CampFI week 1. I think I’ve told you, but CampFI is a get-together that happens a few times a year all over the country in the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) community. My friend Stephen Baughier runs it, and we are all so grateful for the opportunity to reunite with friends we’ve known, meet new friends who are along their own FI journey, listen to engaging talks, and share stories and knowledge. I’ve heard from so many people the same sentiment that I feel every time – it charges my social battery, I always learn something new, I enjoy the activities like hiking, archery, swimming, and ropes courses (it is camp, after all), and meeting new people.

Anyways, friends started arriving for camp, so I met up with some friends to go walk around town, do some hikes, and share dinners. On Tuesday, Zakia and I drove down to the Great Sand Dunes National Park south of Denver. We had a fun drive down there, catching up on our lives since we’d last seen each other. A bee or wasp or something stung me when I picked her up, but I wasn’t going to let that stop us from having fun. We got to the hotel a couple hours before sunset, quickly dropped off our stuff, got some allergy meds for my bee sting, and headed to the dunes. It bends the mind to see mountains, forest, and prairie all around, then drive up to these huge sand dunes that rise out of their lush surroundings. After a quick picnic, we headed out across the sand, crossing a couple of dunes before settling at the top of one to watch the sun sink below the horizon. Kids were running up and down the dunes, some people were riding their rented sand boards (similar to skateboards without the wheels) down the slopes, and couples were posing for their Instagram moments all around us. I often forget the amount of time between sunset and the sky actually being dark. Luckily, the billion mosquitoes kept us moving and occupied while we waited. A breeze blew through the otherwise still evening air a few times, dispersing the swarms of blood suckers, but they quickly reassembled once the air was still again. Just as the biters clocked out and went home, the sunlight faded away the last little glow and the stars came out all around us. It was magical looking up and seeing millions of stars from horizon to horizon, a three dimensional spectacle that surrounded us and made me feel tiny. Once we each tried to get pictures that didn’t capture the grandiosity, then laid back on the blanket and just stared in awe, we learned that the high desert gets cold really quickly without the sun. We trekked back across the sand, hopefully headed towards the car since we had no light to mark the parking lot. We laughed and chatted with a few others heading towards their cars until we all arrived at the parking lot. A short drive later, we re-entered civilization and our hotel where I was soon fast asleep.

We woke in the morning, then headed back north towards Denver. Taking our time, we stopped for some pictures along the way, then found a hike along a river a few miles off the highway. We laughed and chatted through our day, arriving back in Denver just in time for Becky’s 4th of July barbecue get-together. Becky gets friends together the Thursday before each CampFI, providing a great way to see friends who live in the area as well as those who are in town before camp. She has a large backyard with a fire pit if anyone gets cold and plenty of benches and chairs to gather around. After a couple hours there, I headed up to Longmont where Carl and Mindy were having a get-together of their own. Between the two parties, I got to see friends that I haven’t seen in a while, meet some people who were heading to camp, and learn a few names ahead of the name game that would happen at camp.

Friday, I woke up and did my morning routine, then packed up my stuff and headed to the airport to pick up Alex and Martin. We swung by Costco for some drinks and healthy snacks, then to the brewery in Colorado Springs where another group of friends was gathering. We met some people from the local ChooseFI meetup group as well as a few that were going to camp, then headed over to camp to start the weekend of fun, laughter, learning, and camaraderie. I’ve talked about CampFI before, but it bears repeating that this is one of my favorite activities every year. This was my third CampFI this year, with my fourth scheduled a week later. My main takeaways from this camp were that I met some new people who are sure to become lifelong friends, I mostly ate fruit and drank water instead of raiding the snack table (although I did have the delicious desserts after two dinners. Far fewer than I usually indulge in.), I hiked the hill behind camp (where my hiking poles made a huge difference compared to last year) and I learned about some books I want to read and websites to check out. The weekend went by too quickly, and soon a group of us were headed back up to Longmont.

I spent the next few days resting, pickup up my friend Susanna from the airport, doing a hike with friends, visiting my friends Jenni and Rachel, going to Becky’s second pre-camp get-together, and having a great time. Friday, we headed to CampFI week 2, where 5 or 6 of us reunited for the second week and a whole new group of friends, past and new, greeted us. It was another weekend of fun, laughter, advice, engaging talks, careful eating (on my part), games, and learning.

Mark recorded an episode of his podcast with Kevin, Sean, and Travis on Sunday night, then a group of us played “UNO All Wild”, a game that I bought a few months ago but hadn’t played yet. This was probably the highlight of my weekend. The game was a fun backdrop as we all had meaningful conversations, laughed until our sides hurt, shared stories, and gave advice to one of our members. I stayed up later than I usually do, conflicted when I finally went to bed wanting to stay up and have more fun. Monday morning, I slept in an extra ten minutes (I know, wild right?) then packed my bags and loaded the car before breakfast. This gave me the opportunity to just enjoy the rest of the morning, chatting with friends and hugging everyone goodbye. Monday is always a mix of sorrow that the weekend is over, but joy that I’ve met new people and reconnected with friends and learned a lot. With my social cup overflowing, I said my last goodbyes and pointed my car East.

Monday afternoon, I started driving across Colorado and Kansas avoiding the interstates, passing through small towns and enjoying the scenery. I stopped at a roadside motel in Norton, Kansas for the evening, enjoying my book and a walk around town. It was a cute little town with a friendly hotelier welcoming me to the motel that he was working on fixing up. Tuesday, I continued my drive, heading back up to I-80 and crossing some more ground. I enjoyed chatting with some friends along the way, listened to some more podcasts and an audiobook, reaching Coralville, IA in the early evening. I learned that my friend Zibby has some family that lives in Coralville. I didn’t meet up with them or anything, it was just a little factoid that I learned. I got up this morning, did my morning routine, and now I’m going to pack up and finish the drive East so I can start getting packed up for my trip to Thailand on Sunday.