Today's walk

At lunch today, I walked down Grand - snapped this pic at Seed - for my roomie Joan. She loves peacocks.

It was chilly, but the sun was shining. Next I went over the river (not through the woods). I back up Locust by Des Moines City Hall.

the grounds look very nice

I stopped at Jimmy Johns for my usual - a Number 2 with sauce (oil and vinegar) no mayo, and was lucky enough to snag a used USA today at a table. Sat there listening to my iPod, reading and munching. 2 other tables had people I knew at them. Yet I enjoyed being by myself.

On my walk back to the office, I saw these school kids on their way to tour the State Capitol. They were chattering excitedly. I smiled.

Reality Bites

I'm readjusting to my former schedule. It sucks. That's okay...I'll get over it. The fact that Paul isn't here anymore.  And there is no East Village loft with a black wiener dog in it waiting to greet me. I no longer have the luxury of daydreaming about which fun place we are going to try out for supper. Tonight the freeway was a parking lot when I left work at 5 PM. The 10 hour day is killing me - I'm beat.

I was stopped (or close to it) when I snapped this shot

Okay I got that off my chest! Phew...

On the plus side, I'm settled back in at Joan's. I love the bright bathroom with the close mirror here - great for we blind-o's. Joan decided to wash the cloth shower curtain while I was gone, and evidently destroyed the waterproof properties of the inner layer - or so a couple of her nieces found out when they each took showers here recently. Water went all over the floor. Glad I missed that! So Joan bought a new plastic inner liner.

My bed is also a good sleeper here at the Joan abode. I brought my electric blanky back this week, it's nice and cool down there and that makes for good sleepin'! Which goes well with 10 hour work days and an old chick!

Joan is fun to be around. She isn't one of those moody roomies that you never know how to approach. And she puts up with me.

I walked at lunch around the State Capitol. I feel privileged every day to work near this historical, beautiful place. Important work is done there. (and some dumb stuff). Today, children from Clear Creek were sitting in the shade eating picnic lunches awaiting their turns to tour.

I shopped tonight. By myself - not that shopping w/ Pablo isn't fun, but shopping with Pablo isn't fun. Or let me re-phrase. It's not the same - it's not him, it's me. I feel rushed when he's there. I took a pic of these cute doggies in the window at Jordan Creek.

These stuffed dogs remind me of Moki the Wonderdog

One more night after tonight and I get to go home Thursday - working at home Friday. Friday afternoon I get to do some errands - dentist for me and rabies shot for Odie. How fun will those be? For extra fun, I may ask the vet to expel Odie's anal gland. It doesn't get any better than that!

I'm not sad because it's over - I'm happy because we had a chance to live together in a loft in DSM. Every day is a gift!

Embassador

Pablo and I stayed at the Embassy Suites on East 2nd and Locust Streets in DSM this week. It was our last week of hotel life before moving into the loft - my first time staying at ES. I quite enjoyed it - except for the lack of WiFi.

ES has been remodeled. The showers are almost European - with glass panels and no doors. When staying for a week, it's nice to have two rooms to settle into - and two TVs. Even though we didn't end up spending all that much time in the joint. And they passed the sheet, towel and cleanliness test.

Capitol seen to the right of the Embassy Suites looking east

My fave part? The free breakfast. They're ready at 6 a.m. with eggs, sausage, and potatoes on a buffet - all stuff Paul likes. You can go through their omelet bar, but we didn't do that - in a hurry biz folk ya know. I myself ate their excellent oatmeal with brown sugar, rolled oats and raisins. They also offer fresh fruit, yogurt, toast etc. And their coffee? So very good. Everyone was quite polite too.

I enjoyed walking from the ES to work early each morning up Locust toward the beautiful Iowa State Capitol building. Locust is lit with Christmas lights and there are cool sculptures along the way. It's uphill (followed by 5 flights of stairs to my desk), which helped me with my LiveHealthy Iowa workouts. The unusually warm weather didn't hurt my enjoyment of the walk.

But hotel life is getting old. It's hard to be healthy when you're living hotel life. Even when you're with your honey.