Dried out in God's country

This is what I woke up to this morning:

I'm completely in love and must move here immediately.

I also woke up with my face peeling off.  I've been here less than 24 hours and I feel like a shriveled, reptilian version of myself.  I was ravenous when I woke up and I don't think it is real hunger, but actually dehydration.  There is not a bottle of water to be found in this place and I wasn't sure about the tap water.  Then I remembered that I dumped a bunch of change out of my purse, so I grabbed it and bolted - and I mean bolted - down the hall to the vending machine.

Folks, this is what $4 worth of water looks like:

When I read the price on the vending machine, I actually said aloud, "TWO DOLLARS FOR WATER?" then proceeded to use all of my money to buy these precious bottles.  They will both be gone before our meetings even start this morning.  But so help me God, I've got one kidney stone that I'm determined to keep in there.  We don't need that puppy to pick up and move two weeks before Africa.  Or - God forbid - IN Africa.

Last night we walked a couple of blocks to a restaurant and the VA/DC peeps were relishing in the cool breezy weather.  I was talking about it to one of the Denver guys and he kind of rolled his eyes and said, "Yeah, this is like AFRICA HOT for us in Denver.  It's so uncomfortable.  We hate it."

I was like, come again?  And then I was like, you people need some perspective!  This is heavenly and I can't wait to live here!  Bye bye humidity and 5,000-degree weather!

I'm going to semi-hydrate and get ready for a day full of pretending to pay attention in work meetings.  But I'll really be thinking about this...