Shrediculous

I have been snowboarding a lot lately. It's so much more fun now that I can ride well. I've also been riding with other boarders which makes a HUGE difference in the fun factor. I've even gotten one day in at Mary Jane with Alisa and Jake. We only did moguls for half the day :). I've also had two awesome days at Vail this year. The snow has been good and my smile has been big!

I am winning the ski house contest for the most days! Most of those days are out on the board, but I have 4 or 5 ski days in there too.

I am about to head back up for the rest of the week. I've also been touring out and around the back of the ski house. It's pretty awesome back there and really easy to do a couple hours of cardio.

Holy Crap!

It's been a whirlwind month with a million stories I could put on here. I feel like since they've already past, I shouldn't put them here. That's silly because this is my page and I can put whatever I want on it! Therefore, I will proceed to add some stories from the past few weeks on here as I get time and go through the pictures. BIG FUN I tell you!

Grateful

Well here I am on my computer. I'm sorta tippy from wine right now and I just got back from a Christmas party. I feel pretty damned good. I am so grateful for all of my friends and the hard work I did to obtain the lifestyle I get to live. I feel very lucky right now and I thank the universe and everyone everywhere for how my life has turned out so far.

I want a bedroom door.

I hate not having a bedroom door. My room mate is shrieking and it is driving me crazy.

It's Snowtastic

It's snowing pretty hard right now. There's already been at least 4 inches in the past 4-5 hours! Woohoo! I love me some snow :).

Hut Tripping

I went on my first hut trip last weekend. The plan was to ski in 5 miles on
Saturday to the first hut, 7 miles to the next hut on Sunday, then ski down
to Leadville on Monday. I brought my snowshoes just in case we got to some
difficult terrain or my feet started hurting.
The first day was hard, but mainly because I suck at skiing. I also
discovered that if you get your skins wet, lots of ice builds up, making
them very heavy. A nerve in my left foot got really pissed off about a mile
from the hut. So - the pissed of nerve strikes again - damn! The hut was awesome and toasty warm because a different group was already there when we arrived. Score! Dinner was good and I slept like a rock despite my proximity to strange snoring people.
The next day was a long one - we had 7 miles to go to the next hut and it
had been snowing steadily since Friday. We trekked our way through with
some great navigation from the people I was with. We had to go through some
waist deep snow drifts. Breaking trail in waist deep snow is very tiring
and takes a long time. We were about 2 miles from the second hut when we
lost the trail. We spent awhile looking for it, but with darkness falling
we needed a plan b. We had 3 options, still try to find the next hut in the
dark through more deep snow drifts, build a snow cave and camp out
overnight, or take the shortest path back to the car at the put in, which
was 7 miles. We option for the safest of the three - go back to the car.
Half the trail on the way back was already marked and broken from earlier,
and the other part was on the Colorado trail, which wasn't broken, but was very well marked.
We made it back to the car at around 11:00. Whew. That was the most
physically challenging thing I've ever had to do. 14 hours of skiing/snow
shoeing, half of that in the dark. The group I was with was great. No one
argued or freaked out and kept relatively positive attitudes through the
whole thing. Awesome. Scary. Tiring.

The Neighbors Moved

Yup - the neighbors directly across the street moved - thier house! Check out the picture. The house is so old it didn't really have a foundation so they picked it up, moved it to the side and will put in a foundation and basement then move it back. I knew this would occur, but they've been working on it for months and nothing ever looked like it was going to move. Then last week as I was leaving for a run, I looked up and bam! it looked like this. Woah.

Another tidbit to note is that before the house was moved, they had dug out underneath it. During a couple month lapse in activity there was a freaking mountain lion living under it. Yes - a mountain lion living less than 15 yards from my front door. I was getting the creepies pretty bad when outside at night for awhile, and just blew it off as being a scaredy cat. Well, apparently the creepies were real. They actually saw her, she is a beautiful, healthy looking, smallish female lion. Probably no risk of a human attack, but I am sure some neighborhood animals got it. She's long gone now, but she must be the cat all the trail signs were all about.

Fuck and Run

I never thought I would dig someone like Liz Phair, but someone put this song on a mix CD for me. Here are the lyrics:


I woke up alarmed
I didn't know where I was at first
Just that I woke up in your arms
And almost immediately I felt sorry
'Cause I didn't think this would happen again
No matter what I could do or say
Just that I didn't think this would happen again
With or without my best intentions, and
What ever happened to a boyfriend
The kind of guy who tries to win you over, and
What ever happened to a boyfriend
The kind of guy who makes love cause he's in it, and
I want a boyfriend
I want a boyfriend
I want all that stupid old shit
Like letters and sodas
Letters and sodas
You got up out of bed
You said you had a lot of work to do
But I heard the rest in your head
And almost immediately I felt sorry
'Cause I didn't think this would happen again
No matter what I could do or say
Just that I didn't think this would happen again
With or without my best intentions, and
I want a boyfriend
I want a boyfriend
I want all that stupid old shit
Like letters and sodas
Letters and sodas
I can feel it in my bones
I'm gonna spend another year alone
It's fuck and run
Fuck and run
Even when I was seventeen
Fuck and run
Fuck and run
Even when I was twelve
You almost felt bad
You said that I should call you up but
I knew much better than that
And almost immediately I felt sorry
'Cause I didn't think this would happen again
No matter what I could do or say
Just that I didn't think this would happen again
With or without my best intentions
And I can feel it in my bones
I'm gonna spend my whole life alone
It's fuck and run
Fuck and run
Even when I was seventeen
Fuck and run
Fuck and run
Even when I was twelve

The Lost Post

I just spent about 20 minutes writing a post and it just got deleted. Fuck that.

Hell's Belles

Hell's Belles is an all girl AC/DC cover band. I saw them for the third time last Friday. I do not like AC/DC or all girl bands, but apparently I can't get enough of the Hell's Belles. They are awesome and every time I see them I have a blast. Perhaps it's because it's the only metalish show I can get my friends to go to with me. Either way, if you get a chance, go see them.

Rough Morning

It's been a rough morning. It was all good until my alarm went off at 6:30 and I changed it to 7:30. In that last hour of sleep, or more likley, in the last few minutes of sleep I dreamt about when an ex-boyfriend told me he wished I was more hip and cool. I never found out exactly what he meant by that. Having been a geek/nerd my whole life, I'm not sure that hip and cool are things I want to be, or if they are even attainable to someone like me.

Why do I even care? Apparently I do, because the whole scene has been on repeat in my mind since I woke up.

Here Kitty Kitty...

I've been trying to go running every other day for the last few months. A week or so ago the park people put up signs all over stating that there had been recent mountain lion activity in the area. This happened on the dirt trails near my house which isn't suprising, but there was also one on my running path!!! I am surrounded by ferocious beasts. The coyotes, racoons and giant elk aren't scary enough, bring on the creature that can kill me with a single bite!

I feel somewhat confident that a lion is not stupid or desparate enough to attack me on my mountain bike. However, if you have ever seen me jogging you'd know that I would be a prime target. I run slowly and probably look like a wounded animal while doing so.

I do not like to think about entering the food chain when I go running. I guess that's the end of morning/evening jogs. I am only going at noon when the kitties are sleeping.

Troy Built

I mentioned in my previous post that I finally got to do the Troy Built loop last weekend. This is very good. I rode it 3 years ago and have been declaring ever since that it's the gnarliest trail I've ever ridden. The last time I rode it, I had to turn around and save some man in his 60's that everyone else had left out on the trail. When I found him he was out of it, scared and very injured. I helped him through Mary's Loop and Troy Built. Watching him barely able to walk his bike through made this trail seem super nasty and technical. He turned out to have a broken wrist and several cracked ribs. I watched him fall several times AFTER his initial injuries. We made it out, but it also turns out the trail is NOT that technical or scary. It just seems like that when you're trying to help an injured guy off the trail and it's getting dark. At least I can stop declaring that this normal trail is super gnarly. People gave me weird looks for that and now I know why.

Success!

So, the biking trip was a success! I biked ALL four days! w00t!

The usual mayhem followed me with things like dogs peeing on my tent, all my electronic devices failing, and getting lost and having to hitchhike on the highway - but it didn't get in the way of the important stuff like biking and having beers with cool people at night in front of the campfire.

I rode all the staples like 18 road, the Kokopelli area ( I finally got to do the Troy Built loop!), Rabbit Valley and even the new trail on the Grand Mesa. I also tried out a demo bike, the Yeti 575. *droool* I'm sure you'll hear a lot more about it here :).

Biking Trip: Take Two

So, I am about to embark on another all weekend biking trip. I hope this one goes a bit better... This time, I plan to actually ride my bike :).

Yoga

I do a lot of pretty intense activities, but the one that kicks my ass most is yoga. It's one thing to be on your bike and riding along and huffing and puffing... you're thinking about the next rock or how pretty that tree is or just trying not to crash. When practicing yoga, you are stressing your muscles with your full focus is on them. There's something about doing that. I'm more sore after a 1.5 hour yoga class than a 4 hour bike ride. Weird! The motivation to write this is that the yoga class I was planning on going to today started 3 minutes ago. I'm still sore from Monday night's class! I'm not going today :).

Grasshopper

I saw a grasshopper up close yesterday. It jumped up right next to me on a tomato plant. It was absolutely beautiful. I've seen grasshoppers thousands of times, but this is the first time since I was kid that I was so awestruck by one. It was a much different experience a few weeks ago when I saw a praying mantis in my yard. They look so weird, like aliens. The first thing I thought when I saw it was, "I wonder if it's eaten any heads lately."

The Biking Trip From Hell, or Florida

I went on a biking trip to Moab this weekend. I never rode my bike on any singletrack. It was a weird, weird time but I managed to have a little fun laughing at it all. Here's a summary of how it went:

Drive to Moab for 6 hours.
Set up tent and everyone almost gets blown away it's so windy.
Wake up in the morning (does not imply anyone actually got any sleep) and take a couple hours finding a new campsite.
Set up new camp and get ready for biking.
Tent blows away - with me in it. Twice.
Shove my tent in a car while getting blasted with sand.
Get to the trail head and the one person in the world I don't want to see is parked there.
Immediately start freaking out and heading back to camp.
Went hiking in Arches instead and cried a lot. Had good company though :).
Went to dinner, rode a hardware store fish and went back to camp.
Wow - it's actally a nice night now and we can have a camp fire.
Slept in a car because my tent might blow away.
Get up and ready to ride.
Ride to the trailhead to avoid a $20 shuttle fee.
Wait for 1.5 hours while freezing my ass off - group never shows.
I go back to camp and get out my emergency blanket to try to warm up. All my stuff is in a car in town that I have no key to, oh and my wallet is in there too doh.
Make a fire to keep warm with the stuff left at camp (2 in our group were staying another night).
People show up and by now it's pretty obvious they didn't get shuttled to the top of the Porcupine Rim trail.
Many apologies.
Ride from camp to town.
Drive home for 6 hours.

I'm Hungry But That Belly Full

I can't say much more than that is exactly how I feel these days. There's something to be said for pondering life while running to Rage Against the Machine.

Dark Times, New Friends, Bad Friends

It's been a very dark few weeks for me. I've been feeling bad about myself, my life and my situation. It's not a good place to be. The good part is that it forces some self reflection which I sorely need. I'll pull out of it just fine, but it does make for lack of blog entries because I refuse to make this the gloom and doom blog. No one wants to read that and I have no desire to look back and read about it either.

A change of perspective... I've been feeling a lack of friends ever since I moved to Colorado. Over the past few weeks, good supportive friends have been coming out of the woodwork. These are people I considered acquaintances, but it turns out many are much more than that. I've also met new people and they are awesome. I hope some will become life long friends. I am so thankful for those who have reached out to me lately.

About best friends... The only person who hasn't been supportive at all is the person I have always called my best friend. I have some more thinking to do about why I chose to call her my best friend. Perhaps it's because I've known her my whole life. She's given me a friend model with incredibly low expectations and that is not acceptable. I believe this is the root of my trouble making long lasting, meaningful friendships. My friends deserve better than I have been giving them and it's taken me 20 years to figure this out. The friendship bar has risen and if she falls off so be it. I deserve better. Harsh, yes - but it's the truth.

The Chrysler

There was some old car just parked without a driver in the middle of the road right in front of my house today. I wish I had taken a picture. Evenutally a cop showed up and parked behind it until a tow truck came. The car had a broken axle and the owner just left it there. I wonder where they towed the car to and if the owner will ever claim it. There's giant speed bump in front of my house that cars are always flying over - I'm guessing that is what did the axle in.

Kenosha Pass

On Sunday I rode on of my favorite mountai

n bike rides, Kenosha Pass to Georgia Pass on the Colorado Trail. The weather was cool and overcast - perfect for riding. The picture below is of the group I rode with on top of Georgia Pass (11,585 ft). On the way back, we stopped at the Coney Island place that is shaped like a hot dog. Hot dogs can be good, but look at that giant pile of relish :P. Mustard and onions only please!

Kickball Party

I went to a kickball party yesterday where second base was the keg, and in addition to the standard rules, you had to have a drink in one hand at all times. This made catching a throwing the ball pretty tricky, not to mention running bases. I never knew kickball could be so much fun :).

Maartin's World

I decided it's time to increase my dent in the internet and start this blog. I'd like to use it to take a look back at stuff and see what the hell I've done and what I thought about at the time. If you decide to read it, enjoy!