Roller Derby

I saw a Roller Derby bout on Saturday. Wow have things changed since I was an aspiring roller girl in 2005. The event sold out a real venue, and they had all sorts of fancy outfits, announcers and staff. They even sell season tickets. I was very impressed. However, I was distracted by my company so I didn't pay very close attention to the acutal bout. They have sure come a long way - congrats derby folks! Your hard work has paid off.

I Voted

So I came to realise this week that my favorite part of voting is wearing the "I Voted" sticker all day. I do like when the people I vote for win (which they did this time), but I truly enjoy the sticker more.

Snow is in the Forecast!

I am so excited about winter. I looked up the weather for this weekend and saw snow! Yeah! I knew it was going to be in the mountains, but we might just get some here :).

Likely it will be mostly rain, but it's the start of good things to come this winter.

I love the snow.

Defiant

Yup. I've moved on from defective to defiant.
I'm not perfect. Either are you, so don't expect it from me.
Deal or disperse.

Defective

Yup that's me. I have learned recently that I am so defective that I either need to change my personality or risk being alone the rest of my life. That's a hard thing to swallow. It's been stuck in my throat for awhile, but it was officially swallowed yesterday.

So I am debating... do I really try to change myself or go live in the forest like a hermit? If I live in the forest I could have a dog...

The Man

As you can see from my last post, I broke my racing bike. My good ol' bike for normal stuff is a lovely ride, but it weighs in at about 33 pounds and isn't a very good climber. So I determined that I _needed_ a new racing bike :).

Thanks to Craigslist, I found The Man. He's a Titus ftm, which is their all mountain bike. It's got XTR fixings, great wheels (the same wheels the Turner had), and best of all a Talas fork! I love it. I was able to save lots by buying the man used, very lightly used. What a bargain and a great bike. Here's to The Man.

The Squirrel Is Dead

I had two mountain bike races last weekend. The Saturday Hill climb at Winter Park went well, but it sure hurt! We climbed form the base of Winter Park up to the top of Mary Jane on the dirt road. There was still snow everywhere!

Sunday was the Beti Bike Bash. I was doing well and really pushing hard when my bike wouldn't shift out of the big ring. After some fiddling (Georgia Gould stopped to help me!) I kept going while wrestling with the shifter. As some point I start hearing a clink clink clink noise and the bike feels waaaay unstable. I thought maybe I was just tired from all the racing. I stopped again to find out what the clinking was. OMG - it was my bike frame! A tube has sheared right by the shock. Catashrophic failure indeed.

I really didn't want to DNF (did not finish) so I decided to run up the rest of the hills and ride m broken steed ever so slowly the rest of the way. I must have had at least 15 girls pass me, but I finished!

So what does this all have to do with squirrels? I named this mountain bike the Squirrel. Bye bye Mr. Squirrel.

The Long Haul

There's just something I love about really long mountain bike rides. There's this level of zen, it's the same as I feel when I run for over an hour. I was lucky enough to get in a long ride like this on Saturday. We did sections 2 and 3 of the colorado trail. It was such a good ride. Most people turned around after abot 12 miles due to time constrains, but Heather and Paul were up for more. Yeah! We got in about 30 miles of singletrack and 10 miles of dirt road.

Fear the Reaper

I'd like to raise chickens someday. This involves some not so pleasant things. When a friend was looking for some help slaughtering some of their chickens I decided to volunteer. I figure I had better know what I am getting into with this chicken thing. I think everyone should have to slaughter at least one animal to experience first hand the life that is taken each time we eat meat.

I did everything from catching the chicken in the coop to preparing it for storage. It was something else to directly cause the death of such an innocent and beautiful creature. Horrifying, yet necessary. Overall, it was a positive learning experience but I don't think I am going to eat chicken for a little while.

Is That Really Me?

We were able to buy some awesome pictures from the photographer at Elevation. That's me to the left. WTF? Is that me? It's a bit strange. I don't think I've finished settling into my new girly self.

Post Elevation

Elevation was a couple weekends ago. It's a 4-day belly dance festival in my town. It;s the biggest dealifo the year for my dance troupe so we spend lot sof time getting ready. It was a huge success this year and lots of fun. Problem is that once it is all over, I can't help but feel sad for alittle while. It's like a "well, what's next" feeling for a little while.

It's over for me now though - I go to Moab on Friday! :) :) :)

Exciting Ways To Die

I had a strange dream last night. I was hiking with someone, I'm not sure who it was. Suddenly we were surrounded by a triangle of terror. An angry bull moose, grizzly bear and mountain lion. It was a stare down. So I fumble with my pack to get out my camera to take a video of the impending doom. I remember thinking, "If I am going to die in such a spectacular way, someone's got to know about it!" Funny thing is that I took video of the animals then turned off my camera so by actual demise was not recorded. It turned out that we just stayed there in a stand off and then my dream fizzled.

Sailing Away and Smiling Fish

I went on a vacation recently where I stayed for a week on a 40-foot catamaran sailboat. We sailed around a few of the Virgin Islands and stayed for a couple days in a hotel on St. Thomas. Overall it was a good vacation but the thing I remember most about the trip are these painting I saw. Paul and I ended up at an art gallery on St. John and this woman had large paintings with lots of fish and turtles and they were all wearing smiles - every single one. I wish I could have taken one home with me :).

The Walk of REI Shame

I have this awesome pair of hiking boots. I wear them hiking and also use them on my mountain bike. My feet grew half a size recently. Ever so slowly my boots became too small, along with the rest of my shoes. I was talking about it, and since these were pricey REI boots, my friends convinced me to take them back for an exchange in a size that works.

So, I head into REI and take my boots to the counter. As the woman takes them out of the bag, she looks at my boots iwth a raised eyebrow. Instead of my faithful boots, I see a pair of heavily used, slightly tattered boots with water stains and shredded soles from mountain bike pedals.

She looks up my account and says "You bought these in 2006."

Wow, 2006. Now I felt like a total ass. She said they'd still take them back, but it just didn't seem like the right thing to do. I took my boots and made my walk of shame back to the car.

Firetastic

As I am typing this I can look over and out my window and see the foothills burning red. Crazy. It's been really dry and just two weeks ago I saw a fire up past Boulder. It reminds me of Jimi Hendrix, but I don't want to stand next to the fire. The picture really doesn't do it justice.

ADD

I am falling in love. It feels good, but it's giving me ADD. I have to try extra hard to focus on doing anything but day dreaming. Work is suffereing, my house is a mess and here I am happy as a clam. I don't get it, and frankly I don't care. I'm on this ride now and I am going to savor every moment of it.

And She's Back Again

Hi - it's me again. Only almost two years later. Woah. I've been up to lots of stuff. I finally recovered from the room mate incident and I am happy to report that I have been room mate and cat pee free since then.

I also bought a townhouse, moved three times, went to Italy, India, Switzerland, captained my mountain bike race team, ran a half marathon and the urbanathlon while battling lost love demons, started a plot on the community garden, finally went on a mountain bike hut trip, can official shred on my snowboard and I have made it to the advanced level (almost) in my dance troupe (that's right I belly dance now!).

It's been a whirlwind, but I can not express how awesome it has all been for me. I've expanded on almost every level personally. It was a tough couple years, but I've come out the other side as a new person. And I like her. A lot.