skieldora

this past weekend was quite an wonderful one which involved a new city scene for a night, a new skiing town for the adventuresome and new humor for the soul. my friend got this killer of a deal where we could stay the night in boulder and ski our hearts out at eldora mountain. off we go..

words that come to mind when i think of boulder is energetic, esoteric, hippie but not hipster and flatirons [that i want to climb]. such a gem of a city that i think dearly of and love living within a short drive to. i admire its density mostly achieved by the 1960's 'no growth policy' and the innate desire for locals to transport themselves via bike or foot from here to there. the balance of college town thrown into the mix is always one that confuses me. maybe it's because boulder is just not fayetteville [my college town], so i try not to dwell on that too much. i think if i ever moved to boulder i would HAVE to go to school. if only they had a paramount masters program for urban design i would be moving tomorrow and enrolling yesterday. so it goes, i will just visit.
well, pearl street was a blast, people watching mostly and strangely enough it was a little dead for a friday night. then the hour struck 11 p.m. and from every which way crowds of vibrant people filled the streets. it was activated and showing its true colors.

skiing on minimal sleep is not recommended...ever. lazy and skier are not a good combo. surprisingly, the small amount of sleep i got sufficed for the day, lucky me. my skiing experience goes no further than steamboat so getting to adventure around a new mountain was great. the runs were much more hidden than i was used to which allowed my mind to wander and thoughts just took off as the snow fell around us. i love how a place can do this to the mind. new places evokes new thoughts and stifles unwanted ones. [even though i'm not having many of those these days] i guess that proves that adventuring into uncharted lands, for the individual of course, is stellar for the soul.

move overgolden

the ability to get in my car and drive 10 minutes west and be at the base of a climbing destination is remarkable! the best part of this particular destination is that even though how close it is to 'home' you still get the feeling that you are out of the city. which ever town you are coming from it doesn't matter. only thing important is that you are up and away for a warm winter sunday afternoon. the town almost directly below is Golden. home to coors beer, intelligent Mines students and apparently jolly rancher candy that i am ironically eating right now [weird]. then looking southeast you see denver and all its flat glory. if you look hard enough you might see the kansas state line. okay maybe not. it really is a great view onto all of the infrastructure and even the sad and ridiculous amounts of suburbia sprawl. this concept of the 90's never ceases to fascinate me. anyways, golden is fun, its cute but i whole-heartily think that it should be denver. now if you just close your eyes and think for a second [i understand this might be hard if you have never been to colorado and more specifically denver and even more specifically golden and most specifically north table mountain] that we super-impose the urban city of denver and i suppose a few of the metropolitan surroundings of my liking, right there at the foothills of the rockies. i can see it now.

why did this not happen? isin't it all about 'location, location, location'? don't get me wrong, i like denver, i love denver. i just think if it got up and ran 8 miles west it would be a dream city. and we would go climb during the week at lunch and rarely return. the boundaries would be the mountains and also our backyard, quite literally.

why do cities land where they do? duh. because of gold and such discoveries. but if i was the founder of denver colorado i would have chosen the mountains over the gold.

taa-da. the city.

an old locationfor a new year


who doesn't love the newness of anything? one can easily argue that broken-in and familiar is the best way to be, but there is just something great about the beginning of anything. so after an awesome new year's eve in denver i headed out new years day morningish to steamboat springs; a breathtaking mountain town that holds ALL of my colorado, prior to living in colorado, memories. a familiar place for the newness of this year: perfect. steamboat is the only place I had spent more than a layover in and is no doubt a sensational town. I hadn't visited in 5 years and even while every inch was capped in shining snow it all still felt so familiar. There is nothing like coming back to a place and your senses awaken through a nostalgic heart. The same view on the main street upon entering the town, one of two lone grocery stores was still standing firm in the same place I had remembered, and why wouldn't it be? the swimming pool with the giant slides that mark the right hand turn to my aunt and uncles house had changed. WHAT!? no more sweet slides. though do not worry, i soon found out there was just a renovation. a little sad at first, but after a visit to relax in the hot tubs, it still held its original presence that i could recall. there was one wonderful addition, a climbing wall that sat at the edge of a monstrous hot tub and when you could no longer hang on or rang the bell of victory you could just take the plunge. miraculous! brilliant invention of hot-tubbing and bouldering. i hope to see some of this in Heaven. okay, back to the city. ahhh yes, steamboat, so quaint and still capable of soaking up some 12,000 visitors on any given winter weekend. the skiing- remarkable and in the summer there are endless adventures to get lost in. hopefully i will make a few more trips before the snow melts.

"In that world, you'll be able to rise in the morning with the spirit you had known in your childhood: that spirit of eagerness, adventure and certainty which comes from dealing with a rational universe"
ayn.rand

[how i felt 97.9% of the time waking up in Rome]

to all a season

i have got to say that any city or place where 'four seasons' reaches to is simply that much better of a place. growing up i seriously didn't know that tree's leaves turned any other color in the fall than green or dead brown. i kid you not; sad i know. fall time in fayetteville is another story and is appreciated endlessly though is not the reason for these words. however, it occupies deliriously happy thoughts. but colorado and its natural beauty is something that amazes me to new heights each day i spend in it. this past weekend being in the mountains was breathtaking. instead of the green i was so used to seeing since arriving this summer, white had taken over and made its unapologetic mark. it was so great to see the transformation into the winter season and how it was affecting all that was touched. lately there has been thought to the seasons of life and how there is a time for each of us to accept those seasons. seasons of alteration, growth, reflection, fade, consistency, and revolutionary change and the list goes on. the toughest part is acknowledging what the season is for your life and inviting it in with open arms. the season for my life as of late has been a slow fade with a side dish of transformation. these things are not only affecting my outlook on the everyday duties but a further look into life and how much of a great journey it truly is. there is little i or anyone can do to alter the season they are in. just because the weather changes doesn't mean the seasons of our lives does the same. i love this about life.
im waiting for the revolutionary season.

there's always time

the drive home from albuquerque after thanksgiving was nothing less than majoryly eventful. the not too bad 6 hour drive quickly turned into a days worth of driving, yes 12 hours of time spent in my car. the smartest thing I did, besides pulling off to get gas when i did was stopping to adventure up to the Cadet Chapel at the air force base in colorado springs. I had been wanting to see it, but was always passing in the dark, so now, when it would be covered in fresh snow was going to be my best chance yet..and i took it. the guard was hesitant on letting me in as the snow was coming down hard and the streets were barely visible, but i was lucky and he let me slide in. it was a winding way up to the chapel and with steep hills and sharp curves my anticipation only grew. soon in front of me was a gorgeous steel and glass structure that sat perfect within the

mountain side. a very modern chapel with 17 spires to resemble jets soaring up to the sky. i was of course the only one there, but i did not mind. it was wonderfully peaceful and wish i could have stayed longer to relax in its beauty, unfortunately it was getting dark and the snow had only picked up, though i must say that the all the extra time spent in the car didn't even put a damper on the side stop that led me to such joy.

its been a long time coming

well, yes its been a while. but there have been many adventures in the past year and none will go forgotten...ever. and less importantly they will find a place on here soon.
oh and maybe a few site improvements could be necessary

The Land of Enchantment

Most probably don't know that New Mexico is called the land of enchantment, but here I am telling you that it is. So I went to New Mexico for a couple days and had such a great time. It is such a different place than over here on the east coast..the food, the architecture, the people, the cost of living and just the style of living. Its crazy how it changes so much from each state in this country; makes for some excitement I guess. The main reason for going was a wedding but we did so much more. My mom and I went to Sante Fe for the day and just walked around and hung out. The historic downtown is set up where there is a park in the middle surrounded by tons of shops and people selling their handmade jewelry, so cool. I've never been when its snowing, so I definitely want to go back sometime in the winter. We stayed in Albuquerque in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains and hiked around there one morning. I attempted at climbing this massive boulder for a sweet picture but realized my life would be in jeopardy on the way down, so I only went half way, smart thinking.kinda. And there would be pictures but my dumb camera got rained on by the stupid rain. What is it with me and water and electronics. Couldn't it have rained on my shoes or a book or I don't know something less expensive. Then the wedding was in Bernallio....soo gorgeous out there. You can see for miles. Okay, one of the best parts about going out there was that I got to see WIMBY!! She was so excited to see us, I think she remembered, of course she did, ill just tell myself that.

Only two more weeks left in d.c.....ahhhh I still have to go to every monument. shoot.

This is the part of my life I call 'running'

I felt like Will Smith on The Pursuit of Happiness on more than 2 occasions this weekend. I chased down public transportation like no other, I was sprinting- bags in hand every freakin time, a rush I tell ya. But unlike him, I made it, lucky me.

This past weekend I went to new york city. It was my first time there and I got to see my good friend, so that was so exciting. I took the bus leaving from Chinatown in d.c. Doesn't sound too promising does it? Well let me tell you, its wasn't. But hey you can't beat 35 bucks round trip, so keeping that in mind it was easy to be flexible. New York was great! We went to Times Square, Rockefeller Center, rode the Metro lots, ran along the Hudson river, walked through Central Park, ate lunch in Greenwich Village, tried to get dessert at Serendipity [booo lines], and swam in the ocean at Long Beach. WoW, all that in just two days, and I'm sure there is much more to see and do. I mean its only the biggest city in our country. Come to think of it, I just realized I didn't see any famous people, not that I was looking..well I guess that means one thing, famous people are just overrated. Well not really, it would be better to say famous people stakeouts are overrated. Until I venture off to more new places, I'm happy to be back in d.c.

Nationals Game

So you can't pass up free tickets to a mlb game. And I know most people think baseball is boring, but I love it. No joke, I find myself watching it on t.v. believe it or not. So our firm was giving away some tickets that were given to them, and being an intern I thought we wouldn't have a chance to get them, but hooray we did. What an American outing...baseball, beer, peanuts, the National anthem sung by some blonde chick, you can't beat that. Nor the 90 degrees weather, man it was hot. It made me miss Arkansas baseball games, since we skipped out on a whole season since we were in Rome. Well the fans here are sooo calm compared to Rome's sport, futbol and we actually clap when some dude on the other team hits a homer. In a soccer stadium in Italy they would want to steal their first born child, okay little harsh. But its pretty intense over there. Hope there are more Nationals games!