Smile on my face :)

The seemingly random, small things in life happen to have the impact of an impeding avalanche. They just burst into my life and BAM! a smile is created. Maybe that is why I am annoyingly happy the majority of the time. I see the minute details of a day's events as the ones that count.

For instance, two weeks ago I bought a coffee grinder and French press. No more of this buying coffee at Dazbog or Starbucks. Or so I thought. I pulled out of my driveway (steep angle - this is important) and drove down the alley to the road, this is a full block, mind you. When I was about 1/2 block out of my alley, I reached for my beautiful green coffee mug. It was not there. Here is my train of thought that followed: Oh shit. Where is my coffee? In the kitchen still? Oh no. Oh no. laughter follows. a lot of laughter. I placed it on my trunk. REVERSE THE CAR! End of my thoughts. Where was the coffee? Spewing into the road, at the end of the alley. At this point, I was so impressed that the coffee mug had traveled down the driveway and the full length of the alley only to fall when I turned into the street. There it was, my freshly ground coffee that smells of fresh blueberry pancakes, seeping onto 16th Avenue. Oh, Monday mornings.


Small, seemingly random event #2:
The trees of China Bowl at Vail. I can't even begin to explain the sheer joy that I feel when I reach China Bowl. I don't ever need to go to China because my idea of China is defined by Vail's back bowls and it is wonderful. Well, maybe I'll still go to China someday but I think my image of China is going to be centered on the sharp curves around tightly packed trees. These trees grew knowing that a snowboard would hug their curves and allow boarders and skiers to use them as leverage on a narrow turn or as a base for resting when legs are burning up.
Let's talk about spring skiing. There is this thing called the sun. And it warms up the packed powder enough to make it mushy and like a pillow. Flying through that just makes my day. I hit up Eldora - it was alright through the tree runs, Vail (of course) and Breckenridge this weekend. "Breckenwind" was icy and not nearly as great as Vail. But it was a day of snowboarding and I got to practice riding goofy and hitting the rollers. I took a bad fall but it was SO FUN. Slip N Slide has NOTHING on cruising down a semi-icy groomer.
Breck, from the Peak 7 gondola:


#3. After a morning of snowboarding, I headed back to Denver where it was 65 and sunny. I ran about 4 miles in a tank top and t-shirt. This is my life and I am definitely in the right place. Gotta love it.
My house is always open to visitors... just saying.

Snow

As I sit at Hooked on Colfax, gorgeous March snow is falling down in big, puffy flakes. I can't get enough of this white, airy stuff. "This is why I live here," is a slogan seen across Denver and throughout Colorado. It's a quote that is repeated so frequently I think there is a bumper sticker. There has to be. If not, I am on that. And it would be the one and only bumper sticker I would ever put on my car. I'm not a fan of the overly decorated car with multiple bumper stickers, many of which highlight the driver as some extreme idealist or extreme Republican. If my car were magnetic, I'd throw some magnets on there because my mood and thoughts change too much to have permanent ink on my car.

So much has been happening in my life that I haven't had a chance to brain dump my travels, experiences, wild stories and fears in a while. Warning: there is not a focus to my writing, it's a "lluvia de ideas," in English - a downpour of ideas.

Snow. I love it and live for it. I've been up to Breckenridge, Vail and Beaver Creek so much this season; Vail is now my home mountain. The snow at Vail is to die for. I could die happy after riding through China Bowl all day. Next topic: China Bowl.God has created a beautiful country and such a pristine maze of trees up there. I feel like I am experiencing something so unique to me, only shared with the man upstairs, and that feeling is empowering and spiritually charging. The last time I was up at China Bowl, I made my own line down through the trees for about 5-10 minutes because there was so much fresh powder and uncharted area. My snowboard was gliding like I was riding through buttery sugar. Then, I stopped. There was too much powder. Luckily I stopped - I was on the edge of a cliff that dropped straight down and at the bottom was green run. That run was really far down; if I had to estimate the distance, it was 20 feet or so. Too far to jump for this kid! I had to trek out and eventually take off my board to walk out for a while. That was exhausting and tiring. Eventually I made it down to a green run, was exhausted and sat on that chair to recharge. The man next to me heard me telling my cliff story and was cracking up. He is someone to look up to - living in Vail for 40 years and skis over 100 days a year. WHAT!? I have been up to ride enough to lose count; I long for the year I can live and ski, live and ski. He made that ride warm up with a shot of whiskey! Oh, to be wealthy enough to ski for a living. How can I get paid to do that?

Vail. In a nutshell - powder, bowls and so much terrain you can't do it all in 40 years (as told to me by a man who has been living there for 40 years).



I feel renewed every time I leave the mountains and head back to Denver on the 70. Denver is such a great city that coming back down is okay; I know I can head back up to Breck, Keystone or Vail for a weekend or a day's skiing. The vacation never ends when the snow is so close. What am I going to do when there is no more snow!? Yikes!

Well - one thing I will be doing - running 5Ks and 10Ks in and around Denver. I ran the Running of the Green today in Denver. The weather was awful; below 30 degrees, cloudy and overcast because it was about to snow. Yesterday was in the 60s and sunny. Spring is here! Plus, the resurgence of Denver Cruisers and the Wednesday Cruisers rides will be awesome!

Oh - and I am heading back to South America! Por fin!
June 22nd - depart for Peru, Machu Picchu and then off to Buenos Aires, Agentina and Bariloche, Argentina. We'll end the trip in Santiago, Chile. 35 days of la pura vida.