Quick Trip To CO

This is not a book related post. Although, I did finish Steve Kluger's "Last Days of Summer" on the plane out to Denver and thank god for long hair to shield my crying from the person sitting next to me. Although my multiple reaches for tissues may have given me away. Holy potatoes is that book phenomenal. Go read it.

So last Fall my surf buddy moved inland and broke my heart. Well, not really. But sort of. You don't often find a friend who is willing to deal with you at 6:30 in the morning, pre-caffeination, spend hours in the car driving to and from the beach, and handle the sight of you peeling yourself out of a wetsuit. Have you ever tried to get out of a wetsuit? It's not a pretty sight.

Anywho, this buddy and I became close friends quickly - really we're the same person. Our pets are even the same - she has a pitbull version of Bug. It's uncanny. So when she moved inland I was really down about the fact that I have no one to surf with and also she's a friend who over the summer grew to be one of my inner circle but is now a 4-hour plane ride away. But guess what? I'm a winter sport kind of girl. So Denver really should be my second home.

So I have a list taped to my mirror at home. On it I've written really random things I'd like to accomplish in life. And I mean REALLY random. Examples: See Northern Lights; See a lion in the wild; Bake a Chocolate Souffle. See what I mean? One of the items is "Snowboard Out West". So obviously I wanted to check that item off, now that I have a friend to visit in Denver. So this past weekend I flew out and we spent two days riding at Breckenridge.

I didn't bring my own board because I'm a worrier and I just had this feeling that if I checked my board it would get broken. And then I would cry. So I rented the Solomon "Oh Yeah" board from Christy's and loooooved it. I came home intending to buy it and my father ended up talking me into a Never Summer board instead (there are serious perks to having a father who's an instructor). "But Dad, is it pretty?" I asked over the phone when he was placing the order. "Yeah, Steph, I made sure to get you the pretty board." I could feel his eye roll from thirty miles away.

 I have spent most of my time snowboarding over the years alone. My dad is usually off giving a lesson and I don't have many friends into skiing/snowboarding so I just got used to riding the lifts alone. I never really minded it much until this weekend. It is so much fun riding with a friend! Surf Buddy challenged me, convincing me that I could totally handle going down a black diamond. And I feel like I got even more confidence over the course of the weekend, which is huge because ever since my accident I always have an element of fear in each run. To each of my friends and family members who worried I was going to lose another tooth on this trip - aside from a bruised tailbone I am in one piece. I'm not that accident prone.

There were moose sightings both days - on Saturday a lift had to be shut down due to a charging moose, and anyone who knows me well knows how excited I get by wild animal sightings. So I was really bummed to miss both moose. Not that I wanted to be charged, but still, it would have been cool to see.

Lastly, I would just like to say that I have always had a soft spot for chairlift guys. They make me melt. I can't explain it. Something about snowpants, beards and being friendly just gets to me. I assume they are friendly with everyone who gets on the lift, but the guys at Breckenridge seemed particularly friendly. One even made a joke about the ski bikes that were in line behind me and then offered to go tandem bike skiing with me. I don't believe they have invented those yet, but when they do - it's a date.

But now I am back in Beantown and that means getting back to writing. And Thursday is the start of Spring and that means surf season soon!

Happy Reading!

~Stephanie