All about the journey

First off, a HUGE thank you to my readers; your immediate support and encouragement in this blog means the world to me! (and I’m glad I have the pressure to keep it going )

This week was one I was bracing for, now that all of my free time from my job is going directly to my internship; but I’m thinking that working seven days a week won’t be as wearing as I’d originally thought. I think it pretty much comes down to the fact I’m spending time in two places I very much enjoy, with people who are pleasant to work with and an environment that seems to suit me more than any other job I’ve had.

In other words, I want to be here.

So until the ski season is over mid-April, my weeks are pretty much going to look something like this:

Monday—Wake up at 5:30 a.m. for morning work at Snowmass; snowboard break at lunch; afternoon work at Snowmass; get home around 5:30/6 p.m.; evening mountain run; sleep

Tuesday—Wake up at 7:30 a.m. for morning work at Trail Runner; optional running break at lunch; afternoon work at Trail Runner; get home around 5:30 p.m.; evening run if I didn’t over lunch; sleep

Wednesday—Repeat of Tuesday

Thursday—Repeat of Monday

Friday—Morning work at Trail Runner; run break over lunch; afternoon work at Trail Runner until 3:30 p.m.; night work at Snowmass until 10 p.m.; hobble home zombie-style before the next a.m.; sleep

Saturday and Sunday—Repeat of Monday and Wednesday

 

Notice I didn’t pencil in any breakfasts, lunches or dinners.
It’s cause I eat about three breakfasts, lunches and dinners a day, and I don’t have time to type all of that out. (Seriously, ever since I’ve started running again, the fridge is always empty. Why is the fridge always empty???)

Also the snowboard/ski breaks aren’t always a guarantee (sometimes I work through those, too) and the same with the run breaks (most of you are probably like, “well DUH, I’d work through those every day…”)
And I know there’s going to be days I say that, too, but in the meantime my coworkers at Trail Runner are like “Yeah I only have about an hour so I’m just gonna go do a quick 10-miler. Be back soon!”……

  I’ve gotta get my butt back in shape.

I also didn’t pencil in my social life, but fear not, I manage to make time for that too. For example, on the one night this past week you’d think I WOULDN’T go out, I attended a special event held in Carbondale, which happens once a month, called “First Friday.” It’s basically the one night out of the whole month that this tiny town makes a name for itself, as both locals and neighboring areas swarm the streets to immerse themselves in music, art, shopping, and beer. Having only heard about it two days prior, I made the split second decision after work Friday night to drive the 35 minutes back down-valley to meet up with new friends— both from my internship and work—and see what all the hype was about. Turns out, due to both my late arrival and the time of year, it was no more “hopping” than a typical weekday night in touristy Aspen; it was still a great time though, and I decided meeting new people, laughing with friends, and experiencing yet another piece of this life was worth the 2.5 hours of sleep I squeezed in before driving back up-valley for work the next morning.

And on another bright note, on my way to work I got to experience this breathtaking drive; seriously, what a commute:

 

 

And that’s only about 1/3 of the drive to Snowmass ski resort. Some early mornings, the sunrise spills orange and pink pastels over the peak of Mount Sopris (that dominating mountain you saw). Other mornings, Sopris looms in heavy fog and moon shadows, making it even more entrancing, and therefore harder to focus on driving. It’s not uncommon to see about 500 deer on the sides of the road, either, though I think in this video you can only see the perfectly posed one.

Notice the snow is barely hanging on! It’s been quite an unusual February for the area, according to locals. For the past three weeks, we’ve had about 1.5 days that weren’t sunshine and blue skies. While I’m not complaining about the temperature spike or tan I’m getting in the middle of winter, it would be nice to have at least one more snowfall. Let me tell you, it is NOT fun to fall skiing/snowboarding on ice!

Speaking of which, I’m practicing up on my snowboarding, and will follow up on my experiences with that in another post—I’m waiting for another powder day to break out the GoPro and get some cool action shots!

Wish my brain some luck with my internship this week; I swear some of my mental gears rusted over since college almost two years ago, and WOW was it a wakeup call to think! think! think! for nearly eight hours a day at Trail Runner. This is an excellent thing, though—after so long, I really needed to be engaged in the writing community again. It’s good to be back in action.

Thanks again for keeping up with my blog, check back soon for the next post!

 

Venture on, adventurers!