On the Sunny Side...

Days are good (in general) and sunny (for the most part). I'm focusing my energy on the good, the sunny and the positive. People and situations with negative energy.. be cast aside.

Even though it's still February, the sun has been shining and the snow has been warming up enough for one to think spring is truly around the corner. Though this is unheard of in Jackson- I'm going with it. And I'm happy about it.

Motivated by his nearing departure from the valley, my friend Davey motivated a few of us to plan an epic nordic adventure yesterday. This included a 10 mile ski into granite hotsprings (south of town). The brilliance of the plan is that it is in a beautiful location, with an amazing pool filled with natural mountain spring water waiting after a long ski in. The flip side... you have to ski 10 miles back out with wibbly wobbly hot springs soaked muscles to fuel you. We went for it! Five friends and I headed out early yesterday am to beat the dogs sleds and snow mobile tours. We made great time and had a lovely day of it. We even lucked out with an afternoon of sunshine to give our noses and cheeks the sunglow only a day of skiing can provide.

Then to top off my already epic day, I had tickets to see one of my all time favs.. Jalan Crossland http://www.jalancrossland.com/ at Dornan's in Moose, WY. He's a WY boy that was a constant in my life a few years ago, but hasn't been to Jackson in a while. Master banjo picker with some rough and funny lyrics- and though our sun soaked faces were exhausted, it rounded out a perfectly shaped and epic day- fo'sho!

Today the mellow Sunday consisted of a lazy breakfast and few runs on the King. Keep the sunshine coming!!

Happy Full Snow Moon to all-

until next time... keep on the sunny side of your life! :)

February Continues...

The sun is shining.

I'm wrapping up a weekend with the rents. Over to Jackson to visit and earn medical credits. It's been a good weekend. Mostly relaxing, eating good meals and a bit of skiing. We'll be off to Planet Lotus in a bit and that makes me happy.

Last weekend I flew to the windy city to hang out with college girlfriends (GW2010). Fun was had. I will admit that I wasn't super psyched to head out to blustery Chicago in the middle of February and continue the trend of needing to catch up on sleep... but it was worth it. The weekend basically consisted of eating, drinking, watching olympics, going out... (hit repeat). Oh and laughing. Lots of laughing, and a little bit of darts thrown in. We did hit the Art Institute and even saw some sunshine. Mostly it was just fun to hang out with good friends that I see far too little of. Thanks friends.

Maybe my hightlight was Sunday Brunch (vday indeed) at ZED [http://www.zed451.com/]. An amazing buffet brunch, complete with roaming meat skewers and maple cajun bacon. Really enough said...

Ski Hard, Ski Fast and Don't Fall DOWN!

So I've totally been slacking. I said I was going to keep a blog and bloggers don't go months without blogging. Maybe some do. This one clearly does. I was re-inspired realizing I was actually being followed.

SO- big news this week... I just finished the Sun Valley Boulder Mountain Tour. http://www.bouldermountaintour.com/ 32k of brilliantly groomed and sunlit trails in Idaho. It was the longest race I've ever done and was quite pleased with myself for finishing... and in under 2 hrs. I hadn't really any idea of what to expect... but getting a migraine at kilometer 20 wasn't in the mix. Apart from not really being able to see for the following 10k and feeling completely cached out upon seeing the '5k left to go' sign... it wasn't that bad. I saw my friend elise at the finish and collapsed into her arms and realized I was on the verge of tears. A cup of water and a warm bowl of butternut squash soup later... I was feeling better and at least in the mood to head to the car and change out of those dang boots.
Never fear... a thrift store and a double shot of espresso and collard quinoa wrap later and you would have hardly known I had skied that day.
What a fabulously lovely place. As elise expressed... 'It feels like we're in another country.' I hadn't realized that the Sun Valley area was such an epicenter for nordorks like myself, but with over 200K of groomed trails, nearly everyone at every age nordic skis and are pretty happy about it. I figure you could definitely come across worse obsessions.
My good friend Cortney and her family generously hosted us, with bunk beds, laughs, food and fun. With every other joyous expression out of Elise and my mouth being, 'Oh, the SUN feels so great!' one can hardly deny that we must be living in a cold dark hole. In any case, it was great to get out and ski a bit in the valley of the sun.

And not to sit still for too long... Friday I am off to (possibly a less favorable environment) the windy city! Chi-town for girls weekend O-'10. Stay tuned for (some toned down) details of that to come.
Hugs and love to all...
thejet