Day-Dreaming: One Year Ago Today

Blast from the Past

Let's pretend it's January 10, 2011, shall we?

It was a cold morning when I woke up in Aspen, Colorado. It was day 3 of my eight day getaway with my family and Josh. We put our skis on and hit the slopes in the morning. It was the coldest day of the week with temperatures well below zero so we took the afternoon off and headed into town. We walked around with Erik, shopped at the Aspen thrift and at the ridiculously expensive ski shops. We ate dinner and watched the first half of the BCS National Championship game at The Red Onion restaurant. Then we headed back to the condo, where I fell asleep by 9pm.

I spent the rest of the week Sweating in Style, retro ski edition, with Nathan. I wore a pair of blue overalls that I got for $6 at a thrift store and a red 80's white stag jacket from etsy. Nathan sported a purple onesy ski suit from a thrift store and a 40 year-old face mask that our grandpa wore skiing in the 70s. We also own skis from 1995. Blast from the past, right here.

Lesson: In pictures on mountains, the shorter person should always stand uphill.

Three days later, I skiied my first double black diamond in the Rocky Mountains and it was scary and hard and so incredibly invigorating. The next day, I convinced Nathan, who hadn't been on skiis since he was about 12, to join me for his first double black diamond anywhere. And he rocked it.

Present Day


I'v been told that right now is a horrible time to be in the Colorado mountains. Vale had to be shut down last week for the first time ever. There is so little snow and it would be a shame to have spent loads of money flying across the country and purchasing lift tickets, only to skid down a mountain in wet, non-powdery slush. We've also been incredibly lucky over here on the east coast with four beautifully sunny and warm weekends in a row. I am truly happy that the year is 2012 and that I have so much to look forward to. But I can't help but be nostalgic this week and wish that I was starting the year off with the same cold and sweaty experience that I started 2011 off with. It was a dream.

It helps that it snowed yesterday. While walking home from work in wet snow, wearing a pea coat is nothing like skiing down a powdery mountain looking like an 80s bombshell/stormtrooper, I decided to make the most of it and got a quick run in.

This being my first full week of work in a month, I expect to do a lot of day-dreaming about what life was like exactly 365 days ago. And about the next magical Colorado getaway I can fit in.


Happy Tuesday and happy day-dreaming!