Livin' the Dream

So, you might be wondering what on earth I am doing with all this free time I have. I assure you, I am not wasting my extra-long winter break. While my wonderful friends in Salem are drowning in floods (though it seems that has mostly subsided now), I am spending my weeks in the mountains skiing. I have skied 16 days so far this season, and I have skied six out of the past seven days. Some days, we only ski for a few hours, while other days we ski all day. I am absolutely on cloud nine. I love it up here at our Cozy Condo. Breckenridge is a wonderful town, and a wonderful ski resort. Of those 16 days, 14 have at Breck, one at Keystone, and one at Beaver Creek. Last Thursday, Breckenridge opened the T-Bar for the first time, and on Friday they opened Lift 6 for the first time. We found some amazing knee-deep powder those days, since that was the first time they had been opened. We are still waiting for the opening of the Imperial Lift (hopefully it'll open some time next week!), but for now we will take what we can get!

In other news, I have a new ski coat and I absolutely love it! Also, I am 15 days out from leaving for New Zealand. I had a dream last night about packing; in this dream, I was going somewhere but no one would tell me where and I couldn't remember what I had packed, and I kept forgetting things. I woke up very confused and disgruntled-- it's probably not good to be having unsettling dreams about packing right now. Is this a subliminal message that I should start making a packing list? Probably. I only have a few more things to do to get ready for my trip. I need to figure out what I am doing for health insurance, since I have a few options, and I need to review the classes I want to take since a possible time-table has been released for the students at UC. I have a flat (with 4 other flatmates), I have a confirmed airport pick-up, my luggage is at the luggage store being repaired, but I still have a lot to do before I can leave. Mainly I just need to pack. In the meantime, I'll just ski and hang out in Breckenridge.

This week, my Uncle John (dad's brother), is visiting us from Oklahoma City. We came up to the condo on Sunday afternoon and hit the slopes with 10" of fresh powder, which was fantastic. This evening we went to the Breckenridge Distillery for a bottling event. At the distillery they make vodka, bourbon whiskey, and spiced rum. They are aging their whiskey barrels in order to make Scotch-style whiskey; in order to make scotch, it has to be from Scotland (aka impossible in the US), but in order to make scotch-style whiskey, 5-year-old aged barrels are required. So, in about a year they will be ready to make their scotch-style whiskey, and for now they make award-winning bourbon whiskey. They first released their rum about a month ago; within three days it was sold out, and never even made it to their tasting room in downtown Breckenridge, though now they have bottled more and are keeping up with the demand. Every so often when they are ready to bottle a new batch of hooch, they send out an email asking for help, and we signed up. In addition to a night of fun at the distillery, each helper receives dinner, and a complimentary bottle of anything they choose.

Tonight's bottling party was incredibly enjoyable. We were bottling the bourbon whiskey, and just about when it was time for dinner, the pump to the bottle-filler stopped working. After dinner, we stood around waiting for the bottling to resume. We talked about what ski areas had the best powder and moguls, what areas had the best parking situations, where the snow conditions were best, our epic falls, our idiot falls, etc. until we realized that there might be an actual problem. I had a great time talking to these guys-- all of them had moved to Summit County to be ski bums, which might be my current life goal. Anyways, my father, the (retired) electrical engineer, has a very hard time standing idly when there is a problem; he wants to fix everything, a noble yet often impossible goal. He did, however, help them diagnose the problem, and unfortunately it couldn't be remedied tonight, so we were all dismissed to go home even though we did not finish our tasks. We all happily went home with our complimentary bottles of rum and bourbon. All in all, a successful, amusing, and gratifying experience.

Mom, Dad, me, Uncle John

The town of Breckenridge has very interesting and colorful architecture; enjoy the following pictures from a recent trip into town.

Our complimentary drinks for helping out at the Distillery. 

First stop: New York City

While all my friends are starting school again for the new semester, I am waiting. Yes, it's wonderful to have such a long winter break, and yes, I am having a blast skiing as much as possible, but I am SO excited to head off to New Zealand, and I'm getting a little antsy. Many of my friends have jetted off to their respective foreign countries and I am enjoying reading, and envying, their blogs very much. So, while those not going abroad jetted back to rainy Oregon, I took a spectacular trip to New York City to visit a very dear friend. 

I arrived on Wednesday night, significantly later than expected due to weather delays. The previous day it was 65 degrees and sunny, and when I woke up at 7:30 am on Wednesday morning there was a blizzard that had already deposited a few inches of snow-- talk about bipolar weather. So I finally arrived in New York City, where I was amazed at how linear the city was due to its grid organization. I've never seen a city so evenly spaced, and flying in was breath-taking due to the bright lights of the city. I met up with Andrea's friend, Julie, because due to unforeseen circumstances, Andrea was in Florida when I arrived. I settled into the apartment, met Andrea's roommate Jessie, and went to bed. 

On Thursday, I met up with a friend for some pizza and a walk around Central Park. Good news, dear friends, Straight From NY pizza in Salem tastes EXACTLY like the pizza I ate on Thursday. So even if they have a hard time keeping orders straight, they do make a delicious replica of the famous pizza. Julie's sister was stage-managing a show off-Broadway-- it was a rock and roll opera called "Goodbar" and probably one of the strangest shows I have ever seen, but an all-around great experience. Finally, Andrea arrived and we did some much-needed catching up. 

Friday morning we tried to rush tickets to see "Mountaintop" with Samuel L. Jackson, unsuccessfully, but it did give me a chance to see Times Square (can you say sensory overload?!), and see some of the city. I got a tour of Columbia University, which has a beautiful campus, and experienced some very incredible wind. People told me New York was windy, but I didn't realize how windy it actually was. We went ice skating in Bryant Park with Julie for hours, and had a blast. I forgot how fun ice skating is! We then met up with Jessie and went to a wonderful book store where I tried desperately hard not to get sucked into buying something, but what can I say? Book stores are my biggest weakness. I bought Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende, and plan to start it as soon as I finish my current book. 

We then went to Max Brenner, something I have been waiting to do since Andrea first told me about it last spring break, when she was visiting her brother. Max Brenner is a restaurant that specializes in chocolate. They have regular food too, but who wants regular food when you could just eat chocolate? They even make special hot chocolate drinking mugs-- called hug mugs, which to my delight, I received one for my birthday! Max Brenner completely lived up to my expectations, probably even exceeded expectations. The three of us split a chocolate fondue, and we each ordered exceptional cocktails. I got a White Russian, made with white chocolate instead of milk. It was an incredibly delectable experience. I highly recommend Max Brenner if you are ever in New York City. See here for more information: http://www.maxbrenner.com/about.html. For our post-dessert dinner, we ventured into Chinatown to look for the sketchiest Chinese restaurant we could find. Andrea's brother recommended a place that has closed, so we began our search for a real gem. We found one, after going into fun little shops and wandering around for quite some time, where I got some delicious steamed dumplings, as per a recommendation from a friend. Later that evening we did some crayon art, which is the main decor of Andrea's apartment. 

Saturday and Sunday were days of relaxation, days where we sat on the couch and watched bad chick flicks on TBS. Saturday night we went to a fun, hole-in-the-wall called Mac Bar and I pretty much died of happiness. My love of Mac 'n' Cheese is so strong, and this wonderful restaurant had so many options that I was just overwhelmed with joy. Now, normally, I'm a Macaroni and Cheese purist; that is, I prefer it completely unadulterated, just the cheesy, cheesy macaroni. But Mac Bar convinced me to broaden my horizons, so I ordered Carbonara, that had pancetta, peas, and parmesan cheese; it was fabulous. Again, if you are ever in New York, find this place. We went out that night and explored Brooklyn and the Lower Eastside. Sunday night, Andrea had some school friends over and it was wonderful to meet the people I've been hearing about all semester. On Monday, I packed up and came back to Denver. Thanks Andrea, Jessie, and Julie, you all are wonderful and I had an incredible time with you!