Sundance!

For the past 11 days Sundance Film Festival has been going on in Park City. I have been watching all the updates on E! of all the stars and all their great movies and how everyone is ranting and raving over Paul Rudd and Demi Moore. As crazy as this may sound, I have lived in Utah for almost 4 years and this was the first year I attended Sundance! Not my normal style, but there have always been mitigating factors. Anyway, last Tuesday a girlfriend of mine and I drove up to Park City and had dinner at High West Distillery. We sell almost all of the whiskey that they distill right there on their property in my bar, and after going on a tour, I had to try their food. (In case anyone is curious, the Bouraye whiskey they make is my favorite and I concocted the most delicious cocktail with their silver whiskey with muddled fresh mint and fresh raspberries, homemade simple syrup with a press. I believe that I should trademark it, it's so good. Anyway......

So, we had dinner up there, and ordered some of their signature cocktails. We went up the street to the No Name Saloon and were greeted immediately with free drinks. The girl I was with was having so much fun, since "she never gets out and drinks in Park City" that she begged to stay at the bar to keep drinking. I kept directing men her way and watched with amusement over a nice snifter of scotch. We missed our movie, which I was really disappointed about. So....the next day, I decided that it was absolutely imperative that I see a Sundance movie, so I bought a ticket for this morning. Pretty much the only movie that wasn't sold out was called Attenberg. The description in the movie guide was that it was about a girl who lived with her father in a decaying sea town and a stranger comes to town and changes everything.

Now, anyone who has shared a bag of popcorn with me knows that I HATE READING MOVIES!!! The first thing that happens in the movie is Greek dialogue with subtitles. OH NO! I want to scream! But, no, I stay put, having just purchased a very large bag of popcorn, paying $30 for the movie, driving all the way up to Park City, braving the traffic to dart across Kearns to stand in a tent, outside with a bunch of stinky, hair- not- washed, liberal artists. I battled through the whole movie. Not only did I have to read it, I was subjected to hairy Greek crotches, an insufficient blow job scene, the scattering of ashes, more underwear, no plot and ugly actors. It was excruciating. The actors/ directors did not even show up to introduce the movie! I hate to complain, but that was my Sundance experience. All would have been forgotten had I met Ryan Reynolds.

After the movie, I drove up the street to Park City where I was able to get a few switch runs in down McConkeys and Pay Day and then a few through the park. A throbbing migraine forced me to pack it in early, but I did make it home just in time to watch my favorite athlete, Shaun White, annihilate the Super Pipe in Aspen to win gold in the X Games. Altogether an interesting day off!

The bottom picture is at the top of McConkeys overlooking the backside of Brighton and Guardsman's pass.

Glad I Chose...

The University of Utah instead of NYU to get my Masters Degree. Everyone always assumes when I tell that that I went to UNLV for my Undergrads that the Strip would have been a distraction. I quickly correct their assumption by telling them that the Strip was never a distraction for my studies...but these mountains....now THEY are the ultimate distraction! The proof is above! (Both of these days I did attend class, however!)

For those who are curious: The top picture was taken in Thunder Bowl on the Defiance Ledge at Snowbird. This picture is of the Western part of Mount Superior, which is my new back country hiking conquest. The bottom picture was taken at Brighton Resort at the top of Great Western facing West looking down Big Cottonwood Canyon with Snowbird far off to the left (not shown) and The Canyons off to the right. Actually, my next real back country mission is to take Ninety Nine 90 from The Canyons, traverse the cirque and drop the back side of Park City Mountain Resort and drop into Big Cottonwood Canyon. I better get on it, the winter's almost over!

My Snuggle Bunnies

I love how animals don't care what kind of job you have, how much money you make, what you look like, if you have a boyfriend, what grades you get in school.... but they do care if you're happy and healthy. They just want to snuggle and give you love. At the risk of sounding like the ultimate crazy cat lady, I love my babies more than anything and can't imagine my life without them. How can you not love those faces.. :) Time to go snuggle and get my head licked!

Fun Day at Bogus!

One of the season passes I have is at Bogus Basin, outside of Boise. Today me and Skip went up and had SUCH a fun day! It was so beautiful! A little cold at 18 degrees, but we had a blue sky, amazing sunset, good beer, soft snow and good runs. I rode switch almost the entire day and feel so much better about it. I love to night ride and at about 5:00pm the cats come out and I can follow them all the way down on the front side for a couple of really fast and silky runs, I love it! The park was closed so I missed out on hitting the kickers that I had my eye on, but that just means that I'll have to come back in the next few weeks and hit those up! Thanks for a FUN day Skip!