Brrr Down!

Colorado is gorgeous, isn’t it?

It’s also FREEZING COLD. Holy shit. I’ve been home for almost 48 hours and I’m still wearing my gloves indoors.

So! 2010 ended with some of the most fabulous people in the universe all boarding planes at the same time across the country and traveling to Denver! Despite some major delays across the south and not one but TWO planes getting diverted to Albuquerque briefly (you can imagine how delighted I was when that happened, the free drink tickets were obviously broken out immediately), we all made it there in one piece. Cue screaming and jumping in the airport.

Stacy managed to stuff me, GB, Gerrick, Julie, Joy, Justin, and Jacob in her apartment where we slept the first night. She then woke our asses up at the ungodly hour of 5:30 to get dressed for skiing! Um... note on this: I wore a ski bib. Like overalls. And... I liked it. A lot. I am now considering bringing overalls back. Thoughts?

After a two hour drive to Breckenridge where we witnessed the temperature drop from 7 to 5 to 3 to ZERO to NEGATIVE FOUR DEGREES and a quick trip to the ski rental place where we all got fitted for boots and skis and helmets, it was off to the mountain! With a windchill factor of negative 35! Yes, you are reading that correctly. (At this point, I was cursing Stacy under my breath and fondly remembering that I had worn flipflops in LA the day before). But we put on our 298594 layers and hopped onto the chairlift and headed up...

...Where I promptly fell on my bad shoulder approximately thirteen seconds into the first run and was down for the count. Not kidding. A very nice ski EMT named Andy from St. Paul, Minnesota was summoned with his emergency sled to drag my ass down the mountain. I laid in the little sled as it zoomed down the mountain, snow falling in my eyes, colder than I’ve ever been in my entire life, and resolved never to tempt fate by being athletic ever again.

Here I am moments before the fall, freezing my fucking ass off:

And here we all are, in the nice warm cozy lodge, where I retired to shortly after being dragged down the mountain. It was here where I spent most of the day, drinking hot chocolate and chitchatting with handsome ski men. And maybe indulging in a small muscle relaxer.

It was all fun and games until the experienced skiers decided to take the ski school graduates (Jake, Justin, and GB) up on a real mountain. I did not personally witness it, but a major wipeout occurred, and poor Greene Bean became the SECOND person in our party to be taken down from the mountain in an emergency sled. Her ski EMT took her right to the ski hospital, though, where she was sadly diagnosed with a slightly torn ACL and given a pair of crutches and a packet full of Vicodin to make it through the trip :(

Obviously the sparkle jacket was brought out for New Years Eve! Here I am with our lovely hostess with the mostess, Miss Bracha Geldzahler herself, after a delicious meal cooked by our new friend Aliza (who accompanied us on our weekend of fun and who I personally consider to be a SAINT for putting up with us and our crazy) and Justin - yum! I wish I had more fun pictures to post from NYE, but honestly we were DEAD tired from waking up early and skiing that we all just screamed “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” at 12:00 and immediately headed to put our pajamas on :)

The first day of 2011 brought a delicious breakfast cooked by Jacob, and then we lazed around by the fireplace for a bit before bundling up and heading out to see the town of Breckenridge:

The whole crew!

Nobody was really looking to shop, but these two found a silly hat store and immediately insisted on going in to buy new beanies. They left with these new purchases... behold, Bert and the Beaver.

I clearly was kidding around when I tried this one on. It did not come home with me.

After spending the afternoon in a sports bar eating burgers (Jake made me split a buffalo burger with him. I was nervous but I liked it! Then I was mad that I had to share.) and watching the Rose Bowl game (I use the term “watching” very loosely... I do not understand anything about football whatsoever), we headed back to the cabin where, after tossing back a few drinks, it was time for a good old fashioned dance party:

The boys DJed while we danced our hearts out - even poor GB and her crutches!

We left Breckenridge the next day. I was sad to leave my friends but not that crazy mountain air (I literally could not breathe the entire weekend... sat up all three nights gasping for air. OY!) After a few hours in the airport with GB in a WHEELCHAIR, we finally landed in LA and the weekend was over :(

WHEW! What a recap. I’m impressed if you stuck around - sorry for the long post but Stacy is my biggest fan and I needed to prove to her what a fantastic time we had :) I already miss my friends and can’t wait to see them again in LA in a few weeks!

Piles of snow, a gorgeous cabin, a dance party, delicious food, my amazing friends, and only a couple injuries... what better way to ring in the new year?!