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| So.. A lot has changed in my life in recent months.
I broke up with Brandon, which was tough, but I think necessary. I moved in with 3 random ski bums I found on the internet who turned out to be AWESOME. We act like a family: taking care of each other, always hanging out, sharing meals, having amazing amounts of fun whether it is dressing up ridiculously for eighties night and dancing up a storm or, building a snowfort in our backyard (that is now the official name for our house) or skiing together (though I can only ski with them when they take mellow days- I can't huck off the cliffs they usually do!) We were planning on doing a roomate relay race, the Pole, Pedal, Paddle- which is a downhill ski leg, a skate ski leg, a bike leg, and a kyak leg. Dave had to go home for family obligations and Zach tore his acl so we subbed in some people. I think I had strep throat for the race but I still got top 5 women in the bike leg! Heck yeah!
I feel that I am actually kind of settling here in Jackson and becoming a true mountain town girl. I am very happy with my lucrative barista job, because with the economy the way it is, even if I had found a real job I would have been laid off by now anyways. Plus, I have the most amazing freelance gig. I get a lot of hours (more than I can actually handle) and the guy I work for told me that 2 years down the road he sees me as moving into a full-time position with him, and that I could work from offsite if I was going to take a month long climbing trip or something. Heck Yes! I couldn't ask for anything better. I might want a real job in two years, but I want one that will let me climb.
I took and avalanche course and got into back country skiing this winter, which is amazing. I even ended the season by buying a new set of skiis with a touring set up. I never pictured myself as a skiier, but if I want to stay here a while, it was inevitable. I guess it is just another way to spend time in the mountains- which is my main passion in life.
I also started training at this amazing gym called Mountain Athlete. It is really hard core and involves things like dragging tractor tires across the floor, climbing ropes, weight lifting, and other equally painful and hard things. It is addictive as hell. They have an intense climbing program that has made me stronger than I have ever been, as well as allowing me to meet an amazing community of climbers. I was really worried when Brandon and I broke up that I would have difficulty finding climbing partners, but now I already found fantastic ones and it is not even climbing season yet. I have a trip planned to Yosemite in 3 weeks, and I am hopefully meeting at least 2 people from Jackson for some sweet climbing. I am going to up my training for the next 3 weeks so i can be as strong as possible. (I just have to kick this strep throat thing I have. I have been having too much fun and it finally caught up to me!)
Everything in life is looking up for me right now. I see lots of climbing, travel, friendship, and fun in my future. Which is what I want most out of life, coincidentally. I might be planning a 3 month long climbing trip to New Zealand this fall with a girl I know from Alpinist. If that falls through I will climb in Greece with a different female climber I love. Climbing with girls is my new favorite thing. It is so easy to find male partners but there really is a completely different vibe when you climb with strong, positive girls. It leaves more room for improvement and pushing yourself and less room for ego and frustration. At least that is how it is with the ladies I have been climbing with recently.
Oh yeah, and I am slowly building my own climbing rack. It should be almost complete by the time I go to Yosemite. I can be an autonomous climber without the climber boyfriend, and that makes me happy.
PS- I love you Jackson, Wyoming | | |
| My roomate Dave told Brandon and I to not get too eager for summer (winter was driving us crazy, we wanted to get out and do things!) His exact words were: "It doesn't get nice until June, anything before that is a bonus." Well its June and it is still not nice! Yesterday up in the mountains there were 6 inches of new snow! Brandon and I had a huge 80 mile bike ride planned, but we woke up and it was raining. We decided to try and go anyways, but the rain here is not a warm summer rain, it is a bitterly cold fall rain, so we made it 30 miles and by that point my feet had absolutely no sensation left in them and I had to soak them in the shower before they regained feeling.
The weather here is so ridiculous because the mountains hold the weather in. Every day it will be bright and sunny and warm, and with no warning at all it will storm and pour and get freezing cold, and then it is back to beautiful again within minutes. One bike ride I went on, we got stuck in the rain, but the road home was sunny and dry, all around us we could see rain and storm clouds but that one road was sunny.
My bicycle courier business is taking off! We have been getting the word out to more people and every week we have more and more customers. This past week we have had a delivery almost every day and yesterday was our first day with 2 deliveries in one day. And here, people tip well! Its pretty exciting. I love it because we will just be chilling at home doing nothing in particular and we get a call, which is just an excuse to ride my bike around town and make a few bucks. So actually running our business costs us nothing.
Also I have been drumming up some freelance clients here. I did a business card for a Feng Shui lady (we did a barter, so now my room is all feng shui-ed up.) And now I am working on a card for a Healing Energy Therapist. Its pretty sweet. I enjoy it a lot.
I have my first visitors this weekend and I am so stoked! The plan is to go climbing one day and white water rafting the next day, hopefully the weather allows us. Almost all of my roomates are out of town this weekend so it makes it very cool that they can crash with us (on our 4 couches set up stadium seating style!)
Well off to the bagelry for me!
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| So here are a few things about Wyoming I find amusing:
-There are no Apple stores IN THE ENTIRE STATE OF WYOMING. I hope my laptop doesn't break.
-There are also no doctors covered by my health insurance in the ENTIRE STATE. When I called they lady from my insurance company and I told her where I lived she started laughing at me. I am driving 4 hours to Salt Lake City to see a doctor.
-I was extremely sick, however, and I needed to get antibiotics so I went to the ER (the only medical facility in the whole town open on sundays) and I was prepared for a long wait. This town is so small that my ER experience was the FASTEST I have ever in my life been in and out of a doctor's office from the whole filling out forms to leaving with a prescription. It was amazing and unlike any ER I have ever seen.
- This town is so small, it is the only place where jobs come to you, and you don't even have to try to find one. Brandon and I were walking down the street and a guy from Salt Lake came up and offered him a job inspecting water pipes through town and said he would even get a company laptop and truck. Brandon obviously refused. Today I was sitting in Peal Street (the bagel shop where I work) sipping on a latte and a guy I know from around town who is a graphic designer at Cloudveil walked up to me and was like "Hey McKenzie, I resigned on Monday." I wasn't sure what this meant so i said "Oh, really?" and he replied "Yeah, I am starting my own company and I am looking for designers. Can you send me your resume and portfolio?" I am stoked, he would be fun to work for and I would love to help him out. i will have lots o free time this summer as I live my life as a barista/climbing bum, so a little design work on the side would be wonderful.
I am still getting used to the small town life. t is guaranteed that if you meet someone you will see them again around town at random places. Its kind of nice knowing people everywhere you go- there is always someone to say hi to and to chat with. It also makes any scandal or gossip in this town fly like wildfire. Good thing I am not scandalous, so it poses no problems for me. Another benefit is that I never use gas. I fill up once a month, maybe. The farthest I have to drive to get anywhere important is 10 minutes, but both of my places of employment, all the bars and restaurants, are in walking distance of my house.
Both ski resorts in town just closed this past weekend, and everyone leaves town once that happens. A lot of people live here just for ski season. So now the town is really quiet and slow. So Pearl Street is closing for 10 days- and I am taking 10 days off at Alpinist (they don't pay me anyways..) and Brandon and I are about to embark on a 10 day climbing trip!! Here is our itinerary:
Wednesday night: leave and drive to Salt Lake- meet up with our good friend Jeff Lemkuhl
Thursday: see doctor, ride bikes around Salt Lake (we've never been there) at night have dinner with Jeff and his lady friend
Friday: drive to Indian Creek, maybe get a climb or 2 in
Saturday-Tuesday: climb lots of splitter cracks!!!!!
Wednesday: drive to Vegas and rendezvous with Jason Crase and David Mackey for a family reunion of sorts- gamble and watch Jason drink himself into oblivion- stay the night in the MGM Grand courtesy of the Mackstar.
Thursday-Saturday- climb some sick multi-pitch routes in Red Rocks!!!!
Sunday- make the long trek back to Jackson in time for work on Monday.
I am so ready for this trip. I need to do some climbing outdoors before I go crazy. And I need to get out of the snow and into the sunshine. It is April and it snows here every day for crying outloud! Then when I get back only 2 more weeks at Alpinist! Then summer officially begins. | | |
| I officially have Wyoming license plates and a driver’s license! I am now a resident. Maybe I wil stop being harassed by cops when I drive at night. ( I have been pulled over twice for NO REASON AT ALL. They are really hard on drunk drivers here so they love pulling over out-of staters cruising on back roads at night. I was even given a sobriety test when I hadn’t been drinking. Stupid Wyoming cops with nothing better to do.) Also I can now get a local’s discount! Almost every store and restaurant gives you a 10% discount if you live here- the higher prices are for tourists! All things considered, I thought it was worth making the change. I know I am not moving back to Ohio, and now it’s official.
For Alpinist I get to do one of their Mountain Standards gear reviews! So I get a Mountain Hardwear $280 jacket for free, I get to wear it a ton, and then write a review about how good or bad it is. Then I keep the jacket! I am stoked, I got it yesterday and it is blue and pretty and ultra water-proof. It is the perfect ice climbing jacket, so now I have to ice climb a lot in order to review it…. What a perfect excuse! So there are some pretty good perks to this unpaid job!
I am having a blast here. I have been working a lot of doubles, going from Pearl Street Bagels to Alpinist, and it wears me out, but the bagel shop is fun and surprisingly good money, and Alpinist of course is awesome. I also have been skiing a lot- I mean there is a ski resort in my backyard, so I kind of have to. And if we don’t want to buy a lift ticket there is a boot pack along the side where you can hike up and then ski down. (That way is more about the hike than skiing, but it is great exercise and tons of fun.) And Brandon started skiing black diamonds with me on his third day ever skiing. He is doing amazing. Well I am off to the climbing gym (Brandon bought us a couples membership for Valentine’s Day) and then Pearl Street to sling bagels.
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| In Cincinnati I lived in a house where you walked in the door and were greeted by a line of bikes. Now I am greeted by a line of skis and a large pile of ski boots. We never lock the door. I don't even own a key to my house. It is so safe here and everyone is so trusting- it brings up the attitude and expectations of the whole town. Before I moved here I have pushed a car out of a snow pile once that I can remember, and here I have done it 3 times in 2 days. It always turns into a fun hang-out time somehow. It is a common occurrence to have to take the scraper to the INSIDE of your windshield to get another layer of frost off. It is so cold I can't leave the house without hat, scarf, and gloves. The price of skiing on the town mountain is 80 bucks, so we bought beginner lift tickets for 10 bucks, and my roomate Dave got us up the higher lifts by bribing the lifties with six-packs of PBR. I can go night skiing by walking right out my front door. I work at a really popular bagel shop in this wonderfully small town so almost every face that comes through the door is vaguely familiar. And its only my second day. It won't take long before I know everyone and they all know me. I can walk home at night and look up and see all the stars clearly with the silhouette of the mountains as a backdrop. The town bus is free and the bus driver always asks where you are going and remembers exactly which is your stop. Everyone always says thank you. I go to the climbing gym every day at lunch. My bank is right across the street from the post office- I can walk to do all of my errands. There is no mail delivery here- everyone has a PO Box. Here everyone is quick to be your friend and help you out if you need it.
I love it here. | | |
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