The Crazy

Someone told me today that I had taught them how to be crazy. He told me I'd taught him to go on adventures, to watch the sunrise and jump in a river late at night. All of those memories that were only a few years ago, feel like a different life, as if someone else had lived every single one of those moments. And yet the stories still ignite that same small flame of adventure. It made me wonder who I was back then and a bigger question, am I still her?

I think maybe that by teaching someone else all of that crazy, I may have been giving some of it away. Handing it all over day by day, picking the last of it out of my pockets like lint and just throwing it into the wind. What I don't think...is that it's something I can take back, in fact even if I asked for it back-no one in their right mind would give it to me... it's more of something that I've gotta build. It's the kind of something that's built with a whole lot of everything. It's built with ice cream and flowers and sunshine and water and sweat and laughing so hard you cry. It's built from looking at the stars. From dancing in the rain. From wet grass in-between your toes. It's built from howling at the moon.

Building it, it's hard. Just talking about it made my want to start over, at baby, at freaking crawl. It takes a lot of forgetting-no. Not forgetting, accepting, acknowledging and laughing at the past. It takes a lot of shrugging it off. And you know? It takes hugging life with every single thing you've got from before the smell of coffee... until after you are even too tired to talk about nothing under the stars.

Who I was back then didn't need a recipe on how to build crazy. I was already there. I was standing on the rooftop of crazy.

Choices

Sometimes we are faced with decisions that are too big for us to make. They tug at our heart strings, make us question what we value most, and pull other people in to the same sticky mess. It's amazing how much more you notice every detail of the present when an entire future is at stake. I notice people, how long it takes me to ride to work, how perfect it smells. Why didn't I notice that before? Everything has changed. Im moving towards this undecided decision in a race car wishing I was driving a half way broken down VW bus. I have no idea what's gonna happen, or what the hell I'm going to do, so for now I will turn on Sex and The City and hope to find something more inspiring than, "how much will you be making?" "I'm not going with you." or "But it's Texas."

Sometimes we need to stop analyzing the past. Stop planning the future. Stop figuring out precisely how we feel. Stop deciding exactly what we want, and just see what happens. -Carrie

Spring Break Outfit

Well the "I wish I was on Spring Break" outfit. Yesterday was my break. I drove to Denver after work on Sunday and drove back Monday after a very successful shopping day. I told myself...only things you can use for Mexico. Which isn't till May, but still, we are gettin there! 

This outfit screamed dancing in a little bar in San Jose to me. Think floppy sun hat by day, turquoise hat band, no shoes-wavy beach hair, hoop earrings, wedge sandals by night. When it's on you would think for sure it's a dress and a wide belt would help that much more.

BUT everything has to be functional at home because well...who can buy something and not wear it the next day. For Spring in CB and by that I mean today. (It may or may not be snowing) I'm going to wear this with boots and this cute little denim button up with a lace back. 

The Skirt- FreePeople $60 WAS $128

(On sale because it came in the dead of Winter. FP loss win for me)

The Bralette- FreePeople and lets not talk about it. Yes the very fit woman with perfect skin below is me HA!

The Boots- My old Steve Maddens that have seen too many days. Can't give up on boots that still get you there! 

This Is The Life

I love mornings like this in Crested Butte. The fog seems to cling to the streets, and there's this urgency to get a coffee in an old sweater, loose and fraying a bit in the spaces that have been a little over loved. It's early and in a town like this no one is headed to work yet, it feels like not a sole is moving, even inside their houses which steam around the edges from under the snow, everything is still. Maybe it would be better to sit in a coffee shop, let the warmth hold me in close, but alone on this porch I don't have to talk, the cold air feels good seeping through the top of my jacket, crisp and messy, alive, in my hair. Who knows when I will get this again. This is the life. 

Baseball

Do you remember your mom counting down? She would say, "If I get to three, you're _______."
But she never really got to what it was that would happen at three.

"One." There would be this long pause where the smirk still lingered in my face, I can remember thinking how cool I was and how little I cared. One was the safe zone, it's all still fun and games.

"Twwooooo." This is the count that divides kids from normal and stubborn, and where I most often chose the latter, but I began to sweat it. Worried that just maybe, maybe, this time it was for real. This is where my mother would usually choose to interject my name, the way it's written on my birth certificate, into the threat. Somehow a word- my name "Jessica", which normally has this almost sort of delicate ring to it, can sound scarier than any full sentence that ever came out of someones mouth.

There's no describing three. What happens there? I can't tell you because honestly, I'm not sure we ever got that far, the mere idea of three was enough. I wonder...did she even know?


Everyone knows that in baseball (sing with me here) it's...

ONE!...TWO!...THREE STRIKES YOUR OUT!

What we tend to forget is that baseball is a game. In life, we are playing with the big boys, not the kid next to you at the game eating Cracker Jacks, and somethings call for two strikes instead of three.

This is where I am at this week, but for once I'm in my mother's shoes. Here I am, wearing those silly red kitten heels of my mothers standing in the snow on Elk Avenue at one. And to be honest I'm not really sure what happens at the end either.

Valentines Day

Hello all. This....is a brag post.

Disclaimer: If you are one of those Valentines Day hating people who spends the entire week of February the 14th groaning and complaining that it's a made up Hallmark holiday-

1. You are a scrooge. 
2. You should stop reading this post. 
3. ...and maybe my blog. 

It is a Hallmark holiday, you're 100% right, but can you think of one single holiday in America that isn't? That's my rant on that. Get over it. Buy yourself some clearance flowers, discount day after chocolate, and wipe away your black nail polish.

I quite possibly had the best Valentines Day of my life. Mikey-if you're reading this....don't be mad. 

I woke up in the morning (late as usual) for school and got there just in time for class, flustered and rushed. After 50 minutes of the ever thrilling Haase class I walked into the hallway to find Mikey with a dozen roses. This right here is every girls dream but let me tell you I could not get out of that hallway fast enough, EVERY pair of eyes was on me. This is both one of those things we love and hate. When I finally got out of there and into the truck, he hands me the next gift....gee whiz I know. We have this ever going battle for who gets to take the very coveted chapstick with them for the day because it seems they disappear like socks in the dryer just as you wish you had them the most. So in this little red paper bag were a dozen chapsticks of all different kinds. You may not think this is adorable buuuutttt I cried. 

After that, we both had work and whatnot. The only plans I was aware of were that we were making steak together after he got of work. Being the Want, Want, Wanter that I am, I begged to go to swing dancing class and almost ruined everything. We get dinner started and it's this whole process of cheese melting, cooking, baking, stirring [I'm NOT good at this]. Mikey had brought his giant pile of laundry with him and kept running downstairs to sort it, use his stain remover, and move the laundry. I'm such a gullible little shmuck! There is no guy in the world who doesn't just throw it all in and forget about it. And stain remover? 

While he was downstairs each time, I was given some VERY important task and told something like, "Jes, please make sure you keep stirring that the whole time so it doesn't burn." I take these tasks very seriously because, well, usually I mess them up. the last piece was to clean off the dining room table which was more covered in more things than I'd ever seen before. 

When dinner was done, I went and sat down at the table, but he kept walking and told me to follow him. Oh my gosh! When he opened the door to the basement I thought I was really going to explode. Rose petals were spread all down the stairs with candles on each side. In the basement there were more petals and candles all around, he'd set up a blanket and wine, the whole thing! We had our own little indoor picnic, and it was so beyond perfect......melt!

This, mind you, was on top of going to Leftover Salmon as my early V-day gift....and just the everyday awesomeness. I'm a lucky girl with a bundle of roses, a big ol' load of Mikey's laundry, and one heck of a mess in my basement, my goodness do I love Valentines Day. 

What did you do? Let me know!

Hide and Seek

Therapy is a lot like a game of hide and seek. To get at what...or who...is really there, you've really gotta look. Sometimes a look inside someones closet just isn't enough to get at what you're looking for. Every door needs to be opened, every bed needs to be looked under. Sometimes things are hiding in places that you would least expect or in plain sight. If you go through the game quickly without paying attention to the nooks and crannies, it's easy to miss what you're really trying to get at. People are good  at this, we learned at early ages that if you don't look at someone through the crack of the door they can't feel you watching them and will probably pass you by. That any amount of attention drawn to yourself sets the alarm. People don't want to be found. Not in hide and seek, not in therapy, and sometimes not even in themselves.

Class after class about people and their lives and just humanity it amazes me how much we, as a species, are capable of keeping a secret. Some things we see as best pushed under the rug-left alone, forgotten or tucked deep away, suppressed so that we can just go on living.

When I was 6 and as usual in trouble with my mom I thought it would be fun to play a game of hide and seek with my mom when I was supposed to be in "restriction" in my room. I tiptoed down the hallway and into the living room where we at the time had the kind of couch that would eat a child. I pushed myself into the crevice behind the cushion and covered myself up. I sat quietly, waiting. They started looking, at first kind of mad and then frantically. "Jessie! Jessie?! Jessie?!" I didn't laugh, didn't giggle, in fact I'm sure I was holding my breath doing everything I could to be silent. When I came out they were at first relieved and then the relief turned again to anger.

Today, I had that same feeling. I held my breath, bit my lip to keep myself from making a sound. My teacher was looking behind the cushions, I looked through the crack in the door- I'd been caught. Even to me the hiding spot was a surprise. Medical Sociology-a class where no one expects to have to worry about this sort of thing. I think to me the biggest medical mishap I'd had was simply an accident, something that had happened and been fixed. But underneath the metal, the screws and the pins there was more pain than I'd ever known. The questions that had needed to be asked, by me, by someone, by ME, had never come up so that pain over time had just become something else to push under the rug. It amazed me that the questions I was asked put the kind of tears in my eyes that you can feel in your throat.

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1... Ready or not, here I come!

How do you feel about what happened?

How do you feel about how it will affect your future?

FOUND YOU!

Think about it, what are the most defining moments of your life? I don't want to put a number on this, some people will have 5 some people will have 20. Just be honest with yourself here, think about the way that even the little things have affected you, they won't all be positive and they won't all be negative.

Praying to Ullr

Ullr- The Pagan god of winter, skiing, snowshoeing, the chase, snow (of course), and other completely irrelevant things. In the fall- he is the god that people in ski towns around the world pray, dance, burn their own skis and toast PBR to. The fact that he is the god of the chase explains why broke idiots from around the globe watch the pow cams, drive through the most dangerous of road conditions, sleep on stranger's stinky couches, and spend money that they don't have. Basically he's the man. And after this weekend where we've got 34" in the last 7 days, 23" in the last 48 hours, and 18" in the last 24, I'm pretty damn sure he lives in some dirty apartment in Crested Butte with pictures of big, big dumps on his walls. Right now he is sitting on a chairlift with a ski bum chick next to him smiling to himself at those hoots and hollers comin' from the trees. I don't know what we did right, maybe somebody burned the right grump, but Teocalli hasn't been open until noon for days and it doesn't look like they are gonna be anytime soon. So tonight, you'd better be praying for more, because wether you do or not, Ullr is here to stay.

My Words of "Wisdom"

Today I was asked for advice regarding some love life issues. HA! This is probably the first time in my life I felt I could actually give something worth listening to.

I told her what I wish I'd been told a year ago, well 10 years ago. Maybe someone telling me the same thing would have sunk in, made me question things, pushed me to make different choices, but in all likely hood-we all know I probably would have done everything in my power (like she will probably do as well) to forget or ignore every bit of instruction I was given.

What I told her was pretty simple...to be classy. Oh wait! Someone did tell me that, shoot!

I told her that if she was making excuses for him and things didn't seem right, they probably weren't. But when in doubt, and big shout out here to Miss Cynthia Hoff,  put Breakfast at Tiffany's on the TV, embrace Audrey Hepburn, and run the tub. Right now if you are thinking: Dammit, this is me... Pick out your favorite nail polish, find that old face mask you probably forgot you even had, shave your legs, buy a Cosmo, and for god's sake lose the phone. Do all the the things you never have time to do. Be busy!

The worst thing you can do when things aren't working out is to continue to try and make them. If he's worth it, he'll call. Sometimes it's better to forget your inner Feminist, just lock her in the closet for awhile. There's something to be said about being unavailable and just (foreign concept here) waiting. When you push it usually results directly with pushing away on the other side. In the age of technology it's too easy to throw yourself under the bus...just one little text, an accidental phone call maybe, or quick "Hey, what's up?" on Facebook. STOP! STOP! STOP! Holly Golightly didn't have a cell phone or profile, she didn't even answer her house phone. Pretend you don't either!

This morning I got ready while Superman cooked me breakfast, the car was already warm, and he even opened the door after we got coffee. He will tell any girl the same thing: if you're paying for dinner, calling him first or putting an ounce more in than he is-you're doing it wrong.

Why, why, why did I not learn my lesson sooner? Agggghhhhh! With that, good luck ladies, you've got to go through a lot of frogs to find a prince and in todays day and age-he's either gay or married.

Drynuary

Moving to Crested Butte is one of those things that changes a lot about a persons life.

Most people will tell you it changes the way you see the world, your lifestyle, how you drive, how often you need coffee, and what you do for fun. CB has a way of making people look in the mirror and see all the things they like and they don't like about themselves and the ways they have been living. What people wont tell you is that off season....when the tourists are all gone, work gets slow, and the weather is the less than the spectacular usual, people tend to add to the list of dislikes.

Spring off season is a lot colder, much slower, and longer than the off season before it and I wanted to make sure that when I looked in the mirror I didn't have to make any excuses. Instead, I decided (key word here!) that January could be a month for starting my year off right. With Spring semester starting it was important for me to have a clear head to get moving in my classes and start making the decisions I needed to with graduation looming closer every day. I needed more energy, more time, and more money.

 Let me tell you-I've found the answer! For the month of January, and much to Mikey's dismay maybe for some degree of permanency, I'm not drinking. Apparently such a lifestyle change is shocking to the good people of Crested Butte and I'm often told, "So just beer right?" or "Just drinking on the weekends then?" Nope, it's cold turkey, as in Shirley Temples and H2O. I've recently been told to call my "big decision" Drynuary. But in all honestly it's easier to ask for a lime, the same cup as everyone else and pretend nothing is happening. Easier said than done with bartender boyfriend.

Enjoy the sunshine while it last! I have a feeling that the January weather we have all been waiting for is just around the corner...

One Little Word 2014

Well hello and HAPPY NEW YEAR! I'm sorry that lately I've basically been anti blog. There's really no excuse, but busyness and carelessness. New Years resolution this year? To decide. Which brings us to this blog post… 2014 is for me, a big year and I want it to be one that is free of excuses and carelessness altogether. With all of the big "real person" choices I have coming up I needed something to push me and get me thinking deeper about what's really going on in this crazy head of mine- so I found One Little Word. It's a sort of online creative classroom to guide people for the year with the core concept of picking one word that you want to incorporate into your life for the year. My New Years resolutions never seem to pan out farther than January 1st so I think maybe the class, which has monthly assignments will keep me in tune with this years. With that…my word for the year is….

                                                  

Definition: To make a final choice or judgement as a result of consideration and thought.

Thesaurus: To determine, resolve, persuade, convince, choose, conclude, figure, pick, find, and intention.

And the one I want to make sure is in no way part of my life not only this year, but ever? Settle. 

I want to become less hypocritical when I say to people, "You can't just wait for life to fall on your plate." I want to be less reactive and more proactive This year is the year I graduate, the year I need to not only step up, but look forward, and the year that I want to decide exactly what I want in my life and what I don't. Though I am happy to say I am where I am now, after four years of college, I am still unsure if it was something I actually chose, myself, to do. I want to make sure that I stop doing what just comes naturally, take where the wind blows me into account, but actively decide to be who, what and where I am. I need to knowingly make decisions this year, big and small, that will more positively impact my life. Purposeful decisions. Right now all I am decided on is being happy, that I would have a hard time being happy in a city and that I love people. But there are very few areas of my life where I am deliberate and intentional. I am promising myself-to each day live more from intention and less from habit, to make the kinds decisions that build stories I would be proud to tell a thousand times.

In 2014, I want more laughing, smiling, happy dances, deep conversations, friends, success, time with Toby, love, adventures, faith, sunshine, stories. I want more meaning-more purpose. What I want less of is wasted time. I want less stress, drinking, tears, people with hurt feelings, spending money. I am deciding to have more of the things and emotions I want and tossing aside the ones I don't. What do I most fear in 2014? Regret. What am I most excited about in 2014? Finishing school and maybe, just maybe, finding more ME.

I invite you to pick a word-to surround yourself with it and let it bring whatever meaning you need it to into your life. Sometimes we need a push to get us to see what we should have just been jumping in with both feet for all along. So what's your New Years Resolution? What's your word?

If you want to participate with me click here and let me know!

I Should Know By Now

This is kind of the opposite of my last post, but after my day....totally necessary. I remember at 12, 15, 16, (and if I'm being totally honest) 18, thinking to myself that in college I'd have really figured it out. You know, have my life all together. I imagined myself with better style, prince charming, a rockin body, great study habits, always traveling and plans in the works for that dream job. Since 12, high school, moving out, and three years of college, there's a lot of knowledge in this noggin of mine. For example, I know that Koolaid isn't good for you and turns your mouth red, I should have listened to my parents all those years, and  the difference between a psychopath and sociopath. But the person I believed I would be at 21 apparently is still on vacation. The girl I expected to be would probably have learned these lessons long ago and would be in general, pretty freaking awesome, too bad at 21 I'm four coffees deep assessing Buffy the Vampire slayer as a career option.


So here it is, the life lessons I should have learned by now:

• Procrastinating only means that on Sunday night when you could be going and doing something fun you will be at the kitchen table trying to figure out how early you would have to wake up if you wanted to put this off till Monday morning. 

• You'll never do it in the morning.

• Besides that your mom thinks turtle necks are a great fashionable piece and your dads still think your too young to date, they are pretty much right about everything. (Ughhhh even typing that was painful).

• People's hearts, including your own, are more breakable than grammies fine china and there's no getting rid of that kind of scar.

• It's OK to stay home and do nothing sometimes...Or clean the floor that never seems to clean itself.

• If you wear white you're gonna drop something on it.

• There's a bottom to 4 ft tall snowbanks and if you try and climb over them, you're gonna reach it. 

• Always tell the truth.

• After eating chicken tenders and just one more brownie, you still wont like salad without dressing or go for a run tomorrow.  

I'm not the girl, that at 12, I imagined I would be. Today I dropped ketchup down my white shirt while  climbing over the 4 ft tall snowbank that filled my moccasins, I was told I broke someones heart, there was no way I was getting salad for lunch, and I'm writing this instead of my 60 page essay or calling my mom back. But hey, I betcha in 5 years I will, you know, have it all figured it out. Till then....you can find 21 year old me skiing in CB wondering why onions aren't what repels vampires.

Happy Sunday.

10 things I know to be true

Sarah Kay: amazing, inspirational, creative, AND amazing. 

If I Should Have A Daughter, Sarah's TedTalk is the one that got me hooked. As a spoken word poet, Sarah has a way with words that I can only dream of ever having. She stands up there and lays it out so that no matter who you are you can relate, not only can you relate, but laying in your bed late at night you want to stand up, clap and cheer. She's that kind of speaker. 

With lines like, "I would recognize you anywhere by the hiccup in your swagger." you can't help but want to hear more. 

But one of the most influential bits from her videos was from that first time when I listened to her speak in If I Should Have A Daughter. She explained that one of the ways she gets her students to write poems is to have them make a list of the 10 things they know to be true. The list shouldn't be something they have to thing about too much and should be written down pretty quickly. So here's the 10 things I know to be true. 

1. I am procrastinating writing my Forensic paper FAR too long and it's going to bite me in the ass later tonight. 

2. People should travel, the only way to understand the world is to see it with you're own eyes. And traveling alone, at least once, is the best. 

3. Loving someone is not always enough, doesn't always make it good for you, and isn't always something that will last forever. 

4. There is something calling me, deep down, and I need to go or I will always wonder. 

5. My need for a bigger and better adventure is going to get me in trouble some day. 

6. I want to find someone that wants to go on every single adventure with me and know about every one they've already missed. The likelihood of that person living in Crested Butte seems pretty dismal today. 

7. A million little pieces is not really enough to explain a person, I think we are each a million little pieces multiplied by however many people we have ever let influence us (positively or negatively) and the million pieces that make them up as well. 

8. There is a need for more time to watch sunrises and sunsets, listen to Tom Petty, and dance with someone in the kitchen. It does more good for a person than drinking or drugs and cost less. 

9. People, in general, are good natured, it's the things they come to know and hard facts they have come to face that change them. 

10. Childhood is something that should never disappear. There is a Peter Pan in all of us that is screaming to get out. Let it. Go ice skating in a disco outfit. 

These are the ten essential Jes-isms, they make me me or at least who I want to be...

Sarah goes on to say that on this list that someone has one thing the same as is on your list, someone else has something completely different, someone has something completely new to you, and someone has something you thought you knew all about but looks at it differently. So what's your list?

The long way home.

There's something about a long car ride. You forget your troubles. Forget you even are in the car at times. You have to focus on just one thing and nothing else really gets in. If you're alone it's you, the white line, the yellow lines flashing past, and the music. If you know me at all, you know this is what I believe in. I don't believe in god, I'm not big on church, that feeling, where nothing else matters is what I believe in.

I'm big on that moment just before sunset where the light is just right, no matter where you are it's beautiful and the whole world seems to have paused except for you and your car. The windows are down, your almost always passing a field, and Tom Petty miraculously comes on the radio as if the DJ were seeing the same thing you are. And for just a second you're wearing rose colored glasses, you completely zone out and there's nothing more important going on in the whole world than this moment. There's no real explaining that feeling, you just know it. Every time you feel it you want to feel the wind beneath your hand, sing a little louder and more than anything, have someone with you looking over, seeing the same thing. You don't really have to speak, you just understand. If you're alone, you don't go home and tell someone about it, you just smile a little bigger and wish they only knew.

I think somehow in the busyness and lack of sleep this year I forgot what those moments were like. Going to California I realized that those moments are not only more beautiful here, at home in Colorado, but that people here have the mindset to really appreciate them, it's when we forget that that we lose what makes where we live what it is and become the kind of people we do everything to avoid. I believe religiously in forgetting my feet are touching the pedals, feeling the wind beneath my hands and above all else, that even after the sun has gone down, that tomorrow there's another opportunity for the DJ to play Tom Petty at just the right time.

Surprise!

Today (which because this is a surprise will be days ago) was wonderful! This morning I packed as quickly as possible and went to a meeting to talk about getting my little Partner to mentor. Worked from 12-6 and then took off! After two terrible hours of super slick driving conditions, too many coffees and a very long phone conversation, I am in the land of the Mormon! Let me tell you, getting to this hotel almost made me a believer. As Toby peed on the No Vacancy sign and looked at the flashing lights on the church billboard I think I saw "oh, thank you Jesus." in his mind too. We are checked in and ready to crash, tomorrow is a 5am jump in the car and go if I want to make it in time.

Surprise!

My dad and a few other conspirators have a history of surprising me. I think I was 10 when I got the first one. Cynthia took me out shopping and I remember her coming to the house, picking me up in a little red convertible. We pulled back up to the house and things were a little weird, she seemed excited and my dad was already outside waiting. As I went inside everyone and I do mean EVERYONE yelled, "Surprise!" On my 17th birthday my dad kept asking and asking what I was doing, who was I with, where was I going. In the Target swimsuit section, I got a tap on the shoulder and (the very odd) a "Can I buy you a swimsuit?" which resulted initially in excitement and quickly became a scream and crying....you can imagine the looks two teenagers and a guy in his 40's were getting in the swimsuit section. Graduation was a biggy when Cynthia showed up in tow with my dad, lots of tears here as well. All of these surprises have left me skipping town on my birthday to avoid being surprised for fear that I will break down crying in front of a room full of people. So I figured it was my turn to return the favor. The big fears were that, one- my dad would be trying to surprise me and be here while I was there, two- that I would get stuck in traffic etc. and be late and he will have left work making finding him somewhere in Orange County difficult, and three- that being as similar to him as I am, that he would figure it out.

Well....it worked. After fourteen hours, four coffees, two redbulls (Sam you were right), and a little insider help, I walked into Nordhavn headquarters. As I walked in the front door three Leishman boys stood questioning and I quickly shushed them before sneaking around the corner and into my dads office. He stood jaw dropped, quietly, papers falling from his hands and there may or may not have been a tear. This, ladies and gentleman, is how you do a surprise. After all what do we have to be thankful for if not out families?

The New Girl

Being the new girl in a town like Crested Butte is a lot like moving to a new school at 12 years old.
Your teacher introduces you to the class..

Tell us your name. 
      (Oh god this is embarrassing.)Megan Collins.
Where are you from?
      (Suddenly it feels like there is a right and a wrong   answer.)Alta, Utah.
How old are you? 
      Well that never actually came up, but she's 23.

Being the new girl means-cultural immersion, questions for days, the lime light until someone new comes along, how am I gonna remember all of these names, and my goodness these people are friendly. But Megan never missed a beat, she admittedly has missed some names, but in a town like this...who could blame her. When I told my friends I was interviewing the new girl to town, they immediately asked if they could tag along and if not, where and when would this interview be taking place. "Can we just "happen" to show up?" Here's what I got from covert operation: Interview Megan. 

Growing up in Alta, Megan grew up skiing and in ski culture. She knew what she was in for when coming to CB. After college at CU Boulder, she was ready to get back to the mountains. She'd always wanted to work in the ski industry but until applying to CBMR, she wasn't sure a career (in) skiing was possible. She applied on a whim, had an interview and got the phone call she'd been waiting for. 

Despite a background in mountain living, Megan needed some reassurance before making the jump. When I asked her what she'd heard about CB, she responded without a second thought.

"It's a great ski town you know? It's the town with the bars AND the skiing. And it's a community where the skiing is just as extreme as the people. That's about it, that's all I ever needed to know."

She admits that the drive to Gunni to do a weeks worth of grocery shopping is annoying and driving to Boulder to shop is just part of the lifestyle, but she loves how outdoorsy everyone is and the fact that jeans are the norm even at her "real job" as we all call it. I asked Megan to explain CB to a stranger, she says the way she justifies it to all of her friends back home, who keep asking why would move somewhere where people have closer relationships to their space heaters than their hair dressers, is:

"It's a small ski town that's away from the population and it's quaint and friendly and welcoming. You feel at home when you walk in. It's one in a million."

After comparing new girl to town stories and hearing the best Craziest CB Story yet (you can ask her about her first night to town...sorry Megan) we got to the good stuff:

Dating in a ski town is never great, not even with the skewed ratio. But when you grow up with a dad in Lift Ops. the probability of finding a winner is dismal. Ski patrol knew to keep their distance and until after college, Megan was just (as she puts it) Jail Bait. Not only did they know better, they had their eyes out for her dad. CB on the other hand? A whole new can of you can fill in the blank.

Speaking of that fill in the blank...I asked Megan what her worst fear about living in Crested Butte was, her response was golden:

"Mullet March."

Here's to March being a few months away, that this winter is as steep and deep as Megan hopes, and the new girl. 

About Me

Me...
Hello there. I'm Jes and a mountain girl first and foremost, which I guess just means I'm an adventurer, creator, and life enthusiast. I love to meet people and know what makes them who they are. My dad taught me that the best kind of person is someone who can talk to anyone, so I've always done everything I can to be able to look at the world from the eyes of anyone, to "Tilt the World."

I am a Senior at Western State Colorado University pursuing degrees in SOC and PSYCH. I'm so lucky I get to finish school in a place as beautiful as this where I can be outside, ski, and never EVER sit in traffic. When I'm not at school, I'm at The Gypsy Wagon where I get to put my creative juices to work and play dress up everyday in the cutest little shop. I've got a best friend, who happens to live with me and looooovvves walks. I'm a happy little mountain girl, I believe in sunshine and skiing, that about sums me up.

The Blog...
I live in a pretty unique place and have always surrounded myself with pretty unique people. This is a place for me to not only introduce our town to the world, but the locals.

Lu-Lu Local Monthly Local

November 1st I will be featured as Luluu Local's "Small Town Local of the month". Lulu Local is a global marketplace built by locals like myself. They are all about showcasing creativity from around the country and want to make a community from people in small town communities. Check it out at their site-

Personal Statement (Fall 2012)

This was my personal statement that I sent to Western last year. It's amazing how things change and I wonder what I would write differently if I had to write another one today.

Personal Statement

 In everyone’s lives there comes an opportunity to do something that could change them forever, the moments that define someone are the chances that they take. But if every person were to wait for the perfect moment to arise, the best weather, or time to go- nothing amazing would ever happen. It will always be raining, there will never be enough time, and you will never have enough money or all the right gear. The opportunity to accomplish something will pass by and eventually be your biggest regret.

College is the biggest opportunity I have ever been given, it’s a chance at becoming something more than what I ever thought possible and a way to break away from everything I have ever known. I have been told by everyone that has heard that I wanted to go to Western that Gunnison is too cold, too small, and too windy. But they don’t know me. They don’t know that those same things will be exactly what I will love about it.

               The summer of 2011, my dad and I did what even we weren’t sure we could accomplish. We left Southern California in a 1986 Suzuki Samurai; it was close to ninety degrees. Our only plan, to reach the Arctic Circle before it was snowing too hard for us to keep going and to not tell anyone where we were going until we got there.

               There is never going to be a good time to drive North 3200 miles in any car, let alone an old Samurai. I was a part time student with two jobs and my dad was flying between Taiwan and California for work, making our schedules fit together was a challenge in and of itself. Making it there before fall was another.

               In Alaska, you can only count on two things- that while you are there it will rain and then it will rain some more. Road conditions along the Dalton Highway are always questionable; between broken glass, pot holes and wildlife the size of a minivan, you grow accustomed to roughing it. Just because on the map there is a town, does not mean anyone will be there selling gas, food or water. Even though you are going to be on a Ferry for 4 straight days, this does not mean you will be given a bed or that you will be sleeping inside. Despite the fact that your sleeping bag says it is made for temperatures between 0 and 25 degrees, it may not be warm enough. All of the unexpected made the adventure that much more spectacular. By the end of October, when we hit the pull off sign for the Arctic Circle, I was used to wearing rain boots, being muddy, and sleeping in a lawn chair on the back of a boat underneath the stars.

               At every gas station, campground, or diner there are people from all different backgrounds and areas of the world. On the 4^th of July, we went to a small town celebration to watch the most patriotic ‘Parade of the Species’ I had ever seen. In the middle of absolutely nowhere we met a man who was closing up shop October 1^st for Winter who had adopted and raised 18 children putting 12 of them through college. The men responsible for the security of the pipeline were the kind of characters you would rather have on your side. Fifty miles north of the Arctic Circle we had coffee with the housewives of Oil Truckers who had secret games of poker while the men were away. These were people all in Alaska for different reasons who wanted nothing more than to hear why we had brought our little car all that way-Sociology at it’s finest.

               We left Alaska with less than ten dollars, some Sourdough starter, holes in our rain boots, and a story to leave us standing a little taller. When we tell people where we went and how we got there, they all have the same things to say, did we know anyone there? Are we crazy? Why did we do it? To which we always reply we do now, why not, and wouldn’t you?

               The problem is that most people can come up with a million reasons not to go. They are broke, they’ve got a job, it will be cold, I’m too old, too young, and I don’t even own a tent. But if we had let any of those things stop us, I would have stood in my own way of experiencing something worth sleeping on the frozen ground in the rain for. I don’t know anyone in Gunnison, maybe everyone is right, and I don’t know what will happen. What I do know is that I’ve done crazier things, under worse conditions, with less of a plan. Sometimes you just have to jump on in with both feet. Moving two hundred sixty miles, just my dog and what I can fit in my car is nothing in comparison to driving to the Arctic Circle for no reason, but it’s an opportunity to do something I have never done before, with a whole different group of people, in an entirely new place. 

Half Dead for (and after) Zombie Prom

Zombie Prom....yikes. What a night!

So every year KBUT, our local radio station, puts on Zombie Prom for their fundraiser at the Talk of the Town. It's a wonderful excuse to get all dressed up and go all out with, what seems like, the entire town. The place is packed, everyone is bloody and gorey, and things get a little wild.

Getting ready was an interesting experience for me. I went to Boomerangs costume warehouse in Gunni (it's incredible and a little overwhelming) to get a prom dress. I was going for old, pink, and sparkled, basically everything you didn't want in High School, and left with short, red and no sparkles. There may have been some temptation to just get a tux, but I refrained.

Kaylynn's Version

But going to Zombie Prom isn't complete unless you have two major elements...a date and a face that looks fresh out of the cemetery. The first piece is not relevant. And for the second, when a first world problem arises for the modern American girl what do we do? PINTEREST IT!-Zombie Makeup DIY. My pinspiration came from Kaylynn Sheets the criminal mastermind behind Publicly Private. (Her blog is probably my new favorite by the way.)

Step 1.

My own was not quite as glorious, partially because apparently I don't own any sort of white makeup or powder and partially because I have little to no makeup knowledge and struggle even with the daily ritual makeup. Oh well.

I started the process of basically just pretending I was going to actual prom. Curl the hair, lip stick, etc. Looking super cute. Because I had gone to all this effort is where the idea of looking "half dead" came into play, it was a shame to just look like a ghoul after all that work right? Sure, whatever Jes. Step one was to cover 1/2 of my face with a moisturizing face mask, two birds one stone! On top of that I put....this is embarrassing...the only white powder I could find, oatmeal! Which gave me the initial pasty flaky kinda gross thing goin.

Tada!

Blood, guts, and glory!

After that I split my face into two parts with black eyeliner and filled in my eye, just following the natural dark circles. <- fabulous. I did sorta the same thing as Kaylynn and colored in my nose, but instead of adding the teeth, I went for more of the Frankenstein version and did the sewn lip. I thought a great addition to this would be to break my jaw again, HA! and did the same to the bottom of my face. Final touches were in the addition of some darker contouring with black and green eye-shadows and to top 'er off, some blood. Messed up half of my hair and in general tried to make myself look like I'd been hit by a car.

Zombie Prom was a blast, hopefully it is a good indicator of the fun to be had on Halloween, which I can't wait for.

Sorry, I did a horrible job at taking in process pictures, but you get the idea and hey, I'm new at this. If you have any questions...ask away. What do you think?