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?

 

The Best Summer

        As the leaves fell in the view from my window this morning, I couldn't help but begin to think about Winter approaching. Every year, my dad will tell you, I have this realization, that soon it will be cold and dark and at times, pretty lonely. It's amazing what a change in temperature will do to you. And I started thinking about the Summer, and what all had happened; what I had missed. This was my first year in Gunnison, the first time I had made a move for myself without really asking anyone's opinion, my first Summer back in the mountains, the first time I wrecked a car, the first time I gave my heart to someone who didn't deserve it, my first legal drink, and the first time my life was in danger.

Sorry mom and dad. 

        I will tell you, this has been the hardest Summer of my life. I will also tell you, this has been one of the best. I can honestly tell you that I don't regret a single second of it. I wouldn't take it all back. I would make the same choices, again and again every time. Yesterday I read a quote that stuck with me, and it seems to fit perfectly:

"When you tug at a single thing in the universe, you find it's attached to everything else." ~John Muir

        Western was a quick decision. In Fort Collins, I had both found and then lost my sense of....me. And I knew, around this time last year, that I needed to go. I believe that every place has a time for a person; sometimes it's short, sometimes it's long, but my time, for Fort Collins, was over. My enchantment  had long since gone, and the need to be in the mountains, to let myself be free again, was constantly on my mind. My mom and I visited once, during Thanksgiving break, the town was empty and cold, but I bought a sweatshirt. She asked, "Why would you buy that? You haven't even been accepted yet." But my decision at that point had been made. January 1st I packed everything into two cars, almost forgetting room for Toby, and left. I left without an ironing board, a glue gun, posters, and not much else. There was nothing there for me anymore. 

        For the first 2 weeks I lived in Gunnison it was in the -30's until 2 o clock. I had no money, no idea of what to do, and no one was in town. Soon I was shown the valley, where to go, who to be. I wont go into the following few months, but I will tell you that it gave me two things...I was shown to be more careful. That your heart is not something that should be handed off so easily and to just anyone, but that when you find that person, and it's right, you should still give it everything you've got. And, Britney. On the second day living in Gunnison, I was invited me to go Crested Butte and watch a ski movie with some friends, it was Britney's house that I went to. Without Britney I would have been lost time and time again. 

         After everything, I needed a break from the valley and people's questions and helping hands. On my way home from Denver, just before the turn for Monarch pass, I had the chill run through my back, Toby began to panic running around the car, trying to get into my lap. I couldn't figure it out, I had been scared deep down into my bones and couldn't shake it, nothing had even happened. After a few deep breaths I was able to calm Toby down, but seconds after there was a sound at the back of my car as if a rock had been thrown against it like a baseball. I screamed and the chills continued, Toby was now under the dashboard whining. I came to a gas station and pulled in, got out of the car and collected myself under the light. It was 2:30 in the morning, I had class the next day, and I was only an hour away from home. "I can do this." I spoke aloud next to the gas pump reassuring myself. I got back on the road having convinced myself it was all in my head and within minutes almost hit a deer. Seconds later a second deer ran in front of my car, I swerved but hit her against the headlight and she bounced onto the hood. For what seemed like a minute she lay across the window, wide eyes glued to mine, before falling off the edge and under the wheel. I was fine, spooked was all, but my car was totaled. I had ignored my gut; something had told me to stop, sent chills down my spine again and again and I had chosen to ignore it. I don't believe in God, but I do believe in faith and having faith in yourself. Had I trusted my gut feeling, I would have stopped and spent the night in my car. I think that before that moment I had lost that faith. 

       "Bad things come in threes." is something most people say. Britney and I had now banned saying, "It can't get any worse." So on my 21st birthday I decided that I should pay attention to the patterns in my life, have some faith, and not have the traditional black out birthday. I asked everyone for one thing, that I could just have one day, to forget everything. I had the most amazing day. Breakfast in Crested Butte with Nikko, Jesse was here to celebrate with me, Nicole got off early from work and Britney came down to go to Powerstop. I had my day! At 12:10, I crashed my bike coming home and shattered my jaw. 47 stitches, 12 screws and 4 plates. I had my jaw wired shut for 6 weeks. But when those 6 weeks were over I had learned some pretty valuable lessons. One...that the hot dog is officially my favorite meal (only kinda kidding). Wear a headlamp! And that I can pick my self back up from anything. There were days that the pain medication had me asleep for the entire time the sun was up, times when I would hang up on my grandma because I couldn't handle having her ask what I'd said one more time, and times when I couldn't handle another smoothie, but it reminded me I was still that do anything kind of girl.

        I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, where I can see the leaves falling in between me and the Butte from my bedroom window,  where Summer or Winter is just as amazing, where you don't need a car, where their are plenty of people who deserve my heart, and where everyone's had their life in danger once or twice. Without the Summer that kicked my ass, I don't know if I would of seen all of that, and now that I have, I wouldn't give any of it up for anything. I live at the base of a mountain, surrounded by good friends and some of the happiest people I have ever met. We are all here for the same thing, to really live. But different things brought us here, different mistakes, beliefs, hurts and loves. Those are really the things that make this place unique. I know that this Winter, just like last, will be cold and at times pretty lonely, I also know it will be full of more firsts, more tugs at the universe and with any luck, more snow.