Life has been crazy over the past week, mostly in good ways. Super busy, but I feel good about it… except I’ve spend waaay too much money, but it has all been worth it. As we’re starting to really roll into the winter season, life is about to be relatively hectic for the next few months, and I’m weirdly excited about it.

My best friend, Chan, has been in town for the past few days, and I had some fun times with her and her other best friend that recently moved to the ‘Boat. I’m grateful for all the good vibes I’ve been feeling lately, despite not being able to go snowboarding. Hopefully that’ll change tomorrow and my doctor will clear me to ride/teach, right as we’re about to roll into one of the busiest weeks of the season. If you missed it, I hit my head on my third day on snow for the season (Dec 2nd), and was already in contact with my doctor for a week prior because of some weird head things that I had going on that may or may not be related to all my head injuries. I’ve got an appointment to see her tomorrow and hopefully she’ll give me the okay to get back out there. No one tell my mom. She always threatens to drive out here and kidnap me if/when I get hurt again or hit my head. She doesn’t need to know 🤣🤣

One of the things I did over this past week that costed me a good chunk of money was upgraded my phone, and also joined the Apple Watch club. Ever since the release of the first Apple Watch, I was always somewhat against it. But I figured, with life getting crazier and my responsibilities at work increasing, I’d give the watch a try. I’m surprisingly REALLY happy I decided to join that watch club. It’s just extremely convenient and will help me a lot, especially on days when I’m teaching on the mountain.

With the new phone thing, I had to set up my alarm. Today, a really good friend of mine was asking people for pick-me-up song suggestions. I sent her one of my favorite ones (you’re welcome, and also thanks to my friend Steph who got me hooked to this song YEARS ago), and then was thinking of some of my own personal pump up songs. With it being much easier to pull music onto my phone from the cloud (I upgraded to an XS from the SE), I decided to change my alarm song today. The explanation of all of this and what this following song means to me might get long. We’ll see. Here we go….

This all started in the ’10-’11 winter, which will probably go down as my all time favorite season I’ve ever had. Not because of actually snowboarding (I still lived in Ohio, so, clearly not because of snowboarding), but it was the most fun I’ve had in a season with my Snow Trails family. Our ski school had this song that we were mildly obsessed with and would play often when we were drunk after work. One of my favorite nights that season was a party night that they called Midwest Farmersfest (which then became a tradition and turned into the Mid-Season Party). Instead of waiting for Carnival weekend, it was essentially a big ‘locals’ party to celebrate Snow Trails’ 50th anniversary. Snow Trails winter carnivals are fun, but it had turned into an event where people who didn’t even ski or snowboard would show up to party all weekend, so they wanted to do something for those loyal to that hill, atmosphere, and family. One of our snowboard instructors (who is also a DJ) was hired to be the DJ for this crazy night. The music started before our final lesson lineup of the day at 7:15. All the instructors that we’re still signed in were hanging out outside, waiting to be released (I think there was maybe 1 person that took a ski lesson that night). Before lineup was over, Johnny (instructor/DJ) made a shout out to all the instructors, then played this song and we all just lost our shit. An epic dance party started between all of us younger instructors (and some of the older ones, because we had some cool older ski instructors). It was paradise.

I listened to that song today and realized that it’s even more relevant to me now, and it also reminded me of my Snow Trails family back home. All the good times we had and the crazy turn my life took when I started working there. They’re the only reason I even made it to Colorado, despite how much we didn’t want to part ways. They got me here, and I am forever grateful and blessed to know that they always have my back. I love going back and having the GM (whose family owns the resort) get super stoked when he sees me…. and then he typically proceeds to buy me multiple shots/drinks.

Now I’m living in a gorgeous mountain town, with jobs that I actually enjoy, friends that are just as awesome as the ones I left behind in Ohio, lots of big opportunities ahead of me, and I’ve finally got myself in a really good spot, emotionally. I am living in my paradise, and I don’t wanna go home. Figured there was no better way to start my day than to wake up to this song. So, here’s my late Music Monday.

Bonus: my brother-from-another-mother, Jake, will be in Steamboat for a couple days this week. He was one of my roommates during 4 of my 5 seasons teaching full time at Snow Trails. I’m so excited for him to come experience the ‘Boat. We don’t keep in touch as well as we should, but he’s seriously one of my favorite people. This kid showed up to Snow Trails at 17 years old with practically nothing and we took him under our giant and sometimes dysfunctional Snow Trails wing and I’m so proud of the man he is today. Bummed that Chan leaves tomorrow and won’t get to meet him. Oh well!

Go find your paradise.