12/19/2004 01:49:16 PM|||Travis||| Its that time of the year again, and now I feel like the cabbage patch kid, Traveling Travis who was unfortunately stuck to the bottom of a tire. Well perhaps I don't feel exactly like him, but we share the same name so that is a speical bond.
Where to begin. I just got back from Telluride, CO a mining-town that was recently converted to a marvelous resort city. Trams connect various parts of the city together and they build condos right alongside the ski runs. After going out of bounds to find some fresh snow, I once ended up in someone's backyard. That sucked.
On to snowboarding. I think it was the second day when I had an insight into why I like snowboarding. It was during a particularly steep groomed run where my speed must have at least been 60 mph and I realized that I was balancing on a small board and flying down this hill... and that I was demonstrating control. I had power. I had power over nature. It was almost primal, but I felt that since I could ride this narrow board and balance on it while going down a mountain, than I was at one with the snowy world around me. A one-ness/control with things is another wacky way to describe the feeling. I need to write a poem about this.
Partying was also a big part of the trip. We had beer chugging contests, a dirty dancing contest (which I won by the way) and way too many opportunities/excuses to drink beer. I think the elevation got to my brain, as I was always out of breath and drunk off of only a couple beers. But that didn't stop me, oh no.
I guess the stabbing is worth mentioning. Someone decided that it would be a good idea to get a knife and insert it into someone's arm and then move it from the elbow to the armpit and sever his branchial artery that services the arm, causing blood to spray all over people, the wall, the floor and himself. The victum was rushed to the hospital and almost died, the guy who did it was arrested and posted 60,000 bail and got the first plane out of Telluride. The fight was apparently over some girl. Lame.
Coming on to the trip I had pretty good friend, Cristo, to hang out with but he didn't like to party as much as me and I found myself straddling several different social circles. The big ones were the construction worker group and the cool/hip/smoker group. That latter was MUCH more fun than the former. The former only talked MAD shit, as it seems that is all construction workers do, is talk about how they are going to do this and that to you. It was a bit much. The cool/hip crowd would get high/drunk and then do silly shit like jump from the second floor to the first, jump out of the third floor window, or try to railslide the banaster. I spent most of my time with them, and towards the end I was comfy around them and I felt accepted.
One event that happened made me feel a lonelyness that I had not experienced in a while. I was at a party and one of the cool/hip crowd people walks in and he is drunk. He looks around and says- where are my friends? And suddenly I felt extremely lonely. It was because I knew that he would soon find out his friends were upstairs smoking in the bathroom and when he walked in he would feel at home. he would be surrounded with his good friends. That was something I was missing, and perhaps still am. Until I get to Montana, that is.
Taking to the sky.... be in MT around buddies soon.|||110349397609251318|||Travelin' Travis