Thursday, January 1, 2009
Monday, December 29, 2008
Livin' the Dream
I haven't been writing much because in reality not much has been going on. Since we last spoke, I found a job working at the Woodward Cage at Copper Mountain. Copper is literally the next exit over from Frisco, so it's extremely convenient, and they have a great little village so there's tons of stuff to do when I'm on break or before or after work.
I'm just a register jockey, and as of now the job has been mostly totally boring. It's incredible how easy it is to do this job, I pretty much just sit around all day and talk to the occasional customer. It's fun, I get to play whatever music I want in the store (as long as my coworkers agree, which they generally do) and it's a relaxed atmosphere. A welcome break from my 9-5 office job, although that was a fairly relaxed place too as far as it goes.
Included in my pay I also get a free ski pass which is good for Copper, Winter Park, Steamboat Springs, Loveland, and possibly a few others. I hope to hit them all throughout the season, and I'm sure I'll thoroughly inspect Copper as it's sort of my home base mountain. I'm really excited to get skiing, but since I just got my pass last Tuesday and I've worked almost every day since, I haven't had a chance yet. I'm pretty sure I'll get a chance to go tomorrow though, while Lisa is taking her first ski lesson! I think she's really excited about it, and I'm excited for her to learn! We went and bought her the necessary gear (she'll still be renting skis and boots...) so she's all ready for her lesson tomorrow!
We've been trying to check out the local night life a bit, but neither of us is really a party person so it's usually just a few beers here or there. The Brewery in Frisco is really cool, and has great food. The Moose Jaw is a fun local bar with awesome burgers and cheap PBR. In nearby Breckenridge we checked out the Gold Pan Saloon, which was pretty cool. More cheap PBR here...is this the state beer or something? We see it everywhere, which is fine by me 'cause I love it!
Christmas was fairly uneventful for us. We came down to Copper on Christmas Eve; they had fireworks, a torch parade down the mountain, and we grabbed dinner. We didn't do gifts for each other because we're both a little tight on money, but on the 26th a big package from my parents arrived. The postal service couldn't quite make it on time, but no big deal. It was really sweet and it really made our Christmas. I had to work on Christmas day so that definitely didn't help, but overall I think it went pretty well. The picture below was our Christmas tree, which we think looks a little Dr. Suess-esque due to its slight tilt and blue and red ornaments.
Overall things have been really great. I'm getting into the swing of things at work, Lisa is still on the hunt and finding things, and we're both going to start skiing tomorrow! Also to look forward to, my parents are coming out to visit from the 30th to the 2nd. That should be great, and if he's feeling well they're going to bring Rigby the kitty out with them!
I'm just a register jockey, and as of now the job has been mostly totally boring. It's incredible how easy it is to do this job, I pretty much just sit around all day and talk to the occasional customer. It's fun, I get to play whatever music I want in the store (as long as my coworkers agree, which they generally do) and it's a relaxed atmosphere. A welcome break from my 9-5 office job, although that was a fairly relaxed place too as far as it goes.
Included in my pay I also get a free ski pass which is good for Copper, Winter Park, Steamboat Springs, Loveland, and possibly a few others. I hope to hit them all throughout the season, and I'm sure I'll thoroughly inspect Copper as it's sort of my home base mountain. I'm really excited to get skiing, but since I just got my pass last Tuesday and I've worked almost every day since, I haven't had a chance yet. I'm pretty sure I'll get a chance to go tomorrow though, while Lisa is taking her first ski lesson! I think she's really excited about it, and I'm excited for her to learn! We went and bought her the necessary gear (she'll still be renting skis and boots...) so she's all ready for her lesson tomorrow!
We've been trying to check out the local night life a bit, but neither of us is really a party person so it's usually just a few beers here or there. The Brewery in Frisco is really cool, and has great food. The Moose Jaw is a fun local bar with awesome burgers and cheap PBR. In nearby Breckenridge we checked out the Gold Pan Saloon, which was pretty cool. More cheap PBR here...is this the state beer or something? We see it everywhere, which is fine by me 'cause I love it!
Christmas was fairly uneventful for us. We came down to Copper on Christmas Eve; they had fireworks, a torch parade down the mountain, and we grabbed dinner. We didn't do gifts for each other because we're both a little tight on money, but on the 26th a big package from my parents arrived. The postal service couldn't quite make it on time, but no big deal. It was really sweet and it really made our Christmas. I had to work on Christmas day so that definitely didn't help, but overall I think it went pretty well. The picture below was our Christmas tree, which we think looks a little Dr. Suess-esque due to its slight tilt and blue and red ornaments.
Overall things have been really great. I'm getting into the swing of things at work, Lisa is still on the hunt and finding things, and we're both going to start skiing tomorrow! Also to look forward to, my parents are coming out to visit from the 30th to the 2nd. That should be great, and if he's feeling well they're going to bring Rigby the kitty out with them!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Home Sweet Frisco
Well we finally settled on an apartment, a studio with no kitchen unfortunately, but at least we have a microwave and a fridge. It's in the town of Frisco, which claims to have the "Main Street Of The Rockies." It's a cute little town with plenty to do, and it's only a few miles from Breckenridge, as well as being only 20 minutes or so from Vail, one of my favorite mountains.
We spent yesterday moving in, and today we're still unpacking. We're still waiting for a few pieces of furniture from the guy we're renting from, so there's still plenty of bags around, but really it's starting to feel like home. After almost 2 weeks on the road and in motels, it feels nice to have a place to call home. Even though it sort of looks like a hotel room, with all our stuff scattered all over it feels like ours. I'm also really glad to be able to see out the back of my car, plus it can actually make it up a minor hill without downshifting twice now!
The rest of today is pretty much just for unpacking, maybe some errands, and more job searching. Finding a job has been more difficult than I thought it would be, but I'm not out of hope. Incidentally if anyone in the Summit County area needs tech support, I charge $40/hr and I'm very knowledgeable!
We spent yesterday moving in, and today we're still unpacking. We're still waiting for a few pieces of furniture from the guy we're renting from, so there's still plenty of bags around, but really it's starting to feel like home. After almost 2 weeks on the road and in motels, it feels nice to have a place to call home. Even though it sort of looks like a hotel room, with all our stuff scattered all over it feels like ours. I'm also really glad to be able to see out the back of my car, plus it can actually make it up a minor hill without downshifting twice now!
The rest of today is pretty much just for unpacking, maybe some errands, and more job searching. Finding a job has been more difficult than I thought it would be, but I'm not out of hope. Incidentally if anyone in the Summit County area needs tech support, I charge $40/hr and I'm very knowledgeable!
Saturday, December 13, 2008
John Denver Is NOT Full Of Shit
After driving all day on Saturday through Kansas (and crashing a mere 25 miles from the border) we woke up Sunday with a fresh resolve. We were finally going to make it to the mountains today.
We rolled into Denver around 10am on a Sunday morning, definitely not the most interesting time to visit a city. We walked around for a few hours but didn't really see much. It's a very clean city, and there seems to be a lot of cool stuff to do, but again, it was Sunday morning, and the place was basically dead. Rather than stay and wait for something to happen, we hopped back in the saddle and continued west on I-70, into the mountains.
We drove through several towns and passed about 6 million ski areas, checking out the gorgeous Rocky Mountains and finally seeing some significant amounts of snow. Sunday afternoon, after checking out a few of the smaller towns in the area, we stopped in a town called Frisco. We found a cheap motel, dropped off our stuff and went back out to explore.
Almost all of the small towns up here look more or less the same, with a single main street that looks almost exactly like what you'd expect the main street in a Western town to look like, only modernized. Some are larger or smaller, and some are more or less focused on the actual skiing side of things. Frisco, for example, had a lot of small ski chalets, but not as many Western storefronts.
For a real mining/cowboy town experience, check out Idaho Springs or Georgetown. These are much smaller towns that look like they really haven't changed much since the gold rush (which is celebrating its 150th anniversary next year).
We had originally planned to drive on to Wyoming and possibly Montana before settling down, but the proximity of dozens of great ski mountains, the larger towns that would provide jobs, and our own exhaustion with the road led us to decide to stay here in Colorado. I'm writing this now on Saturday, and we've spent the entire week looking around for jobs and apartments. We're currently waiting to hear from one apartment in Frisco, or else we will head back down the mountain to an inn in Idaho Springs where they've offered to let us pay by the month.
As far as the job search goes, it's looking like I might end up as a pizza delivery guy, or, with luck, a rental shop salesman. I'd love to work in a ski shop or something, just to hang out with like-minded people (and get Lisa some discounts on equipment!). Lisa and I have been talking about how we'd really be willing to do just about anything, and probably have fun doing it. All of the stores around here are locally owned, so it's a much more laid back experience. Of course, if we run out of options, there's always Target!
That's it for now. We've seen a lot of different apartments and applied for a bunch of different jobs, and maybe later I'll relay some of the more interesting experiences we had. For now we're just kind of in a holding pattern, waiting to see if we can afford to live here and what not.
More updates as events warrant. I think once we get settled this may turn into a ski mountain review blog, so be forewarned.
We rolled into Denver around 10am on a Sunday morning, definitely not the most interesting time to visit a city. We walked around for a few hours but didn't really see much. It's a very clean city, and there seems to be a lot of cool stuff to do, but again, it was Sunday morning, and the place was basically dead. Rather than stay and wait for something to happen, we hopped back in the saddle and continued west on I-70, into the mountains.
We drove through several towns and passed about 6 million ski areas, checking out the gorgeous Rocky Mountains and finally seeing some significant amounts of snow. Sunday afternoon, after checking out a few of the smaller towns in the area, we stopped in a town called Frisco. We found a cheap motel, dropped off our stuff and went back out to explore.
Almost all of the small towns up here look more or less the same, with a single main street that looks almost exactly like what you'd expect the main street in a Western town to look like, only modernized. Some are larger or smaller, and some are more or less focused on the actual skiing side of things. Frisco, for example, had a lot of small ski chalets, but not as many Western storefronts.
For a real mining/cowboy town experience, check out Idaho Springs or Georgetown. These are much smaller towns that look like they really haven't changed much since the gold rush (which is celebrating its 150th anniversary next year).
We had originally planned to drive on to Wyoming and possibly Montana before settling down, but the proximity of dozens of great ski mountains, the larger towns that would provide jobs, and our own exhaustion with the road led us to decide to stay here in Colorado. I'm writing this now on Saturday, and we've spent the entire week looking around for jobs and apartments. We're currently waiting to hear from one apartment in Frisco, or else we will head back down the mountain to an inn in Idaho Springs where they've offered to let us pay by the month.
As far as the job search goes, it's looking like I might end up as a pizza delivery guy, or, with luck, a rental shop salesman. I'd love to work in a ski shop or something, just to hang out with like-minded people (and get Lisa some discounts on equipment!). Lisa and I have been talking about how we'd really be willing to do just about anything, and probably have fun doing it. All of the stores around here are locally owned, so it's a much more laid back experience. Of course, if we run out of options, there's always Target!
That's it for now. We've seen a lot of different apartments and applied for a bunch of different jobs, and maybe later I'll relay some of the more interesting experiences we had. For now we're just kind of in a holding pattern, waiting to see if we can afford to live here and what not.
More updates as events warrant. I think once we get settled this may turn into a ski mountain review blog, so be forewarned.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
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