2011 has been a great year. I like the last few months of the year – they allow you to pause, reflect and make plans for moving forward.
2011 started out with a trip to snowy Bend, Oregon, a place that I am dying to return to. Ms. Casey Judy was an excellent host – bravely driving me around in her huge truck.
Anyway, 2011 is the year I began to love the snow and mountains, and these lines of the poem Shoveling Snow sum up why I love it so much.
If day after day
I was caught inside this muffle and hush
I would notice how
birches move with a lovely hum of spirits
How falling snow is a privacy
warm as the space for sleeping
How radiant snow is a dream
like leaving the body
And rising into that luminous space
where sometimes you meet
The people you’ve lost
Being in the snow is almost like a religious experience, or at least a spiritual one. The tall, cathedral-like trees, the bright silence, the reflection of the suns rays – the beauty is simply consuming.
So of course, I took every opportunity to seek out snow trips.
One highlight was a trip to Tahoe at the end of March, complete with a cabin right on the lake. Josh, Bri, Chad, Callie, Ashlyn, Reece and I loaded up into Josh’s suburban and headed up the mountain. Our cabin was the prefect combination of rustic and comfort, and did I mention it was right on the lake? The next day Reece had his first skiing lesson and he loved it. Northstar was extremely windy, but nonetheless I did my first powder run (I sucked).
When summer came, I did not mourn the melting snow, mainly because it did not melt until mid-July. However, I had no time to think of such snowy distractions when it was time to play on the water. Much as I love the snow, summer is my absolute perfect season for the opportunities it provides to play in the water – jumping off of rocks, rope swings, swimming under the water with my eyes open, diving in, wakeboarding, attempting to ride the air chair – I love it all!
In 2011 though, summer took it’s sweet time arriving, so I took off to Tennessee to wait it out. No, just kidding, I went to Tennessee to go to Bonnaroo on a whim, and it turned out to be the most incredible trip I took all year. Many people have used worn-out descriptions to describe this intense music-festival; sweaty, gritty, steamy – and all are apt. I would add another one: aural bliss. We saw, in the span of three day: Sleigh Bells, Bela Fleck, Old Crow Medicine Show, Allison Krauss, The Decemberists, My Morning Jacket, Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons, Buffalo Springfield, Eminem, The Scissor Sisters, Girl Talk and Railroad Earth, just to name a few. The best tweet I saw about Bonnaroo was this: I keep waking up and thinking I’m still at Bonnaroo #disappointment.
Still waiting for summer to arrive in Butte County, I took a trip with my girlfriends to Utah. Mountains, rock formations, swimming, cards and campfires. What more could you ask for?
The rest of the summer carried on in usual fashion complete with houseboat trips, Giants’ games, camping trips and backpacking trips. There was even an attempted climb up Mt. Shasta, and a successful climb up Mt. Lassen,
Fall marked the arrival of Lobster hunting season in Southern California, and this year I finally got to go with Josh, Marty and Brad on their annual Lobster dive. Pulling into the Catalina harbor and seeing our home on the water for the next four days made me extremely happy! Sleeping, eating and diving – the next four days were going to be awesome. As it turned out, I narrowly averted what could have been a disastrous situation, but that’s a story for another blog. The diving was beautiful however, and never have I felt closer to flying than when I am under the water swimming with the brightly-colored fish. Josh even picked up a sea hare and handed it to me!
This year I also met a great guy in the most unlikeliest of places and we have been having a great time going to shows, hanging out in the city and in the East Bay, and most recently, in Tahoe, hiking and playing in the snow. Though just like summer, winter is taking its sweet time to get here, we made the best of it. Skiing at Sierra was fun, even with only two runs being open. Our cabin had a great view of the lake, and we went on a great hike to see Horsetail Falls.
As the year comes to a close I am enjoying life by exploring the city, hanging out on Fillmore street, and contemplating my goals and ambitions for 2012. Today we leave for Sonoma to ring in the new year and kick of a 2012 just as exciting and fulfilling as 2011!
Reblogged this on Hello100blog.