Falling Down the Mountain

Spending New Years with seven seasoned skiers at a ski resort in Canada sounded like a fabulous idea. Before eventually coming to the point where I knew it was that fabulous idea, I had to deal with the fact that skiing is both hard and scary. You see, before this week I was not a skier. The mountains were foreign. Looking up at Whistler sparked an awe in me that could only come from something equally beautiful and treacherous. My natural inclination was not to allow myself to lean down into that slope. My natural inclination was to step back from the edge.

What I really had to accept in order to get back down to the bottom of the mountain is that if I was going to ski I was going to have to let myself fall because falling is exactly what skiing feels like. I had to get past this huge mental block. I had to trust that when I put all my weight on the right leg I wasn’t going to become a human bullet shooting down, I was going to smoothly curve around.

It took me a couple of days and there were a lot of actual tumbles and moments that I needed to stop and mentally prepare myself (and take in the view), but I did it. I looked down the slope, told myself it was okay, and I leaned into it. The rewards were indescribable. I started becoming more comfortable in the stiff boots and my fear started to dissipate.

2018 was filled with peaks and I definitely ended on one. If learning how to ski is an indication of how the rest of the year is going to go, it looks like I’m ready to take risks and face some fears in 2019.

(bonus info: my ski instructor friend Jason said that the lift to the top of Whistler would be too spicy to go down the second day, but guess what?? If that lift was spicy, so am I. The third day I went up, took this photo, and I skied all the way down from the peak.)

and In the Morning You Wake Up

The one good thing about nightmares?

They aren’t real.

-EKJ

Wine That’s Worth Tasting

Drinking wine is an acquired taste and for me, when I first started going to tastings or ordering a glass at a restaurant it was a little intimidating. I didn’t know what I liked, I probably couldn’t even pronounce Syrah. Thankfully, most of the staff at tasting rooms are more than helpful because they want you to find what you like! In fact, I received some really great advice at a tasting room that I still think about months later.

So, here it is. The best bit of knowledge I have ever received about drinking wine: “If you like the wine, it’s good wine.”

If you think the $200 bottle of wine tastes like crap, it’s crappy wine. If you prefer the $18 bottle, drink it.

This advice is well suited for the craft of fermenting grapes, but it can also be related to almost anything in life. Sometimes we feel like things should be enjoyable and so we pretend to like them even when we don’t. Adversely, sometimes we aren’t brave enough to admit we like something that isn’t universally liked. Next time I enjoy something, you bet I’m going to do my best to like it whether or not it comes highly recommended.

(Pictured: my hand, holding a beautiful glass of cheap wine in a setting that makes the wine look just as good as it is.)

Yellow Paint

I’ve heard the story about how Van Gough ate yellow paint, despite its toxicity, because he thought that it was a happy color. He thought that maybe he would be happier if he could paint the inside of him yellow.

I don’t believe in romanticizing mental illness and I don’t even know if that was a true story, but I do think that life should be filled with color. When I see the bright giant sunflowers at the farmer’s market, I will buy them. When I have the option to wear a black dress or a red dress, I will choose the red one every time. I think life is too short to wear neutral colored shoes or to fill your apartment with things that look nice, but aren’t things you love.

My sister came up all the way from Tennessee to visit me and my new apartment and when she left my apartment really did feel more alive. While she was here we spent time painting a few large canvases to fill my empty walls. And they are beautiful and bright and I love them.

Why I Hate Football Less Than I Did Last Week

As the title seems to suggest, I’m not into sports. Well, watching them anyways (I don’t mind playing a game once in a while). To me, a football game is an indication that mankind hasn’t evolved nearly as far as we’d like to think. I tend to hope that humans have a lot more to offer than their physical attributes, and I certainly have never been inclined to spend any of my time watching a bunch of huge men get out onto a field, glorified for being able to knock each other over.

If I have to be completely honest here, I have never been able to understand someone who puts so much value into any sport. In my mind, whether a team does well or loses shouldn’t have an actual effect on a persons mood or life. Why should something that doesn’t need to bother you, bother you?

So, back to the title. What changed?

This weekend, my cutie pie boyfriend asked me to go down to The Lone Star State for his college reunion at Texas A&M. At first I wasn’t keen on going to the game. (I was wanting to go to Houston! My parents and sister are down there and despite the game I thought it would be a great opportunity to see them.) However, as new experiences usually allow for… my mind opened up to something I thought I hated.

I’m not saying that I’ll be following ESPN or anything. I found that I do understand people who follow ESPN a little better, though.

Students and alumni of A&M have so much pride for their school. When they are on that campus, and even later in life, being an Aggie seems to be part of their identity. The football game is a way for them to showoff their support for how much they like and appreciate their school. There are a ton of things that A&M is known to be good for, football is just something that everyone can easily get behind. It’s hard for the whole school to get together and cheer for an engineering program, but that doesn’t mean the school doesn’t have just as much pride for that. (This was just an observation. I’m not trying to say this is an absolute truth.)

This may seem silly, but I guess I never realized that the fans are supporting more than the team itself. The team stands as a symbol. When people are going out to the Ravens game, they are rooting on Baltimore as much as any individual player.

The reason that I like this, is that I think that the more a person is able to like and support the place they identify with, the more they are willing to help that place become better. If that starts with a fondness for a football team, so be it.

(Pictured: Me wearing maroon in support of cutie pie boyfriend who is wearing maroon in support of a team that represents a school he loves.)

Meet-Ups through MeetUp

Walking into a unknown place filled with unknown people sounds awful (no, my Myers-Briggs test results did not tell me that I was an extrovert). So, how is it that I came to be in a certain local brewery, Brew House No. 16, talking with other people from the neighborhood, making friends (potential friends but with a good outlook) and drinking a half-priced beer?

I did not walk up to a random table and hope for the best. I’m nowhere near brave enough for that.

I signed myself up for the event — A MeetUp Happy Hour

Doesn’t that just sound magical? A cozy room with $5 drafts and friendly faces also looking for friends? Count me in.

Making friends is hard. Well, I like to think that it’s hard for everyone at least. I signed up for MeetUp as a desperate attempt for any kind of social interaction. I needed to get out of my apartment. I needed to find a place where conversation was welcomed. I really needed a drink. And all of this was gifted to me by a website whose goal is to connect people with similar interests in similar areas.

I’m not going to down play how nervous I was about walking into a place where I didn’t know anyone, but it was very much one of those situations that was a lot easier once I started. Everyone was there to hang out and talk and get to know each other and the experience was definitely one that made my night better than it was going to be (not that there’s anything wrong with sitting at home to read a book or watch a whole season on Netflix). Plus I had the chance to check out a cool brewery that was right down the street from me. I think that’s something worth trying again.. And cheers-ing to!