My Life in Pictures: January 27th - February 20th

Well, they say a picture's worth a thousand words. I don't know who "they" are or how they're qualified to make such sweeping generalizations about photography, but here's a little peek into my life over the past month. It was a month full of joy, confusion, anger, alcohol, networking, and cross-continental gnar shredding. I hope you guys (all 3 of you) enjoy looking at these pictures as much as I enjoyed living what was in them.

January 27th - 28th : SIA Tradeshow in Denver

Jeff has some pretty cool connections. Before driving down to Denver for the 2010 SIA Tradeshow, we met up with a very nice guy from Primo Island Lager (a new brew launched by Pabst) who gave us 12 cases of this malty deliciousness to bring down to our friends at Never Summer Snowboards in Denver.

Our buds at the Never Summer factory for sure felt the Primo Island love after Jeff and I's "special delivery".

Jeff and I's shift at the Screamer Hats booth was from 9-11:30 the next morning so we woke up and quickly shoved some continental breakfast into our mouths before heading a few blocks over to the convention center. Jan and Steve Burkholder, the owners of Screamer really kicked ass with the booth this year! We had tons of drinks, fake snow, a video screen, and REALLY bright lights that reminded me of being in Vegas. It was also awesome hanging out with all my new teammates like Glen Plake, Leslie Glenn, and Corey Lilley.

After our shift at Screamer, We went exploring and saw Katie's (Jeff's fiance and my fashion guru's) gorgeous, modelesque face gracing a huge poster in the Marker booth. Hot momma!!!

I gotta say the rest of the show after our shift gets a little hazy for me because I was spending a lot of time in the Never Summer booth and they had hired a VERY heavy-handed bartender. I really shouldn't have to go into greater detail...all I know is, I woke up the next morning with a bunch of free stuff from the guys over at Bern so thank you Bern guys! Even though I was only there for a day, the show didn't disappoint me nearly as much as my pessimistic ass was anticipating but I gotta say, I really missed Vegas along with almost everyone else at this year's show. Next year's outerwear looks SICK though so ya gotta love that.

January 30th - 31st: Winter X

Excuse my shitty cell phone picture of this magnificent Aspen sunset we were greeted with upon our arrival to Winter X.

Jeff and I were both feeling pretty mellow from the drive up, as you can see from his zen, blissed out expression. We pretty much listened to This American Life podcasts from the moment we left Breckenridge. It makes for a really pensive soundtrack to a really extreme road trip.

After we checked into our lodge in Snowmass, we headed over to J Bar in Aspen for some R&R. By the way, stay in Snowmass, play in Aspen. It really saves you a headache and a half.

We try to keep it classy.

The start of a really fun night! Here are my new friends Michele and Tim with Jeff standing in front of the banginest party of Winter X 2010. Monster really knows how to throw a rager! Tons of boarders, skiiers, and snowmobilers there getting their drink and dance on. Great djs and some live acts. In fact, I was dancing with Del tha Funkee Homosapien and didn't realize it until he got onstage and started rapping. Monster/vodka goggles are an interesting thing.

The next morning, or really, the next AFTERNOON, Jeff and I dragged ourselves out of bed to go eat some brunch and watch slopestyle. The event itself was totally amazing, however. I don't know how much further aerial snowboarding can progress. The fact that we are where we are already is completely staggering to me as it is. I'll just have to wait and see!

February 2nd - 7th: MTV MADE/Oconomowoc, WI Trip #2

Both of Jeff's sleds suffered separate unfortunate accidents on the same day so we took them into Denver on our way to the airport to get them all doctored up. Poor sleds.

My hotel room key in Oconomowoc. After a while, all these places look exactly the same.

Over at Olympia Highlands, me and my classic rock soulmate/mountain operations manager Matt pushed some snow in the snowcat to make some cool shit for Chillfest. If it didn't require me to live a semi-nocturnal life, I would LOVE drive one of these metal beasts professionally.

Here is one way to kill time in Wisconsin.

Here is another.

At the Pub in Oconomowoc with some of my loves! (L to R: Jonathan Hershberger, Rob Catalano, Jeff Meyer, Katie Knudsen, and ME!) I believe we truly annoyed the last straggling patrons of this establishment by loudly watching talking BBC animals on Hersh's iPhone and yelling, "ALAN! ALAN! ALAN!" but these Wisconsinites were way too nice to say anything to reprimand our drunk asses.

This flyer for Chillfest was hanging right above me in The Java Hut (my favorite coffee place in Oconomowoc) as I was flavoring my delicious hot beverage. The flyer itself makes me giggle and I'm not totally sure why.

After the competition ended, we had an awful lot of down time...something like 5 hours. So Jeff and I decided to flex it out for the camera.

Me being filmed by Jen, one of the fabulous members of the MTV crew. I wouldn't exactly say I'm completely at ease in front of the lens and judging by my expression in this shot, I doubt anyone would disagree with me.

A few good things about having lots of time to kill: beer and live music was just upstairs! Oh, Spotted Cow, how dearly and deeply I miss your hoppy goodness.

Katie, Jeff, and my girl Megan. Watch out for Megan in a few years cuz she rips!

Robby C and Ashley, our MADE girl. They're totally adorable.

But everything must come to an end, even reality television so we packed our bags (combined number: 1,324) and headed to the airport the next afternoon. Here are Hershy and I's feet resting on our fine baggage. This was shortly before he sang "Lady" by Styx to me at full volume for the benefit of everyone who happened to be in or passing through the check-in area. What fond memories we make together.

After we went through security and "recombobulated" ourselves, Hershy, Robby C, and I posted up at a bar in the terminal to kill some time and watch the Superbowl. I can't really explain exactly what's happening in this picture but I'll guess that watching football with your friends brings out the homoerotic side in every teenage boy.

Our flight back to Colorado was delayed so we spent a good deal of time sitting at our gate eating overpriced junk food and playing iPhone Scrabble with each other. Ahh...the lives of athletes.

We were greeted by a freak snowstorm when we finally touched down at DIA. It made us consider having a sleepover in the mile high city but we decided to nut up and make the 2 hour excursion through the mountains to sleep in our own luscious beds.

The tenative air date for our MTV MADE episode is April 3rd so mark your calendars! I'll be sure to post more details about that as I know more about it. The editing process will be crazy complicated, I'm sure, so you never know.

Back Home in Breckenridge: February 8th - 17th

One really great thing about being home for a while: SEEING MY FRIENDS!

Valentine's Day was also pretty neat this year. The photo on the left was the first gift I received. Yes, it's a fucking 5 pound cherry gummy bear. I opened it and had a candygasm. The picture on the right is a gorgeous bouquet of my favorite flowers and middle name that my always romantic Poppo sent to me. I'm surrounded by love and I feel it 24/7!

It was great to be back shredding Breckenridge after 6 days of riding the 300 ft vertical drop of Olympia Highlands. Here's me trying to be creative during a water break at Vista Haus.

Francie's Cabin Hut Trip: February 18th - 19th

My very first hut trip! I was totally stoked. Balto however, was much less excited. They don't allow dogs at Francie's so we had to leave him behind. For future reference, this is his sad face.

Any day snowmobiling is a good day. My hog is on the left and Jeff's is on the right. We rode these motor puppies as far as we could before we had to start hiking. We're speed demons at heart.

We met these two bullwinkles at the trailhead. The bigger one stared us down but then decided to go tend to his woman instead. Such cool creatures!

This is the inside of Francie's. I felt very Laura Ingalls Wilder...in a good way!

As you can see, there is no television, so I sat on the couch watching, "Days of Our Logs".

I came in 2nd in Scrabble. Ya gotta hand it to R. He just wanted it more.

After a long night of wood chopping, soup eating, and sauna-ing I had the great pleasure of waking up to THIS! This view alone was worth the mile-long uphill hike.

Breakfast the next morning. As you can see, Jeff takes his oatmeal as seriously as his Mario Kart playing.

Tea time in the kitchen with 2 of our new friends!

Spending the night on a cot filled me with a greater appreciation for my own bed when I got home. It was so beautiful, I had to take a picture.

So perhaps we're basically caught up now? Finally? Huzzah!

I'm beat. I spent the day at Echo hitting some cool little jibs there and the drive kicked my ass.

Blog ya later,

Meesh

p.s. The reason I didn't blog about the Winter Olympics is because I'm too busy to watch it. I just watch recaps. Commercials piss me off as well. BUT, a big ass congrats to Lindsey Vonn, Maelle Ricker, Shaun White, Torah Bright, and everyone who made it to Vancouver!