Wedding Season

This was the first of three for me this summer. My sister-in-law was married this past Saturday to Jeremy. It was a great celebration and I was not the photographer, but I went everywhere and took shots of everything. Here are a few.

The bride and parents.

Kate, Tim, and Ang.

The bridal party.

It was a great picture of Ang, just not the best of those cropped from the rest of the image.

Jeremy and Angela. It was bright, sort of squinty, but still looking good.

Angela while waiting for a picture.

The cake was pretty, but the cake topper was made by my other sister-in-law, Kendra, it was beautiful. Props.

The happy couple dancing.

Anything Goes In Wyoming

We are in Wyoming for Angela's (my sister-in-law) wedding. Tim took us out on his new boat, which is a beast. I took some pics of the wildlife. And, who could resist some cliff jumping.

On the Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

I'm thinking Osprey, just because Osprey are cool. (Confirmed later that day, Osprey.) I don't know if this actually is one.

We pulled up right next to their nest.

Some antelope, always present in Wyoming.

Surveying the scene before we jump.

Jumping into the gorge, one of the best spots I've ever seen for cliff jumping. The water was 80 feet deep a few feet away from the cliff.

My cousin-in-law (Sam) and I going off together.

Laramie Days

Kate and I were in Wyoming over the weekend. We ate out at a couple of our favorite Laramie establishments, one of which was host to our first date. We caught a swim meet (Wyoming vs. Air Force). The men and the women won. It was an exciting meet on the men's side and I spent some time on the pool deck trying to get good pictures of swimming, which isn't an easy task. I got a few, but to really capture the speed and to keep the noise down in pictures I would need a much more powerful lens than I currently have. In the meantime, I've never been able to capture shots like this with any camera I have had so I am happy with them.

Go Cowboys!

Airing Out 2010

I want to sit down and churn something out about 2010. I want you to read it and be astonished at what you’ve read, be in dismay about the year I had because maybe it was boring, but I made it sound like so much more than that.

2010 was anything but boring, but I don’t know if I can convey that anymore. As it did like the year before, 2010 started off with a trip to Florida, but through January, February, the birth of my nephew, and a conference championship my mind was with my MFA applications to ten schools. I had labored over them for almost a year and I felt like I applied to the entire spectrum of writing programs out there. Starting in late February, or was it early March, the rejections started to trickle in. First, was Wyoming. Then I can’t remember who came next. But I do remember there were nine more and the agony of going to the mailbox every day was sustained until the last letter arrived in April. I took it—the last letter—up to the apartment with me. The blinds were drawn. It was dark. I lied on the couch. I didn’t weep. I didn’t tear up. I yelled. I fucking yelled.

March is a blur. I had the whole month off. I don’t even know what I did. I wrote about the rejections. I did an annual spiel on the Oscars, self-published of course. There was a power outage and I wrote about, writing, what I believe to be, some of my best words in 2010. On the way to work one day I pulled over and threw the key to the Longmont house into Lake Michigan, cursing it in the air and hoping some feelings would sink to the bottom of the lake with it. And then Kate and I went to Wyoming and Colorado. It was cold and snowy and being in Laramie was tough knowing I wouldn’t be going to school there in the fall.

I wandered aimlessly through April, wallowing in failure (a little like I am now, but hey, that was a huge chunk of 2010). I not only coached practices, I did practices. I threw myself into them, destroying my body and finding out that I can still be fast in the pool. When I do my best in sports I tap a vein of aggression and I get lost in it. I had plenty of fuel.

The venting continued in May, one of the most stressful times of my 20s. We had made our plans for the next two years and they were denied from us. In the middle of it all we went to Mexico to escape it. We were successful in that, but the stress was waiting for us the day we got back. What next? What now? Then I went to Colorado and spent a few nights with good friends looking for our new home. Then, a wedding in May for two people in love. But it was tough and weird at times, stages of the healing process. Getting everyone together again felt right and wrong, stages of the aging and living process. Instead of a strong bond among all of us I was acutely aware of an aging history held together with feeble attempts to reestablish community. Honestly, I thought the shit was going to hit the fan this week. It didn’t so much. Some things went better than expected and for the other things, well, words went unsaid and feelings unshared, traits once rare among this group.

Like Milwaukee knew we were leaving, it threw us thunderstorm after thunderstorm in June, ephemeral, but breathtaking and humbling exhibitions of power. I searched everyday for jobs. I didn’t land one and started to doubt the wisdom in moving back to Colorado. My Mom visited us one last time in Milwaukee. Kate and I started watching Lost this month on Hulu and we never looked back. Concerning movies and TV, Lost was easily the highlight of 2010 for us. It was outstanding and our devotion to it was respectable.

July started with another vacation. This time we were off to California to see friends married, to see family, and to breath in some salty air. And then we were back in the Midwest for a few more weeks of packing and thunderstorms, one of them giving us seven inches of rain in three hours. Imagine if California got that? In our final days in Milwaukee we shed tears, took a lot of pictures of our apartment, and welcomed my Dad to Wisconsin so that he would help us move to Colorado.

I blogged twice in August. We settled into our new home, not the home we thought we would be settling into, but we thank God every day it wasn’t. We drove up our first fourteener. We went to Wyoming. The West opened its arms for us and we basked in its warm, dry, sunny climate. The proximity of friends and family helped ease the joblessness on my part. And after working for a week, Kate was offered a full-time job.

I wrote a love letter to Milwaukee in September. I witnessed Boise St. give Wyoming an ass-kicking. We finished Lost, with a blitz of 3 episodes, plus a two-hour finale, in one day. And then I got a job and we started P90X.

October: I worked some. Spent some time catching up with friends in Colorado. We had visitors. Colorado proved to be as beautiful as ever. Life went on.

A lot of people voted Republican in November. I didn’t. Are you kidding me? We spent our first Thanksgiving as a married couple with my parents and grandparents. Kate worked through the holiday and it didn’t seem relaxing for her at times, but my busy holiday schedule started at 4:30 the morning after Thanksgiving. November was warm.

In December I’ll tell you now, publicly, that I celebrated a private accomplishment. The month flew by with busy work schedules and the time to relax and celebrate our Creator was upon us in a matter of hours. We had a new camera to document it and the years ahead. The wounds sustained earlier in the year have partially healed, yet I still sometimes find in me a crushing doubt, chanting, “Failure, failure,” at me every time my hands rest on this keyboard. In the waning days of 2010, Kate’s family joined us as we welcomed 2011 into our lives, a year that can’t possibly contain in its 365 days what I want it to contain, but I will greet its every sunrise and toast its every sunset in search of it.

The Banana Belt

As Denver’s first snow swirls outside my window, Milwaukee is experiencing a heat wave, the only time since late July that it has been warmer there than in Denver. I wintered in Milwaukee for the last three years and during that time I forgot how much easier the winters in Colorado are than in the upper Midwest. Of America’s 50 largest cities, Minneapolis is the only one that has a colder average annual temperature than Milwaukee.

Although average annual snowfall is higher in Denver, the first winter I spent in Milwaukee it snowed over 112 inches, an all-time record (pictured above, just one of many blizzards that winter). The winter of 2006-2007, the last winter I spent in Colorado, was record-setting in terms of snow. There was enough of it to cover not only the shadowed corners of your yard but the entire street and neighboring field for over a month. To have snow on the ground for over a month; that was a big deal to some Front Range residents and it was the first time I could remember having snow on the ground for that long. But in Milwaukee, if the snow only stays for a month you are in good cheer. It’s not unusual for there to be snow on the ground for three months straight. It’s not that they get more than Denver—I already covered that—it’s that the cold takes your breath away and they get slightly less daylight than Colorado in the winter.

When it comes to average annual temperatures, there is no competition. Among the places I’ve lived, only Laramie, Wyoming can compete with Milwaukee’s frostbite-inducing cold. Denver has its days, but I can’t honestly say the winters in Colorado are tough.

It’s amazing what a few years in a much colder environment can do to the way you respond to weather elsewhere. After just a few months of college in Laramie, I felt like I was going to the tropics when I drove south for an hour. Fort Collins was consistently 10-15 degrees warmer than Laramie. It was good I had that training, because without it I couldn’t have weathered the winters in Milwaukee with as much good cheer as I did.

Documenting a Beatdown

Unfortunately, it felt like Boise State was welcoming Wyoming to the Mountain West Conference with a beatdown on Saturday, when, in fact, it will be Boise State who officially joins the Mountain West next year after their last season as a member of the WAC (a considerably weaker football conference). It was great being back in Laramie for a football game. The weather couldn't have been better. It was a sellout and the newly renovated War Memorial Stadium was as rowdy as ever. I just wish I saw a slightly different game. The images below document the evening.

The eastern stands got a club level over the summer, significantly improving the appearance of the stadium and they still welcome you to 7,220 feet.

Good to see a sea of brown and gold in the student section.

And so it begins...8:30 left in the first quarter and it is 10-0, Boise State.

Note change in score, slight change in time and no change in quarter.

All night long, Boise State QB finds wide open man.

Getting a little distracted by now...taking photos of the west stands.

Important numbers here. Look closely at Wyoming's Rush YDS (-30) and Total YDS (1) with 39 seconds left in the first quarter. Note Boise State's Total YDS (214).

Barely into the second quarter. 24-0.

At least there was a pretty sunset to look at. We didn't quite stay till the end, but we had seen enough with 6 minutes left in the game. Final score: Boise State 51, Wyoming 6. We did get a touchdown but we were denied the PAT. In their summary, ESPN says it was over when Kellen Moore (QB) and the Broncos started needing style points to impress BCS voters. They must be referring to the flip by this Broncos player as seen in the video below at 1:10. On a different day, I believe Wyoming could put up a better fight, but after a loss like this it is important to remember Boise State's recent successes on the national stage and their ranking (currently 3rd in the country).

Boise State @ Wyoming

I'll be in Laramie over the weekend. We are heading up tomorrow to see Wyoming take on Boise State in football. You probably just cringed. I am used to the cringing and wincing, like you just got punched in the kidney. It is the natural reaction from hearing Wyoming will play Boise State, but Wyoming better get used to it because starting next year the Broncos are going to be in the Mountain West.

I don't expect a great, close game. But you never know what can happen at home. It's a night game. It's a sellout. Time to mount up, Cowboys. Don't let the Broncos buck you too hard.

Out West

Kate, happy to see her Scotty dogs. Max and Molly.

What do you do in Laramie on a Saturday? Well, you could go to see the peewee rodeo. This was fun, albeit quite smelly. Made even more fun if you bring a vegetarian along and they start crying.

The smallest cowboy I have ever seen. He is tying a string on the goat's tail.

A look across Prexy's Pasture.

A sculpture on Prexy's that looks like it is straight out of the movie version of Where The Wild Things Are.

War Memorial Stadium, currently under construction and on steroids.

Somewhere between Laramie and Fort Collins on highway 287. Beautiful.

Leftovers of the freak snow storm we had in Denver on Tuesday night.

That's What I'm Talking About

New Mexico Bowl

Wyoming is on ESPN right now. They finished 6-6 this season and were lucky to get a bowl game. They are playing Fresno State, who is favored by 14-17 points, but nonetheless, the Cowboys are up 7-0 in the 1st. Wyoming isn't on national television all that much, so, I thought it was worth blogging about.

I promise more blogs in 2010. College applications are still taking up a lot of time even though my essay is done. I sent the first two complete apps out last week. Eight more to go. I hope to get some more in the mail before Kate and I leave for New Mexico on Tuesday. We will be there through Christmas. We can't wait to relax, spend time with my parents, and to see their new home.

Merry Christmas!

This Could Be Interesting

Wyoming v. (2) Texas in Laramie, Wyoming. Today. 1:30 MST, on Versus. Check your local listings.

Back to the Brief

I am sorry if you just bought a $500 suit. You won’t be wearing it for any competitions…that count. FINA and the NCAA have new definitions of a legal suit. All materials must be textile, a.k.a. woven fabric. Men cannot wear a suit that extends above the waist or below the top of the kneecap. Women can’t wear suits that extend beyond the shoulder and beyond the top of the kneecap. No more polyurethane. I can’t imagine the huge sums of money that companies like Arena, TYR, and Speedo are going to lose with this decision. Of course there is probably a wave of lawsuits in the works, but all those fancy suits aren’t going to be sold if the records set in them don’t count. Never mind that, starting January 1, 2010, if you show up behind the block with one of those things on you aren’t even getting in the water.

So the new school is suddenly going old school in order to be legally cleared for competition. The time of the jammer and the brief is back and I think swimming will be better because of this. Let the current world records stand. They may stand for a while, but humans’ ability to swim is evolving, albeit slightly slower than the high-tech suits, but we are going to surpass those times eventually. And, I might add, we will look so much better doing it in a brief than a bodysuit.

Lingering Maxima Memories

Another post about my first car, why not?

The first drive to Laramie. Guy was in the passenger seat. U2’s greatest hits coming out of the speakers. Guy praises the music in between praising the car. “Oh, this song, this song is so good. You know this car is nice out here, man, but this car is very nice in Israel.”

The post-Thanksgiving snowstorm Guy and I drove in on our way back to Laramie. Guy pushing the car through the snow after we stopped at a Wendy’s near Cheyenne. Going 20 mph down I-80 into Laramie. Pulling the e-brake when we were going a little fast. It was supposed to be for fun, but it scared us both and Maxima hit the curb a little too hard. 

All the drives to Dining Out in Denver traffic. I listened to at least ten books on CD during that internship. Dodging potholes on a crappy side of Denver.

Showing off the Maxima to Kate. I remember her thinking it was a sweet car right away. That feeling never left her. Even up to the day the car was lost, she would get excited to drive it.

It’s 5:40 am. I am sitting in the Maxima in the apartment parking lot on Palmer Drive. I am waiting for it to warm up a bit before I drive it to weights or swimming. I do this four days a week. I wait until 5:45 am until I drive her. The temperature needle is just off of the ‘C’ mark. She sounds like a lawnmower driving in sub-zero temperatures. 

Driving the Maxima into the Snowies with Kate for picnics and just for the sheer beauty of Wyoming.

When the Maxima was clean, she looked stunning. The 17-inch, chrome rims made the car standout, even among far pricier vehicles. The shiny metal door handles and trim accented the rims wonderfully. When it was clean it looked brand new and it looked a lot nicer than one would suspect a Nissan Maxima to look like. After giving it a thorough shine, I would always step away and be astonished by its beauty. Extraordinary, the difference was, from before the cleaning to finished product. Mom always commented on how great the car looked.

Mom was right. 

Wyoming Shots

Buffalo on the drive from Salt Lake City to Green River. By this time we were in Wyoming.

It's calving season.

Baby Buff.

The high desert in Wyoming.

Another calf and its momma.

That tiny car down there is the Honda Ridgeline we drove into the mountains.

The Green River.

The newest edition to the Bradley's stable, Daisy. I'm not much of a fan (I much prefer their two Scotties), but this picture was Kate's doing and I think it turned out great.