Photo by Alex Pardee
Over the weekend, I got to go to Utah during Sundance. A majority of this film festival is held in Park City, which from what I could gather, is a tiny town on the top of a snowy mountain with one main street strip that was built by elves for wealthy people who love furry shoes, porcelain naked grandmother dolls, Navajo Indians, and a challenging parking situation.
Park city had no parking, so our car load of people left the car at the bottom and took a full bus up this hill. The air was so cold and the fog was so thick, that the windows of the bus were too fogged to look out of. I passed the time writing words on the glass with my fingertip in half hopes that it would fog up before someone could read it.
We walked around in the snow. Slid our wet shoes around an empty mall. Ate candy that came on sticks. Went to a show where a 12 year old played covers of C+C Music Factory with her violin. Made monsters out of pizza crust. I mixed different Pepsi products in hopes of creating the perfect beverage. I tried making a note into a piece of origami with no idea what I was doing. I had a great day in a completely foreign place.
On the bus ride back down the hill, the snow was too treacherous and so we had to get out and take a long walk the rest of the way, in the ice and snow. I anticipated being cold and tired and walking for far longer than my physical state would allow.
About 5 minutes of following the path of slow moving people, slush, and unexpected puddles, I began to wonder why no one was breaking in all of the fresh white snow that lined the lawns along the sidewalks. I jumped into dust-like snow that went up to my knees and began to cause harmless destruction upon nature. Soon enough, my friends joined in and we shoved each other into beds of snow. Once our hands seemed numb enough to not understand how cold it was, we made snowballs and threw them down the street aiming at each other but hitting innocent grumpy pedestrians and extremely cynical children, along the way.
We made snowballs from the fluffy white snow, the muddy shoe stomped snow, the compacted snow on car windshields, even bricks of glorified ice that were almost to heavy to throw and able to give you a concussion. We ran down the entire path laughing at someones misfortune when the got hit, then laughing even harder to see that snow covered face laughing back at you, laughing at them.
When we reached the car nearly an hour later, it seemed like 5 minutes had passed, I was freezing cold while sweating, I had no idea how we found our way, and my entire everything ached from smiling for so long. Which pretty much sums up how I feel at the end of every adventure I’ve gone on, so far, this year.
I had never gotten in such an epic snow ball fight before. I loved every moment of it.
Here’s some other things I love about life, right now:
Taking group photos while people prepare for group photos
Colorful shoe laces
Making up imaginary suggestions
goodbye hugs from new acquaintances
Finding out that someone can juggle. (I bet you know more jugglers than you think you do)
making silly faces back and forth with babies
Big warm layers of clothing
Sharing
Kissing a bearded face
Finding the perfect ray of sun to stand in for warmth on cold days
Drawing out seating arrangements
Being so happy, that I accidently dance (photo thanks to Jason Hudson)
Meeting people through something as petty as finding out that you’re both wearing the same thing
Making a snow bin, when you don’t know how to make an actual snow man
Relaxing in christmas trees that are laid out on the street
Having someone to draw with
Challenging myself not to laugh at this possum impression
Seats that you can dangle your feet off of
Making a Dio joke, blasting Iron Maiden, and pretending to be metal once in a while
Kicking up snow
Breaking in new boots
Honorable Mentions:
- I Like Lovelys take on my Love Flyers!
- Chocolate coconut water
- Mackerel sashimi thats been seared
- Alex and Daves “&” show
- Re listening to Quasimoto
- When AJ walks me to the train after work.
- Playing a Pandora station and guessing how many songs it’ll take for a certian artist to play. (Example: Only two other bands play on The Smiths station before a Cure song gets played)
- Watching spooky movies with people who scare easily
- Going into a restaurant where they already know your order
- Bite sized foods
- NoBrow coffee in Salt Lake City
- Chasing bouncy balls around
- Being greeted at the airport with a sign
- Falling asleep watching old cartoons
- Looking up record stores in Japan and daydreaming about it for fun
- Sams fancy hand-me-down clothes
- Indie Game: the movie
- this amazing sandwich: grilled chicken, sprouts, basil, hummus, avocado, prosciutto, and mozzarella in.awrap.
- Getting to see Refused play in April!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jeremy is one of the kindest people that everyone who will ever meet him will ever know.
Jeremy tours for most of the year, so when I get to see him, its sometimes only for hours at a time. Last time I had such an encounter with him was at FFF Fest, in Texas. With his knee newly fractured, we gimped away from the dust storm of a festival to eat BBQ’ed meats and with the only markers in my pocket an the back side of a childs menu, I made him fill this out
It was such a nice morning, that I couldn’t wrist-ist sharing some photos from it.
I invited some friends over and asked them to bring cartoons and a box of cereal to share with everyone
for real. Everyone.
