hunting & gathering

pros
+ there's a peet's in boulder (be still my over-caffeinated heart)!
+ i'm told there's a good asian market in town, but i've managed to get fish sauce, tamarind paste and organic, locally-made tofu without yet having to go there.
+ they do actually sell fresh fish in this inland state; i was mistaken in thinking coloradans only consume wild game they have tackled and strangled themselves with their bare hands.
+ the scones down the street: yes please.

cons
- trader joe's does not exist anywhere in the ENTIRE STATE.
- this is probably why not: it's against colorado law for grocery stores and convenience stores (or any stores that sell food) to sell alcohol. which is why, upon quizzically prowling the aisles of my local market, and then whole foods, and then wild oats over the span of a few days, i could not find the beer anywhere. only liquor stores can sell wine and beer, but then they aren't allowed to sell any foodstuffs. as if that weren't weirdly inconvenient enough, colorado liquor laws prohibit the sale of booze on sundays! GAH. you can, however, go to a restaurant on sunday and order a bottle of wine and then take the undrunk portion home under your arm like the wino you are.

and in other news: if i get the mountain studio i'm gunning for, i'll be doing all my cooking for the next year on a two-burner electric stove, sans oven. the place does have a woodstove, though, so at least i could rotisserie my own hand-killed buffalo haunches. it's all about tradeoffs, right?

feet on the brain

midafternoon summer thunderclaps seem an appropriate welcome to boulder, my new hometown as of three days ago. midafternoon is about the time when i'm looking out my 2nd-story bedroom window at the neighborhood dog park, banging extra-hard on my messed-up spacebar and thinking i should take big, goofy duke out to play with his buddies. this dog is a fearsome-looking, burly brindle beast with the jaws of a great white and the temperament of a tenderhearted toddler. i'm looking after him for the next month or so while his parents are on an african assignment, and man is he a sensitive soul...a sensitive soul who has no idea how massively heavy he is when he stands on my foot.

notable purchases i made today: my first pair of new! women's!! climbing shoes (the ones i had in my early 20s were men's hand-me-downs whose toes i had to stuff for them to fit; these new ones are actually 'my size,' meaning i now have an inkling of what chinese foot-binding felt like), on sale even! also, i found a nearby source of boont amber. so i think i might be OK here if i pretend the pacific ocean is just out of my line of sight.

i have so much to tell about a month of roadtripping through the gorgeous landscapes of the southwest, the contemplative and circus-like days and nights spent on the south rim of the grand canyon, and a week rafting the colorado river, but the experience left me so emptied out yet replenished that it seems impossible to sum up neatly. one of the river guides said that his friend had explained it the best, that being in the inner gorge of the grand canyon makes you feel 'incredibly special and completely insignificant at the same time.' journeying down the river, through deeper and deeper sedimentary layers of rock, was like traveling through time on an incomprehensible scale. human existence will be merely a fraction of a micron thick in the geologic record of the canyon out of which we later hiked (which 9.7-mile section had a 4380-foot gain in elevation). the vastness of it is truly overwhelming.

thankfully, the transition here isn't nearly so overwhelming. i'm hanging out barefoot with duke, wind is rustling through the aspens, the evening temp is down in the 70s, and the last of the dusk light is fading away so i can hardly see the kite wheeling around above the park.

three mornings

tomorrow morning (on 07/07/07), at 7am, this sleepy chica will be getting on a van and heading for lees ferry to start six days of rafting, hiking and getting high off the overwhelming hugeness and beauty of the colorado river and inner gorge of the grand canyon. i've already been blown away by contemplating the immense views from quiet spots along the south rim, but i am very excited about looking up from the river and exploring some of the side canyons.

this morning, the older lady in the ranger booth at the entrance to the national park looked at my park pass and then handed it back to me with a kindly, 'there you go, young'un,' waving me in. round these parts, actual young'uns like waitresses who are a good decade younger than me consistently call me 'hon' or 'sweetheart.' love that.

yesterday morning at 7am, i went on a ranger hike down the south kaibab trail and got a seriously goofy but very knowledgeable and likeable ranger narrating the sloooow amble (his word) down. he picked his way carefully down the trail with hiking poles and stopped at almost every other switchback to talk story about the geology, history and ecology of the trail and canyon. at ooh-aah point* he let people decide if they wanted to continue with him or just hike on ahead, so i opted to go faster because my attention span was shrinking rapidly. the general rule of thumb at the grand canyon is to allow twice the time to climb back up as you took hiking down. so if you breeze down for an hour, you should expect to wheeze back up in two. but on this hike, it took two hours to walk down 1.5 miles to cedar ridge. i made it back up in 40 minutes and felt great. one of the most beautiful cardiovascular workouts i've ever had. for the rest of the day, i walked around dutifully making my observations and taking notes, trailing a cloud of dust like pigpen and thoroughly content with the world. but wishing you all could be rambling here with me.


*actual name!