John C FS grab - Northstar, Hater Day

weathering

The past week and a half has been a shitstorm.
Since returning from SIA, everything's been caught up in a whirlwind and I've felt like Dorothy and Toto tossed about in a rickety old cabin through the maelstrom.
I'm trying to find the ground and knowing that when the storm passes, I will not find myself surrounded by technicolor candy flowers and pseudo-leprechaun lilliputians in the service of the Good Witch of The East.
I will still be here, and the aftermath will need sorted through.

Somehow, amidst all of this, I promise to you and mysef that I will get Dropping back on track and you will see photos and ramblings daily again. Hopefully there will even be more than there has yet been.

Please, bare with me, hang in there, and check back next week for more.

Things to do in Denver when you're dead....

WaterCourse Foods
Denver, Colorado

One of the highlights of any trip to Denver for a vegan is WaterCourse Foods.
Had to stop by for breakfast after a long night of chauffeuring drunken revelers to parties and concerts.
The breakfast menu is wonderful, with a wide range of options from Vegan French toast to Breakfast Burritos with Eggs and Chorizo. All of the ingredients are fresh, local and organic, and they even have their own bakery where they produce their very own breads, bagels, pastries and Empanadas!
I had the Blue Plate Special, which is two eggs any style or scrambled tofu, toast, your choice of home fries, brown rice, sweet potatoes or hash browns with your choice of gravy, green chili or salsa. I had the tofu, sweet potatoes and gravy. It was amazing!
Since I was in Denver last WaterCourse has moved their main location to a nicer, new building with more space and a larger kitchen. Which means the wait to sit and the wait to get food is much shorter, the noise is far more tolerable, the outside seating is perfect for sunny mornings or afternoons, and families and friends can now enjoy conversation and relax while they enjoy a delicious meal.
Also new is City’oCity, WaterCourse’s bar/café/coffee shop attached to the bakery.
The place is awesome on a Saturday night, with great vegan thin crust pizzas and amazing Seitan Wings!
Next time I’m here, I think I’ll probably skip Wahoo’s and anywhere else and eat at WaterCourse and City’oCity all three meals, every day!

Speakeasy Tiger

Afterpartying is always either too lame or too intense. Tonight was not lame.
The Nikita after-party was cool. It was at a European Cafe/Lesbian Bar called Leelas.
There was a band called Speakeasy Tiger playing and they were awesome!
Other than that, there was a fashion show and they raffled off a trip to Iceland or Austria to benefit ProtectOurWinters.org

After that we went on a mission for Joey to get lifted which involved parking outside of a strip club for 30 minutes waiting for him to wait for someone who was waiting for someone, and so on.

After that it was time for the Burton After-Party, and that was nuts. I'll let others fill you in on that party, because despite the fact that I was straight sober the whole time, as always, it's still a little blurry.

What we didn't get to tonight included Trevor "Trouble" Andrew playing a private party show, MFM's SK8 Party at Varmin HQ, Salomon's party, and DJ ZTrip playing a long sold-out show somewhere else in town.

Still, fun times!

I have pictures to post, but I left the camera case in the rental car, so I will retropost them tomorrow for you to see.

It's 2:40 am, so I'm out. See you tomorrow.

Mission

Damn, getting here was a mission. But I'm here! So stoked to finally get to chill out and do some work. The new line looks sick! Bataleon is definitely here to stay.
I'll take pics tomorrow and put them up.
Right now, it's time to get out and make an appearance!

SIA Day 2

Woke up at 4:13 am, made a quick breakfast, and got in the car.
Drove about 8 minutes the back way to I-80 before realizing I had forgotten to get gas last night, and the car was on empty.
So we had to drive 10 minutes out of the way for gas, which I couldn't afford.
So we get gas and charge down to the airport, where we need to be by 5:25 in order to check my baggage on time for my flight.
I walk through the doors to the US Airways tickting counter at 5:23, walk through the line and stand there waiting.
They call me over and tell me that it's too late to check my bag, and I have to wait for the 9:30 flight.
Stoked.

So I'm at the airport watching all these flights on other airlines leave for Denver, while I wait for a later flight to Phoenix and then to Denver.
On the good side, I'm only arriving 30 to 45 minutes later than my 6:10 flight would have gotten me there. So there's that.

And of course I have to add insult to injury by reading blogs about SIA Day 1 while I wait. I don't know why I'm so excited to get there. Maybe it's the fact that I haven't been in years, feel totally disconnected from the industry, am going to reconnect with the company whose US operations I used to run, am super excited to start contributing again, yadda yadda yadda...

Anyway, I just saw a cool floor drain cover in the Men's Room I want to take a picture of...

SIA Yay!

Going to SIA! So Excited!
Who wants to go to the rail jam at the Hard Rock?.... What?.... No Hard Rock in Denver?.... Oh.
Well, who wants to go to the MGM Grand and gamble?.... Huh?... No gambling in Colorado?.... Oh.
Well, who wants to go to the afterparty on Sunday and get hammered?.... What?.... You can only get 3.2 beer on Sundays in Colorado?.... Oh.
Who wants to go see Wayne Newton?... Oh yeah, Colorado.
Who wants to hit the all-you-can-eat buffet?.... Oh yeah, Colorado.
Who wants to go see Cirque Du Soleil Zumanity?.... Colorado.
Ride the rollercoaster at New York New York?.... Colorado.

Damn, I guess we'll just have to look at snowboard stuff, talk about snowboard stuff, do snowboard stuff, and maybe catch an Avalanche, Nuggets or Rockies game.
Maybe the waterpark will be open, and the skateparks, and the whitewater park, and the REI climbing wall....