p-p-p-poker face

"...after he's been hooked I'll play the one that's on his heart...."

Today was the 21st annual Murf the Surf Poker Run today, up in Centennial. I admit, I almost didn't go. For starters, it was a relatively cold forecast (high of 17 in town), plans with Stephanie got messed up, and I wasn't feeling confident enough about my elbow to ski the five-or-so miles. But instead, I caught a ride out with Nina, Kaijsa, and Carrie, drank a beer in the back of the uphill shuttle, snow-shoed the route, drank a beer in the downhill shuttle, and ate ribs back at the Trading Post. And, all-in-all, it was one fucking great day.

I love this place. I love sharing an amazing snowy day with 500+ crazy fools, seemingly all with a Pocket Traveler of vodka, hot damn, bourbon, or whatever in their jacket and willing to share.. Or, in the case of my friend Katie, a homemade box-wine backpack covered in 'Rock the Vote' and 'Keep Abortion Legal' and other blue-state stickers plastered all over it. I love the general carnival atmosphere, and free hot dogs and beer at Checkpoint Charlie, and outrageous costumes including animal print tights and Wyoming flag capes. I love that I didn't have a ride back to town but felt 82% confident that I coulda stuck out my thumb in Centennial for less than a minute and woulda gotten a lift. As it was, my friend Bill was talking to a colleague of ours who'd ridden out with some other friends in her grad program who had room for one more as long as I didn't mind kicking around a while until they were ready to leave and then they'd have to double check to make sure they could still get the skis to fit into the car alright and, well, I didn't mind. So I got to meet several great new people today, and I got to catch up with several people I hadn't talked to in a while, and aside from some numbness in my face from a cold last half-hour of the run, it was a great trip and one that restored, again, my face in really great scenery, people, and energy in this part of the world.