Moss free

Leaving my heart in Frisco,
I'll come back for it. No doubt.
This rotation went by the fastest and I traveled the least, did not miss any days and am even going to work friday after my exam. ha.

I love it here, and with three days left I am packing in all th bike rides, chocolate cupcakes from Clint's, and hospital runs I can get. It was a great 6 weeks. Lost 10 pounds my first 3 weeks, gained it back my second 3 weeks. Finished my capstone paper. Made it down to boulder to see my friends and run a race. Mastered the perfect 10,000 foot chocolate chip cookie. Found my favorite grocery stores, coffee shops, hikes, worked out the shuttle schedule... I guess it is time for me to roll on... i wouldn't want any moss to start growing on this stone. Happy here though, this will be the hardest move, but Salt Lake sounds promising.

Treading water.

I walked to the hospital for rounds today, 2.5 miles in the snow in 17 degree weather. What am I going to do in salt lake when I live 9 miles from work! Took the shuttle to the gym, and met two really great russian girls who I walked with back to the shuttle at 8:30- the full moon helped immensely :)
Its not so much living in the snow that I hate-It is actually pretty great, I would love to get my cross country ski's out and glide to the grocery store. It's moving that I dread. You put your life in the back of a small two wheel drive car and take it over a snowy mountain pass.

Its like big waves. I just have to wait for the set to pass, and swim in when the water is calm. In this case, I just need a little sun to melt the roads and get the hell out of dodge.

Champagne Powder and California Dreaming

This is why people live here. And why they drive big heavy four wheel drive cars with snow tires.

This is where I live, by the way, and this morning at 5:50 am when I left for spin class, it was raining - by 8 am snow was blowing sideways and I was sliding down I-70 to get home. Cars lined either side of the road. I am still shaking. I hate it and I am California dreaming.

10.10.10!

I like it here.

Sacrifice

I sat down to dinner with the family I am living with. And we held hands and gave thanks for our meal- genuine thanks. And I forgot how nice it was to sit with a family for dinner,  to hold someone's hand and also to show appreciation. Naturally they directed it to God. I am not quite sure who or what I am thankful too but I sure am thankful for the food I sit down to. And the experiences I have.

Small sacrifices everyday hardly compare to the rewards I reap. As lonely and selfish the life I lead is- its good and those parts will change. 

Friday night I was back in the operating room for a c-section on a breech baby. Talk about a show- now that is friday night entertainment!

Cresting

Quick catch up to how I got over a few crests to get here.

September 18- Candice and I embarked on a marathon- 26.2 miles from the north end of the sandia's to the south end, bringing us up tp 12,000 feet and back down to 7,000. So we headed out - the best thing about hiking with candice is that neither one of us leads the trip, it just kind of happens. This one happened when candice called me from walmart and told me she had picked up red beans and rice and sausage to cook for dinner saturday night.

We dropped her car off at the south end, and drove the 30 miles to the north end down dirt roads and out to the north crest trail head and sometime around 11:00 started hiking. Forging our way through the scrub land to the edge of the crest and onward. About 5 hours in we started seeing people, most likely hiking north from the tram. Right what I neglected to say is that you can actually drive to the top of this mountain, or take a tram... go figure. We kept on until there was a road to our left and radio towers above us. Making it to the restaurant for some midway margaritas- though candice said we couldn't have dinner there, it would be breaking the rules of backpacking... errr...But it did make for a good time finding camp!

All I can say is thank goodness we brought along our text books, or we would have never been able to get our fire started!

That night we tucked into her one person backpacking tent and slept at a slight incline- not ideal, but we both slept until the sun shone through the trees.

Day two was long but filled with aspen forests, open meadows and beautiful vistas of civilization that we never quite escaped from.
The final descent, candice on the verge of collapse, was saved by a harvest of ripe prickly pears from the cacti!

The other 'Frisco

The place I am now smells like fall. Yellow and white aspens contrast big forest green pine and peaks enclose my new arena. Man. New Mexico was a dump. And now paved bike paths rolling for over 100 miles to the surrounding mountain towns, over copper and vail passes. Rec centers, free shuttles, an outlet mall and the healthiest population I have ever interacted with. And at the small cost of conservative talk radio and a large population of born again christians, I am more or less in my element.

Went for a trail run up Mt. Royal and out to Rainbow lake this morning- just road right to the trail head- I have yet to spend a dime on gasoline!

Here are the pics- more at http://picasaweb.google.com/easchulze

Hold Out.

I lost my wallet in Taos, NM the day before I moved up here to Frisco, CO. Did the usual retrace my steps, let the grocery store and cops know- and with just enough cash to fill up my gas tank I moved to Frisco dreading having to deal with the CA DMV for a new licence etc.


2 days later I got a call from 414 area code- that's in Kentucky. a man in Kentucky had a wallet with a California driver's licence in it belonging to a girl in Colorado found in Taos. He hunted me down and sent back my wallet- with get this- $60 dollars cash-ola in it.

I got this email today.

Three cheers for humanity.
The eternal optimist, Liz.


Elizabeth

You are welcome. I have already received kindness from strangers and enjoy passing it forward. I was at a grocery in Albuquerque before I came to Taos and one of my hearing aids dropped to the ground without me noticing it. A stranger picked it up and brought it to me.
One of my favorite movies is "Pay It Forward". I didn't enjoy seeing the little boy killed but received inspiration from the rest of the movie.
In my mind's eye, I could see you right after you realized your cards were missing and felt so bad for you. I have a daughter a little older than you and was determined to do everything I could to get your cards back to you and to get a message that they were safe along with your identity. I just wished I knew about it sooner so I could have contacted you earlier, relieve your anxiety and enable you to use them.
I think I know what happened. My 'girl'friend and I were in Cid's and one of the clerks brought her some things she had left. It was mostly free literature that she has a bad habit of collecting. Your card case must have slipped in among all of the paper she picked up and we did not realize it until we returned from our trip and started going through things. I thought the case was hers and she said no, it did not belong to her. I then opened it up and saw that it wasn't. I immediately tried to figure out a way of contacting you. I called the credit card company and the Taos police. This was Sunday and the latter had only a dispatcher on duty and she did not see any report. It probably was because she used the wrong spelling of your name. On Monday, an officer did call me and again, did not see any report but a few minutes later, he called back and said he tweaked the name and came up with yours. That is when I called and left the message.
I hope your journey gets better. I recently spent some time in Dillon/Frisco/Breckenridge and enjoyed it very much. I love that area. Beautiful scenery.

Best Wishes,

Taos Trendy

My two built in friends have pulled through for me already, by proxy from ABQ recommending a hike to a good swim spot and secret hot springs at the river. Took my mountain bike down a gnarly dirt road to the trail head and trekked it down. Made it out before this afternoons storm, which drew me here to “Mondo Kulture”… then Yoga… I am so Taos trendy right now.

Cinco De Baldy

Peeled myself out of bed at the ass-crack of dawn this morning to make it to the Fanta-Se Ski Basin by 6:30 (it is a 2 hour drive; I will let you calculate the ungodly hour in which I left my place). I met up with Paul. Jim and Brian who were if nothing else entertaining for the day as we trampled 16 miles through the Peco Wilderness checking off 5 peaks including Mt Baldy over 12,000 feet and a mountain lake Nambe.


Where here is the description of the hike courtesy of its leader… Paul.

“Join me on a fun but strenuous loop hike to Santa Fe Baldy where we will bag five peaks before the end of the day. Plan to take the Winsor Trail to Raven's Ridge and follow it to Deception Peak. Then it is on to Lake and Penitente Peaks before taking a steep and off-trail descent to Puerto Nambe. From there we'll take the straight line approach, off-trail of course, to Santa Fe Baldy and onto North Baldy for lunch (if the weather holds). Finally it's off trail once again down a steep slope to Lake Katherine where we will tread on and off trails back to the Winsor Trail.”

Mean while back at the Condo…

So Susan is trying to rent out my deluxe condo in the sky (elevation 7,009ft) ! and has been showing it to various people! So Ben, the chiropractor and acupuncturist came by yesterday to take a gander… but he is allergic to carpet and too tall for the bed and rejected the place-visualize tall greasy haired man with his wrist cocked. And then today while I was hiking- she showed it to a couple in their 20s who after viewing the place went hiking and jumped in the rio grande. The girl also has the same beautiful Bianchi Imola that I do. So they are moving in on September 1, 2010. Which leaves me either sharing my condo, but gaining two built in friends or moving to an apartment on the ranch and gaining two built in el pacas.

Good thing Clyde was there to keep a watch over the situation (Clyde is a large tree spider that lives in the doorway of my condo.