Friday, January 5, 2007

A Kinder, Gentler Storm. Not.


As I watched a Comcast truck being chained up and pulled out of the foot-deep snowdrifts on my street this morning (that's right, my street) I took a moment to think back fondly of the days of open-toed shoes in the middle of winter. Not here in the blizzardville of North Street, right up against the foothills of north Boulder. Those snowplows must be working overtime, though I didn't see any on my walk down to Vic's, my home away from home. But Broadway, the main drag through town, was clear.

Note to self: Stop obsessing about the weather. I know it's boring. It bores me to write about it. The funny thing about living in a place like Colorado, with such changeable weather, is that you become an expert. "If you don't like what it's doing outside, look again in a minute and it'll be different," is what the locals say. It reminds me of being the weather/police/fire reporter at the Union Democrat in Sonora, CA right out of J school. Every day at like 6 am (we were an afternoon paper) I put in calls to like ten folks out in all parts of the hinterlands of Tuolumne County to get the temps. And these old timers really cared about the weather, even if it was the same every day. I remember my editor greeting me some mornings with "We don't have much for the front page, so we'll need a big weather story." The first time this happened I went into the bathroom and had a nervous breakdown. "You've got to be joking," I said. "It's been seventy degrees every day for like the last two months. Nothing but sun." "Get on the horn and figure it out," he'd say. "I need it soon."

Wow. I'd forgotten about my days as a weather reporter. Anyway, I've had to resurrect my Sorrels, fleece, and pile on the layers like the days of old. Not exactly platform heels and short-sleeves that became my year-round wardrobe while living in the East Bay. Snowdrifts, buried car, and shapeless layers notwithstanding, it is absolutely wonderful to be back. Yesterday I went on a long hike much of the way up Mt. Sanitas with Gary, my crazy ultrarunning partner. It was one of those blue, blue, blue Colorado skies and chinook winds that blew in this storm, and it was all so familiar and comforting and glorious. Not to sound all John Denver about it, but just being back in the clean mountain air with one of my best buds was really exhilarating and makes all the moving hell worth it. Not that the journey was really bad. We actually had fun making our way back East to Colorado. Funny to think that we drove East to get to the mountains. I kept thinking I was going the wrong direction when I saw the 80 East signs. But I feel so much more grounded here already. In the Bay Area, I never knew what direction I was going because I didn't have the mountains to the west.

Some exciting non-weather related announcements: the very fabulous and talented Seattle-based writer Michelle Goodman just had a book published and everyone should run right out and buy a copy. It's called "The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube." I'm living it in part as I write this and can't praise it enough. It will have you laughing out loud and taking away some incredibly smart and helpful nuggets for striking out on your own and following your bliss (while not becoming destitute). Right on, Michelle! And the book will be featured in next week's New York Magazine. In other publishing news, writer Diane Mapes (also from the cool writing mecca of Seattle) just started a regular column with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer called "The Singles File." Cool. Check out her innaugural column, especially you gals who have a thing for fire guys. I realize I should not be so lame as to not link directly to sites, but am in process of figuring out HTML. Will be a glorious day when I do!

Random observation: Have seen more men wearing Carhartts here than I saw in two years living in the Bay Area. Boulder, you're my kind of town.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

aw, thx, jill. so kind of you. call me sunday and i will tell you how to do a link. really easy. actually try this: highlight the text you want to be clickable. then click the box with the chain icon. then paste in the link. voila! linktastic!

Kayla said...

Heeey - I can show you how to do HTML, no problem. Maybe even a little CSS so you'll feel extra smart when you're setting up your fancy work website-thing. But that doesn't mean I won't help you out(and you don't have to pay me-that's just weird)! :D


P.S.-I'm officially going insane with Colorado Blizzard Syndrome...

Jill said...

Michelle and Kayla,

Can I just say you are both rockin' HTML goddesses? It will be great to learn this fab new skill. Thanks, ladies.