February 9, 2019

Weekend Recap: Winter Culinary Weekend

Recap of January 25-28.

This weekend was not a great one for me, which was a real disappointment because I had very high hopes. It was Beaver Creek Winter Culinary Weekend, an event I thoroughly enjoyed last year. This year though, the format was quite a bit different, and I really didn’t like it as much 🙁

Thursday night, I went to bed late and then had major insomnia. I kept waking up and thinking about some work that I should have done before the end of the day but had left until the morning. Every time I woke up, I would think about it, and then go back to sleep. But in the morning, I wished I had just gotten up and knocked it out so I could have slept the rest of the night! That certainly didn’t set me up for success with the weekend.

When work wrapped up on Friday, I headed out to the mountains. I’ve started learning that while Saturday morning traffic is bad, Friday night traffic is no picnic either; unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make a break for it early in the afternoon like I would have liked. I was originally planning to meet Heather and Kirk for a taco festival in Vail, but by the time I got to Vail, they had been there a while and were pretty cold (since it was outdoors). Rather than wait for me, they suggested we go somewhere else instead. Fine by me! We met up for a beer at Vail Brewing Company, which is super close and on the same road as my house. I really enjoyed the special peach edition of the Deck Daze Wheat, and it was a nice low-key way to kick off the weekend. After the drink, I headed home and tried to go to bed almost immediately, hoping I could make up for my sleepless night Thursday.

Vail_Brewing_Co_Deck_Daze
Both the beer and the time with friends were much needed after a busy work week.

Unfortunately, I woke up on Saturday morning exhausted, and all but dragged myself to the mountain. Truthfully, I wanted to get some skiing in to burn off the many calories I knew I’d be eating that night at the event. But it felt like a slog! My legs seemed shot after just a run or two on the bumps. I told myself I just needed to get 10 runs in (my baseline when I’m not feeling it), but while I didn’t get less tired, I did start enjoying myself more and stopped counting how many runs I had done!

I meandered my way over to Blue Sky Basin, a popular area that I had never before really skied. However, it was while getting on a lift over there that I inadvertently stepped too far forward and nearly got hit by a chair! Luckily, the guy next to me pulled me back where I belonged before anything happened. We laughed about it, but I realized I really was exhausted, and that was probably my sign to head home for a nap before the event.

Tired_on_Mountain
When I’m skiing solo, I stash packs of hot cocoa in my pockets to avoid paying $8 a cup on the mountain. In my opinion, the high prices are worth it for hot food, but not for basic drinks. I wasn’t a huge fan of this Arctic White flavor though…

It took me a while to get back home. I’ve been experimenting with various free parking options around Vail, and inadvertently took the wrong bus route to get back to my car, which added twenty minutes to my journey. Oops! By the time I got back to my house, it was much later than I had originally planned, and I only had time for a 30-minute nap before I needed to get ready to go. Unfortunately, 30 minutes wasn’t enough time for me to actually fall asleep, so it was more of a close-my-eyes-and-rest than an actual nap. Probably still better than nothing!

Adding to my transportation woes of the day, I called an Uber for the event and thought it was on the way, then 10 minutes later checked the app to see where it was… and saw that the Uber app had changed to “sorry, no cars”. Frustrated that I had wasted that time, I requested another car, and finally it arrived. This meant I was getting to the event right at the start, rather than early as I would have preferred (and when Heather, Kirk, and I had agreed to meet). Not a huge deal, but annoying nonetheless.

Last year’s event took place in the giant open Ford’s Hall, but this year, the organizers had moved the tasting to the lobby outside the auditorium, and paired it with a concert. Heather, Kirk, and I all agreed that we weren’t fans of the changes. The event was much more crowded, had long lines for every food booth, and the food part of the event was shortened to make time for the concert.

Sashimi_at_BC_Culinary_Weekend
On the bright side, we all loved this raw tuna preparation.

The combo of all those changes, my tiredness, and the fact that I hadn’t eaten much that day in preparation for what I thought would be a feast, meant that the drinks hit me much harder than I anticipated. This also meant I woke up on Sunday morning feeling gross and lethargic, prompting me to cancel my plans to ski and instead head back to the Front Range.

Soooo many drinks, not enough food 🙁 But I did discover / enjoy the Duckhorn Calera Chardonnay – nice and oaky!

When I made the decision to go home, I told myself that I could now use the time to get a lot of things done around the house. Chores have been piling up lately, and I’ve had a perpetual feeling that there just isn’t enough time for everything I have committed to doing. But when I got back, all my grandiose plans to take care of chores / watch Marie Kondo on Netflix / clean out my closet went out the window. Instead, I flopped down on the couch with Michelle Obama’s Becoming, which I had to read for my book club. In hindsight, I don’t feel good about that decision and wish I had done more with my Sunday! (And that’s why I love doing these recaps, even if they don’t come out immediately… they force me to reflect on my weekends and make sure I’m living the life I want!)

But, I rounded out my evening by getting dinner with my friend Heather at a pho place in Broomfield, and that made me feel like I had at least accomplished a little something. Heather had some great news to share with me, and it was wonderful to spend a low-key night catching up with her!

Pho_Duy_Broomfield
Plus, comfort food like this is always wonderful on a Sunday night.

In contrast to my lazy Sunday, the week after was a total whirlwind, and I’ve been really stressed with everything I need to do. Lately I am finding that even the fun social things I plan with friends feel like obligations, and I wish I hadn’t agreed to do them. That’s a terrible way to feel, and clearly I need to get a handle on my schedule! I’m not quite sure what changes to make and what I can cut, but clearly something has got to give. Hopefully I will figure it out and get out of this funk soon.

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