Tuesday, July 15, 2008

In Which Kate is a BONEHEAD yet again...


I'm really excited to be leaving for Aspen in a few days. The plan is to paint a big mural as a surprise for the Mtn. Operations manager at Aspen Highlands, who is a rather cool dude, and whose office looks out on a blank wall in the basement. I haven't painted yet this season, and have been really jonesing to get to it, so this is a great excuse to get crackin'.

Of course, at the same time, I plan on running around all over the mountains down there because, of course, I have to take some reference photos to paint from.

This was all hunky dory, as we got about half the travel covered, and all the expenses of the paints (I hope), so I was gonna load up the truck and head outa dodge on Thursday really early.

I went through what I'd need to do for the painting in my head a couple of weeks ago, and, as I've packed up my entire studio more than once before, I wasn't too concerned. Everything is in one place, theres a LOT of stuff, but it packs well. When I used to paint al fresco, I'd put it all in an "old lady" shopping cart with my easl on my back and my portable table rolled up on the top (sometimes with Bodhi or Ethan riding on the top) and we'd go bumping down the trail.

I've been focusing more in the last week or so on getting in shape to hike with Kurt, who has gamely offered to haul my slow butt up a couple of big mountains around the Aspen area. As such, I decided that perhaps said butt should be able to move a bit faster. With Bodhi's illness and other things, I got very distracted. Today, I spent the day trying to finish up my t-shirt project, and a bunch of other stuff before I hit the road, as tomorrow is going to be full: Angela and I are finally (!!) going to ski the Great One off Sacajawea Peak, and then it's Liat's birthday!

Tonight, as I was getting ready, and mentally packing the truck, Tom told me that it cost him $350 to travel 14 hours in the Suburban when they went to the city of rocks in Idaho. This means a 28 hour round trip drive for me would be $700. Yeah, our travel budget was $200.

So, I thought, maybe its cheaper to fly! I got on line, tickets were $750, so I went to priceline and offered $360. I was so freaked out about the money that I FORGOT ABOUT MY PAINTING CRAP! My offer was accepted, and came out to $422 with taxes and then its $15/bag on top of that...

And then I realize that I will now: a. Have no car in Aspen with which to get to the trail heads because I forgot that Kurt doesn't have a car, and didn't bother to call him first, and b. have to ship all my painting stuff, which will cost about $50 each way, because you can't fly with flammable liquids, I'm pretty sure.

YES! YES I DID make that bonehead move! Which didn't feel too boneheaded until Tom came in and said, "Wait, I remembered that wrong, it would cost you $500 to drive..." which is less than this flying debacle is going to cost, and I'd have a car and all the crap I wanted with me! GRRRR! Bleh! GRRR!

Oh, I am trying so so so hard to think things through and use patience and wisdom, but sometimes, because I am really just a bulldozer at heart, I get excited and then look behind me and go: oh, crap.

SO. Nothing to do about it, I'm flyin.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hopefully you're skiing the Great One today because it will make you feel way better about everything that is causing you stress! I skied it last weekend and it definitely made my July!

Anonymous said...

How long are you going to be in Aspen for? I'm going to Beaver Creek next Tuesday, if you're still around we should visit.
Sunshine

a said...

Hi, guys! Thanks for your comments. It has INDEED been a stressfull two days! Goodness.

I DID ski the great one today, it was amazing, I'm going to write a post about it now. It was SO fun!

Sunshine, I'll be in Aspen for 10 days starting Saturday (I'm driving down Friday). I need to go to Beaver Creek to see a friend there anyway... email me your cell phone and we'll try to hook up!

new girl said...

Hi - I live in Aspen and work for the Aspen Skiing Company. When are you getting here? Not much snow left, even up at the Pass.

a said...

I'm driving down tomorrow, and will be there for 10 days! I'm bringing skis, climbing shoes, hiking shoes, and I guess... we'll see if there's anything to ski when I'm there!! If you are on line now, there is an online chat feature on my sidebar.

What do you do for the Aspen Ski Co?

a said...

Hi, guys
well, sorry to have dropped the ball, sunshine and rachel! it would have been great to see you. my visit in Aspen was amazing, but it got a lot busier than I expected! if you guys find yourselves in or near Montana, please drop me a line, I'd love to see both of yoU!!
xoxo
Kate