Reticular Formation

Bus Driver Jim has a Bucket List. He is bravely going forward with one of his items this summer. It is not my place to spill his beans so you will all have to check it out here (BDJ Bucket List) and make your best guess!! My friend Paul told me about his bucket list the first day I met him. I told him I didn’t have one; every time I wanted to do something, I just went out and did it. Then he said, “So, you don’t have kids?”

I met Paul skiing one day at Targhee. It was my one day a season to stand in line on a big powder day and cry behind my goggles. I Really Wanted to be at Bridger Bowl with the Love Of My Life (LOML)! I wanted to hike the ridge and ski the steep and gnarly and I wanted to do it with Dave. Alas, I was not there and so I stood in the line and I sat on the chair and I watched the first skiers float on down the pow all alone with tears inside my lenses. 

Mary’s opened and I headed up for The A only to find that yes, Mary’s was open; however, the sign leading beyond that to The A still said closed. I stood there in the saddle and felt Really Sorry For Myself. Then I skied it. The snow was light, sweet, fluffy, and just supportive enough to make it perfecto! When I got to the bottom, a guy had skied right behind me and said, “That was great, huh?” And then I started to cry. 

His name was Paul and he took his avalanche training at Bridger Bowl. He raised his 3 boys on a farm in Idaho City and now he does marketing research and bases himself out of Driggs. He volunteer ski-patrols at Targhee and the last time he skied The A, it shut him down big time with a huge rock to the hip and a forced 3 week ski hiatus. He had some business to settle with The A. He said, “You wanna go get some of that?” Oh yes, yes I did!

And that is how I roll. I don’t hide my tears from perfect strangers. Usually it's not even a choice and fortunately I am greeted by such kindness that it turns out well for both parties. Like this one soup lady in Washington state somewhere. I was wandering around a grocery store after a very sad encounter, looking for something to eat. I walked by her sample station a bunch of times but each time I thought I could say, “Can I try the roasted pumpkin?,” the tears welled up and I had to look down and keep on walking. On my fourth or fifth attempt, she stopped me with a white paper cup of the creamy vegetable (whatever) and I was so touched that she had gone out of her way for me that I sobbed and choked as I drank it. She was so upset by my sadness in a motherly, unconditional love kind of way, that she handed me a plate with three more soup samples and patted my back and said over and over again, “God Bless You! You take care of yourself! God Bless You!” She was so concerned and sweet that I will never forget her and plan to find her in every lifetime from here on out, just to feel her big, sweet, wide open love.

My Bucket List is as follows (although I really don’t like that title so I changed it to something much more palatable). My ideas are some my own and some based on the lists of aforementioned Bus Driver Jim and Paul, the man who teles with a vengeance.

Awesome Things To Do At Least Once A Lifetime (in no particular order):

1. Shave head

2. Keep bees

3. Live in Barcelona

4. Spend entire ski season at Bridger Bowl

5. Lead singer in a Grateful Dead tribute band (stage name: Karen Jerry Garcia)

6. Take an entire summer off from work

7. Purchase and drink a chateauneuf de pape (preferably whilst in France)

8. Drive around the US in my camper van with my pets and visit all my friends who are scattered about

9. Hula hoop dance like those sexy hippies at music festivals

10. Visit Tibet

11. Spend a ski season in Europe (preferably La Grave - thinking of you DC! ... and pain au chocolat and baguettes and wine and figs and steep, narrow streets and  ...)

More to come...