the good with the bad

I LOVE living in the mountains.  I love being surrounded by nature.  I love that being outdoors is not only a part of my job, but IS my job.  But sometimes, I start to feel a bit claustrophobic in my small mountain town.  This town is made for tourists, not regular people.  Paying $16 for a movie ticket gets old after awhile (sorry if it's that much in NYC!).  Having only two grocery stores does too...if you're counting WalMart, we have three.  The only places to shop for clothing either sell overpriced ski coats or overpriced fur coats (not that I would know if a fur jacket were overpriced).

Plus there's the frustration that comes with essentially living with tourists.  On most days, I would say 90% of the population here is a tourist.  Of course, that also adds for constant entertainment, like when people drive their cars on the pedestrian-only roads or ask how to take the bus to the mid-mountain restaurant or where we put the moguls in the summer.  Trust me.  It happens more than you'd think.  If you ever want to lose your faith in the common sense of the human race, come here for a week and take note.  I swear, there is some weird chemical in the air here that causes otherwise very successful people to become complete idiots.  Entertainment factor aside, constantly providing information for people and dealing with people who don't know how to use everyday aspects of my life (like load a chair lift or ride the bus) gets tiring.  This video, however, will always make me smile:

Poor man.  I don't mean to complain about my situation.  I know my life is awesome.  I know that I am so lucky to have my job and live in such a beautiful place.  It's just that I'm feeling a little burnt out right now and am looking forward to things to come...like moving to Kansas City at the end of the season...to having a Trader Joe's (will it be open yet?), real shopping, more than three grocery stores (including Whole Foods!), a Target, and just general real life amenities at real life prices.  It's going to be great.

I also know that this season is going to be over before I know it, so I should probably make the most of it while I'm here.  This includes going skiing tomorrow.  Even though my aching feet don't want me to put on those tight, painful boots ever again, even though it's my first day off in a week and all I want to do is clean my room and sit on the couch all day, even though I should really be doing my taxes (running your own business for a summer is a biatch).  Even though all sorts of things, I should probably go skiing.  Because in two months skiing will be gone, but I can always clean my room.