Rocky Mountain HIGH

Today, I went up to Estes Park. I had been really feeling a need of being in the mountains for awhile, and so decided this weekend might be good for a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. Well, turns out, it was snowy today. I had asked one of my roommates (who's never been to Rocky Mountain!) if she might want to come with me, and she was all for it. I asked the other two, too - one already had plans today, and the other was up for it. So the three of us were going to go, and play it by ear as to what we did. I was hoping to go into the park - I really want to get a year pass so I can go up there all the time, because that'd be AWESOME (and all the time really means maybe once a month or every two months or something. Let's be realistic here). But, when I saw a thing that said it was recommended today that those going into the park be 4x4 or have winter tires, I decided maybe I didn't need to go to the park today. So we decided just to go to Estes and walk around the shops.

And lo, it was wonderful.

We had a delightful time. It was cold, and there was a slight flurry of snow pretty much the whole time we were there (~1:30-5). I just love it up there.

We had lunch at an Irishy pub, and I got a buffalo burger which was kinda cool. And then we walked around some more. I got a little book about easy day hikes to do in Rocky Mountain, which will come in handy when the weather gets nicer again and I can introduce my roommate to the wonderfulness that is Rocky Mountain National Park.

But for now, Estes was lovely, and nicely decorated for Christmas (which, given the wintry look, didn't seem out of place).

And then we went in this Scottish/Irishy little store, and what to my wondering eyes did appear but some rather large Irish wolfhounds!

I really liked them, and could have stood there watching them laze about all day. But then, I'm weird.

It got dark, as the sky is wont to do pretty early these days, as we walked up the street back to my car. This meant, though, that the Christmas lights decorating the trees along the street were in full bloom.

And then we decided we needed proof that we three were actually there today. We happened to cross paths with three older women, who afterwards (and after we took their picture in return) told us they had been friends for 40 years. I thought that was pretty nifty.

(Hello, awkward-standing-posed picture.)

The mountains were pretty and fog-covered, and I tried and failed multiple times to capture the beauty. Alas.

Flash, no flash, different settings. Just couldn't get it. Put those five together and maybe it'd be close. But you should really probably go up there yourself to see it with your own eyes, as should be required viewing for any American. Or, really, any human being.

We surmised that the town was doing a Christmas tree lighting that evening, and had had some sort of wintry festival that day, because we saw ponies (above), and Santa was there, and later on a fire pit and a tree that looked like it was ready to be lit in all its Christmas glory.

I just took pictures of the ponies, though, because we all know I have a weird fondness for livestock and such (as evidenced earlier in the day when we drove past a house/farm not too far from ours which had four or five donkeys in the yard, which may or may not have caused me to squeal in excitement and joy. I really like donkeys).

And thus concluded our trip to Estes Park, which I hope to be one of many more to come, because I really, really love it there. And Estes Park in the snow? Pretty much fantastic, and not the least because there are so fewer people there than in the summer. The Colorado mountains really are the best things ever. Second to the human race, they're pretty much God's greatest creation. I may be slightly biased, but I think that it's pretty much a fact.

I capped off the day by making chili, which will cook itself to perfection while I sleep and dream of those lovely mountains that rival only the Notre Dame Basilica in my heart, and then watching Return of the Jedi with my roommate, because we're awesome like that. Today was quite perfection, despite an address mishap this morning that made me miss my morning plans of the day. Watching a cheesy Christmas-related movie on the Hallmark channel with my roommates, and then following that up with that lovely place of which I could wax poetic all day, entirely made up for one missed gathering.

(We should all know by now that I'm incapable of going somewhere without taking at least one self photo, and often subjecting those I'm with to the same.)

It's 11:11:11 on 11/11/11.

I don't think ones (or elevens, as the case may be) are my number.

In which I start ranting

So, I went to Archden's Gospel of Life Conference today. It was really good - we had a lobbyist from the Colorado Catholic Conference speak about especially civil unions in the state, and then Dr. E Christian Brugger who I'm pretty sure I read a fair amount of his stuff in grad school (or...you know, theoretically read), who was very engaging and interesting and lives up near FOCUS, actually! And Fr. Thomas Berg, who edited the book I have on human embryo adoption. So, pretty much good stuff. And mostly stuff I learned in grad school, which is nice. I'm really lucky that I'm only 26 and have had a lot of exposure to these issues and the arguments we need to know about them already. Most of the people at the conference were older (or just plain old), which is nice too, obviously, especially since older people (ie, who have retired) have more time to be on the front lines, so to speak, but at the same time it's really important for the younger generations to know this stuff because we're the ones that are going to be living with the consequences, and we're the ones who are really going to be in there effecting change, in our jobs and stuff. I mean, older people make a lot of changes too, obviously, but the younger generations really need to be informed on this stuff. We're the people that everyone is trying to convince and influence and manipulate, so we need to know how to combat their arguments and argue for the truth. And I'm lucky that all the stuff I heard about today wasn't new or news to me. Of course, that means it's my responsibility to bring it to those who don't know, and it's my responsibility to help make these changes. It's a big responsibility and I haven't been very good thus far about accepting that responsibility. So I need to start working on that, for sure. I'm definitely in a good place with lots of support to do that. Denver has a lot of opportunities. So that's good.

But at the same time, it's overwhelming. I go to stuff like this, I read articles and everything, and I'm like, YES, this is so TRUE. But then I look at the culture, and it's an immediate "Man, how can I ever convince a culture so deeply entrenched in these falsehoods that THIS is the truth?" It's hard.


..the above post was written a week and a half ago. Still all true, but, way to forget to finish things, Susie. Anyway. Need to fight the cultural tide! Definitely feeling that need especially after yesterday, reading an article by Ted Turner (although, why we care about his opinion, I don't know) saying that women need to be contracepted so that we stop creating more people. (Lots of crazy hoopla over this 7 billionth baby thing. Apparently it's a travesty that we're still continuing to have babies.) And then I saw an article that said the Girl Scouts (here in Denver, no less! Woo!) decided to let a little boy join who identifies more with girly things, and who was apparently "embarrassed" when he was initially told he couldn't be a girl scout. Dude. So many things wrong about that. And also, the article said that the Girl Scout rep/leader/whoever whom he asked initially if he could join (and who, rightly, said no) would have to go to sensitivity training. Apparently now it's insensitive to tell a boy that he is not, in fact, a girl.

Dude. We live in a crazy, crazy world. It's crazy. I decided the other day that since I happened to be born on the same day as Margaret Sanger (that lovely woman who gave us Planned Parenthood, and helped us get into this mess), I probably need to be really active in the fight against what she so strongly believed in - contraception, abortion, euthanasia, eugenics, etc. Reclaim September 14! Anyway. Yeah. Not really sure how I'll be doing that, but oh well. Man. Contraception. I really hate it. It's a terrible blight on our world. Abortion is awful, sure, and obviously worse than using contraception, but abortion wouldn't be legal and as common as it is if it weren't for easy access to contraception in the first place. People don't really seem to get the connection, but it makes so much sense if you think about it. And the people who say that more contraception would lead to fewer abortions? Yeah, maybe, except how would you explain the fact that according to Planned Parenthood's own survey arm (guttmacher), more than half of the women who had abortions in the most recent study available were using contraception when they got pregnant? Clearly, throwing birth control at the problem doesn't help. But no, let's just keep using that argument, because contraception is such a good! Ugh.

Well. I'm going to end this and post it, a week and a half later, and then write about better things. Like knitting.