It's been one month since my last post, did ya miss me? A blog I read regularly did a whole month of posts on what they called the "lost days" between Thanksgiving and Christmas, their goal was to save those days, reclaim them as productive, meaningful days. I say to heck with that, I did say to heck with that, I wasted em all!!! Well not really but let's just say I did because I had enough fun during those days that I needed to ask forgiveness and to mention them again would be a sin.

I wish that were true, it's not. I went skiing the week before Christmas. The good of it, the mountains, Colorado is magnificent, a poet, a nation of poets would be required to describe the artistry, and the brilliance God painted down the Western middle of America. My breath goes short just in memory of it. Some would say that if you live in the shadow of such mountains their power is lost on you, that the common place robs you of the wonder, that cannot be, I can't believe that.

The bad of the trip was the nature of the "friends" I went on the trip with. I put friends in quotes because if you've taken a trip with a few (10 to 15) friends before you know that two or three of them are your friends, the others are your friends friends, or their friends friends, who you may get along with in some abstract kind of fantasy world setting (also known as a barbeque) but not in a intimate I'm going to be in a vehicle with you for almost 50 hours kind of setting.

Should I be magnanimous and stop there or should I name names? I can't decide. Okay fine, I'll give an in between, no names just descriptions as good as names.

So Winter Park is roughly 19 hours from Clear Lake TX driving straight through, give or take giving number of stops (by that I mean the number of women in the car =) <-- sorry ladies I just couldn't help myself). Round trip should be no more than say 42 hours if you're generous and give several hours to extra stops and maybe an accident or two. We spent fifty one hours together.

We spent over an hour sitting in the Woodlands because a preppy, know it all, self absorbed punk thought it would be cool to have us stop by his car dealer to see if his truck was ready. No, he didn't call ahead and find out, no it wasn't ready, no and of course we didn't mind blowing an hour at the end of what had already been a long trip just so he could avoid the bother of a phone call. Of course, I'm sure no one else minded. Everyone loves the jackass, or at least some of them do. Do you get the vibe that maybe I don’t?

He's so transparent, so cocky, and so into himself. He's a guy who owns five pairs of Oakley's, and brings all of them on the trip. He's a guy who brings a parachute (yes a parachute) to a New Years Eve party and then packs it in the living room. Why would he do this? Well it's just more convenient to pack a parachute at a crowded New Years Eve party where everyone is watching and can marvel that this super human who has decided to grace us with his presences. Maybe it also had something to do with wanting to brag about sky-diving. Can you tell I may not care for this guy? He owns a Land Rover and a boat, he owns a small country's worth of debt, and he lives with his Mom.

Did I mention he's in the Army (don't know which rank) and served in Afghanistan? Yeah that's the point where most people like him, especially the folks down here in Texas. Of course, you couldn't miss him being a solider because he mentions it often. So let's recap, I'm a jackass because I don't like this guy everyone else loves. I'm a real dick because I loathe him, because you know he's a veteran of Afghanistan, he's a national hero.

Did I mention that I threatened to rip his head off during the car ride, not in the funnin around way either; I would have taken his head off if I could. Oh and I told him this in the middle of this trip at full volume so as to make sure everyone else in the car knew how I felt. Should I discuss why? I had reasons, I had good reasons. He was playing jokes with the vehicle while driving down iced roads that wind sharp down the middle of the mountains. He took his hands off the wheel, slammed on the brakes and shouted "Oh my God" then I said something that involved him and his mother, and how I felt I might need to take his head from his body if he did something that stupid again.

Like I said the mountains were incredible. Does anyone want to be my friend, I'm runnin short right now =)...