New Years Resolutions

I don't know if this happens for anyone else, but every year I seem to end up with the same core set of New Years resolutions that I convince myself to tackle. This year is no different and I find myself again trying to be more social and to get out more often. It's easy to fall into a routine here of riding all day, coming home and just completely vegging all evening. Last week, inspired to get out more, I decided to attack the town a couple of times. The results were not good.

Wednesday night I ventured out to the No Name Saloon, a place I've walked past several times but never gone in. It's always looked fairly busy and lively. I picked Wednesday because I heard something about Wednesday being "locals" night. Wednesday night I learned that "locals" can be a frightening word. It's kind of like "rustic," another word that's done me wrong in the past. (Quick aside: one year on a trip to Whistler my family decided to stay at some place that was billed as being very rustic. Upon arrival we discovered that very rustic basically meant small, dirty, and poorly maintained. I've been wary of any place described as rustic since.)

Ok, back to the story. It appears that locals' night could also be described as hicks' night. I saw entirely way too many toothless smiles, straw hats, and I believe I even saw a couple pairs of jean overalls. Oh, and an overwhelming male to female ratio. I probably would have had more fun if I wore my cowboy boots (and, of course, if I actually owned cowboy boots), but as it was I wasn't too impressed with locals' night.

So I went home, recovered on Thursday, and on Friday was ready to try again. This time I headed to the Star Bar. Two reasons: first, my friend at the front desk said that the Star Bar was the hot place to be on Friday nights; secondly, a friend from work mentioned that Friday was $2 drinks. So I headed out around 10:00pm. I arrived at the front door and discovered that the club was actually in the basement. I'm always a little wary of basement venues; you can't see what's going on and it could be too packed or completely empty. And, the bouncer noted that there was a $5 cover because it was $2 beer night (note: it was originally $2 drinks, now just $2 beers). But I'm already there, so I might as well keep going.

I hand over $5, head downstairs, and there are three people there. Literally. Well seven people if you count the three bartenders and the DJ. But I've put my $5 down, I'm getting me some $2 beers! I walk over to the bar and I'm distressed to discover that it's not $2 beers, but $2 domestic beers (Bud, Bud Light, etc). Which are only like $3 anyways. The imported beers, of course, are still $5+. So I'm stuck at a dead club drinking bad drinks. At 12:30 I decided I couldn't stand it any more (they were up to about 15 people at that point) and I headed home.

So two attempts out, two complete failures. Fortunately I've got a million more chances this week. Amongst other things we've got a company bowling party, a great free concert (Ozomatli, an awesome, percussion heavy band that will be performing outside on Saturday), and, of course, the Sundance Film Festival. I managed to get a few tickets, but I'm more interested to see what the vibe will be like for the next 10 days. It looks like it's going to be more than a little elitist, most of the bars are actually closed out for private events during the festival. But that won't keep me from getting out and trying.

Oh, and I'm supposed to be here snowboarding, huh? As promised, it is dead, dead, dead here. I'm still up on the mountain almost every morning, but no clients and no fresh snow (we're approaching two weeks of no new snow) means that I don't have a strong desire to spend my whole day up there.