How many times can I say “beautiful?"

UPDATE: I received excellent news today—all that physical-therapy-insurance-crap has been sorted out. Hooray! It turns out Denver Physical Therapy had sent the claims to the wrong address. It’s nice to have easy answers once in a while!

Here’s my Telluride Report:
We had a wonderful time in Telluride this weekend. Well, except for at night, when B and I slept on the floor. After four nights, that was less-than-wonderful. It’s a tad depressing to admit that at 29 my back no longer thinks the floor is cool. But it WAS free, so I won’t complain (more).

All we did for four days straight is catch up with people we haven't seen in years, eat delicious Mexican food, sit around on Main Street people- and nature-watching, see a few movies, ride the gondola to Mountain Village, and have some drinks at night. Not too bad. Telluride is so beautiful that our conversation became redundant fast:
“Isn’t that beautiful?”
“Yes, completely gorgeous.”
“Hey, look, over there, it’s beautiful there, too!”
“Totally beautiful. And look there…amazing!”
“Wow…”
And so forth with much oohing and awing and pointing and picture-snapping.
On the way home we decided to take the scenic by-pass along 65 and went through Grand Mesa. WOAH. We hit a spot called Skypoint, and I think that was THE most beautiful vista I’ve ever seen. It basically had everything on the planet that is awe-inspiring—evergreens, a blue-blue sky, mountains, a winding river valley, Aspen leaves already changing to gold. I thought I would explode, but instead my eyes teared-up and I got real giddy.

Plus we got to see some movies after all, and we didn’t even have to sneak in. In fact, thanks to my wheelchair, at one theater we got the best seats in the house! We saw Little Children starring Kate Winslet and directed by the same guy who did Election. Little Children was totally disturbing, but EXCELLENT. Fabulous acting, gripping story, and just so well done overall. I’m sure it will be in theaters soon.

We also saw The Namesake, based on the book by Jhumpa Lahiri (who also wrote Interpreter of Maladies which is one the best books I’ve read this year—her writing is poetry). The Namesake, the movie, was (you guessed it) beautiful and made cry a whole lot.

Despite all the goodness, my knee swelled up on the first night and I was scared something would happen to me and I would be a six hour drive from my doctor. Fortunately it went down on the third day. (Why, I ask? It’s SO mysterious! I didn’t do anything to make it swell up and I didn’t do anything to make it unswell. Such a fickle little leg!) Also, there is always lots of drinking at night in Telluride, and while I still had some drinks (probably shouldn’t of, but who can resist drinking a margarita while watching the sunset? ::sigh::) the swelling reminded me that I’m “different” and still in the midst of my recovery. Instead of dancing all night like usual I sat and observed. (Though, I did briefly attempt some upper-body jigging on my stool…’cause I’m a CANdancer!)

My self-pity party didn’t last long after I met a cool guy named Felix who worked at the festival. (He was in a wheelchair too and asked me what I thought about accessibility in town--I said it worked for me...mind you, I said this while B was catching his breath behind me after having pushed me straight up hill for 15 minutes. Ha. Oh what would I do without sweet Brian.) Felix was just about the nicest, most upbeat person I met there. One day he rode up on his handcycle. This is the coolest invention! It’s made by a company called One-Off and was designed for adventurous people who don’t have use of their legs. It can do what a mountain bike can—climb mountain trails, go over rocks, through streams, whatever. Awesome. Felix also skied over 90 days last year. Pretty inspiring guy.

So that’s my Telluride report for this year. Overall, I’d say the experience was...beautiful.

(Thanks, Tim, for hosting us! I can’t wait to see YOUR film there next year!)

(The answer: 7)