Today was fairly laid back, by which I mean I missed most of it. I woke up after three hours sleep and felt pretty good! Until the afternoon when I glanced in the mirror and realised my eyes were more red than white, so sleep? Probably a good idea! What I can tell you though is that we went to a comic shop!
And when I say comic shop what I actually mean is comics warehouse.
Welcome to Mile High Comics! Some of you are probably aware of their website which is a great place to find back issues. I think I've shopped with them before, but the idea of them actually having an honest to god warehouse has never crosses my mind, let alone there being one you could visit. I always assumed it was a couple of guys running it out of their house, but I realise now that's kind of absurd. Either way, I can't think of a better way to start a trip than a giant room full of comics! It's just a shame I'm mainly a trade reader these days, and most of the trades they had were volume three or higher, without a volume one in sight. Combine that with the pricy action figures and other assorted trinkets and the place didn't quite set my world on fire. What it did do though, was remind me they add VAT on after purchase here, rather than including it in the marked price,which I'd somehow managed to forget. So you see, comics are educational too!
Oh, and you remember that snow I mentioned last blog? The flurry that came down like a storm of white wllhen I arrived and threatened to make snowmen of us all when we loaded the shopping into the car? Gone. Gone in a blaze of sunshine as sudden and blinding as the snow itself. Seriously, this state is weird and I almost dread what tomorrow will bring.
Turns out I needn't have worried though, next day was uneventful weather wise and fairly uneventful events wise. We had had a chilled out, relaxing day that I think we all needed and I'm only brining it up at all because I wrote that 'what will tomorrow bring?!' sentence yesterday and am far too lazy to change it.
Day three though? Insanity. We had a wedding rehearsal to attend, which I won't dwell on because it's the private business of friends, and guess what was back with avengance? The blizzard, that's what!
Even worse than before this time we had an hour long drive up to a mountain top and let me tell you, Colorado has not done much to adhere itself to me. The weather is as schizophrenic as it comes (and this is from somebody who hails from the UK, where talk of unpredictable weather may as well be currency) and the roads seem like a nightmare to navigate. What was a light drizzle of snow soon became a full on snowstorm. As we climbed up and up it became worse and worse, and while I credit all but two or three suicidal arseholes who almost gave us all a heart attack with their bullshit with being slow, steady and sensible going up - The sheer size of the road coupled with the lack of visibility still made it a very much a fist in mouth moment that left us all wishing we were situated closer to the church we were travelling too.
On the plus side one could argue it was good prep for the upcoming, never ending drive through the states that is to come and the snow covered mountain was gorgeous. With it's crisp white inclines and snow covered buffalo it's the first piece of truly natural beauty I've seen since arriving in Colorado. I couldn't get pictures because of the death road, but it did leave behind pretty views like this.
Still, even though I love snow as much as a small child praying to the winter godsfor a day off school, and had actively bemoaned the fact that we'd had none back home, I think I could've done without this. Especially when I know it'll all be melted sooner than I can enjoy it, the sun already beating down on the crisp white surface as I write this the morning after. It also didn't help that when we arrived at the church we were greeted by this,
Not a single soul was there and considering we were at the top of a freaking mountain it was reasonable to expect that nobody else would make it.
Thankfully they started to arrive in drips and drabs, and I got to experience my first wedding rehearsal. The idea of this is as alien as they come for me. Most weddings aren't intricate spider-webs of narrative calling for intense and emotional performances that touch the very depths of your soul. In fact, the majority of Christian weddings are pain-stakingly formulaic to the point where even if you'd never been to one, you could probably still do eighty five percent of the ceremony blind folded by what you've seen on television alone. I'm not exactly sold that we needed an hour to tell people where to stand and walk on the big day, but then as somebody who has nothing to do but turn up and park my arse in a seat on the right side of the hall, maybe that's lack of pressure talking.
Once that was over we faced what could have been a very long and dangerous drive home in the dark, but thankfully common sense prevailed and true to form by the time we got back off the mountain what had been landing thick and fast was for the most part slush. We ate at somewhere renown for it's delicious chicken and rampant homo-phobia, every meal coming with a thick layer of guilt despite being incredibly tasty by the standards of fast food and visited a Toys R Us that kinda let me down a little. There's a myth in Britain that everything in the States is dirt cheap to the point we should feel we're getting conned. When it comes to toys and games? That is absolute nonsense.Any saving is minimal at best and even the size and stock of the place let was a touch disappointing, it seemed about on par with it's trans-Atlantic counterparts as if it forgot it was situated in a land known for its excess. I can't be too hard on it though, as we did pick up a couple of great boardgames that finished off the night beautifully.
That's about it for now! Today the plan is to actually engage in some tourist stuff and head to a museum, find out if we actually make it or if laziness wins again next time!
Do they have the ark of the Covenant in there somewhere?
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