Between Christmas and New Years, I traveled to Aspen to get some great skiing in and see Third Eye Blind (3eb). You know, the "Jumper", "How's it Going to Be", "Semicharmed Life" rock band from the 90s and popular when I was a freshman in college. I saw them earlier in 2007 at the Fillmore for their 10 year anniversary. It brought me back to those Freshman dorm room days, first in Dickson with Johnny Hoffa, and then later in Sheldon with Stevie B and company. I got psyched up about 3eb after both the Fillmore show as well as Eric calling and emailing me from all the east coast shows. So the decision to travel to Aspen, ski, and see 3eb was pretty much a no brainer. I had tried to convince the 'rents to spend Christmas in Tahoe, but that failed miserably, so I needed another ski trip.

I didn't know much about Aspen before going there. Like, for example, that every flight is delayed our canceled and getting in/out of Aspen is beyond crazy. The flight on the way in was delayed, almost diverted to Grand Junction, and had some sort of mechanical problem. It was one of only a handful of flights to land, with the other 20 or so flights diverted or canceled. Sometimes you do get lucky. As we're descending, the mountain out the window is staying the same distance away from the plane. Basically we're following the slope of the mountain down to the town of Aspen. Finally got to Aspen with a few hours to spare before the first of two sold out nights at Belly Up Aspen with 3eb, a nice small club that holds about 450 people.

The first night was fairly long with about a 2 hour set consisting of all the goodies, including Motorcycle Drive By, 1000 Julys, God of Wine, and all of the regulars (Jumper, Semicharmed Life, How's it Going To Be, Losing a Whole Year, etc). Great set. The second night, Steven Jenkins claimed to be sick and said he needed the audience's help. The set was only 80 minutes long, and has less of the rarities from the first night. Some pics taken with my iPhone are below.

After the show, I went over to 39 Degrees at the Sky Hotel. It is known as being an apres ski place, but it seems to turn into a "hit or miss" ultralounge late at night. We apparently were there on one of the "hit" nights, with tons of beautiful Aspen-ites (who, of course, are not really from Aspen but from somewhere else like Chicago or Long Island). After people watching for a while, we noticed 3eb come in the door, Jenkins, Tony, the whole crew. They sat a few couches away from us, and a flock of girls immediately jumped all over there. Let's just say that Jenkins didn't look too sick with his drinks and his girls around him ;)

Anyway, back to the good stuff -- the skiing. The conditions were great and there were a ton of areas at Snowmass that we could track out even though the last snow was a day or two earlier. The temperatures were below cold; one morning it was -11 degrees outside. That's Farenheit. I thought about that for a second -- 43 degrees ABOVE freezing (75 degrees for those that can't do math) is warm and comfy. 43 degrees BELOW freezing is just bone-chilling cold. Think about instantaneous frost bite. After skiing, we had a beer out at one of the outdoor apres places, and I do think that my beer got colder once it was brought outside.

Then, of course, came the time to leave again from the illustrious Aspen airport. The snow was falling sideways and the visibility was about 5 feet in front of you. Flights eventually canceled and have to stay in Aspen for the night. Put on a flight the next day, and sat next to a nice lady from Minneapolis who relayed all the stars that she saw during her trip -- William H Macy, Felicity Huffman, Eva Longoria (apparently all the desperate housewives were there), and a ton of others that I don't remember. I realized that even if I saw most of these people, I wouldn't recognize them with the ton of clothes that will be covering them to keep them warm. Although I suppose William H Macy is fairly recognizable. But the problem with all of these people in town is that it was impossible to get a reservation to any restaurant. Everything was booked.

Overall a great trip, the skiing at Aspen was surpurb, and I'd definitely go back. Although next time I'd go during a different time, when it is less expensive and family crazy with the Christmas/New Year's holiday. I'm looking forward to watching the Winter X-Games, which are held every year in Aspen. Although don't think of visiting Aspen during the X-Games, supposedly they are more booked up than during Christmas.

Below is the last pic from Aspen, finally boarding the plane out of there. You can see the nice big snowy mountains in the background.