First Tracks Smack

November 18th, 2006 at 06:34am Michael Conniff 2

You wait and you wait and you wait and you wait and it never ever seems to come--until it's there. The first day really is the first day of the rest of your life, reeking of mordant and glorious possibilities, fate and predestination wrapped up in fall lines like a veggie wrap.

You're nervous. How could you not be? How could you not know what comes next. The sheer thereness of it all, the chance to feel it all again, like a good burp after lunch. The muscle memory kicking--yes?--but something more important at work: the memory of this small portion of your life spent fencing with gravity under an open sky.

It will be sunny on Ajax: it will have to be: the sun finishes the picture like a final acrylic gloss. The people will do the rest with their first-day smirk and the clothes and equipment that say everything about them, from iPods to lycra.

You (yes you) will be between and among them even though there's nothing new about you and maybe never will be again. But you're here and that means you're not there. The chloroform has worn off. You can breathe like a bear at high altitudes with the sun as close as you will ever get to it.

You know it will be glorious. You know this day will be like no other days that have come before. The first day of the rest of your life could not be better, no matter what comes next.

Entry Filed under: Colorado, Aspen, Environment, Fractional Post