Last night I was pissed. I sat and wrote what I've been up to for the past week and when I pressed send it was erased for some reason. I was so tired though I couldn't be bothered to write another masterpiece. HA-HA! 

Okay, well let's try it again.

So the week in Telluride was awesome. The exhibit looked amazing and I thought Anne did a great job showing what I had to go through while at Craig. The next day we did a presentation and the turnout was amazing. Anne chose about 40 photos and we both took turns talking about them and what I was maybe going through at the time or what exactly I was doing at therapy. We tried to keep it light so it didn’t seem depressing so we threw in some shots of me in a wig, high black boots, with next to nothing on doing hot laps around the nurses station. Because that’s how we roll! Hehe. We had a whole theatre of people and after the 40 picture powerpoint we had a Q & A session.

Whenever we had extra time we caught some of the films that were playing. Both Stranded and Red Gold were absolutely amazing! Stranded is about the 16 Uruguayan rugby players who went to extraordinary measures to survive 72 days after their plane crashed in the Andes. It is one of the greatest survival stories of all time. Nando Parrado was one of two heroic survivors who climbed through the snowy Andes for 10 days in search of help. Nando was actually at the film festival and had a Q & A session and he was amazing.

Red Gold was one of the other films we saw. At the headwaters of the Kvichak and Nushagak Rivers in Bristol Bay, Alaska—the two largest remaining sockeye salmon runs on the planet—mining companies Northern Dynasty and Anglo American have proposed to extract what may prove to be the richest deposit of gold and copper in the world, perhaps worth as much as $600 billion. Talented Telluride filmmakers Ben Knight and Travis Rummel spent more than two months in Bristol Bay, documenting the tension between native fishermen who oppose the dam and mine officials who say they will build a “clean” mine that will leave the salmon’s habitat untouched. Mountainfilm is thrilled to host the world premiere of this exquisite film that goes beyond the conflict, offering a portrait of a unique way of life that wouldn’t exist if the salmon don't return with Bristol Bay's tide.

Red Gold was amazing and we had a chance to hang out with Ben one of the filmmakers and he was very down to earth and just a good guy.

So needless to say we had a super fun time hanging out in Telluride. The weather even cooperated and every morning I woke up to sunshine and 13,000 foot snowy peaks out my window. I’m going to have to move to Colorado soon! Hanging out with Jen, Anne, Cathy, Yari, and Emily was killing me because we were laughing so hard, but I can’t wait to go back.

Polly and I flew home from Telluride on a Tuesday and were already driving out to Palm Springs on Thursday. So there was no time spent at home, but Palm Springs was nice. It was just over 100 degrees and we just laid out by the pool drinking foo-foo drinks. I worked on my tan and relaxed a bit.

Now I’m home and back to therapy and trying to get these legs working. I sent in my paperwork and am going to do a trial week at Project Walk next week so I hope that goes well. If it does it looks like my commute will get a lot longer.

I’m working on getting some pics and videos up so check back soon.

tara

never give up!