PART II:  POLITICS AT BAY

Chapter 4:  Momentary Lapse of Reality

We left home for Colorado a few weeks after the election.  Instead of renting skies, we decided to make it a real hobby and purchased skies and boots for both of us before leaving.  I had been snow skiing since I was fourteen, but my partner was interested in skiing on a frequent basis.  It made economic since.

Our trip was at the mid to the end of November, and I could not wait to leave town.  As an introvert, six months of public attention to such an extreme extent took its toll on me.  From radio to newspapers and public television covering millions and millions of people, running for office is even a challenge for a former salesperson.  We stayed in Breckenridge, which is just over the Continental Divide west of Denver.  Lower elevation slopes such as Aspen did not yet have snow.

The trip to Breckenridge was a bit of a surprise.  The auto rental facility, Avis, was kind enough to freely upgrade us to a four wheel drive SUV given mountain conditions.  The mile high valley of Denver had rain, but once we worked our way up the Rockies with a multitude of autos and semis off the road past the chain up area of the mountain, we were pretty grateful for their generosity minus the gas mileage.  Our in room Jacuzzi and fireplace were well used during our visit.  It was a safe haven that was romantic; a home away from home that allowed for a reconnection between my partner and I.  We went to our first slope the day after our arrival.

I did not know what was up with Copper Mountain, but the only slopes open were intermediate and had moderate sized moguls.  Later I looked it up and they were “intermediate / advanced” slopes.  That made sense of the difficulty level.  With the exception of Powder Mountain in Utah, this was my second time skiing on a real mountain.  My partner sure zoomed down Powder with several incredible spills as he could only turn in one direction.  It was a late night, deathly cold ski.  His hands almost froze with tears to couple it.  Thank goodness he was ok.

Getting back to Colorado, if you ski Copper on a sunny late afternoon into evening, you will understand how it likely received its name given the perceived copper shield on the opposing mountain.  It was beautiful.  The five or so times I fell going over those adventurous miles of rough terrain, I stood and looked at the rock cliff.  It was like a mirror of sorts with a sepia tone.  One trip down Copper’s intermediate / advanced slope was enough for me.  I had not yet adjusted to the altitude, the two slopes open had nothing intermediate about them, and there was no way my partner could use the slopes.  Copper’s employees were gracious enough to give us our money back for the next several days.

The following day we went to Loveland.  It is a beginner slope in the first days of the season with old lift chairs that sit at the peak of the Continental Divide.  Later in the season, they do have high speed lift chairs and much more difficult slopes.  Do not confuse the Continental Divide with higher slopes such as Copper Mountain.  After skiing at a multitude of skiing resorts in the Midwest, my partner had the basic snow skiing skills down to a much better art.  He went down Loveland once, and based on his skiing skills at that time in the season, I wished he would have given a greater effort.  What I think happened was the view.  Being so high up in the air and knowing you have to get to the bottom can be extremely intimidating, especially if it is your first time going down a slope for that season.

I skied Breckenridge on an early opening day as winter came early there in 2004.  It was perfect in slope, view, weather, and snow with a bit of ice in the evening due to the time of year.  It was my favorite slope there.  Proximity had nothing to do with it.  If you have skied in the Midwest, Breckenridge will be your favorite slope of those I visited.  My partner decided to take a snowmobile trip to the Continental Divide versus skiing Breckenridge, and he had a great time.  Despite having our own snowmobile since 2000, it is not the same as your own adventure on home based trails.  The flight home the next day was too early, but that is the way life goes.

When we arrived home, it was time to get back to business.  I changed our company name in hopes of leveraging my last name to aid in new business generation.  A bigger project I undertook was redoing our company website.  Although I designed my own campaign site, literature, and yard signs, I was out of practice.  In addition, there was a lot of meat to it.  Thus, including my partner’s exceptional programming skills, it took approximately one month for us to complete.

The holidays rolled through, and due to time constraints and traveling to be with family, we did not bother with a Christmas tree.  We spent New Years with our friends Hal and Ed whom we met when I was a recruiter in the enterprise software industry.  The gay bars were busy, and mimosas in the morning were a good way to kick off 2005.

We attended a fundraiser for our Governor around the New Year.  I was criticized by a few gentlemen standing near me for not being outgoing enough as I was not reaching out to shake everyone’s hand.  But the way I saw it, the election was over and I could just be myself.  Folks like these gentlemen were invading my personal space all evening, and it would not be until later that I would figure out who most of the attendees were.  Bruce surprisingly showed up in a jean jacket and jeans, so it was pretty clear that he was new to politics and semi-formal events in general.  In the future, over a multitude of years, little things about Bruce would continue to add up as odd.

At the annual Democratic dinner, our first one to attend, I was quizzed about my business by the clerk of courts.  I was a little surprised as when I ran for office, I was very clear I had recently incorporated in our state with an entrepreneurial dream in design work for web and print.  Bruce stated that I “had balls” to run for office.  I agreed, but later I realized he meant something else that simply was not true.  The oddest thing is that my partner and I were expected to sit separately.  Eventually, someone moved so we could sit next to each other as they realized we were about to leave otherwise.  It was the first sign that I was about to be put through the ringer.

In February, someone disliked me enough to put a hole in the sidewall of my left rear tire while at our local gay bar.  They must have done this right before we left, as 3 miles down the road it was shredded.  I was hoping to make it all of the way home without having to change the tire.  However, with a fair amount of snow on the ground at 2:00 a.m. in the morning, I made record time putting on the spare.

Business wise, I had a trickle from past customers.  And, as usual, I was doing pro bono work to build my portfolio.  With big plans of networking at the golf course to extensive advertising including radio, I was confident our company was about to grow by leaps and bounds.  Politics wise, I was constantly feeding ideas to the party.  On the news, I saw that the Democrats were pushing my agenda in the 2005 legislative session.  I was a little surprised people took to my ideas to that extent, and I continued to make considerable behind the scene contributions to the Democratic Party.