Colorado Slang - A Visitors Guide

I was invited on Monday to a 'FAC'.  It took two days of scratching my head and googling 'slang FAC' (random note - there are 85 uses of the acronym FAC).  I finally broke down and admitted my ignorance and consternation, only to discover that I'd been invited to a barbeque after work on Friday (coudn't you have just SAID THAT?!).

So, to help get everyone up to speed I've compiled a translation dictionary for Colorado slang.  Enjoy!

Acronyms

• FAC - Friday Afternoon Club (ah, that's not so bad! Brats and a beer after work on Friday. Us crazy ex-Californian's just call that 'happy hour bbq'. HHBBQ?)
• XYZ PDQ - Examine Your Zipper, Pretty Darn Quick (somehow I have lived without this knowledge for over 30 years but am very relieved to be educated now!)

Locations

• The Fort, FoCo, FTC - Fort Collins, Colorado
• DCO - Denver, Colorado
• the Springs - Colorado Springs
• Cowtown - Greeley
• Breck - Breckenridge
• Poudre - Cache la Poudre River (pronounced "pooder". I swear. It's the #1 thing that makes tourists think you're messing with them. I assure them that 'up the poudre' is not offensive. Mildy silly, but not offensive.)

Adjectives

• Granola - Being especially 'all natural'. Example: "I can't go skiing with you because the ski lift uses precious resources." "Dude, quit being so granola."
• Pow Pow- Powder (as in our typical Colorado snow. The light, fluffy, 'makes you want to just roll around in it all day' kinda snow).  Example:  "I can't believe I missed the pow this week."
• Endo - To go end over end (as in a spectacular crash). Example: My skiing. Or Snowboarding. Occasionally, my hiking, mountain biking and walking down the street.
• Burl, burly - Rough, tough, impressive.  Example: "That fall where I endoed twelve times was especially burly."
• Gnar - gnarly, rough, burl (as in 'holy hell, I'm glad you survived that') Example: "That gnar fall when I endoed twelve times really made me hungry for granola."
• Gnar Gnar - the deepest of the deep powder (see Pow pow above). Example: Let's go shred the gnar gnar!
• Gaper - Gaping Tourist. (as in driving down main street at 2mph while gaping at SNOW!!) Example: This town has too many gapers this time of year.
• Flatlander - Me and You and most of the rest of the country (pretty much the 99% of us who weren't blessed to be born into this land of fresh air and inherint snowboard mastery. I'm hoping to be grandfathered in if I stay long enough!)

*PHOTO CREDIT - My little sister Lindsay demonstrates what happens when a flatlander is being a gaper and does a burly endo in the pow pow.

This concludes our unofficial Colorado translation lesson for today.

... any questions?  Did I miss any? 

 

Brought to you by:

Danielle "Dee" Baldwin
Infinity Group Realty

www.Dee-Baldwin.com

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