23 Things We Loved about Sundance 2012 (and 13 Things We Loathed)

Things to Love:

1) The snow! (gorgeous when it clings to the trees)

2) That NYC’s MTA could use a few lessons from the amazing Park City bus system that rarely lets you down.

3) Cookies for breakfast on the way to a screening.

4) Cute hats and gloves at the snowbunny chic store Prospect on Main Street.

5) Sure, lash extensions seem to be out of place in Park City but we’re totally loving the fun Minky’s fix anyway.

6) Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally’s totally adorable, awesome pda on the Smashed panel.

7) A packed Library Theater frantically hitting refresh on their phones during overtime in the Giants/49ers overtime—and the following eruption of “Giants! Giants!”

8) The always incredible, helpful and cheerful festival volunteers that make the whole weekend possible whether ushering crowds in and out on time, directing traffic or just saying hello.

9) Empty buses come Monday night.

10) Bus stop movie critics and their recs.

11) Watching insane footage on the news of cars sliding all over the road during Saturday’s blizzard.

12) The energy of Main Street on opening weekend.

13) The ski slopes lit up all over town at night.

14) Any party where you can photo bomb Robert Redford.

15) Taking photos with the bear statue on Main Street.

16) Discovering waxed jeans are a) a thing b) pretty damn sexy at DL1961 and Kari Feinstein’s Style Suite (love them in brown).

17) Promising yourself you’ll learn to ski before next year.

18) When celebs wait in line for screenings just like us (Josh Radnor).

19) The Party Down cast popping up in everything—Lizzy Caplan and Martin Short in Save the Date; Lizzy Caplan and Adam Scott in Bachelorette.

20) Dwell’s cozy, elegant, woodsy decor (indoor trees!) at the Vevo Powerstation and Sorel Suite.

21) The number of times Toddlers & Tiara’s “Honey Boo Boo Bear” was referenced.

22) Kicking off conversations with “How’s your Sundance been?”

23) Promising yourself you’ll learn how to ski before next year’s festival.

Things to Loathe:

1) The snow (clinging to unpassable sidewalks).

2) That cabs in Park City could use a few lessons from NYC taxi commission.

3) When your bus breaks down at 7:50--and your screening starts in 10 minutes.

4) Cookies for breakfast. Again.

5) Losing those new cute hats and gloves a day after you got them.

6) Stand-still traffic on Saturday night.

7) Headaches because of the altitude (not all the free alcohol, we swear!).

8) Celebs who wear cocktail dresses to premieres—Sundance is a strict no sequin zone.

9) The constant line outside of Bing Bar.

10) The constant line outside of Java Cow.

11) That all moisture is zapped out of your body upon landing at the Salt Lake City airport.

12) The standard ambiguous, abrupt Sundance ending at every movie.

13) Still not knowing how to ski even though you promised yourself you’d learn last year.