tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

I’m lazy and exhausted and posting my trip report from my snowboarding site:

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We slept in a little on Saturday, leaving an hour later than we wanted to. But we made decent time and checked in at Top of the World – the parking lot was packed so we were expecting major crowds. Luckily our room at Rimfire was ready so we unloaded the car and got ready in the room.

This was our first stay in Rimfire, and we were pretty impressed. It has underground parking, with overflow across the street. We found a perfect spot right by our elevator. We had a Junior Studio which had a mini-fridge, microwave, and two burners. So it was perfect for making bacon and eggs for breakfast, and microwaving the meals we brought for lunch. The room was a decent size with a queen bed and full size sofa, and HUGE tv. Perhaps the best part is that you can get into the Starbucks, which is right next door, from inside Rimfire – so no need to go out into the cold. While I made breakfast, Aaron picked up coffee for me and tea for him. Perfect!

We headed over to Silver Creek on the shuttle for our first run of the season. It was a little crowded, but not too crazy. We were really surprised that our first run was so smooth – it felt like we had just been riding last week. As we headed toward the lift line, we met up with Becky and JT. They convinced us to head over to the Black Diamonds, which rocked because the lift lines were empty over there. Aaron’s new boots were killing his left foot, so we headed in after a few hours.

There is a new restaurant in the Village called The Wine Dive and Doggery, so we checked that out for dinner. It was awesome! I had a great glass of Syrah, and we ended up buying a bottle to take home – they cork it there for you for some bizarre legal reason. We had some really good food too – my favorite was the Wild Boar dog with spicy brown mustard and goat cheese.

We watched the X Games on our big tv and chilled the rest of the night.

Sunday was awesome. The conditions were so great – so much snow, barely any ice. And not too crowded, as long as we stayed away from the Express Quad. We made that mistake once. Once. We blasted a few runs on the main mountain and then headed over to Western Territories. That was awesome – totally empty, zero lift line. I forgot how long those runs are. The wind did take a bit of snow off the mountain, exposing some ice, but nothing too major. We turned the rolling hills at the bottom into some decent jumps.

We headed in for lunch, and then back out to Silver Creek for some night boarding. I wanted to work on my switch, so we did a few runs trying to do only switch, or 360ing in and out of switch. Aaron was wearing his GPS watch, so we bombed a few runs trying to see how fast we could go. The highest he clocked was 30.9 mph, but I think when he downloaded it at home, it showed up as 32.6 mph. He’ll have to post what was going on with the watch! We did notice that most lifts go 4mph and the express quad goes 9mph

When we were waiting in line for the lift at Silver Creek, the lifty managing the line was an older dude, greybeard and all. I was giving Aaron a hug and he leaned down to kiss me. As we pulled apart, the lifty yelled, “Hey! None of that in line!” and Aaron said, “Alright, we’ll do it on the lift!” I don’t know if the guy heard that because he then yelled something like, “Not unless you’re giving some to all of us!” People started laughing and then Aaron opened his arms to the guy and said, “Well, come here then!” Much to Aaron’s dismay the guy threw his arms open and started running over to Aaron! He must have seen Aaron’s eyes go really wide because he pulled back at the last second and started laughing. I really thought he was going to kiss Aaron!

We headed home after a bit and put our names in at Foxfire on the way. It was supposed to be a 45 minute wait but was a bit longer than that. It was worth it for the BBQ Platter for Two though – that thing is so freaking good. We came home with 2 bottles of their Bucket Hill Sauce as well. Damn, I love that place!

Monday we checked out but were able to leave our truck in the garage. The conditions were even better – not a cloud in the sky and they had blown snow overnight. We went all over the main mountain – as we were heading down one of the blues, all of a sudden a jet blasted over us – it was so loud my ears still hurt by the time we made it to the lift. I didn’t see the plane but one guy did and said it was some kind of grey military jet, and when it buzzed us, it was upside down. Wish I had seen it – I can’t imagine how close it must have been to have been that loud. After a bit we headed over to the new blacks by Soaring Eagle. They were pretty mogully and a bit icy, but not too bad. Aaron was getting some really good jumps in as well. We ended our day with a bombing run of Grabhammer, which for once was not icy at all. Super fun!

We lunched and wined (for me at least) at the Wine Dive and Doggery, grabbed some coffee and headed home.

It was a really great trip – especially for being our first of the season.

It’s pretty normal for me to think, “Man, I could use a drink right about now” after a long, hard day’s work. It’s a little less normal for me to think that first thing in the morning when I get to work. But it happened today.

Fridays are usually easier commute days since a lot of government workers get every other Friday off, people take long weekends, whatever. Plus I leave the house at 5.50am, when rush hour is just getting started. But 66 always slows down when Route 50 merges in. Always.

So, I’m cruising along this morning, actually able to go the speed limit, and I’m in the ‘fast’ lane, with HOV on my left. I’m leaving the guy in front of me, Gold Sedan, a little bit of extra room, because we’re approaching 50, and I’ve read this story before.**

I see the car two cars ahead of me, Silver Pickup, slam on his brakes. Why? Probably no reason, he might have gotten scared by some car merging ungracefully into the lane next to him. But I see the red lights, and I see the car behind him, Blue Civic, slam on his brakes. Lots of red all over my lane. I’m only peripherally watching Gold Sedan directly in front of me, because I’m scanning the road farther ahead of me, but I start slowing down, tapping my brakes to let the guy behind me know that I’m about to come to a screeching halt. I notice him slowing down in the rear view mirror. Thank God, because Gold Sedan finally realizes there are red lights blinding him, and I hear him screeching to a halt, tires leaving skid marks on the highway.

I forgot how loud car crashes are. Gold Sedan slammed into Blue Civic, sandwiching him – Blue Civic had tapped Silver Pickup’s bumper, causing them both to slam on the brakes.

My tires didn’t even squeal since I had seen it all coming. I came to a nice, controlled stop behind the mess, as did the cars behind me. Now the trouble for me started, because cars were flying by in both lanes on either side of me. I saw the cars about 5 lengths back starting to escape, so I knew everyone would soon be slowing to a grinding halt and I could make my move. I flipped on my turn signal and started inching toward the HOV lane. Luckily someone was nice enough to let me in, and I went on my merry way.

It was better than a double espresso to wake me up, but it shook me up more than ten of them. As I took my exit, I thought that maybe I should have stayed to ‘witness’ the accident, but it seemed pretty obvious what had happened. There wasn’t much I could contribute that the evidence didn’t already show. (What? I watch a lot of CSI).

**Another reason  I am vigilant about scanning several car lengths in front of me and to the side of me, in addition to getting A+’s in Drivers Ed in high school, is thanks to Aaron and his motorcycle. Wanting to be able to share in what he experiences on a bike, I took the MSF course and got my motorcycle license. Between that and everything Aaron has told me about riding (and following behind him as he rides) I am painfully aware of how much more aware motorcyclists have to be in order to survive each ride. If you aren’t constantly aware of what’s going on all around you – far ahead, and behind – and know where your escape routes are, your chances for surviving an ‘incident’ decrease exponentially. So, as much as I worry about him every time he gets on the bike, it has had a positive effect on our lives. But I still think it’s served its purpose and can leave our lives now as well.

I did something I have never done before. And I’m not quite sure why – it just felt right, and I couldn’t stop myself.

I read The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop, and as I finished the last page, I turned back to the beginning and immediately started reading it again.

I’m almost done with it for the second time.

The book was a little hard to get into at first, which Aaron warned me about. But when he told me it was set in a world where women have all the power and control men using ‘Rings of Obedience’, I wasn’t about to pass it up.

I have a few complaints. No, not about the Rings of Obedience. I’m fine with that (hehehe). A lot of things are not really explained – ever (don’t worry, the rings are!). You just kind of have to infer what’s going on from context. It’s as if you’re reading Harry Potter and she talks about Muggles without ever explaining that Muggles don’t have magic – eventually you’ll figure it out, but it’s a tad confusing at first. That’s the main reason I started re-reading it. By the time I got to the third book, a lot of stuff that happened in the first book made sense and I wanted to read it again to pick up on the things I missed the first time around.

Aaron pointed out another thing that bugged him about the book, which of course made it stick out even more to me, since he mentioned it. Whenever the author was trying to show that a character was being venomously subtle and threatening she would do something like this:

“I don’t think so,” he said, too quietly.

“Be careful,” he said, too softly.

After the first few chapters, I just wanted to see someone say something just quietly enough or even a tad loudly.

So that was pretty annoying.

But there is something very addictive about the book. Books, I guess. I do like almost all of the characters. They are real, and complex, and I enjoy being ‘around’ them. She incorporates humor seamlessly. The world itself – once I finally understood what was going on and how everything worked etc – is addictive to be in. I literally cannot stop reading it. Even with being annoyed by all the people speaking too softly and too quietly.

So I don’t know…I don’t know if you would enjoy it like I do.  I think another reason I like it is that it’s so long – I hate short books. I get a little panic attack when I hit the halfway point, if it’s a book I love, knowing it will be over soon. And with this book it’s so huge that I get to put off that dread for a long, long time. I think you will get annoyed by some of the repetitive writing. But I also think the characters will endear themselves to you, at least a little.

It is fantasy – sort of vampire-ish, and there are unicorns, and animals that can communicate with humans, and magic, if that helps you decide one way or another.

I wonder if I’ll start round 3 when I finish it this time…

My last Christmas present finally arrived!!

The Aero Garden Aaron got me for Christmas is doing very well! Just about time to harvest…

We’re heading to Snowshoe on Saturday for three days of snowboarding. So, I have begun packing. We bring so much stuff with us that I have a list I use every time to make sure we have everything.

First there’s the stuff we actually wear or carry while on the slopes:

• Underarmour cold gear – top and bottom
• Snowboard socks
• Snowboard pants
• Softshell
• Snowboard jacket
• face mask
• skull cap (or hat)
• helmet
• gloves with liners
• camelbak
• goggles – one pair for day, one pair for night
• Snowboard boots
• Chapstick
• snowboard lock
• Camera
• walkie talkie
• mp3 player
• snowboard

On top of that we bring our laptops, router, books, clothes, towels (for drying wet boards), shoes, and lots of food. Good thing we bought the 4 Runner to carry it all in!

I’m in Week 4 of Stage 1 of the workout in The New Rules of Lifting for Women. I’m still loving the workouts, and I like having the planned out structure that forces me to improve with each workout. I can tell I’m getting stronger by my weight and rep increases, so I guess it’s working! I was peeking ahead at the Stage 2 workouts and they are a little more daunting. There are more of them per workout, and they are more… involved. At least I get to take a week off for our snowboarding trip before starting that stage!

I still really recommend this book if you are looking to shake up your workouts.

We’re still eating low carb and I think the added protein is helping with my workouts as well. I feel strong and energized.  I feel like if I was suddenly transported into a MacGyver episode, I would be able to outrun the bad guys and make a bomb out of a paperclip, and not even break a sweat. You know that knock out punch he gives because he hates guns? Yeah, I feel like I could own someone with that too. POW!

I finished my mittens and have moved on to my earflap hat. I’m using super soft organic cotton. I can’t wait to wear it! Here are the earflaps, finished. Now I just need to cast on the rest of the hat:

I suppose it also could be a teeny tiny bikini, at this point…

There are some things I just don’t understand. Certain ways of behaving, certain interactions, that leave me baffled. Mystified, even.

If you have made a conscious effort to cut someone out of your life by meeting with icy silence every overture of friendship extended toward you, would you really expect this behavior to have gone on unnoticed? Can you then just change your mind and decide, Oh, I guess I will actually talk to you now, normally, as if the past year never happened.

Do you imagine this other person, who has been reaching out to you, extending their virtual hand so to speak, has just been waiting patiently this whole time, waiting calmly, acceptingly for you to one day grace them with an acknowledgment of their existence?

And then what? Tell me what now is supposed to happen? Because I do not know.

Or this. Imagine you decide that you have been snubbed by a friend, and decide that this is unacceptable, that you have had enough, that you are moving on, and tell this person such. Why then, would you expect them to not do the same? Do you expect them to be waiting, patiently, calmly, with baited breath, for the day when you decide to take it back and pretend you never slammed any doors on your way out?

Because I can tell you this. Certain things cannot be unsaid. Cannot be undone. Cannot be erased.

I may never understand, but I will also never forget.