Here I am

I know, I suck. It’s been ages since I’ve updated. Where have I been? Well, for starters, I’ve been in Aspen. Aspen was great fun, even if I did catch a cold. We spent New Years Eve in Colorado Springs, listening to some cover band at an Irish Pub that was in love with Green Day and the like. Still, they were really fun to watch. We also played pool and went to Old Chicago for Nachos. Busy night. The next day Troy went skiing at Loveland (the ski area, not the town…he drove to the town first though, a bit out of his way. The town has good shopping though). The girls and I along with Michelle, Scott and Griffin went to Garden of the Gods. So gorgeous and the weather was perfect. A balmy 55, though the wind was a bit strong.

We had four days of skiing. The first run my brother takes me on is this black, powdery, bumpy monstrosity. I haven’t skied much but groomed black out west, and have little experience with powder (plus my skies are NOT powder skies), and I dislike bumps. Still, I made it down alive and then yelled at him. He’s just lucky I can’t keep up with him on skies (unless it’s groomed, and then I beat him in a fair race). He didn’t spend much time on groomed, so he was free from any pummeling I could have wished to inflict. Still, by the third day I was seeking the black runs, as long as they were shorter and within the realm of my abilities. No broken bones were created, and none were desired. Amanda, Michelle and I did a hike-to blue run as our last run out there. There are not many hike-to blues in my experience, but this one rocked. It was 3.5 miles of backcountry tree and bump and powder skiing at steepnesses that I was comfy with. Great bump practice too. Grant it; around here that same run would have been labeled double black. Hehe.

The drive out and back were mostly without hitches, Troy’s car was hit – bumped – in the bank parking lot before we left, but the damage was all cosmetic. It was right by the gas tank, so a near thing, but we could still drive it out there. We would have been in a tight spot if it was not drivable. There was a small hiccup when it was realized that a small ‘necessities’ bag was forgotten in my apartment, but shampoo is easier to replace than ski boots.

The week between that and this was spent getting ready for school, going to meetings and relaxing and getting over my cold. This week was the first week of classes. I have only had one, because I have the majority of my classes on Monday, and Monday was a holiday. Next week is going to be painful as far as classes go. Eep.

Later next week I will be going to Arizona to interview for a job with Intel. I have made it through the phone interview stage, and now move on to the ‘in your face’ stage. So Thursday and Friday of next week I’ll be in Phoenix, interviewing, seeing the town, and trying to decide if I like the southwest enough to relocate. The other option is the Northwest, Oregon, of which I am far more keen to go – simply because I have been there before and loved it. Even the rain (which it didn’t do much of while we where there.)

So I’ll try to post more often again, now that I’ve started, it should be easy. Right?