If it doesn't burn for two days, it's just not good for you...

A lot has happened recently that's been pretty good. I'd like to update this site more frequently, but I just don't have the time with school and work.

Nearly two weeks ago I found myself driving up to Kirkwood with Nick. We were planning on heading up there for some skiing and hopefully a chance to say, "Happy Birthday" to Brennen. I was gearing up for a day of skiing after what had been a highly emotional week, and even though I love to ski, a tiny part of me was reluctant to go.

We got the most excellent parking space even though Nick tried to argue with the Kirkwood parking person and tell him that we needed to head to Edelweiss. Crunched up the snow in our boots and started getting ready. Grappling with my second boot buckle, I glanced sideways to see Brennen skiing over to us. I stayed where I was because he doesn't really like to wait, and so I kind of just said hello to everyone with my butt in their faces. I'm sure they appreciated it, ski pants and all.

A tiny finger poked my bum. Poke! Poke! I turned around to find Maren who flew all the way home from Maui to surprise me and I grabbed her and immediately started stifling the sobs.

We skied, we drank, we played fun games with Nick and Sarah and somehow talked about herpes way too much.

Seque to the next weekend where I crunched with my ski boots up the snowy path yet again, only this time to take an expert level ski class to get some help with my form and balance.

It was slightly windy (although nothing like the previous weekend where it was blasting me off the mountain) and snowing. I finally bought some cold-weather gloves and my hands stayed toasty warm all day long. I wore Maren's fleece-lined ski pants on account of the weather, and everything was great.

We got up there early as the drive from my sister's house proved quicker than we thought, although I was pretty much useless and suffering from carcolepsy the whole way. I've no idea what was wrong with me. The good thing about being early is you have time for a breakfast burrito from Monty's, which is essentially an entire meal wrapped in a tortilla. The thing even has hashbrowns _inside_ of it. Yum!

We skied chair 6 all day long, and had a stop over at chair 10, but the lift was too slow for most of the people in my class. Got off the lift at chair ten and hung a right to do a wicked traverse in what was basically a white-out. It was amazing to get to our run and just listen to the quiet - nobody was out there. It was absolutely beautiful and the snow was fanstastic. Easily, my favorite run of the entire day.

Plus, let's face it, I'm not really in shape to do chair 6 all day long without a break. That's why I do chair 4. Anyway, my legs were screaming at me by lunchtime but I had to go back out and practice. I learned how to double pole plant, which probably sounds rudimentary to you, but for me it's the balance technique that really helped.

Once I started poling better I noticed I felt a lot more stable in the snow and could control my speed without having to stop at all. Excellent! Who likes to stop anyway? We also skied a very short 45 degree hill as a test to see how we'd made it through the day. To give you an indication, the first time I skied it, I fell down for a couple of turns. Second time, no problem at all.

I was voted most improved skier in my class by my instructor, but that's probably because I ate it right away while we were getting divided into groups. Drove home to play with my nieces and their hot tub, and ended up having a wonderful time.

My legs hurt for a couple of days afterwards, but it felt really good.

I'd like to take another class again in February if possible, but we'll see. I think I'm going to Oregon that weekend. I'm a little bit nervous that I will forget everything I learned before I get up there again since I'm not going this weekend, but I'm proud of myself. It felt good to work so hard at something and see marked improvement in just one day.