They Came, They Saw, They Conquered

The girls were here this weekend!! It was awesome! We managed to squeeze a whole bunch of fun into a few days! I took the bus to Reno to meet the girls at the airport and we rented a car and drove back to South Lake, stopping at a couple of beaches on the way.I took the girls to their first rail jam on Saturday afternoon. They seemed pretty stoked about it.

We decided to go to San Francisco on Sunday since that was going to be the coldest day here. So we headed out about 8 am and took our time getting there. We stopped in Sacramento along the way and did a little walking around in Capitol Park. We got to San Fran around 12:30 and parked in Union Square. We walked through the financial district to the port and then headed up to Pier 39 and then on to Fisherman's Wharf. We went on a boat cruise under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz that was awesome!! It was really choppy on the way out to the bridge, and you know it's good when the captain says Wow! That was by far my favorite part of the trip! We hung around on a pier and caught the sunset and then rode a cable car back up to Union Square and headed back to South Lake. It was a super long day, but it was a ton of fun!

Monday we hung around South Lake and checked out a local beach and headed up the Gondola to see the view. 

Then we decided to take a ride around the lake. I've wanted to check out Emerald Bay since I got here and it didn't disappoint! I definitely need a car here next year so I can check this stuff out more often! We made it all the way around the lake, but not quite before it got dark.

 Tuesday morning we squeezed in some climbing around in the rocks up at Heavenly and then headed back to Reno. It was the best four days I've had since I came out here! I think it was just the ticket to get me through the next 19 days until the end of the season.

 Here's a few pics of the weekend as a preview, I'll be putting a some on my photo blog and a ton of them on my flickr photostream once I get them sorted out and edited.

Celebrity Stalking and Photography

Yesterday I became a celebrity stalker. I got on the shuttle to go home after work, and when the aisle started to fill up I noticed a guy whose helmet was hitting the ceiling. So I'm looking at him and I'm like, 'that guy looks alot like Captain Awesome' on the tv show Chuck that I watch. So I'm looking at him but trying not to look like a moron and I notice the guy behind him. Now I'm positive because he looks just like Morgan from the same show. Now what would the chances be of both of them being lookalikes? So I had already decided that I would ride the bus all the way to the end of the line and then take it back to my stop because it was jammed full and I was in the back. I certainly wasn't going to yell out my stop and then try to push past all the people in the aisle. So as I'm riding I'm thinking to myself I should ask these guys for a picture so I can show my uncle who got me hooked on the show. So even though it's about the least likely thing i would ever do, I ask them for a photo after we got off the bus. So I am officially a celebrity stalker now. So here it is, me with Joshua Gomez (Morgan) and Ryan McPartlin (Captain Awesome). Both really nice guys by the way.

I've also been messing around quite a bit lately with my photography. I'm thinking maybe I should get serious and take a couple of classes and see if it's something I could get good at. So today during my self imposed one day fast from facebook (which I check so compulsively I started to think I may be mentally ill!), I started to add some of my photos to my flickr account. So if you're bored to tears you can check out my photostream at www.flickr.com/littleczr/ and let me know what you think. Some of the photos will be ones I have posted on facebook, here or on my photo blog but there should also be many that I haven't posted anywhere else. There's not a whole lot there yet as I've reached the monthly upload limit on my free account, but on Thursday I think I'll be upgrading to a pro account which will give me unlimited uploads. This way I'll be able to archive alot more of my photos from now and some of my favorites from the past.

That's about it for now. 43 days...

Photo Blog

So for those of you that don't know, which should be most of you, I started a daily photo blog a couple of months ago. I was keeping it quiet so there was no pressure. Taking a picture every day meant they wouldn't all be art! The daily thing didn't quite work out, as taking photos is highly dependent on my mood, but I have been posting over there the last few days. Now I'm looking for honest feedback and constructive criticism on the pics I post over there, so lay it on me. I think that this is obviously a better way to learn, so I'm putting myself out there.

I'll be trying in the next few months to get comfortable taking pictures of people so that I don't freak out and go postal at the wedding! Don't worry, it probably won't happen, you should still come! Sorry Em! But seriously that's the main thing I struggle with. My shyness doesn't go away cause there's a camera in front of my face. So I'll be working on it. 

Anyway that was an unbelievably drawn out way of asking you to check out my photo blog if you're bored and to beg for comments, good and bad. I have to learn somehow.

http://sjsdailyphotos.blogspot.com

It's also listed in my profile. Thanks guys. I'll still be posting randomness about my life in Tahoe here. 

Also, once I get home I'll be harassing people to let me take pictures of them. So get yourselves prepared, cause I'm coming for you. Of course if you'd like to volunteer that would work too. I'll be home at the end of April. Thanks.

Miracle March

Woke up to two fresh feet this morning! So apparently we are going to have a "miracle march." At the base of the mountain there was about three and a half feet. Most of the day was spent shoveling. Fortunately we were pretty slow today so we had a chance to just chill and shovel at a fairly leisurely pace. So we had a whole bunch of fun too!

I'm off Thursday and Friday so I plan to get some real riding in. I think tomorrow I'll go up to the top and get in some good runs!

And after a storm that dumped that much snow all night, the sky was impossibly blue as usual this morning! The pictures never do it justice! You can see just a little bit of the lake in this first one.

Oh yeah and I thought my little camera was broken again this morning. This thing doesn't hold up too well to cold I suppose. Seems to be fine now but if it keeps screwing up I'll have that excuse to get another one!

This Is More Like It

So after two days of rain, we got snow all day today and it's still coming down! I woke up to about 4 inches , which was about 6-7 up at the base level. We probably got another 4 inches or so throughout the day and the forecast is for 8-12 more overnight! So I'm happy but a little torn between wanting a better season and just wanting the season to end! I really wasn't gonna feel too bad if they had to end the season early because of bad weather and slow business! So I guess htis is what I get. I'm cool with it though. We definitely needed it. And now some random photos for those of you that don't have facebook and may not have seen them.

Random self portrait inspired by workplace boredom.

The walk home today. I decided to take a picture of myself which is a really bizarre thing I've been doing lately. The best thing about this photo is the snowflake that was captured right as it passed my nose, making it look like snot was running from my right nostril! I actually thought it was until I came home and uploaded the pics... I totally did a snot check!

The coolest part of my job. This is a short hike from the Enchanted Forest where the kids learn to ski. So technically it is not part of my job at all but something that I do when I'm bored at my job! But either way it's a pretty cool pic!

And last, the most embarrassing part of my job. Every Thursday we have to switch out the old port a potty for a "fresh" one. So we have to tie the old one to the back of the snowmobile and drag it across the resort and then drag the new one back. As you can imagine this gets more than a few chuckles, smirks and a fair amount of finger pointing from people to whom this just beats all! Now, if you remember, Christmas and New Years 'conveniently' fell on a Thursday so in honor of the birth of Christ and the ringing in of yet another year, I dragged a crapper! How many people do you think can say that?!?!? 

Rainy Days and Mondays

My apologies to the Carpenters for the blatant title rip off!!

So there hasn't been much going on here in 'lovely' South Lake Tahoe. I think we're moving into that ugly shoulder season where things are just wet and muddy. It started raining yesterday at about noon and kept it up all day today! So much for my streak of never working on a rainy day. I'm glad today was my day off though because it was pouring! The only bad thing about it was that I was stuck inside all day. 

Last night when I went to bed I was a little stoked because I figured the rain would have slowed or stopped today and maybe I could wander around and take some rainy day photos. But when I got up this morning it was pretty obvious that wasn't going to be possible. It was raining way to hard and I was afraid I might ruin my gear (which would probably tick Emily right off as I would then have to shoot her wedding with a disposable camera! lol).

 So today was a lazy sit around the house day. Pretty soon those days will be much quieter. My brazilian roommate is leaving on Friday! I hate to sound excited about that, but I will not mind seeing this one go. We get along ok, but I have never met anyone louder or more crude, which may come as a shock to my family who say the same about me! lol. So yeah, not to be rude but I am counting the hours until Friday and hope that the story doesn't change this time like it has half a dozen other times. I also managed to pick up two more brazilian roommates for a couple of days. They are only temporary as their lease ran out at the end of Feb and they leave on the 3rd of March and they just needed a place to crash. But they are actually sharing my room which is a switch after all this time of being by myself. You can imagine my surprise when I came home from work on Saturday and found the other two beds in my room made up! 

So that's about it. Not a very exciting month. The ski school is still struggling with less people coming and the lack of snow. The weather is just not cooperating this year. Every other resort is getting snow, just not us! I really could be a jinx! I feel a little like Jonah, maybe if they threw me overboard the weather would clear up! 

I am pretty much ready to go home. Sadly enough I have been counting the days for the last week. I really like it here, but I can't seem to establish connections like I have back home. Either I'm not trying or it's just not working for me. I dunno. But I miss my home! lol. So, 49 more days...

Jack of All Trades

So today was another slow day at the office. I wouldn't have even gone in had there been another option. I woke up feeling pretty not good due to what may have been the first hangover of my nearly 29 years of life. Now before everyone tells me how disappointed they are, it won't be happening again! I do not want another morning like this morning. I don't even like beer so I'm not sure what was going on. You see where being sociable gets you? So anyway, we only had about 30 kids today so I had some free time to wax skis. So here you go... photographic evidence that I do sometimes work. And a look at my sweet uniform. Now you can understand why I was stoked to get black pants instead of red. You know it's bad when I'm taking pictures of myself!

Busy, Busy Day

Today was another painfully slow day on the mountain. I ended up taking like 20 pictures during work. Some of them are in my photo blog. As a matter of fact this afternoon while hanging out in the kids' instructional area, me and a couple of coworkers spent our time messing around on a 90 cm snowboard. To understand how ridiculous that is you need to know that I normally ride a 150 cm board which is a full two feet longer. So I spent the afternoon proving that I am still a child with a guy 10 years younger than me and a girl 8 years younger! It was actually unbelievably fun! So there you have it... I get paid to do nothing and/or screw around and do things that will potentially cause me to hurt myself, which is important because I don't have insurance... not good! But I'm having a heck of a lot of fun doing it!

**Obviously still feeling a bit manic! Sorry about that. Also a shout out to my sister Amanda and yes it is because she shamelessly begged me to!

Too Much Time in my Head!

So today at work I find out that everyone is getting cut back to three day work weeks, hopefully just for January but no guarantees. The problem with this is I already have way too much free time during my four day work weeks. What the heck am I going to do with an entire extra day?!?!? The thing is it's dangerous for me to have this much free time. My brain goes manic and I start kicking out bizarre ideas that translate into, often, more bizarre master plans (which happens to be how I landed in Tahoe).

Case in point, during my last couple of four day work weeks I have decided to live in a van, looked at 'vintage' (read: cheap and often older than me) motorcycles hoping to stumble on a cheap one that will run long enough for me to ride it back to PA in the spring, looked for a job at a surf camp for the summer (I don't surf either- sounds like another killer blog man!), considered camping all summer in Colorado while working as a river guide (no I don't do this either; but oddly enough landed a phone interview for the job- this getting a job over the internet thing is awesome!), looked at a summer photography school in Montana (only odd thing about this one is that it costs $7500, which is a lot of money to those of us considering vandwelling), looked into crewing on a yacht (you guessed it), and decided to backpack in New Zealand for up to a year. And those are just the ones I can remember, which means I dwelled on them. Imagine all of the other, much more insane thoughts that fluttered through my consciousness! If it's crazy enough to be immediately dismissed by yours truly, I'm sure most of you can't even imagine! Seriously, if anyone could refer a great psychiatrist... actually, I could probably get a lot of benefit from a mediocre one!

So, now does everyone understand why free time, while it sounds appealing to most, is not in any way healthy for some? Speaking of unhealthy, I wonder if I can blame some of the psychosis on my continuing Sprite addiction... sugar overload, I dunno.

So, if you love me, or are even remotely concerned about the mental welfare of a stranger... PRAY FOR SNOW!! (and of course an end to this whole economic slide!) I really need to be working!

Speaking of manic!! I apologize for the last several minutes of your life, you'll never get them back!

So I'm Practically a Snowboarder Now!

So this is not a great picture as I didn't take my camera, so this is off my phone, but this is where I took my snowboarding lesson. You could look right down to the lake! A guy I worked with at Home Depot told me that was the unique thing about Heavenly. At most of the resorts around the lake you ski away from the lake, but at Heavenly you ski toward it. Can't wait until I get better so I can see it from the top! One of the local guys told me that at the top of one of the lifts you can see for miles in both directions: the lake to one side and the desert on the other! That sounds awesome!

(And yes there is a hill there, though I will admit not much of one! We have to start somewhere!)

So, as I'm sure you've gathered, yesterday I finally bit the bullet and took my first snowboarding lesson. To this point my snowboarding experience was on a plastic board in my sister's backyard in Downingtown. There was plenty of falling and a fair amount of yelling! There's nothing quite as humbling as your 10 year old brother making a fool of you by being naturally gifted! So I was a little apprehensive as I waited for the lesson to start. 

Surprisingly enough, I only fell once in the three hour lesson! And that was just ignorance! I cheated and got up toe side after strapping both feet in for the first time and promptly went over onto my rear! Had I not been lazy and gotten up from my heel side like we were supposed to, I may not have fallen at all! Although in that case it's unlikely I could have walked home after my head swelled to ridiculous proportions! All in all though I was stoked about my first experience. It went much smoother than I would have dared to hope. I may even take a few ride breaks this week during work to practice so I can take a level 2 lesson next weekend. 

During the level one lesson, you start off super basic by learning to skate and straight glide with only one foot strapped in, which definitely cuts down on the falling and boosts the confidence level! After that we moved on to heel side turns and then toe side turns, both of which are a little scary and hard to get used to. Then we were ready to ride the magic carpet lift to the top of the not real impressive hill, strap both feet in and learn to sideslip. We ran a little short on time and didn't get much practice doing this or the "falling leaf" which is where you go back and forth across the hill and work on changing directions. So it was not a real impressive accomplishment to anyone who knows how to snowboard but I was stoked nonetheless. So I'll be practicing these last two skills this week and will be falling quite a bit I'll wager. It was nice having someone to tell you exactly what you were doing wrong. Figuring it out on my own while my butt is frozen will be slightly more challenging!

The most interesting thing about the lesson in my opinion is that I learned to snowboard in a t-shirt! I went up in my ski pants from work , a sweatshirt over a t-shirt, hat and gloves. Within the first half hour I ditched the sweatshirt, hat, gloves and opened the vents on my pants! The forecasted high was 57 for yesterday, but I have a feeling it topped 60! It was ridiculous! It was nice not to be freezing to death, but 60 degrees in January is pushing the limits of the realm of reason! I find it oddly depressing that the ten day forecast shows sun and 50 degree days all the way through! With no real snow since Christmas day, we could be in trouble if it stays this way!

So that's the big news for this week, I finally jumped in! Once I feel pretty comfortable with snowboarding I will try skiing and see which one I prefer. I find it hard to imagine that skiing could be as easy to pick up on, but I guess we'll see. There are 3 basic levels for each one so hopefully I can fit them all in during the January slump. Apparently in February we go back to mandatory 6-day and voluntary 7-day work weeks! 

One other tidbit is that I broke down and got the internet in my apartment today! It remains to be seen if that was a colossal mistake or not. But one good thing is that I will be skyping my face off from the comfort of home rather than from the deck at Starbucks in freezing temps!

More free time... good or bad?

So the holiday rush is finally over and with it goes six day work weeks! I think I'm pretty happy about that. The problem is that they go to four days for the month of January! Not so sure about that! I was pretty happy with my last paycheck! But you don't come out here to make money do you? 

So hopefully next week I can finally take a ski or snowboard lesson! I'm still undecided about which to try first, but I'm sure whichever one I choose will be brutal! So I guess a short week would be better as my bruised and bettered body will be needing some time to recover! I'm still a little cocky about trying since I've been listening in on lessons for a month! So I'm sure that I will have plenty of trouble!

Hopefully I'll at least be able to do something interesting so that I have something to talk about!

So Christmas went surprisingly well for my first one away form home. Not that I didn't miss being home, but it ended up being really cool. I worked, figuring at least my mind wouldn't be on the fact that I was away from home on Christmas. It worked pretty well. I was able to treat it like any other Thursday. But while I was at work, one of my supervisors from the Gondola location invited me over for dinner. It ended up making my day! There were eight of us all together in their fifth wheel and we just hung out and ate and talked and watched snowboarding videos (we are in Tahoe after all!) So it turned out to be a really nice Christmas "family" dinner. So I guess being a grown up isn't all that bad. You just get used to doing things a little different. 

As a bonus last night after work, the same friend called and invited me to watch the UFC fights down at one of the casinos. He's an MMA fighter himself and knew I love boxing. So a few of us hung out and watched the fights, which are pretty cool, even though none of his fighters won!

So far, so good. And getting better!

The Giant Sno Mo

So here's the gigantic snowmobile that I drive at work. I haven't had a chance to get online much lately. Six day work weeks are great for the wallet, but not good for much else! So for the last five days in a row, I drove this thing in circles, okay more accurately they're ovals, for about seven hours a day. It's still pretty fun, except when people decide that they should sled across what is obviously a snowmobile road and make me hit the brake to avoid hitting them and their kid on the sled! The last two days of driving were a bit miserable. People are just too retarded for words. But all in all it's a pretty cool job!

** So here's an update on the snowmobile, a few things I forgot to add the other day. Apparently it's one of 6 in North America and costs $35,000! So not only is it a huge beast, it's pretty rare, which I suppose explains all of the random people that take pictures of it and occasionally feel the need to sit on it when I run inside! The looks on their faces though when I "catch" them sitting on it are classic!

My mommy is awesome!!

So I get a package in the mail from Mom yesterday and she says 'be sure to call me, I want to hear your reaction'. I know what you're thinking... scary. Trust me I felt it too! 

So I get home and call her and when I open it I find out that she sent me Christmas in a box!! Little Charlie Brown tree included! So I set it up on my night stand and am totally making my roommates crazy jealous!! Although now she has succeeded in making me insane because the note very specifically said don't open until Christmas! What the heck! But I'm all scared that her mommy-sense would be tingling if I cheated! So I'm waiting... and waiting. I know it's only been one day... it's presents, hello!

Exhibit A

So in closing, my mommy is the bestest ever!!

Dumped... no not what you think!!

So I've been dumped from the Gondola location where I've been working for the last two weeks! I guess it's a good thing though since it means the California side will be opening on Thursday. So today I spent my first day at the California Main Lodge getting set up for opening day. Tomorrow I go for snowmobile training, which should be pretty fun. Although you'll laugh when I finally  get a picture of the ginormous snowmobile I'll be driving! 

So this happened a day after I got a real taste of winter on the mountain. Monday was windy and snowy and very blizzard like! I know it's ignorant to say, so I'll just hope no one who has climbed Everest will ever read my blog, but it felt like Everest up there to me! (I really have to stop reading books about Everest! This is where stupid ideas are born!!) We were out working in driving snow and windy conditions... it was awesome!

This was the view on the walk to work. This is the grocery store at Heavenly Village. The mountain directly behind is where I was headed. There's usually a pretty big difference between here and up top. There's a difference of about 3000 feet.

This is what we dealt with once we got to 9200 feet. Visibility was not too great. We got our surface lift started in the morning but the heater wasn't working so we couldn't keep up with the snowfall. It was open for about an hour total! The Magic Carpet is basically a giant conveyor belt so it's harder to keep open during the snow than the other lifts.

This is where it really started feeling like Everest! We had to move these carts by hand since we didn't have our snowmobile yet. So imagine dragging three of these through knee deep snow at 9000 feet! Not too much fun! 

Because it stayed so cold all day mountain ops were able to blow snow all day. 

Until Monday I had been spoiled by the sunny 50 degree days and had just been wearing sunglasses to keep my eyeballs from melting from the reflection off the snow. After trying to see in wind driven snow without anything on my eyes I decided to invest in a pair of goggles and a face mask keep my nose from falling off! So here's my new super hot look! 

Since I'm sure any bank robbery jokes would be construed as terroristic threats I'll keep them to myself and hope no one looking like this robs any in the near future!!

So I already have a pretty gnarly tan from wearing sunglasses all the time, so I figure this getup will help me avoid the coveted goggle tan! I should be nearly transparent by the time spring rolls around!

So that's the deal. I got a taste of life on the real mountain and now I have to move over to 6500 feet and get used to a whole new deal! But I guess that's the point right? So far, so good!

Office with a view

So I've been trying to post these for about a week. This is my ride to work every day. It's a 20 minute ride each way, so basically I'm getting paid to look at the lake for 40 minutes each day. 

We were coming down a little later than normal this day, so we caught the beginnings of the sunset. Pretty awesome!

Snow

So finally we are getting some snow! Friday when I left work they were calling for 135 mph winds on the mountain. We had to close up early and make sure things were tied down really well! I was off Saturday and Sunday, so I didn't get to see if there was any carnage or not. The ski school was closed yesterday anyway, so I got lucky and didn't lose a day. From what I hear we've only gained a few inches up top which is all we have here in town. But I guess something is better than nothing! There was a large storm system coming through and they were predicting somewhere in the range of 3 feet in as many days. That hasn't happened yet! But as strange as it is, I will admit, I'm enjoying it. The temps have dropped about 30 degrees or so in the last couple days and has been cloudy and snowing on and off, and I'm ok with that! Weird. I guess your attitude about things change when it affects your livelihood! 

So my other news today is that I went to church here for the first time today. I have never to my knowledge been to church where I didn't know anyone! So this was a pretty big step. I have intended to go to church since I got here, but could never talk myself into it! It was pretty cool though. I went to one that a cab driver told me about my first couple of days here- Sierra Community Church. The worship was pretty good, although it was rough for me. But once the pastor started preaching I got sucked in. He had all kinds of historical insight and facts that he threw in. It was pretty cool! So it was actually a really interesting sermon, which was good because it made me forget I was sitting there alone! I've asked for Sundays off, so I will probably keep going here in the mornings and maybe check others out on Sunday nights.  Hopefully I can get plugged in somewhere.

So that's about it. The roommate situation is going well. The girl from New Zealand moved out and I've got a Chilean and a Brazilian now. They are both really friendly and outgoing so I've met more people in the last week than I have since I moved here! Hard not to meet them when they're hanging out in your living room! It's been a cool change though. The other night I had my first kind of quintessential hippie experience here. There were about 10 of us hanging out in our living room, just sprawled all over. One guy brought a guitar and everybody just kind of hung out jamming and singing. It was a pretty cool time. So things have definitely gone in an interesting direction the last week or so. 

So now with the snow I should be working pretty nonstop through the season. I have probably been the luckiest hourly employee here so far. I was told I would be cut all this past week, but was able to work the entire thing! So far, I am the only person I know of that has worked two full weeks! 

So far, so good!

So this is weird... and possibly unhealthy!

Ok so last night I'm minding my own business when I go to the fridge to get something to eat. Nothing strange about that. Then as I'm staring into it, I realize that at that moment I have 5 different kinds of cheese in there! Now I don't think that an average person should ever have 5 kinds of cheese in the fridge at any given time! It just doesn't seem healthy! So I don't know exactly why I think it's odd or why I felt the need to share it, but at this very moment I have cheddar, cottage cheese, shredded mozzarella, cream cheese and something that resembles american cheese (because it's cheaper than my delicious deli american which I eat by the pound- also not a healthy choice!). So there you go, you've been given a window into my refrigerator and by extension my soul- I love cheese!

Snowball Effect

So yesterday I got a call asking me to start working today! Finally! So I was pretty stoked about that- had to run out and buy snow boots real quick! Just as I was putting my laundry away and getting ready to settle in to Conspiracy Theory and go to bed early, Anna (whose family's house I went to for Thanksgiving- she's been great showing me around town here) called and asked if I wanted to go on a night hike. So I bounced right back up from my bed and got redressed and we ended up going on a 4 hour hike in the pitch black. It was awesome, and would only have been better with some moonlight. Needless to say once I got back home I was too amped up to fall asleep and didn't until after 3! So that was not pleasant. Even after I fell asleep, I didn't sleep well and then had to get up at 6:30 to go to work! For every choice there are consequences! It was worth it!

So today was my first day of work. The California Main Lodge is still not open yet, so I am working with the ski school over at the Gondola location, which is about a 20-25 minute walk from home (depending on if I'm wearing ski pants and snow boots or not!). For now it is still alot of prep work. Today I did everything from moving tables around and organizing ski poles to running a lift and painting! Fortunately that fits my 'jack of all trades' side. I'll be getting five days a week starting Monday and then once the Cal lodge opens I will just slide over there.

Now, that's alot to process in 24 hours, but there's more. I know, it boggles the mind! Of course when I got off work, I decided that I would lay down for an hour and nap rather than be a productive member of society. So I'm laying down for, no exaggeration, three minutes and someone walks into my apartment! So yeah, on top of all the other excitement after nearly two weeks of being by myself with nothing to do, I get a roommate today! We only talked briefly so I don't know much about her, but she seems nice enough, so we shall see how this works! I must be more mature than when I was in college and hated every roommate I ever had! 

Right?!? At least this time I knew what I was getting into, so I'm sure it will work out just fine. But maybe pray about it for me anyway! 

So the snowball is rolling now, and will be picking up speed as I get into my first week of work and having a roommate. So far, so good!

Flurries!

So we're getting a light rain/flurry mix here at the bottom of the mountain,  at about 6200 feet. Nothing is sticking down here, I think it's still just over 40 degrees so it may be too warm yet. The tops of the mountains are all fogged in so hopefully it's snowing hard up there at about 10000 feet! So with any luck, maybe I can get moved over to the gondola, which is where we will open first, so I can get some work in before the California side opens. Last year I heard that we got a good snow on Dec 6th and the California lodge opened up a couple of days later. So it can't be long now! 

Of course, now I have my library card, so I'm not as bored! Yesterday I took 2 books out because that was the limit for my first time. I am sitting in the library now because I finished them both last night! I have maybe a little too much time on my hands right now! So I'm going to take a handful of books out today since they are closed tomorrow and Friday, and I will not be going out tomorrow or Black Friday! (Unless I hear about a really great deal on snow boots- which I still don't own and need before I start working! Yeah maybe I should get on that! :D 

One of the books I read yesterday was about the Yukon Quest Sled Dog Race, which goes from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory to Fairbanks, AK. I couldn't put the thing down! I figured I would read a coupe of chapters to get started and then watch a movie. Nope! Read the entire thing in one sitting! It was called Yukon Alone- good book if you like that sort of thing. It definitely didn't sugar coat it, but it really made driving dogs sound appealing to me! I was kind of bummed I didn't get that job in Alaska this year! Oh well, maybe I'll have to try Alaska on next winter! We'll see how I do with snow someplace warm before I go crazy and end up with -40 windchill or worse! I think I'll go crazy in carefully thought out stages rather than just jumping over the edge! (Although that kind of takes the fun out of it!)

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I probably won't be online for a couple of days with the holiday, but hope everyone has a good one! Be thankful for what you've got!