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!