To all my lifties

I've come to some realizations this season of being a lifty and here they are.

Things they don't teach you in training

1. No matter how warm you dress, if the temps don't reach above 10F you're going to be cold.  I have worn 2 pairs of base layer, long sleeves, t-shirt, fleece, and jacket and still froze my butt off.
2. Always, ALWAYS ration your food.  Unless of course you want to buy a ten dollar sandwich, and honestly, what lifty can afford that?  You may pack your whole fridge, but suddenly it's gone, and the day isn't even half over.  (This is especially important while working a mid or top station, when your job is watching chairs go by.)  "Oh crap, I just ate my sandwich, chips, apple, cheese, candy, cookies, orange, breakfast burrito, and your lunch and it's only 9:30!!!"
3. A pen, suspenders, Velcro, and garbage are suddenly the most entertaining things you currently possess.  (If you're lucky you have a dry erase marker and glass cleaner in your shack.)  Skills of self entertainment are (one of) the most important skills you can possess on a slow day.  I spent my Christmas entertaining myself with my suspenders for a solid 30 mins.  I then spent another 30 mins checking and rechecking all my pockets (I have about 12) for something else to entertain me.  (My pockets were empty.)
4. Those things that you do in the privacy of your home, those really weird things you do when not even your significant other is around, start to show up at work. (heads out of the gutter.  Pervert.)  I have caught myself making strange noises, talking to myself, dancing to the song "Maniac" even when the music isn't playing.  I'm not sure if this is everyone, or if I am just becoming more comfortable in my skin that I stopped caring about what I look like.
5. Music is a necessity!  Not optional!  Dance parties are part of the lifty lifestyle.  Especially solo dance parties that take place in a lift shack, while bumping chairs, checking tickets, ect.  The best dance parties have actual music playing.  Although some take place in silence.  I've been caught rocking out at the top of Tanaka, pens as drum sticks, the works, by numerous coaches and ski racers.  (The coaches find the humor in this, the ski racers do not.)

That's really all I have.  Good thing no one actually reads this, and if you do and you stopped by in hopes of a life update, I'm sorry to disappoint.  Not this time.

Random Thought

I was a dumb dumb today and decided to improve my health by going to the library instead of going snowboarding.  The cold temps and improper snowboard clothing (i.e. Cotton.) helped me decide that I'll wait until Thanksgiving to worsen my sickness rather than today.  But during my prolonged staring at the screen, I decided that I want to go blonder.  Like Blonde blonde.  Like blondes have more fun, blonde. 

 

(like this.  Who is this girl?  I dont' know.  Is this that gross Heidi girl from the Hills?  I hope not.)

My fear is that it will wash out my already ridicously pale skin. 

Eh, if it looks dumb I can always dye it purple.

Snowballs

Winter is on us.  In full force.  We probably have close to 2 feet of snow at the base of the mountain and temps that are in the single digits.  When we moved up here a year ago it was raining and in the 30's.  Not bad.  Today, the high is a whopping 4.  It has to warm up a little bit, right?  RIGHT?!  Oh my.
In other news, I learned I have the capability to french braid my own hair.  This was a wonderful discovery since the mountain will be opening soon and the amount of bathing will be reduced drastically.
The sun is currently blinding me in the library.  I am typing most of this with my eyes closed or my head turned at obscure angles to avoid temporary vision loss.
Dylan and I bought a new car!  WOOOOOO!!!!!  Sorry Green Monster, but I hate you.  Sometimes.  We found a 2002 Ford Escape that had been traded in 2 days prior to our purchase.  So we agreed to terms pending an inspection on the car.  Called the car shark yesterday and he said it was all good and was in the process of being detailed!  Woot!  Dylan is going to pick up the car tomorrow while I am learning how to run lifts.
I'm pretty excited to be working mountain side again this winter, even if it is only for one day a week.  I can't wait to bump some chairs and freeze my tail off for free snowboarding!  I'm not super pumped that I did the math and came to the realization that Dylan and I won't get to spend any of the upcoming holidays together because either one of us or both of us will be working Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, and New Years Day.  Happy Holidays!  However, we will be working lots and then can hopefully take a bomb vacation sometime next year.

I'm thinking Hawaii.

I told you so!

As promised, I am finishing my trip updates.

In Illinois time to rest was an imaginary thing.  There was always something to do or someone to see.  The first weekend I was rushed to southern Illinois for Michelle's Bachelorette party.  The night was a lot of fun, consisted of lots of drinks, crying, and Charleston.  We hit up EIU for the night to party Fall 2008 style.  It was awesome being back at the old stomping grounds, but it also felt so weird.  The girls had a job of selling Lei's for Michelle's party, I took the cake with $20ish dollars.  Turns out I am an excellent sales person.
We rented a party bus to safely get us to and from EIU which was a lot fun.  I wasn’t impressed when the bus driver told us we had to pay more money for him to drive us back to Vandalia.  Not cool.  Not cool at all.  Regardless everyone had fun and the night was a success.

 

We were at EIU.  This was a must.

After the bus driver slammed on the breaks about 6 girls ended up on the floor.  Don't worry, Michelle's neck hitting the pole broke her fall.

The following day included a ridiculously long drive home and an evening at Danielle’s house where her nieces (2 and 3) styled my hair.  I wish I had pictures to share.  It was awesome.  It hurt like hell but I have never seen Linda laugh so hard in my life.  The girls had fun and everyone had fun watching, so I was happy to take one for the team.  The next day I went into Chicago to see everyone and go to musical night.  I have nothing good to say about musical night, so I won’t say anything about it.  It was so wonderful to get to see David, Katelyn, Jessica, Tina, and to spend more time with Danielle.  We cruised around Chicago, took a picture between Marilyn Monroe’s legs, did the standard Bean pictures, hung out in the park, and had an awesome meal at a restaurant whose name I cannot remember.    

David and I

Loves

First try.  Excellent photography skills, Tina!

Overall, a pretty good day and I even got to sleep that night!  Finally!!

The following weekend was Michelle’s wedding.  The hardest part of the weekend was trying to keep Michelle calm.  I think we received a C grade at this task.  Not an easy task!!!!  Ok, I’ll give us a B.

Who knew Maid of Honor duties included putting the garter on the bride?!

  

It was a beautiful wedding, tears of happiness were shed, my feet hurt like a pain I have never before experienced, and the reception was a great party.  

Bridesmaids.  Like the movie, but no one shit their pants.

Mr. & Mrs. Caleb Miller.

Regardless of the fun, I was pretty excited to hit the hay that night.  It had been such a long busy and at times stressful day it was good to just lay down and pass out.

 

At the reception

The rest of the time at home was spent running around trying to see family and friends and spend time at home and relax.  It was kind of strange to be “home” again and it made me realize that Oregon, IL is no longer home.  I was homesick for Alaska and Ruckus and my house.  It was really nice enjoying the sunshine and grass and farm smells.  I almost forgot how much I miss farm smells.  I enjoyed being able to drive into Chicago and take the Metra back to Elburn.  It was the little things that I noticed I had been missing.  So it was good to experience those things again.

I was super excited to come back to Girdwood and find everything yellow and orange and absolutely beautiful.  (and new snow on the mountains.)  Can't wait for winter and snowboarding! 

Don’t get used to my updates being so frequent.  It probably won’t happen again.

Rachel is better at blogging than I am. So this one is way too long to make up for it.

I have been meaning to update this for a few days now, ok, a few weeks, but life has happened and it has taken longer than planned.  I hope I can stay on top of this again.
Dylan and I took a trip to San Diego then home to visit friends and family and to attend Michelle's wedding.  San Diego was a lot of fun visiting Danielle.  We started the trip off on zero sleep and went straight to a whale watch tour, where I got horribly burnt.  Imagine that someone used to Alaska getting burned in California, preposterous.   We ended up seeing hundreds of dolphins and blue whales spouting before diving down.  It was a pretty awesome tour.

Yes, they said "don't worry we aren't running them over..."

After the whale watch we went to Danielle's house and made a fantastic meal of steaks, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, tomato salad, salad, and wine.  After our awesome meal we went out dancing where I fell asleep standing up in 5inch heels.  My mom is proud of my talents.

YUM!  Isn't Danielle delicious looking?

The following day we slept until noon (I finally laid down to sleep) then went and Dylan got his tattoo of St. Christopher.  It hurt him a lot, so Danielle and I went shopping to help ease the pain.

The day we had planned to go to the beach, San Diego got rained on.  The city that never gets rain, got rained on while we were there.  Thanks weather, we hate you too.  Her Aunt Donna gave us an awesome tour of The Del Coronado and took us up to a tour that is closed to the public.  It was such a beautiful view up there, and I loved hearing about the quirks of the building.  Who would have thought that the top floor has such low ceilings that certain guests have to be moved to lower floors so they don't hit their heads!

Beautiful views

Inside the last (or one of the last) manned elevators in the US.  The bell hop, Andrew, is absolutely awesome and was so sweet.  He probably still remembers my name.

Soul Sisters.  We love laundry.

Really, just Epic.  (with a capital E.)

 Later that night (after more shopping and a stop at Dave and Busters, and In and Out burger) we had S'mores on the beach and did some midnight swimming.

Double s'more.  She got scared about doing a triple.

 After spending such an awesome time with Danielle and Mike they had to go back to work, so Dylan and I went to the zoo!  The day started out rainy (really, Seriously?!) but being from Girdwood we weren't scared so we went to the zoo in the rain.  It only rained a little longer than the sun came out.  Then the humidity started to rise.  Then the temp started to rise.  Then it was 110F and we decided we weren't really enjoying the zoo that much anymore.  So we went to the beach.

The last bit of shade we found in the area of the zoo we were in.  This is about when we said forget it, quickly saw the elephants, and about sprinted back to the AC of the car.  (That was parked on blacktop in the 110F heat...)

The beach was awesome.

 That night Danielle, shipped us off to L.A. and said "see ya losers, they are your problem now, Sandy." and abandoned us with my insane...ly awesome step sister.  (whom I love dearly.)

Sunset on the ride to LA (ish area)

After some mexican food (and french fries) and the worlds largest medium drink, Sandy transported us (safely) to Hollywood to do things up tourist style.  We started at the Chinese theater checked out some hand prints, looked at the stars, had giant margaritas, then hit up Madame Tussauds wax museum.

Having the same side hands as Marilyn made me feel better about my gigantic man hands.

 

Inside the $6.99 store.  I am a fierce polar bear.  Sandy is an elephant.  "I don't know what elephants do..."

This is us being "sexy" with Beyonce.  Why didn't anyone tell us....  WHY?!

Chatting up Ryan Seacrest.  He 1. is tiny (notice how monstrous I look next to him.) 2. Was more interested in Dylan.

Sandy is abusive, look out.

My favorite picture of the day.  I laugh so hard every time.  Sandy kills me.  And the baseball hat.

This is for you, Earl.  Why am I smiling like such a fool?

 That evening we went up to the observatory to view the city at night and we were able to see the Hollywood sign from a distance.  On the way there the GPS went stupid and took us on a tour of stars homes.  Whether they were actual stars homes, we will never know, but you would have to make their salaries to live in some of the houses we saw.

Don't look directly at my legs.  Blindness may occur.

The next morning, Dylan and I flew home to Illinois, where nothing exciting happened and we took no pictures.  The end.

Ok, exciting things did happen and we took maybe 5 pictures.  But I will write about them later.  Like this week.  Promise.  Ok, no promises, but soon.  Maybe.  We'll see.

Bye!

Our Weekend

What a weekend!

So after many weekends of being couch potatoes, we made up for it this weekend.  We started off by going Blueberry picking around the area.  Yum!  We had to crawl through thick bushes and trip in holes to get to the prime spots (aka, the spots people hadn’t found yet.)  We found a good spot and taught Ruckus how to eat the berries right off the bushes, he was getting pretty good at it, but preferred to just beg from us.  We ended up getting a good batch and came home with purple lips and hands.

Saturday we went into town to go hiking.  First we stopped at the DMV where I finally got my Alaska drivers license!  Took me long enough, but I had trouble getting a document with my physical address on it, since everything is mailed to PO boxes here.  Passed my test no problem and now can apply for the PFD next spring!  Yay, money!  We then drove up to the trailhead to go hiking with the Ruckus.  First problem we encountered was the fairly large parking lot to be completely full.  There were cars and people everywhere.  2^nd problem was the sign that said “Pets must be leashed”.  Did we bring Ruckus’ leash?  Of course not.  Why would we want to leash him when he does so well off the leash?  So we said forget it, and decided we would check it out again when Dylan’s mom and grandma are here in a few weeks.  The view from up there is awesome, so let’s hope for a clear day! 

Since we were already in Anchorage, we figured we would do a little bit of shopping.  So we went to Target to buy an antenna and a notebook and walked out with an antenna, Wii, Wii Fit, Black Ops for Dylan, Rayman’s Rabbids for me, an extra Wii mote (in PINK!), and no notebook.  It came with some good deals too, the Wii came with 2 games, and the Wii fit came with an extra game as well.  I wouldn’t say it was completely impulsive since we have had it on our wish list for awhile now, but buying it this weekend was definitely impulsive!  (and I still need to buy a notebook!) 

 

Sunday we went hiking up Crow Pass.  

We were going to hike the 8 mile round trip to the Pass, but the weather was kind of rainy and pretty chilly so we hiked out to the old mine ruins and the waterfall instead.  

It was a great hike and very beautiful out there!  

We saw a Dall Sheep on the other side of the valley, but it was too far away to get a decent picture.  

We have a lot to look forward in the upcoming month!  Dylan’s mom and grandma will be here on the 18^th for a week visit!  I am so excited to see them and get to explore Alaska with them!  We have some fun touristy things planned that we would never do if we didn’t have visitors.  Then on Sept 3 we will be flying to Cali to visit Danielle and Sandy for a few days and on the 8^th we fly home for 2 weeks, so I can be in Michelle’s wedding!!  I’m pretty pumped to be seeing family and friends soon, I can’t wait to hit the beaches and enjoy the sunshine and warmth! (Did I mention it’s been raining for the past week here? And it snowed at the tops of the mountains!)   

Alaskan Summer (ale)

I figured now that it's been almost 2 full months I should update this thing that I bet no one reads anymore.
Summer in Alaska has been fun, I do miss the heat, thunderstorms, and swimming, but it has been nice to not sweat constantly.  I don't love that whatever I am allergic to has been blooming all summer (cotton woods?!) and causing me to be in a constant state of runny nose, headache, and lots of mucus!  Lucky me!  I'm so over it.  I also don't know how crazy I am about the season of summer actually being springsummerfall.  One day it's warm(ish) and rainy, the next day the sun is out and you get sunburnt, then it's cold and gray outside.  The warm sunny days make up for the ugly ones, that is for sure!!
We recently took a trip up to Denali and cruised through the park as far as we could.  We were lucky and got to see Mt. McKinley.  Turns out only 30% of people who visit get to see the mountain!  We stayed at a friends cabin that required a mile hike into the wilderness, which actually made staying there even better.  I was hoping to see a grizzly bear on this trip but no luck.  I think I would rather not see a bear than see one by my tent.
I've been thinking about where my next location of residence may be.  I do love Alaska, but I don't see myself staying here forever.  I don't like Anchorage, nor do I want to live there, commute there, or really work there, and Girdwood has limited job options and culture.  Girdwood does however have some of the friendliest people (and dogs) I have ever met, and some of the most beautiful scenery a girl could ask for.  Currently I am thinking northern Cali (I know, Cali is expensive, but guess what.  So is Alaska.) but who knows where next week may take me.  I'm a dreamer and a traveler, so I feel like it may take many stops along the road for me to determine where I want to call home.  I'm pretty lucky though, Dylan is totally cool with this and also wants to travel around a lot, as long as he still gets to snowboard! :)

And now I must go, for I have been on break too long and still need to eat my cookies!

engagments

What's with everyone becoming engaged lately?  Have we reached that age where it's the thing to do?
I'm over it.

And what's with all the babies?

Seward

Last weekend Dylan Ruckus and I drove out to Seward to go camping.  We were lucky and Friday the weather was beautiful and warm.  We found a little campground kinda in town, which was weird, to camp at.  Our first night camping in the truck was interesting.  A little tight, a little claustrophobic for me, and cold.  Oh well.  

Saturday we hiked out to Exit Glacier which was pretty cool, talked to some random people who were out there about things they should do while they were in Girdwood.  On of the Rangers told us to hike out to the toe of the glacier.  So as we were doing that we had to cross a small stream.  Naturally the rock I was crossing on, tipped, and put me in the freezing cold glacier runoff water.  So that ended our hike to the toe since I was soaking wet and freezing cold.
We also went to the Sea Life center, where I want Ms. Jess Love to work.  We got to see Sea lions, seals, puffins, and play in the touch tanks.  It was pretty cool.  We walked around Seward a bit and the weather decided to get cold and windy, so we decided to head home to our warm house.

It was a short trip but it was fun to get out of Girdwood for the night, I was excited to finally get to see more of Alaska, so now I just want to keep traveling around.

Transition Time

It's that time of year.  Time for everything to change.

Sunday was my last day as a lifty, which was very bittersweet.  I loved the job, but towards the end I felt as though I were just going through the motions, powering through to the end.  The dream had lost some of it's beauty.

I am going to miss, Chair 1 rides in the morning, riding without seeing another soul on the mountain,   and hanging out with some of the greatest people I've worked with.

I'm not going to miss, red fences, flooding, standing outside in the rain/snow/freezing temps, and practicing for slush cup on chair 7 and living in fear of falling in the puddles.  Maybe by next winter I'll miss those things.

Yesterday was employee ski day, which was probably the most fun I've had on the mountain all year.  Who knew it would take a few drinks for me to start flying down Silvertip as though going that fast were natural for me!   It was a great day full of riding with friends, and an awesome meal for us at the Sitz, I'm still full from it the next morning.  Nice work Alyeska.

Dylan and I are moving today.  We found an awesome studio on the other side of town, that is in our budget, spacious, fully furnished (including a piano, YES!), and has it's own washer/dryer, and fireplace!  It's been pretty hectic getting everything packed up and ready to go while still having to do everything else that life requires.  Now, I'm just hanging with a snoring Ruckus and waiting for Dylan to wake up so we can do this!

Weird white stuff...

For the 1st time in about a month and a half, it snowed in Girdwood!  Not only did it snow, but there was accumulation at the top of the mountain!  I was pretty stoked to bust out my new boots and coat and get some pow!  It was amazing how enjoyable riding was when my feet weren't in so much pain I couldn't make turns, to have feeling in all of my toes the entire time, and to have boots that were responsive!  Again Burton, you suck.

Let's hope it snows some more.

Successful Day

Dylan and I bought a truck today!  Yay!  It's a beast of a thing, but the price was right, it works well, has low miles, a basic motor (so Dylan can fix it when need be), and a camper shell.  Now, I can't wait for summer when we can throw Ruckus and a cooler in the truck and take off for a weekend!

I also got Dylan an awesome birthday present!  A new phone!  It's been really annoying not having a phone, so I got him one for his birthday.  It also has music playing capabilities so I also got him an Mp3 player! Man, I'm awesome.
My new Salomon snowboarding boots (Burton, you suck.) came today, along with my new jacket!

So I'm ready to go shred and not have my feet hurt so bad that I am limping after 2 runs (again Burton, you suck.)  I'm also pretty pumped that my new jacket has an awesome feature of a working zipper!  My other coat has been using a paper clip and has a "locking" feature on the zipper, so at time I get stuck in my coat and have to pathetically whine until someone helps me out.

I won't be riding today since yesterday while walking through the slushy parking lot my knee suddenly had a sharp pain shoot through it.  No idea why.  It is feeling a lot better now (and was last night too) but I woke up this morning and it was pretty achy, so I suppose I'll stay off of it.  For today at least.

In other good news, I will be working full time at Little Bears for the summer!  It's so nice to not have to worry about a job for the summer.  I'll be working full time and have my weekends off, which I'm pretty pumped for.

And now it's time for a nap.

A sticky moose on the loose

First off, I love how google knows me so well I never have to actually sign in anymore.

Furthermore, (is that even the correct way to use it?  I don't know, do I care?) things in Alaska are going very well.  I got a second job at Little Bears Playhouse, the local daycare.  I started last week and so far it's been great.  The kids here are different than the kids in IL.  I know that sounds so weird, but really.  They are way more chill here (perhaps cause their parents are too....).  My very first day of work Dylan, Ruckus, and Roland walked  me to work.  On the way there Ruckus found a moose laying in a yard down the street from our house.  He is a punk, so he was barking at the moose and made it mad, causing the moose to stand up and take some pretty intimidating steps towards us.  Then on my walk home, I was talking to Danielle on the phone and my neighbor who had been walking ahead of me, stopped me.  The same moose was about 25 feet in front of us and about 50 feet from our house.  The moose noticed us and again took a few intimidating steps our way, so we walked back down the street and waited for his roommate to drive (the now 150ft) and pick us up, ensuring a safe return home.

Sounds silly to be driven home when your just down the street, but I don't think I would like being trampled to death very well.

The days here keep getting longer and longer, but time seems to be going faster.  It's so cool being able to walk to and from work in the light.  When we first started we walked in the complete darkness, and even a few weeks ago it was pretty dark.  The top of the mountain is getting sun by 11am now, and the base has it by 2pm or earlier.  It's so funny seeing how much it changes people's moods.  The past 2 days I was working on Chair 4 and when we were in the shadows people were less likely to wave or smile at me sitting at the top shack.  But as soon as the sun came out, people were waving, blowing kisses (very awkward actually...), making faces, all around in a perkier mood.  I even notice it in myself.  Also, I really like snowboarding with my shadow.  So when we get to take runs together, I'm generally in better spirits. 

And I'm going to leave you with this bomb diggity picture I took while on the drive to Anchorage.

A month later....

Let's pop back in time to Christmas.

Dylan and I had a great Christmas (considering we weren't at home.) We spent the day opening presents and eating.  We had some friends come over for a Christmas dinner which was nice.  It helped the holidays feel more like the holidays.

   

[Christmas Eve.  while opening some presents.]

[CIRCUS ANIMAL WAFFLE MAKER!!!]

We have waffles about once a week now... 

[my new snowboard, from Dylan!  I aboslutely love riding it!]

And speaking of my new snowboard, I have a broken/fractured/injured tailbone.

"Luckily" it happened at work so if it gets worse/never gets better workman's comp will have to take care of it for me!  I've been staying off the board for awhile to let my body heal, but it's been hard the past week.  

We finally got snow yesterday and today, so I went out and rode with Dylan. On the first run, I spent more time laying on my back than I did riding.  I also did more face plants, somersaults, and other potentially dangerous moves, more times than I would like to count.  The snow was incredibly soft, so I never got hurt, and I was wearing my butt pads, to help protect my tailbone.

Hmm, the weather has been incredibly shady for awhile.  It rained for about half the month (I can honestly say I didn't see the sun for the first week of 2011) and then had negative temps the other half, until about 2 days ago.

Really, aside from these few things, life has been pretty mellow.  Work, ride, sleep, repeat.  We have been discussing the potential visitors we will have this summer and making mental notes of things we would like to do.  I'll try to be more on top of updating this thing, but no promises.