A letter to the Mountain

Dear Mt. Baker,

    Thank you for a wonderful season. Thank you for opening with a sunny, superfast 16 degree day in December, maintaining a healthy snowpack in January, giving us killer February powder days,  holding our gates firmly in the snow when Dave the Destroyer decided to take a crack at them (not a joke). Thank you for closing our season with a day that gave us wind, rain, snow, sleet, hail, wind, grapple, wind, snow, wind, and rain. Thank you for making me hold my rain gear to a Baker-proof standard ( the only article to pass being a set of olive-drab rubberized crabbing/rain pants that are older than I am). Thank you for teaching me the meaning of "soaked and frozen down to the skin" and making sure that when I peel off layer after layer of sopping-wet clothes and drop them on the floor, they make a satisfying "splat."


Thank you for great kids with a passion for skiing and an unwillingness to quit. Thank you for making sure that I am unable to hold a straight face in the start-gate when presented with the antics of a certain  character. Thank you for kids as young as seven who refuse to let a cliff stand in their way of insisting that "this is a run, my dad and I did it yesterday!" Thank you for this behavior never running out, no matter how old they are.


Thank you for a coaching staff that works hard and plays harder. I enjoy 7:00am serenades of "Bad Romance" whilst standing on a freezing race-course. I also enjoy 9:00am renditions of  "From the Window to the Wall" on chairlifts, as well as lunchtime beatbox-mixes of the phrase "Hey, I think i know that guy." Thank you also for the repartee of the Coach Table. Thanks for being awesome guys.


Dearest Mountain, I truly enjoy the way the wind whips down your slopes and pelts my face with bits of tree while I gaze longingly at the back-country so tantalizingly visible from chair eight. Thank you also for the ice-ball that drops from the overhead bar and jolts me out of my surely-avalanche-free mental trip down the Shuksan Arm.

And so Mt. Baker,  we shall meet again in the not-so-distant-future.

Amor y Besos,  me

Road Itch

I went to the grocery store today, which usually isnt a cause for a blog. Except for in this case it is. I was there for approximately half an hour (I treat grocery shopping like I do all shopping, Get In, Get what you Need, Get the Hell Out), and the spectacles just kept coming one after another. There was a lady who opened the bulk dried mango, grabbed them with her hands and furiously shoved them into a bag as fast as possible. The older gentleman who also witnessed this gave me a well-there-you-go-whatcha-gonna-do look. I hustled on out of there. Then there was the overly-friendly pharmacist who wanted to have a long conversation. I hustled on out of there too, only to become stuck behind a group of abercrombie-and-legging clad girls walking impossibly slow.

Once I was back in the car, I had a road itch moment. Road itch is defined by me as the feeling when you need to up stakes and drive fast for long distances to loud music. I get this feeling like I've got to feel the centripetal force in my car, the wind in my hair, the road fly by. It usually signifies some need for change and/or moving on. I think this is appropriate.

In other news, its my favorite teacher's birthday today. She's the best ever. If I'm half person she is, I'll call it a success. Happy Birthday Ms. McCormick. You = Awesome.

People, Sexuality, and Physics

I'm so very tired of meeting people, befriending them, becoming a part (or so I'd like to think) of their life, and then being ditched. Is it so very hard to become friends these days? Or is it simply enough to acknowledge the commonalities, smile at them, and let them pass by? I'm not saying that everyone I meet is worth becoming besties with, just that I'm a bit tired of living in acquaintance-land. There are a few people who I would truly love to be a bigger part of their lives, but have absolutely no idea how to go about doing that without being overbearing and imposing. I could, and usually do, think that if they don't want me around they will tell me to take a hike, or at least turn down the offer to do something/hang out/whatever. But there's that whole other category of folks  for whom I am a "temporary best friend" that they confide in, and tell everything to, but then the wind changes and I'm left standing in a dust-storm of cluelessness.
I become so confused when for a while I am the one they call to share good news with, to complain to, to study with, and then suddenly they are completely gone for a stretch. Did I do something? If you tell me, I can fix it. I take criticism well. Just don't vanish, alright?

Upon reading this back, I am aware that it sounds like an angsty teenager. That is disgusting. Ugh.
Just wish that people wouldn't bounce on out of my life without so much as a goodbye.

On a cheerier note, the amount of discussions about sex and sexuality have risen, and this makes me happy because I enjoy talking about that sort of thing with people who ordinarily wouldn't talk to me about that. I find it extremely interesting to note the perspectives that people have regarding those topics. We are sexual beings after all, and we are the generation that gets to decide what's taboo to talk about, so it only makes sense to talk about it.

Ok, well back to studying for the physics test that my professor so inadequately prepared us for.

Kombucha

So I've started growing my own Kombucha. and I'm really excited about it. Kombucha is a bacteria-and-yeast mushroom-looking contraption that actually isnt a mushroom. You brew it in tea and it ferments. I know that sounds disgusting, but I promise you it isnt. Its sort of like the tea with a little carbonation and kind of a tart taste. It looks like this:

The top layer is the baby, the layers under it the momma, and the liquid is strained and bottled for drinking. If you want to try it, you can get it at Fred Meyers in the health section or at a Food Co-op. 

In other news, its Doom Week Finals Week and so the level of studying is kicking up a few notches.

Regardless, I'm planning on going to Contra Dance tonight and wearing my swirliest of skirts. 

And my African Violet is blooming!!

So even though my brain is whirring and turning over way too many things in my head, I have a pretty flower, and brewing Kombucha, and its sunny. 

So all in all, a pretty good day ahead.

And Just When

I thought I'd figured out how things are, all the rules change.
And so now, I'm playing some hard-core metal, just because I can.
I haven't done that in a really long time. But it feels appropriate today.

Welcome to my world
She said, do you feel
Alive she said
It’s all a bad dream,
Spinning in your lonely head,
Welcome to my world,
She said, separated world,
She said, separated,
Down Poison
Down Poison.

 And I'm wondering where to go from here.
I'm wandering.
I'm rambling.
I'm off the couch and out the door.
I'm holding my head up and walking forth.
Time to step into the great unknown.
I'll miss you.