A beautiful blue-bird Sunday

Location: Mammoth Lakes, CA, USA

Well, I guess technically, I'm back in LA. BUT... since 90% of this post is about Mammoth, that's what I'm labeling it as :)

Sunday was the perfect ending to a most fabulous trip. The evening started with a trip to Wild Willy's, the hot spring down near Lake Crowley. What was supposed to be a 30-45 minute trip turned into a 2.5 hour trip because we all refused to get out. It was about 23 degrees outside, but about 95 in the spring. But... we ran out of elixer and needed something to re-fuel, so we bravely dressed, two by two and headed back to the cars to thaw. Then the real fun began :) After a terribly trouble-filled evening of King's cup (with revised rules, naturally), a couple intense games of EXTREME categories and about 3 cases of Tecate (ok, I'm starting to warm up to it now!) we finally arrived at daylight... No, we were not waking up to greet the beautiful bluebird Sunday with a smile... we were just heading to bed. I guess we all took naps.

I was awakened (awoken, awokened?) at about 10 by Venice and her WONDERFUL breakfast cooking skills. There's nothing like waking up to the wonderful smell of eggs, toast, fresh OJ, the works. We grudgingly packed our bags, packed up cars and pretended to clean the condo. Josh dropped me off at the Von's to pick up Tay Tay (who was still in perfect working order, although somewhat chilled after being abandoned) and I headed up to Mammoth to trade out my skis. After being reunited with my Divas (and giving Andrew a quick slap on the side of the head for convincing me to go otherwise) I picked up Nick and headed to June to meet the rest of the gang.

The snow... was amazing; the powder was perfect. It was about 4 inches, no matter where you were, with a solid, but not icy base. There was not a cloud in the sky, absolutely no wind and it was hard to think about being anywhere but right there. Naturally, my courage kicked in about 3 and I attempted doing some mad tricks in the terrain park (although no nuggin' unfortunately), but it was relatively short lived when we realized how late it was getting and, in an attempt to not be escorted off the mountain for the second day in a row, as well as to get Nick to work on time today, we departed just before the lifts closed.

The drive back was brutal. By the time I dropped my skis off back at the frat house, picked up a pita and Rahul from Pita Pit, transferred his stuff from Tom's car to mine and then got out of town, it was about 7 PM. The boys, thankfully, did their best to keep me alert, but it was definitely an uphill battle for all of us. After dropping them both off safetly in their respective cross-city towns, I dove into bed, without unpacking my car, changing clothes or even turning off the lights.

Work today was definitely a struggle, but completely worth it. I don't think I have ever skiied better conditions than yesterday afternoon and I can't wait to come back and do it again before the end of the season.

XOXO

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Now playing: Louis Armstrong - Blue Skies
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I'm a boarder!

Location: Mammoth Lakes, CA, USA

What did I get myself into? All of the sudden, I come to and I am in the middle of a blizzard, on a diamond, on Venice's SNOWBOARD and the ski patrol are holding my hands guiding me down the mountain... how did I get here?

Well... I guess we could begin to blame it on the late start this morning. First... my car got stuck. In the stupid driveway (thanks for the 2WD daddio :). So after pushing... and PUSHING and asking people on the street to help us push, we finally got little Tay Tay out of the driveway and safetly to the Von's parking lot, where she will sit for the remainder of the weekend. After making about an hour and half trip to Von's to pick up groceries, beer and pizza for the frat house (the name I've coined for Nick, Andrew, Josh, John, Chris and Jason's place - clever eh?) we cooked up some pizzas, pounded some brews and headed to the bars. Well... bar - singular, I guess is more appropriate. I'm actually not sure where we were, but there were a lot of people, something about New Zealand day? Lots of singing, beer, accents. Not really sure. Anyway... next thing, it's about 3:30 and we're finally getting to sleep after one of the longest days in history. Or so I thought.

We woke up this morning at about 10. We ate some breakfast, packed up our gear and headed to Main Lodge. Venice and Tim were going to get a head start on runs while I went and visited Andrew in the demo shop. Nick was impatient and headed down to Eagle Lodge or somewhere else far away without us (which turned out to be a big mistake considering the hour long lift line he got stuck in). By the time we got it all sorted out, we just decided to head to June. We packed up Brian, Tim and my stuff in the sube and Venice and Nick piled into his PO.. I mean... his really awesome nice car :) and we headed to June!

Early afternoon conditions were great. It was cold, a little cloudy, but overall, amazing. No crowds, no lines, no snow. Our biggest problem was big patches of powder (which proved to be quite an issue with me and my new "powder" skis Andrew set me up with - I am not a fan). I've decided that I am an excellent skier, when I like the conditions... and I did not like them today. I took a big spill in some deep stuff near the edge and lost my glove somehow (it's white) but then we found it about an hour later... miraculously. I also took a nose dive down a double black when I hit a mogul too fast and one of my feet went forward while the other stayed behind. Rough stuff.

So, what do you do when you're sucking the most? Put yourself in a situation to suck even more!! Right?

No... bad idea. So after Nick left for work (about 3:30), Venice and I get this bright idea to switch modes of transportation for our last run. AKA she wears my skis and I wear her snowboard (even though neither of us had been on the other before). After about a 20 minute crash course from the ski patrol (and lessons on how to put the darn boots on), we set off. Veeeeeeeeery slowly. Then... it started to blizzard. We knew we were going down, but we didn't really know how, or where we were going exactly. Then... we're on a black. Venice, is handling it like a champ. Me, on the other hand... wow. It was bad. I am clearly meant to face forward.

At about 4:30, the ski patrol mountain combers catch up to us to try and help us down. They determine that we should probably just switch back. So... we do. In the middle of a mountain, in a blizzard, using one of the patrolmen's boards as a table, me and Venice switch boots and ski/boards back and proceed down to checkpoint 1. Amazing race style, there is a snowmobile waiting for each of us. We hop on with our respective ski patrolmen and ride down to the main lodge. It's nearly dark, there is about 10 feet visability at best, and we're a little sore... but hey, we've got a story right?

So, here I am... soaking my broken pride, drinking a Tecate (eww) and preparing for our very exciting evening of hot springs and house parties. Hopefully, we won't party too hard and will actually be able to ski a full day tomorrow... oh who am I kidding...

XOXO

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Now playing: Rod Stewart - Tonight's the Night
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White out

Location: Mammoth Lakes, CA, USA

Oh, man. We just got settled into our condo... or should I say... free standing cabin in the woods :) This place is incredible!! The drive up was pretty forgettable. My car ended up just being me and Brian. We met up with Venice and Tim just past the 395/14 junction and had perfect driving conditions until about 20 minutes outside town when we hit a pretty torrential blizzard. Nothing too serious though, the snow hadn't started to stick yet, so it wasn't too bad. Then we roll up to the new pad... Wow. This place has 3 bedrooms, a huge open living room/den/kitchen/loft area, a FULL basement and a huge backyard with a big deck. It's incredible. We've spent the last hour or so "ooo"-ing and "ahh"-ing and flipping switches (we can't quite figure out how to make the fireplace work) and shotgunning beds (of which we each get our own). We're all settled now and as soon as everyone gets unpacked and dressed, we're going to head to Von's to stock up on food/beer and head over to Nick's where amazingness is sure to ensue. Ahhhh... snow :)

XOXO

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Now playing: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Snow (Hey Oh)
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