Rule #1, Don't Fall

So yeah, found myself up at the buttcrack of dawn again yesteray, same song, different verse, a little bit louder, a little bit worse..

Ended up going to bed around 9pm the night before, and getting up at 2:30am or so... Fiddle diddied around with my comp for an hour or two then got all set up and ready to go. Borrowed my sisters van (my parent's old one she inherited, the 93 Voyager not their new one the 2002 Town & Country) and headed off to pick up the six peeps that ended up going with me. That was around 4:20, but we didn't actually get on the road until 5:15 or so, had some "delays" with people forgetting stuff and taking too long and not being awake yet, etc... Made it to Big Bear without much problem, although it was like an hour just from where you get off the freeway onto the mountain road near Riverside... Some awesome views, but pretty nerve racking driving as you putz along on the edge of cliffs and around switchbacks... Had some McD's on the way, although I was a little depressed I couldn't get my Deluxe Big Breakfast while I was driving, had to settle for a #3, Sausage McMuffin with Hash Brown and a Large OJ (I drink a TON of OJ, three meals a day while eating at the DC at school).

The whole parking/buying tickets/renting equipment thing went pretty well... Little did I know my boots were at least a size too small, I would pay for that later... First time off the lift I of course ate shit like everyone always does, although I blame the person next to be generally. ;) Had some serious wobble problems at first, but eventually got the whole center of gravity balance thing down... The one plus about skiing is its easier to just be motionless talking to ppl or resting or whatnot, rather than always having to be "praying to the snow gods" as my father calls it, or sitting on your ass... I did my share of eating it, the worst of which happened on one of the easiest beginner slopes, strangely enough... I actually did the majority of falling there trying to learn how to turn and stop on the two edge as well as the heel, never really got that down, but managed to be facing the hill at one point when my heel edge just dug in and sent me flying backwards over it, eventually landing on my ass, then having my head whiplash into the ice... This was followed by a chorus of "OHHHHHH that one hurt him" from the lift overhead...

Two of my friends started off skiing, but one of them shattered his boot and ended up renting a board to have fun with us, thus there were about four of us boarding who basically sucked ass, which made it fun. :) At one point we ended up on this REALLY flat run to the point you'd get up, not move, and eventually fall again... Finally one of us would get moving, run into someone else, and we'd both go down again... Needless to say my muscles just about all over OTHER than my legs are bein pretty painful today... A couple of the other guys had no problem getting up and made fun of me, until I pointed out that lifting 130 pounds off the ground is a bit different than 200... (oops brought up my weight, yeah twenty pounds by new years isn't actually happening, but that's good, because I needed a new years resolution! ;) harder to exercise at home anyway, no pool, no reccen, no friends/exercise partners readily available :/ )

So yeah, had a great time, spent some time with some fun ppl, had some interesting convo's to/from the place during three hour or so ride... Ended up going to TGIFriday's on the way home, chowed on some pretty good chicken fettucine alfredo, had some more strange conversation about everything, managed to wake me up enough to safely get home the rest of the way.. (driving down the mountain road in pitch black dark was uh, interesting. Actually wasn't that bad, but everyone else was asleep, so I had to pay attention a bit more, and getting hi-beamed every 15 seconds wasn't so cool either...) Managed to drop everyone off and eventually make it home around 10 or 11pm, when I was reminded about the aforementioned dentist appointment...

So the jury is still out on Skiing vs Snowboarding, although both are fun enough, I'll probably end up doing whatever the majority of the people I'm with are doing each time I go. ;) Or should I say the majority of girls. Hm...

Going to be a lot of downtime until Monday when I'm up before dawn again to head to Dland, gettin excited just thinkin about it! :)