Dammit... Springtime already?!?

This winter has been quite busy for me... so I apologize to those of you who have been coming to my blog daily or even weekly, just to be repeatedly disappointed that I haven't written anything.

Ok, I know that last statement is only relevant to 3 people at most... but the apology is still sincere.

In the past month, I've been all over the place, both nationally and locally.

I spent a weekend in my home town with my parents and girlfriend. She and I did some snowboarding at Ski Liberty, then hung out with my parents at the local social club and got in some good face time... It's always good to know that your parents are doing well and having a great time in life. And I must say, my girlfriend is becoming a much more confident snowboarder!

One weekend was my girlfriend's birthday, so we headed out for a great weekend at the bars with all of her friends. Saki bombs are a lot of fun, especially with 15 people at 7pm in a restaurant full of families eating dinner and dozens of high schoolers having their pre-formal dinner with their dates!!

One weekend was spent with the little lady and some friends in Vermont, hitting the slopes at Mount Snow. Next year, the girlfriend is coming with us out west to hit the "hills"... that's how good she's gotten!!

One weekend was full of exercise in anticipation of the half-marathon we're going to be running in Nashville in April. My better half and I strapped on the blades and skated about 13 miles on Saturday (racing through 2 states and the District of Columbia in less than 2 hours), then donned our running shoes for a half dozen miles on Sunday.

And I just got back from Tahoe, where two of my friends and I enjoyed 50 degree weather while hitting the slopes sans gloves, hats, and anything else we could shed while we shredded.

Now... it's back to the daily grind. I've got no great weekend plans coming up for a while...

But I do have something great to look forward to!!

This weekend marks the beginning of our spring kickball season. I've finally gotten my team roster finalized, and we have our first practice/meet and greet this Sunday. On Thursday we've got the Pre-Season Kickball party at our sponsor bar (props to Nolan's) and on April 12th, we take the field to squash our first opponents (I hope!!).

Kids... if you have a kickball league anywhere in your area, and you have a free weeknight, or weekend afternoon, to give up for a couple months... I highly recommend giving kickball a shot. It's a great way to meet some fun people and enjoy the spring weather after a long day's work. Plus, I dare you to come up with a better reason to head down to happy hour...

So here's to kickball, springtime, and warm weather (oh, and more frequent postings on this blog!!)...

CHEERS!!

Ski Liberty

I took my sexy little woman snowboarding over the weekend to a little mountain in Southern Pennsylvania called... yep... Ski Liberty.



She had a great time from what I can tell. It's hard to determine if she's being completely honest through the moaning and groaning that comes with a fresh case of whiplash and knees so bruised you wouldn't wish them on a West Virginian trailer park slut trying to climb the ladder in the family business.

Seriously though, she got a little beaten up by the mountain, but that was in the morning... by the afternoon, she had the slopes tamed and under her control. She even conquered a black diamond on her first day out this season. I was quite impressed, not only by her continuous improvement, but by the dedication and determination she exuded. A weaker human would have given up after the third or fourth head-over-heels spill, but she kept getting right back up and asking for more.

You know, it's pretty easy to spoil yourself by going to really nice places and having really nice things... but at some point you realize that although you liked those things a little better than the basics you had before... it's really the basics that you need.

I've been snowboarding for years and years, starting back before there was such a thing as the "X Games" (or a series of videogames dedicated to said games) and many mountains had segregated sections for snowboarders, if they were allowed on the mountain at all. I've ridden the slopes on the east coast and on the west coast, and yes, there is definitely a difference.

But what I noticed this past weekend, is that in spite of all the wonderful mountains I've experienced, carving down the hill where it all started with the woman I love, watching her repeatedly inflict more pain upon herself just so she'll eventually be skilled enough to ride with me on some of the steeper slopes, was all that I really needed to have a great time on my board.

Of course, I'd rather that she didn't get hurt at all, but I'm also a realist and know that you can't just jump on a board and go and never get hurt. So let me warn you now... If you're going out to snowboard for the first time... wear kneepads!!! You'll thank me later.

Well, it's official... I've found my cold threshold.

I drove all night from DC on Thursday night to Vermont so I could hit the slopes for the weekend (now that they actually have some natural snow and have been able to blow enough to open 50% of the mountains).

Yesterday's weather made the entire drive worth it. Highs around 30 degrees, a little fresh snow, and just a little wind.

Today, however, not so good. As of now, the temperature at the top of the mountain is around 12 degrees and the winds are blowing consistently between 20 and 30 mph, with 50+ mph gusts. At least they didn't close the lifts... but from what I hear, it was close.

Tonight, we get to warm up in style... Jager-style!! and watch one of the most interesting performers I've seen in a long time. His name is Bruce Jacques, and he's pretty much a one man entertainment machine. Check out his website... www.brucejacques.com and see for yourself. He plays here at Mt. Snow every weekend at the mountain bar (yeah, there's pretty much only one).

Tonight... we drink and laugh... tomorrow... we pop Advil and hit the slopes for the AM... then hit the road for the PM.

I hope you all are having a great (and warm) weekend!

moving on

Last night we had a going away "party" for my roommate.

I put party in quotes because basically we just went to two bars and got wasted. He had about 15 or 20 people in his entourage... I was pretty impressed. Then again, at least 5 of those people were just along for the ride. I wish I had pictures of the night, but my girlfriend's camera is currently broken... and mine isn't worth using.

This guy has been a true friend in the past, and made things very difficult for me in the recent present (which technically... is now the past). So I'm kind of unsure how to feel about his departure.

When I moved out of my ex-girlfriend's jungle he gave me a place to crash on his couch for as long as I needed to figure out where I was going to live. Ultimately, we were able to convert his unheated basement into a bedroom and convince the landlord to allow a 4th roommate without raising the rent. I'm still not certain how he pulled that off, but he did. Now, although I had no heat in my room, the rent was about $200/mo cheaper than anywhere else I could have been living.

He and I were practically inseperable for the months to come...

we went to the same bars together...
we were part of the same bowling team...we were on the same kickball team...we went on the most excellent ski weekends to Vermont a few times a year...
we've gone whitewater rafting...we've even gone to Tahoe...

He helped introduce me to my girlfriend by encouraging each of us to journey to another bar together after we'd met while in the company of mutual friends.

There are so many things that I look back on with fond memories.

But recently, things had changed. And it all started with a drunken "communication" he made to my girlfriend back in July, shortly after she'd moved back to DC from Minneapolis.

Now, my roommate was never one to have had a working brain filter, so once the booze started draining down his throat, the verbal repercussions to strangers were inevitable. I'm truly surprised that he never got into any fights throughout the years, and I had to repeatedly remind him that if he had provoked the fight, he was on his own... if the fight was uncalledfor, then I'd have his back. I think those reminders were very powerful and probably kept him straight.

Anyway, back to the incident at hand...

We're back at the alma mater for an alumni weekend. We're at the favorite bar and he was about 5 or 6 Beams deep, when suddenly from nowhere he verbally communicated the word "whore" to my girlfriend. She quickly took offense (as any self-respecting woman should) and walked away. He realized that he'd offended, even if that wasn't his intention (which to this day is still unclear), and tried to backpedal by offering to buy her a drink as an apology. My lovely little lady can be a bit stubborn and decided to decine the offer. Her point was that the statement was completely unneccesary and she felt that she had the right to be angry for more than a minute or two.

Fast-forward to 4 hours later...

The roommate is now 5 sheets to the wind and barely keeping his eyes open while we're shooting pool in the basement. Somehow he manages to stumble over to my girlfriend with just enough energy to slur something ending in the word "slut". Once again, offense was taken, but this time it was a big deal. This time, he made the decision to walk over (there were only 4 of us in the room... his girlfriend was the 4th) make the comment directly to her face, then stumble away.

She broke down in tears, he and I had words, his girlfriend was embarrassed... but no apology was issued. Apparently there is some "principle" that no one but my roommate is aware of, because of which an apology is out of the question. I've had this discussion with him multiple times over the months, letting him know precisely that it has crushed our friendship and that a simple "I'm truly sorry and I don't know why I said it" would resolve the vast majority of the issues still lingering. I informed him that I was glad to know that our close friendship was worth so little to him that he was able to throw it all away on 2 drunken words.

That was July... since then, I spend almost all my free time with my girlfriend and barely even make a weekly appearance at our place. She is still uncomfortable around him... so she won't stay at my place very often, and I always feel bad wanting to put her in a situation that would make her skin crawl every minute that she's there.

But today he's moving. His stuff was in the UHaul last night, and by now I'm sure he's on the road. I didn't say goodbye... not last night when I jumped in the cab while they were walking toward the Metro... not this morning when I woke up... and I won't be sending him a 'goodbye' email, either. I guess it's the "principle."