Sunshine Ahead

Here I am being excited about skiing

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here in Utah.  Even though I didn't get to meet up with my friend I made in South Africa, didn't have any snow, and didn't go wild and do any back flips or anything, it was a fantastic vacation.  I improved my ski skills, fell fewer than 10 times in 7 days, spent time in the mountains, got a great workout every day, and spent a lot of quality time with family.  To me, that is a successful trip.

Tomorrow I return to the sunshine state after 9pm.  It will be New Year's Eve.  Luckily I have already made arrangements for a friend to pick me up.  As for now I haven't packed but I'm too tired to do anything so I will save it all until the morning.  Inevitably everything is going to be stuffed into the suitcase so I'm not too concerned.  I came here with some room to spare in my bag anyway.

The forecast for my first day in Miami appears to be sunny with a high of 26 (nearly 80F) and I can hardly wait!

Too Much to Ask?

Flying into Salt Lake City.  Not much snow in sight.

All I want is some snow.  Talking to a semi-professional skier friend of mine who grew up and still resides in Salt Lake, I found out that this is the worst ski season of at least the past 20 years.  Pretty much all the snow on the mountain is man-made and quite a bit of it is icy.  Frankly it's what I'm used to skiing in the East except now the runs are much longer.  I always seem to have big ski trips at times when the weather is not cooperative.

This being said, I'm still having a fantastic time here in Utah, I enjoy the skiing, love being with family, and I am thrilled to see mountains.  Even with horrible ski conditions, I still consider this trip a great success.  Merry Christmas to all!

2 Days and Counting

Photo: www.zimbio.com

This is going to be me in 48 hours.  My flight leaves tomorrow morning so by Saturday I will be hitting the slopes as if I was born to do nothing but ski.  Yes I am also excited to see my family and I feel like that goes without saying.  Other than last winter when I went for a day in Maryland, I cannot remember the last ski trip I've taken.  It is time.  The weather is not in our favor with a terrible lack of natural snow but even if it's man-made, at least there will be something to ski on, I'll be in the mountains, and I'll have my family with me.

On My Mind

I am not a needy person.  It's because I really like her and spent a week and a half with her non-stop that I am constantly thinking about Christina.  There's no dependance or even reliance on her but instead it's simply the fact that I love spending time together (even if only a phone call) and always look forward to it because she makes it so easy for me to be happy.
 
I've been trying to piece together a divemaster course for a friend.  Due to time constraints, it's been killer so far.  She leaves on Thursday and it is only going to get harder from here to fit everything in.

Speaking of leaving, I am headed to Utah on the 23rd!!!  I have never been there before and I am seriously looking forward to it.  The last time I went skiing was with Nathan last year in Maryland.  Before that?  I can't even remember.  It's one of the millions of things I love in life so I assure you all that I will be having a fantastic time out there.  Not only will Utah fill my skiing quota but it will also give me a long overdue dose of mountains, something that Floridians are constantly starved of.  Here's hoping for snow!

I have been slacking bigtime on my housing search.  I have made no progress in the past 3 weeks and I'm embarrassed to admit it but it is the truth after all.  I'm going to need to get on it because I really am ready to move out of here and into my own place.

All Roads Point North

Renee

I left my home in warm sunny Coconut Grove in search of family, friends, adventure, and unfortunately cold. Spirits were high as I was looking forward to being rewarded by Kristin's welcoming smile and hospitality in Atlanta. I heard rumors the night before that Renee, one of my best friends from my semester in South Africa was possibly in Atlanta at the same time. Up to this point, I have only seen one of my 18 other housemates from that semester.

Kristin

On the 12^th Since Renee is doing grad school in Cape Town, it was a shock that we were not only going to be in the same hemisphere, not only in the same country, not only in the same state, but in the same CITY at the same time. A phone call confirmed the rumor and I decided that I would figure out how to see both Renee and Kristin during my time there. Without disregard to my long-planned rendez-vous with Kristin, I talked to both of them and found it appropriate to hang out with Renee for dinner before going to stay with Kristin. Being able to see both of them was so great that I'm still happy about it a week and a half later.

From Atlanta I traveled northeast to Charlotte where I stayed with Mike's family (Mike is my sister Liza's fiance). While there, Liza and I took care of some shopping and all of us went out for a fantastic Vietnamese dinner. After a few nights I packed up and rolled on through the mountains up to Lynchburg, VA where I met up with family. I saw cousins, aunts, and uncles during my wonderful stay there and for the first time saw some stunning mountainscapes. Living in Miami has some disadvantages one of which is elevation. Let's just say if you draw Florida on a piece of paper, you instantly have a 3-D model of the lovely sunshine state. Anyway from VA I packed up and picked up Nathan from Charleston.

Typical scene when hanging out with Nathan.

Nathan is one of my college roommates and good friend from Denison. He lives only blocks from where I grew up and we most certainly would have crossed paths if I hadn't moved to Ohio. We headed up to his apartment together in Morgantown where he goes to school at WVU. That night was filled with hot chocolate, movies, reminiscing, and shooting each other with his extensive artillery of nerf guns. The fun finally ended when the clouds blocked our view of the mesmerizing lunar eclipse. Together we went out to Wisp Resort the next day in MD to ski. It ended up being a brilliant decision because there were hardly a hundred people on the entire mountain spread among 30 runs.

I was worried it would take me a while to warm up and that I would probably end up breaking a leg, but after the 2^nd run I felt as if the 8+ years of non-skiing completely disappeared and I was swooping, gliding, turning, cutting, jumping, and carving like a champ. The entire day was nothing short of invigorating.

My final drive home yesterday marked the conclusion of 1800 miles of driving, 60+ gallons of gas, 11 family members, 3 college friends, 9 states, and (only) 4 months of being away from home.