Oh What a night!

This weekend I was supposed to go visit my grandparents in Florida. I got to the airport, learned that the flight was cancelled and drove home. With no plans on a Friday night, I went to my neighbors to grab some food and hopefully a chill night by the fire. Needless to say, a chill night discussing skiing Stowe on Saturday turned into margaritas, then an engineering party. People were riding bikes inside, climbing the backside of the stairs and acting like college kids on a Friday night (go figure!). By the time I got home, it was way too late to ski on Saturday. Or so I thought.

Come 7:30 and I heard my neighbors knocking on the door. I looked over and my roommate just laughed. Good day, I tried to tell myself as I rolled into the car and promptly fell asleep. By the end of the first run, I was questioning my sanity in deciding to ski. By the third, I started to feel a bit better. Wanna skin? Rob asked. Skinning when you are both fatigued and have a headache is great idea, right? I thought so, so we headed up towards Mount Mansfield to do a lap on what became the fastest snow I have ever had the pleasure to call snow. In the trees nonetheless. By the time we reentered the ski area, got a few groomers in and drove back, I was ready for an early night sleep to say the least.

Women in the wilderness

Got ovaries? Like to hike/bike/adventure outside? That is the email I sent out for Women in the Wilderness. Turns out, a lot of women both have ovaries and like to be outdoors! We had our first meeting yesterday, and it looks like it will be a busy winter. I’ll be teaching skiing next week, going xc skiing, playing pond hockey, sledding, ice climbing, and winter hiking. Looks like it will be an awesome New Hampshire winter! 

XC capture the flag

Rule #1 No poles.

Rule #2 The flag must be visible from the center.

Rule #3 Getting tagged means you need to drop the flag.

Rule #4 If you get tackled, you need to get up and get your sorry, snow covered butt back to your

              side before you can try to get the flag again.

XC skiing capture the flag. Any questions?

Just when you thought the snow was good

It rained yesterday, and the day before. Actually, it has been raining all week. Why am I skiing today? Actually, why am I skiing tonight? Headlamp skinning is fun and all, but the snow will be interesting.

That it was. One inch of snow on rock. Last night, I learned what rock skis really are. The rock skis that I have back in Colorado look brand new compared with the ones I was using last night. I wore my helmet not because I thought I was going to hit a tree, but because I thought I was going to hit a rock so hard that I was going to fly over the handlebars and hit my head. I could literally only see two feet ahead with my headlamp.

Bombing down the trail over streams, the temps dropped so quickly that about halfway down we weren’t moving so well, had to kick off our skis, and de-ice. Pro.

East Coast skiing 101

I finished early with computer coding for class. Yes, I thought, I get to relax/organize myself/cook! Only one problem - I have neighbors that ski. A lot. Of course Rob comes over right when I’m putting my computer away. "Mousilake?" Why not?

We arrived at the trailhead. Rob mentioned how he thought that it should be good. Hmm, I thought, I didn’t usually associate good with less than 6” of base. Off we skinned, through stream crossings and around rocks sticking out of the snow. By the time we got to the top, I knew what type of skiing I was in for: survival skiing. I pushed off preparing for the worst. Following Rob, we jumped every mound of snow, sucked up our knees over every stream crossing, and flew. Before I knew it, the wind was hitting my teeth and what do you know, I was having fun! Survival skiing on Mousilake = fun!

Creativity and collaboration

So this term I am taking a nice course load. Chem 5(ew), which is a pre engs/med weeder course that I will be trying to float in, computer coding for engineers, which seems really cool, and coco 8. Coco stands for college course. This coco class is awesome in particular. It focuses on creativity and collaboration in both theater and life. The first section we focus on is movement, then music, then lighting. I can’t wait to find out what it will entail, but for this week we just dicussed creativity. We wrote a reflection, and I thought that I would share it with y’all.

Creativity is a risk. When you dare to make something up, you are daring to make mistakes, show your imperfections and embarrass yourself - if only to yourself. If you draw, you risk that chance of someone looking over your shoulder and peeking into your soul. If you write, you risk people assuming that every word is a mirror image of your true intentions and feelings – like a window to your true psyche. If you dabble on the side of invention, you risk exposing that you are not unique, that your ideas are mundane, that you are only a pawn in the game of life, not the player.

            It is funny how creative people are tagged as insular and sometimes overly thoughtful. You always hear about the person who hides away in their studio or wood shop, only to emerge with a piece of beauty. The thought is that maybe these people are insecure, that they have something to prove, but I believe that it is the very opposite. These people don’t have something to prove. No. They have something to provide. They see the world as imperfect. A pessimist you may say, but no. They see the world as imperfect and furthermore believe, stupidly or not, that they can do it justice. They can make people see the important stuff, or fix the problems, or show things in a better light. They don’t just settle for the world they live in. Neither can these people be insecure. These people have a drive that is beyond security or insecurity, they need to improve, create, learn. Because of their view on the world, their drive and their willingness to take the risk, most creative people are not insecure or insular, but just can’t see how or why people can settle for the world just through one lens.

            Collaboration is also a risk. It is the risk of being creative compounded by the risk of criticism. To be good, all members of the collaboration need to take the risk of being criticized without taking offense, and also to criticize without second thoughts. To be successful, the criticisms need to not act as fire extinguishers, but as fuel for creativity. This last part is the hardest to master. It is the difference between getting the job done and having that amazing energized, did that just happen - ?! - feeling. There is no set formula that can get you from good to great; ask any competitive athlete. These successful collaborations are truly rare - think Declaration of Independence, but there is a whole scale of collaboration, from one-person-does-all-the-work failures to perfect. The difference between the two usually includes some real blood sweat and tears (sometimes even real blood) that leads to real respect. Real collaborations require real respect and neither of those things come easy or synthetically. 

Getting it back!

As part of my break, I am getting ready for my next adventure: getting in good shape after 5 past knee surgeries. As part of the plan, I am learning better lifting technique and gymnastics movements. Do you what is better than jumping into a roll? Jumping into a roll then a handstand into another roll.