Family Holiday Photos

This is more for the benefit of my family than those of you out there in Dot-Com world, just some photos of Xmas and Turkey Day at my mom's house and my dad's house. More fun pics coming up soon!

Next new adventure!

Drama! Exciment! Pain! Surprises! EMPLOYMENT!

All this and more sums up why I haven't written in a long time! Too busy living and being crazy and making my mom roll her eyes and being beat up by myself and my friends to sit on the computer!

Amadeo had some friends in over the holidays, and they were crazy fun! Probably too much fun for my own good... so here's my stupid story to end 2004. Ori, Andrew, Eric and Amadeo all headbutt each other for - fun?? Affection? Who knows why boys do things like that, and who knows why I joined in. Ok, so maybe the alcohol had something to do with it. This went on all night. I think at one point, somebody may have hit me a bit hard, but at the time it didn't hurt too bad.

So comes into play one of my favorite phrases: "It seemed like a good idea at the time!"

Dancing and more "good idea at the time" things happened - all in good fun! - and hot tub for hours and hours.... One of the craziest nights I'd had in a while. Grrr baby!

Woke up the next morning and my forehead was just aching! I had a huge bump on my head and just wasn't feeling all there. What a motley crew we must have looked like at Denny's in the morning - me holding my ice water to my forehead, everybody hung over, Ori eating mass quantities of cole slaw, half of us falling asleep... We were supposed to leave for our ski trip up north later that evening. That sure wasn't going to happen because...

I was driving home and started to feel not so good. Seeing things, not thinking straight. Concerned, I went to the ER. For 3 hours. Minor concussion from headbutting. STUPID! STUPID! I just told the Dr. I didn't remember how I hit my head, and he just said "Must have been one hell of a party!"

"Well, it was fun at the time!" Even the Dr. got to hear my philosophy for the weekend. ;)

Needless to say, everyone else was too hung over/too slow/too lazy to leave that night, and I went to bed early. I noticed my eyes were getting bruises around them; the ER nurse told me "Oh, it will get much much worse." Apparently gravity pulls the blood from the bruise on my forehead down to the "softer tissues" of my face, like around my eyes. I was warned, but still, nothing could prepare me to see myself in the mirror in the morning...

With big black circles around my eyes. Like a raccoon!

This was the 22nd. They JUST totally faded away today. Way to have to explain that to my large extended family over Xmas. :)

Since I was sleeping, didn't realize that my ride was leaving early in the morning on Monday. Fortunately, Amadeo was going up later that evening so I got to hitch a ride with him. Phew! I would have hated to miss my first chance to try out my new board.

And since life is full of surprises, we got a big snow storm on our drive up there. Couldn't even see the lines on the road. So fun! But I like weird things like snowstorms and low visibility and fishtailing. Ha!

We pulled up to Boyne Highlands, about 4-5 hrs northwest, and see some guy wandering around outside in the snow, a christmas ornament in his ear. Wait... we know that drunken fool! It was Ori, wandering hopelessly about the lodges.

"Ori, what are you doing?"

"Looking for a warm place."

What?? He was looking for his room but couldn't remember what building his room was in. We gave him a few suggestions, but he just shrugged off our ideas and kept on wandering.

Amadeo and I met up with the guys at the bar, who were already well into their drinks. We got two rooms - Amadeo had the more expensive one with a few people, I was in the cheaper one with Ryan, Jeff, and Ori - and we ventured out, feeling "warm and happy", into the snowstorm, running through snowdrifts and being loud and having fun. A little too much fun, as the "off-duty" rent-a-cop came by and scolded us bad children. We apologized and scampered off to raise hell elsewhere. :)

They had a huge outdoor hot tub, which was supposedly closed for the night... but what fun is that? We put on our suits and ran thru the snow, piled our clothes and towels on the side, and soaked in the hot, wonderful water while the cold air and snowflakes melted over the tub. Everything was so silent, blanketed in fresh white powder,the pines illuminated by the parking lot lights and just everything was so beautiful!

Eventually, everybody found their way into a bed somewhere and somehow, except poor Ryan. Apparently he was driving in the parking lot and got his car stuck in a snow drift! Amadeo and I looked at it to see if we could help, but he only option was for him to wait until the plows came by early that morning. They eventually got it out, but I do wish we had pictures! By the way, apparently Ori pierced his ear with a paperclip to get that ornament through a closed-up earring hole. Crazy crazy weekend!

We hit the hill on Tuesday, which mean that I had a very sore butt and lots of exciting new bruises to sport afterwards. Snowboarding is hard, but I'd like to think (at least, pretend) that I sortof understand how to do it. I absolutely loved it, despite the degrading humiliation of face-planting a few times in front of everybody going up the ski lift. That whole area is beautiful - it's hard to think there are such great views and rolling hills in Michigan, but I can't wait to go back some time!

Unfortunately, it was a very short stay - we had arrived Monday night and left Tuesday night - but well worth it. Of course we partied some more when we got back to Ann Arbor that night, but everybody was exhausted. I had a great time with some great new people and lots of stories (most of which can't be posted on here, of course)!

So here's my first update, now I still have to cover X-mas through New Years! Plus, I got a job and am moving in less than 2 weeks! All this and more, coming up (hopefully) soon!

Keeping busy

Just a funny picture of me working on Steve's house. Can't wait to get it done so he can have a big party. This is proof that when I go there, I actually work - STEVE is the one that just goofs off!!

 

It's like Christmas

Woo hoo!

Fire jobs for next summer were just posted today! I briefly looked over them, and the possibilities are endless! Where should I apply to this summer? What state looks tasty and enticing? Which agency do I want to work for? Engines, hotshots, helitack... So many choices!

 

Snow, fire, and IRON

Retail = not so much fun. Amen to all you out there who do this for a living. It takes a certain type of person to persist in that job, and that person is NOT me! Two weeks is plenty enough for me, thank you very much. Yeah, I'm probably quitting. OK, most definitely quitting. I don't mind do a public service (firefighting, even public works or other crap) but dealing with crabby holiday shoppers is no punishment I wish upon anyone. But I did get a sick discount on a Burton snowboard set-up and my parents got a new treadmill, so I'd say it was a worthwhile experiment in my seasonal job hunt. ;) Plus, I'd say there is a pretty gosh darn good chance that I'll be lighting fires in either South Carolina or Tennessee by the end of January.

Speaking of fire, just found out today that they probably aren't filling my job from this summer at Red Rock Lakes this year. I was thinking of moving on anyway, so it's not a big deal, but it would have been nice to at least have that option. There will be jobs open in eastern Montana, but I can't say I liked that area nearly as much - the Missouri breaks are like lots of small squished mini-mountains, but it's super dry and not a lot of trees outside of the floodplain. I'll think about it... But if that's all that's open, I'll probably be leaving the fish and feathers for the forest circus. We'll deal with that when I need to.

So now, I am going to indulge an obscene amount of money for a membership at Lifetime Fitness, the ultimate gym. Gotta start getting in gear for the next fire season!

Besides that, nothing much new aside from the usual antics. Monday night football, working on Steve's house, coffee, and wishing for snow... This is the essence of my Michigan Winter thus far. I did stay up until after 1 am watching "Love, Actually" last night. Anybody who hasn't seen it and has any sort of romantic side, you should watch it. And if you have a girlfriend, buy it for them. They'll probably give you a kiss when you get done watching it together. :)