Tearing up the Winter Wonderland

Last weekend, my better half and I ventured to California for a little time away from Chicago and a little skiing/snowboarding in Lake Tahoe. California is a welcome reprieve from Chicago in the middle of February and ranks among the best trip ideas Sonia has ever had. Which is to say, it was awesome.

Driving into Lake Tahoe, the snow was falling thick and fast, dropping a few feet in just a few hours, forcing us along backroads as cars spun out and semis jack knifed along the only highway into Lake Tahoe.

The first day, we both learned to snowboard, an embarrassing process involving torqued knees and faces covered in snow, but at the end of the that day, we emerged victorious, able to conquer a green without fail.

At night, we ventured out into another storm to see all hype of the casinos on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe. Walking the casino, we quickly became aware we were too well dressed, too capable of completing full sentences and too inept at even knowing which table was playing what game to hang around.

The next day was Valentine's Day, and another few feet of fresh powder covered the ground. My pride broken, I switched to skis, hoping to take on some hard parts of the mountain without injuries, physical or emotional. Sonia, in her usual persistent way, took to the snowboard again, and through many trials and tribulations proved that persistence is the only way to become better at something.

I enjoyed tearing up the mountain, over rocks, through trees, over ridges, keeping an eye of my wonderous girlfriend, who became rather adept with the snowboard, no speed demon, but capable of carving and moving down complicated hills without embarrassingly disappearing into a pile of snow. By the end, Sonia was snowboarding all over the mountain, doing blues, while I watched and skied between the trees. The vistas were incredible. We returned to the lodge to find other skiers, their dogs and hot mulled cider waiting.

That night we celebrated Valentine's Day in the usual fashion, with a dinner by the lake, though we found several other cozy spots in Lake Tahoe, including hot tubs open to the sky, where your drinks are brought to you by servers. We found, once again, we were tragically overdressed, reminding us just how "city" we really are.

The next day we headed home through yet another snow storm, traveling less than 20 miles in the first two hours. We were fortunate enough to still make the flight home, and watched as our path took over over the South Shore of Lake Tahoe and Heavenly, seeing the runs we did that day from the air.

When that ski bug gets under your skin, its hard to let it go, so tomorrow, we are off again to Devils Head to tear up some more mountain.

In conclusion, California rocks and so does my girlfriend. QED

DM

Return of the Morley

So I've been accused of not writing enough in this blog. This is a fallacy. A better argument is that I haven't been posting enough in this blog.

I write quite a bit actually, not nearly as often as I like, as the purpose of this blog is to track to most minute thoughts and interactions that amuse me. I do find myself often beginning a post and bailing half way through and have half a dozen unfinished posts hidden just behind this page, perhaps never to see the light of day.

Abandoning my own criticisms would probably be wise at this point, because as a result, I've failed to memorialize a dozen wonderful moments.

So what have you missed from my life since Fall. Sonia and I went to several shows, Jersey Boys, Wicked. And found ourselves going out and having a wonderful time in Chicago shortly before Christmas. Sonia left for Romania a few weeks before Christmas. Two weeks later I flew into London, just before New Year's and we met up. Along with my brother flying in from Colombia and his girlfriend flying in from Madrid, we were an international crowd.

We saw London, spent some time down in Brighton with my wonderful grandmother, and then spent a little more time in London, seeing the sights, driving on the wrong side of the road and just generally having a grand time. We finished the trip with wonderful seats at Les Miserables, which had us both in tears by the end. For a more visual perspective, my Flickr account has many pictures from our trip.

Since returning Stateside, I've gotten into building an pre-club ultimate frisbee team, which has taken up most of my time. It fills a void I haven't had in a while, not since leaving college, and being able to build something like that gets me up every morning.

Sadly, my hamstring is not yet better and coaching is still about all I can do, causing me to miss Trouble in Vegas with Haymaker this past weekend. All unfortunate events have a silver lining though, and tomorrow, I will be getting LASIK (which took two weeks of no contacts to get ready for). So next time I post, it will be with perfect vision.

Hopefully my next post will involve more insight and less overview.

Until next time.

DM