Learning to telemark ski

Recently I landed an amazing deal on a pair of Telemark Skis which are kind of like really fancy cross-country skis or broken alpine skis. Ed has been pushing me to learn, and even if he hadn't the offer was to good a deal to refuse, so now I own some more equipment for a new sport that will likely cause me to buy more stuff!

I gather that most people learn to tele-ski with some basic knowledge of skiing in general, but I haven't had the chance to barrel down the mtn. on anything but a sled in the past 3 years and I haven't been on a pair of skis since my sister taught me when I was in elementary school. The only advice that I can remember, and I have my sister to thank for it, is "Stop for Pizza" and "Go for French Fries". Basically this means that you make the skis parallel to go fast and if you want to stop you cross your skis in the shape of a pizza slice so that you then trip over yourself and slide on your back until you come to a stop. Tele-skis add to the already challenging sport by allowing you to release your heal so that when you want to turn you have to put one knee to the ground, while keeping your back straight and chest up, pushing your downhill ski in front-of your trailing uphill ski, and usually someone is yelling at you to tell you that you're not doing any of those things even remotely close, at which point you try to correct any one of your mistakes by shifting your weight which causes you to loose balance fall on your butt and slide on your back until you're lucky enough to come to a stop.

Once you start to feel a little comfortable with the turning though, you start to challenge muscles instead of the padding on your butt. Since you have to turn in order to not hit children, trees, or speeds above 10 mph, you may have to practice a turn, in both directions, pretty often on the way down the mountain. The problem arises though when you realize that your legs aren't actually made of steel like you previously thought. After only two turns where you fully lunge with one leg forward and hold it as your skis slowly move you in the direction you intend to go, you will find that your legs are in fact made of jello. There is no muscle there at all! Unfortunately after the second turn you are in desperate need of any muscle fibers in your leg and so if you're lucky you can slow to a stop and rest for 2 hours until your legs stop burning, or you can kind of cling to the poles, tense up, bend you back incorrectly, and fall on your butt until you come to a stop or loose your skis.

In a day of skiing you can repeat this procedure pretty much about three times before you can barely stand and you think that the black diamond routes seem like a good idea if only so that you can slide uncontrollably on your butt to the bottom that much faster. Luckily in the times that you are trying to regain feeling in your legs or collecting your skis after tossing them across the hill, your friends can usually get 13 or 14 runs in before you start moving again. This way everyone is having fun on the mountain together!

Try not to talk to much your first month here . . .

When I first decided to move to WY, I got a lot of advice on how to survive. In addition to a brutal winter and completely different landscape, I needed to adjust to a little bit of a cultural change. As one friend, and former Colorado resident, said, I'll need to adjust to the rugged individualism of Wyoming. "Try not to share your feelings to early". I feel like I also maybe should have a bigger car or at least more articles of flannel . . . but my favorite advice came from one of the WCC program directors. He said "You're probably going to have a lot of trouble here in the beginning. You are from the East coast, you're liberal, and you think about things . . . try not to talk for at least your first month."

Well it has been more than a few months, and I'm starting to adjust. Really there isn't much difference when you surround yourself with the kind of people you enjoy. I don't talk to much to the neighboring apartment with 3 Ford F350 Trucks that wake me up on occasion because the diesel fumes start to seep into my 1st level apartment. I also don't talk to much to the girls with bleached blond hair, fake tan, and wearing high heals in the dead of winter - although truth be told they probably don't spend much of their day worrying about me talking to them. I do have a blast with the 11 other crew leaders though. These are people who are ready to devote a summer to working and living outside, so they have to be cool.

I don't know if I'll move back to WY after the summer, but I'm certainly not ruling it out.

So much time on my hands!

In my first week back in WY, I have been relatively bored. Not the angsty teenager bored because you're angry that mom didn't let you go to the party and you don't want to act like you're actually enjoying yourself, but the kind of bored that exists when you're an only child on vacation at the beach - you're happy that you're at the beach, not at school, and that you get to pick the marshmallow sugar cereal for breakfast, but there are only so many sand castles that you can build by yourself. Most of it is to be expected because I just moved to a completely new place where I am friends with all of three people within 4 hour driving distance, but I am also used to occupying my time working on some sort of project or toward some sort of goal.

One project I am eager to start is remodeling Ed's house. Although he was gone all week I painted his ceiling, mopped and cleaned the kitchen, fed his dog, and cleaned all the dirty dishes. He finally got back home yesterday and we started to hang kitchen cabinets and install light fixtures today. Unfortunately Ed has to work every once in a while, so I spend my time waiting with his dog Keegan for him to return so we can play.

It just seems that with ample amount of time and even other crew leaders to help out, I should be able to think of some sort of project or business idea. My current plan is to touch base with some of the local service organizations and non-profits in Laramie this week to see if I can start to make connections, and continue to brainstorm ideas with friends. Hopefully at some point it will turn into some reasonable ideas. In the mean time I will continue to apply to Applebees and pizza restaurants in the hopes of finding some money to pay for my thermodynamics book I just bought.

Summer Goals

This summer I will be working for the Wyoming Conservation Corps. I'll be leading a group of 6 crew members with a co-leader on 10-day hitches doing work for the State Parks and conservations groups of Wyoming. In preparation, all of the leaders attend a class at the University of Wyoming in Laramie once a week to cover topics like leadership, conservation, natural resource management, volunteerism, group dynamics, and communication.

Our first assignment is to state our intentions and goals for the summer. Here is what I've come up with:

I want to give ownership of the experience to the crew members by allowing them to make decisions. On the same note, I don't want to allow myself to be concerned with small details.

It needs to be my priority to get to know the people I'm working with.

I should be able to raise at least $1000 in donations for the WCC

I don't ever want to feel like I could have worked harder at something, planning/working/whatever

I want to understand the administration of the program so that I can feel comfortable running a non-profit in the future. This includes grant writing and general logistics.

Most importantly I want to figure out how this whole experience is relevant to my life goals.

Avoid Fire Hydrants

Welcome to what is to become my unorganized and seldom updated blog on my life adventures. The plan is to use this space to post some thoughts and reflections on my life experiences . . . or maybe just post some pictures of cool things I see. I just figured that after quitting my job, biking across the country, and moving to Wyoming, I should try to uncover some meaningful life lessons so I don't have to repeat it all in a couple years.

Without any major reflection here are some of the past year's lessons.

• Avoid fire hydrants and stay close to friends when you're intoxicated
• Save for unexpected emergencies, lapses in judgement, and poor life decisions
• Face to face, people are generous and kind
• There is little to no recycling between Ohio and Eastern Washington State