Rejuvenation

I've always wanted to live in Colorado, and since moving there five months ago I've enjoyed the majority of my time there. In the last few weeks, however, emotions have been increasingly harder to control, probably because I was missing my family and friends as the holiday season approached (I was definitely not the easiest person to get along with my last 48 hours in Colorado as I prayed I would make it out of DIA).

But after spending the last nine days back in the Midwest, and seeing nearly everyone on my must-see list, I am feeling completely rejuvenated! Getting my nails done, eating lots of delicious food, doing puzzles, playing games, going shopping/partaking in some shoe therapy, and just hanging out with people who I can't help but be comfortable with (after all, most of you have known me anywhere from five to twenty-four years) has been just what I needed. As 2007 dawns, I am ready to return to my new life, delve back into school, and tackle those slopes! I miss you all immensely but am so happy in Colorado!

Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year's Eve and a joyous year ahead!

Christmas!!! It's great to be back with friends and family...

DIA during the holiday season and immediately following a blizzard...

The radio mentioned we should arrive at the airport at least 4 hours prior to our intended departure time, and I really did try. Thanks to a wreck on the highway I was only just over three hours early. I was lucky enough to have Lottie standing in line already, so I cut in with her. Hours later we were still standing in the freezing temperatures outside of DIA with hundreds of other people who were also stressed about making it home to family and friends. With only 30 minutes remaining, I asked a Frontier employee what I should do. After all, I had already printed my boarding pass at home and only needed to check one bag. Even if I got through the first line, I still had an hour and a half wait to get through security. I smiled and tried to be friendly, unlike several of my fellow travelers. She looked at my bag and decided I could get it through security and could check it at the plane if there wasn’t enough room on the plane. She gave me a conspiratorial nod and said, “Follow me and just go along with whatever I say…” So we took off through the airport…she with nothing but herself, and me with two “carry ons” and a piece of full size luggage. Minutes later we were at the front of the security line with only one disgruntled guard between us and the metal detectors. She told the guard she was with an “unaccompanied minor” and needed to get back to her station quickly, so we didn’t have time to wait in line. The guard looked at me suspiciously, asked my age (to which I replied “15”), took a few more takes, and then rolled her eyes and said to go on through. I yelled “Merry Christmas!” over my shoulder and continued through the security checkpoint. Now you must remember that my bag was supposed to be checked, so I had several contraband items included. Luckily, when I explained the situation to the guy searching the bag, he had mercy and left everything in. Several hours later I was disembarking in St. Louis and had no baggage to claim, making it much easier to rush to dinner with family and friends!

Car Trouble (Kind of)

By Wednesday evening the snow had finally let up, leaving 2+feet of the white stuff on the ground. I was coming home from school and made it safely up Society Drive to my parking area. Of course the plows had plowed right into the parking spots, leaving snow piled 3+ feet high. In my defense, there were tire tracks over the snow pile where a vehicle had previously been parked. I know this is not a sufficient excuse for my actions, but nevertheless I atempted to park my car in the same space. I got a running start and hit the tire tracks exactly…my front wheels made it, but then my car bottomed out in the snow drift! Of course I was a little worried, seeing as the rear of the car was still sticking out in the road, but I am an independent woman…surely I could dig the car out! At this point, I tried to get out and start digging. Unfortunately, the snow was piled so high that I couldn’t even open my doors! I ended up having to crawl out of my car window. Luckily I don’t think anyone saw me. As I was standing there, in a drift up to mid-thigh, contemplating my next move a van rolled up the street with one of my little six year old’s family inside. They were kind enough to help push me back out onto the road. Apparently any time it snows more than 2 ft, I’m going to have to park in the little parking lot that gets plowed on a regular basis.

Dashing Through the Snow

Deadly Icicles!

Ok...so some of this is drift on top of steps, but it's still quite a bit of snow!

With over a foot of snow already blanketing the earth due to steady snow showers throughout the past 24 hours, and another 12-18 inches predicted over night, I'm enjoying the winter wonderland from indoors and praying the roads are clear by Thursday afternoon for the journey northeast to Denver and beyond.

The few inches of white stuff Sunday night was greatly appreciated by my six-year old ski experts who skied their way down fresh powdery slopes during Monday's "school." Two weeks in a row they've been lucky enough to have powder days for Ski PE! After a mandatory meeting I was able to join them on the slopes and had an awesome time! I helped the kiddos onto and off of the lifts whenever they happenned to need it, catered to a wide variety of needs at lunch (everything from opening packages and getting in and out of ski gear to making a long treck to the bathrooms since a watermain had frozen and left those nearest to us out of order), and was able to ski in the afternoon with my aid Sally, who happens to be an excellent skier. It was like having my own private lesson for free! She assured me that we were doing nothing more difficult than a double green, but after looking at a trail map today, I have discovered that she had me on a few blues! Anyways...we made it back to school with everyone just as the storm began heading into the valley.

I spent the evening cleaning my apartment and baking Christmas cookies for school, so I was pleasantly unaware of the storm brewing outside until this morning. Luckily, I left enough time in my morning routine to dig my car out of the snow and still get to school in a timely manner (my remote start is wonderful, but when there's anything more than an inch of snow it takes too long to let it do all the work). The kids had a ton of fun in the snow today, but when I walked out the door I found that the car was yet again burried in snow. The purchase of snow boots that literally come up to my knees has definitely payed off!

Ski PE: Nightmares Resulting in Success

My first ever Ski PE! For those of you who haven't heard of ski PE: every student in the district gets an entire day each week on the mountain with ski instructors while the ski resort is open. I didn't even go up on the mountain with the kids, and I was more nervous than they were! After nightmares last night concerning kids being unable to participate through some fault of mine, I beat the procedure to death in my head before school this morning. Getting sixteen six year olds dressed in ski gear and keeping track of skis, poles, boots, lunches, and other paraphenelia is a little overwhelming, but everyone was prepared and we were ready before all other classes! The kids were way excited...not only do they love ski PE in general, but there was 9 inches of new snow over night, so they were in heaven. People here (including six year olds) live for powder days. Last report told of happy children with full bellies from lunch who weren't even complaining all that much about the frigid temps.

As for me, back here at school...after a few meetings that weren't nearly as bad as they could have been, I was still left with time to work on other projects I'm responsible for. I was amazingly focused (until about ten minutes ago, when I decided to update this BLOG) and accomplished a huge amount of work.

Next week I'm going up with the kids after my beginning of the day meeting! I'm really excited, even though I will surely be humbled by the vast expertise of my students on the mountain. I felt I had made great improvements this past Saturday when I hit the slopes, but I am still, after all, very much a beginner and obviously not a native of Telluride!

This Year's Official School Picture

By the time I retire I'm going to have countless school photos... when my kids and fellow teachers asked what I do with the free prints provided to me by the school I had to respond, "I send them to my parents, just like when I was a student!"

Cold Conditions

Hope everyone has recovered from the winter storm that seemed to hit the entire country. Family and friends have told me Missouri and Illinois had it much worse than my new hometown...or maybe it's just that they don't know how to deal with it as well as Colorado (the street cleaners, utility companies, etc...not the loved ones). We ended up with much less than the 2.5 feet predicted, and it was nice not having to dig my car out from under more than 24 inches of white powder! Don't get me wrong...I was still wearing my full winter boots (the ones that go all the way up to my knees), winter coat, gloves, and hat when I went outside to brave the frigid conditions (negative teens over night), but no power outages and such. It has currently warmed up some, but traveling down the ski slopes at not so high speeds still gives you frostbite on the nose and cheeks! I went for a couple of hours this past Saturday and had an amazing amount of fun! After gaining confidence and speed through numerous runs down a few easy greens, I ended the outing with an attempt at a long double green run. I must say it was a success!