Two months and many stories later.

Wow! Here I sit at the desk that has seen many a beautiful sentence right alongside the just as plentiful sleepless nights. The desk that has witnessed numerous late Sunday night, or rather early Monday morning, returns by myself, with numerous articles of clothing and ski equipment in tired, worn out hand. It has been one day short of two months since I have had time to reflect on the events of my whirlwind roller coaster (to the lay person this would be LIFE) and to recap what a great two months it has been. In the past two months the collegiate ski racing season has come and gone- for myself anyways(nationals are this week)- and alongside it, the first half of my second semester. In attempt to keep you, the reader, less confused than I, the writer and person who lived it, I will do my best to keep theses events in chronological order. Again I say that I will do my best - no guarantees of this piece being free of side stories. As you may recall or may want to read in the above post, I went straight form the Spokane airport directly to a house in Smelterville, ID (please hold laughter until all towns have been named) where I spent 9 days with a group that are now some of my closest friends. We had a blast and I think we lived the dream of a lot of kids in college that have a burning passion for the snow. For 9 glorious days we skied a gorgeous run that Silver Mountain prepared for us each day, slept right through the late afternoon hours, ate some of the best food a partial college education(or 25 of them) ever made, danced into the early morning hours and proceeded to remain in this "rut" for the entire experience. Each day our fearless leader, a one Jerry McMurtry, led us up a 22 minute ride on the world's longest gondola to have us run a training course every day. Why you might ask. Well i'll give you some facts and let you figure it out. This years incoming freshman class to the UI Ski Team boasted 5 new racers to the male team and an additional 5 to the team that assisted in race prep and operation. Two of the 5 new freshman racers went on to represent the university at Steamboat Springs for regionals and form there one went on to nationals in Winter Park Colorado. Is that good enough? Anyways, I think in the next couple years the Idaho ski team will be a force to be reconed with in the Northwest Division. After a productive week in good old Smelterville we returned to campus to the regular humdrum but only five days later were we up at 5 am and on our way to Mt. Hood Oregon for the onset of our race season. Personally I did not ski well and didn't finish a single race run that weekend. The team was off to a good start, one that would give them the momentum needed for the rest of the season. Our second stop was to Willamette Pass. This was also a race in Oregon but twice the distance form Moscow that Mt. Hood was. This race was the first slalom race of the year and also where I began to settle in to the team atmosphere. The weekend following we came "home" to Silver Mtn., in Kellog, ID for a GS race. Here was a good race for our team at our home mountain and probably the best I will ever do in a GS race ending up 21st and 18th. The next weekend we had an off weekend for racing but most of the team went to Silver for a training/fun day. Following our weekend off we capped of the season with a weekend of fun at Bogus Basin resort in Boise(BOI-ZE) ID. The theme of the race on Sunday was costumes and o what a show it was. For your sake im going to leave out some of the more fine details. I will say that the U of I had a great showing of variety with the tooth fairy and a dinosaur. This was my best finish of the season as I finished 15th on Sunday. Overall I was very happy with my season becasue I now know how I need to improve for the future.
For a change of pace, and to keep the parentals happIER, I thought i would discuss the school side of things a bit more. How are things going... GREAT! I am totally happy with my choice in what I want to study becasue already this semester we have been assigned real clients and get to coordinate a design with them. I am so thankful for this opportunity becasue it allows us to realize if we have gotten into something we dont enjoy. I have had a blast putting together conceptual designs and planting plans for different kinds of outdoor spaces. One of the newest trends in the industry is to create themed outdoor living spaces and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff, namely Jil and Mr. ED, at Lowes Greenhouse for giving the handtools to map out where I am going to dig with the big machinery in my future.
If you have not been able to tell form the energy I intended to pass throuhg this writing, I am very happy with every situation and every opportunity I have involved myself in thus far. At this point I am looking toward spring break when I get to visit home for a couple days. For now I pause on my thoughts only to be continued another day. Play hard, work harder.