Merry Belated Christmas!

Merry Be-lated Christmas everyone! Meant to get around to this one (as well as posting many other blogs....) sooner! I have been caught up in the "Christmas chaos of working retail" however. I have come to the realization that ever since I have worked in retail, Christmas has never been the same (so, for the last 17 years....), you start to realize how crazy people can be, and you realize how many people don't understand the real reason behind Christmas. It is sad. I even tend to get upset with myself at times, because I too tend to lose sight at times, and have to put myself in check. All in all though, it was a nice relaxing day with the family. My brother was up here getting a reprieve from the chaos of LA, so it was good to have him up here. Today, him, my husband, and I all ventured off to Kirkwood Ski area for our first day out of the season. Talk about phenomenal conditions! POWDER, POWDER, and more POWDER, and not alot of crowds! Fortunately for us, the other side of hwy 88 was closed off for some time this morning due to all the snow we had gotten, so people from the Bay area couldn't make it up.....bummer! :) Our drive was interesting to say the least. We weren't even quite sure we would get thru since the traffic sign on the way up stated "Chain Control Ahead". We started seeing all the "Chains Required" signs, which every now and then means even 4WD vehicles have to comply. We approached the checkpoint and figured it would be the moment of truth (we kept our fingers crossed especially since I had already purchased our lift tickets online!). YES, 4WD with snow tires OK......good thing they didn't take a good look at the tires on my husbands SUV.....they are SO bald!

All in all, it was an awesome day, and my legs are soooooo tired!!!! (Didn't help that I sat on the trainer yesterday and did a bunch of single-legged drills---OUCH!) There was so much powder it was unreal, and it was great to actually get to try out my new skis from the end of last season in the powder.....so much nicer than my old ones! On the schedule for tomorrow is my first day ever cross country skiing! WHOOHOOO!

On that note, I am headed to bed to rest up...... I think my "little reindeer" is tired from all the festivities as well!

So, I am finally getting the ball rolling........

So I am off to a bit of a slow start here. I signed up for my blog about a month and a half ago, and I am finally getting around to posting something. The truth is, I have been rather preoccupied with schoolwork. My initial plan was to start this up back in September after I raced the 24 Hours of Idyllwild. I had this killer plan that I was going to win the race, and get to start the blog off on an awesome note! My plan almost came to fruition.......I was in 1st place from the 4th lap of the race, ALL THE WAY UNTIL the beginning of the 15th lap when I got sick on the side of the trail.......OVERHYDRATION! Who the heck overhydrates.....yeah, that would be me. Nonetheless, I ended up in 2nd place. Don't get me wrong, I still had a killer race, but not exactly the ending that I had planned. I swear, Idylwild went from being my strong race to this race that now lingers over my head and haunts me. Next year right?

After Idylwild, I went pretty much went straight to Interbike (I am not kidding on this one, if it wasn't for having to go to school that Monday, I would have gone straight there!). Things went good. I got to see all of my sponsors that I only get to see sometimes only once a year. All went smoothly and I am grateful that I still have all the same sponsors for next year that I had this year (with the way of the economy, I was sweating it a bit!). One of the highlights of Interbike......the fact that Pivot is making bikes in GIRL colors for next year! YEAH.......I will be hopefully riding either a pink or baby blue bike next season, and I can't wait!

Fast forward to now (not much else has gone on except school, school, and more school!). So, I am 4 days away from being done for the semester, thank goodness! I can FINALLY have my life back......at least for the next month or so! As for right now, I think I will wrap up this first posting.....I really should be doing math homework right now anyways! Instead I have found every possible way to procrastinate.......even decorated our Christmas tree in the meantime.