A learning experience

Yeah that last post... kinda old news and not done, but I had written that much and I don't feel like finishing it so you get what it is...

Anyway, I went on a ski tip this past weekend. This may sound somewhat strange, because I've never gone skiing or snowboarding or anything cooler than going down a hill on a sled or rubber tube, or just tumbling my ass down it with the grace of a hippopotamus. So I was on vacation, and I went in with what I believe to be a pretty damn good mindset. I made myself two rules, WHAT?! Rules?! on vacation you say. Yes, just two.

1.) I'm on vacation, no complaints, roll with the flow.
2.) Come home with at least some money.

Well usually I'm pretty shitty at following rules, however these seemed completely logical and, probably pretty good things to do so hell I followed 'em. Then again I kind of like to live life by those two rules. So this whole shibang started out pretty good actually. I was picked up from work by B-Mart (short for Brian Martin), oh and Amanda was there too. So the three of us head over to Mur's to meet with her and Todd. Todd drove the super-van for us, we all pitched in $20 and it got us there and back. Oh baby! After we loaded up the van with our crap we started the road trip to the cottage/shallet thing we were staying in. First though we had to make a small detour. We picked up Sean -Pimp Master- Plastine (as it's saved in my phone) from german town, then headed north... We wanted to get to the shallet in Iron River, Michigan. North seemed like a good idea. We entertained ourselves with various things on the way up, including a few hours of '20 questions' our own modified edition, which included the red cards from apples to apples. Anywhoo, 5 U-turns, one emergency roadside outhouse stop, two meal stops, and god only knows how many hours later we made it... to the ski hill.
"But wait a minute Kent, I thought you wanted to go to your shallet thing...."
Yes, yes we did, we just thought it would be fun to make some more U-turns.
So about another 5 U-turns, another emergency bathroom break (this one at a gas station) and about 45 minutes later, we arrived, at the right place too! Now I was pretty pumped when I got inside this place. There was about 50 bedrooms (7 actually I think), a sauna, a hot tub, 4 showers, spiral stairs, a huge sun room overlooking the frozen lake, it was fucking schweet. However all that aside, I wanted to try out the whole snowboarding thing. It was late and dark and whatnot, but there were a couple of little hills within sight of the place, so I convinced Sean -Pimp Master- Plastine to come out and play in the snow with me (it took a few drinks to convince him, but hey I do what I gotta do). Sean had two snowboards, so I managed to get to use his old one which worked out well enough for me, it was a few inches short of what would've been ideal, but hey I got to use it and didn't have to pay. Start out and Sean's a little pissed because I can ride normal or goofy foot, which was pretty cool to me. Goofy felt better but I gave normal a try too and it wasn't too horrible. The hill wasn't too big, but you could get a little bit of speed, and then you went out onto the lake which was frozen over, and pretty sweet. I was about 50 feet out on the lake when I yelled over to Sean, "It's a good thing this lake is all the way frozen over, because I'm pretty far out." You know where sometimes you need to knock on wood, and there's none available.... This was one of those times. Luckily the lake was all the way frozen over, and I was totally fine, but after I said that I was kinda weary to go out too far onto the lake again. We were out there for an hour or two just goofin' around, did one run through a tree covered hill a little farther away from the house, but the snow was all too fresh, and not really the best grade for us to get down it with a whole lot of fun. So we picked up our boards, and headed back in. This was my first snowboarding experience and it was pretty fun, but I was wishing I could go to the ski hill the next day and try out my skills, the problem was that would involve breaking rule #2, and I just couldn't bring myself to spend all my money on a lift ticket, when I really didn't know how I would do, or if it would be worth it. I told that to Amy when she asked me weather or not I was going to the hill the next day, and her and Shue decided to surprise me by buying me a lift ticket. My friends fucking rock.

I spent the day snowboarding, and falling. Not sure which was more dominant, overall. By the end of it I was fairly proficient and could go down most of the runs without falling, I didn't get to try out the black diamond run I had done twice at the end of the day like I wanted because It was already closed, so I kinda made my own run through the trees, between runs. It worked out well. It was one of those fan-fricken-tastical days that you always hope you have while on vacation. Returned to the shallet tired, and a little sore. Hopped in the hot-tub before dinner, then got to enjoy steak and spaghetti which works great for me. At this point I proceeded with one of my favorite pass times, getting good and liquored up. Had a good night of drunken drunk with my friends then went to bed. Woke up, packed up the van, waved goodbye to the lovely shallet we stayed in, and began the journey home. Most of us were tired, a few of us sore, and we were all pretty happy about the weekend we had. The drive home wasn't quite as exciting as the drive up, however we did make a small detour which included a few U-Turns, and was so that we could look at some windmills to see weather or not they would be tall enough to jump off. It also involved 1 count of Todd trying to drive off while I was still in the bathroom at Arby's. As well as 1 delicious count of taco-bell. Got back to my car, tried to start it, it needed a jump. Amanda was going to follow me home from where we parked (at my work) but once she saw that my car didn't start I was grabbing jumper cables, she decided Todd could jump me and she would just drive off. Which was great because if my car didn't start she would've been the perfect person to drive me home, while I was stuck at work, with a dead cell phone, but hey my logic must be flawed. Luckily it started up without a problem once I hooked the cables up to Todd's van's battery. Hopped in the car, and drove home.

It was quite an adventure, and I followed both my rules. I found out a few things on this trip.
1) I can follow rules, if they're simple and I agree with them.
2) My friends fucking rock.
3) Amanda can't be relied on having good judgement, especially while on the rag.
4) Snowboarding is fun, and I'm a fairly decent natural
5) Sean -Pimp Master- Plastine has less fear than I do and is a beast on the snowboard

I'm sure there's some more that I learned, but that's good enough.