pile of human pretzels

My second morning in a row at Bally's. This time we went earlier. 7:00 to be exact. The crowd was a little different. No inauguration to draw us to the TV's. Instead, a broadcast church service with an African American preacher talking about the fruit of the spirit. Only, no one was watching it. Eyes were deep in magazines, gawking at other folks, even eyes closed. No one wanted to watch church. Gee, imagine that.

Yes, I wore my Chaco's to work. Funny, they've become the first thing I put on in the morning. I'm still walking around in a towel with a wet head, but by golly, I've got my Chaco's on! I used the morning and afternoon to get a lot of work done. Sermons, e-mails, meetings & event planning.

I was able to scoot out of the office early so that Kelly, Amy and I could drive up to Azusa to pick up Bobby and the boys for our second attempt at snowboarding. The 405, the 105, the 610, the 210, every possible freeway in CA, we took it on our way out. 3:00 is not a good time to leave town. Luckily, the carpool lane was fast and furious, so we hopped in and cruised on out. Bobby and his 4 roommates (5 boys) live in a 2 bedroom apartment at Azusa Pacific University. Talk about a bachelor pad. The smell of pipe smoke, video games, computers, and smelly boys created a sensory overload. They even had a throne of VampEnergy Drinks in the kitchen, so us girls took a moment to sit on it so they could all hail the queens! :)

We hit the road for Mountain High, and took the same road that I took when I drove into LA. I haven't been that far out there since I got here. Seeing signs for Vegas, snow capped mountains, desert like areas, and McDonald's for supper. Mmmm...McDouble and a McFlurry, do you think they're overdoing the "Mc" thing a little?

We arrived at Mountain High around 6:00. With one glance at the hills, my stomach dropped. They looked steep, and I've never snowboarded before. But luckily, I would be right at home...skiers were definitely the minority. 95% of the people out were snowboarders. The parking lot was full of colorful jackets, boards, hats, and people. What fun. After getting our lift tickets, Bobby took us over to the bunny hill for a quick lesson. I just about died getting on the magic carpet...it's hard having your feet strapped in. At least with a skateboard you can hop off. Not so with a snowboard. Amy and I eventually got the hang of it. But not until after bruising our knees, tailbones, and just about breaking our wrists. Even on slushy snow, the falls were hard. Kelly skied, and was way more stable than the two of us, so she shot some "Kelly-Kam" videos on Amy's camera. Talk about a couple of rookies! The best moment of the evening: Amy and I were riding on a chair lift together to the highest (and last) run of the night. Kelly was in the chair behind us. As we're nearing the top, we notice how steep the hill down from the chair lift is. We were both saying, "Oh crap!" I'm laughing as I write this...we put our boards down on the snow, start going down the hill, I start falling, grabbed Amy, and took her down with me. Amy was on her stomach and I was on top of her right at the base of the chair lift drop off. Well, here comes Kelly right behind us. She sees us down, tries to stop and can't, so she lays down to try and stop herself and runs right into the two of us. A 3 person pile up. Kelly managed to get her ski back behind her head all twisted, so basically, we're a pile of pretzels at this point. Then, the chair lift operator has the nerve to walk out of her little cave and says to us "you need to hurry up and get out of the way! there are other people coming up the chair lift!" WELL, STOP THE CHAIRLIFT LADY! Nope. She let it run, came out to pick up some stuff on the snow, and didn't even lend us a hand. So, Kelly had to untangle herself while we put our bones back in socket. Gosh, I can't stop laughing.

We spent so much time on our butts, hands and knees, my gloves were completely soaked through. I was able to ring them out and watch about a 1/2 cup of water drain from them in between runs. The water had soaked all the way through my 3 layers of pants. But, by the end of the night, we had gotten quite good. Cutting back and forth across the hill. I was still suffering the occasional wipe out, but was doing it gracefully. Amy had learned to go 80 mph down the hill. Not quite ready to stop yet, so there was a fun wipe out to watch at the end of each run. What a great night! The snow, new friends, and wet butts were refreshing! I'm ready to go again!

There's a good chance I am running low on lactic acid. After surfing, playing volleyball, working out, and snowboarding all within a week, there are no more muscles left to surprise. I'm one ball of tired. I just finished writing a worship theme document that I forgot to do. It's 3:00 a.m. and I need to go to bed. What a day!