…skiing, that is.
I went skiing for the first time today. Xan and I visited her aunt in New Hampshire, and we strapped on some skis and went gliding around a golf course for a couple of hours. I’ve wanted to ski for a while now but didn’t really have the opportunity living in Texas, Illinois, and Florida. A little cross country jaunt, I think, was the perfect introduction to getting around on skis: no danger of falling a few hundred (or thousand, even) feet and minimal risk of injury. Plus, it was fun! And I was pretty good at it, especially considering it was my very first time on skis. Here are a couple of pics:
There’s a lot more balance involved in skiing than I previously thought. I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like zig-zagging down a mountain at 65 mph.
On a slightly related note, Xan’s family is awesome. It really makes me wish I had a bigger family circle closer to me. Don’t get me wrong: I love going to the Philippines to see my cousins, but the way I see it, I would enjoy it that much more if we could see each other more than once every five years. I’ve always wanted a (relatively) big family, or at least a large extended family who would gather at holidays and celebrate birthdays and have little traditions and lots of inside jokes. I feel blessed and thankful that Xan’s family has accepted me into their tight-knit circle. And I feel confident that my family back in the motherland will do the same for her.
7:42AM I don’t teaching on Tuesday or Thursday, so I slept in today. Only until 6:30, however, because I had to drop off my car to get my oil changed and get the SRS light checked out. Little did I know it would end up costing me much more than I intended to spend.
7:43AM Oreo’s used to the morning routine by now. She got in her bed in the kitchen without me even having to tell her. Note the look on her face that says, “OK. Fine. Leave me…again.”
9:03AM I rearranged my office again (for the 7th time…literally). I’m trying out a new floorplan, with the desk against the wall. It really opens up the space and makes the office seems quite big. (And yes, that’s Optimus Prime on my wall.)
9:27AM My new dry erase/cork board combination that I hung up on my wall this morning. Now I can write and post notes to myself without having to scotch tape them to the lovely cinder block walls in my office.
10:16AM The view from my desk, while grading papers and listening to Pandora. Man, I love Pandora.
1:31PM Taking a break from grading (and waiting for the Honda dealer to call me about my car), I practice a little piano. I’m playing the celeste part for Copland’s Lincoln Portrait. If you look closely, you can see that it’s very simple part that oscillates on an E major chord for 10 measures. Ah, my kind of accompanying.
2:56PM The Honda dealer STILL hadn’t called me. I was getting frustrated. They called me about 15 minutes later to tell me that my car needed a new battery, and that it would be done in an hour and cost me more than initially quoted. Great.
3:14PM Finally having a timeframe of when I’d get my car back, I scramble to finish my lesson plan for Theory 2: cadential and passing 6/4 chords. Fun times. (You can really tell it’s my office by all the U2 posters on the walls.)
4:12PM I run to the duplication room in hopes of picking up my Theory 1 Proficiency Exams before the Honda shuttle picks me up, only to find out Arlene left early today. Great. So I rush back to the Music office to try to make copies there, only to find that it’s closed early, too. This is the view of the office from the outside of my mailbox. I go into school on my off day and stay much later than I should, while others who normally work later than I leave early. The irony of the whole afternoon was not lost on me.
4:46PM The Honda dealer finally picks me up and drops me off to get my car…8.5 hours later!!
4:48PM What was initially going to be a $30 oil change ended up costing me nearly ten times that much. All to get the stupid SRS light to shut off. It took the service department almost nine hours to figure out that my car needed a new battery. *SIGH* I miss Proctor Honda in Tallahassee.
4:51PM I’m finally back in my car. Notice how the SRS light isn’t on any more. Not bad for $300. Ugh. What a day.
11:40PM The way I see it, regardless of how crappy my day went, it ended nicely, with my packing for FriendFest 2009 Part a in DC. I’m driving to visit Mike, then going to Houston to see Xan and my parents. And, yup, that’s a Guitar Hero guitar, packed and ready to rock! Bring on the Expert level!!
Christopher Endrinal 