secret: yeah, there's a thousand words to go with a picture

i thought maybe the explodingdog cartoon i posted would do it, but it didn't really.

i've been trying to ignore something for a while now, and it won't be ignored. especially after a conversation with my mum tonight, who pointed out in that drastically obvious way that only mothers can do, that it shouldn't be ignored. she's right of course, but not ignoring something that makes you mad only really makes you madder.

both in the angry way and in the crazy way.

since i got to whistler, i have been the kind of person i've always wanted to be: i'm friends with the people i like, i avoid the people i don't. i haven't put up with bullshit. i do all the things i want to do, and none of the things i don't like.

somehow, i've had a fail. and am being trodden on.

i'm not going to go squish like a bug. you heard it here first. no more mrs nice guy.

that is all.

secret: instead of venting i will use a cartoon to very vaguely voice my dissatisfaction

treasure: aurevoir, whistler mountain

i just can't believe how fast the last five and a half months has gone... seems like yesterday that whistler opened for the 2010-2011 season.

how exciting- i got about 3 hours sleep, woke up and dragged myself to creekside gondy to meet fabel, kate m and jack. at 6am. fabel bought me a coffee, which is pretty much the secret to making me fall in love, and thus i kept warm enough to fend off ... oh what's it called, where you die of cold? hypothermia (my brain kept insisting i say hybernation, but that is wrong).

i was scared i'd forgotten how to ride. but i hadn't. i could have wept with happiness carving my first few turns down the hill. i'd made a playlist specially. i think i may have danced a little. it's possible.

early pow days were spent with lovely sue, us seeing how far we could push ourselves, at about the same level of confidence and bravery and recklessness... there were some funny tree runs, a little hiking out of powder, that one time i rocked the moguls up on seventh and sue actually saw me do it...

i also like to remember that time with phill when we got caught in ungroomed powder and small trees and had to paddle our way out (i laughed at him doing it, then hey presto, that was me about 4 minutes later). i have had some great great pow days with phill, who was always on the mountain this season. his work day starts at 1pm. yes phill THAT'S WHY YOU HAVE MORE THAN DOUBLE THE DAYS ON THE HILL I HAVE.

it's been magical, and as i mostly rode whistler i feel it fair to farewell the mountain that gave me my first best powder day, the awesome emerald trees with kate and karin, million dollar ridge... and extra-spicy double caesars at Seppo's.

rad.

see the link below for inspiration:

http://unofficialnetworks.com/gnar/

just sayin'.

secret: denial + being emo

don't you hate when you burn your tongue on a coffee and then you can't taste anything for ages after that? (not a metaphor, merely an observation)

i'm struck by a problem: i haven't been acting like an adult for some time now. mostly, i think this is a fair and decent way to deal with life. but occasionally you put off paying your phone bill a little too long and rogers cuts you off. this is what i mean by 'denial'.

my social life has suffered. how do you do stuff when you can't call or text anyone? i guess it's probably cheaper, i haven't known how to find any drinking buddies. which means less drinking and more thinking.

and that's the emo part. plus i had my biggest bail of the season on thursday and my arm isn't uh... really... working anymore. the happy positive flip side of this emo-ness shall be posted soon in an annoyingly upbeat fashion. right now i am wasting time on youtube, also reading my way through the backcatalogue of toothpaste for dinner cartoons. genius. http://www.toothpastefordinner.com that's the prize i grant you for putting up with such a boring post today. kthanksbye

treasure: april snow

it's snowing again.

when it's snowing like this, i like to have a drink of some sort and look out my living room window pretending its's a television.

i would say there is nothing more beautiful.

treasure: bluebird photography

have had the most fantastic days riding recently. i waited patiently (and also, at times not so patiently) for a day off to hit the mountain. like a complete sucker i had to work 5 days in a row, canyoufuckingbelieve it?!







it's that tricky thing where you have to work to afford your rent, and also the beer expenses of course, but if you can't actually go up the mountain and work up a thirst for the beer, what is the point?



i guess i'm learning that life is all about balance. i'll be the first one to admit i haven't got there yet. working on it though.







these days have started off with great promise- when my alarm goes off i don't consider staying in bed. unless it's a powder day i normally need to lay there debating various merits of my various options. let me tell you right now, winter is the ultimate sleeping in season.







unless there's powder.

the photo above is taken by mr alex fabel, originally known as supermarket guy, at some points known by nicole as phillipe (there should be a story there i feel, but there really isn't), and mostly known as alex despite his constant requests to the contrary. i'll work on calling you fabel buddy, but you might end up being called phillipe. just sayin.

i find it hard not to be sarcastically affectionate toward my friends, but i do make an effort in my blogs to say something genuinely nice, despite the pain it causes me not to use sarcasm. saw an awesome tshirt recently: "sarcasm: one of the many services i offer". so i take a deep breath and put sarcasm aside, to compliment this photograph, and tell you, fabel, that you are awesome.

so i think y'all can see what a beautiful picture it is- i love the framing of the sunshine through the break in the mountain. i love the colors that pervade your world when you're riding- the white, the blue, the grey, the black, the almost green of the trees. it seems like it makes everything a little simpler: it's just you and a heartbeat. in the photo i've just sideslipped on my heel-edge down west bowl. in my preferred version of events, i dropped in like a rockstar and everyone bowed down to my greatness. in reality, yeah, little bit chickenshit.

just after the photo was taken i made one more turn, caught my edge like a rookie and tumbled all the way down the slope. smooth.

thank you loads to fabel for not photographing that part of things.

i love this picture, and i love that it's of me. it's a treasure.

i hope that fabel keeps up with the photography- i'm a firm believer in self-motivated artistic something-or-other. i know that writing has kept me sane since the teenage rebellion kicked in- and let's face it, i never really rebelled besides all the angsty writing i did. having an outlet of some kind enables sanity, and at this late stage of my teenage rebellion, i need all the sanity i can get.

that's why i'm doing my best with the blogging.

blog is a funny word.

that is all.

secret:

in contrast to my last post, because despite being all high on karin-love (hey, i'm only human), i just have to send a non-constructive and incredibly negative statement boldly out into the world:

fuck you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc0mxOXbWIU

amen.

happy birthday karin

dear karin,

i know this is a week overdue, but i have been busy searching for the perfect cake picture. it's not easy you know, not almost as easy as actually making you a cake...

blog cake is just so much more digitally satisfying (karin appears to be one of my blog's biggest fans, dare i say only fans, and thus she has well and truly earned this dubious honor).

karin, i am going to go a big mushy one and tell you blatantly to your face: i love you.

you feel like someone i have known my whole life, rather than just since november when you got into town. i hate to even consider what my life might have been like if janice had not randomly chatted up lisa at the gym, resulting in the miraculous houseful of swedes we managed to trick into being our friends...

i think the mark of a true friend is someone who makes you feel the most like yourself. it is a rare pleasure to meet someone who doesn't lie, or exaggerate in the slightest (haha), who doesn't make you feel any need to buy into all the bullshit that so often hangs about groups of people in towns like whistler.

i admire you for many different things: your outlook on life, your sense of humor (basically, i like that you laugh at my jokes), your ability to create delicious baked goods ... also, i should not neglect to mention that you are the raddest skier on the mountain.

plus you're pretty easy on the eyes...

you always make me laugh, but better yet, you can stop laughing and listen to me seriously while i whine about my pitiful existence, like when boys don't like me back, or how my boss is crazy, or the dryer being broken (and that was just today).

i have so much more i could say, but really when it boils down to it, i admire, love and respect you. i hope to know you for a long time. i hope to make you my wife and bring you to australia.

i wish i could have been there for your birthday, but instead all i have to offer is this blog, and the promise of a ring one day. or maybe not. maybe i will try and make this cake.

or maybe not.

lots of love with all my heart to my beautiful karin <3