Musing!

I believe that yesterday is one of the best examples of the consequences of my caffeine addiction to date.

On Saturday I decided to give Missoula a miss and head to Discovery with Kate and her friends Justin and Anna and go snowboarding. I even bought myself a new cold-weather base-layer for the occasion; this is only the third time I've ever gone. After waking up at an ungodly 5:30, Kate and I hit up Ruby's cafe for some breakfast. Just as an interjection, I cannot stand half-crispy hash browns...nothing can ruin my morning faster than undercooked breakfast food, except maybe wet socks, a lack of good coffee, or a punch to the genitals. It was a good thing that my socks were dry, Ruby's had cream to cover up the bitter sludge they served us, and Kate was in a good mood. Otherwise I would have given up on the whole snowboarding thing altogether. But I digress.

After meeting Justin and Anna, we started off on the two hour drive to Disco, listening to music and chatting (and occasionally dozing off in my case). I went through the rental process, blah blah, and hit the slopes as best I could. My comrades told me I was getting the hang of it fairly well, but to be honest, I felt like a fish out of water in almost every sense of the word. By the end of the day I had almost gotten the hang of turning, but somehow never figured out how to keep the edges from catching the hard pack. It was interesting to go from the great rush of flying across the snow to the quick and painful realization that my mouth and jacket were full of snow and my head had twisted in a very awkward and painful manner. One would think that after the fifth or sixth time it would stop being a surprise. Even more embarrassing, however, was when I would lose all my speed and end up next to the tree line at a complete stop. In situations like this I could only unstrap one of my bindings and try to do a ridiculously awkward skateboard-esque shuffle towards the crest of the nearest hill. Only in hindsight do I realize it would have been much easier to just unstrap the whole board and walk. I guess my brain was just too tired and cold to work well.

But despite all the awkwardness, I had a lot of fun. There's always a learning curve, no matter what. I mean, hell, last year I could barely muscle my way up a 5.8, and I sent a 5.10b the other day. I've come a long way when it comes to climbing, and I'm sure if I put effor towards snowboarding I could make it a hobby of mine. Too bad I lack the funds...but anyway.

The next day was when I reaped the benefits of using all those never-used muscles. I thought I would be relatively okay since I slackline a lot, but I was sorely mistaken. Even my forearmes were stiff...when the hell did I use those? Oh yeah, catching myself every few minutes as I fell. Good thing I'm a restaurant worker and use my arms and legs for everything.

But here's the kicker; I went to the pantry and found that I was out of coffee. I had work, I was aching everywhere, and there was no caffeine. I ended up working until about 6. Needless to say, I was quite grumpy.