Sunday, March 16, 2008

Who knew

Well, folks, I learned how to ski. I started in December while Toby's family was here and learned a ton from them. But something happened last weekend and I really got it. I finally understand the cultural phenomenon of the 'ski bum.' It's a blast once you can do it! I went down more advanced runs and learned how to keep my skis parallel while turning instead of doing the snowplow/pie-shaped ski thing to keep myself going slow. Hurrah! I went fast! I even kept up with Toby. I did fall a couple times, but it didn't hurt nearly as bad as the last few years when I tried snowboarding.

We went up to a resort called Breckenridge. What a beautiful place! We stayed in a condo nearby with 9 of our friends. It was cozy and fun to hang out with everyone and have a break from the madness that is our lives right now in school. We had gorgeous weather and good snow. We didn't get many pictures, but here's one from the top of a blue run that I did with Toby.



And this is our friend Jeremy after he jumped over a creek and landed in a huge snowdrift.



Hope you're all enjoying the end of winter! Welcome spring!

Friday, February 22, 2008

Training wheels almost off

You could call it 11 weeks, or 77 days, or 2 months and 3 weeks...I'm graduating May 10. This means I will be done with school. I will be done with school. What does that mean? It seems weird to me in some way I probably won't explain well. But I will walk across a stage and have a degree. 3 years of soul-searching work and on May 10 I'm done? Hmmm...It seems a necessary ceremony...get dressed up, sit with my buddies, wear my Naropa sash, have my degree confirmed upon me with my family as witness. Lovely. I love the idea of it. And yet I had this moment today where I realized, I am not done. I'm not just going to stop the soul-searching and hard work of learning about my mind and my world. I guess I had idealized graduation to be some sort of release from something. And true, I will not have to go to class anymore or write a paper I don't want to write. I'm free from that. But my realization today is that it's just the beginning. I'm stepping from one part of my life into another. A bardo. A transitional state. And while I'm excited for it - I'm also scared. Scared like when I rode my bike for the first time without training wheels. I'm right about here: