spring

Spring is here this week. After a very hard week with another hard one coming up, Clifford and I got some sledding in today. We went to Buttermilk since that mountain and all of them (except Highlands) are closed for the season. We got to play in slush. It was fun.

So the week started with work Mon through Thursday in the clinic and then a VERY long Thursday night in the hospital. I have been using my critical care skills a lot lately and Thursday was no exception. Then Friday I had a photo shoot for a local magazine doing an article on RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers) and then went to see some friends I haven't seen in a long time. Saw Shinta, Sarah and then Jen and got my hair cut at Jens. Had to return containers that Shinta and Sarah had given me with food in; I love that my friends know I can't cook and give me food. Did some hiking during the day and came home and went to sleep. Saturday was an INTENSE 12 hour Fundimentals of Critical Care course that I hadn't studied for since I was doing so much critical care and had not time for. I was dreading the course but it was fantastic (and LONG with no breaks for lunch!). Got home just before 7pm and Brad had set up Mercy so we could try it out. Took a shower in the house and got rid of a huge tick and then Brad, Clifford and I slept in Mercy last night and it was fun. It will be great on our trips!

Ready for some more work... 50 hours in the clinic this week minimum and then finally 2 days off in a row to catch up. Till next week when it might be winter again...

another week down... doggie uphill

it continues to move between winter and summer with some days in the 70s and some with snow... we didn't go camping last night due to weather, being swamped with work etc... did spend the week as follows... work, music for brad, exercise for me, continuing on my vegan diet etc. brad did take clifford up buttermilk skiing once or twice, i am studying for an icu course next sat, shari was gone from work so those who stayed worked harder etc... yesterday i spent all day fixing a scheduling mistake i made and hopefully that will work out... today clifford and i do the doggie uphill up buttermilk with 300 dogs and 100 other people... it will be AWESOME... brad played "rock shabbot" with "the mazeltones" fri night and is off to vegas today for a conference with his work... other than that not much else new and more work next week...

love/peace and less work than i have to all you out there reading this!

busy week of adventure

This week was full of adventure. After 22 inches new snow Brad and I went out of bounds skiing and I got lost. I had to "post-hole" for 1.5 hours to get out and it was exhausting. This was after hiking Clifford for 2 hours and then I still had to ski out for another 1/2 hour so it was 4 hours of hard and somewhat scarey exercise that day. Taught me a lesson on being more careful. Then we got Mercy (see Pix) our new adventure mobile. We are psyched to take Mercy camping and on lots of trips this year and in the future. Brad also took me out to see Sean Colwin with Sam Bush and John Oates and it was fantastic music. Brad played at the Wheeler on Fri and Sat opening for the music festival. I got to see him on Sat and it was great! On top of that I have a over 100 hour work week I14 hours left and so far Sunday has been VERY BUSY) so it has been adventure filled and isn't over... also it is typical spring here with sun one day then blizzard the next. Never ending adventure and fun.

Jazz

Another busy week at work. For fun I have seen Shinta and caught up with her; this was a long time coming. I have gone out to the Little Nell for a great dinner and to see Paula West sing Jazz. The dinner and the show were wonderful and for the show I felt like I was in a smoke free jazz club in NY. She and her 3 piece band were fantastic. Today I caught up with things I needed to catch up on like changing the sheets, doing laundry, and dishes etc. Also I saw the movie Eating 3rd edition and have made an attempt to go Vegan. It is harder than you would think since if you eat at a restaurant there is almost nothing that doesn't have some animal products in it and even when you go to the store to buy healthy things like hummus etc there are animal products in them. We are so taught not to eat healthy in this country. Other than that, I did an interview regarding my Peace Corps experience that may be in put in a local magazine and in between 2 snow storms (Friday and Sunday) I got to sun bathe on my porch which was AWESOME. I am planning for another busy week coming up at work but with the possibility of getting Mercy (our new Mercedes Vista motor home). Pictures to come IF we get our vehicle.

Recovery...

So had a busy week at work and finally got to the weekend to recover. It is still on-season here and it is full on on-season. Right now in town are folks for fashion week, comedy festival and spring break! Also we have had some deaths in the family of some staff member's so have had to kick in and work extra (yesterday and will next week quite a bit). I have 1 more month of insanity and then 3 weeks of not so bad and then some rest. The next 4 weeks will be intense with many 90+ hour weeks... ughhh... Hopefully after October it will ease up a bit :). Did get to see some local stand up comics the other night and then a round robin of comics on religion... they had a mormon, albanian, jew, athiest, catholic and christian on stage who were all comedians and really funny telling their experiences with their religions.
Other than that life goes on. Hope you had lots of fun and laughter this last week and that next week is even better!
Also... thoughts go out to the people in Japan... may they have the strength to recover from their devastation and loss...

The Boys are in Town...

So this week has been busy. It remains on-season so busy at work and then my father and uncle came into town. I have been having dinner with them every night and got to ski with them the last 2 days. I am VERY impressed with these octogenarians at altitude. They have more spunk than I do. Tonight we had a very pleasant dinner with friends of my uncle's from WAY BACK and it was ALMOST as good as the meal my father made at home last night :). Tomorrow it is back to work for me. I am not looking forward to getting up in the dark again (daylight savings time kicked in this morning) but it is nice to get out of work in the light. Brad went to Crested Butte to see some old friends of his who are fabulous. I wish I could have gone but will see them another time. Their oldest daughter is in Japan and has survived the earthquake and tsunami but looking at the pictures the destruction was horrible. My thoughts go out to those who were affected. Until next week... Peace and Love!!!

Full on "on-season"

Sorry I haven't done this lately but have been very busy. It is truly on-season and will be until the end of April. Work is good except we had a MAJOR glitch in our computer system that was very scary. It doesn't give me much faith in our system which we have been using for many years and spent a lot of money on. Fortunately we did get them to fix the problem and let others know of the major issue they were having with their system. Other than that Brad has taken up telemarking and I joined him trying it. I have had rondenee gear (back country gear for skinning up and skiing down) for years but usually use the system as regular skiis going down. Today I tried using it to telemark. It was interesting but I don't see the advantage over snowboarding and skiing. We also had a friend visiting for a few days and although we didn't get to spend much time with him the little we did was awesome. I had delivered his first baby, Bella, but then they moved out of the state to be closer to his wife's family. His wife and my friend, Cindy, died suddenly within weeks of delivering their second baby, Zeva. Since then he has done an absolutely fabulous job raising the kids alone in a place he does not love but stays for his children to know Cindy's family and in a country that is not his native country (he is originally from Slovakia). I am just honored to know him. He is one of the strongest, kindest, most amazing and loving person I know. Hope you are all happy and healthy and thankful for what you have.