hiding in the mountains

has it really been so long since i have last written in this thing? so crazy! so much has gone on, and so much is always going on that it is hard to find time or motivation to do anything beyond what is necessary. some of you receive my email updates, and i try to send those out at least once a week. if you don't get them but you would like to, just get your email address to me somehow and we will work it out.

so, things here have been great - i love my job and i love the people i work with. i am not super close to anyone really, but i have some people that i feel know me better than the others, and that is always nice. i live in a cabin with 5 other girls, and it is always a blast! honestly, it is nothing but the grace of God that keeps our cabin peaceful and fight-free...6 girls is a lot of girls to share one room and 2 bathrooms! the weather is finally warming up - it is now in the 50s most days (and then every once in a while the temperature drops and we get random snow days...!!!) so i can wear my chacos! hooray! i have missed those guys like you wouldn't believe.

a couple of weeks back we took one of our groups (from texas - holla!) on a ski trip to monarch and i decided to hit the slopes with them! most of the other staff also went that day, so it was a lot of fun. now, i like snowboarding. a lot. i have never gone downhill skiing and have been snowboarding before, so i strap on a board, despite my clumsy nature and everything i know about the sport any myself when i am on a board. the day was great, i was on a board for 7 hours with no problems. then comes the last run of the day. you know, the notorious one. the one right before the lifts close. the one where you are tired and your legs are shot but you are going to get your money's worth dang it! well, i totally ate it on my last run and broke my wrist. i thought it was just a sprain and i tried to board down the rest of the mountain but it just couldn't happen. the great thing was that i was going down the slope with brandi, our nurse! so she stayed with me until we made it to ski patrol. so, long story short, for the past almost 4 weeks i have had a cast on my arm and i have been a lefty! i am getting really good at writing with my left hand...everything else i pretty much did with my left hand before i broke my wrist anyway. now i have a hard splint (which i got 2 days ago) and it is essentially like a cast, the only difference is i can take it off to shower. i am still not allowed to do anything with my right hand, but i went rappelling as soon as i got back from the doctor ;) nothing to it, just went down left-handed!

right after i broke my wrist i got sick for about a week - i was really nauseous and was put in quarantine in case whatever i had was contagious! it is not good for illness to spread around camps! i got out of quarantine on a saturday and then the following wednesday i got hit with a pretty intense case of food poisoning...i threw up 9 times in 10 hours (i didn't sleep much that night)!!!! it was ridiculous. but i got out of quarantine from that this past saturday, and now things are great!

today another group of kids comes in, and we will be busy for the remaining 5 weeks of OE! it's pretty exciting that kids are coming back, because for the past several weeks we have been doing staff training (and due to illness, i missed 8 out of 10 days!). like i said, there are only 5 weeks left of OE! it's so hard to believe that i have been here for 2 months. how on earth did time go by so quickly? i am excited for summer, though. this summer i am going to continue working at redcloud as wilderness staff (basically i will be a backpacking guide in the rocky mountains - yess!!!!!!) and it is going to be awesome! adam and risa, 2 fellow OE staff, will also be doing wilderness with me this summer!

well, i need to get going, but i will honestly try to keep this updated on a semi-regular basis!