Less a wrap up than it deserves

I wanted to try and get this down between tasks while I'm buzzing high on a mega dose pot of coffee which I brewed to facilitate actually getting some of my paperwork done, yet here I am blogging... it's a wonder anyone does anything at work with an internet connection.

Friday I left work at 1pm and headed out in search of gloves, this proved hard in mid March Los Angeles. I finally settled on some gardening gloves to wear under a pair of fingerless gloves I already owned. I also bought sandwich provisions. I headed home and Angela and I packed up our various items we thought we may need for snow boarding.
To back up, my brother Devin had purchased lift tickets at Mountain High Resort for the 4 of us as a Yuletide gift, and March 16th was the last day we could use them for night snowboarding.
So having packed up and made sandwiches we waited for Devin and Dylan to arrive, which they did shortly and soon we were off.

Mountain High is only 2 hours from Los Angeles, it was slightly trafficy on a Friday afternoon, but not nearly as bad as I have dealt with before. We arrived just after 5 and sorted out rental and lift tickets, leaving us a couple of hours of day light prior to sundown and night snowboarding. I had not been snowboarding in a long time. Angela had a lot of difficulty at first, and was not having any fun. We developed a technique where I would run about 15 yards down the mountain and let her board towards me, where I would then grab her and stop her from falling or going to fast. In this way we had great fun. After Angela got to the bottom of the bunny slope I would run to the top and grab my board and ride down. Devin and Dylan rode down the easy part of the mountain from the lifts several times while Angie and I played our game. I was impressed at Devin's ability, he's really far more coordinated than I usually give him credit for. As the sun set Angela grew tired and soon retired to drinking in the clubhouse with Devin. Dylan and I then got to go up the lift, my first time for the day. he'd been having some problems dismounting from the lift and our first time up we both fell on the disembark. The ride down was fun if not a bit icy and at times scary. I remembered quickly though how fun snowboarding really is. My second time up the lift after sundown I rode alone. The dark blue sky above me, the grey white snow below and all around me fresh air and only the slightest noise of the lift pulling me along. Peace and wonder. I didn't fall getting of the lift this time, and 2 chairs behind me neither did Dylan. The lift operator actually applauded Dylan, it was adorable. My last run down the mountain was nearly perfect. I was so disappointed to see the lift no longer running when I neared it. I started to walk into the clubhouse but decided to wait around and see where Dylan was. At first no sign, then I noticed a figure 200 yards up the mountain, lying flat, appearing to struggle to get up. Soon I realized the figure was Dylan. I remember the exhaustion from my first attempt at snowboarding. I took off my board and ran with it up the hill to Dylan, I pulled him up, strapped in and we both rode the last bit down together. The drive back to LA was fun, we listened to Radio Lab and talked. Thanks for the great gift devin! The very next night I had a surprise party. I thought I was having a St. Patrick's day meal at Devin's and then going out, but it was a sneaky surprise and it was picture perfect.