Let it snow!

The next morning was COLD…and it was snowing! We decided to head up to Mount Rose (if I remember correctly) to go snowboarding. Jack and April were at work so the remaining four of us geared up and headed out. Who am I kidding? Like I’ve ever snowboarded before. *laughs* April was nice enough to lend me all her snowboarding clothes and other miscellaneous gear but I rented the boots and board when we got up top. Christine was actually snowblading and poor Jeff decided to snooze in the car because he was still recovering from strep throat. *shakes head in disbelief* Luckily for me, there was fourteen inches of new snow so the hope was my crash landings wouldn’t do too much damage to my body.

It took FOREVER to finally get everything on and fitted and snapped and buckled. Then Arlene and Christine quickly ran through the basics of how to maneuver the board and we stepped outside. Into snow that was blowing sideways. I couldn’t see a thing! Luckily, I had the goggle things on. Then came the truly challenging part: the ski lift. ACK! It is some difficult business trying to slide forward in somewhat of a straight line with only one foot buckled in at some semblance of speed without knocking over the other people who were going up with you and getting there before the lift you were trying to get on clips you in the backside. *hyperventilating*

Getting off the ski lift was…an adventure. I think I took down Arlene with me the first time. Ahhh, the feel of plowing snow with my face is one that I will always treasure. Once I got up, I tried to copy Arlene when she stuck her other foot on the board to buckle in. I have no idea how she managed NOT to shoot down the hill which is what almost happened to me. Well, it would have had I not fallen on my butt yet again. At least it wasn’t my face this time. *laughs*

I think my favorite part was hopping with my board to try and get on top of the snow, especially when I managed to do it without falling down or finding myself flying down the hill at some supersonic speed. Oh, yes. When I actually got going on the snowboard, it was super scary but exciting…for a whole MINUTE before I would find myself flat on my back with my head pointing downhill and my snowboard trying to drag half a mountain’s worth of snow along with me. Fun, I’m telling you, FUN! Really though, I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in a long time.

Oh, and then I got stranded in a drift. Poor Christine! I thought she was going to fall over and get herself stuck because she was laughing so hard. I had made the mistake of trying to take a shortcut, not realizing that if other people hadn’t been over that part of the snow it wasn’t going to be packed down. * hmm, apparently Logic was out sick today…* I was stuck with snow clear up past my boots. The only reason Christine was mobile was because she had her snowblades on. She tried pulling me out, she tried pushing me out, I would try to jump up to get on top of the snow and fall over, I would sit down to pick my snowboard out of the snow then I couldn’t get up. We were in hysterics!

‘Leave! Go on without me!! Come back in the spring and send my body back to my mother. The people down at the rental place should have my address on the rental form…’

Finally, I gave up trying to snowboard out of the drift. I ended up on my stomach with my feet up in the air to keep the board out of the snow and combat crawled out of that hole. I think it took me about ten minutes to reach the main drag. Thinking back on it, I guess I could have just unbuckled the whole contraption and walked out. *blush* Oh, well. As long as someone got a laugh out of it, it wasn’t a complete waste. And I would definitely, definitely go snowboarding again. I LOVED it.

The rest of the day was pretty much done. We returned all of our equipment, loaded back into Jeff’s truck and headed home to Arlene’s. There was the mandatory stop for ice cream at Baskin Robins on the way. At the house, I hopped in the shower because I had to get ready for my flight home. Then we were off to the airport. It was sad to have to say goodbye after such a short time together but I’m sure I’ll see them soon. Until next time!

Watch out Tucson, here I come! Oh wait…this plane is going to Reno.

So, here’s the scoop: I had an unused ticket on Southwest that I needed to use by May. Since I couldn’t take any extra days off of work, I needed to go somewhere for the weekend that was close yet fun. And what could be more fun than visiting friends from high school that I haven’t seen since my wedding? How long ago was that anyway? Two years?? Three??? Well, whatever.

Jack and Jeff were more than happy to have me visit. They had just gotten a new puppy they wanted to show off anyway. As it turns out, Christine was planning on visiting the twins too. So we coordinated to have her fly out from Cali around the same time. I hadn’t seen that girl since high school and I know for sure that was almost eight years ago! Gah, I feel old. *cries*

Originally, my thought was to hop on a plane right after work on Friday night and fly home Sunday evening. Alas, plane schedules don’t always match up with my immaculate plans. DARN THEM TO PERDITION! *quivering with scarcely concealed indignation* So I hauled my butt out of bed at an ungodly hour Saturday morning and caught a plane out to Reno at 6am. Or something like that. My mind is remarkable in its ability to block out painful experiences.

I was STARVING by the time I got picked up by Jeff and Christine. (Sadly, Jack was stuck at work.) After coming to the realization that Jeff had no idea where to find breakfast in all of Reno, we ended up at a sports bar. It is truly mind-boggling the amazing things you can discover in the most unlikely places. Bully’s has the most heavenly garlic fries in the entire universe, guaranteed to leave you with breath that could annihilate a vampire. *happily wallowing in garlic stink* Ok, so that’s my own personal opinion seeing as though they make no such guarantee. Unless I missed that part of the menu…

Following a brief unscheduled nap at the house with Soju, the newest addition to the Violette household, we set out for the mall. Unexpectedly, hunger pangs nearly crippled us around 5pm. Either that or it may have had something to do with the miles and miles we traversed at the mall. Not to mislead you into thinking that the mall was in any way large. But we did manage to wander around it for quite some time. Well, maybe an hour or two. Regardless! It felt like forever!!

Jeff was a saint and took us to an all-you-can-eat sushi joint. Yum! I believe it was called Sushi Pier. Lovely place, really, although the wait can get pretty insane. We were lucky though and got three seats up at the sushi bar in no time at all. I had only been sushi at places like Wasabi Bistro where you order off of a menu or places like I Sushi were you snag what you want off the conveyor belt. But this was something else. A flat fee to order whatever you want, however much you want?!? I LIKE IT! The King Kong Roll and the Mountain Roll were my favorites but everything else was good too. Oh, and the mussels! Mmmm.

Next on the agenda: bowling. I was so stuffed I could have rolled myself down the lane. *picturing myself looking something like Humpty Dumpty* Jack was finally off work and Arlene, another friend from SAHS, showed up with her older sister April. Apparently they are all really into bowling and belong to a bowling league. Arlene, April, Jack and Jeff have their own shoes, bowling balls and neat little roller bags to carry everything in. Maybe I should join a league too! It was fun to sit around and catch up with them. Sometimes it feels like no time has passed since the last time we saw each other. I, of course, had to whip out my camera to blind everyone since the camera likes to flash multiple times. I think I may have caused the people in the other lane to bowl a little worse than they might have otherwise. *evil chuckle*

Afterward, we all headed out to a casino. I can’t remember which one it was other than to say it housed Rum Bullions Island Bar. I had never been to a place with dueling pianists. It was fantastic! The pianists were extraordinarily entertaining. I couldn’t believe how many songs they knew off the top of their heads. It was so much fun watching people tip the other pianist to cut off the one who was playing, everybody hollering along with the songs that they knew, hapless individuals or couples who were hauled up on stage in celebration of a birthday or an anniversary…it was NON-STOP!

Arlene and April headed home once we left. But the night was not over yet! The boys had been itching to take me and Christine to the strip club. So off we went to Fantasy Girls with stacks of ones bulging in our back pockets. It was hysterical. Jeff and Jack managed to get us each a lap dance before Jack went home. He had to get up early the next morning to go to work again. I think the funniest part was when the Mexican guy next to me kept sliding money onto the bar in front of me to try and get the strippers to molest me. So I would try to sneak it in front of Christine, to share the wealth so to speak. *laughs* At one point, that guy’s friend was throwing money at us from across the way. And then he ended up buying each of us a lap dance! We didn’t get home until well past 3am.