whipped cream

That was the best snow I've been on in a long time. The sun was out in Lake Tahoe on Friday, the sky was clear and the view was great. There was about an inch of fresh snow covering hard packed snow underneath. Saturday morning was like a blizzard! We started off with a thoughtful warm breakfast, geared up then were hit with high winds, lots of snow and freezing cold! But by 3pm the weather started to clear up and 2 friends and I were lucky enough to endure a 30 minute hike to the Nevada side of Heavenly. We were pretty much the only ones there, riding over fresh untouched powder. It was like dipping my board in whip cream, soft, fluffy and smooth. Those few runs within an hour made the whole trip worth it. By 3:50pm my hands were numb, nose dripping and my body was hating me, but we just had to squeeze in one more. You know you had a good time when your body is ready to go home but you just don't care. I took a nose dive on my last run 'cuz my board was sinking into the powder (oh, cry me a river). I wished I had enough speed to make it all the way to the Gondola, but that fall actually felt good.
That night I paid for all the fun with so much pain that every move became a work out.

Sunday morning we cleared the place by 12 noon, thanks to all my friends for lending a hand with clean up, helping to eat all the left overs and being swift to pack up. Or maybe I shouldn't thank them 'cuz we might have been able to leave later and miss the 7 hour traffic.

Either way, it was so nice to get away, be with your friends, have fun on the slopes and if you didn't lose money at the casino, it was a pretty cheap trip.

Sunday night: My bed never felt so comfortable.

swoosh swoosh

4 more hours of work left. I can't wait to get out of here. I've been training hard for the slopes this weekend. Been working my "core" muscles as recommended by Fitness Magazines and strengthening my legs. It's going to be so fun

Good Bye May

After much debated paired with my indecisiveness I decided to bring my first Guitar, which I named 'May'. =( poor May. She served me well for 5 days but for the same price, I could get a better guitar. So I packaged her up and brought her back to Costco. After a short transaction with the cashier, May was carried away and gone. I turned around and walked briskly back to my car, raced down to Guitar Center in Santa Clara and happily lifted up a Fender G-8s beginner package. I ran my fingers through her strings and she sounded much brighter and deeper than May. Without much thought, I made my purchase. I shall name her Eve. I would have named her Lilith, but she's not exactly my first guitar, so Eve it is. The strings are much easier on my fingers too and she looks much nicer.

After a quick walk through DSW I drove around the block and went for Korean food with some friends. The food definitely added some weight to all of us in the end. But the bill was surprisingly light on our wallets. Korean House on El Camino, my next favourite dinner spot.

My first GUITAR

I purchased my first guitar this past weekend. I've always wanted to learn how to play! I'm so excited that I really don't know what to do. Really.

I pick it up every hour and I run my thumb through the strings, what else can I do? I don't know how to play. I'm planning on getting some DVD's or go online to learn the basics. I hope to get a song down by the end of the year. Until then, my roomates are going to have a field day with me strumming non-sense for the next few months.

I'm looking forward to playing a few songs at our staff retreat down at Aptos in January. Singing by the campfire and what-not.

Grant money

November 3rd, 7pm. I received a call from the government grant ****** program. The lady explained the selection process through her heavy East Indian accent and busy background noise from her office. "you can use the grant money for whatever you choose to. The $8,000 is yours and you can use it to pay off your loans, your car, your house" House? what's $8G going to do for a house? "the money is yours for whatever you want but hopefully you will use it for something good" She repeatedly explained. "You are a Citizen and are paying taxes right?" "I'm not a citizen" I responded suspiciously. The whole time I thought it was my Canadian student loans officer calling to ask if I was deferring my payment or am I going to pay up! "oh you're not? but you do pay taxes right?" "yes, I do" "then you're qualified. There's a lot of background noise can I call you back?" I was driving home and she called back after 5 min as promised. "So, this grant is yours to use for whatever you want blah blah blah accent accent accent but we need to transfer the funds directly to your account so it ensures the money does not go to the wrong person. Do you have your account number on you?" NO "do you have a cheque book on you?" NO "oh, do you have a receipt or something with the digits of your account number?" NO, getting a little frustrated I told her to call back after 2 days, I might know if by then. " oh we have a deadline to meet, and we need to finish the case by tonight." "why are you guys working so late? And you're located in Las Vegas you said?" I questioned. "well, we're just working for another hour" I can't believe this was happening to me! I read scams all the time on the email, but for this to happen to me and to know that they found my cell number and has my office address, that's messed up!
She called back at 9:30 pm after an hour as promised to see if I managed to retrieve my account number. I didn't think they'll call, quite persistent! I kindly declined my $8,000 grant which I would have received directly into my account to use towards whatever I want, but hopefully for good cause such as paying off my tuition, car or HOUSE? @#%@#???