Just throwing that out there to begin with. Anyways, I want to tell you about my week, we can start at Monday because on Monday we had a snow day. I know your probably thinking YIPEE! SNOW DAY! NO SCHOOL! But, the problem was that I was planning to miss my class on Monday to go snowboarding then use all Tuesday to prepare my project.
Well, you cannot go snowboarding on a snow day first of all for two reasons:
1) The drive to the mountain would be horrible, traffic on 476 N because people are scared of the snow. They do not seem to realize that you are fine if your in a straight line, which the NE ext. is. It is only when you turn or have the desire to break that problems occur.
2) Everyone, their Mom and their friends are on the slopes. Sitting on a chair lift in heavy snow and winds is not fun either but anyways.
So I went snowboarding on Tuesday at Blue Mountain, it was amazing. I left around 530 in the morning because I wasn't sure what the roads were like up there. I arrived around 6:45 (yeah, a two hour drive in an hour and a quarter, the wind was to my back and I masted time travel a few days ago).
I was the first one with a lift ticket, and first one on the slope besides ski patrol. Regardless I was able to make first tracks on three different trails! YEAH! And this was good snow too, it was actual powder, things that I had only seen once a decade in PA or when I made trips out West to go snowboarding every few years or so.
No lift lines, I didn't even share a lift with another person until around 10:30 which is when people started to come. I left at 12:30 because I only bought a morning pass (college students are poor you know). The wind chill was crazy early in the morning. It was 7 degrees with 15 mph winds and sub-zero wind chills, but it was worth every second, I just wish I had more than a t-shirt under my jacket.
So then I worked on my project Tuesday night but was dealing with some things that got me distracted and for some stupid reason had the idea that I was not going on Wednesday because everything would be pushed back a day. You know what they say about when you assume right? eh... google it.
So I was ill prepared Wednesday but I was given an extension... AWESOME! Wednesday night I went home to help clear out the rest of the house for my mom using my muscles and a plastic snow shovel that no longer is flat on the ground.. ugh. But, my favorite thing about winter at my Mom's house is that we live in the valley and a lot of snow blows into the valley and just sticks at our house. The dogs love it, I love it and it is super sweet. The sun hits our roof and our driveway but that is about it so we get killer ice cycles all over the place which I love seeing. It is like all those paintings and pictures but living on the East Coast you don't see it much, at least around Philly.
So then I get back to school Thursday evening after doing work with my Dad and helping my Mom. I find myself a little downtrodden because I realize that I am horrible at power point so I youtube power point tips. I made my power point which ended up being 40 slides, and I mean full slides of at least 6 bullets each! I only have 15 minutes to give my presentation. (Also, I was planning to wear a kilt because it is Irish History class but that didn't work out because it was too short and I showed a little too much leg... and its winter I don't even have a base tan SHEESH!)
Anyways, so I decide, I am going to pull an all niter and get this done no matter what, but to prepare I need to go to wawa and get a hoagie. (its now 12:15) and I have 20 slides but they all look like something a 3 year old put together, oh why did I not pay more attention in high school when I learned to make a PP presentation?!?!?!?! Anyways, 2 am, I decide to take a power nap, 3 am I am up and ready to go. I kill a liter of Mountain Dew and chew on some gummi bears (that combination has gotten me through many all niters and long drives through the night) .
It is now 5:30 am, I have 33 slides that are packed, 4 are title slides with pictures that accent the topic quite well if I say so myself. BUT! It is Friday, 5:30 am on Friday Jesse and I go to the YMCA to lift weights (you might recall from my Monday post about my morning trips to the YMCA). So we head to the YMCA, I am going on 1 hour of sleep with a hoagie, bag a gummi bears and a liter of mountain dew in my system, I am running on some sort of power that cannot be seen or understood. Somehow not only am I awake and active but my times on my cardio and my strength output has all increased. I added 200m to my 5:00 row. I didn't feel pain in my shoulder for the first time, since my PSU Delco hockey injury, while benching. I added 20 lbs to my bench press in a week. (And I didnt get to bench on Monday).
Then we finish, I ran a mile then hopped on the rowing machine again and added another 200m onto my 5:00 time and this is after lifting for an hour and running a mile at a #10 incline! Then i come home, here I am 2 hours later my presentation is all done, by the grace of God I got it down to 53 slides with 3 title slides. Over the night I have read over 50 printer pages (10 pt font) full from different resources. Killed a highlighter. Drank a liter of Mountain Dew, a pack of gummi bears (the Haribo Gold-Bears ones in the Gold pack... the best) drank 2 liters of water, re-did my slide show 3 times, spent some time with God in prayer and reading and lifted weights. I am going strong and still have a lot of energy as I wait for my 11 am class to start... and it is only 8:55.
But on a side note, do not procrastinate and do not consume mountain dew and gummi bears at the same time if you plan on lifting weights and doing heavy cardio. Also, if you want to read something interesting look up The Rebellion of 1641 Conspiracy Theory... no joke, some of those theories are out there, but still were entertaining to read.
