Another January in Blogville

I just realised that today is the 2 year anniversary of "ohtanninbound"! For some reason this not-even-remotely-auspicious day causes me to reflect on the past 2 years. Reminds me that 2 years ago I was in Iqaluit and hadn't even started the journey to medical school. One year ago I was in the thick of things, in prerequisite hell, with still another semester, an MCAT, and summer session yet to be completed. Thankfully that part of my existence is behind me. As my friend Kate told me last August--just write "2007-2008" and draw a giant line through it, it was a write off...don't think about it. Which for the most part was true. There was a lot of stress but there was still some great highlights like the trip to Europe, the small amount of time I actually got to spend in Revelstoke, the Valhallas hike, my road bike...

Today I slept waaaaay in. So much so that it makes me wonder "what the hell is wrong with me?" Every time I'd open my eyes I'd see the large snowflakes landing on the trees outside, finally after over a week without snow. It is one of my favorite sights, and it caused me to smile a little to myself and fall back asleep.

I continue to be in limbo while I wait for my place here in Mountain Town, dividing my time between the Stephen/Kara house and the Jerry/Francesca/Isabelle house. Working in two different ER departments, in two different health regions. One ER is the typical population with the usual woes found there: abdominal pain, drug seekers, chest pains, sore throats, and lots of elderly people admitted to the hospital stuck in the ED.

The other ER sees the casualties you'd expect find at the bottom of a mountain that has 20-30 000 people skiing/snowboarding on it during a busy day: crazy fractures, traumas, lacerations, head injuries, sore joints...and a smattering of the aforementioned presentations.

I move into my quaint little one bedroom in a couple of weeks. I cannot wait to officially unpack my duffel bag until September. 10 months of couch surfing is simply too long.

On the recreation front, the skiing this year has been...mediocre at best. The best snow so far was in Revelstoke after Christmas. So instead, I've been keeping myself busy by hanging around the climbing gym and attempting to boulder (I suck), getting back in to yoga (I was flexible once), and counting down the minutes on the elliptical (thank you meniscus that is keeping me from running). So it has been a bit frustrating. But I have to just keep reminding myself...the hardest part about sports is getting back into it. I just have to suck it up for the next 6 weeks or so and then I won't feel like the kid who gets picked last in gym class.

But as I write this, the snow continues to fall...so maybe...there is a ski season left to be salvaged after all.

Next week the letters for Canadian med school interviews come out...I start the mailbox vigil sometime mid Feb. I'll try and not think obsessively only about those letters. Cross your fingers for me...Calgary....Calgary....Calgary...

008-License To Poonce

We decided to take a break from skiing today and headed to the craggs for our first day of climbing this season. Basically it was a pooncey day all around. We all ended up having our asses handed to us by the rock. But as John says, even a bad day of climbing is a good day. And in that regard I have to agree with him.

How can you tell we're in Europe?

Here is a 5 year old girl climbing routes we were too poncey to try ourselves.

My first climb. I realized partway up that running is not how you get ready for climbing season...

It was a great spot, very family oriented. Almost all the other climbers had tots with them in various stages of development. Most of the kids were on the rocks too.

John's still got it...

Here is John and Henkka having a rock skipping contest. Still trying to determine who the alpha male is among the two of them.

Here's Hennka doing his first lead of the season. He rocked it.

To our delight, we discovered that we do have talent in one area. Eating lunch. Hennka packed a gourmet picnic which we enjoyed on the banks of the Rhone. Included were three kinds of cheese, two choices of mustard, two varieties of mayo, two types of meat, a baguette, pickled chanterelles, avocado, arugula, blood oranges, three kinds of chocolate, and of course, a bottle of wine.

The Rest of the Best

April 14th 2007
We took our yuppie-mobile to Pentiction for the Fest of Ale. Erroneously believing it to be a local beer tasting event we contemplated maybe having to dress up, asking each other questions like "do you spit at a beer tasting?" and "I wonder what we get for cleansing the palate?" In reality it was more of an excuse to catch up with our super fun, talented, and greatly missed (by me!) friends James and Verena who were volunteering for Crannóg Ales. Once we arrived we realised that it was more of a "chug-as-much-beer-as-you-can-before-seven-and-try-to-score" kind of event. The crowd consisting of 'barely nineteen' girls, frat boys, old alcoholics, bikers, and a smattering of uptight looking professionals. We weren't sure which category we wanted to fit into. Attire seemed casual to say the least, as ample skin exposure provided spots to stick "Mike's Hard Lemonade" tattoos and the men wore shirts like "I Like Chicks Who Like Chicks", "For My Next Trick I'll Need a Condom and a Volunteer" and our favorite, "The Liver is Evil, It Deserves to Be Punished".

We hung around the pulled pork vendor so John could get his meat groove on and bought mostly Crannóg ales, as "Backhand of God" stout and "Bogtrotter Brown Ale" were our favorite bevvys. Did a lot of people watching and hung around James and Verena while they worked. All in all, entertaining but as the decibel and drunkenness level rose throughout the afternoon we decided to split before it got ugly(er).

Went back to the Sandman. Napped the rest of the afternoon and realised when James, Verena and Arron showed up around 7:30 that we must have all reached adulthood as our only aspirations for the evening were to eat salad and get a good nights sleep before climbing at Skaha Bluffs the next day.

April 15th 2007

Had a gorgeous day. Enjoyed watching John climb. Also enjoyed getting spanked by the rock my first day out since January. Yep. Gotta love it when you can't make the first move on a 5.7!! Sometimes Gneiss rock is not so nice :) Saw Verena and gang laying the smack down on the routes around us and was entertained by the fact that if you really want to freak V out, try and show her your fallen off toenails! Hee hee. Found some entertainment in nearby climber who was bragging to his girlfriend that he could climb a certain route in his flip flops it was so easy--only to watch him have to be lowered down after 2 moves. Whoops.
On our way out some young lads were climbing one of Guy's routes when we saw a flash of legs and chalk bag to whizzing buy which yells of "dude that was a whipper", "wicked whipper man!" and "dude, did you check my whipper?" Ahhh young 'dudes'.

Dinner with John's sister Deidre, Robert and baby Liam was lovely. A postprandial trip to the park showed me that John can have just as much fun on the monkey bars and slides as a 15 month old can!

At Lennie's urging we bought a bottle of Mateus and had our white-trash-night-out in a cheap motel as gut rot and rumblings did not seem too conducive to camping that night.

April 16th 2007

Got up nice and early, nearly received 3rd degree burns from wired *Bucs barrista who (accidentally) flipped a large cup of boiling water in my direction. After jumping out of the way to only a soggy foot and spray on the joggers she said "well at least it was only water", John mumbling "10000 degree Celsius water". One apology from manager and free coupon later we trucked out to the Bluffs again, only to find it windy, overcast and chilly. So we wimped out and went wine tasting instead!

Mission Hill is swanky and the tasting folks were nice but Quails' Gate Winery was more fun and their Pinot, Ice Wines, and Gewurztraminer all kicked anything we tasted at MH out of the running. We stocked up and headed home. To our favorite livingroom in the world, Anne Marie and Ryan's. John hoping to cash in on a dinner invite proved to be successful and we dined on shrimp tacos, spaghetti squash and chocolate turtles. Couldn't have been a better bookend to a weekend of wine, food, friends, oh...and frat boys.