Monday, Monday - It was all I hoped it would be....

Forgive the title of this post; as we were driving home from our excellent Snowboarding adventure and using the satellite radio we were listening to the 60's station; this song (Monday, Monday) came on. My husband and I just started singing this song because in all honesty; this was a wonderful, wonderful Monday of all Mondays ever! By far the best big powder day I have ever experienced or at least in long, long time!)

This post will indeed prove that life definitely goes on for me despite all the bad news my doctors give me about my state of health. We will see the power of my mind and positive thinking and how far and how long it will take me on this journey.

I decided that it might be cool that for every snowboarding or any dangerous adventure I go on; I will be sure to post something incredibly hillarious whether it be a story, a video, or an email I receive from a friend. I wish to have the last laugh always!)

This Alaskan storm that has swept Northern California has been a great one! I sure have enjoyed watching it. Check out the snow on Mount Hamilton here in San Jose. You can just imagine the excitement it has created in my house hold. We always know when it snows here; we are getting pristine fluffy white powder just hours away!)

Now we watched this storm so carefully; we had initially planned to leave on Saturday then on Friday evening it became apparent to both of us as we watched the traffic cameras that this was the start of a busy, busy President's Day weekend. It would indeed take us many, many hours to get where we wanted to go due to this also being Valentine's Day & of course the start to President's Day Weekend. On Saturday, we watched the storm some more to find that they were predicting heavy winds for Sunday. From all of our years of going; most likely most resorts would be put on wind hold due to those extreme high winds (been there done that!). We sure know what it's like to be stuck on a lift being blown around like a flag several stories up! The visibility for this day wouldn't be much better so lucky for us; so we waited to leave until after 5am on Monday morning. I drove the first leg and it wasn't so bad; hubby was a bit grumpy as he usually is waking up so early in the morning. He just isn't a morning person no matter how hard he tries to be.

When we got to Murphy CA (heading to Bear Valley) we swapped places (driving) and we got our lift tickets at the Murphy Hotel, Bar & Saloon in order to avoid the long lines that could be at the resort.

The drive was slowed down quite a bit by a man driving a brand new beautiful blue Toyota Tacoma 4x4 that perhaps he had forgotten that his truck had 4 wheel drive or maybe he was just very frightened to push that four wheel drive button to engage. What would he do?

He didn't drive above 21mph and mostly averaged about 16-17mph and we were a little more than 30 miles from Bear Valley. We were about the 21st car in line (behind him). He just couldn't figure out how to engage the 4 wheel drive in his brand new truck or so it seemed. We passed maybe 12 turn outs where he could have pulled over to figure it out or he just liked holding up 47 cars (no one for miles was in front of him). As we were driving so very slowly as my hubby was burning up with frustration. I reminded him that we could be at work but instead we are merely just driving very slow in this snow storm.

Finally about 1 hour later and about 24 miles later; we were finally able to pass him and were surprised that his truck did not have chains as we had suspected. We could see that bright blue truck 21 cars ahead of us (I counted=I was bored enough to= I counted all cars affected) but figured that he was scared that he would break a chain but instead scared of all the snow and messing up his brand new pretty truck.

We finally arrived to Bear Valley and was able to pass another very slow driver and actually made better timing behind a mini van which was a first for his and with chains no less. We drove past the area where parking lot attendants were pointing us in the direction to park; we drove past them and continued to VIP parking. It was $20 to park up close but when we opened the window; a very cute dog sitting in my lap smiled and greeted the attendant selling VIP parking that he gave us a $5 discount= only $15. Good Kharma!)

We parked the SUV (Ford Escape) and since there wasn't a whole lot of cars entering this particular parking lot; I took Miss Blue Belle to run and play in the fresh snow next to the parking lot. She loved how the snow felt as she plopped her fluffy body onto the fresh powder snow. She dug her nose in and blew as snow went everywhere! With that, she jumped up onto her feet and ran around and poked my leg to get me to run. I guess she felt the need to herd me.

Here is Blue Belle's video I made for YouTube. It was tough finding a song so I just picked something abstract and hard to figure out in case of weird licensing issues. I'm not planning to make any money from this video and it's for pure enjoyment and bring others joy in this world. If the artist of this song is against that; what kind of a person are they? The quality is not good enough for someone to dub and sell; so I think I should be OK right? I kinda feel that Perry Farrel would not have a problem at all with me as many concerts I have seen with him. I've actually lost count of all the Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros shows I have been too. Many of my friends in SF have performed on stage with him over the years; I haven't met him but can tell he is incredibly cool and has heart.

Ok enough about Perry Farrell; on to our snowboard Adventure! We were able to board on the kinds of terrain that really got my stomach and gave me this almost drug in that it was so much fun; there was so much powder that it came up to my waist. I made the mistake of stopping going down this hill; I had to dig myself out and try to get started again. It took lots of strength; I lied on back once I had dug the snow out and then unstrapped my right binding to get some footing. After all that I just lied there and then closed my eyes and imagined all of my strength killing cancer. Boy that inspired me to work harder and I got out of that situation and decided then and there that I will not crash again. That was hard work. I finally got the strength to put the binding back on my right foot and reached as far as I could to get the board over my head and back over (backwards somersault) and back on my board keeping the nose of my board up and not down as to dig back into that waist high snow. I looked down this mountain and drew a line where I wanted to go; with that I headed down really fast; the wind hitting my face, the beauty of nature's storm as my speed gave me that feeling that I was a kid again riding on a roller coaster. What a feeling!


I kept going fast and watching out for little kids and adults who too had gotten stuck in the snow. One young girl was about to do just what I did when yelled for her to lean back and keep the nose of her board up. I kept going right past towards a little rounded edge that looked like a mini half pipe. I hit it with great speed as it shot me right up into the air (only about a foot if that) but it felt like a rush of adrenaline as I landed and kept going. The snow just sprayed in all directions as I continued to imagine this whole mountain being cancer and I was conquering it and winning this fight. I had my ipod on my snowboard mix of songs and each song just got better and boarded to the beat of the music and has many many flawless runs. I took mostly the black diamond runs since the snow was literally up to my waist and to get stuck in some flats was just hard to work. I lost count after 10 runs; I just continued to have a blast. I stopped and had to deal with my bowel problems through out the day and was thankful to have brought my Hemi wipes. Yes, I was going number 2 in those nasty bathrooms but not to worry I was armed with supplies to handle such a feat. I had my hemi wipes, Red Cross Antibacterial washless solution to clean the toilet seat with the addition of using one of those doilies to help wipe the seat clean, then a doily to sit on. I made the mistake once of washing my hands in the ice cold sink but not again. I would use my antibacterial lotion to clean my hands and then use those hand dryers to warm and dry my hands. This happened a few dozen times. I would do 2-3 runs and then go get the runs and then back up for more runs and back down more more other runs. Having those Preparation H Hemi wipes made the world of difference between having raw ass; OK I will stop from there with out my shame. It's the truth and I toughed it because I am so very thankful my bottom is still working down there. I also tried to imagine my intestines healing from all the fun; everything I could think of I tried to will my insides to be working again.

I also would go out to see Miss Blue Belle again and again and again; actually we both did. We had a few wonderful, excellent runs together; my hubby and I!). One run felt just like an orgasm! It was that extreme addiction I have to that adrenaline rush of riding down the mountain flawlessly; hitting little jumps here and there as we both chased each other into the trees for more fresh tracks, screaming, laughing and whooting! Yes we were being silly and uncontrollable as we had more and more fun together. I landed some really fun jumps and even did a grab on my board as my brother had told me to try the next time I went snowboarding. I did everything he had described to me and it felt so awesome!

My husband quit boarding around 1pm because his feet were hurting and he was feeling a bit winded and of course the visibility was not so good for him. I told him I would only do a max of 3 runs. My ipod just kept playing one good song after another; so much so I just could not tear myself away from the mountain. I just rode to the beat of the music and hit lots of freshies in the woods and even in the black diamond runs. Every time I had a rush of adrenaline; I imagined that cancer dieing and suffering from all the fun I was having. I couldn't control screaming, yelling and just showing the world how much fun I was having. It just felt so incredibly amazing! It's like I got my battery charged; I still feel great and my body is still working. It didn't matter that I had to go take a dump or pee a dozen more times; I was so glad that my bowels were working anyway. I treasure that feeling always.

We finally left the resort at 3pm and got home after 8:30PM. This charge to my battery will last at least another week or more. I love these memories we make together!)