Thinking About Tomorrow

Ever since winter began I've been dying to give snowboarding a try. Well, to be honest I've been dying to do a million things (not the least of which travel - I'm still convincing my family that my twenty first birthday should be spend cruising the Mediterranean: Greece, Spain, Italy, France, Turkey, and when I'm done cruising just continuing on to biking, backpacking, or whatever other mode of transportation strikes my fantasy for touring across Europe). I might further add that my favorite travel destinations have become somewhat of a burden in the fact that most travel companions have their hopes pinned on more Westernized countries (I can't even get half of them to glance twice at Africa...). But refocusing on snowboarding, I've been scouring online yard sale sites and thrift stores, checking the used and new stores alike in search of equipment. I've done my homework, I've read up, listened up, and I'm beginning to understand what makes the sport tick. There's something about the idea of learning to maneuver across the snow like a pro that appeals to me. Meanwhile the house begins to fill up with the warmth and smells of baking increasingly the closer we get to Christmas. I always say I alternate years for Christmas enthusiasm. Every other year I am thrilled to death when the winter holiday rolls around, and the years in between are sort of something I muddle through. Shh. My Lego club is one of the highlights of my week these days. The kids are brilliant and have jumped in wholeheartedly. They look forward to the meetings, and it's taken only a few meetings for them to get warmed up and chattering like old friends. I'm proud to be coaching a club that is a great memory and learning experience for them. The Alaskan winter this year is becoming ridiculously warm. It took forever to finally snow, and even now we haven't gotten a solid set in of snow. None of the bodies of water around are fully frozen, and it continues to rain (freezing rain) between every snow. I hear the locals chatting casually about global warming, and I can't really blame them, especially in light of all the flooding down in California. I'm not committing to any theories here, but things are definitely beginning to warm up a bit around here. The online yard sale groups are the kind of odd addictions that creep in on you. At first you're just sort of curious and scornful of the ridiculous sellers with their skewed ideas on the true value of their items; but as time goes on you begin to get an "eye" for finding what you want and knowing what a good deal and a good seller look like. At least that's what you tell yourself to justify all the time you're spending scouring the overpriced, overused pieces of crap you can find on the sites. Every once in a while, though, you find that one item that totally makes it worth it. Yard Saling is a lot like Pinterest in that sense I suppose: You're always most ambitious when not directly faced with the task of making your ideas a reality. I'd like to think my sense of style has improved since spending time on Pinterest, but I'd be lying blatantly if I said my level of craftiness had increased... My music interests recently have grown a bit more varied. Rather than the typical popular pop, I've become interested in a bit more metal, rap, classical, etc. An interesting thing I've noticed about screamo is that the stretching of single notes is surprisingly similar to opera/classical type songs. If you have the tune to do it, you can actually sing the verses of a screamo song in a dramatic lilting voice that fits within the parameters of the song (even if the sound is totally hilarious). Speaking of strange renditions of certain musical pieces, I've recently become somewhat of a Thomas Sanders fan. Not only is he completely funny and cute, but his singing abilities are somewhat impressive. I like the turn the musical culture has taken toward raw vocal feats. It reminds me of the parkour fad, in that it takes raw bodily talent and practice to produce a result. The activities are something you can display with nothing except your own body. After quite a few years of idolizing individuals who could work with a objects and devices, today we celebrate the power of the lone human body, pure natural healing, the basics of everything.