Now that I have gotten that old post out of the way, let me update you. I am still rather undecided on how I feel about the snow, however, I know I don't mind it enough to prevent me from doing another winter season. I actually have learned I'm comfortable enough with it that I may continue doing winter/summer and only have a few weeks off rather than an entire winter. It's one of those moderation things. I like the downtime, I love visiting home. But too much is too much. I like to watch the snow falling, I hate driving in it. I like that snow brings me work, but walking through the snow is a pain, especially when it builds up and you're stepping through to your knees or when it ices over and you're walking like a penguin to avoid falling on your butt. But it's pretty. It brings me work. And as I said before, it's not as negative as I thought. It doesn't trap me. It won't kill me. So I guess it's not so bad. And maybe one of these winters I will let Chris teach me to snow board. Maybe not. We'll see. It hasn't been forced on me as I feared it would be, so I'm all good. The job is a job. I won't complain too much because I could go on forever. Basically, if I come back to Mt. Hood I will not be reapplying at Meadows. Furthermore, I will never hire a bunch of high school girls when I get my own place, nor will I be shy to discipline and fire when needed. Not overdo it, but not doing it at all is just silly! I've met some cool people though. Some you wouldn't expect up here. Met one girl who is a lift operator who doesn't ski or snowboard. That was quite interesting to me. And she's super sweet. Made me some earrings. They're black. I haven't gotten any new piercings or tattoos. I have a few piercings on my list before I get any new ink... Chris is dying for new ink. He only has this outline of a tattoo that his artist passed out while doing. Apparently when he went to the bathroom just before starting the tattoo he did drugs. Passed out cold on poor Chris. And that's why I'm careful about where I go and who I let do work on me. Also - that was a long time ago, things have changed in the tattoo world. Breathe, Mom. Now for what's on my brain lately. Summer. I have applied in Yellowstone of course. And I hope I make it. I always miss Yellowstone, and I have some amazing friends over there. One just got promoted. This summer he'll be assistant location manager. I'm super excited for him. He'd be a great manager, especially of such a broad spectrum thing like location. Problem solver, make sure it's all smooth. If I went back I doubt I'd be working in his location though. Meanwhile, I also applied for the Grand Tetons, Crater Lake, Glacier Nat'l Park, and this little bitty gold mining town in Alaska called Chicken. I REALLY hope I get that one. Sorry Yellowstone, I love you but this would be SO cool! Look up pictures. Google it. Chicken, Alaska. It's like three shops on this old fashioned looking 'main street' kind of thing. Chris and I applied to work in the diner. Needed one cook and one supervisor. And it said specifically it's looking for couples preferably. It was hilarious though because the apply here was email us with all pertinent information including a resume if you have one. No application. Just 'hey hows it goin'. Ah hah. I don't have a passport so if we got it we'd have to fly to Fairbanks and they would provide us with transportation from there. No car for a summer, but Fairbanks is a five hour drive away from Chicken anyway. Where would I go?! Beside, a season car-less would probably be good for me. Beyond those places, I'm planning on a few more. There's this amazingly cute island in Michigan - Macinac, I think. Technology-less. I've been wanting to learn to ride a bike. They have horse drawn carriages and bikes on the island, that's it. And apparently a lot of seasonal work. Since it's not a park or a vendor or anything I would have to apply specifically to the restaurants and diners there, most of whom supply housing from what the informational site told me. I want to apply to a couple more places too. Oh, and very exciting. We found a website that has seasonal jobs WORLD WIDE. So once I get my passport, maybe I'll do a summer in New Zealand, doing what I do here. Cool, right? My background is currently a beautiful picture of wherever it is Chris really wants to winter next year. We've both got lists. Almost like a bucket list. I want to work Telluride once. I think the place on my screen is somewhere in Canada. I love this time of year, and it comes twice for me! Change of seasons is so exciting. Applying to new places, looking at all these incredible places I could be. Waiting to see who gets back to me, where I get accepted. And then CHOOSING where to go! I imagine it is for me kind of like how Christmas would be to some. It's so much fun. My favorite kind of anticipation. As tacky as it sounds, it's even better now. Finding someone as restless as me, who HAS TO get up and go every six months. Who wants to be somewhere incredible, to be able to say "yeah, I didn't just visit I LIVED there" I really experienced it. It makes things so much better and easier. All the bad kind of anxiety from going somewhere totally new totally on my own is gone. Now it's an adventure like it should be - shared. Every experience is better when shared. It reminds me of a choir concert with the flow of energy. The choir is energized, and focused and amped up from the conductor. The choir feeds the energy to the audience who returns the energy mixed tenfold with their own, and the choir takes that returned energy and gives it to the conductor who amps it up and channels it and sends it back and so the cycle goes. Shared experiences are like that. Experiences are experiences. They can be cool.... but if you have someone to share it with... You become the choir, the the other person becomes the audience, and the experience is the conductor. Makes sense, right? I'm super stoked about the change of seasons. It doesn't help that I'm kind of rather done with this season. Ready to move on. Getting restless. Surprising, right? Okay, I think I'm done. My mind is wandering... I think I got out what I wanted to get out. Thanks for listening. OH, and as a last note - if you've got a great idea for the blog name change, let me know. Thanks!!

Hello again, world! I have once again been reminded I have a blog. Riiiight. Well, a blog that needs the name changed. I'm no longer in Yellowstone, and I'm doing a winter season for once. But the blog must go on (Thank you Queen). It's still the life and times and adventures and thoughts and ramblings of a potentially certifiably insane woman, but now she's been let loose. :D I don't want to delve too much in without first posting the one I wrote up a few months ago back when all this winter-stuff was newer to me. What I will do, then, is post the old one with this intro and then hop back on and post a new one fresh from today. They might sound a little... out of sorts with each other, but I have a feeling most of mine do anyways. Enjoy, I hate the snow. But… Let me rephrase. A bit more forgiving, perhaps? I have not learned yet to love the snow. That sounds better. More positive, and we all know I love pretending I’m positive. Willamette Valley. Salem…. And more, of course. Other than one BIG snow storm that left us with six inches (if) on the valley floor and shut down half the town, we get a rough estimate of a half inch a year that melts by noon. Still, even then, even if it’s just coming down and not sticking to the streets, these white flakes of frozen water wafting oh so casually through the air will succeed in shutting down half the town. Including schools. I was raised, it seems, with this socially provided stigma against snow. It stops the world. It is cold and wet and keeps you in doors. Not enough to play or build snowmen, it just ruins your day. Now, at 23, this stigma is deeper rooted than I would have believed. Goaded by many friends who live all four seasons, including a winter with snow, I finally decided maybe I don’t hate the snow. How would I know? I’ve never REALLY experienced it. A measly half inch that shuts down a ditsy town, that’s not experiencing anything. Thus, I find myself on the mountain. Above the snowline. And I just tried to uncover my car. My car is not uncovered completely. However I did knock off enough snow that I can stand on the banks now leaning against the car and the top of the car comes only to my waist. I broke the broom I was trying to use. My fingers went painful then numb. And finally I could really do no more. So I came back inside. Frustrated. And back to the thought that occurs to me at least once a week and usually closer to once a day. I hate the snow. But this entrance is startling. It’s mid-experience. Not even! It’s only been ALMOST a month. Unfortunately we all know I wander off from my blogging. I don’t realize people read it. They do! And this information quite pleases me. I am used to my ramblings going unheard, and typically I believe they should be. To share my experience, however, is totally different. I am quite thrilled I am able to share my experiences and people not only DO read my sharing, but WANT to. So I shall attempt to pick back up my blogging. I believe it’ll be good for me. Channel my frustrations into something more coherent. So shall I recap? My old job at EP was awful. I got my friend to replace me and I am quite frankly bemused that he can’t keep up with a pace I found gruelingly slow. He’ll learn. He says he enjoys kitchen work - I can’t wait until he actually tries REAL kitchen work. It’s not easy and he likes a challenge. I think it’ll be good. Anyway! I got a new job. Decided setting down anywhere really wasn’t going to work for me. 3 months in and I was already restless. Winter, however, means winter jobs. Means snow. What the hell, right? Who knows! I might like the snow after all. Just give it a shot, Charlie Brown! It’s pretty, after all. Meadows takes me on. Deli cook is not an experience I’ve ever had so I’m down. A small chance to work on my management skills as a lead. A chance to work on my customer service skills since it’s an open “kitchen.” I find a place to live, as I said, above the snow line in a town small enough to make my last place of residence big. Small enough to be comparable to Lake area - or most areas in Yellowstone. One or two bars/restaurants, coffee shop, general store, a few inns and hotels, and a few sport stores. For good prices or selection you drive about thirty minutes down the hill - out of the snow zone. I like small towns, believe it or not, so it works. Oh - and I bring a boy with me. Of course. As most of my great follies start. At first it was cold, but it was pretty and as long as the stinging cold didn’t fall in my face it was ok. Not much on the ground but ice in the morning. As it came down thicker I tried my hardest to find it charming. For a while I even succeeded. It can still be walked through, and the quarter-mile trip to town was nice. I like the chance to walk and even through the snow I COULD walk to town. Now? Now after trying to clear over a foot, probably over two feet of snow off my car, snow built up so high around the stairs that I cannot FIND the bottom stair and there is only one way to walk to get to the road, and stingingly cold flakes of blinding frozen water never ceasing to fall from the constantly grey skies I find optimism hard to maintain. Walking to town - or anywhere - now requires putting on what Chris calls “Crampons” which are snow chains for my shoes. Walking to town is so much a chore that I have to force myself to go. I only manage trips to town keeping in mind a firm idea that I WILL have fun when we reach town. With the optimism that the amount of fun will be enough to counterbalance walking carefully in chains through piled up snow. Bundling up like a child to keep from freezing and being all too aware that even if I’m warm once inside a building the snow on my shoulders, arms, and legs will melt and I will be wet and then inevitably cold. It’s seasonal. I LOVE seasonal. I LOVE the people you find in seasonal places. And truly when I am warm or forced to admit it I will confess I am happy for the experience. You know, in the same way you’re happy for the experience of chopping off your fingertip with the meat slicer. Now you know. You know what it feels like, you know how to properly deal with it in the future, you know what you did wrong to GET it, and you know you don’t like the feeling. But you wouldn’t know if you hadn’t done it, would you? Chris, bless his heart, is trying to teach me that snow isn’t bad. He gets so excited. Look at that car all piled in! Look at that beautiful powder! It’s so pretty, lets go for a walk. At the very least he is slowly but surely teaching me that snow doesn’t necessarily mean I’m trapped. One of my biggest dislikes about snow is that I feel so trapped it’s scary. I’m a restless soul. Gypsies soul. However you’d like to phrase it. I’ve never done well being chained to one place. Ask my Mom - I get restless fast. Have to go somewhere, do something, SOMETHING. With that knowledge of my personality, it shouldn’t be hard to imagine that feeling trapped is one of the worst feelings in the world for me. I end up shrinking into myself fighting urges to cry in frustration and desolate desperation and depression. I end up lashing out and being more bitchy than I even realize. It’s not good. And even though he doesn’t know it’s that bad for me. Even though he doesn’t know he’s even doing it, by forcing me out of the house and by maintaining so much enthusiasm he is helping me realize snow doesn’t mean trapped. Necessarily. I do need to be better equipped. Better prepared. Having never needed anything for this kind of harsh weather I never acquired anything for it. I’m making do, as I usually do, but if I/we do a snow winter ever again I will be ready. So that’s my rant and ramble. Hopefully ending on something that sounds cheerier than I feel. Something that sounds more optimistic than I can actually manage at the moment. If nothing else, I think, I can at least hibernate. I can learn how to hibernate winters in books and craft and work… We shall see. Wish me luck! And thanks for listening. ~Cat