The Ides of March

Let's try and recount the amazingly busy, amazingly awesome time this past week has been!

Last Monday (the 15th) Julie and I had the draft for our Spring Ultimate Frisbee League. My old mentor from last season, Oz, is the coordinator and he helped us go over the rules and such on Sunday night, which was SO helpful. Everyone ranks themselves (I'm a 12 out of 20 for comparison) and you get this huge sheet of names, ages, heights, weights, weeks missing games, and scores. Usually, the highest people get picked first (the highest was a 17 for more comparison) but that person might come with baggage (someone who is tied to them, who you also have to pick, but later). Say we pick a 15 who is baggaged with an 11. At some point, we have to use one of our picks to actually select the 11, even though they are guaranteed to be on our team, but we can't select them until after we pick anyone else higher. So in this example, we'd have to pick me (as a 12) before selecting the 11. Sounds complicated? It was...but we got it. Plus, we ended up with the 8th pick (out of 8...thanks Julie!) so we had plenty of time to see how it worked before we got to pick. In the end, it worked out very well. We grabbed some height, some experienced guys, a few athletic girls, and all our friends: Lily, Justine, and Colin. It should be an awesome season and if the snow EVER melts, I'll let you know how we do.

On Tuesday, Julie and I went to the Band of Horses concert at the Ogden in Denver. Colin was originally slated to go, but has recently changed jobs and couldn't get off of work. Anyway, the band "Co." was the opener and I was very impressed. Pronounced "company," they were a sort of jam-band version of Band of Horses. I loved them live so I bought their album, which was a disappointment. It sounds like it was recorded in a basement and the band played under blankets. Also, it highlights their jam-bandiness which I've never been too fond of.

Band of Horses rocked so hard though. I didn't realize how many of their songs I knew, so I kept being pleasantly surprised. They played a few songs off their upcoming album and had some awesome sets. The pictures don't do it a bit of justice. Also, it was a sold out show so you don't get the sense of how packed in we were. Julie and I found a great place to stand though. It was tits. Plain and simple.

Wednesday brought us to St. Patrick's Day which included climbing and heading out to the bars for a bit. It was a nice crew consisting of Me, TRISHA (yeah...she actually came out!), Julie, Colin, Lily, Justine, Tim (Justine's friend visiting on Spring Break), and Cori. It was the first time integrating Cori in the with rest of us, and I thought it went very well. We met at The Med and waited for Colin to finish his shift then went to the Sundowner for green beer and frivolity. I couldn't stay out too late though as I had a concert on Thursday.

So Thursday I had a Concert Band concert. The previous Thursday I had a Jazz Band concert. I'll start with the latter. I spent quite a bit of time with the choir teacher the previous week learning all about the auditorium and was able to set up a very pretty sound system for the jazz band, complete with solo mics, condensers, and monitors. I was told it was the most professional set-up they had ever had. Personally, I stumbled through the concert due to nerves, but had a lot of fun. The band I was solely in charge of (Jazz I) got a little lost on Manteca, but I was able to pull them through. We got some really nice recordings of the show and I will post them online soon (before the end of break at the least!). And so, I was much more relaxed for the concert band concert. My responsibility, Symphonic Winds, (sophomores and freshman) sounded really nice if you ask me. All three of the pieces we performed were based on choral songs, so I had them sit in a choral formation (bass, tenor, soprano, alto) and I even conducted a piece using only my hands. The students thought it was pretty neat to sit in different spots and hear things from a different perspective. I love that class. Next week is going to be hard because they are going to have to audition for the upper band, Wind Ensemble, and I just want them all to be happy. No one said this job would be easy.

Friday, the snow started. We got pounded with snow all day, but Lily and I decided to brave the weather and head up to Winter Park to stay with Nadine and George and go snowboarding. We met at Nadine's friend Sam's place, got a little high, got a little drunk, and most importantly, scored FREE passes to board all weekend. We continued the party back at Nadine's and crashed a little after midnight. After all, the lifts opened at 8:30 and we wanted to be right there!

We pulled into the Winter Park parking lot around 9:30 Saturday morning and proceeded to try to relearn how to snowboard. Nadine came with and tried to give us some tips, but she wimped out after a few hours...too cold she said. Lily and I stayed on and I had a roller coaster of a day. Every time I started feeling confident on the greens (the easiest runs) I would have a horrible run, fall on my ass (which is STILL bruised by the way), and lose all I had built up. I really wanted to get to a blue run, but couldn't work up the courage. We stayed till about 2:45ish (the runs close at 4), got some ice cream, and collapsed watching NCAA basketball on George's big screen. We had delicious chili and decided to stay for another day of boarding.

Sunday was MUCH better. George is learning to Telemark and he said that I should be able to handle anything on a snowboard he can handle on Tellies. So, we began the big adventure of blue runs. They were a LOT of fun. The views from the mountain are so much more spectacular when you get higher up and George knows the mountain so well that he knew which routes would be cool. I survived my first blue going nice and slow, falling a few times, and had wobbly legs at the bottom. The worst part was when the route turned into a green run and had a long catwalk (flat stretch). I couldn't feel comfortable unless I was on an edge, which slows you down. So, I would lose speed and have to crabwalk or shuffle along till I could strap back in and get some momentum. It sucked. My hardest falls were from falling on those damn catwalks. I had an absolute blast Sunday even working up the courage to do some moguls! Lily and I left around 1 to beat the rush (and she had evening plans) and made it back to Boulder.

This week is SPRING BREAK 2-AUGHT-10! It has been fun so far, but not as productive as I'd like it to be. It is too nice outside. I will let you know how break was at the end and March CDs should be going out Monday...late again I know. Sorry team!