Everything in nature goes south in Winter...so why do we go North?

So since it appears that my job has become intent on me never seeing my apartment ever again (selling envelopes is HARD), I have some time to kill to thank all of our friends who made this New Years one of the most kickass in history. Although my liver may never again recover. And I know we joked a lot about losing brain cells throughout the week...but it's mostly because we lost so many that we couldn't think of anything else coherent to say.

We continued the Virginia-New York coalition (otherwise known as the Southern Aggression, or Uncivil war) by driving me, Geoffrey, Kelly and Jenn up to Hunter Mountain in upstate New York. Throughout the week, we were joined of course by Tracy, and about a dozen blue-tongued, cougar-miming, sometimes British and sometimes Mexican New Yorkers.

We started out the week with some quality outdoor activity, like tubing:


Of course, when we signed the release of liability forms, quoting possible "catastrophic injury," we all laughed, but that was before I asked the guy at the top of the hill to "spin me" and instead he launched me directly off the track, screaming down the uphill portion at 30MPH. After plowing through 2 signposts and stopping only by colliding with some unsuspecting tuber, I found I had taken a hook to the eye.

Ouch.


Luckily we had- was it Jack or Julia? Chilling in our yard to help ease the pain:

Lisa, Laura and I were quickly given the opportunity to prove just what squealing little girls we are when the "chalet" we were staying in proved to have a rodent resident:

Pretty sure if we had petticoats we would have lifted them.

I also made some of my specialty, jello jiggler shots, though they went especially quickly when we made the first and second place winners (Lisa and Tracy) finish the two plates on the table:



For some reason, though, Lisa and I felt the need to stay up progressively later and later each night, so when most of the group went skiing in the beautiful fresh snow New Years Eve:


instead, Lisa, Ann, Tom and I woke up at approximately 3PM and scrambled to find something outdoorsy to do before the sun set. After finding 500 phone numbers that all led to the same "not-working-today" dude in Hunter, we finally found an open and operating location where we could take out snowmobiles...kind of slowly, though I still managed to almost tip off the track more than once. But man, we looked like badasses:

But of course we had a sober New Years, and had no fun at all.








Somehow, New Years day, we actually got up early enough (maybe had something to do with the fact that we- by that I mean I- didn't watch the sun rise the night before) so a group of us finally got out skiing for reals.
Look- it's Lisa not falling down!


We had a blissed out full week of no cell phone reception and no rules other than Geoffrey (aka "Dad") attempting, to no avail, to suggest that we get to bed by 3 some night. The final night, Geoffrey, Jenn, Jo and Laura created the story "Nemesis," which, if you want the recap, set aside 2 hours of your day and be prepared with tissues when Katie the evil vampire queen is killed. It's a tearjerker.

I, however, joined Kelly, Lisa and Ann in a night of poker and a game I created called "drink" (when someone says the work "drink," everyone drinks...if you want a copy of the rules email me). For some reason, this inspired arm wrestling.

I'll lie and say I won.
Round two might not have been the best idea though.


Every good week needs a few proper injuries.

New Years resolution: sell more envelopes!