It's not easy being a freelance writer and pro telemark skier

Which one of those identities do you think is real? Since you're seeing a sample of my writing and a glimpse of my tele-turn, you're probably thinking - neither! But give me a break - that's why I'm practicing both arts. They are surprisingly similar - writing and tellying are both painful, rife with obstacles, competitive, edgy, and quite often cold (be it climate or audience). Yet my blind desire to write another story and feather another turn burns on! Thanks for your support :)

breakfast for late dinner

Normally, I wouldn't make pancakes at 10 pm. But tonight I fantasized about pancakes all evening, while I was taking exams, waiting for and riding the bus home. So when the moist, white-chocolate-chip, brown-sugar cake (saturated in molasses maple syrup I might add) hit my mouth, it was extraordinary. I polished off a couple, washed down with a glass of red wine, and now I'm experiencing a sugar-high/wine-coma. Strange. At least I don't have another exam until Monday. For now I'll sit back and polish off Super Troopers on Comedy Central and wait for snowflakes to fall! 

The Postman Delivers...

I liked this thought from a mandatory reading by Neil Postman, former NYU prof. He's talking about how we need narratives to help us understand and process information. Whereas we used to have a shortage of information, today we have "wisdom enough to leech us of our ill...But there exists no loom to weave it into fabric."

"We have transformed information into a form of garbage and ourselves into garbage collectors...no stories to tell us what we need to know and what we do not need to know."

He says we need narratives to give sense to the information. The downside to narratives and other information filters is that they stereotype and simplify.

"I will give you an example. I grew up in New York in a standard Democratic, with a large D, household. And we had a theory which helped us manage information, helped us know what information we needed to pay attention to and what information we could ignore. The theory went like this. Anything a Republican says you could ignore. (Laughter) Now that helps enormously, right there. Now then the theory went on. Anything a Democrat says you should pay attention to, except if the Democrat is from the South, because they are racist and you don't have ot pat attention to them. So, this made one's political education simplified. All theories tend to simplify. That's the purpose of theories - to help people manage information."

As much as I love skiing at Colorado's resorts, I think I'm forever spoiled after our backcountry hut trip south of Breckenridge this weekend. Not only did we wake up to this explosively colorful sunrise this morning (picture taken from my bedroom window) but we then scouted out prime turf for a kicker and jumped for a few hours in lush creamy powder right outside our door. NOONE for miles, and no sound but the melody of our cheers and wipe-outs. Then we skied back down to the trailhead through a thick, narrow channel surrounded by pine. Not to mention the joy of playing Liar's Dice, Uno and A$$hole last night while sipping Franzi, hot chocolate and schnapps and feasting on gourmet hut tacos.

Retail Therapy or Snow Therapy

In light of Christmas season, I'm keeping a notepad dedicated to holiday ideas with me at all times, kind of like a journalist is supposed to keep an idea pad constantly at the ready. Normally I hate Christmas catalogues, but I riffled through Target's today and it was quite inspiring. On those glossy pages, the stuff even looks classier than it does in the superstore.

And speaking of Christmas, today was the first big snowstorm of the season, which for some reason puts me in the mood for Christmas STAT! There are 6 inches adorning our porch and my roommate's bike is covered in soft fluffy pillows of powder. Signing off for now ...

Midnight Rules

I know exactly how George Bush feels. With so little time left (in the semester) you really just want to make your mark before it's too late. So no wonder the President is busy obstructing the green revolution: getting rid of environmental review in relation to fishery management, cutting slack for coal-mining companies who blow up mountians, letting factory farms ignore the Clean Water Act, neutering the Endangered Species Act, and circumventing the part of the Clean Air Act that forces utilities to update pollution controls on every new or renovated plant. Wow! As if hating on the earth weren't bad enough, he's also got some anti-labor rules up his sleeve, making it more difficult for the gov't to limit employees' exposure to toxins and tougher to take sick or medical leave. The New Yorker sums it up best:

"What distinguishes this Administration in its final days—as in its earlier ones—is the purity of its cynicism. White House officials haven’t even bothered to argue that these new rules are in the public interest. Such a claim would, in any event, be impossible to defend, as just about every midnight regulation being proposed is, evidently, a gift to a favored industry."

On second thought, I guess I have the luxury of not being indebted to special interests and not suffering from megalomania. My own midnight rules are more like: try to get 8 hours of sleep, don't blow off final exams to go skiing, shoot for at least one A and don't eat too many Christmas cookies!

Great Grandma's Christmas Cookies

For those of you who make iced sugar cookies over Christmas, you can appreciate my story. During an intense cookie-session tonight, the dough was a bit soft (high altitude?), the frosting was a bit runny (I poured too much half-and-half in) and excessive finger licking landed me with a stomach ache. But it was totally worth it. Oh yeah, if you haven't made the mitten-shaped Christmas cookies, you really should. You can get super creative with the detailing. I do miss the unique flavor of the sleigh, Santas, bells, holly leaf, and star. Still, a great way to toast a month full of yuletide!!