Education

It is officially that time of year. When winter is not nearly done and summer is so far, far away. I'd love to say great things about this winter, but it is my lowest energy season and is hard to stay motivated during this time.

Snowboarding has been a very rewarding and challenging part of winter for me for the past two years, but this year in particular, it's been rainy more than snowy, making the weather conditions on the mountain quite bad. Last weekend there was finally snow on a Saturday! It was so cold but incredibly awesome to actually have a powder day. I got the chance to try out a new run that hadn't been open for the first half of the season, and it's amazing - more backwoods and much more of a trail than the ominous Big Blue.

Work has been incessant this season. I try to balance leisure and out-of-work life, but it is hard not to just want to work all the time, knowing that without putting in extra hours, items are just piling up. I try to focus on the mission of my work, to learn to fall in love with it all over again, and to be responsible for my own morale and motivation. I'll be traveling soon, which will be motivation enough to get my office in order.

Reading has occupied so much of my other time this winter. After down time afforded me the chance to get back into reading during Christmas, I picked up the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series while traveling to Colorado and absolutely absorb it all. I am baffled by how detailed the stories are and enamored of Lisbeth Salander. From Tom Wolfe to Wally Lamb to Luis Alberto Urrea and now Stieg Larsson, I've noticed how much I love a strong, young female protagonist written by an old(er) man. I am almost certain I could never write a male protagonist - I really have no clue how men think and would never feel I could do the character justice. The one downside to all this reading is that my imagination is depleted in that process.

In between sleeping, eating, working, riding and reading, I am pretty much flexing every muscle I can to stay sane this winter. Still, the cold feels somewhat immobolizing to me, and if it weren't for more chances to snowboard, I would give the weather gods the okay to wrap this season up. Summoning my own summer means that I have to keep pushing myself to move forward, to expand my thoughts and renew my spirit no matter the sludge outside.