Fantastical Magic Riding Stick

Babes. Beers. and Backcountry booters.

Day Three

So day three. Pretty simple to say that one of my most favourite things in the world is snowboarding. To me there is nothing better. It's simple: being outdoors, high altitude, and (if you're lucky) in the sunshine. You get off the hill at the end of the day and you cannot help but smile, especially if you have learnt something new. Well... really, especially if you've learnt something new.

I got into skiing when I was kid. A young child of 4 my Dad threw me on a pair of ski's and hoped for the best, and he definitely got it. I was hooked! I was stoked on being able to ride down the side of a snow bank and thought I was going to be the next big thing on my skis. By the time I was 12 snowboarding was the cool thing to do and I desperately wanted to be a cool kid and so was my worst day of my life on my board. My Dad was screaming at me at the end of the day telling me to get my ass off the hill, I was too stubborn and I wanted to master the sport in a day.

Turns out you have to fast forward about 7 years of flittering from skiing to snowboarding....

Amazing backcountry pow day in Whistler. 2007.

So here I am 19 years old finished a year of college and not wanting to go back. Where should I pass the time? Big White. 2 seasons on the hill spending all my time snowboarding I had won my first competition and I was shocked and ecstatic. After a brief hiatus I was at Whistler living what I thought was my dream but really I had lost sight of my first love. Drowning in a pool of parties and alcohol I had to get out and dry out. It took me over a year before I would go back to it and remember why I loved it. But I do.

A season in New Zealand and back to my home mountain of Mt. Washington I can't imagine my life without snowboarding.

Today, with a fractured sternum I don't regret any day I spend on a mountain. It's my healthy addiction and I am better and more sure on my feet every day that goes by. Once again snowboarding is tied into friends and smiles, building back country booters with girls and boys. Really, who could ask for anything better?

Wine makes me want to be a better person.

So today out of celebration of my only two finals I would like to dedicate my love to wine.

My love affair with wine began around four years ago when I was in Europe. Before I thought the stuff was disgusting, fermented grapes, really? Apparently I was drinking the wrong wine.

Enter Italy, Greece, France, and Spain.

I was packing up my apartment today and I found my journal from my travels in Europe. Aside from the fact that the journal will never see anyones else's eyes but mine (secrets must be kept), I wrote down everything I had learnt from my trip, and it all seems to be tied together by wine.

You see, everyone I had met, all these experiences I would never have had the opportunity to live would never have happened if it wasn't for wine. This is what brought us together, and for those who needed a little extra encouragement (like me) it brought out a bubbly side, smiles, and laughter. These people changed my life, I changed my life. Really I had went from a sad chick to this person who I wouldn't have recognized before I left Canada. I discovered how strong I could be, and how inspiring so many different people can be if you just hear their story. And these stories were usually shared around a glass of wine.

So raise your glass, I don't care if it's from a 1 euro bottle of wine (yes, I went there and it was amazing), or an overpriced bottle of hootch; this is for the amazing moments we have shared around a bottle and the friendships with lasting impressions and inspiring stories that can change lives.

Lets Start From the Beginning Folks...

This really isn't for anyone but myself. Sometimes writing in a diary becomes boring and I can hear my thoughts whizz by my as I am too slow to get them down on paper. This seems to remedy that issue, as I am a quicker typer than writer.

So where do I start? Everyone knows break ups are hard. Well they aren't usually for me. In fact, I have an amazing ability to get myself through the withdrawal of a loved one and move on to another happiness that may or may not include someone new. Not this time.

It's been two awful months, if this was anyone else I would be occupied with some new fantastic adventure, but here I am sitting on my couch neurotically turning over in my mind all the wonderful new women he could be meeting, which seems like the end of the world for me. I stop myself every five minutes to remind myself that this really isn't worth my time. It wasn't the longest relationship, maybe the longest crush in a while, but nonetheless it wasn't meant to be. Really, when it comes down to it, this guy was probably the worst match for me. I could sit here and discuss how much his laugh annoyed me (it was almost not even real), or how I would have had to accept the fact that I could never buy high heels as long as I was with him, but for some reason that doesn't register with my mind (or heart, or wherever neuroticism derives from). I needed a solution, and fast.

I heard about a person who wrote down 1,000 awesome things and today he his happy, healthy, and a hell of a lot less neurotic that I am. So here is grasping at what I hope is the final straw.

Day ONE:


Today, I am grateful for Chocolate. Yes chocolate. Purdy's chocolate, Cadbury's, Hershey's Chocolate chips, Oreo's, Fudgeo's, chocolate bark, white chocolate, mint chocolate, really anything that is chocolate containing chocolate! If it wasn't for chocolate I wouldn't be a smiling mess.

I mean really we are just getting out of Easter! I have a major stash that hasn't been polished off yet and I am amazed at the constraint I am showing. Chocolate helps people through break ups, that in itself makes chocolate highly used therapy tool. Even though in the end the patient will likely end up fat and slightly unhappy with their figure, they will get there very happily!

So here's to hot chocolate and your cousins. Because if they weren't there, what would give us a sugar rush and a smiling face? A simple smile, a simple start, here's to tomorrow and chucking straws.