The day I threw up

So I figure I'm due for a new blog posting. I actually had planned to do this a few weeks ago, but the federal reserve was staying at the hotel I work and live at, so our internet was pretty much useless. But I'm back and ready to go. An update from my last post, Ryan is doing really well. He is actually in rehab back in Houston, so I can't visit anymore, but I'll be keeping in touch. He is continuing to walk and talk and pretty much blow everyone away

.

I was thinking about what to write about in this post. I wanted to catch you all up on my life for the past almost four months, without writing every single detail. I decided that the best way to do this would be high-lows. For those of you who weren't in the octagon high-low's are when you take a few minutes to share your high point and low point of the week. I'll just share a few of the highlights, and lowlights, of the summer.

High #1- Learning to drive stick shift.

I've always had this a one of my life goals. For some reason manual transmission just seems a whole lot cooler that automatic. It actually came pretty naturally, except for when I stalled out in front of my friends....

Low #1- Filing.

The reason I am out in the Big Square States for the next year is because I have Human Resources job with Vail Resorts. This is really cool because Vail has properties in beautiful locations. This is also cool because I studied HR in school, and I now get to use what I spent four years in college learning. This is NOT cool because HR requires a lot of administrative work. And the people at the bottom of the totem pole (read: Will) have to do a lot of filing. This has gotten a LOT better over the course of the summer, but the first few weeks were not so fun.

High #2 Homemade Chinese food.

I actually had to take a break in the middle of writing this post because I had some friends over who made me homemade authentic Chinese food. One really cool thing about this job is that because we are a seasonal only resort we have employees from all over the world. China, Taiwan, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Spain, Russia, Mexico and Jamaica are a few of the countries represented. This evening some of my friends from China came over an cooked authentic Chinese food. It is definitely different from American Chinese food, but its delicious. Highlight: They boiled chicken wings in pepsi (which was surprisingly good).

Low #2 Snow in June.

It snowed here on June 13th. Enough said.

High #3 Biking.

I've gotten into biking since I've been out here. I recently got my own bike, so I don't have to beg or borrow them off of people anymore. I hope to bike down to Moose and back (yes there is a town called Moose. And incidentally town is sort of a strong word. There is a gas station and restaurant in one place, and they named that place Moose.) which should be about a 45 mile round trip.

Low #3 Food

I love food. Really love food. There are not a lot of food options in the park. Its about a 45 minute drive to Jackson, which is a nice town, but is missing a lot of the essentials. I mean, let's be real, they don't have a Q'doba or a Buffalo Wild Wings. In their defense they do have Chinatown which makes pretty good Chinese food.

High #4 Business trip

I know that most people don't like business trips because they have to take a lot of them, and they don't like traveling, and they have to leave their family. But since I'm already away from my family, and I have never really been on a business trip before I think they're great. I'm currently in a Starbucks in Denver where to they flew me for MAP (the program I'm in) orientation. In about 2 hours my boss will pick me up and we'll drive to Vail where I'm going to be certified as a Vail trainer. I'm staying at one of our RockResorts (our luxury brand) which is probably the nicest hotel I've ever been to. Its called the Arrabelle and you can check it out here: http://arrabelle.rockresorts.com/.

Low #4 Altitude

So I am born and raised in Virginia, and with the exception of a few short moments I have basically lived my entire life at sea level. Moving to Jackson where the elevation of the lodge is 6860 was a pretty big shock to my body. At high altitude you have to drink a lot of water, which for the first 3 days I didn't really do. On day three I went to orientation, where a number of our Jamaican employees and I were learning the ins and outs of the property. The whole morning I had felt a little off, but since it was only my 3rd day at work I didn't want to call in sick. I sat through the first half of orientation and when we had a break I decided I needed to step outside and catch some fresh air. When I got outside I almost immediately realized that was a mistake and I actually needed to get to a bathroom immediately. I started hustling back to the door, and just when I got to the group of Jamaican employees outside talking I threw up. 3 times. It was mortifying. I had to go inside and explain to my boss that I was sick and needed to go home. Everyone thought that I was hung over, and no one know me well enough to know that with the exception of one ill-fated wine tour (thanks James Morrissey) I don't drink that much. It was a really great way to start off a relationship with a new employer.

Hopefully a few stories will help everyone get a feel for what life is like out here. Hopefully my next post won't take quite so long for me to write, but I'm not making any promises.