Post holiday bloat

how where the holidays for you?
i had a good thanksgiving day at the Zuleta family home here in Los Angeles.
all the brothers and sisters where there and Lilys mum made a great spread for everyone.
being vegetarian at this time of year sucks!
the good thing about this family meal is that no one over does it on the food department.
i'd had a pretty horrific experience a few years ago that was more like a roman/pirate feast than a family meal.
i ate a lot of side dishes and left the in-laws tired and content.
we got home at about 10p.m and crashed.

up early the next day for the 320 mile drive up to Mammoth
i drove.
after missing the 14 while day dreaming on the 5 north, listening to this American life podcasts, we were soon out of greater Los Angeles and into the dessert.
it was my first time traveling this way and it was stunning to say the least.
the weather was great for driving and we made great time, arriving a little before 3.p.m
we met up with Gail and our other friends who were staying for the thanksgiving weekend
we were renting 2 condos (flats) between the 7 of us.
everyone was already hitting the booze, so it seemed rude not to join them.
that was the end of the day from that point on........
don't believe a drunken cook when they say that the stuffing is veggie......
i ate some turkey and a little sausage on accident and was up all night having a major whitey!.......not fun.
got up early but couldn't face any food(surprise, surprise)and sorted out renting snowboarding gear, and got some gloves and sunglasses.
me and Julie K were dropped off by Lil at the resort and signed up for a first timers lesson.
i believe Julie had been snowboarding before but had not been in about 4 years.
it's better to be safe than sorry......we had about 2 hours to kill before the lesson and kind of just went for it on our own.
Gail and Andrew pointed out the basics and left us to try it out ourselves
it all made sense from my skateboarding days...
it's strange to be running with sweat and know that it is cold and you are on snow nonetheless.
soaked and tired we headed off for our real 2 hour lesson.
Tom our teacher, was a friend of ours and had managed to make sure he got our group.
he's a lovely English gent(....did i just say that?) and he clocked that julie and i had a pretty decent grip on the basics and were confident enough to go up the lift and down the "discovery" slope.
everyone had warned us that getting off the lift would be the hardest thing about snowboarding.......Shite!
the worst thing about snowboarding for me is sitting on those old ski lifts!
anyways, we got off the lifts at the top of the run, and put our other foot in the bindings.
the off we went....
the first third of the run is a bit of a blur but i remember going way too fast and crossing through a group of first time skiers. they were all about 7 years old and i went between the teacher and the group following on behind.i managed to control my speed and come to a safe stop and dropped on my bum....
i thought i'd wait for Julie and Tom to Catch up.....
i got up and tried some other things Tom mentioned blah blah blah...

O.K i fell pretty bad.
i believe it's called eating shit.
my tailbone still hurts 3 days later and one of my ass cheeks is brused black!
i've got some nice whiplash too!

i did love snowboarding and i did really well for my first time.
i've just got to be realistic about what i can do at this early stage....

i've done enough for now.
i'll finish in a little bit
sorry for the lack of pictures this time.
i was too busy living the dream bro............



p.s melvins in 2 days..........