~ achey breaky body ~
As this day is Super Tuesday, I might as well begin the blog post by telling of my experience seeing Presidential Hopeful Barack Obama in Boise this past Saturday. For those who missed it, it's available here. Obama was not originally scheduled to speak in Idaho. Something about our mere 23 delegates and the heavy republicanness of the state may have compelled his campaign to go elsewhere. 'Elsewhere' was actually Utah, where the suddenly scheduled funeral of the Mormon President for the same day as Obama's pre-scheduled speech resulted in the campaign's reschedule to Idaho.
Obama was scheduled to speak at 8:30 a.m., with the doors to the stadium openning at 7:00. Logistically, it was difficult for me. The winter months have always proven to be particularly difficult for me in the way of getting out of bed. And on my days off, I really like sleeping in. While others I know got up at 5:00 a.m. to line up at the stadium, I remained in my comfy and cozy bed until the late hour of 6:45. I then trudged to the stadium in the snow and icy sidewalks, arriving around 7:20ish. Other people who go to a lot of mass-attended events have a better understanding that if one wants to attend an event that will be attended by a butt-load of people, that it is wise to show up really early. Personally, I'm not so enthused by these mass-attended events. So anyway, I arrived way late and the line was so incredibly long that there was little possibility that I could have gotten inside. Or, maybe I could have gotten inside, I have no idea. But, I do not particularly enjoy waiting in incredibly long lines, in the cold, when it is snowing, by myself. Not my idea of fun. And then I thought about the prospect of sitting in a swarm of 12,000 people in an enclosed space, and gave up on the event. Josh had his own little misadventure, and we met up and went to his place to watch the speech on live TV. Here are some blurry photos of the TV screen.
I must say that it was amazing when he came out and I realized that a presidential candidate was taking time in his schedule to come to little Boise, Idaho and speak to an overflowing stadium. Word on the street is that the stadium was at capacity (I think around 12,000 people) and that there were a lot of people who couldn't get in and stood outside during the event, and then plenty of other people, like me, who abandoned hope of getting inside and watched it on live television.
Later in the afternoon, Josh and I ventured up the mountain for some nordic skiing. As I have successfully indicated previously, Josh and I are novice skiers. When we arrived on the mountain, the wind was blowing fierce and threatened to ruin all skiing adventures. As a result, Josh and I had a conversation with the people at the lodge desk about what trails they would recommend. They advised us to go on the lower trails, particularly The Flush, to avoid the wind. And so we did. And it was a lot of fun. There were uphills and downhills, twists and turns. Josh and I both fell a number of times (at one point I fell rather hard and was concerned that I may have injured myself. But the snow was soft and all was fine. At several of the intersections of other trails, we were quite confused as to which direction we ought to travel, as the trail signs were not very meaningful. We later realized that we had gone way off track from where we were intending to ski and had skied the "most difficult" of the Lower Loop Trails. This would most likely explain some of my frustration at the steepness of some of the hills. I clearly need a skillz lesson, as I cannot grasp how one skies uphill without resorting to some rather awkward and clumsy movements. On one of the hills, I actually removed my skies and hiked up it. Below are some photos.
At some point nearing the end of our skiing adventure, the temperature dropped significantly, the clouds gathered overhead, and the wind picked up and caused the trees to sway and the snow upon them to crash to the ground. When we finished skiing, we returned to the lodge and sat for a while, eating some snacks. From the large window overlooking the parking lot, Josh and I noted that cars had formed a very long line to get back to Boise. We decided to wait a while for the traffic to dissipate. Fifteen minutes later, I realized that the bumper-to-bumper traffic had not moved. Everyone in the lodge speculated that there must be a crash on the road back to town. Incidentally, I am of the opinion that the one and only road leading between the mountain and Boise ought to be revised. As it is, in the winter it is quite dangerous, and the frequent car accidents cause significant traffic jams. After about 45 minutes of waiting, the cars seemed to be moving at a somewhat regular pace. It was, however, evident that everyone was trying to leave at the exact same time - - most likely as a result of the severe winter storm that had quickly picked up. I put my foot down and insisted that we leave, as I was hoping to avoid driving the road in the dark. I'm not super enthusiastic about driving dangerous icy mountain roads at night. So we get in the car and start heading down the mountain with the other hundreds and hundres of cars. Prior to the halfway mark, traffic stops. The wind was blowing hard, the snow was swirling around, and the roads were becoming ice-ified. We wait, and wait. We hypothesized that there must have been another car crash along the road, which wasn't surprising considering the road conditions. We waited about a half an hour before traffic moved about half a block, and then it stopped again for about 20 minutes, half a block later we waited for 15 minutes. The weather outside had become rather severe. It was completely dark. We could feel the car sway in the wind. The snow and the fog created a massive white out and it was impossible to see more than 10 feet ahead. When the traffic finally got to moving, the conditions outside were so terrible that I existed in a high level of anxiety for the duration of the drive into town. It took us over two hours to drive 16 miles. It was horrid. Horrid, horrid, horrid, and it made me feel reluctant about going up there ever again. Ick.
At present, my body feels like poop. In addition to being sore from the exertion of skiing a "most difficult" trail and falling on said "most difficult" trail, I am also in pain because yesterday while I was walking to work, I slipped on some black ice and landed with the full force of my body's weight onto my elbow and hip bone. I am longing for the summer.