One hand typing stinks!

Well my title should explain the lack of updates. I've haven't forgotten about the site. It's just a pain to do it right now. I'll get back with you all later. :-/  ¶ 5:17:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

  We didn't end up leaving at 9 pm like we had planned, but we still got there before noon. We had decided we were going to ski on Wednesday so we were all set to pay another $60 for the rentals for wed because we already had lift tickets for wed as a part of our package deal. Well, when we got to the rental place and started talking with them. They told us we could pick up our ski's we had already rented for Thursday- Saturday starting at 3 pm. Well, that was a nice surprise to us because we were planning on doing the night skiing that started at 4:30 pm anyway. So we were pretty happy that we got to save $60. Then after that we checked into our room early. Katie and I got the nice master bedroom since Ryan Hill and Jen had the master bedroom last year. The condo was a nice 2 bedroom, 2 bath plus foldout couch and full kitchen.

The next morning we all wanted to hit the slopes first thing, but Katie and I were the only ones that got up and ready in time in the group. So we headed out by ourselves and we were the first ones down the slope! All freshly groomed powder just for us. It was clear blue skies and sunny! We headed over to the Widowmaker lift and since we were feeling comfortable on the blue slopes, and there was hardly anyone on the slopes early, we decided to try our first black diamond bright and early. Katie made it down without hitting the snow. I lost a ski (I didn't really fall, just clipped out of the ski). Then on our second try, we both made it down without any falls. We met up with the rest of the group later and started taking on the rest of the mountain. Just all greens and blues but having a lot of fun.

Now in the weeks before the trip I had been watching all kinds of skiing and snowboarding shows on TV. X-Games, Warren Miller TV, Bluetorch tv, so all kinds of real professionals doing real stunts and tricks. Just looking plain cool. So as I started feeling comfortable riding all the slopes I started looking for little jumps on the side of the trail to do. Mostly they were small (under 3 feet) bumps people made by riding next to a tree or a giant pile of snow. We were having fun trying different ones. I had even learned how to do another trick by turning around and then start going down the slope backwards. Well, around 11 am on thursday, I was feeling good and took one of these side path jumps pretty fast and for reason did a forward flip off it and crashed my left shoulder into the ground. Just stopped right there. No sliding. I still had my ski's on and the poles in my hand. The first thing I thought was that I had broken my collar bone since I had broken my right clavicle when I was about 12 (I think). But, I was able to raise my hand above my head with it only being sore. I was thinking "wow how did that not break my collar bone?" I couldn't put any weight on that shoulder so it made getting up off the snow difficult. I had to do the lay face down in the snow method then do a somewhat one handed push up method to get up on the ski's again. I skied down then after feeling the bone and having nurse Katie feel it. We thought maybe I only bruised the bone and the surrounding muscle. So I did a couple more runs (greens with a small blue section). Then carried my own skis back up to the room for lunch. But, as I tried to take my jacket off my left arm I heard a pop. I got dizzy and the pain came flooding in for a few seconds. That pain went away after I laid down for a little while. Katie went to the Health Center and they gave her the name of a doctor at the base of the mountain who could take X-rays and gave her a make shift sling. Katie came back and made an appointment for me at 2 pm on Friday to see the doctor. So, I just laid back and tried not to move. When Friday morning rolled around we found out the whole mountain was closed for skiing. There was a big rain/ice storm and there was no skiing and worse, the doctor couldn't make it into the office. I just spent the whole day in bed trying not to move. I wasn't hurting it’s just that I could feel it moving around. In my head I would go back and forth with what it might be. Sometimes I thought I had somehow dislocated it, without breaking it because I could move it but it didn't hurt. Most of the time I thought it was broken and I guessed I had a high pain tolerance. Now my friends I was there with thought it was nothing. Why I don't know, but they were guessing I wasn't really hurt badly. That night that took some Tylenol with codeine that Michael had plus I used the sling and we all went out to eat.

The next day when I finally got to go to the doctor as soon as a nurse saw me she said yeah that’s broken. The doctor said the same thing but also said it wasn’t very serious. I’ve included a couple pictures of the x-rays. So now it will be five weeks before I’m fully healed they said. So for the rest of the trip I just stayed in bed and rested. Luckily they also give us some pain medications so the car and home was tolerable. Katie ended up having to drive the whole way home. So now I have to do a whole lot of things one handed. There aren't a whole lot of skiing pictures since I skied for one evening and one morning. But of the skiing pictures we do have I'll share those later.

  ¶ 1:53:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Hey, this is Ryan. Taking back my blog! I read Matt's blog, please people don't let him fool you. He wrote that stupid poem he read to the Hamburgler.  ¶ 3:29:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Hahaha With Ryan Skiiing and enjoying the snow. It is my chance to the control both blogs!!! HAHAHAHA  ¶ 1:56:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Skiiing in Snowshoe

Well tonight we're heading off to Snowshoe to go skiing. Katie and I are leaving St. Louis here after she gets off work tonight, then we're driving through the night. Mapquest says just under a 11 hour drive. So if it takes 13 with weather that'll be fine by us. We should be leaving somewhere around 9pm CST and I slept all day today so I'll be fresh for the drive.

We're staying at the Mountain Lodge Condominium right in the main village. We can't check in until 5pm, but we hope we can get into it early, we did last year. But the plan is to get there in the morning and start skiing, then check in when we can and then maybe go back out again later too. :) Ryan Hill, Jen and her brother, Mike, are all driving up from Jacksonville tonight as well and we're going to somehow meet up with them. At least we know we will meet them in the room that evening. It's just more skiing and then we leave on the 8th.

I'm going to be taking a bunch of pictures and I'm going to try to take some video this year. My skiing goal this year is try The Cup run. Other than that it's to come out healthy. I don't mind crashing at all, I just don't want to break something. Now I've got to knock on wood, throw a pinch of salt over my shoulder and do every other superstitious thing so I didn't just jinx myself there. ;) Other than that I'll show everyone some pictures when I get back. Please don't mind that there won't be any updates till I get back. Adios!
  ¶ 1:09:00 PM 0 comments links to this post