DIA has free wifi!!!!!!

So excited that DIA has free wifi now, it surely helps to pass the time sitting here in the lonely C concourse. I'm about to board for my second of four flights to Minneapolis, it looks as if there are going to be a lot of people on this flight, many youngsters as well, which could be bad. Right now I'm listening to a van mix that I made a while back, rocking out to One More Time daft punk. I'm definitely getting a few stares about the volume of my music, but they chose to sit by me. When I got here I was the only one in my row save for a couple of birds flying around inside.

I am so ready to be heading home to Marquette, break has been exceptionally long it seems. I know that I wasn't home very long or very often, but a little is all I need these days. I felt bad, M and D were constantly around to catch up and spend time with me, but I just wanted to hang out by myself in the house or town. I don't quite know what's wrong with me that I spend so much time missing my family and home and Colorado in general and then every odd moment I just wish I was in Marquette with my team. I guess that could be normal, seeing as the team is like my second family. I've really distanced myself from the goings on in Durango, have moved on in a bad way I think. I feel that it's healthy to start up a new life where you live, but I seriously hardly wanted to even go skiing with the DNSC. It's like I'm so dependent on my current life that going home makes me a loner or something.

On a brighter note :) I'm super excited for the coming semester and year. Can you believe that it's going to be 2009 in a week's time? We're fast approaching the new decade, makes me feel old. I so clearly remember Y2K and how disappointed I was that we didn't have to/get to camp out in the living room making Spaghetti-O's on the wood stove. We've come so far in the past ten years. I'm living in Michigan, Megan's in grad school, and M and D are doing better than ever. Things I'm excited for in the new year: the race season, the new administration starting the 21st, finishing up my junior year at NMU, getting a good job this summer, and other things including the growing importance that I place upon my relationships and friendships.

Aaaaahhhh I can't wait to get back to my little home and little team. I wish Tim was in Marquette now, but soon enough I guess. Come to think of it, I wish Megan was in Marquette as well.

Alright, it's about time for me to board so I'm going to have to sign off now, see you on the other side!

Caitlin

Markely Motors

We (me and wonderful sister) are sitting in the Markley Motors waiting area waiting for an oil change. It's a nice waiting area, and it's also a wonderful thing that Megan has let me use her computer since I forgot to bring anything to do during the hour and fifteen minute wait, urg. I already walked to the mall, they don't have a GAP, so I walked back to sit with Megan as she studies for her last final exam, stats. Funny thing is we both do the same thing while procrastinating, we get organized. She's been writing in her planner for the past several minutes, have yet to see any studying going down. Oh, we did see a woman in here who was totally a man, oh awesomeness. We went out to a grand breakfast this morning at Choice City, a deli/restaurant/butcher shop. I love places like that, they were playing Dave Mathew's and I had a rather large cup of coffee.

Later today we are going to pick up a Christmas present for the parents, then we are going to stop by Uncle Kevin's for some Christmas cookies, yum. Hopefully the cousins are there. They are going to house sit for Megan while she and Caley are gone for Christmas, instead of paying them, she's going to buy a couple of six packs to stock the fridge, lucky cousins. Lucky cat to have two awesome cousins looking after it. Speaking of which Sebastian is actually a cool cat. He is "feisty," and I let him attack my foot, which is strangely really cute. The apartment is perfect, I love imagining the three of them living in such a cozy place. It's such a poor college apartment. It's really quite different then where I live, and is hard to compare, I might still like 210 W Prospect more, especially when I get my new bed frame and whatever comes in a PBTeen box . . . heeheehee I'm such a Christmas snoop.

So they flights yesterday were really hectic. Both my second and third flights were delayed for over an hour after we had already boarded. I just zoned out and it was fine, but the lady sitting next to be was running late for her Grandfather's funeral, that was bad. Gus was a surprisingly good travel buddy, he accompanied me to my gate across the terminal even though his flight left like ten minutes after mine a long way away from my gate. It was nice to have someone to travel with for at least the beginning part of my journey. I did like the Detroit airport though, maybe I'll try to route myself through there from now on . . . maybe not though cause it's going east to go west, not so efficient.

YAY! The car is done, signing off now, but I will be updating frequently over break, because I am NOT a bad blogger . . .

Caitlin

Wolverine Village

A wolverine is the largest land dwelling animal in the weasel family, it lives mostly in isolated Northern areas and is not a know native to Michigan. Wolverines are extremely strong for their size and have been known to hunt and kill moose.

Not exactly sure how accurate the Wikipedia article was where I got all this information, but I do know that if there are inaccuracies to the article they would be considering Michigan. I'm pretty sure that the UP is an isolated northern area. Needless to say, we ski around Wolverine loop everyday at Blueberry and we're staying in Wolverine Village to race the Wolverine trails tomorrow. I hope I see a wolverine tomorrow, I will outski it to save myself and win the race . . . :).

Speaking of skiing (nice transition eh?) tomorrow I'm racing a 5 KM skate. I am the very first skier out for the whole day at 9:00.15 bib number 1. The races go well into the afternoon hours. I skied the course in the dark this evening, by myself. It went by quite quickly and did my last kilometer level three. It was wonderful skiing in the dark again, just like the old days, too bad I have no idea where my head lamp is anymore. I like the off balance feeling of skiing in the dark.

I've got to quick finish this post to go scrape my skis so I can get to bed in decent time for my freaking 9:00 start. To think out loud I need to be testing my skis at 8:00, meaning I should maybe get up at 6:30 for breakfast and to give myself time to wake up and such. Yes, I shall set an alarm now. Okay, time to button my pants back up (was really full . . .) and get my boots and waxing things to go scrape my one measly pair of skis, sheeit. Happy thoughts of fast skating for tomorrow's race!

Caitlin

One more time . . . we're going to celebrate, oh yeah . . .

So it's Wednesday late afternoon and I only have one exam left in this semester of college! I just took my ProCook written exam and felt pretty confident that I pulled out a good one. There were actually some unexpectedly tough questions/ones that I didn't think would be asked. There was a huge true/false section and true/false always kills me, I get really caught up in the exact language of the question. I think too much. So now I'm waiting in the Jacobetti atrium for Tim to finish up his last exam, mechanics of motion? In either case we'll both be done after today, yay!

I can't believe how fast this semester went by, it seems like just yesterday that we were laying on the beach and drinking excessively. Now it's just the beginning of ski season, it's actually time to get serious. School will get harder and we'll see how the past year's training has paid off. Hopefully I will continue to ski better and better. For instance, am was pleasantly happy to find out that Laura only beat me by one minute in this weekend's classic 5km. I'm pretty sure that there was a classic race last year that she beat me by six minutes. Or maybe that was a 10km, but in any case that would've been three minutes in a 5km. I'm almost as excited about this as I was to beat Randi. Probably more since I only got her by four seconds. As long as I stay healthy I think this season holds some good results. OH, I am wicked excited and curious to see who (on both teams) will go to NCAAs. It's much less defined this year I think.

Today was an excellent one so far. Got up rather early for a morning ski with Phill and Tim. Besides maybe Laura, there's no one I'd rather have a nice ski with. There was quite a bit of new snow on the trails, but it was so light and fluffy that if you closed your eyes, you wouldn't be able to tell it wasn't perfectly groomed, except that it was quiet. I freaking love it out there. I was kind of looking forward to skiing on the Superior loop again while it was so perfectly tracked, but I'm sure it will be groomed nicely again. After the ski, Tim and I had some left-over potato medley thing for breakfast, he scrambled some eggs, all covered in Durango Dinner Green Chile, it was amazing, I can't wait to go to the diner for the Bacon Cure! Then we went back to Harrison St. and . . . studied up until our tests at 4:00. Was quite funny studying as neither of us really wanted to, but both did. The Halloween garbage hatched a batch of fruit flies recently and the house pack has been waging war. Tim was roving around watching the traps in action. After my test, I might go to the newest 3D Disney movie with Gus, others too if they can be pursuaded to come. There's many showings tonight and I've not be to a 3D movie since going to Disney World in kindergarten, I'm excited.

Now I have one last test at 6:00, will be the test that I'm least prepared for, but I've stopped caring really, terrible attitude I know, but I think things will be fine.

SO excited for Christmas, excited to give all my gifts, a excited to get some too . . . I hope everyone likes their things, especially Megan and Tim, those are the ones I am most thrilled about . . . ha! Take that you two! So many Christmasy moments in the future: the gift exchange with the team, gifting between me and Tim, my home gift exchange, gifting with Megan and Caley before Christmas, and actual Christmas both at home and out at Grandmas! That's like seven exchanges! Oh, and also with Christina after we get back from Nationals! Presents! Yay!

Things to do before heading home: take SO 113 final, go to Bolt, clean the house (dishes and laundry mostly), Christmas cookies at Harrison, Christmas shopping with Christina, oatmeal breakfast with Anna Karin, buy present for gift exchange (wrap it), go to races at Ironwood, gift exchange with Tim, get Tanya's present, wine/cheese/dessert party (maybe), pack to go home, make sure house is clean, reserve spot on the shuttle to FoCo, hmmmmm that's all!

Okay, that should be a long enough post for a while :)

Caitlin

Just got back from a run with the girls, it was much longer and faster than I wanted to go. Freaking Christina always pushes the pace and Anna can't help but keep up with her, Marre wants to keep up too, but knows that maybe she should go slower but also wants to run as a group. We ran a city loop, a long one, longest probably for Laura, shortest for me and Christina. My watch battery died so I didn't really even know how long we had/were going, but I new it was going to be too long for the scheduled workout. I'm a really bad watchless person, I have to contantly ask for the time, and I hate it. I really nees to go to ShopCo to get a new battery and maybe take advantage of their self checkout, cause it's so much fun . . . :)

We had a time trial this morning, about a 5 km skate around the Superior loop, I finished sixth out of six, don't know why I was expecting more, I had high hopes of not placing last again, don't really know who I wouldv'e beat. I was hoping to destroy Randi, cause it's a plain and simple fact that she has horrible technique and probably shouldn't even be able to move forward on her skis, then again, Christina probably shouldn't be able to either, but who am I to judge skiers' when I'm the slowest one? Oh well, it's early season yet, really don't know where all that anger just came from. . . scratch that, I know exactly where it came from, running with Christina, and now listening to her pronounce gnocchi with the silent g not silent, oooo it get's to me. Fuck! Why on earth am I being so negative, it makes me angry, I really just should vent here then delete the whole post.

Okay, need to rinse off then go pick up pasta for William, now, more later. Fuck.

Caitlin

Fasting for the turkey . . .

Happy Thanksgiving to all. I love Thanksgiving, it's a wonderful continuation of the Holiday season, all starting with my birthday of course. Today I'm sitting in my living room listening to Aretha Franklin, already listened to the Reverand Al Green. For some reason, soul music seemed like good cooking music today. I almost cracked and put on Christmas music, but since I've made such a big deal about my Christmas limits, I couldn't jusitfy it. So my addition to dinner this year is a pumpkin cheesecake that I last made with dear Arcadia, and dressing. It's called dressing when it's not cooked in the turkey, I learned that this year watching Let's Talk Turkey on the Food Network. The dressing I'm making is one that Mom has made almost every year that I can remember, except when all we have is Grandpa's sage and potato stuffing. I think Mom often feels guilty that she prefers her stuffing to Grandpa's, it's like his legacy sort of, we eat his stuffing every Thanksgiving and Christmas. But I don't think having his stuffing means we can't also have potatoes.

Today we went skate skiing out at Blueberry. I skied with Laura for the whole thing as I often do. I just hope my slower training speeds will eventually pay off. I don't think I can really loose when Laura is by far the best skier on the team, training with her will only help me. My feet were really cramping up during the ski, it takes a while for my feet to feel okay in my skate boots, the uphills on the Superior loop certainly didn't help my situation. I got a little frustrated with Marre today when she was putting down the boys' no shave November tradition, to me that was an attack on all tradition, which I couldn't live without. But then after the ski, she mentioned how excited she was to take part in Thanksgiving. Randi then asked basically what the tradition/holiday even was. It was fun explaining the whole story behind Thanksgiving with the Indians helping out the Pilgrams, saving them from starvation. That this is a whole holiday based upon giving thanks to those around you, your family, your team, your roommates. I get all nostalgic thinking about it. Funny now the stigmas and sterotypes that we have given Native Americans, I wonder if they celebrate Thanksgiving with such zeal, seeing how they would probably be better off having let us all die that November.

Alright, I really need a shower and want to be able to get it in while the cheesecake is in the oven. I want to look in there so badly, but I was advised not to in a review online, I had to write myself a sticky note reminding me not to open the oven until about the timer went off. Bummer, I want to witness my cheesecake setting up and getting all wonderful inside. Alright, Kevin is coming over to give me some whipping cream, who doesn't love fresh whipped cream? Happy Thanksgiving to all, I thank each and every one of the people in my life for being so awesome!

Caitlin

Monday Morning

Monday morning, already feeling a little tired, I'm guessing that might be because I may have overslept . . . Not sure I really believe in over sleeping, but I have no other explanation. I slept in until 11:00, and I'm barely keeping my eyes open, I think it's the couch, it sucks me down.

As far as what I have to do today, should maybe look at what I was supposed to have done for my 2:00 class, which is only worth 2 credits and the only class I might not get an A in, Purchasing, I just hate it, I think it's boring and there's no pictures in my text book. I also need to talk with Ms. Cory about the class I skipped last Friday, I'm pretty sure she just went over what's expected for our food memoir paper due the week after Thanksgiving. I think I might write about my senior year Tour de Colorado ski trips and restaurants. Yes, I think I will write about my farewell tour to all my favorite restaurants. I also need to put away all my laundry, which is clean, but now on my dirty floor, hmmm. That might be it for now . . . Oh, dinner up at Tim's too.

I cut my finger last night making beef stroganoff (which turned out rather well), using the knife Tim gave me for my birthday, I really haven't cut myself using a knife in a really long time, I'm generally really careful when chopping/cutting, but I was cutting a cheap cut of meat and not paying attention. Oh, I also made that artichoke bread that I've been kind of craving, damn it, I just realized that I didn't put it in the fridge for some odd reason, it's got mayo in it, of course it should go in the fridge, oh well.

Hmmm, watching What Not to Wear, not getting anything done, I really need to look at what I have to do for class in 30 minutes (minus 20 minutes for getting to class) shit, I've really got to go now, I should have made coffee. Oh, I also have to call dad about studded bike tires, oops!

Caitlin

Waiting, not watching, for my water to boil for round two of dinner. Had some troubles today with that; used pre made raviolis and a sauce packet, somehow I managed to fuck them both up a little/a lot. I used water instead of milk for the sauce, and no where near enough water for the pasta, things really shouldn't be that complicated. Not to mention Tim was giving me shit the whole time for even using a sauce packet, although I know from Tanya that they have both eaten sauce from a packet before . . .

Speaking of which, freaking Tim found out about this blog while stalking me and my sister's wall to wall on facebook. He's worried about how this will make him look to others, so don't judge, facebook ruins lives. I know of two specific couples who have ruined themselves through facebook, good thing this is the worst thing for me to hide. I'm having a hard time writing with the looking of over my shoulder . . . I'm currently sitting at Harrison St, trying not to, but very much wanting to go watch Grey's Anatomy, but it would be all out of order and ruin it for me slightly, not to mention Tim almost insisted on an update, just wants me to keep this up to date. So Megan, we'll have to save the truly private matters for not this blog, sorry I wasn't so careful about the leak. That's all for now.

Caitlin

So I was up until 1:00 last night working on my English paper that we've been working on for quite a long time. I'm and idiot, I don't know how or in what world I would put things like this off for so long. Speaking of which, still not done with the paper. I decided to skip yoga and class this morning to finish it up. I tell myself this is because sleep last night was way more important (as a skier) then finishing my paper. The class I'm skipping is one that I actually only have once a week, and she specifically told us not to miss it . . . but I haven't skipped all semester and she's a pushover. All she was going to talk about for three and a half hours was our food memoir paper, probably share some examples and give us a trillion pointless handouts. I'll just go in and talk with her Monday, or ask a classmate the specifics of the assignment. It's like she could just give us an assignment sheet and a due date, or she could talk about it in circles for the whole damn class period. So, I've made the executive decision to NOT attend, and it feels so good! I have five and a half hours to complete this, I think it will happen easily, but I can't always be sure of my dedication to a dumb paper and not to everything else the Internet has to offer, like blogs :)

So I'm in the basement of my little house listening to "One More Time" by Daft Punk and drinking a mocha/coffee that I would definitely get shit for drinking. I don't understand that dumb stigma on people who don't drink their coffee black. So I like things a little sweet, what's the big deal? The basement is quite nice, it's a whole separate space that I don't have to worry about as many distractions, and I was able to do five loads of laundry last night as I worked. This is a testament to my laziness over the past few weeks, five loads is extreme, never have I done that much laundry before, thank goodness I have a lot of clothes and have started going commando so I don't have to worry about clean underwear. I didn't even do any white, because I want to wait to wash my chef's white with them in bleach. I've started with the bleach to keep my whites whiter. But I don't suppose it really works all that well on pit stained old t-shirts and socks that I've worn running in the mud for the past six years (I really do have a couple pairs of usable six year old sock, NewBalance, they are wonderful and perfect).

This is a good sign, my coffee is kicking in and I'm tripping over my fingers far less than usual as I type, so paper writing bodes well. Funny, as I said that I must have backspaced no less than 20 times, oh well. Well, in the spirit of my paper and in closing. . . Share the road out there, especially you dumb Marquetters.

Caitlin

Here we go . . .

Well, here we go. Megan has successfully convinced me to start a blog, it didn't even really take that much persuading, I just figured that it couldn't hurt to let my friends and family know what I'm up to. Also, I'm in the library, on coffee, not wanting to write a huge paper due tomorrow worth 30% of my final grade . . . shit.

As long as my fellow skiers never find out about this, I hopefully won't be teased mercilessly.

So in thinking of an appropriate theme for this blog, I picked the three things most important to me: nordic skiing, my current major/desired career, and the stage of life I'm in. I don't promise beautifully constructed sentences or to censor my life. I will write about what I choose, but will try to focus mostly on the three major parts of my life (which really consume all my life). . .

Hope you enjoy what I have to say.