Note to you....Hiking boots need to be broken in. Do not hike mountains with non broken in boots!

I'm going skiing next year.

NO MATTER WHAT.

A really neat girl came into the boot store today. She was young, and beautiful and on. her. way. to. Africa. My dream.

She was going to hike Mt Kilimanjaro. In like a few days. And she was just now looking for hiking boots and hadn't even broke them in yet. Uh...what the what? Huge boot "no no". But let's not go there.

I was slightly enchanted by this interesting young women. How amazing to just be taking on the world and going to Africa. She was probably not even 25 yet.

I told her....(is it pretty clear I blab a lot?) I wanted to do something exciting. I told her... (again....blab...me....too much) that I just had lost almost eighty pounds and I was going on amusement park rides soon.  And that next year I was going to go skiing.

And then...she became the warmest sweetest person. With the most sincerest kindness alive she high fived me and was so excited for me and strangely proud of me. She was so warm and genuinely happy. I loved her. I loved her gift.

It reminded me of this book I have been reading called "Leadership and Self Deception". It has been a really interesting and good book. My stake president (church leader) recommended it. It is about caring about people. And not thinking your needs are more important. About seeing other people. and leadership. And how leadership with those other qualities create very happy loyal people. Reminded me a bit of how my boss Nick treats me.

I had to give her direction to some where. She was from out of town. When I was able to draw her a little map she was like "you did it!" and she was very happy.

I hope she makes it to the top of that mountain. Brave exciting warm girl. Last week a customer was mad at me and hung up on me. I'll keep this girl instead

Okay...

about skiing....I grew up skiing. I skied Winterpark and Vail and Loveland in Colorado  Awesome. There were tons of blind skiers. Amazing.

 I remember eating hard boiled eggs in the car every time on the ski trips. Which probably means it just happened once. But I remember that.

I love to ski. Because it is astronomically expensive, and because of my weight my knees were bad, and because once my calves were too fat for the ski boots to strap on, I haven't been in maybe 15 years.

Next year I am going no matter what. I am excited for new adventures.

Okay....

about skiing some more.

For some reason I enjoy stupid low budget movies. We rented this stupid low budget movie where several kids get stuck on a ski lift. The staff forgets they are there. They have to stay there and are freezing to death. A whole bunch of unrealistic lamo events happen. I was mildly entertained by it. I cant remember the name. But now I can't ski at night if I might be the last one on the lift. NO WAY!

Anyway...next year + skiing = ME! No Matter What!