we made it.

In a tunnel on our drive from Val d’Isere, France to Sölden, Austria

And 2012 is gone. Just like that. The days pass quickly when you live in clouds and dance around clocks. I can’t remember thinking this last year, but that’s probably due to the rapidity at which I move from thought to thought. There’s a drone in my head that helps blind me from actuality. Which is nice.

Another nice device: we lived through the end of the world! But what a fuss. It’s intriguing to think about the end… when it’s coming, where it’s coming from. What kind of mayhem will ensue. Hopefully it will come in a long, long while, but for all we know it could be just around the corner. So that’s a bit frightening. Speaking of fright, on my trip home from Europe, in my sleepless state of delirium, I wrote a bit about fear:

I am a mountain. I am agile, resilient, fierce. I am a weapon against myself, ever fighting my fear. Fear. Owning, birthing doubt, hate, sadness, time, confines. Earning its’ place in darkness—a something inevitable, intangible, limitless. An ocean of blackness. An invisible road. A mere thought. Like everything, stemming from nothing—from a place dreamt. A timeless dream, pursuing the unconscious, the unfathomable. Fighting joy and priorities and memories and love. Fighting breath, a dying burden…but passing, fleeting, fear.

At the base of the Copper Mountain Speed Center

Maybe you can understand…

I often look back and realize that my thoughts were far too serious. Perhaps there is a rationale behind silliness, fantasy, and carelessness. I’ve got to delve in it more. Like booming laughter, boundless hugs, bottomless chocolate milks. Cause life is just yummy, and even though it stings sometimes, you’ve got to like it quite spicy. Otherwise fuzzy peaches and sour patch kids and chocolate covered stuff would be just standard: nothing notable.

In the start of the Lake Louise downhill

Stacey’s celebratory glass of alien slime

I can’t seem to find sour patch kids in Europe. Or Oh!’s, good hot salsa, a good taco for that matter, popcorn, a decent mango, kombucha, or a proper bagel. But when I do I’m gonna eat ‘em all day.

Having tea at a café in St. Moritz, Switzerland

I am now in Schladming, Austria, waiting for the skies to stop pissing and the clouds to stop misting. Something out there really doesn’t want us to train. We’ve had a bit of bad luck this year on the world cup speed circuit, but I am sure that the badness can do nothing but turn around and off with itself. I suppose we’ll see…

On the way down from Val d’Isere after an extreme snow storm

We’re heading to St. Anton in a few days. I heard it was supposed to snow a meter there over the next few days (apparently along with everywhere in Austria…in Schladming it’s coming down in the form of water), so hopefully it clears out by Thursday, when our first training run happens. I’m excited to ski on a new course….It sounds steep and very fast, something we’re not particularly accustomed to on the Women’s circuit….Should be exciting!

Some sort of movement

I’ve been taking a few photographs over the past month or so. I occasionally forget that I have such a wonderful camera and such magic to capture with it. But I’ve kept it by my side lately, and have come up with these.

Also taken on the drive from Val d’Isere to Sölden, in the rainy, bright night

Anna Marno and Katie Ryan at the base of the Copper speed run

Julia Mancuso and Stacey Cook playing in the snow (throwing snowballs at me)

Wine by the fire in St. Moritz, Switzerland

Julia Ford and her stuff in the Calgary airport

A neat chandeliertypething

At home: moon and branches

I have more from my Christmas break in Canada and Oregon, and will post those soon. Until then, I’ll just be fighting dragons and words and noodles. I’ll keep you posted on that.