Taking Out the Trash

After sitting around for the past seven days, afraid to move my arm, I really needed to get out and do something active. Behind my house there's a trail that leads to the top of Mt. Royal that I've been aching to climb. So I packed up my bag, grabbed my camera and started my trek.


As I stumbled along the snow covered trail, I couldn't help but smile and think: "thank God this year is over."

Looking back at 09'

January was a month I had been anticipating for almost a year. Unfortunately, it was a time of frustration that ended in heartbreak. I decided to leave my job at West High School for reasons that I realize now were completely flawed.


I did enjoy a trip to the Western slopes of the Colorado Rockies and my amazing opportunity to teach my students how to snowboard at Echo Mountain.

I also had a blast road tripping to Phoenix and partying with the family at Ryan's wedding. Not to mention making a new friend and experiencing Taos, New Mexico for my PSIA level 2 skiing exam. Unfortunately, I failed all three disciplines by .2 points and lost $550.


For some unknown reason I thought I could afford a trip to China (at the time I could) and committed to an incredibly expensive experience (which I wouldn't change for anything). I just didn't expect to go through interview after interview with opportunities for the jobs of my dreams only to be brought down by the lack of support that seems to always be attached with Denver Public Schools.

Before leaving for China, I had a ridiculous weekend with some of the best friends I could ever ask for. After that, I decided that some people never change and I can't keep fighting for a relationship where I'm the only one fighting.

I came back from China to a financial situation I could not cope with, no job, discovered that I had no support from my admin, and a familiar phone call - the possibility of the relationship I've been patiently (sometimes desperately) waiting for.

"Seasons change but people don't." That familiar phone call led to a familiar situation. However, this was different. I had never been treated so poorly from anyone in my life, never felt used. Any feelings of hope, love, or compassion were sucked out of me. I was cold and numb. My three year battle was over. I have no more emotional baggage and am ready to move forward with my life. She is gone, erased.

Moving into 2010:

Breaking my arm was pretty much the last straw of this stupid year. However, it's only a minor set-back. I'm starting the new year with my dream job at Summit High School, no surgery, and a great new network of friends. "You always end up landing on your feet." Thanks Kathy :)

This is my December
This is my time of the year
This is my December
This is all so clear
This is my December
This is my snow covered home
This is my December

Dinner party tonight (I'm making baked brie) with the roomies, Ryan and his friend from Denver, and Kelsey (girl I've been hanging out with for the last month or so). Time to bring in 2010 with some good ole shenanigans.

Verdict

No surgery :) However I have to go back next week for another x-ray to make sure there's no displacements.

Here's the results of my x-ray:

RIGHT WRIST
12/23/2009

CLINICAL HISTORY: Trauma.

FINDINGS: There is a multiplanar essentially nondisplaced
intraarticular fracture of the distal radius. There is also a minimally
displaced ulnar styloid fracture. No other fractures are seen.

IMPRESSIONS:
1. Multiplanar nondisplaced interarticular distal radius fracture.
2. Minimally displaced ulnar styloid fracture.

Whatever that means right?




As of right now and $2000 later, I will be in a hard cast for 3 more weeks, then in a removable-waterproof soft cast for 2 weeks. Not bad at all.

"Oh, Where It's All Deformed"

That was the nurse's response to her own question, "where is it broken."

I stood at the top of the terrain park at A-Basin poised to pop a 180 mute grab off the first kicker. Dropped, nailed the trick and stomped the landing then began to set myself up for a switch 180. It happened so fast - my heel edge caught the snow and I was hurled towards the ground with my arm pressed against the middle of my back. My head whipped back and kissed the ground (thank you helmet) and I stood up with a pain in my arm that I haven't felt since I skated down that slide in 7th grade. I caught my breath, unstrapped my board, walked to the side of the kickers, looked at Tripp, "dude, think I sprained my wrist." I sat for about two minutes before my arm started to swell and a feeling of nausea filled my stomach, "shit Tripp, my arm is definitely broken." I lifted my head up and saw two guys standing at the end of the ramp "I think I just broke my thumb" he said to his pal. "Yeah, you did the same thing this guy just did" he responded. Well, not quite....



Tripp helped me strap my board back on and I rode down to ski patrol. After filling out the necessary paperwork and getting splinted up, I put my gear back in my car and Tripp drove me over to the ER. A similar situation to the last time we rode together. Except I was the one providing the moral support while trying to help Tripp piece together the 15 minutes between rocking his head on the ground and meeting me at the base.

Before my x-ray even happened, at least three nurses stated that my arm was definitely broken. After about ten minutes of waiting in the room, Karen the P.A. came in and explained that I had broken my arm in five places. "You shattered your radius and chipped a piece off of the ball of your ulna on your wrist." My heart immediately sank after hearing the word "shatter." I was almost positive that meant surgery; especially after she showed me the x-ray and pointed out the bone fragments in my wrist. However she and the doc both said that "the fragments spread out" which apparently is a good thing? I just can't move my arm or fingers until further notice because of the nature of my fracture(s).

Right now I've got a soft cast on and have to call an orthopedist after Christmas to get the final say on whether surgery is needed and to get a hard cast. It looks as if I'll be in a cast for "a few weeks." Which the doctor immediately followed up by saying "a few weeks to you means three, but to me it's 8 to 10." What a dick haha.

Despite my misfortune, I'm keeping my head up and am still in good spirit. I arrived home and was greeted with a feast, a very strong eggnog, and Kelsey stopped by after work with brownies and a bag filled with ALL of my favorite candy. I also get some really gnarly drugs to kill the pain.

Percocet is a trade name of Endo Pharmaceuticals for a narcotic pain killer used to treat moderate to severe acute (short-term) pain. The active ingredients of Percocet are oxycodone and acetaminophen.

Percocet side effects

• shallow breathing, slow heartbeat;

• feeling light-headed, fainting;

• confusion, unusual thoughts or behavior;

• seizure (convulsions); or

• nausea, stomach pain, loss of appetite, itching, dark urine, clay-colored stools, jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes).

Less serious Percocet side effects include:

• feeling dizzy or drowsy;

• mild nausea, vomiting, upset stomach, constipation;

• blurred vision; or

• dry mouth.

The dry mouth definitely happened almost immediately after taking one pill, however drowsiness never happened - even after two pills. Unfortunately I was up til 2:30 am and had to
to be at work at 7. Did I mention it was my right arm? Brushing your teeth with your opposite arm is quite difficult.

I managed the rest of the day with no pain until around 2:30. So I popped two pills and within a half an hour felt extremely drunk, hence the side effects I listed above. Those will be the last I ever take, even though I was fairly entertaining for the next two hours of work.

Unfortunately the printer was down so I have no pictures of the break. I'll post some after I see the orthopedist - hopefully by Monday at the latest.

Mr. Baalerud is Back!

I got a job at Summit High School!

Last Friday I received a phone call from Gretchen (assistant principal) at Summit High School about a part-time math position opening up. Last year one of the math teachers had a brutal head injury and it has forced her to leave her math position. So they moved the part-time teacher up to her spot and me into the part-time position. I talked with m supervisor at Copper today and she said I should be able to work both jobs :)

My interview was originally scheduled for Tuesday evening. So I left for Denver on Monday night to pick up my teaching credentials and portfolio and to clean out whatever was left in my storage unit. As I was heading back up to the mountains (to go skiing at Loveland), I got a phone call from the call center and apparently I was supposed to be at work at 7am. A week ago one of the girls at the call center got fired, so I figured I was done. That also meant I had to possibly lose my job opportunity at Summit High School. However, I just ended up getting written up and they rescheduled my interview.

The next day I was getting off the shuttle and received a phone call from Gretchen offering me the job! This school could potentially be my dream job. I've been trying to get a job here since I moved out to Colorado. It's located about 10 minutes from my apartment in Breckenridge. They have a great school system and an International Baccalaureate (IB) program. I'm actually having coffee with IB program coordinator this morning (which definitely could be in my future plans). Summit High School is on a modified block schedule (the length of the class depends on the day). Since I have a .5 position, I will be teaching two sections of pre-algebra and one section of algebra every other day - this is which allows me to keep my job at Copper Mountain. Life is Great!!!

I'll be spending the holiday period skiing and planning for my upcoming semester. This is going to be a similar situation as my very first semester of teaching (the students have not had a consistent teacher during the semester and pre-algebra class will have a very similar demographic as West High School). However, I presume the parents will be much more involved and even after living here for a only a month of so, I feel a tremendous sense of community (Julie-head of the IB program won't go to Starbucks for coffee because she'd rather support a local coffee shop).

On a side-note, we are still waiting for a major snowstorm in Summit County. Usually the entire mountain is open by Christmas day... I don't think any of the resorts in the area are even above 50% right now :( Regardless, after my coffee I will be trekking to A-Basin to play in the terrain park with my buddy Tripp.

Christmas of course will be sad without seeing all of my friends and family, but I need to stay out here, work and keep pulling myself out of debt. Thankfully, my teaching job will get me health insurance again and allow me to come home for a few weeks over the summer (I also get this nifty laptop so I can keep everyone updated on my life out here). Jonny and Lauren are expected to make their way up here for the holiday and I have an ugly-sweater party to attend later that night to keep me occupied during the holiday.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Birth of a Salesman

I am officially a salesman.

Most of you that know me well probably couldn't picture me sitting in a cubicle...period. However, that's what I'm doing now and love it. Like I said in my previous post, it's really easy to get people stoked about spending a lot of money at a ski resort since snow riding is one of the things I love the most. I also work split shifts majority of the time (when we filled out our availability and hours I simply wrote "I want the most ride time possible") which gives me plenty of time to exercise and move around during my long day of work. I come in from 7am-11am, then 3pm-7pm - plenty of time to tear up Copper Mountain. On a side note, we got a ton of snow (finally) the past few days. So I've been ripping plenty of freshies in my spare time. Since my job is to basically sell everything that we have to offer at the resort, we get to "test out" everything as well. So next month our office is going on a 2 hour snowmobile tour over the continental divide, I get free demo ski/board rentals, a free one hit wonder at Woodward (I'll explain in a minute), tours of all the lodging areas, food tasting at majority of the Copper-owned restaurants (and bars haha), and of course my free Ultimate Pass (free skiing at Copper, Winter Park, Steamboat and five free passes to any other resort in Colorado excluding Vail Resorts).

Last week I did my one hit wonder at Woodward and IT WAS SICK. Here's what Woodward is: http://www.woodwardatcopper.com/site/index.html
Make sure you look at the pictures to really understand what it's like. By the end January, I plan to do AT LEAST a back flip on my skis. Stay tuned for pictures!

Last weekend at Copper we had the Grand Prix. It's the first Olympic Qualifier for snowboarding in the Superpipe. There were Olympic athletes from all over the world including: Shaun White, Louie Vito, Gretchen Bleiler (who looked at me, I swear!), and many others. It was awesome to see some of the new tricks they learned and to just randomly see them at bars, walking around the resort, talking with them on the phone to actually book their rooms.

Today I had to make a quick trip down to Denver to finally clear out my expensive storage unit and pick-up a few things that I need for later today (don't want to jinx anything, so I'll tell everyone about it later).

I love where I live. My roommate is awesome and his girlfriend is a little sweetheart that cooks for everyone ALL THE TIME. She's 25% French, 25% Irish and 50% Chinese. Needless to say, she is one of the most amazing cooks.

Another side note - I blocked my blog so random people can't look at it. So if there's anyone who wants to see this, make sure you give me their email addresses so I can send it directly to them. Or just set-up a blog account and friend me. :)

Free Your Mountain

Every morning I wake up to the sun rising out my back window over Peak One. I can honestly say this is the reason I moved to Colorado. Breathing that crisp air and watching the sun slowly creep over the mountains as I walk to the bus stop each morning makes the six below windchill completely bearable. I've skied or rode 17 days in a row so far. Sometimes, my coworkers look at me like I'm crazy as I get into gear during my 10 minute break; just so I can get to the bus quicker and make the most of my hour long lunch break. This is why I live here.

I moved up here a few weeks ago and crashed at my friend Tripp and Carly's until I found a place. I was really hoping to find something in downtown Frisco (closest town to Copper Mountain and great place to hangout), but subleases get posted on Craigslist and are taken in about 2 hours. However, I got a lucky break and found a place just a few blocks from Main Street. Tripp found the number on his phone, I called the landlord, drove over there in a half an hour, Tripp happened to have $150 in his wallet to secure the place, and now I have a home. During that 30 minute drive down there, five people had called to try and secure the room - in fact, my friend Andrew from work was actually on the phone talking to him as I walked in the door. Sucks for him haha

I work at the Copper Call Center as a Vacation Sales Associate. Despite hating talking on the phone and not being able to stay still for more the five minutes, I love the job. My office is at the base of the Super Bee which accesses all the steep terrain at Copper Mountain, get ride breaks, the job pays well, I get commission, and don't do any "cold calling." Basically, people call me to book their vacation and my job is to tell them how awesome skiing and Copper Mountain is.

I've also decided to keep my part-time ski instructor job at Winter Park. I love that mountain too much and all the friends I've made over the past three years to let it go. I actually enjoy the job so much that I would do it for free.

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. It's basically stress free- cook food, watch football, eat food, watch football, catch up on life with your friends and family, eat more food. What could be better than that?? Well, riding for 5 hours while the Turkey is cooking in the oven was definitely an added perk to the holiday.

Wednesday night my friends Jonny, Lauren and Ryan came up from Denver to ride Thursday morning while the turkey baked in the oven. After tearing through the snow for a few hours, we went back home and my friends Goat, Erin, Tripp and Carly came over (everyone brought some wine and prepared a couple dishes) and had dinner together. I definitely felt grown-up for a good portion of since we were listening to Frank Sinatra as dinner was prepared. So we put on some Tupac and Biggie Smalls while we ate to make it better. All the food turned out great and we had a stellar time. Unfortunately, I ate so much food that I'm still in a food coma this morning.

Today is my first "official" day of work at Copper Mountain. After three weeks of learning the different systems to book lodging, flights, lift tickets, ski lessons, etc, I finally get to be on the phone and sell some stuff. So if anyone wants to come stay at Copper, I'll hook you up. My extension is 19951 hahaha

**Small side note**

Copper Mountain was sold last week to a new company called Powdr Corp. Definitely something that opened my eyes to the business world. Due to this, many supervisors at Copper have been fired. However, this doesn't have any immediate affect on my job or any of my coworkers. I do think that this is a good thing for Copper in the long-run. Intrawest (the old company who also owns Winter Park and Steamboat) is more of a real estate based company while Powdr Corp is a ski resort based company out of Park City, Utah. Thankfully, I don't lose any of my ski and ride benefits (e.g. free skiing at Winter Park, Steamboat, Telluride, Aspen, etc..). In fact, I received an email two days ago from the Town Hall Meeting stating that we might get the Powdr Corp benefits as well - which means I will be making a road trip to Park City this spring :)

Ups and Downs

Wow, it has been a very long time since my last update. In fact, I need to do some major reconstructions on this page, the color combination burns the eyes.

Alright, so I ton of stuff has obviously went down since I got back from China (I will eventually upload those onto my blog as well). I moved back to Denver in the middle of August with basically no job. All I had for a cash flow was my last pay check in August and the small salary that comes along with coaching soccer. However, my buddy Ryan (varsity soccer coach and Geography teacher at West) cut me a pretty sweet deal for living at his place until I found a job or moved into the mountains for the ski season.

The First "Down" - After repeatedly calling HR to see why I couldn't apply to any of the posted jobs in Denver Public school, I finally talked to someone competent. She informed me that I had be been blocked until my last paycheck was dispersed - sweet. So all the job searching I had been doing since June was pointless. I hate DPS.

The "Ups"

Soccer Team - We had a ton of guys come out for the team this year with much better attitudes. We even won and tied quite a few games this year! My buddy Jonny from college also helped out with the JV team this year which made this quite a bit easier and much more fun. The future of West High School's team looks very promising.

Riding - I hiked St. Mary's Alice Glacier four times this fall snowboarded back down. So I've skied or snowboarded in every month except July :) One of the hikes was actually during a huge storm - there were 60 mph winds! I had to basically use my snowboard as a shield whenever there were gusts. However, I did eventually make it to the top and get strapped onto my board.... only to stick to the snow. The wind was so intense that the snow collected a ton of degree and made it impossible to slide down. Needless to say, after about 20 yards of me hopping in my board, I eventually unstrapped and hiked back down.

Hiking - This fall I found a new love for hiking. My friend Devin drove out to Colorado with me and hiked St Mary's Alice and Peak 10 this past August. These hikes were pretty low key, but eventually gave me the motivation to get a 14er (14,000 ft mountain) in this season. So in early October, Jonny, New Ryan (he's the fifth Ryan I've met out here) and did a 6 mile hike to the top of Mt. Bierstadt. This is supposedly one of the easier 14ers to climb in Colorado, but not during a snow storm. Once we got to around 13,000ft there was about 10ft visibility, ice covered trails, and 40 mph wind gusts. I actually felt like I was in LOTR.

A few weeks later Jonny and I decided to hike the 4th of July Bowls (west of Boulder). This hike was way more intense than the 14er we did a few weeks earlier. It was about 2 miles longer and was covered with way more snow (it's very late in the season to be hiking). We got to the top of one of the peaks and could actually see Winter Park on the other side!

(Here's the view from the the saddle. We walked to the top left then got scared. This view is of Fraser Valley - Winter Park is to the far left around the cliff)

Once again, there were about 30-40 mph winds at the peak, but there was one major difference - there was 1000 ft drop on either side of the saddle. So we quickly took some pictures and headed back down to my jeep at the bottom. See below :)

(Lake Dorothy at the top)

(This is one side of the saddle)

Off Roading - I've also been hanging out with my buddy Tripp quite a bit since I got back. He's got a wrangler and lives up in Silverthorne, so we probably try and do a couple jeep trails about once a week. It's amazing the types of terrain you can climb in a vehicle.

Other Festivities:

Two weeks ago my buddy Carp from college got married. I was in the wedding and had a complete blast and a terrible hangover on Sunday morning. It was well worth it though to see all of my old friends from school and watch Tank chug a flower vase of beer...then throw it up 15 seconds later with the pressure of a fire hose. Check out the video below!

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.youtube.com%252Fwatch%253Fv%253DApLVALnvh-Y&h=55860c2b7e799f5b644d7ccb75b6e0e0

I also met a new friend named Kylee through my friend Ashley. She moved here in August from Virginia and is in that "new to Colorado state of mind" - which apparently hasn't left me yet :) So we'll be going on a hike/brew tour with her this Thursday.

Everything Else:

I've been working at Jamba Juice to get some extra cash (very little) in my pocket since September. I start my job as a Vacation Sales Specialist at Copper Mountain this Monday and am still looking for a place to live. Friday I'm flying out to San Francisco for the weekend (photo shoot). I had to redo my resume because I found out that ALL of the administrators at my old school have been giving me bad recommendations (don't want to get into that, I'll just get angry). I've been running and swimming quite a bit to get in shape for the ski season.

Last but not least:

Last week we experienced every season. We got over a foot in a half of snow in Denver. Check out the picture below. I thought that was pretty crazy until I drove up to Boulder to pick up Kylee and found about another foot had fallen up there.

SKI SEASON IS HERE!!

Sometimes I Hate Colorado

Today is one of those days....



It's 43 degrees and raining in Denver. Off to Summit High School in Breck for a job interview
; hope I don't get caught in a snow storm.

Teacher Checkout Day!!!

Today's the last day and I have a busy couple of weeks ahead of me. I have a job interview in Breck tomorrow and another interview at Steamboat Springs Middle school June 9th.

This past weekend was completely out of control....seriously. Here's one of the hi lights though.

Its the first level's boss from DOUBLE DRAGON!!!

Oh yeah, and the Red Wings are 2-0!!! Take that all you bandwagon ESPN "experts."

Repeat!?

Wings kicked some ass last night, even with our plethora of injuries!!! We definitely will need Datzyuk and Lidstrom back for the Pens though.

I definitely thought this was entertaining, I received a phone call last night (after I made my last post) about another potential job opportunity. So once again, try to keep up.

My Life...try to keep up

Yesterday I went to the Nine Inch Nails (NIN) and Jane's Addiction (JA) concert. It was amazing! This is NIN's last tour and they've been one of the bands that's on my list of must-sees. I wish I could figure out how to take pictures from my phone and post them up on here; I have a couple of sweet videos from the show.

So here's the big update of what's going on with my life for the next few months.

I didn't get hired at any of the schools where I interviewed even though my "interview was perfect" and there was "nothing I should change." So of course, my life went into a state of shock for about a week because I had no idea what I was going to do last year. After being turned down from four schools where I supposedly did all the right things, kind of left me with a feeling of helplessness. So during my week of "shock," I kicked around A LOT of different ideas. Military, back to school, modeling, substitute teaching, a career in business, moving back home, prostitution, moving to California and becoming a surf bum, extortion.... you get the point. However, the one that made the most sense was to go back to school and finish my French degree. I'm only about 9-12 credits shy and it's highly possible for me to finish it in Grenoble (beautiful city at the base of the french-Swiss alps). Since the program wouldn't start until January or February, that leaves me about 5 months of no job, no money, no insurance.... So I've talked with Ryan (head soccer coach at West) and he said that I could definitely stay and JV soccer even if I don't have a job at West. Then I could substitute teach in the districts in and around Denver and possibly pick up a second job. The substitute teaching job would be perfect because it would leave me the flexibility to study for the GRE and prep myself for a master's or PHD program the following year. I could also focus on my level 2 ski certification exam to open up a ski instructing opportunity in the French Alps while I'm studying. Unfortunately, I'll probably have to pick up a third job until ski season starts....so back to the service industry I guess.

Now mind you all, this is still up in the air. I would much rather prefer a stable job during the fall and then go back to school, but this looks like the plan of attack thus far.

On top of all this, I did happen to find out some disturbing information from one of the administration teams I interviewed with. Apparently one of my non-reference administrators at West High School has been telling schools I interviewed for that "Andy misses a lot of M0ndays and Fridays BECAUSE he's skiing." Now the first part of the statement is true, but the second part ("because I'm skiing") is completely ridiculous. The fact that an administrator would automatically assume something like that without confronting me (they would have no proof that the reason I missed is for skiing) and potentially jeopardize my future job opportunities is a really big slap to the face. I've missed majority of my Friday's due to Math-CTE and Algebra training which is verified by my administration before granted. There's no possible way to shake this awful feeling from my stomach. This could have been the small flaw to cost me my dream job opportunities in Vail and Steamboat Springs. I've confronted everyone in my administration team (professionally of course) and don't really no what else to do. I just told them to direct any questions about my absences directly to me; since I'm the only one who knows exactly why I was not at work.

Well this is my last week at Denver West High School. I just need to get all my files off this computer and move some posters to the car and summer vacation starts. I'm really excited to go back to Michigan and see my friends and family again. It's been way too long.

Pelican Fest

Pelican Fest Triathlon

8th place

26th overall male

May 23, 2009

http://www.myentryfee.com/results/Results.aspx

Last Saturday was my first triathlon of the season. I signed up for this knowing that I would not be in stellar shape and to give me an idea of my fitness level and things to work on.

A brief overview:

It has been raining non-stop in Colorado for about 2 weeks now and was quite cold the day of the race - 55 degrees. The race is in Windsor Colorado (1.5 hours north of Denver - near Fort Collins) and comprised of a 800m swim, 10.something mile bike, and a 5k run. The water temperature was 63 degrees and the rest of the race was on pavement. My friend Tripp from up in Silverthorn decided to do the race as well since he's getting a new ACL in a month. We woke up at 4:00 am to make the 7:55 start time and here's how it went.

Swim - The swim was terrible. First of all the water was so ridiculously cold that it took my breath away for at least the first 5 minutes. However, once I warmed up the water temperature actually felt perfect for racing. My major problem with the swim this time was that I could not swim towards the next buoy for the life of me!!! Every time I peaked my head out of the water I was swimming towards open water and probably lost several minutes due to this. After about 10 minutes of swimming I decided to just stay next to another swimmer to help guide me to the beach. rank 80th 15:53

Transition 1: The transition area completely sucked. It was extremely narrow and crowded, but I definitely learned from last year's triathlon and prepared much better. Last year it took me 3 minutes to transition from swim to bike. This year it took me 2:06 :) However, I definitely could cut off another 30 seconds by attaching my shoes to the bike and using lots of body glide (wetsuits are impossibly to get off your body).

Bike- This was by far my favorite part of the race. I made sure my tire pressure was correct before the race and ripped through the 10 miles on the road. I was not passed by anyone and averaged about 22.3 mph. The course was hilly but quick. rank 39th 27:04

Transition 2: This transition was solid. 1:30 seconds because I left my shoes attached to the bike. There were only a couple people around me at this point, so it was really easy to get to my bike rack, get my shoes on and take off down the road.

Run- The run went quite well despite my fitness level. As usual, the first quarter mile off the bike is ridiculously difficult. Once my legs loosened up, I opened up quite a bit and picked off about 10 to 15 runners. However, I didn't have any chance of catching anybody in my age group, so I didn't push myself too hard. rank 11th 19:08

This was definitely a good way to start out the season. I'm ready to rock the Belle Isle Triathlon in 3 weeks!

Keep posted for pictures!

Unemployment

Well I didn't get any of the 4 jobs I interviewed for....and all were because "another candidate had a little more experience." Each principal said that there was nothing I should change or elaborate more on in my interviews. Sucks.

I have no idea what I'm going to do this upcoming Fall, but right now I'm aiming to finish my French degree abroad Winter Semester and then start/finish my master's degree for the following year or two.

I'm just looking at this as an opportunity to push me back into school.

End of the Year Insanity

It's the end of the year and everyone is running around with their heads cut-off trying to get organized- including me. I'll make this short and sweet and fill you in this weekend.

I did not get any of the jobs I interviewed for... because of circumstances beyond my control. I'm still waiting to hear from Steamboat.

I had a breakthrough day in my Algebra class today.

Thursday I'm flying out to California for the weekend.

I went snowboarding on Saturday and the Red Wings better dominate tonight.

Waiting Game

I was very happy with the way the interview went yesterday. The math part was exceptional and the cross country coaching interview was awesome. The principal said the only way I would get the cross country coaching job was if I taught at the school, but I think it kind of works vis versa too. The cross country coaching interview took place in the office with a parent of an athlete, the captain of the team, principal and the athletic director. I made a really good connection with the captain and the parent; that's why I think I probably got the job. The most important things to a school are students and then the parents. If I have their support, I should be set :)

I have another interview next week at a location I'm quite excited about as well: Steamboat Springs (one of the coolest ski towns I've visited in Colorado). It's schedule for Thursday, so I'll be sure to update everyone next week!

The First Race of 2009

My first race of the season did not go as well as planned. I played soccer twice last week on top of my normal triathlon training and really messed up my hip flexor. I tried to go for a quick shakeout on Saturday night (the race was Sunday morning), but literally only made it a block. After two minutes, I realized that I had absolutely no rotation out of my right hip - it was like it all of the sudden became a hinge joint instead of a ball and socket joint. Regardless, I just hoped for the best and went to bed.

The next morning my hip flexor was still incredibly tight and sore. However, it was definitely workable. Jonny picked me up early in the morning and I left with the intent to race (well try to finish the race).

The race was a 12k (about 7.4 miles) has a log jump and two river crosses. I started out the race at an incredibly slow pace (7 minutes per mile) then got blasted with wind for about the first 2 miles. Jonny drafted off of my for the first 3 miles than we switched. After the switch, my legs felt horrendous and I began to fall back from him. We came around a corner around the 5 mile mark and there was just a huge overflow of water from the nearby reservoir; this was the first crossing. I went barreling into the frigid water and my legs actually finally loosened up :) I drafted off of Jonny until we reached the top of a huge sand hill then really opened for the last mile and half.

I finished the race with horrendous time (53:31); which is like 7:10 pace per mile. However, the winning time was only a 46:30 or something. I'm guessing the actual time isn't a very accurate gauge of how fast we were running. I did end up taking second place in my division and won a $15 gift card in the raffle :)

I'm really excited for my interview this Wednesday - I could barely sleep last night. I'm not excited about the random snowstorm we got last night though, but it's supposed to be 70 degrees tomorrow. Gotta love Colorado!

Another Job Interview :) :) :)

I have a job interview at Battle Mountain High School in Vail next Wednesday for head cross country coach and a math teaching position!!!

Other than that, things are going great out here. I did take my first spill on my bike yesterday though; more embarrassing than painful though. It's amazing how well those bikes don't handle when you get off the road....and are going 30 mph.....and hauling around a sharp turn...

The weather is amazing (mid 70's) and school is going great. I have a friend coming out to visit next week, going to San Francisco to be professionally good-looking the following weekend and one of my college friends is moving to Boulder in two weeks.

Spring Blizzard 2009

I remember saying how crazy Michigan's weather is.....but Colorado's is way more random. So after enjoying weeks of 60+ degree sunny days, a massive snowstorm hit Denver and the foothills last Thursday. It DUMPED snow for 3 days straight, accumulating yards of snow in the foothills and in the front range of the mountains.

Due to this, I decided to head up the mountains Thursday night so I wouldn't have to risk the freeway closing on the way to my interview. GOOD IDEA.

Friday morning I drove pass Vail to a little town called Minturn where my interview was (Minturn Middle School). Minturn is beautifully situated in a canyon along a river just south of Vail Ski Resort. There's tons of hiking trails and amazing fly fishing around the area.

The Interview:

This is Minturn

The panel consisted of an 8th grade math teacher and the principal which was much less intimidating than the interview I had last year at Moffat High School (principal, math department head, district math supervisor, assistant principal and another math teacher). My teaching philosophy and strategy corresponded with the district and school's goals (which usually happens) but I was drilled on my disciplinary strategies (which ALWAYS happens). I feel like I'm always labelled as one of the teachers that cannot control my classroom and this is always preceded by "you look so young, how do you ensure that kids respect you?" In this instance it was actually "you look like your 10." Which normally I would take with a grain of salt, but it's so frustrating having this label. Why do so many people attach "respect" with looking a certain age? It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. Like any other competent educator, students respect me because I'm a real person and the easiest way to combat disciplinary issues is by having an engaging lesson plan. If that doesn't work, then you have to address each issue individually based on the student and the incident. Why can't people just ask "What are your discipline strategies?"

This is the river that runs through Minturn

Anyway..... I toured the school with a 7th grader after the interview and returned to the Principal's office before heading to Vail to shred some of the fresh snow that was pounding Colorado. However, before I left, she said that this is a hard position to fill because they need a science and a math teacher (I'm qualified to teach math and French) but she referred me to the principal at Battle Mountain High School (in Vail).

Informal Interview:

I went up to Battle Mountain High School and spoke with the principal for a good half hour and he informed me that they need a freshman team math teacher (which is me), a part-time french teacher (which could also be me) and a cross country coach :) SCORE!!!

After speaking with him, I received a tour of the school and was introduced to ALL of the 9th grade teachers at the school (a little awkward and overwhelming - "Hi, I might be a teacher here next year???") I then sat down with the Athletic Director and talked about the coaching position for next year. As it turns out, he graduated from Grand Valley State University and was quite pleased to hear I competed for the school. So this whole situation sounds a little too good to be true, we'll have to wait and see what happens.

The weekend was welcomed with a disgustingly sick amount of snow - waist to chest deep powder on Saturday at Winter Park. What a way to go out of the season. Sunday it warmed up to around 50 but the mountain still kept the deep snow. PERFECT WEEKEND

Right now I'm really starting to up my triathlon training. Yesterday I timed myself in the pool and magically dropped another 20 seconds off my half-mile time after completing an uptempo run. Weather's supposed to be 70-80 degrees this week, so I can expect to find some good riding as well (once I fix the broken valve on my front tire).

I'm doing a 12k run (Chatfield Double Dip) this Sunday and doing the Motor City Olympic Distance on June 14th (Belle Isle Michigan). So be prepared to come and cheer me on!

JOB INTERVIEW!!!!!

I HAVE A JOB INTERVIEW AT MINTURN MIDDLE SCHOOL (southwest of Vail). I'D BE TEACHING 6TH/7TH GRADE MATH.

I just got off the phone with the principal and one of the other math teachers. I think our conversation went really well :) :) :)

My interview is next Friday, I'll keep you guys updated!

Getting Back on Track

Yesterday was supposed to be the biggest full moon of the year, and it was!!! Except it was hidden behind the clouds for most of the night, hence I didn't get to do any moonlight riding.

However, I did end up getting in a quick 1/2 mile swim before my run with the Denver Trail Runners (DTR). Somehow I managed to miss my pr by only 2 seconds?!?! I don't know what I was doing during the off season, but somehow I managed to stay in swim shape without running, biking or swimming. So everyone should take note: snowboarding, skiing and eating McDonald's is an aerobic workout similar to swimming.

After the swim, I booked it to Bear Creek Lake park to meet up with DTR for the first time since last May. I run with them for three reasons: they help me keep my competitive edge, give me people to run with and let me know what kind of shape I'm in at the beginning of the season. I definitely started out the run very controlled since it was my 3rd consecutive day running in two months or so. After about the 15 minutes the group starts to break off into sub-groups. I decided to give it a shot and go out with the first group and it turned out well. We climbed Mount Falcon (about 800 ft climb) and I felt awesome. I ended up finishing at tempo pace, but felt awesome :) :) :)

Yesterday inspired me to start checking out the upcoming race schedule. I'm doing a 12k trail/river run on April 27 and doing the Detroit Olympic Distance Triathlon on June 14.

Stay tuned to my weekend activities, Sunday I have my first soccer game (I don't remember if I posted this already, but I'm playing for a team sponsored by Coors- ha ha) and tomorrow I plan on snowboarding at Winter Park.

A Couple Opportunities

Nothing too exciting this week or last weekend for that matter. I rode at Echo on Friday night (kicked my ass) and Copper (knee deep powder) this weekend, but was way too exhausted to make it to Vail on Sunday. Ended up going back to Denver and went hiking in Golden with Heather (which motivated me to get my butt back into shape).

It's definitely time for me to start working hard at getting into triathlon shape. I did a half mile swim on Monday and somehow almost pr'd (personal record), then did a 70 minute long run up Green Mountain. My legs and body are exhausted, but that's just how it goes when you're trying to get back into shape.

So I've finally had a couple of possible opportunities for jobs. Battle Mountain High School sent me a series of questions about cross country coaching and I should hopefully be in contact with Human Resources about other job opportunities in DPS. You all know my feelings about DPS, so hopefully a few mountain opportunities will come out of the wood works.

Today I'm meeting up with the running group I used to train with last year then possibly doing some night skiing under the full moon, should be pretty sick with all the new snow we've been getting :)

Thanks :)

I just wanted to take a quick moment and thank all of you for posting/sending me email responses to my blogs. It lets me know what's going in all of your lives and that you are keeping up with me (saves me minutes on my cell phone...haha).

Spring Break 2009!!!

So this past weekend with the family out in Phoenix was nothing less than awesome. Thursday night I packed up my car with summer weather clothes and ski gear and headed out to Phoenix for my cousin Ryan's wedding. It was a long drive, but well worth it - with amazing scenery. Arizona was filled with colorful skies, mountains and cacti everywhere. I rolled in early Friday morning after a 2 hour nap in Flagstaff and about 3 cups of coffee and a 16 oz. energy drink. I immediately passed out on the couch for the next three hours to prepare for our 11 a.m. tee-off time. I hadn't played golf in ages so I definitely expected nothing spectacular (at least you can drink beer). I actually played a decent 9 holes and managed to lose only one ball - and had an awesome time with the family.

The wedding on Saturday was a blast. From Red Wings championship rallies to teaching the rest of the family how to do the ENTIRE "YMCA" dance, we all had an amazing time.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I had a my level 2 alpine certification exam in Taos, New Mexico. So after a hangover recovering breakfast at Denny's with Aunt Nancy and Julie's kids, I packed the car back up for a 9 hour drive back across the desert.

Taos is an amazing place to ski. Cliff drops, tree runs and extreme terrain is seemingly endless. Unfortunately, the lack of snow we've been experiencing led us to a day of solid ice. It was by far the worst day of skiing I've ever experienced. Seriously, every turn I tried to make ended up being a side slip. However, the first day we were just examined on Teaching.

Tuesday we got a light dusting of snow which actually made for fairly decent terrain. After my Movement Analysis exam, I met a girl named Heather (she was doing her cert. as well) and we went to tear up some of the crazy steeps at the resort.

Wednesday I thought things went fairly well (from the feedback I received) on my ski performance examination. I figured if I was going to pass any part of the exam, it would be this day. However, to my dismay I ended up failing every single exam. I forked over $375 to fail this exam, so needless to say I'm still pretty pissed about it (I could have bought a twin board with that amount of money or some jibbers). So please, no sympathy cards and I don't really want to talk about it.

Thursday at about 3 a.m., the snow storm of the freaking year hit Denver. It dumped snow all morning, all day and the following night. All in all, Denver got over a foot of snow (more than the resorts in the mountains)!!! My flight to California was definitely cancelled along with over 300 other flights out of Denver. So Heather and I decided to pack up the Jeep and try to head up to Keystone and shred some of that knee deep powder. Unfortunately, there was a 40 car pile up on I-25, eight accidents on I-70 and closures on every other possible road that could get us up there. So after sitting in traffic for about 30 minutes, we decided to give it a try later that night and just spent the rest of the day vegging out.



Down the street from me, Heather was coincidentally going to see Disturbed and Killswitch Engage (bands that most of my readers probably haven't heard of), and her friend bailed. So I got the extra ticket and got to rock out before heading into the mountains.

Friday we decided last minute to head to Vail (I've never skied there) - GREAT DECISION. The back bowls are everything they're built up to be. I spent the entire day in knee to waist deep powder (by far the best place I've every skied for powder). Completely random - I ran into Dave DeSteiger (friend from high school) at lunch there. Seriously, I see him everywhere; regardless of where I am in the country.



Today Tripp (friend that went I went to college with, but wasn't friends with until now), Heather and I went to Loveland and found nothing less than powder all day, again! These last two days have been the most epic days of the season... I actually can't think of any better riding days I've had in my life.

Side note: I have not received any calls about a new job for next year (starting to get a little worried), Spring Break ends Monday, and I am having the time of my life :) :) :)

Chillin'

Unfortunately the Chill program has come to an end. Friday was our end of the program banquet and yesterday was our last day going up to the mountain. I'm actually quite sad. It was such an amazing experience for our kids to get a chance to do something that is usually only for wealthier people. My students made so many friends and actually became very good snowboarders. Miguel for example, was going off fun boxes all day yesterday, Ruben keeps asking me to hook him up at Winter Park next year, and Seth is competing in the Jib Jam this weekend. I really hope I have the opportunity to do this program in future.

I also gained a lot from this program as well. I made many new friends and have gotten way better at riding - I can do a 360 now :) Yesterday after we finished riding, I went out with Scott (one of the coordinators) and some of the volunteers to grab a drink. Scott was really pumped to hear that I was going to China. Before he started doing the Chill program, he taught in Japan, China and South Africa. He definitely gave me a lot of good advice which made me even more stoked to travel abroad this summer!!!

Besides that, not much else is going on. Just finishing up this week and can't wait for Spring Break!! I leave for Phoenix on Thursday, Taos on Sunday and San Francisco on Thursday :)

我去中国

This is the last email I received:




Hi Andy,I have an email from Ms. Yao this morning accepting you into the summer program. She authorized me to send you a formal invitation letter. I'll put that in the mail. Be sure to take the letter with you to China.By the way, sometimes those school email addresses are not accessible when you are in China. If you another email like gmail, hotmail, yahoo, aol, etc. it might be good to switch to that for the summer. If you do that, let me know so I can change your access to YingwenTeach Interactive so you can access it this summer. We will use YT I to communicate with each other this summer.



Shane

I'M INVITED TO GO TEACH IN CHINA THIS SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Self-Destruction

Those of you that have been following my blog for the past couple of month might remember a post about Marissa (if you haven't, just go read it!). So I voiced how she started off the year completely off track and then completely pulled a 180 and became one of my most notable students. Her life outside of school took a turn for the worse, and she completely let herself slip. This is one of the hardest things to deal with at this job. I feel like the students lack so much support outside of school that all of the hard work a lot of us teachers put in just doesn't cut it. Without a strong family support, it seems that any student would be completely set-up to fail; especially in a corrupt district like DPS. Marissa's mom has cancer and apparently is not sure how long she has to live. Granted this is sad and having a tremendously negative effect on Marissa, her mom is definitely not stepping up to the plate. Instead of encouraging Marissa to be straight and trying to stay strong, her mom is constantly looking for attention and feeling sorry for herself. On a positive note, Marissa's mom has decided to move the entire family to Tampa so in case the worst does happen, Marissa's grandma will be there to provide some aid to the family.

Marissa has spent the past 4 or 5 months getting back on track, building up her confidence and then just collapses. It really makes me wonder how much we can really do for some of the these kiddos.

To keep with the theme (self-destruction), let me tell you about my Friday in the railyard at Echo Mountain. I ollied (jumped) onto a rail with my weight to far forward and completely tacoed the rail (picture my body being the taco shell, with all the good stuff being the rail), bruised all across my lower abs, left blue paint stains on my hoodie, and have a huge scab across my stomach; but all in good fun :) Later that night however, I hit the quarter pipe and landed a 360!!!

Finally my freaking cold is starting to go away too, so maybe I can actually get my fat butt back into shape for triathlon season. This was seriously the longest and worst cold I think I've ever had.

Dying Disease Part 2

Okay, so I know I've pretty much sucked with updating my blog and regardless of my excuses I apologize and should be letting everyone know what's going on out here in God's country.

First of all, this winter season has been awesome (as far as me getting better at both riding and skiing). Since my last post, I've skiied at Durango Mountain, Telluride, Echo, Copper, Keystone, Breckenridge and of course the usuals (Winter Park and A-Basin).

Telluride was a phenomenal trip. My friends Jonny, Lauren, Sam and I went out there for a weekend and stayed with my friend Sarah for a day and then stayed with Jake's dad Jim for a day near Durango Mountain. Telluride was phenomenal, Sam and I hiked about 45 minutes, rode down a chute then hiked over to an untouched bowl. We ducked a rope and almost got our passes suspended for 2 years, but well worth it.

This is Telluride and right above the ("u" in "Telluride is where we rode)


On Mondays I've been doing an after school snowboarding program at Echo Mountain. It's a really small ski area (by Colorado standards) but has night skiing and is a great place to learn to ride park. Everyday I've been there, all I do is practice freestyle snowboarding with the kids. So here's what I've learned so far:




180 (front and backside, switch and regular)
About 10 degrees away from a 360 off a wall
tail grab, nose grab, mute grab, rail slide (on a box, rail, pipe)

This is a mute grab :p

switch - riding the board backwards

grabs - tail = back of board, nose = front of board, mute = middle of board, backside = when you rotate, your back goes across the front of you

Tonight we have a make-up day, so I get to ski and ride 4 days in a row!!!


Let me tell you about the more responsible aspect of my life:


So I decided to resign from my job here at West High School. DPS has way too much b.s. and is causing me to be way to stressed out with my life - to the point where I don't really act like myself even when I'm having fun up in the mountains. I've applied for jobs in Breckenridge, Vail and Winter Park school district areas. So keep your fingers crossed!!!


I've also decided to pursue a teaching abroad program..... IN CHINA!!! I'd be teaching high schoolers that want to become teachers for the month of July in Jiangsu. I just sent in all my application materials, so keep your fingers and toes crossed - this would be an amazing experience. I want my masters degree to involve working with students from outside of the United States and I think this program would be a great resume builder and an all around awesome experience. If I get accepted, the only thing I need to pay for is my plane ticket and I also receive a salary.


Most recent note - I've came down with the dying disease....again! Seriously, I just got over it last week. I've decided to go through major detox and am only eating non-processed whole foods until I get better.

Winter Storm Alert!!!!

So apparently the west coast is getting a massive snow storm which is supposed to hit the rockies tonight - just in time for President's Weekend. Apparently their getting over a foot of snow and I get 3 days to enjoy the freshies :)

They dying disease has subsided and just left me with a little cough, so I should be near a 100% (which is good since my buddy Southie is back from New Zealand for the rest of the season). I'll provide with an update of this weekend's festivities on Tuesday, happy break everyone!!!

Off to Winter Park for me!!!

Dying Disease

Yes the dying disease has came back to haunt me...as it does every year. I've been coughing, sneezing, fevering and sounding like a fat man trying to climb up a mountain after every flight of stairs for the past 2 weeks.

It happened to come at a not so bad time though. Since I was feeling awful and almost threw up in my car from coughing so hard, I decided to take yesterday off of work. This gave me the whole day to organize all my crap and finish moving out of my old apartment into my new one right in downtown Denver (Well Capital Hill - same difference). I love the apartment, having a roommate and most importantly love being walking distance from school and majority of my Denver friends. However, apparently the neighboring couple decided to get back together last night and decided to "make love" loudly for 45 minutes last night.... three different times....and between 1 am and 6 am. Needless to say, I did not get much sleep.

I have a lot of exciting things coming up, so I'll try and give you a brief summary.

I've applied to the school districts in Aspen and near Vail (I've decided to leave this job), have my level 2 certification for skiing approaching IN TAOS AND BEAVER CREEK, U.S. vs. Mexico World Cup Qualifying game is tonight and I get a 4 day weekend to ski and ride in Breck, Keystone, Vail and Copper :) :) :)

Just need to kick this damn dying disease. I love my life.

Moving and New Responsibilities

Hey, I apologize (especially to the family members) for not updating my blog for about 2 months.

Everything is going well out here, I'm just EXTREMELY BUSY. I'm working up at Winter Park and am gone all weekend, Monday I'm doing a snowboarding program with my students and don't get home from Echo Mountain until about 10:30 at night (I drop some of the students off at home), Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I train with the soccer guys until about 5:00, Tuesday I also have a class from 6-9pm, there are at least 8 teachers being cut due to reduction in our school's funding (so I'm working on getting my resume together and applying to new jobs), I have to renew my teacher's license by April (which may seem far away, but everything in this district takes forever to get processed) , AND I'm moving into an apartment downtown and have to be out of my old apartment by this Tuesday (which you can only imagine how challenging that will be since I'm used to not getting home until after 10pm on Monday and Tuesday and have to work all weekend at Winter Park.

But I'm still smiling :)