(no subject)
Feb. 9th, 2007 04:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prismakaosMy company's ski trip in Tahoe was, for me, Wednesday and Thursday of this week. We left campus around 530 on Wednesday morning, and returned Thursday at 4pm.
4 hours on a bus is never fun. 4 hours at 530 in the morning is tolerable only because you can sleep for long periods of time. I had a McDonald's biscuit with sausage and egg for breakfast, and was the envy of everyone around me because they were too good to get McDonald's food, but it was warm and delicious (for the time anyway). Anyway, I was entertained by Dobromir's iPod, which contained music under the subject of Mozart in the Morning and *skankyfunk*.
We were staying at the resort at Squaw Creek. For those of you unfamiliar with Squaw Creek or Tahoe in general, they held the VIIIth winter olympics there. We checked in when we got there, were told our room wouldn't be ready for a number of hours, and dropped our stuff off at the baggage claim lounge. At which point, i actually had a moment to look at the scenery.
Bear in mind, I've never been to Tahoe. I've never been skiing. If you showed me a mountain, I'd be all like "that looks like a picture I once saw but never actually saw in real life." I also hate being cold. So, anyway, snow + winter activities + cold = unhappy Inga. I elected to not ski or snowboard or snowshoe or ice skate, but instead to wander around in fleece and visit cute little shops and drink lots of hot chocolate. Lots of hot chocolate.
So wandering around elicited the requisite "I should visit the ski shop with my friend to ensure they will not be alone when they get their equipment". So I did that, and learned lots about skiing. 1) it requires a lot of equpiment and special clothing. 2) this equpiment and clothing is expensive. 3) it's cold and windy and full of snow, but apparently, 4) fun. I wouldn't know from personal experience. So Lilly and I wandered around and got her ski gear. Dobromir went off to snowboard, and Chris broke his snowboard bindings THREE times. (I don't actually know what this means but I think it's terrible.)
After I was abandoned to my own devices, I wandered around the tiny villages at Squaw Creek, which seem to consist of pubs/bars, hot chocolate/coffee places, and the same ski shop with a different name and slightly different inventory repeated a few dozen times. It was little, and within an hour, I was bored. So, after they called me to tell my room was ready, I got a peppermint hot chocolate from the local Starbucks and went back to the hotel.
Got to the hotel, brought my roommate's stuff up, and then proceeded to look around. Now, friends, let me tell you. This was one nice resort. Ice skating rink, waterfalls, fire, three restaurants, good cable, free shampoo, conditioner, lotion AND shower gel, etc etc. I basically zoned for a few hours, tried to get warm (failed until I went downstairs to sit 2 feet from the fire with a cup of hot chocolate), and watched MTV/VH1. Really bad shows (the white rapper show, real world denver, and when star wars ruled the world), but entertaining all the same.
Then, downstairs, to hang out by the fire, watch people play Killer Bunnies, and randomly run into a friend of mine, Erik U., and got food with him and a few other people. Then, it was time to go and get ready for the evening's entertainment, the creme de la creme, the Google party.
Party was awesome. 3 rooms, relatively similar to the themes from the Holiday party, if I told you about that. One room, an aquarium, with crab and shrimp, as well as revolving fish/aquarium images projected on the walls; another, an ice cave, with styrofoam icicles hanging from the ceiling, a bar made of ice, at least 4 PS3s, and two guys carving ice scupltures on stage with chainsaws; the third, a jungle, with a waterscreen where they were projecting jungle images, a couple of cirque-esque acrobats, and the cover band, Tainted Love. Which, for a cover band, were pretty damn decent.
I then spent the next four hours dancing to 80s songs, including a couple by Bon Jovi, AC/DC and Guns 'n Roses, juxtaposed with Cyndi Lauper. You have to remember that I hate cover bands who try to do Bon Jovi, because they're not Bon Jovi, but these guys? Were actually okay. Their cover of Sweet Child was done by the female singer and was less good, but still, props for effort.
Anyway. There was a cage for dancing and I met a new boy who can dance and the evening passed in a terribly fun way. Apparently, I shocked my coworkers so much that everyone was asking if I was okay. I just hadn't danced in ages, I'm sorry if I enjoy it. They hadn't seen me ever interested in a social event EVER, so I apparently confused them.
Also, I heart screwdrivers. Vodka + oj = good.
So, get up relatively early the next morning, rouse my roommate, go downstairs, check my email for the first time in two days, and get on a bus for four hours. Got back to work at 4pm, went home, crashed at about 7. My dinner was nutella on bread, and it was yummy.
And that's a wrap.
4 hours on a bus is never fun. 4 hours at 530 in the morning is tolerable only because you can sleep for long periods of time. I had a McDonald's biscuit with sausage and egg for breakfast, and was the envy of everyone around me because they were too good to get McDonald's food, but it was warm and delicious (for the time anyway). Anyway, I was entertained by Dobromir's iPod, which contained music under the subject of Mozart in the Morning and *skankyfunk*.
We were staying at the resort at Squaw Creek. For those of you unfamiliar with Squaw Creek or Tahoe in general, they held the VIIIth winter olympics there. We checked in when we got there, were told our room wouldn't be ready for a number of hours, and dropped our stuff off at the baggage claim lounge. At which point, i actually had a moment to look at the scenery.
Bear in mind, I've never been to Tahoe. I've never been skiing. If you showed me a mountain, I'd be all like "that looks like a picture I once saw but never actually saw in real life." I also hate being cold. So, anyway, snow + winter activities + cold = unhappy Inga. I elected to not ski or snowboard or snowshoe or ice skate, but instead to wander around in fleece and visit cute little shops and drink lots of hot chocolate. Lots of hot chocolate.
So wandering around elicited the requisite "I should visit the ski shop with my friend to ensure they will not be alone when they get their equipment". So I did that, and learned lots about skiing. 1) it requires a lot of equpiment and special clothing. 2) this equpiment and clothing is expensive. 3) it's cold and windy and full of snow, but apparently, 4) fun. I wouldn't know from personal experience. So Lilly and I wandered around and got her ski gear. Dobromir went off to snowboard, and Chris broke his snowboard bindings THREE times. (I don't actually know what this means but I think it's terrible.)
After I was abandoned to my own devices, I wandered around the tiny villages at Squaw Creek, which seem to consist of pubs/bars, hot chocolate/coffee places, and the same ski shop with a different name and slightly different inventory repeated a few dozen times. It was little, and within an hour, I was bored. So, after they called me to tell my room was ready, I got a peppermint hot chocolate from the local Starbucks and went back to the hotel.
Got to the hotel, brought my roommate's stuff up, and then proceeded to look around. Now, friends, let me tell you. This was one nice resort. Ice skating rink, waterfalls, fire, three restaurants, good cable, free shampoo, conditioner, lotion AND shower gel, etc etc. I basically zoned for a few hours, tried to get warm (failed until I went downstairs to sit 2 feet from the fire with a cup of hot chocolate), and watched MTV/VH1. Really bad shows (the white rapper show, real world denver, and when star wars ruled the world), but entertaining all the same.
Then, downstairs, to hang out by the fire, watch people play Killer Bunnies, and randomly run into a friend of mine, Erik U., and got food with him and a few other people. Then, it was time to go and get ready for the evening's entertainment, the creme de la creme, the Google party.
Party was awesome. 3 rooms, relatively similar to the themes from the Holiday party, if I told you about that. One room, an aquarium, with crab and shrimp, as well as revolving fish/aquarium images projected on the walls; another, an ice cave, with styrofoam icicles hanging from the ceiling, a bar made of ice, at least 4 PS3s, and two guys carving ice scupltures on stage with chainsaws; the third, a jungle, with a waterscreen where they were projecting jungle images, a couple of cirque-esque acrobats, and the cover band, Tainted Love. Which, for a cover band, were pretty damn decent.
I then spent the next four hours dancing to 80s songs, including a couple by Bon Jovi, AC/DC and Guns 'n Roses, juxtaposed with Cyndi Lauper. You have to remember that I hate cover bands who try to do Bon Jovi, because they're not Bon Jovi, but these guys? Were actually okay. Their cover of Sweet Child was done by the female singer and was less good, but still, props for effort.
Anyway. There was a cage for dancing and I met a new boy who can dance and the evening passed in a terribly fun way. Apparently, I shocked my coworkers so much that everyone was asking if I was okay. I just hadn't danced in ages, I'm sorry if I enjoy it. They hadn't seen me ever interested in a social event EVER, so I apparently confused them.
Also, I heart screwdrivers. Vodka + oj = good.
So, get up relatively early the next morning, rouse my roommate, go downstairs, check my email for the first time in two days, and get on a bus for four hours. Got back to work at 4pm, went home, crashed at about 7. My dinner was nutella on bread, and it was yummy.
And that's a wrap.
