Author Archives: jilladler PCSkiGal

Why Can’t The Ski Day Start Later?

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I should be kissing cotton- like an hour ago. Not only would it be good for my health but it would be awesome for my ski day. A full 7 hours’ sleep AND the ability to get up at 7 a.m. for first tram? Now, that would be cool. For me, it’s more like 5 hours of sleep and out of bed at 9:30 a.m.
There was a day last week that I got to Snowbird at 3:15 p.m. Yup, while everyone else was heading down the canyon, I was zipping up. Parked, booted up and got two memorable tram rides to close out the day. It had been snowing all day and FB updates rolled in about how deep it was. I couldn’t leave home any sooner than 2:30 p.m. but I couldn’t let the day pass without at least making one run. No regrets. That’s my biggest mantra. Do everything you can so you don’t look back to wonder ‘what if’. I can honestly say that I don’t regret any of the choices I have made in my life. Not driving all the way over to Little Cottonwood Canyon at the end of the day and not even dating the toxic, emotional vampires in the male lifeform.
Ok, I’ll admit that I do regret staying with said nemeses past their expiration dates but, hey, the flipside is that I don’t wonder ‘what if’ I had just worked harder? I gave each relationship my all. So there. With Ryan it’s different. It’s easy. Hope he feels the same. We spent two hours in my tub last night just talking. Candlelight, jets, bathsalts and a bottle of Two Buck Chuck. Ah the romance. The perfect end to the perfect powder day.
The Collins lot was packed but not the mazes. The angry winds threatened to blow us home. Should we? We wondered. Would it really be all that after everyone else had been skiing for the past two hours. It was 11 a.m. I called Alta from the car. “It’s died down a lot from this morning,” Matt said. All lifts running, fresh snow, what the hell? We beelined from Collins to Supreme which had been closed the day before when a electrical transformer blew.
Seven laps; laying down 11s you could spot from the chair after each run. We hiked Catherine’s, did two in Spiney’s, I even launched a little 5-footer off this rock into a puff of waist-deep. Surprised Ryan. Something just got in me to take the air. It was soft and joyous. By day’s end the sun came out. Despite coating my face with Real Earth SPF 30 sunscreen, I cooked. Ryan, who had borrowed the sunscreen, also looked like a tomato. My first clue should have been the thin layer of white that never absorbed into his skin. The tube went immediately into the trash when I got home. My Smart Girls Who Surf After Lotion helped tons. Sunburn aside, the day was needed.
A powder day is always needed. Sage off with the sitter, just Ryan and me. Ending the day with the ultimate body buzz from the stress of your muscles firing with every neuron. I’m so digging my Head Jimi’s. I didn’t know if I could get used to a rockered ski but hoo boy I sure can. They scare me a bit. They are a breeze to turn from the tails (the backseat) and I don’t want to be that skier. I want to ski centered, ankles and knees flexed, working from my core not my quads. It’s no wonder these kinds of skis are so popular. You don’t have to have the same skills you do on a traditional/non-rocker ski. It’s almost cheating. The rocker tip and tail make the ski short and easy to spin-especially through the trees. Still, it’ll be a Jimi day again tomorrow.
Another thing I’m psyched on is my Pistil Andina belt. I had to beg the company to send it to me. It won’t be in stores until summer. I wanted it because it looked so cool. I had no idea that it would be the ideal ski belt. Made of some kind of cotton knit, it’s soft, supple and pretty. No more droopy newschool skater pants! The only metal anywhere is the belt buckle but the distressed silver is a smooth concave oval that hugs your belly without jabbing it- even when your knees jerk up into your chest when you hit a mogul. Love the crocheted pattern of flowers and leaves in pastel and earth tones. The colors match just about everything in my ski closet.
I’m pooped finally. 1 a.m. with the alarm set for 7 to see how much snow has fallen on Alta and the Bird. I get to go to sleep with visions of snowflakes dancing in my head. Sweet dreams for you too!

A Gifting I Will Go

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The first weekend of Sundance has ended and if you stick around past today, you’ll be one of the few. Everything, and I mean everything happened between Thursday and Sunday. There will still be premieres and other films to watch throughout the week but almost all of the gifting and celeb sightings will wane after Monday. In the past, there was that push to spread the events and hubbub to last until Sundance close but with the economy, it’s back to crushing it on opening weekend.

I made a mad dash, therefore, to start my product march. I walked into the crammed Sky Suite at the Sky Lodge near Main Street and immediately started mingling and eyeballing the products set aside for VIPs. It was the final day for them so a few of the Suite’s sponsors were ‘gifted out.’ Not so for the Perky Jerky dude who insisted I try his caffeinated beef jerky and handed me packets of the mighty meat. At home, Ryan grabbed my can of AXE Twist and you’d think he never saw deodorant before. With the new twist-down cap, the top won’t get lost in your gym bag. Wish they had given me antiperspirant too. Ryan will definitely need the AXE Twist shower gel they included in my bag.
See, not everything gifted at Sundance is targeted for the rich and elite. Just those that dig pampering. I could barely squeeze past all of the cliques of filmmakers and pretty women to speak with the EOS people. EOS (Evolution of Simplicity-www.evolutionofsmooth.com) is a line of natural, affordable skincare products that smell great (not too fruity) and feel silky. Plus, they come in smart packaging. The organic lip sphere is a cute little egg of lip balm made with antioxidant-rich vitamin E, shea butter, jojoba oil, SPF 15 but petrolatum and paraben free. The brand new hypoallergenic body lotion is due out on shelves this month.
All this schmoozing was making me parched. I could either belly up to the Eldridge bar from New York City where DJ Spider was spinning or throw back a cappuccino from Café Bustelo (http://cafebustelo.com/). The company was promoting a sinfully rich hot chocolate (made with milk not water) and single-serving cappuccino packets. Between the espresso and my Low-carb Monster drink, I moved into mission mode for the ultimate coup.
Former supermodel Rachel Hunter fawned all over pieces from Italian jewelry designer Rebecca (http://www.testiusa.com/) and they generously lavished her with a double-chain necklace and $500 chunky stone ring. The brand creates edgy, sexy pieces in stainless steel, bronze and semi-precious stones. After the reps were done snapping a slew of ‘Rachel’ shots, the host turned to me with a warm welcome as if I were just as cool as she was. See, not everyone at Sundance ignores you if you’re not in a film! I walked with a gilded bronze pendant necklace with a pricetag hovering around $600. Gulp. The line is featured at J. Brooks at The Gateway and Fashion Plaza in Murray if you’d like some hands-on shopping of your own.
Just as I was starting to feel extra special, AMC Theaters provided the reality check. AMC gave VIPs a premiere pass for free movie-going at all AMC Theaters for the year. I got a box of Gummi Stars and Twizzlers. Guess it’s a good thing for me that there are no AMC Theaters in Utah. Two other sponsors at the Sky Suite payed it forward by donating to Haiti. Premium LG Group got celebs to sign a limited edition Burton-Corona Snowboard to auction off with a partner charity site. Giiv, gave away gift cards for Global Giving where VIPS choose from about 15 Haitian relief efforts.
One of the coolest gifts and giving idea came from Blanket America (http://www.blanketamerica.com/). One side of the blanket features Obama’s inaugural speech (where he mentions “our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness”), the other, a true old-school patchwork quilt of 13 different fabrics representing our original 13 colonies. For every Patchwork Heritage Quilt gifted at Sundance, Blanket America will give another to the needy. Blanket America aims to provide 1 million blankets to our country’s neediest citizens this year.
How funny I must have looked trotting down Main Street carrying a quilted blanket as I weaved between hordes of people in black peacoats and impractical shoes. I had 10 minutes to get to the Tweet House before they shut down for good. I heard Hitachi’s G-Technology was gifting harddrives. Now we’re talking…
Twitter staked out Park City’s The Shop yoga studio for their multi-tiered showcase of all things social and digital. This first “Tweet House” featured daytime panel discussions, product-gifting, evening special events and performances with live interactive video broadcasts from the “Tweet House,” on Ustream.com. The warehouse space off of Park Avenue was bumping for ‘happy hour’ but the sponsor tables were still manned. I snagged a killer vintage-style cotton shirt from Cohesive (http://cohesiveapparel.com/) before scanning the room for G-Tech. Lots of media technology from sound systems to web interfaces lined the perimeter. It seemed out of place to find Lift Kits insoles. The shoe insoles add an inch of height where no one can see. But I suppose we can all find amusement as the ‘bigger person’. Plus, I always wanted to be 5’7″. Ah ha! I zeroed in. Erin fervently shook my hand and introduced me to the Macbook-compatible G Drive mobile 500 GB USB. The sleek, white porcelain box -just slightly bigger than an iTouch – matches the latest Apple notebooks. The rugged, portable drive comes out next month and offers super speedy storage, rendering and backup(on a 5400RPM 2.5-inch drive).
“The Sundance Film Festival is the largest U.S. gathering for independent cinema and is the perfect venue for our G-Technology products,” said Hitachi Global Storage Technologies spokesman Mike Cordano. “We are pleased to help increase the vitality of independent film and filmmakers, and expand our reach within the film community.”
Everyone sponsor I spoke with said the same thing. They welcomed Sundance as the springboard to exposing them to the world. Can’t wait to dive back in tomorrow.

With Friends Like These……

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Ok, gotta sleep. Leaving tomorrow for Escalante for some canyoneering in Egypt 2. I thought I had a friend coming with me but it looks like I’m flying solo. Beeatch sent me an EMAIL (after I had called several times and sent texts over the past two days) at 4 today saying she was sick, had been since Tuesday and wasn’t feeling well enough to travel. Why don’t I cut her slack? Because 1)I first spoke with her on Tuesday about going and she jumped all over it. Not once did she mention she was coming down with something, 2) I made the plans around her schedule, 3) I spoke with her Thursday and still no mention of illness; 4) she never contacted me between then and today despite my many attempts to reach her; 5) when I *67’d her tonight at 10:30, she answered, sounded just fine and there was a party going on in the background. When she heard my voice, she hung up without saying a word and 6) I immediately texted her about how lame that was and she never responded. Chicken shit.
Funny, she spent about a half an hour bitching about how one of her good friends told her he couldn’t hang out with her 4yo anymore because she was too irritating. He stopped calling, bailed on plans they had, blah blah blah. She was extremely hurt and angry. You would think when something like that happens to you, you don’t turn around and be a total turd to someone else.
God I hate my ‘friends’. Another one bites the dust. Why can’t people just say no in the first place and stop f*&king around with other people’s valuable time and energy? I could have planned this trip for a different time and with different people. You don’t bail on a roadtrip the day before you’re supposed to leave. It’s just completely uncool. I had a cold on Wednesday too but it’s not stopping me from hitting Escalante on Sunday. If you’re truly sick at the time someone calls and invites you somewhere you TELL THEM THAT so that they can plan accordingly. If you don’t want to go, you say that immediately. YOU DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE WHEN THERE’S ZERO TIME LEFT FOR THE OTHER PERSON TO FIND ANOTHER COMPANION. That’s just plain obnoxious and grounds for a baseball bat to the head. Ugh. Ok, I’m going to sleep now. Toodles!!

Where the Wild Things Are- FILM REVIEW

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Saw “Where The Wild Things Are” tonight. Sage loved it and actually sat in my lap the whole time without squirming. My little 3 year old is growing up! As cool as the scenery and the monster puppets were, though, there’s not much to engage adults. The boy is a brat with no insight or chutzpah to communicate with the Things and help them understand how to get along and be happy. Max tries to order them around but he’s often stumped and silenced when the Things call him out. Finally when he does confess that he’s not a Viking King he has absolutely NOTHING to say for himself; no way to elonquently explain why it doesn’t matter that he’s not a real king. What impresses the most are the Things themselves. The actors (especially James Gandolfini) do a phenomenal job of bringing their beings to life-especially when the 1963 book never explores their characters. This film adaptation by Spike Jonz attempts to put some meat on the bones of a nine-sentence children’s story about a neglected little boy who gets sent to his room without supper and finds himself in a far-off land where he finally gets to be the boss and the one showered with attention- even if it is by a bunch of large creatures who thump the ground and roar.
The monster-play in this movie script drags on and on and there’s no cool moral that ought to hit your rugrats over the head with. Still, I did shed a tear when Max said good bye to the Wild Things. I hate good byes. If you’ve got little ones, take them to see it. They’ll have nothing to fear.

Three Down; Three To Go

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I’ll make this one a shorty seeing as how it’s five minutes to 2 a.m. and I have to get up at 7 a.m. to do this breast cancer strides walk. Hope talked me into it. I’m not one for getting up this early unless there are killer yard sales or there’re two feet of fresh snow at the resorts. The mountains in Utah aren’t open yet (that’ll come in Nov.) and it’s too cold for garage sales. I think it was guilt that motivates me. After Hope’s piece on Fox13 (see link in my FB posts), I received a few emails calling me an ‘inspiration’. Huh? I’m just doing what I’m told and trying to ignore the fact that I have a life-threatening disease. I finished round three of chemo a week ago and am just fine thank you! Halfway through treatment now. Was a tad queasy last Saturday but that had more to do with lack of sleep and then doing nothing but sit around the house all day. By Monday, I was climbing and jumping on my Stair Master. The past two days have been spent researching the possiblity of doing radiation concurrent with chemo instead of waiting until chemo was done before starting 6 weeks of radiation (which, btw, would mean really f*^king up Christmas and January). I figured since I was handling chemo so well, I could take the extra punch. None of the doctors in Utah seem to be up on this little time saver so I’ve had to Google like mad and contact cancer hospitals outside of the state. And here I thought the Huntsman Center was state of the art! After my research it seems that not only is CMF/radiation together viable but it may increase the longterm survival rate by 10 %. Plus, it keeps me from dragging my treatment into the next health insurance calendar year. Any sane person wouldn’t think twice. The side effects? They tell me my boob might not look as nice. Anyone out there can attest or deny this claim?The stuff I’ve read so far says there’s no difference in looks at the 3 year point. You might be wondering how the twins are holding up at this point. Still small and perky. You can barely tell I had surgery. The scar blends in and there’s no divet from the chunk of tumor they removed. Thank you, Dr. Neumeyer! Ryan can even squeeze them now and there’s no pain or difference in touch between left and right. If it weren’t for my head I could be ‘normal’ again. My head though constantly takes me on walks where I wonder if there will ever be a time in the future that I can say to someone, “I had cancer” instead of “I have cancer”. It’s a strange thing to feel like this disease will stick with you longer than family.

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