Winter Observations

Okay so it wasn't tomorrow but today when i post this update. sorry. I didn't consider that i hadn't seen my bride in  a week and she had to work last night so here i am today posting, lucky you. I know the suspense was killing you. It's okay i feel that way every time i'm waiting for the weekend so i can have Dunkin' Doughnuts.....yum.

So if you didn't know I was in WV for a week (by way of Charlotte) for the Third annual Man Trip. I'll make these few observations then leave the pictures and video (yes i said video) to detail the trip. The first thing that stands out to me is my return home, after a week in the relatively secluded mountains and mostly empty slopes of WV, NYC can be rather surprising to come home to. Now that being said, i can't complain. I mean i love this city, but i forget how peaceful it is in nature. There's something very...wonderful about being in a place where all you have to worry about is your next meal and where you mind can find silence. I envy monks. I think i always have, that's part of what i love about martial arts, the heritage of aesthetic and almost monastic life. Seclusion, peace, nature. Of course it's very self centered at most of it's core, but appealing nonetheless.  I am reminded of why i started rock climbing years ago. There is something inherent to the heart of a man (and maybe people in general, i'm not sure) that soars at those moments of when it's just him and the mountain. There is a singularity of focus and purpose there that as a man i appreciate, especially as one who lives in NYC and the 21st century.  So all that introspection to say, it was fantastic, just me and the mountain, and 5 glorious minutes of freedom carving (and falling at times) the snow. If I was David and wrote the 23rd Psalm, i think God would have led my by the snowy mountain trail and given me a snowboard instead of still waters...but the concept's the same.

Another observation, I'm flattered and humbled by my friends and thankful for how negligible distance is in love. I know what "they" mean by absence growing your feelings to a loved one. It was so great to hang out with my friends, some i hadn't seen in a year +. And again there is something inherent in a man, to go to a cave and beat his chest and grunt, and express his manhood along side other men. Don't know why, but man time is great. And i am fanatically in love with my wife, so i can only imagine what it must mean to those guys who begrudge their marriages....It was great to spend a couple of days with Gilliam in Charlotte before Man Trip began on Monday (he has fantastic music with a band named the falls lost, so go to iTunes and buy it so he can release a new album), then Monday morning when he and i showed up at Craig's house in Rock Hill for breakfast and truck packing ritual, my tall buddy Carl answered the door and i could have sworn i was just walking into his and Lindsey's place in Summerville, like no time had past. Then of course theirs Craiger who was in his pj's busily making everyone a HUGE breakfast (which we managed to devour without remorse) and Craig rocks because i think he is possibly the nicest guy i know in the world. A real peaceful dude to be with, always smiling and laughing (and snorting...i love that). i mean even his road rage is nice....and of course we would have had no Man Trip without the tireless efforts of Stevo.

Now while we were in a hot tub at a Days Inn, eating Taco Bell, and Cracker Barrel (the BEST oatmeal), sleeping on hard beds and getting bruises and rashes from wiping out on icey snow in 60 degree temperatures, Tammy and Jane and Sarah G were here in NY Getting a 3 hour spa treatment and massage going to Broadway shows, drinking gourmet chocolate milk in Brooklyn, and dining of fine Italian. But to each their own....