TARA BALLENTINE
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

I woke up at 7:30 this morning, PST. It was dark, cause I was so far up north, you know. Anyway, we turned on the lights, made some coffee in the mini Mr. Coffee, then walked outside and jumped on the gondola and rode to the top of Blackcomb Mountain - 5,000 feet up in the Canadian Rockies. This initial, impressive ascent was to be followed by numerous runs -- some glorious in my own little way and others painful -- down Whistler Mountain with other like-minded reverse-snowbirds...and Jason Alexander.

The only bad part was that they didn't have the fluffy, abundant powder that everyone always talks about. Instead it was pretty icy, a condition that makes for a horrible, hair-raising, scraping noise, especially the way I snowboard. But, bravely, I proceeded. My group and I (composed of 5 Albuquerqueans and 1 Boulderite -- people from Albuquerque have a creepy stick-to-each-other-too-much mentality) called it a day at around 3:30. My body couldn't take anymore, and besides, the lifts weren't running anymore and the fog had set in. I was a little frustrated because 1) my knee hurt like crazy and 2) I couldn't get an inspirational snowboarding song in my head to save my life. Really, all I could think of was Justin Timberlake's "Rock your Body." It was sad. So was the fact that I didn't bring my camera. This scenery was really spectacular and deserved some sort of documentation for prosperity.

But, things weren't too bad. I was staying in a fancy condo with two fancy hot tubs, and I finished the day off in an enviable way -- hot tubbin' and drinkin' brewskies like you ought to. Or so the Canadians say. I'll skip the part about the terrible pizza at the cheesy Whistler Village establishment where there were a lot of drunk MTV Spring Break types (women kissing women and forty year old men cheering them on -- you get the idea), but add the part about drinking still more Canadian beers by the Thermo-Flame fire in the condo.

This story may give you the impression that I'm a fancy-pants. Actually, I'm a starving student, and I had no business staying in a condo of that caliber, paying 60 loonies a day to slide down a mountain, so please don't get the wrong idea about me. I committed to this before I knew it was going to be an outrageously priced weekend extravaganza. You'll probably discover by the next 17th that I'm usually quite frugal and practical and only mildly sporty. One last thing to clarify: Jason Alexander really was there, but I definitely wasn't shredding with him. That's funny that you thought that, though.

CHERYL HUBER
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

THINGS ABOUT MY TRIP TO TARGET, JAN 17, ALEXANDRIA, VA
by Cheryl Huber

Members of target trip: Hayden, Edward, Shyam, Cheryl.
Method of transport: Edward's black Toyota Corolla (I think?)

-- I bought 5 pairs of brightly colored striped knee socks, all of which were on sale. This was definitely my most exciting purchase.

-- Edward debated for awhile about a new video game and decided against it, even though it was only like fifteen bucks. I mean, please.

-- I didn't see Shyam the entire time we were inside target, and I can't name even one item that he purchased. He's an elusive fellow.

-- Hayden and I succumbed to ridiculous marketing by trying on bathing suits even though it was the dead of winter. They were all horrifying on me.

-- Edward went to Target wearing a red-haired women's wig with a blue bandana in the style of Bruce Springsteen. He looked Ashton Kutcheresque.

-- Teapots were a popular Target item. I had to fight my way to the shelf through 3 Spanish-speakers who seemed to be debating which model to purchase. I ended up with a little black one because they were all out of red. How cute would it be to have a bright red teapot? I would've loved it so much.

-- When Hayden was on the phone with her friend, she described Potomac Yards, the grossest example of strip malls and suburban car culture ever, by saying "We're walking around this place with a bunch of different stores" -- as if it had even one tiny ounce of charm, which it does not.

-- Hayden spent the majority of her Target trip on the phone.

-- I forgot to buy long johns.

-- Hayden bought a plant that Edward named for her. It's called Woodpecker.

KARIN DAX
BARCELONA, SPAIN

Jan 17 began for me immediately at midnight when Ramiro, my special someone/novio/amigo/marido who I met just about a year ago while I was living in Mexico, hopped on a bus to Madrid after spending about a month and a half here with me in Spain. I live in Barcelona, but his flight back to Mexico is out of Madrid, and his best friend lives there, so off he went for two more days of fun with the boys before flying home.

Then, being much preoccupied by his departure on the metro home, I managed to miss the stop where I had to change from the red line to the green line. Spent about 20 boring minutes waiting to go back one stop then change to the green and finally made it home. The previous day, all the power had gone out in my house. Joy. Fortunately, we have lights again, and everything in the kitchen works. However, none of the outlets in the rest of the house work at the moment. So aside from having to crawl into bed at about 2 am all alone, it was absolutely freezing! A lovely reminder that there was no warm body to keep me company. Anyway, I'm rambling on...

At 8 am, I got a phone call from my boy that he'd arrived safely in Madrid, went back to sleep, got up around noon, fed the cat, showered, read, went grocery shopping, talked to Ramiro again, and finally left the house around 7:45 pm to meet a friend to go see "Calendar Girls" -- about the "old" English women who posed nude for a calendar to raise money for the cancer unit at the local hospital... I highly recommend it!

After the movie, talked to my boy once again and then went for a Guinness with my friend. It was, by far, the worst, most watery, foul tasting Guinness I've ever had, but the peanuts were good and we watched part of the Barcelona-Athletico game, which ended in a tie 1-1. After passing by all the scary waterfront clubs with male and female go-go dancers, I took the metro home, and finally got to bed around 2am.

KEVIN FANNING
URBANA, ILLINOIS

I forgot and now I have no recollection of what I did on Saturday. I think the weather was somewhat cold, if that helps.