Back in the Boonies

HEYO!!!!

So I'm back in Maine now. Have been for a couple days. Thought that the blog needed some spicing up and I couldn't look at Anna's last post anymore. I wish I had more to update, but there's not a whole lot going on in my home town. My car still kinda works and cops are still very hard to find unless you are going about 90 in a 25. The weather's been awful, 40's and raining all week, and its supposed to continue. BUT, I didn't let that dampen my spirits. I went out for a run yesterday with my old training buddy. It was my first mudrun in many months and man was it satisfying. I wish I had taken pictures at the time, but pictures of my shoes will have to suffice (just imagine mud all the way up my legs from running through pits that were up to my knees in places).

Evidence of sweet sweet mud

Evidence of terrible terrible weather

I also went down to Portland on Tuesday (very exciting) and stopped by peak performance for new rollerski wheels. They had to order the wheels (I'm using some old V2 900's). I looked at the skis afterwards and realized that the back of one ski had been souldered back together, I'm really really hoping it stay s together.

Normal

Souldered (notice the rather significant bend)

Well thats all I have for now, and there's a pan of mac and cheese and a gallon jug of milk that are requesting my attention now, so until next time, have some good summers.

Tor

Over and Out

A week ago, all of us put on unfamiliar clothes and shoes in which we struggled to walk, ate some fancy food, exchanged gifts and thank yous, and officially called it quits for the '08-'09 ski season. After four years of Harvard skiing, I, along with David Woods McCahill (alias "Badman"), wrapped up our careers as Harvard athletes. Our banquet was 4 hours long and I never really got to say even of the things that I wanted to about Harvard Skiing. As such, I reserve the right to be sentimental and cheesy in the following blog post.

Skiing is the best thing that ever happened to me. My earliest memories of skiing involve a lot of crashes, a hand-me-down snowsuit (which was still purple, despite the fact that all of my older siblings/cousins were boys), and serious bribery in the form of M&Ms. The only reason that I liked racing was because when I first started, I was still able to beat my little brother. I also had a huge crush on Cam MacKugler, which was sub-optimal because I'm pretty sure that he and Ida Sargent kept sneaking off and making out in bathrooms. Then a few years down the road, Peter Graves sweet-talked me into applying to Harvard. Sheer laziness kept me from filling out any other applications, so I wound up at a school that is completely foreign in every way from everything that I was used to at age 18. It has Asians and black people, it has people who are smarter than I am, and it is situated in a city, which means that it has homeless people, traffic lights, ethnic food that does not come from Wok 'n' Roll, and a dearth of dirt roads, hills, and snow.

Harvard is not an easy place to ski. I'd argue that its location forces any motivated skier to be more creative, more dedicated, and more immune to boredom than skiers at any other college in the EISA. In trying to be all of those things alongside many of my teammates, I found that I forged some of the best friendships of my life. I'm leaving this program and this school with memories and friends that I wouldn't swap for Petter Northug. (That's a lie, but not too much of a lie, so I'm leaving it there for dramatic effect). Because I came to Harvard to ski, I have had the opportunity to feed Chris Nabel out of pudding-filled paper cups for two straight weeks, the privilege of having Dave's assorted footwear nauseating every Jordan resident, and the honor of seeing the entire girls team naked.

So in just over a month I'm outta here. Where I'm going and what I'm doing, I don't know, but I do know that I'll miss you guys. So thanks for the good times.

Over and out,

Schlutzerrrr

Harvard Nordic Views CSU Head Coach Rob Bradlee's Chest Hair

That's right, pterodactyls, chest hair. Last night, illustrious head coach of the Cambridge Sports Union's rockstar junior team (many of whom are posting impressive results at JOs right now), raced in a slick, bell-bottomed, one-piece disco suit unzipped to his belly button. There were hip thrusts when he received his medal for the Tuesday Night race series.

But seriously, ski friends, last night, Audrey, coaches Scushman and City, and myself raced with more characters than usual in CSUs final Tuesday night costume race extravaganza! Think 'clown on high fluoros,' a beekeeper, 60-year-old Harry Potter, scuba man in full wetsuit, tank, and cardboard flippers, santa with a backpack full of teddy bears, a single Blues Brother, and Andy Milne in a white retro uni. And, of course:

Richard Simmons, Just-look-at-those-snowpants, and the Dairy Fairy!

Honorable mention to Anna's headband, Tor's mini Fischers, Cara for loaning me her boots. Every other piece of clothing courtesy of your's truly (and don't worry, I also made Audrey race sans jacket. Not shown, Chris City, sporting the old purple Harvard suit, pants, and jacket. I can't tell you how many times my udder got felt up. But at least I won a hat for it!

Love,
M

P.S. In other news, Dave makes the same noise waking up as when he jumps out from behind doors and tries to scare Shannon and Clare. I know because ski fan Kyra Hill and I bought him a late night thesis care package of double stuffed Oreos, gummies, and Red Bull, only to find him asleep. Good to see that sleep still remains a high priority even in times of stress. Although I don't think he was sleeping in a Snuggie.

Fan shout out! Badman, Matt Coogan, and sister superfans Alyssa and Kyra Hill at Dartmouth!

Help a Friend in Need, Buy a Snuggie....

Confused? Don't be! See this plea for help from a true Harvard Skiing Fan; she specifically requested that we post her email on our blog to help make do on her "terrible blunder".

It's okay, Tami. Harvard Skiing <3's you. Forever and always.

Dear all,

Many of you have heard about "the snuggy" on infomercials and various other enriching programs. Recently, I thought I would take advantage of their "buy one get one free" offer online. Unfortunately, pure greed and misunderstanding led me to a terrible blunder. After I thought I had placed my orders, it seemed as though they were offering to give me 3 more free snuggies. "3 more free snuggies?!" i thought, and I clicked yes (absolutely). Instead, what they charged me for, was 4 sets of snuggies, totaling $125. When I saw this, I realized a) why americans are stupid b) why i am a stupid american and c)that i have learned my lesson about ordering from infomercials. never again (with the one exception being that hair braiding device I've had my eye on). I currently have 8 snuggies.

anyway, as i don't want to deal with the pain in the ass of mailing all of these f-ers back-- which i will do post-thesis. I wanted to extend to you the very special (risk free) opportunity of buying a snuggy off of me. I will only charge you $10 dollars for them and the first person to respond will get a free book light (it came with my snuggies).

If I can get 6 people to respond, I will not mail the snuggy's back and I will cut my losses.

If you are unsure of what a snuggy is exactly, please see here: https://www.getsnuggie.com/flare/next

Chloe, please spare me of your mocking, the pain is already great enough.

Peace be with you,

Tami

Tor was yet again disappointed by the lack of crunchy french toast wrapped in bacon this weekend

What a fantastic season! I personally have learned so much this season and hope to learn so much more. While my results may have been lower than what I would hope for (no DFL's though), I still had a great time. At times I definitely felt that this guy could have given me run for my money:



This was rather disheartening at first, but has now set my resolve to get faster and all around better at skiing in the upcoming months and years. I will hope to be able to ski like this for at least a little while in the future:



No but seriously, this team is amazing and I hope everyone comes back next year (yes that includes Dave and Anna). I will now leave you all with a video that will hopefully change Audrey's opinion of Peter Northug:



By mashing his face with her favorite song.

Tor

Tor didn't get crispy french toast wrapped in bacon this Sunday

This is how I felt about Sunday's race:


This is how Cara and Anna felt. Top 25!



Video credit to Schlutz.

That is all.

Cupcakes and Carnivals

January at Harvard - For most students, that means roughly 60 pages of papers to write, 12 hours of exams (or more, if your name is Trevor Petach), and long days of griping/bragging about how much you have to do. For me, however, January meant roughly 60 hours of House (a week), a scavenger hunt final in the Sackler, baking experiements, and of course, birthday! Given these exhausting schedules, it was easy to see why our first carnival up at Rumford was disappointing for some of us, but the season is just ramping up, and our improved results this weekend at UNH (and young Miss Sprague sporting her red sequined headband in the heats of Friday's classic sprint) serve as proof that we have dusted off our battle wounds from the mass start 15/20k skate and thrown down the hammer, for real this time. I can't wait to see how we do at Trapp's this weekend.

Pictorial:

Rainbow cake!

Cookie Monster Cupcakes in Trevor's power color for his birthday

Audrey tearing it up in the 5k classic at Rumford

Tor's first college race!

Rev has impressive thighs

That is all.

Mer