In between various other projects this weekend, I decided that I need a new suit. Seeing as how there’s a distinct dearth of places to purchase suits in Terre Haute, I chose to postpone this bit of commerce until I return to Minnesota. Not wanting to be caught off-guard by the whole ordeal, I went to The Men’s Warehouse‘s web site. I read through a few of their suit-related guides when I happened upon a page containing “LifeStyle Lists,” or as they put it, “crib sheets for life.” Though all entertaining, insightful, and maybe – just maybe – useful, one in particular caught my eye: “11 Observations that reveal more about you than your sign.”

The eleven, and my opinion of how I fare, are:

• How you eat. How I eat depends on the situation. At breakfast (yes, I do eat breakfast), I tend to eat as fast as possible. Usually I can get down my bowl of Cheerios and glass of orange juice in just a couple of minutes. Lunch is more leisurely (but only slightly), and dinner, if it happens, varies greatly on the situation. When in a more formal setting, such as at a restaurant, I generally progress much slower and with much greater precision than at other times. My etiquette follows the situation: at high-class functions, I follow social protocol as best I know how. One quirk I have, if one could call it such, is that I tend to eat in the “American” style in informal settings and the “European” style on formal occasions. The most noticeable difference between the two is the hand that the fork is in – right for American, left for European.
• How you dance. Well, I can’t dance. Frankly, it isn’t too high on my list of things to learn either.
• The items, or lack of items, in your refrigerator. Currently in my refrigerator, I have two 96-oz containers of Tropicana ‘Homestyle’ orange juice, two half-gallons of skim milk, one Red Barron cheese pizza, a half-empty container of margarine, and an empty Tupperware container, previous contents unknown.
• How you say goodbye. I suppose that how I say goodbye depends on who I am saying goodbye to. For example, saying goodbye to my mom when returning to school involves lots of hugs, tears on her part, and wishes for safe drives. Saying goodbye to one of my buddies is usually a quick utterance of “Later!”
• The sheets on your bed. The sheets on my bed are blue. I think that they are made of cotton. Beyond that, I know nothing about them.
• The shampoo in your shower. I have the Pert Plus all-in-one shampoo/conditioner.
• The CD that comes on when you turn the key in the ignition. As of today, the CD that comes on is Linkin Park’s “Meteora”
• Your shoes. My usual shoes are a pair of brown leather Sketchers Alley Cat, which are Oxford-style casual shoes. My sandals are also brown leather, though unfortunately, they are nearly worn out. I’ve been on an informal quest as of late to find replacements for them, but have so far been unsuccessful.
• Your underwear, or lack thereof. It’s there, and that’s all I’ll say about it.
• What’s in the trunk of your car. All of the items that have taken up permanent residence in my Bonneville’s posterior are car related. Items run the gamut from a 2-ton jack, to complete factory service manuals, to motorcycle gloves, not to mention the various car-care products, engine fluids, and tools. It’s all (mostly) organized into a compartmentalized bag.
• Your five favorite movies. My five favorite movies, in order of preference, are Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, The Sting, Fight Club, and The Game.

What does this all mean? Let me know!

In the past week:

1) I Witnessed BonnevilleClub.com‘s busiest day ever. The site, which I created, just had its forum pass the 30,000-post mark, with almost 800 members. Even better, about a dozen of the members organized a Minnesota Bonneville meet, scheduled for the end of April. Who would have thought that there would be so many devout Bonneville enthusiasts?

2) The Gophers Men’s Hockey team recently celebrated the WCHA championship. For the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Hockey field, the Gophers are seeded number 1 in the west. On the professional side of the world’s greatest sport, the Wild clinched a playoff berth tonight by shutting out the Wings (a.k.a. the Yankees of Hockey) 4-0. Fun to watch, especially with Minufo in the room (Minufo, of course, is a big Wings fan).

3) Strobel and I worked on our Fraternity’s two fire trucks over the past weekend. The newer of the two, a 1964 GMC 5500-frame pumper truck, has a broken clutch master cylinder. Yup, it’s a hydraulic clutch, and the plunger in the cylinder simply broke, preventing the clutch from disengaging. Fortunately, when this happened, we discovered that the starter motor in the truck is powerful enough to start the truck with the truck in gear! Unfortunately, the replacement part to fix the clutch is proving exceedingly difficult to track down.

4) I found out on Friday that there will be not one, but two Minnesota Pikes working as interns for Medtronic this summer. Who’s the other? None other than my little Brother, Vince.

5) Speaking of which, I went to a Tridentine mass today with Minufo and Vince. The Tridentine Mass is the Old Rite Catholic mass, meaning it’s done almost entirely in Latin. I considered it a step to satisfy my curiosity along my quest for theological and spiritual contentment (ask me about this sometime). I had never been to a Latin mass before, so I found it quite intriguing. If nothing else, it allowed me to see first-hand the changes that Vatican II made.

6) I enjoyed the nice weather (70 degrees and sunny) by washing and waxing my car. Truly, there are few things as satisfying as a clean, shiny automobile.

I’m happy to say that I will be working in Minnesota for Medtronic this summer.

Hmmm. What else happened today…

At work, I found out that one of my close co-workers (a full-timer with a family, not an intern like me) will be laid off on Thursday. Times are tough, and he and 149 others at the organization were unfortunately casualies of the current economic situation. The layoff provided a stark contrast to my internship decision.

I dug up some more Steamboat photos. Check out a view of the condo, another condo view, the group lounging in the condo, the group doing more lounging in the condo, the group waiting for the free bus, the group in front of the plane, the group with the plane and the pilot, inside Mother’s restaurant, and me with a weird look on my face.

Tonight, I was talking with my third little brother, Tyler, (the other two being Willis and Vince) about things. It turns out that we share many of the same political, societal, religious, and technical views, which came as somewhat of a surprise. In fact, it took 45 minutes for us to come up a significant topic that we disagreed about. (The prompt for the discussion was a component of the Fraternity’s Associate Education program)

Mmmm… random thoughts good…

Yesterday, I returned from paradise.

Last Friday, ten of my Brothers, a friend of one of my Brothers, and I went to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. We flew from Indianapolis to Chicago to Denver to Hayden, from which we took a taxi to our condominium in Steamboat. Along the way, I had the pleasure of traveling in an Airbus A320 and a Boeing 777. Both were nice airplanes, but most of us liked the “triple-seven” better. On the 777, even we cheapskates in Coach had nice seats and personal television monitors, on which we could watch programs ranging from VH1 to a map of the plane’s progress. It was quite a shock when we switched from the 777 to a 737 for the short flight into Hayden, but it was bearable.

Hayden is about 20 miles away from Steamboat, and the only way to get from the Hayden airport to Steamboat at 10:00 p.m. on a Friday night is with a company called Alpine Taxi. We were all a bit taken aback when we found out that Alpine Taxi charges $44 per person for round-trip transportation. The price seems a bit steep at first glance, second glance, and maybe even third glance. However, when one considers the distance involved and Alpine’s monopoly on taxi service in the area, the fares begin to make sense though they appear no less outrageous.

Alpine Taxi brought our group of 12 to our door at Sunrise Condominiums. When we got in, we were all impressed by how nice the condo was. I tried taking some photos of our place, but the pictures simply don’t do it justice. With three levels and full-size living spaces, the condo sported ample room for our group. That first night, we lit a fire and went out in search of provisions. In Steamboat Springs, the way to get around town is on the Steamboat Springs Transit Free Bus. The free bus routes cover all important parts of town and, as the name implies, rides are free. The free bus was really neat — it was public transit done right. We hopped aboard, destination Walmart. After discovering that the Steamboat Walmart closes at 9:00 p.m., we cut our losses by getting sandwiches at a nearby Subway. Waiting outside for the return bus was enjoyable. We couldn’t stop talking about how much fun it would be to hit the mountain. The outside temperature was in the low 20’s with no wind, so the wait was also relatively warm. After the bus picked us up and dropped us off at the condo, we all went to sleep.

The following day, Saturday, arrived with sunny skies. When I got up in the morning, I was taken aback by the view from our deck. I spliced together a panoramic photo (larger version) of what we could see. We spent the remainder of the day bumming around Steamboat Springs. We continually forgot things, so we made no less than three trips to Walmart and the grocery store.

Eventually, Sunday showed its face.

Early Sunday morning, we all woke up, put on our ski/snowboard gear, and caught the free bus to the ski area. We waited in the line at the gondola before taking it up the mountain. As we rode to mid-mountain, electric excitement was in the air. We got off the gondola and started a run down a trail. The group I was with paused a few times on the way down, and for good reason: the runs were much longer than anything we had previously tackled. Conditions were excellent, with overcast skies and packed powder. After many runs, in early afternoon, we decided to go back to the condo. Everybody went to sleep early that night.

Monday arrived, fresh and rosy-fingered. It was sunny out, giving spectacular views from the trails. I spent most of the day on the left side of the mountain, near the Storm Peak Express lift. After a long day of snowboarding, I went in and relaxed with my Brothers at the condo. Somebody had a computer set up with an internet connection, so I checked my grades for winter quarter. I was satisfied to see that I got a 3.80 for the quarter. Even better, I received some promising email regarding my summer employment. Though I soon realized that I had received a sunburn on my face during the day, I went to bed happy and contented.

Overnight, Steamboat received several inches of fresh powder. It was still snowing when we hit the slopes Tuesday morning, making for fun runs. Going through the trees in Morningside Park with a bunch of fresh powder was a great experience. Tuesday was, of course, Fat Tuesday, so after an exhilarating day of skiing and snowboarding, we rode around Steamboat Springs on the free bus looking for a Mardi Gras party. After searching for the better part of an hour, we determined that the night life in Steamboat Springs is more or less non-existent, so we rented some cheesy movie and hung out at the condo.

Our last day on the slopes, Wednesday, turned out to be the best of the trip: it had snowed all night. By 5:00 a.m., Steamboat had received 14 inches of fresh powder at mid-mountain and 21 inches at the summit, with more still coming down. It seemed like the entire town was out that morning, enjoying all of the freshies. One of the locals said that it was the best day of the season. Several others said that they were playing hooky from work because the conditions were so good. Though the snow and wind caused visibility to be no more than 50 feet, those first few runs were transcendent experiences. I had never before been in so much powder! Once again, Morningside was fantastic. The state of the slopes was pure bliss. Later in the day, when it cleared up a bit, I enjoyed a view from Mt. Werner. I could see for what looked like hundreds of miles. Sadly, the day eventually came to a close.

On Thursday, we got up early and flew back to Indiana, where snow is but a memory. We started talking about what to do next year. It sounds like a trip to Canada, perhaps to Whistler Blackcomb, is in the works. Until then, I will have the memories of Steamboat.

Truly, it was a consummate experience.

(You might be interested in looking at a separate page containing all of the photos mentioned in this post)