Good times and Bad times and Snowshoeing fun with new friends

  The last few days have been some of the best times and some of the worst times.  The worst times is when I found out that we, "The Emergency Response" team at the Winter Carnival all-nighter snow statue competition got overlooked and did not even get judged.  We did not even rank as they did not see our statue.  It turns out that they put us on an on campus site on the map and did not put us off campus by the Magnusun hotel as the paperwork we turned in indicated.  The paperwork had a google map with a pin pointing to where we were going to be and it had the name of the hotel on the location too.  Needless to say all those hours in the bitter cold were for not.  Not even for our own satisfaction as we will likely never participate in this event again because of this oversight.  I spent 45 minutes outside of the Blue Key office in the Memorial Union waiting for one of their representatives to show up to their office and no one showed.  I called and left two messages and they never called me back.  I did get a hold of the secretary to the Vice President of Student Affairs.  She said they would email those involved and discuss what happened at their next meeting.  I realize those running the show are mere college students and could care a less about us and the hours we toiled over our planning and execution of our snow statue, but that is ridiculously incompetent and thoughtless to have this happen to us.  I am angry and I know they probably just had a laugh about it and checked it off on their sheet as though we were the ones that failed.

  On a lighter note, today the team went snowshoeing to the Hungarian Falls out of Tamarack, MI today.  The sun was shining, there was negligible wind and the conditions could not have been better.  We trekked in going up, down and all around, winding through the upper part of the ravine to see the views and glorious nature that lead to the falls.  The falls were vandalized, in that the natural peaks that form from the melting and then freezing into ice cycles were broken off by those of the younger generations, but that did not diminish the pleasure of seeing what remained of the falls that were frozen.  The ravine was impressive and I would not tangle with it mildly.  I stayed at the top of the ravine not to have to get myself back up.  Those that went down were safe and were able to climb back out.  I am so accident prone that I did not want to risk taking a header downwards.  Better safe than sorry at this point in my life.

  I still enjoyed myself.  The team is an easy group to hang around and they were such a great group to go with.  They liked to stop and enjoy the view while taking some pictures, but took a steady trail to the intended destination to get the job done.  We took some great group shots.  Some smiley, some silly.  That was great documentation of the group.  I definitely want to go there again in the spring or summer.  I was so hot with one set of thermals, snow pants and my big winter jacket that I was unzipped and without mittens within 20 minutes of starting the hike.  I enjoyed the fresh air and am very tired now.  I burned off all of the calories I took in the night before at the Waterfront restaurant and the Downtowner bar until 2:30 AM.  I'll sleep well tonight.  The trek out of the to of the falls was all downhill.  Very easy way back to the car, just as it should be.

  We returned to eat at Quincy's Restaurant and made it back to the hotel in time for the skiers to go down Mt. Ripley with their lit red flares and the flares that were stuck into the snow forming a hat and the word "cat" in the snow.  The fireworks followed and were fun.  There was only one smiley face and no lips or hearts, but the orange and red and multicolored ones were in strong force this year.  Also they had plenty of my favorite ones, which is the weeping willow golden fireworks.  All this from the warm hotel room, safe from the questionable drivers and cold.  Yes indeed, good times were had by all.  Thank you for curving my way again life.