Since the snow in Mammoth (and anywhere else locally for that matter) sucked, Jessica and I got the wild idea of driving to Colorado for some good skiing. We left late Wednesday night, and drove for 15 hours toward the Summit County where the majority of Colorado’s good ski resorts are located — about an hour and a half West of Denver. Since we arrived relatively late, we couldn’t do any skiing Thanksgiving day, so I got my skis waxed and we had Chinese food for dinner. Friday, we headed over to Copper Mountain, which was absolutely packed with people. Being that I’ve only skied seven days in my entire life (all last season) I sucked. I was overwhelmed by the mass of people skiing down the hills with me, I felt like I was going way to fast on my new skis (previously, I’ve only used rentals) and was still getting used to bumps of which there were plenty — though I would have to say that I only ate crap hard enough to break a ski loose once.

While at Copper Mt. Jess and I both kept hearing about how great Loveland was. It’s a local ski slope that doesn’t see nearly the amount of people that Copper Mt. or Breckenridge sees, but has the same snow as it’s only 10 miles away. So, On day two Jess and I both thought it would be bright to head up that way to check it out. We both loved it enough to go back for a second day on Sunday. It’s at a higher elevation than most of the other resorts, and was getting fresh snow while we were there, there weren’t nearly the crowds on Saturday, and it was downright desolate on Sunday.

My skiing was much improved on day two as I had more room and less to worry about, so I could concentrate on my techniques. I got quite comfortable with the speed my new skis deliver, and though I’m still not a fan of them, I was getting better with the bumps and moguls. I may have even found my new calling: Sunday we even took a few trips through the trees, which I enjoyed immensely.

The trip home was a bear. Jess had to sleep as much as possible; she was working in the morning and we wouldn’t get home until 3am. Traffic was really heavy just south of Baker on the way in… but somehow lightened up just before Barstow… only delaying us by an hour or so — which was rather frustrating… I was going batty, thinking that I was going to be driving the remainder of the 250 miles to L.A. at speeds less than 25mph.

All in all though, the trip was spectacular, and as I’ve been telling everybody: this has been the best Thanksgiving that I can remember.

Just read on the BBC that Giuliani is running for president in the next race! Finally I get a moderate Republican to vote for. As much as I think he’s unprepared for anything at that scale, I think he’d be far better than McCain, who just seems to be a little too fiscally liberal, and not socially/morally liberal enough (he supports teaching intelligent design in schools). I guess I’m looking for more of a centrist or libertarian president this go around. Giuliani fit’s that bill to a T. Besides, everyone loves him… it wouldn’t be a wasted vote like other candidates that I would favor.

I most certainly don’t want Hillary, Gore or Kerry. Gore is an idiot. Kerry and Hillary seem to have agendas — fricken’ boat rockers. So unless the Dems offer up something with more substance, and a little more centered beliefs, I’m going to go to the right again in two years.

Why do American politicians have to be so polarized? Doesn’t anybody walk the line in the middle? That would give us far more variety on the fine grained stuff… and would probably be better for the American public in the long run. Having two large warring political factions, scrambling to gather up everything they can, and leave the other with nothing doesn’t do any good for us.

I’m not going to get too into it tonight, I have more studying to do, and an early class in the morning.

I wouldn’t normally write about a subject so depressing as death twice in a row, but this one is worth the sacrifice as I have to share or burst. A couple of years ago I took a Spanish class with Michelle — as a matter of fact that was how we met, we were sitting next to each other — our instructor was great. You could tell just by looking at Professor Gigliotti she had a heart of gold. Gregarious, exuberant and absolutely loved what she was doing. She brought a certain energy to the class that I’ve never experienced from an instructor. It was always interesting to watch her bounce around at the front of class: round trips from the white-board to the desk and back within ten seconds weren’t uncommon. She always got the class participating heavily — whether or not they wanted to.

While digging around on the net for a review of a play that’s playing at Golden West College this week, I accidentally came across an article about her recent death following a car accident on Carson Blvd. in front of Long Beach City College a little over a month before her death — that’s a long painful death that she absolutely did not deserve. According to news articles all over the web she was hit by a motorcycle going nearly 80mph (the rider was killed instantly) while she was making a left into the LBCC’s faculty parking lot. More from the latest article as it’s hard for me to put delicately what they have already written:

“The impact caused the motorcycle’s gas tank to explode and set the car on fire, police said. Gigliotti was trapped in the car and while still burning was pulled out by two LBCC employees who were near the accident, police said.” — Grunion Gazzette

I don’t really know what else to say, other than she will be missed. I was hoping to take Spanish with her again this Spring, as it was most definitely a great experience the first time.