In less than two weeks, I will have a new brother-in-law. Until the ceremony, he is in California. I have finished a video of the couple from our one day together in Chicago earlier this Summer. Since I cannot show him in person, everyone gets to see it.
Happy birthday, Josh. I am looking forward to finally having a brother, even if I never imagined he would be so much older than me. Enjoy this small gift, though I may also have to get you one of those “old guys rule” t-shirts. Because you rule.
Lest you think I heard from Bonnie, I did not.
I left work early today to find a sticky note in my Jeep reminding me that I needed to buy a sleeping pad on the way home, since I will be camping out for the second Saturday in a row in honor of my friend, Henry. Last week was his bachelor party, and tomorrow he will be getting hitched in Enterprise, Oregon. The Harbinger pad I used to have was worth its bulk in comfort, which is now being enjoyed by whoever stole my car from a parking lot in Norway last Fall. Snow White was recovered – unfortunately, the pad and about $1,000 of other gear was not. Last weekend’s padless experience convinced me that it was time to invest in a new one.
My first stop was at Idaho’s Most Interesting Store, where I dug a few affordable ALPS Mountaineering mats from a disheveled selection of expensive Therm-a-Rests. Despite the twenty minutes I spent comparing sizes and prices, I received no attention from the friendly folks at Tri-State and decided to try my luck at Hyperspud. On the way, I took a detour into Rosauers, thanks to Z-Fun DJ, Steve Shannon, who was broadcasting live on location to promote the store’s limited stock of Vandal-colored twenty-four packs of Bud Light. (You know you would have done the same.)
On my way in the door, who do I meet but Ian Warnock? Ian (salesman and public relations specialist for the Daily News) enthusiastically volunteered a free copy of today’s paper, which I accepted. His offer was promptly followed up with a solicitation to subscribe, which I responded to by politely relating my recently frustrated attempts to do just that. Ian, who by all appearances was still looking forward to puberty, didn’t skip a beat. Rather than give a confused apology or excuse things with an explanation, he simply existed to solve my problem. Ian was deterred neither by my lack of cash nor my interest in only an online subscription. A quick withdrawal from the Rosauers ATM and a completed order form was all it would take for me to wake up to the Moscow/Pullman headlines on my laptop every morning for the next three months. To sweeten the deal, he even threw in a ten dollar grocery card, a college coupon book, a Palouse dining card, and a 124 page guidebook to Idaho’s state parks. I seriously started to wonder if this guy was for real. To be honest, though, even if I never read a single story, I feel like I walked away with my money’s worth. Ian had made my day, and I was carrying a case of Vandal Bud Light to boot.
On to Hyperspud, where I had barely walked into the jam-packed Main Street shop before the owner was giving me helpful tips on sleeping pads. A well-spent fifty dollars later, I was the proud new owner of a dark red Big Agnes air core sleep pad. Not until I got home did I flip through my newly acquired coupon booklet to discover that with my minimum purchase of thirty dollars at Hyperspud, I could have also walked away with a free Nalgene bottle. I might have gone straight back if I didn’t already have one, but I am looking forward to breaking in my new pad tomorrow night.
Before then, I have a ten dollar grocery card to use on hors d’oeuvres for my ten year high school reunion. I had ruled out any chance of attending both the reunion and the wedding, but the timing is working out so that I will be able to drop in for a lunchtime barbecue in the park before hitching a ride to Enterprise. To see my old classmates tomorrow will not be too much of a trip – many of us have stayed in the area and have more or less kept in touch. What is strange to think about is that ten years ago, the eighteen of us graduated from high school. We were liberated, empowered, and the world was ours to make what we wanted of it. We went to college, got a job, made a family, or all of the above. A decade later, most of us have a career or kids or both. In May of 1999, I saw myself taking the same path.
Instead, when I walked out of the office to the parking lot today, I was leaving my job at SEL. For the second time. The first time – back in August 2007 – was a little easier, since I had an answer for everyone who was asking what I would do. I would travel in pursuit of my dreams and in celebration of my freedom. Little did I realize at the time how much I would experience over the next two years, and I never had a single regret about leaving behind what was a very promising career. But the road eventually led back home, and when I received an offer to pick back up where I had left off at SEL – if only temporarily – I was happy to accept.
To limit the opportunity to a Summer job versus returning to the company full-time has been my prerogative, only this time I don’t have an answer to the equally inundating questions of what is next. Part of me really wants to have an answer – even to make one up – when everyone else my age has settled on one option or another, and God knows I have tried. But the rest of me appreciates still having the same sense of independence and opportunity I did walking across that stage ten years ago, and I am getting comfortable with not knowing. So, ask me about my plans, and over a Vandal-colored beer can, you will hear about this sweet new sleeping pad I’ll be breaking in.
window gazing, outside in
at some elusive american myth
i know you want to believe they’re at peace
safe from life’s uncertainties
but would they agree?
take your time, make your mind up and
tell the world to wait
take your time, live your life
you’re the one that has to live it anyway
after the sound, the fury, the noise
has stifled the simplest of joys
the clock keeps spinning on and on
and once its gone, the time is gone.
the time is gone…
all you’ve built and done
is just a fraction of the you we love…
lyrics to World to Wait by Stavesacre
Today – just over a year after my sisters spent ten days in Norway – I have uploaded the twelfth and final episode of Twidgets, a documentary of their trip. If this last installment doesn’t seem enough like a grand finale, then I will clue you into the fact that I am not exactly “done” with the project. Last year, I had hoped to have the series finished in time for Christmas. That obviously didn’t happen, but now I have enough time to play with the idea of releasing Twidgets on DVD this coming Christmas, complete with extra bonus material. Keep your fingers crossed. In the meantime, I am looping back around and starting to release the videos for public viewing. Until now, they have private for my contacts on Vimeo, but now you can feel free to pass along the links to anyone who might be interested in what the Hagen troublemakers have been up to. We’ll begin with part one, which can be found using the video widget to the left.
Following our Midwest vacation last month, my sister, Kristen, joined her boyfriend for a few days in Santa Cruz. Before they returned to Moscow, they were engaged to be married, and I couldn’t have been more pleased. Josh Davis is a great guy and an old friend of ours. In my humble opinion, they were meant to be. Last weekend, they gave me the honor of taking their engagement photos using Josh’s fancy Nikon D80. Since this was my first “shot” at legitimate photography, it is needless to say that I was a bit intimidated. Of course, with a couple this good-looking, it would have been a challenge to make them look bad. I have posted their favorites on Flickr and Facebook.
By the way, the latest TWO episodes of Twidgets are also up on Vimeo.
This Summer, I’ve been too busy filming to do much editing. That means I have several video projects in the works, but since this first week of August marks one year since my sisters visited Norway, I figure it’s about time I post another segment of Twidgets. Part five is now up for my Vimeo contacts, along with newly uploaded photos.
I am writing from Karl Sigve’s kitchen table. Last time I visited, he was staying in an elderly couple’s basement only a few blocks away. This past February, after two years of prayerful waiting for the right apartment to come along, he finally purchased and moved into the second story of a hilltop house on the west side of Kristiansand. His patience paid off, and I have the honor of being the first he has welcomed to stay in his guest bedroom (not that I gave him much choice or advance warning). Last night, over a bottle of wine, Karl Sigve related the story of how he was led to his new home. Now I am enjoying his breathtaking view over the harbor while he attends a conference for the remainder of the week. I won’t take the liberty of posting pictures from his roomy and modern interior (including a turquoise-tiled bathroom with a space-age steam shower), but I hope he won’t mind if I share the view from his veranda.
View south over Kristiansand harbor from Karl Sigve's balcony.
It is nice to have some down time following a hectic month. With the exception of our final week of business – during which I had three consecutive days off – there was plenty of work to do between Koia and Tryi-Hans. I got the last-minute idea to use my three free days to visit an old friend, who has now moved to Bergen. As fate would have it, Memet lost his phone. Although it was later recovered, by the time I heard from him, it was too late to make the seven-hour drive there and back before my last weekend at Koia. It would have been Snow White’s grand finalé, who – until the day before I left – was on her way to the graveyard. Knut-Arne called just in time to take her off my hands, and while I am grateful she lives to see another day, it was still a sad parting.
Snow White changes hands.
After two seasons at Kvitfjell, Spring has become a paradox. This season of new life is overshadowed by the dispersion of an entire community who has spent the Winter living, working and playing together. The past few weeks have been especially difficult, since I do not have plans to return. Sunday was closing day. Like last year, I volunteered to shut Koia down for the season. I closed early, and locked the front door just in time to see the last chair lift come to screeching halt. That evening, everyone was invited to a barbecue at Tyri-Hans, where I said good-bye to many good friends. Within forty-eight hours, Kvitfjell was a ghost town, and I left behind an empty apartment complex when Knut-Arne picked me up on Wednesday morning. After we signed the papers on the car, he dropped me off at the train station, and I was on my way to Kristiansand.
The first half of my journey to Oslo was a bit more comfortable than the day I arrived in late December. The view was ironically similar, only now the ice on the lake was receding and the snow that remained would soon be gone. In fact, yesterday’s train ride was like taking a time-machine through the past two years. It is surprising how much I have reminisced lately about my first days on the mountain and how vivid those memories still are. I am leaving Kvitfjell with a backpack, a heavy heart, and a story. As I looked out the window south of Lillehammer, I could pick out the spot where it all began.
Camping on the outskirts of Lillehammer - November 6, 2007.
I have one week left in Norway to spend with relatives who have also become some of my best friends here, despite my spontaneous and infrequent visits. I have been invited to a rally race on Saturday by a friend that I met at Risøy last Summer. Then, if Karl Sigve’s schedule allows for it, we will also make a trip to Feda before I retrace my way up the coast to spend a couple days in Skien with Tina and family before leaving for Ireland next Saturday. I have yet to plan anything beyond my arrival in Dublin.
After working for two weeks straight, tomorrow will be my first (and only) day off ahead of this weekend’s Kvitfjellrennet – our final event of the season before the mountain closes on April 26. Having had hardly enough time to collect my thoughts lately – let alone put them into words – I’m reposting another video classic. While Skyping with Kristen tonight, she lamented Pike’s long-standing absence on this blog. It reminded me of a promise that was kept one year ago today.
It is nearly one year ago that I traveled to Malta with the Kvitfjell gang. It took me the better part of that year to finish a five minute documentary of our vacation. Now, cousin Adam has tipped me off to this video competition, which has motivated me to upload the piece to Vimeo along with a few pictures and words.
April might be the best month of the season, but it is also the busiest. Longer days and warmer temperatures mean more skiers and plenty of work to be done, not to mention that Easter vacation begins today for the rest of the country. When we aren’t on the job, most of us who work here are planning the Summer ahead: where we will go, what we will do, and how we will get there. Instead of last year’s vacation to Malta and a Summer bumming around Norway, I am looking forward to heading home. Plane tickets are more than double the price I anticipated from past experience, so dates and destinations will have to be flexible as I plan the next couple of months. Though I still hope for a May arrival in Moscow, if cost forces me to delay my departure or consider other travel options, it would be nice to have a couple weeks to visit relatives in the South and maybe even see some friends in neighboring Sweden or Denmark. At this point, I am not deciding to return next season (carefully worded), so I have a lot of details to consider, including what to do with Snow White and how I will transport my belongings across an ocean. For now, however, I am juggling a much needed full work schedule, filing taxes in two countries, and even a couple of video projects to keep me sane. I hope this excuses my delay in getting the “weekly” episodes of Twidgets out the door, and please enjoy part four, as it may be another few weeks before part five rolls around.
