Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year...

Hey Everyone,

I hope your holidays are treating you well. I did Christmas with a friend's family, but she and her mother got a stomach flu and spent the day puking. It was weird, but her dad got me a BB gun, so we went out and shot shit for a while. He hit a squirrel with his BB gun, but it didn't draw blood. It just pissed the squirrel off and the poor rodent spent the afternoon chattering and shaking its fists at us.

New Years promises to be uneventful for me as my first race of National Championships is on the 2nd, and I need good sleep. That means you're all responsible for doing the shit that I normally would. Please drink irresponsibly, head-butt people, and get your asses grabbed.

Next post after race #1...

Love and Adventures,

Toast

The Time is Nigh

Hey Everyone,

It's time for an update. I've been kinda all over the place lately, but race season is drawing near, and I'm mentally streamlining my life so I can really focus. At least that's what I'm telling myself... You all know that I have a gift for stretching myself thin and seeing how many things I can juggle at once. Right now it's training/racing, three part-time-ish jobs, volunteerism (lots), feebly hunting sponsors (because I've been dawdling), and life. My attempts at streamlining will probably only succeed if I quarantine myself in my car out in the woods, but it's calming to think about anyway.

Recent Highlights:

First a good story about subbing.

Severe Needs Student (SNS): What are those pictures?

Me: They are landmarks. There are the Pyramids in Egypt, Mount Rushmore, and the Great Wall of China.

SNS: I like the faces mountain.

Me: Yeah, those are presidents.

SNS: Is it a bike park?

Me: No, it's a national park.

SNS: Where is Faces Mountain?

Me: South Dakota

SNS: and that's the bike park?

Me: Sort of...

Then later in gym...

SNS: I need wings!

Me: What?

SNS: I need wings for the bike park.

Me: Oh, you want to fly to Mount Rushmore to visit?

SNS: How far?

Me: South Dakota is a long way from here.

SNS: SEX-AND-THE-CITY!

Me: WHAT?!

SNS: Sex and the city, sex and the city...

Me: That's what I thought

Second, I made some pumpkin ravioli last night from scratch, and I'm so proud of it that I can't help bragging just a bit. The pasta was one of my better batches. My friend has stolen her mother's pasta roller for me, so it was pretty easy to roll out. The filling had canned pumpkin, ricotta, parmesan, salt, and chili powder. The sauce was made out of browned butter and toasted walnuts. It was awesome. I made it at a friend's house because the walnuts would have killed my housemate, Lauren (super nut allergy). Then we invited a couple other people over and had classy dinner.

Lastly, my first races of the season are next weekend in Craftsbury, Vermont. I'm getting pretty nervous about it because I want my comeback to be glorious and noteworthy, but it's really not a very important race. I don't always deal well with nerves, so I'm working hard at not putting pressure on myself. At any rate, I'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully I'll have happiness to report.

Love and Adventures,

Toast

Turkeys

Happy Thanksgiving, friends! I'm thankful for you.

Love and Adventures,

Toast

P.S. Still working on those pictures, as promised...

Stop Crushing my Party Penis, You Booby Goose!

Just wanted to let you all know that I carved a party penis in my pumpkin this Halloween, and my housemate, Lauren, made a booby goose. You may be asking yourself, "What are those, Toast? You're so ridiculous." Well, friends, the title of this post is a direct quote (what I heard, but most likely not was actually being said) from one of my teammates as we drove back from a rollerski race at the end of last month. Needless to say, I almost peed my pants when I heard Derek, a short, stocky ex-football-player-cum-Nordie with no mental filter (picture a human warthog), blurt this out. Since then, these have been the hot, new slang words on the team, and they are so much fun that I want to share them with you. Picture a smiling penis with a nice party hat and some confetti and fireworks. Then picture a goose with a good, hefty pair of tits. It just doesn't get any better. Hopefully by the time I figure out how to post the pictures of the pumpkins to this blog, you'll be spicing up your social life with these hot new expressions. However, if you're not, the pictures will convince you. These were blue ribbon-caliber pumpkins...really they were.

Love and Adventures,

Toast

Fall, Snow, SHIT!

Hey Everyone,

The first snowflakes of the year started falling this morning. It was a great sight, but it didn't make my morning workout any easier. We are still on rollerskis, of course, but it's exciting to know that I'll be skiing in less than a month. I'm starting to feel much more confident, and I might actually kick some ass this season! It's been such a long summer of training and relearning to be an athlete that I haven't let myself think about racing much yet. I know that I still have so much ground to cover that I'm nervous about getting my hopes up. On the other hand, my coach is pumped about the progress I'm making, and I know that I'm doing what I need to do. I guess my fist good test will be on Halloween, when we are doing a rollerski race against all the colleges in Maine. It will be a good way to see where I'm at.

I've been substitute teaching a lot lately. It's a pretty good gig, and the people I work with seem to think I'm good at it. Yesterday was funny. I was an aide for a kindergarten class, my first time with kids younger than 3rd grade, and they were very affectionate. I got 20+ hugs, and everyone wanted to play with me at recess (yes, my self esteem is linked to the opinions of 5 year olds). It took about five minutes for all the kids on the playground to start chasing me hither and thither and screaming wildly. Eventually I let them catch me, and picked a new person to get chased (clearly a great honor); then another; then another. I honestly think those kids would have played "chase" for the entire afternoon if the bell hadn't rang.

After lunch a kid crapped his pants to the MAX! (more on this later). The main teacher had to go do damage control, so I was left in charge for the afternoon. We played shape bingo and I read stories, and it was lots of fun. I even got to give out some awards. I really didn't have to do any serious teaching all day, which I liked about kindergarten. Anyway, this little pooper had shit his pants so explosively that it had escaped from his pull-ups and inundated his shoes! I didn't have to bear witness to the horror, but I can only imagine the scene. I figure it was reminiscent of that part in "I Hope they Serve Beer in Hell" when Tucker Max craps all over the lobby of some hotel. Anyway, the kid's grandpa didn't bring him spare clothes, so they apparently stuck the kid in some old scrubs and had to carry him out to the car because his shoes were unwearable. I was later told that this was the fifth kid in class to crap their pants this week! If I'm ever subbing and some kid poops in his pants, I'm just sending him outside. I refuse to deal with such a complete goat-fuck. Anyway, they pay $70/day, so at least it's easy money and I'm not going broke anymore. Maybe next post I'll tell you about the severe needs kid that tried to make out with me on Thursday... Yep, not a boring day yet.

Love and Adventures,

Toast

Updates on Blogs, Life

Hi Everyone,

It's been too long since I blogged here last. I have a new blog on the Maine Winter Sports Center website (mainewsc.org) that has been keeping me busy. Please check it out if you have a chance. It can give you a bit of an idea of what I've been up to lately.

It's been a good start to fall. Since an amazing trip home, where I hiked Mt. Massive with Sophie and Caroline Hunt among other things, I've been in Maine training and working. I have to apologize to Taylor for never making it up to visit him. I wish I had been able to, but the three weeks I was home ripped by sooooo fast.

I'll regale you with just a couple highlights from Ski Town USA. My dad and I got permission to fish a private section of the Elk River below a private club called Maribou. Maribou stocks big rainbows in their water (14in+), and the fish immediately spread out up and down stream. That meant that Papa Toast and I spent the afternoon landing fish after fish as big as 21 inches. It was awesome. Another great trip we took was a backpacking trip in the Zirkel Wilderness. We hiked in to Luna Lake, where we fished and hiked for the weekend. During the trip, we saw a herd of more than 20 bighorn sheep, I swam at my new highest elevation (above 11,000 ft), and we caught lots of happy, fat cutthroat trout.

Since Steamboat I've been doing an "intensity block" of training. I have done a couple cycles where I do intervals 4-5 times in 3-4 days. Then I take a couple days off to recover. Hopefully, it has helped bump up my top speed.

I've also been subbing in local schools. I had a conspicuous start to my teaching career when, as I got out of my car on my first day, two girls passed by, giggled, and sped up their pace. When I got to the door to the school, the girls were waiting there staring out the window at me. As I opened the door, they awkwardly turned away and pretended they weren't spying. One leaned over to the other and whispered something to the other. Then the other whispered back (too loudly), "He's right behind us!" That basically set the tone for things. The girls gawk and the boys try to show me that they're really cool. Luckily, because all the kids want to impress me, they are really well behaved. The third graders have been the roudiest bunch so far, and I've taught everyone from 3rd-12th graders.

Tomorrow, I'm heading out to a training camp on a ranch my coach's family owns near Cody Wyoming. It should be a really cool two weeks, and as you know, I'm always happy to be in the mountains.

I'll try to post here again soon, but if I lapse, check the MWSC blog. It's pretty cool.

Love and Adventures,

Toast

Quick Update on a Lot of Things

Hey All,

I'm about to go to bed, but wanted to let you all know a bit about my life right now. I'm getting faster. I'm very excited about that. I'm having a hard time staying patient, but I'm really motivated right now and training well.

I'm leaving for Steamboat tomorrow, and I'll be home in time for a burrito on Wednesday! I haven't been home in about 14 months, so you can only imagine how badly I'm jonesin' for some quality time in the mountains. I'm also really excited to go fishing with friends, see Mama and Papa Toast, climb a mountain with Sophie and Caroline Hunt, do some geology with Tay, and show Sweeney some local secrets when he gets there. I'm home for almost three weeks, and it's going to be GLORIOUS!

In other news, my garden is actually producing food this year, which is a constant source of pride for me. I've been picking lettuce, Swiss chard, kale, onions, carrots, and tomatoes, and there's a lot more to come. One of my housemates has a book called the Encyclopedia of Country Living, and I've been going nuts with it lately. I've made cherry jam with cherries I picked, I'm up to my tits in raspberries and blueberries that I foraged, and I've been keeping a sourdough starter for making bread, pancakes, and all kinds of other great, sour stuff. I realize that all this makes me sound very domestic, but just keep in mind that I did a 21mile mountain bike race on Sunday, trained 17 hours last week, and have a VO2max that's twice that of the average guy my age. I'm gonna kick ass this winter!

On a more solemn note, my heartfelt condolences go out to Dan Heinrich and his family. I hope you are able to celebrate a life well lived.

Love and Adventures,

Toast

Wedding Wrap-Up

Hey Everyone,

I think it's safe to say that what happens on the Saco stays on the Saco. None of us will ever be able to recount the events of that trip and truly do it justice. I also think that I can speak for everyone when I say that the wedding was a really wonderful moment. I am so happy for Tay and Becca, and I was truly thankful for the chance to spend such a great couple of weekends with all of you.

I would like to thank Mark (although he probably won't read this blog) for putting together a great trip, and for being an excellent best man. I would like to thank Jamie Luckenbill for having us to his house on the 4th. That was sweet! I would like to thank all those who came from overseas to be a part of this event. That's friendship! Lastly, I would like to thank all of you for being the people I most enjoy being around. Time and distance can dull my memories of what great people you are, but I am instantly reminded when I am fortunate enough to be in your midst. You are the best people I know.

Finally, Spain has just won the Copa Mundial, and damn, was that a good match!

I miss you all already.

Love and Adventures,

Toast

Toasty Toasty Quite Contrary

My garden grows! All my plants are sprouting, and before long I'll be feasting on a smorgasbord of veggies and berries. I am confident that this year I'll have real, delicious, BIG vegetables instead of the hobbit food I grew last year. That is because I've got a nice big plot at the new house that has good soil, and plenty of sun. So far all I've harvested is rhubarb, but I think my pies are nearing County Fair quality.

Here's the other stuff I've planted (I'll give updates on my harvests although you probably don't care at all):

corn

tomatillos

tomatoes

potimarron squash

cucumbers

zucchini

broccoli

celery

spinach

kale

Swiss chard

lettuce

snow peas

green beans

garlic

onions

carrots

parsnips

radishes

asparagus (for next spring)

strawberries

raspberries

mint

oregano

and basil

I realize it's a really, really long list, but I plan on eating a lot, so it should work out.

In other news, training is going well. We had a time trial yesterday, and I was able to beat everyone except one of the biathletes. It was a good result, and it was an even better confidence-builder. I still have a long way to go before I hit the world cup, but at least I'm on track for now.

I also got plane tickets home to CO this week! I'll be in Steamboat from Aug 4-23, so if you're out there, you should come visit me in the 'Boat.

Love and Adventures,

Toast

The New Casa

Hey Everyone,

I'm finally getting settled into my new home as an athlete with MWSC. I was lucky enough to get free housing in a cool little farmhouse along with a few other athletes. Technically it's in Fort Fairfield for those of you who care, but we're right on the town line with Presque Isle. It's a great place. We have a ton of rhubarb growing, and we've already frozen some. I've tilled a nice big garden plot, and I'll start planting this week. We are about 100 yards from the ski trails at the Nordic Heritage Center (where we do most of our skiing), and we have access to tons of single-track trails for running and biking. It's awesome! We also have a ton of land that we can explore and do stuff with. Hopefully, we'll be able to build a climbing wall in the barn too.

This weekend, I have blood-lactate testing and an uphill time trial. Then we're going camping for a couple days to do some paddling... should be fun. I've been doing a lot of odd jobs around town so far, but not official employment. I modeled for the UMPI drawing class's final exam, I've worked at four local track meets, and I've been picking rocks for a local potato farmer. I'm not getting rich, but at least I'm not starving yet either. I've also applied to coach a local middle school xc running team in the fall, which would be fun. I should hear about that in the next few days. I really hope I get that one.

Anyway, it's been hot and sunny here, and I need to get outside again now.

Love and Adventures,

Toast

Adventure RACING

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday I did my first adventure race. A partner and I went down to a small race south of Houlton, and it was sweet! We did orienteering, mountain biking, canoeing, and rock climbing, and although we had a bit of bad luck, we still had a lot of fun. We made a bit of a detour during the orienteering, and my teammate broke his derailleur during the biking leg. Luckily, the organizers eventually found a spare bike for him to use to finish the leg.

If we hadn't had the derailleur issue, we would have won the biking leg, and we had the third fastest paddling time, which was pretty awesome. I had a really good time exhausting myself, and I can't wait to do it again!

In other news, I am officially a pro athlete (a poor one, but a pro none-the-less). I've moved to Caribou for a couple weeks, and I'll probably move to Presque Isle soon. It was very hard to leave Madawaska. It definitely holds a place in my heart, but it had to happen. Just so you all know, if you need to mail me anything now, send it to 552 Main Street, Caribou, ME 04736. That's the address at the MWSC office, and I'll be able to get all my mail there from now on. I was allowed to keep my phone number, so (207) 227-3843 is still the number to dial.

I miss you all, and can't wait to see some of you this summer.

Love and Adventures,

Toast

Spring Adventures

This spring has been full of adventures, and I would like to update you on a couple.

1. A couple weekends ago, I made my way down to North Conway for a weekend of hiking/skiing Tuckerman's Ravine. I don't know why, and I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I never made it to Tuck's while I was at Colby. It just never came together between finding alpine gear and a group of people. Anyway, I met Anders Wood, Jess Seymore, and a bunch of their friends down in NH, and it was a great weekend despite semi-disgusting weather.

Most of the group was from Boston, and it turns out that they weren't very hardcore about being outdoors. Without telling Anders, Jess, and I, they brought road bikes instead of skis, and when the weather got cold and cloudy, they weren't even that into biking. They were a really cool bunch, but not that worried about getting out the door. Anyway, on day one, we ended up doing a pretty cool hike up Mt. Kearsarge. It had good views, and a cool lookout tower on top.

On day two, Anders and I (because we were the ones with skis) headed up Tuck's despite warnings of icy conditions, wind, and low visibility. It turned out that "low visibility" was an understatement for most of the day. When we got to the hut, you couldn't see shit, and the patrollers were trying to convince people to head down. They almost scared us out of it, but we decided we weren't willing to be stuck lugging our skis up a mountain for nothing, so we went up to the bowl anyway.

When we got up there, things were ugly, and our first run in the left gully was icy and scary. You could hear people scraping down above you for a solid 30 seconds before you could see them. By then they were right on top of you. It looked like that might be our only run of the day, but we happened to bump into Alex Jospe at the bottom, and as we talked, the clouds began to lift. As things opened up, we realized that the right side was actually pretty nice, and we ended up making a few good runs in about four inches of powder. It was sweet.

At this point it should be noted, that I am on tele skis now. I don't have normal alpine boards on the east coast, so I've been free-heelin' it for the last season and a half. I'm not very good yet, so Tuck's was a definite challenge for me. I was pumped that I could ski it, though, and people seemed to think I was more badass because of it. Honestly, though, I think the trail down the mountain was the toughest skiing of the day. My legs were tired, and the trail was all moguls in sections. I really had to step up my game to make it through that. Anyway, I've now skied Tuck's and I can't wait to go back.

2. I'm getting a car on Tuesday! It's a 2000 Toyota Camry, and it has 160,000 miles on it. I know, not exactly the sexiest car on the road, or the youngest, or the toughest. It might be the cheapest, though. I'm getting it for only $2000, and it's in great shape, so hopefully it will get me to Tay's wedding and back without any problems. I have to say that although it's just a cheap set of wheels, I'm pretty excited anyway.

Love and Adventures,

Toast

My Big News

Hey Everyone,

It's been a long time since my last post. I've been really busy this winter, and I've had some ups and downs. Coaching at Junior Olympics was really fun.

The reason I'm writing, however, is not to recount my winter. It is to tell you about my future. Over the last couple seasons, I've been happy to remain in skiing, and I've enjoyed my time as a coach. I also started to get anxious again about being able to race for myself. After a lot of deliberation, and more stressing that I'm used to, I've decided to race professionally. I will stay at the Maine Winter Sports Center, but starting this summer, I will be an athlete instead of a coach.

Right now it's pretty much a leap of faith, but the more final my decision has become, the happier I've been with it. I am really excited to see how fast I can be and how hard I can push myself. I am fulfilling a childhood dream, and that's something that many people don't get the opportunity to do.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be making my transition from young coach making what feels like a lot of money to poor athlete having fun. I'll probably make a little trip south as far as CT or maybe NYC if there's interest, so let me know if you are around. After that I'll begin training, looking for sponsors, hunting for a part-time job, and moving into some free housing MWSC has for athletes.

One thing I wish had happened in college, but never did, was to race in front of all of you. I wish you had gotten the chance to watch a race or two, so I'd like to invite you all to come watch me at some point over the next couple years. I'll be racing in a lot of different places, and I'll be sure to keep you updated on my travels in hopes that you'll be able to see what I was doing all those weekends when I wasn't around to hang out.

I'd love to hear what all of you are up to these days, even if it's the same, old same-old.

Love and Adventures,

Toast

I Make Videos!

Hey Everyone,
I don't know if you're aware of this, but I put a video up on YouTube! With a total of 43 views, I'm pretty sure it's about to go viral. It's footage of a race we recently went to in Rumford, ME. Check it out and get a glimpse into my world!!!! (intense voice and dramatic music) Anyway, I'm pretty proud if it, and I'll be attempting to do more video posting in the future. Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOaDX09gANc

Love and Adventures,
Toast

AVATARRRRRR!!!!!

Holy Crap! Have you guys seen Avatar? It's SO cool. I want to be a blue alien really fuckin bad now! Those guys are way sweeter than humans. They can link up with pterodactyls, and trees, and other animals, and they make stuff light up by touching it, and they get to run around the jungle naked (ie, Costa Rica), and they are really big and strong, and they are total badasses, and humans suck. That movie pretty much ruined life as a human forever, but it was soooo cool.

Hope you agree... If you do, feel free to share your thoughts. If you don't, then shut your squeal-hole because I don't want to hear about it.

Love and Adventures and Avatars,
Toast

It's Been a While

Remember that song? Staind? Anyway, that's not really important although it has been a long time since I've shared anything here.

I just got back from a trip to Canadian World Junior Trials. None of my skiers are trying to represent Canada obviously, but it was a high level of racing that was good for our group to be a part of. There were actually a lot of Americans there, including the Colby team. We had some really good performances and some not so hot ones. I wanted to compete, but I'm getting over a cold and was in no shape for racing. I was pissed about that because they were FIS races which I could have used, but there's no sense racing if I'm going to suck.

I stayed in the County for Christmas this year. It was my first time away from my parents for X-Mas, but it was actually really nice not to worry about traveling at the holidays. I've had some shitty luck with planes in December. I was adopted by a few families up here, so I didn't have to spend any of the holidays alone, and they even gave me presents! I was a bit shocked by how generous everyone was, but I think I held my own as far as reciprocation goes.

I think my favorite part was witnessing a few different Christmas morning rituals. I never thought about it until this year, but not everyone opens presents the same way my family does (actually, I found out that my family is a kinda out there on that front). In my family, I had to wait until my parents had woken up and made coffee. Then we opened our stockings one by one. At no point was there ever simultaneous gift opening. After stockings, we had to stop to eat breakfast before the regular presents could be opened. After a breakfast that always dragged on for eons, we went back to the tree and my dad would hand out presents one by one. Everyone watched the person whose turn it was, and my mom recorded what was received and who it was from. Then the next present was handed out. The families I had Christmas with this year were waaaayyyy more relaxed, and I really enjoyed the free-for-all moments when everyone was opening something at the same time. It was fun.

It's been a snowy winter so far. We've had a few big storms, and there's plenty of snow. It's also been warmer than last winter, which I am thankful for. It makes standing around at races and practices much more bearable.

I have a girlfriend now, or at least a girl that I'm dating. She is on the UMPI ski team. Her name is Chandra. Not a whole lot to say about that other than that it's a noteworthy development.

Happy New Year, I hope 2010 finds you happy and healthy. My New Years resolution is to be better at creating time for life outside of work. It's easy to start living your job at the Maine Winter Sports Center, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's healthy. I'm going to try to separate some play from work although work is play a lot of the time too. I'd love to hear everyone else's resolutions (and maybe crazy XMas morning rituals too).

Love and Adventures,
Toast