Snowboarding adventure. HB, D!

First off, HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DAD! Speranza avete goduto il vostro viaggio a Pompeii! (He and my Mum went to Pompeii for a day trip)

Ok, now the weekend adventure. As you know, I went to go snowboarding this weekend. My friends and I went to the Mountain High ski resort in Wrightwood, CA. It's only about 75 minutes away from Orange County. After having a power breakfast @ Mickey Dees, we headed off to Mtn High. We got there and the upper lots were already filled, so we parked down the hill and lugged our gear up what seemed like a steep incline. There were long queues at the ticket counter, and I stupidly switched lines, thinking that I'd have a better chance on another window and ended up waiting another 10 minutes to get my lift tickets, after my friends got theirs! >.< That's not the scare, though, but I suppose it was an indication of the things to come...

After finally buying our lift tickets, getting one foot in our board bindings, and travelling up the lift, we all ended up with our butts on the semi-packed snow soon after getting off the lift chair (rofl, don't ask.. just think domino effect…) — we all had new boards and two of my friends forget to get stomp pads, and well, their board was quite slippery 😛

Run 1 thru 5 was uneventful. We occassionally stopped down @ the mountain base to fix our bindings (well, Sharon, Joel and Herman all had to adjust their bindings 'cuz of the initial uncomfy setup). After lunch, we waited about 20 minutes before heading up the mountain again. During this time, Herman adjusted his bindings again while Sharon and I went to this free (mini) concert already going on.

When we all finally got back to the top of the mountain, and proceeded to board down, half way down the mountain, I stopped on the side and looked for my friends. I saw Herman boarding down, practicing his toe-side turn, when he loses his balance and falls on his butt and hits his head on the packed snow!

“Ouch!”, I thought, “What a wicked bad wipeout!”. He sat down for a while, just smiling and saying that that hurt and that he thinks that he might have just juggled his brain.

Thinking nothing of it (I know, I'm so bad), I asked him if he was ok, and if he was ready to go down the rest of the mountain… When we got down to the base, and met with Sharon and Joel again, Herman kept complaining about probably having a concussion. We all laughed, then Sharon (our R.N.) asked him if he was feeling faint, or if he had a headache, or if he felt like throwing up. Herman said he felt fine except for some short-term memory loss.

WHAT THE HECH!?

We kinda just stood there and I said, “Wanna go back up for another run?” — LMBO! They agreed. So Sharon and I went up the lift, Herman went up on the chair on his own 'cuz Joel had to go fix his bindings again and was just going to catch up.

When we got to the top of the mountain, while putting on our bindings, Herman kept asking, “How'd I fall?”. He asked this question about 6 times before Sharon really got worried… But we ended up boarding down the mountain anyway. Joel and I got down to the base first and waited patiently for Sharon and Herman to get there… About 5 to 10 minutes later, they finally show up, board in hand — Sharon said that Herman couldn't continue and that she had to take him to the Medic/Ski Patrol.

I can go into further details on our 25-minute stay in the Ski Patrol office, but I suppose you can say that the stay there was pretty “standard” — Herman was proded, was asked questions, etc. After an incomplete diagnosis, Sharon and the on-site Medic suggested that he just go to the Emergency Room and the nearest hospital that was not full was about 20 minutes away. After Herman was loaded into the ambulance, we rode in our vehicle and attempted to follow it…

Everything at this point is a blur because I was not present when they were diagnosing him in triage. We were pretty much waiting in the ER's waiting room, not knowing what was going on… 4 hours later, he was discharged from hospital. Diagnosis? Light concussion. ROFL!

There are other little things that happened during that day that made it special. Below is a list because I'm getting tired typing this…

– Around 11:00AM, Herman loses his mobile phone AND our car keys! >.<
– Around 12:30PM, Herman finds his mobile phone AND our car keys @ the Guest Services/Lost and Found booth.
– I ran into my friend OJ (SilentName) and his GF, Charmaine — what a small world!
– Around 2:00PM, I get to write my “Witness Account” of Herman's accident. We're getting Complimentary tickets, btw, 'cuz of the missed time 🙂
– The paramedic was really cute. Unfortunately, I couldn't focus on flirting because he was busy loading Herman onto the ambulance
– Herman loses his mobile phone again– where? We have no clue. It prolly dropped outta his pants when he was laying on the gurney.
– 3 hours into waiting @ Hospital, upon inquiring about our friend, the nurse tells us that he's checked-out… We ran around the hospital grounds looking for Herman, when we all realize that he can't get anywhere because: 1) He hasn't any shoes on; 2) He hasn't a jacket on; 3) He hasn't any money!; So we go back and then the (stupid) nurse apologizes and says that he was just moved to another room >.<
– On our drive back,and on our way to a restaurant (we were famished by that time), we had to briefly stop @ the “Sobriety Checkpoint” +_+ (BLOODY HELL!)
– After supper, Joel realizes he doesn't have keys to the house , so he breaks into his own home (legally?) ROFL!
– Did I mention that at the end of all this, Herman does not remember what happened? He has vague memories of the events AFTER lunch… FREAKY!
– Saturday was Sharon and Joel's 5th Wedding Anniversary. Isn't that nice? They spent the bulk of it in the ER *snicker*
– I finally get home, physically and mentally exhausted @ the day's adventure.

The End.

Oh yah, photos can be found here.