Recovery.. it’s not smooth sailing on Winnipesaukee
Although it was super fun and inspiring to watch Americans absolutely crush in Beaver Creek, it was painful to know I couldn’t ski as I watched them put on their boots every morning. It’s much easier to just focus on yourself and not see exactly what the competition is doing.
My average day:
Physical Therapy for two hours with Mike at Howard Head
- Biking
- Traction for ½ hour a day – it seems to be the most immediate positive response.
- Tons of core using my inner stomach muscles around the spine.
- Lots of stretching
- Nerve Glides
When you pump up the traction unit there is about 85 lbs of pressure pulling my L4/L5 apart. It feels great!
Scott Wacker at Movement Physical Therapy is kickass.
- He’s doing dry needling with me every couple days, which can be quite painful.
- Then heat
- Nerve Glides
The Dry Needling is definitely loosening up my back and great to have it part of my day.
Acoustic Massage from a family friend Sarah
- This is actually really cool as her table has speakers in it to help release all the tension. She’s a great masseuse.
And other than that, I’m doing more exercises back here at Ian’s, occasionally swimming, and taking his sweet dog Roger for a walk a couple times a day.
Progress:
Today: I finally woke up with a sore left leg. For the first time we actually made it work hard enough to be sore, which is a great feeling. With all the work we’ve done, today I reached 85 degrees of flexion in a left leg squat. And I no longer have any pain in my back ever since the epidural injection.
We’re going in the right direction. It’s no highway that’s for sure.
Hope you’re all well, w
Best Get Well Soon Notes!
Here is a list of sweet get better soon notes I’ve received over the last week. Sorry for the foul language, but I feel like it’s not worth changing as it affects the authenticity of the notes. Not to mention, some of the people writing these things never swear so take that in mind. hahaha Anyway, I’m feeling pretty good, but no extra power in my left leg. I’m just hamming out core workouts every hour and watching a few movies. Here are the notes:
“Stop being a pussy!”
“Can I bring you anything from the outside world Warner? I’m working in Beaver Creek but after work I could stop by with some reading material, contraband, whatever?”
“I hope that you get well very soon so you will return to jumpimg better than when we were in Stockholm 
eheheh”
“Fuck man. Sucha drag… I hear snow in eu is shit.”
“for sure injections are going to be your best quick short term fix but you have to start hammering the physically thearapy or you have no chance.”
“What the fuck? I am livid FOR you…What a bunch of BS. Screw them you should have called them out on it. It’s bullshit that you can’t get covered. The USST just keeps acting like they’re doing you favors, when they don’t even see how good you
are for the sport. They benefit from you no matter how you cut it. I’m pretty fired up. I might have to do something about this…”
“I do wish you a fast recovery 
and fun — lots of fun — no matter whatever shitty fucking thing happens to you — I’m sure you’re gonna make the fucking best of it … if not: cheer up!! I’m sending you a huge overdose of happiness and motivation — look out”
The last one is my fav. Cheers, w
Ted Dominated Yesterday
Beaver Creek, Coloroado – When you’re sitting in your hotel room wearing sweats it’s just sooo painful to watch yourself be a DNS on live-timing. It was a whole lot more fun to NOT be on the start list yesterday. And for the first time in my week at Beaver Creek, I went to the finish to watch yesterday’s event. It was great to see Tim Jitloff and Tommy Ford break into the top 15. There were only a couple hundred people on hand, but Ted stepped up and laid down the law on GS. His second run was inspiring.
Here’s some video from it!!!!
Thanks so much
I want to thank all of you that reached out to me about help for my back issues. Some of you I haven’t responded to yet, but I really appreciate all the help and ideas. They are really helpful as the decision I make now will have a dramatic impact on my immeidate ski racing career.
Thanks. And I have an appointment for the injection with the same doctor at an in network hospital so I’m really excited about that. Tomorrow morning I am going to make sure that everything lines up so my insurance will cover almost all the costs. The pills haven’t seem to do anything yet. I still only have about 50 percent power in my left leg.
Hope all is well, w
Watching From the Hotel
This sucks, but hopefully I’ll be back soon. My leg is still shutting down. I did a good spinning work out this morning, which was nice.
Leif killed it thou, he’s in 3rd right now!!! Sooo pumped for you buddy! Get some second run.
Charles Christianson meets the White Circus
Beaver Creek, Colorado – Charles Christianson, older brother of USST athlete and young phenom Kieffer Christainson, is a really kickass dude. It’s always fun to say he’s Kieffer’s brother, but the truth is he’s one of a few dudes that are the heart of American skiing. It’s guys like this that keep hammering after countless season ending injuries that exemplify what it is to be a true ski racer.
Charles will push out of the gate tomorrow 58th on the epic Bird’s of Prey, Beaver Creek slope. It will be his first World Cup start at the tender age of 27. I think that’s a record, btw. The USST has always focused on younger athletes so it’s really impressive to see them use the nation spot on an older, late blooming athlete that deserves to be here. He has countless accolades we could go thru; but you get the idea, it’s great to see him in the white circus!
In true rookie fashion we cut his hair with pride! So the rule is: if Charles finishes top 15 tomorrow he get to do the same thing to us. Good luck bro, but don’t be too fast hahaha. No really kill it and I’ll happily let you chop off my mop!
Full Panic Mode
Vail, Colorado – I just watched Bode kill it on a EuroSport Live feed over here with the Dodge guys – that was awesome. I’m in full panic mode with my back. My L5 disc is bulging to the left laterally which is making my left leg shut off whenever I lean to the left. Not awesome. So I’m driving to Denver in a few to get on a McMannis machine that should stretch it out, then see another chiropractor doc down there, and get a really stiff lumbar support belt. Then I’ll see Bob, the doc up here, tomorrow morning.
We’ll just have to see where we stand every half hour. Denver see you soon, w
Back on Snow Test… Failure
Vail, Colorado: The training looked sooo money.
I laid down two pairs of skis in the snow. I brought one pair of good training skis and my race skis for Sunday. I was all fired up to snap off some nasty turns and gain confidence for Sunday. I placed my right toe into the toe piece of my binding and pushed down my heel to hear the pleasant snap of my binding securing my boot. Then I went for my left boot and tried to press my heel down and it just didn’t go. After three attempts, I lined up my bones to successfully clicked in. Something definitely wasn’t firing, but I went up the lift anyway. At the top, I did a quick leg curl test and it became clear my left hamstring wasn’t in the game. I got to see a high school buddy of mine, Topher Harlow, at the top of the training hill, but wasn’t able to make a single turn; epic fail.
Here’s a shot from the parking lot of Gregorak on the pitch. Being in the parking lot sucks. I’m off to see the Doc again this morning and will hopefully get something going. Good thing I only live life one half hour at a time or I’d be pretty worried ab0ut Sunday.
My whole family is out here so it’s time for my body to stop sucking. w
Testing the back tomorrow at Vail
Beaver Creek, Colorado – I’m soooo psyched to ski tomorrow. I’ve taken off the last week to give my back some much needed rest. I’ve been biking a fair amount and have been icing a ton, seriously a ton. Like up to 10 times in a day – it’s been some serious couch time to log that much icing, but totally worth it. Anyway, I went to a chiropractor in Denver today and I think I’m turning the corner. My left leg isn’t twitching anymore and it’s only numb deep in my hip so I’m pretty fired up to see how it feels tomorrow on snow.
This guy, Bob Blaich, is the man. I’ll tell you all how it feel tomorrow!! We’re training from 2-4:30 at Vail with Ted and Gregorak.
Psyched, w
Val D’Isere Race Hill, yesterday
Do you think there’s going to be enough snow to race in less than 10 days??? Apparently, we’ll find out tomorrow, but it doesn’t look too good.
The weather report looks like this:
Holy Crap – New Record
So I thought I was doing pretty well having around 500-600 viewers on average a day or a little over 1000 when something fresh was posted, but after my hitchhiking blog I hit a new record! Yesterday, we almost hit 3,000 viewers and today we hit 5,318 viewers. That’s insane. Check it out.
Damn it. Now I might have to blog more hahaha.
Aspen Nor-Am Photos from Today!
I’m not racing here in Aspen, which sucks so I went up on the hill to take shots of mustaches and what not. I think it’s the right call to give my back a longer break and focus on the World Cup next weekend in Beaver Creek. Since I’m here and I think moving around is a good call for the back it was fun to be super fan/photographer! Here are some shots from the day!
Hitchhiking to Aspen: a Medical Marijuana Encounter
Aspen, Colorado – I left my rental car with Jon and Janni so I ended up hitching to Aspen with just my carry-on bag, some bread, peanut butter, jelly, and a small plant/flower that was given to me in Denver for getting a cat out of a tree a few days ago at 11:00 at night. It took 6 different vehicles and a wide variety of nice/crazy people to make it. First off, thanks to all of you for your help.
6:30 AM: I woke up in Denver and Leif Haugen gave me a ride to Loveland. In Loveland, I watched the first run of the Nor-Am Men’s Slalom. Unfortunate, my Belgian friend, Bart Mollin, blew out of the first run. However, that gave me a pleasantly, earlier than expected departure from Loveland. Thanks Bart!
12:30 PM: Bart, his coach and I departed Loveland. It was a pleasant drive as I don’t get to hang out with Bart very often. When they dropped me off at the roundabout at the middle Vail exit he said, “I feel really bad about leaving you right here.” But for me it was the start of an entertaining journey.
1:05 PM: I tossed out my thumb and the first car a 2000 Chevy Caravan picked me up. It was an older Austrian couple from Solden. So we had a long discussion about American skiing, Solden, and the Riml family. It was a great leg from there to Eagle. As they dropped me off, I thanked them and the nice women said, “The truth is, the only reason I stopped was because I thought you were someone else. Once you walked up to car and I realized I didn’t know you, I felt too bad to drive away so we gave you a lift.” Either way, I was psyched to go some distance.
1:30 PM: I waited there for about 5 minutes in Eagle and a few dudes that just finished up work picked me up in a big pickup. The first thing they did was offer me some snaps so I obliged. It was a short trip from there to Jericho, which was sweet because they kept talking about smoking.
1:47 PM: I waited for around 7 minutes before an old 1984 Chevy Suburban came ripping around the corner and screeched to a halt. The rig reeked of cigarettes as there was a thin film that covered everything. However, it was a ride so I had no complaints. This lady driving The Beast as she called it, was an energetic one. I sat in the back seat because the front seat was filled with two things: a portable Bosch stereo that is commonly used at construction sites and what turned out to be a $60 pie she was delivering to a friend. Around the first corner, she hit the breaks and the stereo slipped from the seat and slammed down onto the floor. She immediately leaned across the massive front seat – full extended – trying to pick it up so we could listen to some more Rage Against the Machine. She had one hand on the wheel swerving from lane to lane. I jumped up to help extremely quickly as there was no seat belt to be found over the camouflage seat cover. She looks back at me and says as she’s not looking at the road, “don’t worry, I have five kids I can drive distracted.” During our 25 mile leg, the stereo dropped down three times. And when we got close to Glenwood Canyon she turned around and asked me if I smoked. I told her I get drug tested and she responded with, “That’s tough because you’ll be smelling it the rest of the way to Glenwood.” During the drive through Glenwood Canyon, she repacked and smoked her apparatus three times driving with one arm and sometimes just her knees. For those of you that don’t know Glenwood Canyon, it’s not a place to drive distracted and her truck was so high that it could jump the guardrail down a hundred feet into the river bed. I was pretty nervous for my life on a number of occasions. She th0ughtfully explained, “don’t worry I have my card.” Smoking marijuana in Colorado is completely legal as long as you have your medical marijuana card. However, I don’t think they allow it while driving.
2:08 PM: I was a happy camper when I arrived in Glenwood Springs. The driver of The Beast was a really nice lady, but I was happy to be back on foot. I ended up walked thru Glenwood a little bit. I think it was good for my back, but the damn thing is still sucking pretty hard.
2:35 PM: I was decompressing from my ride in The Beast and ready to put my thumb back to work. For ten minutes, no one picked me up. During my ten minutes waiting for a ride, I learned it was time to completely changed my tactics. I’d always go for a pleasant smile searching for eye contact to make it more personal, but that wasn’t working. When I arrived in Glenwood Springs, I was in a great mood after successfully making it this far in pretty damn good time. After ten minutes with my thumb out, I was no longer in a very good mood. It wasn’t that I was bummed that none of the hundreds of cars that drove by me didn’t pick me up, it was because I could read the expressions of each driver as they drove by. Driver after driver was thinking, “Really, you think I’d pick you up.” “Hitchhikers are just as bad as beggers.” “Get a job.” “You’re destroying the fabric of American Society.” “You look like an ax murder – there is no way I’d ever pick you up.” “Really. Really. I’m soooo much better than you; I live in Aspen.” “Get out of the way you parasite.” So after seeing these thoughts in so many eyes. I decided it was time to have a pleasant smile and just look out on the horizon so disgruntled drivers wouldn’t be in my head.
2:46 PM: Time to make a sign. Luckily, I was right next to a hostel and some cardboard trash.
2:52 PM: I was back at it with my sign and a pleasant horizon smile. Within a few minutes, I was back on the road and William told me it was sign that made him stop.
William is a CRMS (a private prep school in Carbondale) teacher and the most normal individual I found hitching. In Carbondale, I took a break at my cousin’s house that just got married over Thanksgiving. They actually had a marriage ceremony in their living room between Thanksgiving dinner and desert. They didn’t tell a single family member before hand. Apparently, both mothers nearly fainted when the ordained minister and their friend said, “let’s come to the living room to witness the marriage of Molly and Ryan. Congrats to Molly and Ryan!!! I gave them my flower, plant as their impromptu wedding gift. It was fun to chill with them for a couple hours and then a few friends picked me up for the final portion of my trip to ASPEN.
5:46 PM: Jason and Casey brought me the rest of the way to Assspen!
I made it! w
My back is sucking.
Loveland, Colorado – Yesterday I took one run of GS. My back was already struggling and on my first run in gates I came out of a right footed turn, caught a little air, landed into a left footer on the pitch, and felt my back compress and twist. I finished the course, but just laid in the snow at the finish for a while. I could feel some pain shoot down my left leg so I knew my back was sucking pretty hard. TNT was fully struggling. Jon was sick and tossed in the towel after his second run.
I did a lot of icing yesterday and met up with the ski team phsyio last night that said I should get it checked out by a doctor. I woke up this morning with my left side mostly numb and twitching so I wasn’t all that psyched. I got into the Steadman Clinic at 10:00 this morning, had a doctor look at me, got an MRI, and was out by 11:15. It was insane how quickly it all happened, but it’s great to know my discs are in good shape. After some celebrex and I’m sure a huge medical bill 
, I drove down to Denver with Leif to see another Doctor that spent 2 hours adjusting me. A bunch of my muscles that had nerves connecting at my L5 and T5 weren’t activated because the discs were a little bulged so he reactivated them. My left leg is still sucking as it’s twitching and numb at this very moment. Oh well. But I think I have a good plan of taking it easy the next few days and focusing on Beaver Creek next Sunday.
Cheers, w
Colby Ski Team: Best Damn Ski Team on the Mountain
Loveland, Colorado – TNT had three great days with the Colby College Ski Team at Loveland. We were on Twist, the race hill for two Nor-Am slalom the next two days, so it was in excellent shape. I’d say Loveland is my favorite early season mountian to train at because they’re old school and down to earth. It was sooo fun to ski with them and see the future of my alma mata. Somehow, I even was able to get into their team shot from Colorado. Go Mules!!!
Here are some more pics from the last few days.
The attack of free speech by FIS
Freedom of speech, our First Amendment in creating the United States of America and also a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, is being attacked by FIS. Quoted form their most recent meeting, “The Council agreed to develop a “Code” to deal with cases of improper behavior that fall outside the competence of the competition jury to augment the existing rules, such as blasphemy on social networking sites or bringing the sport into disrepute.”
Ted Ligety’s newest blog post does an excellent job explaining the our disappointment of this monopoly. Thanks Ted. However, I am nervous about their response to him.
An Inspirational Performance by Frank-the-Tank!
Copper Mountain, Colorado – Although Bode Miller and Thomas Biesemeyer won the two races at Copper Mountain yesterday, the most inspiring performance goes out to Chris Frank. These two races were qualifiers for the World Cup Super G at Lake Louise, Canada next week. The way it worked was that the best non-qualified athlete was awarded a birth. The way they decided was by the best FIS point result.
Last season Chris raced World Cup SG all year, but was never fully immersed in with the US Ski Team and was never able to put together a great performance in World Cup. At the end of the season, it’s always a struggle to keep going and it was impressive to see him commit to skiing for another year. He was skiing his best, but when you’re 28 without the ski team backing, financial support, or a secured World Cup start it’s very hard to continue to follow your dream. But that is exactly what Chris did, he continued to work with Green Mountain Valley School in Waitsfield, VT and kept pushing.
Yesterday, Chris finished 6th and scored a 14 point race to give him a start and another opportunity to show the world that he’s one of the best ski racers on the planet. As we used to say when we were racing and going to uni together back in New Zealand driving around in our hot whip, the Bird, “Sweet as, mate!” 
Photo credits: complements of facebook 
.
Copper Mountain’s new hill and I won a candy bar…
Copper Mountain, Colorado – Yesterday, I was able to fully experience the new training venue at Copper. There has been a ton of hype about how this epic hill is going to be the “game changer” for American skiing, and it lives up to it. Rarely does that happen. From what I understand, the ski team has entered a 20 year agreement with Copper spending somewhere around 5 million dollars for the set up of 87 automatic snow guns, two miles of A-net, five miles of B-net on the new piste. It’s a sweet venue for all events. The track is so wide that the course sets can very a ton to use lots of different terrain. It’s impressive. If it was injected it would really be amazing.
We had two Super G races on it yesterday. Thomas Biesemeyer won the first one by 44 hundredths and Bode won the second one by a few hundredths with a impressive World Cup field filled with Austrian speed skiers. I struggled in the first run and blew out. Second run, I was able to have a better plan and focused on staying aerodynamic and trying to arc until I blew out, which was a much better plan. I could have arced a bit more, but oh well. I rarely ski Super G so it’s always a challenge to be fast, but for me to be fast I have to arc everything, go pretty straight, and stay in my tuck as much as possible. It’s easy to open up in speed, but it’s imperative to keep your hands out in front at all times to break the wind. Luc Robillard, the GMVS coach, Ben Babbitt, ,Ski Club Vail coach, and Dane Spencer, USST coach, all helped me get that thru my head in between runs. Thanks guys.
The second run, I finished 25th, 2 seconds out which was ok for starting 30th. However, the really amazing part of the day was that I beat fellow Dodge Boot athlete Charles Christianson and won a Butterfingers candy bar complements of Charles. Charles, I have to say it was easily the best candy bar I’ve ever had. Danke. Better luck next time haha! You skied really well today buddy; just not quite good enough.
My Last Day on the Lake 2011
Gilford, NH – The last day of the year on Lake Winnipesaukee is always a sad one, but this year it was really really fun. For Mia 30th birthday, 13 of us did a Lake Winni Rally to pretty much every corner of the lake in a three boat caravan.
Mine boat certainly didn’t make it, because it would have been way too slow and cold haha. We started out in Alton for breakfast, then Wolfeboro, Braun Bay (where we jumped into the water; turned out it was unbelievable cold haha), Center Harbor, Meredith, and dinner at the Lyon’s Den. What a day! It was cold as balls, but really fun.
The Striper.
The Donzi.
The Misty Tea.
Wolfeboro, NH with Brookes.
Lyon’s Den Dinner – Happy Birthday Mia!
Leaving Governors.
It reminded me of the Donzi Poker run from earlier this summer! Here are a few shots from that.
Now it’s time to pack and do everything I should have done yesterday. But you only live once, right. Great to see everyone back here! See you guys in Colorado, w
Work Day at Gunstock Ski Club
Gilford, NH – It’s brilliant to be home to chill out a little bit, do some quality work outs, and whatever else fits into the schedule. I’m still struggling with jetlag so this morning at 5:30 AM I was wide awake so naturally I turned on some AC/DC and hammering out a a quality lifting and core workout in my basement. Three years ago, I picked up a squat rack – when Gould was getting rid of some equipment - and it’s sooo sweet for working out at random hours. I hate going to lame gyms so it’s really nice to do it at home with ease.
Using a nail gun is totally kickass, btw! I kinda want one haha like many other things in life.
Anyway, this morning I went to the Gunstock Ski Club to help with their work day and do some building. They needed to put in a new walkway on the front of the club house so a handful of people showed up to lend a hand. Gunstock is my home hill so whenever I go back it feels like I’m truly at home. Here are some shots of the crew.
My schedule these days is:
Gilford, NH until Monday Nov 14th
Vail/Copper till Nov 26thish
Aspen till December 1stish
Beaver Creek December 6th
Val D’Isere December 11th
San Vigillio, Italy 14th
Solden probablyish
Alta Badia December 19th
V Pay Alpine Rock Fest December 23rd
I’m not sure if I’m going home for Christmas. I’m leaning toward just staying in Europe, but don’t know what to do with myself. Any ideas?
Cheers from NH, w
Swedish Pole Fitness Nationals
So a friend of mine, Ida Rosen, competed in Pole Fitness Nationals Today and here is her performance. I’ll update you all with how she did once I find out, but it’s pretty impressive!
Cheers, w
Smooth Travel
Washington, DC – Just one flight away from reaching Gilford, NH. I can’t wait. I’m in Dulles Airport right now waiting for that flight, but so far it’s been a banner day of traveling. I had a killer run in the morning. It turned out the place I was staying was in a pretty nice area so my run was pleasant.
Upon arrival to the Airport, I knew I might be kinda screwed with overweight and extra luggage. I had three ski bags with 8 pairs of skis, a duffel bag, and a boot bag. Every bag was in the 60-70 pound range except for my boot bag that was pretty light. 
I went up to the United desk and picked out my lady. She was a young middle aged lady that could smile. The first rule of checking in is: never go to an Asian. I mean never. Pretend you lost your passport, anything but getting an Asian. I hate to say that, but they’re sooooo painfully true. With them it’s all by the book and rough on the wallet.
Somehow I only paid 56 Swiss Francs (61.50 USD) to get it all the way to NH. I was sooo pumped. You never know what you’re going to get with airlines, but United has a great policy if you travel a lot. Once you’re Star Alliance Gold (fly 50,000 miles a year on Star Alliance Airlines) you get 3 bags at 70 pounds and a boot bag if you have skis on United. It’s perfect. Obviously, I try to always fly on United or Star Alliance.
This was in my terminal. Switzerland is a total rip off.
And I got to see why Maine has more coastline than NH to the tip of Florida. It’s great to be back in America.
The Dicotomy of My Life
I can’t help but laugh when I spend a weekend rubbing shoulders with the Swedish elite and now here I am in Zurich at the cheapest accommodation I found online waiting to catch a flight home where I live with my brother or dad depending on the day/season where my car, a sexy 1995 Honda Accord Wagon, has died and I’m back to pounding leather, hitch-hiking, biking as transportation, or borrowing my dad’s truck for long journeys. I need to borrow it to go to Vermont on Thursday, Dad.
I love this picture and sadly this was three years ago during her glory days.
Zurich, Switzerland – So I just moved into a tiny room, just big enough to sleep in, luckily there was a garage to stow all my skis, 5 kilometers outside of Zurich airport with one bathroom for 6 units. To enter the building, I had to bang on a solid steel door, without a sign on it, before I walked into the reception, a tight hallway with a door to a slightly evaluated office just big enough for a small desk and a computer pointed toward the ajacent wall where the receptionist was overweight Swiss German pounding out his cigarette in an ash tray completely consumed by cigarette butts. Usually, I try not to stay near airports because it’s sooo damn expenses and just wake up early and log some time behind the wheel on departure day. However, I had to give my ski team sponsored Audi Allroad to Ted Ligety’s technician’s brother so he and a few others can eventually drive the ski team vehicles to Geneva, Swtizerland after Beaver Creek and before Val D’Isere in early December. It’s much nice to fly into Geneva than into Munich and then sitting in a car four 8 hours after doing that and them some departing Denver.
So as you can imagine, I found the shabbiest place on the market. While only a few hours ago I was driving in a caravan with this car.
Anyway, last weekend the weather sucked in Austria – and it continued to struggle as today we didn’t ski due to fog and rain even though we were fired up for a double session of SG and GS. It was pretty painful not to ski after prepping skis for 3 hours yesterday. This past weekend I was in Sweden for three days. The first night we saw Avicii play after an epic sponsored dinner (thanks Jon). Avicii is easily the best DJ in the world and we watched him perform in a very small part of a club. I was told it’s the “new hot club in the city,” but it was a room with one bar and a number of tables. We were there the next night and I couldn’t believe how small it is. The moral to this story is that we were really close to the action and the club manager is a kickass guy that let us do pretty much whatever we wanted. It was impressive, meanwhile there was a magnum champagne bottle of Mumm and some Dom Perignon as we watched Tim play his hits. That was gloriously fun.
The next night, I still don’t know how this happened – mostly because of Jon – but Jon, Jens, a few others, and I went to an après ski dinner to celebrate the recent success of one of their friend’s books, Sopi Farhman.
I got an autographed copy, I’m pretty sure I was the only one that demanded she signed my copy (we each received a copy and a hat with dinner). Unfortunately, it’s in Swedish and after traveling with it that entire night in the back of my pants like I was carrying a gun, I left it stowed away in the bottom of Jon’s bag, which he left in Monaco. I assumed it was going to make the trip to Solden yesterday, but it turns out you can’t travel with all that much when you’re winter car is a lambo. So chances are I’ll never be seeing that again haha. Life is about the journey, right, so who really cares?
At this dinner, I was immediately bummed when I realized that I wasn’t sitting with my friends. All I could think was, “Seriously I’m not sitting with you guys this sucks. I’m probably sitting in the corner with someone that can’t speak English, awesome.” However, I was very wrong. I walked around and found my seat to be settled in between three ladies, all of them very good looking and from what I quickly learned really fun. Across from me was Izabella Scorupco, a Swedish actress that lives in LA best know for her roll in Golden Eye.
It’s nice I didn’t know all of this going into the evening.
To my right was Alexandra Pascalidou, a Swedish journalist, author, TV host, and awesome. And to my left, my favorite, was Marie Serneholt, a singer, pop star, and blogger. It’s funny because right now as I’m writing this I’m realizing exactly who they are haha. Thanks Wikipedia. It was a hilarious night and they were all exceptional company. Nothing like some wine and shots to make the night and conversations really entertaining. All and all, I just have to laugh and reiterate that being good at one thing opens doors to lots of other exciting opportunities. I certainly wouldn’t have had this weekend if I was working in Tilton, NH, no offense Guy. I love you! And can’t wait to see you at the airport!!! Please still pick me up.
Alexandra
Marie
Here are some shots from the experience. I decided since pretty much everyone in Sweden is a professional blogger, it doesn’t matter that I show a few pics from a glorious weekend. See you soon America. I have to admit there is something spectacular about living at home and going back to the “life free or die state.” Here are some shots from the weekend on Team TNT’s work hard, play hard program.
Thanks to Jon, Jens, Fredrik (squared), Marcus, Magnus, Janni, Clara, Ida, and everyone else that made it way more fun than it should have been.
Avicii (t-6 hours)
Stockholm, Sweden: When I first started this newer version of my blog, I wanted to focus on fun, last minute decisions, which is exactly what this is jaunt up north is going to be or at least all indicators are pointing in that direction. The weather in Austria was changing, the Europa Cup speed races were postponed on Tuesday (this was the main reason I stayed in Europe after Solden World Cup) so I took some quality advice for Jon and caught a flight up to Stockholm for the weekend before I fly back to the US on Wednesday.
I hate high expectations, but tonight is going to be insane. We’re going to see Avicii perform in his hometown. Avicii, for those of you that don’t know, is indubitably the best DJ on the planet in my opinion. He has produced some ridiculously amazing house beats that were played at full volume on the 86er this summer. Oh the glory! haha Not to mention, we’re in Stockholm, which has really nice, pretty buildings so I don’t think we can go wrong! Off to dinner in a few hours and then glory will commence! Thanks to Magnus Andersson for the epic housing sponsorship. Tusan Takk (thank you in Swedish and Norwegian) for handing me the keys to your apartment.
Here are few shots in route. I got lost a lot haha.
Two days ago as you can see the weather is perfect!
drive, fly, bus, subway, and walk. Next step fun.
Cheers to all, w
