Ian's Attempt At Skiing
DATE: December 26 - January 1
Yes, I finally decided to try skiing. I've lived nearly 23 years and never really had the desire to go. It hasn't helped that I lived in Southern California, North Carolina, and Texas, none of which are exactly Aspen. Plus, my parents don't ski, so instead we had to go to places like London, Paris, Rome, Hawaii, Florida, and Canada for family vacations.

So the day after Christmas, I headed to Crested Butte with friends. Skiing is expensive, I found out. Rentals, lift tickets, warm clothes... Luckily, I borrowed pretty much everything I wore - ski jacket, powder pants, goggles, thermals - so at least I didn't have to buy it all. We got the lift tickets at a discount, that was a plus. Most people I talked to recommended ski lessons. Lessons cost $73 for two and a half hours. After hearing that, I reasoned, what could they really teach me that I couldn't a.) learn by practicing or b.) learn from my friends who had skiied before?

After asking that rhetorical question, I'm sure you're expecting a hilarious story about how wrong I was. Well you, my friend, would be WRONG. See, growing up, whenever I would fail at something the first time, often I would get discouraged. That's when my wise mother would say, "Well Ian, you've succeeded at so many things. You can't get everything right the first time." Well Mom, guess what - skiing I got right the first time.

So it went like this - I got out on the slopes first thing in the morning. Ryan and I were the rookie skiiers in the group. Everyone else had skiied before, but this time, they were all snowboarding. I got a crash course in steering, stopping, and falling from Richard, and then we set out on the small slope to start. I fell a few times, but I was getting better for sure. By the end of the first day, Ryan and I were competent on the green runs, and by the last day, we were pretty much skiing exclusively blue runs. We sort of tried a black run, but decided that was too much.

So in summation, skiing is awesome. I definitely want to go back. There were some downsides, though. I had a couple spectacular falls. In one, I was skiing a blue run, and got some pretty considerable speed. I tried steering to the left to slow down, but somehow I slipped and tumbled quite a bit. The best part was it happened directly under a lift, so people yelled to see if I was okay after they watched the amazing fall. I was alright. And also - I lost my cell phone somewhere. That sucked, but I got over it. Here's a picture of the crew:

David Durnil's Wine and Dine Party
DATE: November 20
Durnil's second annual Wine and Dine was at the Clarion downtown. I decided to go this year, as did my roommates, so we turned it into a Norwich Date Night. Aaron (right) brought his girlfriend Angelica, and the sometimes socially-inept Grayson (left) brought Haley (a friend of Angelica's). I didn't need to be fixed up - I brought Katherine, and we definitely had a great time. We had dinner at Mi Cocina downtown after a failed attempt to have dinner at the house. None of us are cooks. And so we moved onto the party.

Durnil is an experienced party host, and he did a very good job with the guest list. There was a lot of people there, many that I hadn't seen in months. Next year though, David, the alcohol situation needs to be addressed. The idea of the "Wine and Dine" is each guest pays an entry fee ($15) and is free to drink as much as he/she wants. I think I had one glass of a rather cheap red wine (the white was gone by the time we showed up), and then had 2 or 3 glasses of beer. Since the party had a dress code (jackets and ties, but Aaron and I chose to ignore the tie part), it felt odd drinking beer. I would have felt classier with wine, although both were served in plastic cups. So while I probably didn't get my $15 worth, many of the other party guests sure did. All in all, it was a fun night. One of the guys that I hadn't seen in ages was Jared Salzman. His wife tried to take a picture, but she was a bit unfamiliar with my camera. Still, the photo misfire is funnier than the real one--

Life & Times of Ian

Life Status
DATE: January 18
Unfortunately, my career with Accenture didn't take off as planned. The option I was given to transfer recruiters to Texas proved fatal. The recruiter was an Aggie, and when I showed up at the office visit, there were 12 people interviewing - 1 Horned Frog (me), 1 Longhorn, and 10 Aggies. Hmm...I don't know if that had anything to do with it, but one never knows. In hindsight, I should've stuck with my original recruiter, who I liked better, but then I probably would be working in Minneapolis right now, and I'm still not sure how I would like that. Anyway, I'm back on the market, looking for a job, while still working as a valet driver in the meantime. It's some life.

FM Connection (and outlying areas)

The Contest
DATE: January 18
I'm out there looking for a job, like my fellow business grads Rob Harvey and Brian McCleery. Rob graduated in May with a degree in finance from UT Austin. Brian graduated in December with a degree in marketing & management from Texas A&M. And yours truly graduated in May with a degree in E-Business from Texas Christian University.
The question is - who will be the first to get that seemingly unattainable post-graduation job? Presently, Rob is pounding the pavement in Seattle. Brian, on the opposite end of the spectrum, went back to College Station last Thursday just in time for...the weekend parties. And I'm somewhere in between.

So who's going to get hired first? Will it be...

This guy?	or this guy?	or let's hope this guy.

The Homefront

Thanksgiving Get-Together
DATE: November 27
It seems I'm always the last to find out about these, probably since I'm the oldest of the bunch, but there was a get-together at Sandra's over Thanksgiving. This group is people from the Vista Ridge Methodist youth group. I got a call from Jennifer at 8, when everyone starts wondering, "where's Ian?" Apparently Jenn forgot to call me (which is nothing new), but luckily I was in Flower Mound, so I came right over. Normally I get the memo in the late afternoon, but also normally I'm in Fort Worth and not Flower Mound. But I digress..

So I went over to see the crew. Geoff (Gainer, not Godley) is entering the Marines this month, so it was good to see him before he leaves for California. I saw Todd, who loaned me all the skiing stuff for my trip. He's in Vail right now, working for the resort. Here are some pictures:

Me with Jennifer, on the left, and me with Mary, on the right.
Below - Rachel and Mary like this photo because they look like sisters with their curly hair.

THE VOORN PROJECT, ltd.