R.I.P. Frank Sapienza

Frankie,
You were only here at the Fort for a short time, however you're absence has been noticed and you have been missed terribly. I remember the time that you were hanging out in my room on New Years Eve drinking rum and coke with me, Cobra Lee, Lucas, Billy, and Tkat and you and Tkat were playing memory with the cards and how she got so mad because you kept winning. I also remember how you, me, Indi, and J Rey were swimming in the pool and that is when you first mention how you were planning on leaving the lodge to get out of the restaurant business and start working on cars which is where your passion laid. It's so sad to know that you were not able to live out your dream of working on cars in Florida. Today has made me realize how life is too short and to take every opportunity that is given to you and live life to the fullest. You will be missed by everyone you ever encounter because you could not walk into a room without your presence being known by someone. Your sweet personality and your warm, genuine smile will also be missed. May you rest in peace and know that your family and friends are in my prayers during this hard time.

Employee Bowling Night

Last week the employees were treated to a bowling night. Everyone had a great time being able to get out of the Fort and away from the lodge for one night. Thought it did made several of us aware how close the end of the season was approaching. While there was a competition going for the girl and the guy who got the highest scores of the night, several of us was there just to have fun and not caring about the competition, myself including who bowled a high score of 66 by the end of the night. I even recall my boss telling me that he was glad that I work better than I bowl...but even with that, bowling was still a blast. I do, however, think we should have a Wii bowling tournament one day. Then I will bowl better than a 66. The winner of the competition was Colter for the guys and Katie for the girls, though I don't recall what the score was, but I'm betting way higher than my score. The Employee Bowling Night was a great night for us all to put aside all the stress that comes with each of our own individual jobs and just relax and have fun together as a family...which is exactly what we all have become. I had a blast this winter getting to know every single person that works here at the lodge and it's going to be hard to say goodbye next month. I hope that we all stay in touch and that one day our paths will cross once again.

3 Hour and Open Mic Night

Wow! It's been a while since I posted a blog on here. Time to play catch up. So here at the Peruvian, we have this thing call 3 Hours. Pretty much what that means is that an employee is allowed to have a friend or family member come visit them for up to a week and that person can work 3 hours a day and that will pay for them to sleep in employee housing (or sometime they will get a guest room if we aren't busy) and eat in Lils, or the employee dining room, and then after working 3 hours, they have the rest of the day to themself to ski and do whatever. We have had several people come and go this year because of this. Like Shawn, Cali, Nikki, and Chad to name a few. It's a neat way to meet even more people here at the lodge.

Every Monday night, the Goldminer's Daughter (or the GMD) hosts Open Mic Night. Last Monday was the last one of the season, and actually the first one I've ever gone to. It was so much fun, that it makes me wish that I had gone to more. I usually skip them due to having to work the next morning and didn't want to stay up too late partying. There were several people that I see around that are also Canyon employees that I never knew were so talented. Like Patrick Chamberlin just making up a song as he goes, or the Lifties changing the words from Momma Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys to Momma Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Ski Bums. I'm glad that I got videos of both of these performances so that I can replay them anytime that I want. And those were just 2 of the many talents that performed that night. While we all gathered in as many tables as we could possibly push together and eating pizza and drinking PBRs (and sodas for the few underage people), it was a great night for all the P-Dawgers to hang out together for one of the last times this season. It's hard to believe that the closing of the season is already apon us. I'm sure going to miss everyone when I leave here next month.

Goodbye Alyse, Frank, and Clayton!!!

Alyse, or Baby A, sorry that it has taken me more than a week to write my goodbye letter to you. It doesn't mean that I've missed you any less than anyone else who has left, I miss you the same. I've mainly just been too busy. I will always remember the art and crafts night with you when we made our belt buckles and the shot ski. It was soo much fun, and I'm glad that you dragged me and T-Kat with you to it. The hallways are so empty now without your singing. I think that is what I missed the most. I could always hear you and Kara singing through the wall that divided our rooms, and now it's soo different without your voice. It's actually really quiet here now without it. I wish you luck on your surgery for your collar bone and if you ever end back up in Seward this summer, you better hit me up so we can hang out! Miss you, girl!!

Frank, aka Frankzilla, I didn't really get the chance to know you, but yet, I still miss your presence here at the lodge, and even the Fort, even though you did not live here. I always heard good things about you from the servers and the kitchen staff, mostly about how you would make people sandwiches if they requested. If I had known that, I may had requested an omelet every now and then for breakfast. Lol. I do remember hanging out with you and J-Rey in the pool and that was the day I first heard that you were planning on leaving here. I still can't believe that you actually did leave though. I hear so much talk about people saying that they are leaving, but pretty much most of it is just talk and the people actual don't leave. I wish you the best of luck in the future, and hope you go back to working with cars for you said that is where your passion is.

Clayton, aka Cobra Lee (aka Kenny Chesney?), man, what can I say about you, my fellow Texas? You are missed soo much in the place. I think all of us was still hoping that you would change your mind at the last minute and stay here. At first when I heard the story about the cops thinking you were Kenny Chesney at the airport, I couldn't believe it. I was like "he does not look like him at all" and I tried to pull up a picture to prove to everyone, and sure enough, you do. Pretty much everyone here is now joking that you are really Kenny Chesney and was just here to take a break from the fame for a while. Lol. If that is true, you better give Lil' Texas an autograph. The Fort is soo quiet now without you, it's insane. It's almost like the temptation to party is gone....almost...lol. I hope you are having fun with your children, and we better hang out when I'm back in Texas for the month between here and Alaska. God Bless Texas!

Goodbye Arty and Courie!!

Arty, you are definitely missed here at the Fort. Parties are not going to be the same without you. The halls seems so empty without your laughter echoing through them. It's a shame that you had to leave and I'm really upset that I didn't get to tell you goodbye personally. There are so many memories that everyone has that involves you. My favorite is the "Don't bring Arty to the party. Don't bring Arty to the party" rant that me and Kara said one day in Lils. It's wasn't making fun of you though. Just another song. No party will be the same without you there. I don't know what we will do for entertainment for the rest of the season. I hope that our paths cross again sometime in the future. Wish you the best of luck in California.


Courie, you are missed just as much as Arty. I don't really know what else to say. I hated that the party the night before got interrupted. I wish it went down just like Jack's. Well, maybe not just like Jack's, but at least that one wasn't interrupted. I'm so glad that I got to ride with Tiffany to take you to the airport yesterday. You are the first person I actually got to say goodbye to personally. I will never forget you, my dear friend. No one here at the Fort will ever forget you. You are one of the kindest person I've ever met. I don't think there was ever a harsh word that came from your mouth. And if there was, I never heard it. And just like with Arty, I hope that our paths will cross again sometime soon. You are a great friend and I wish you the best of luck in California.

Goodbye Jack!

Jack, Arkansas, Cowboy, Arkansauce, or whatever else you may had been called at while at the Fort, you are going to be missed. No one can forget the funny quotes made by you, they shall continue on forever in our memories and bring a smile to all of our faces everytime we think of you saying like "This is like one big town" as you try to describe Salt Lake City after seeing it from the first time coming down from the canyon, or when you said "From a scale of 1 to 10, I would not wear that" while talking about the headband I was about to make you. To your defense, you did wear the one I made you, I just didn't put Jack @$$ on it like I originally joked about. I know that anytime I hear anyone mentioning something about a scale of 1 to 10, I'm diffently going to think about you and the time you said that. I don't think I ever laughed so hard in my life, especially after Courie's remark about "That's not how scales work, Jack." That is diffently a memory I'm going to look back on years to come. And your going away party was off the hook. I'm so glad we got to celebrate one last night with you here at the Fort. Everyone was there having a blast and it was all for you, buddy. The Fort is not going to be the same without you here. I wish you the best of luck for the surgery for your knee and hope that you have a fast healing so that you can get back on those horses and mules that are so dear to your heart.

Interlodge

Interlodge is where the ski patrol is doing avalanche control and everyone in the town of Alta are ordered to stay inside until it's over. They never know exactly what time they will end, only when they will start, so some of us have to wake up 1 or 2 hours earlier than normal just to be safe. Normally they do interlodge starting at 11pm and it will normally continue until about 8:30-9am the next morning. Those who have to work the next morning will normally do what they call a straight line at 6am. A straight line is when they allow everyone who works to walk together from the Fort to the lodge in order to get to work on time. They normally also give us several hours warning about interlodge starting so everyone have time to get what ever they need done before it does happen. However, there are times when they don't. For example this morning I was woke up by my semi roommate (she just keep her stuff in the room but normally spends the night in her boyfriend's room) saying that there was going to be an interlodge starting at 7 and it was already 6:30. When I asked her how she knew, she said that the front desk called and told her. Well, she does have a habit of not telling the entire truth, so I called the front desk to make sure. I thought that it was weird that they would give us only a half hour notice. To my surprise, there was an interlodge, only it was starting at 6:45 and not 7. I almost didn't make it in to work. When I left the Fort at 6:44 because I had only that much time to get ready and got here, hopefully on time, she was already sitting in the lobby. The front desk asked who told me 7, and I told them it was her, she kept saying that's what she was told. I personally think that if she was told 7, she wouldn't had been there at 6:45, because she is normally the person walking through the door at the very last possible minute. But, I can't be sure. I'm not saying that she was purposely trying to make me late to work, I just think that if she gave out the wrong information and then later found out that it was wrong, she should go to the people she gave that wrong info to and let them know she was wrong, especially when it's something related to work. But that's enough about her. Back to interlodge. Every now and then there is something call a Max Interlodge. This is where the ski patrol are directing the man-made avalanche directly towards the Fort. Because of this, they completely evacuate the entire Fort to make sure everyone is safe from possibly being hit by an avalanche. Not only do the evacuate the Fort, but they also evacuate all the guests who are on the East side of the building, which is where the avalanche is possibly heading towards. We only had Max once so far and that lasted until about 1 or 2 that afternoon. But I have heard stories from some of the previous employees where it lasted for 2 days. If that ever does happen, they will allow another straight line for the employees to go back to the Fort to gather things to prepare them for a few days and then return back to the lodge in about a half hour via yet another straight line. During the times of straight lines, the ski patrols will not be blowing snow off the mountains to create their man-made avalanche so in sense there will be no danger during those few minutes. Even after Max is lifted, interlodge could still be in effect for another couple of hours. The only time we had Max, interlodge itself wasn't lifted for another hour and a half afterwards. It just means that they are no longer heading an alavanche towards us any more. Also, another reason why no one really likes Max interlodge is that there is no warning for it. The ski patrol don't know when it will occur until after they are on the mountain blowing the snow off. Depending on how much snow is acutally coming off the mountain, depends on if Max is needed or not. So those of us who were planning on working are normally up and it doesn't affect them, but those who don't work or work later that evening are normally still asleep in our beds and are being woke up by the security guy in order to get over here. People in that situation are normally mopping around in the lodge in their PJs griping about how they didn't even have enough time to brush their teeth, put on deodorant, or something of that nature. Any of us will take regular interlodge over Max any day.

Area 51

Area 51 is a local club that is in Salt Lake City that groups of Fortians had made a trip to a few time this summer. We discovered it by accident while out hitting the town celebrating a birthday for one of the maintance guys. We went there again last night and it was a whole different experience, as it is everytime a group goes. We can all go to any of the local lodges' bars here in Alta and not pay the gas or coverage charge, but no matter how many times we go to those bars, they are pretty much the same. We all sit at a table with our drinks and just talk about work or the Fort life. Nothing to special. However once we go to Area 51, there's a music and a stage made for dancing and cutting loose and not worrying about the trouble and drama going on back in the Fort. Even people who don't normally get along with each other in the Fort are dancing and having fun with each other at Area 51. And when you are one of the only sober ones there, it's even more entertaining because you get to see all the drunks making a fool of themselves. It's a place that none of us would ever go to on our own, but get us together in a group and that is normally on our list of places to go. It's a place I probably would never go to with anyone else but my fellow Fortians. But it's now a place where I have so much fun memories of my new friends here at the Fort and I hope that it's a place where I will be able to continue having more memories made while this season continue to go on.

Naptime

Pretty much from 2-5 in the afternoon is the unofficial naptime here at the Fort. Anyone who is not working during these hour can normally be found in their beds taking a nap gearing up for the night activities or catching up on lost sleep from the night before. Normal sleeping hours are from 2-6 in the morning. Those few crazy people who try to go to bed before these hours normally have to result to ear plugs to drown out the noise of everyone else hanging out by the lockers in the hallway. A few of us are lucky in the way that we are at the very end and normally far enough away from the noise that we can go to bed a little bit earlier if needed, but those who have bedrooms right next to the lockers, normally count the hours until naptime because they know that is when it will be quiet enough to get a good nap in before having to head to dinner...or if they work in the evening, head off to work. And when we work splits...naptime is almost a given. Having to wake up early in the morning to go to work and then work until late in the evening, the only way to function throughout the work load is by having your nap. It amazes me how as a little kid, we all fight naptime and try to get out of it in any way possible, and then you come to a place like the Fort as an adult and are so excited to have your naptime back. The few days that I've gone without having a nap pretty much drain my body. I don't know what is going to happen when I enter the real world again and lose my naptime, but I figure I will cross that bridge when I get to it. I'm pretty sure that once I enter the real world again, I won't be staying up until like 2 or 3 in the morning, so it probably won't be too bad. I will probably go to bed at a decent hour and still be able to wake up at 6 or 7 and go about my day, all day long. I've done it before, and can do it again. But until that day comes, I think I'm going to enjoy my naptime. Those little kids who fight and fight and fight trying to get out of naptime, don't know how lucky they are to still be allow to have those precious hours in the middle of the day to just sleep and rest. One of these days they will be 22 and wishing that they still had their naptime.

Skiing and Mountains

Skiing is pretty much everyone's life here at the Fort. While it's not where my heart lies, the few times I've gone out had been fun and I was glad that I went. As I sit in my room looking out the window, I can see skiers racing down the mountain and it just makes me wonder if they ever stop to really appreciate the mountain that God created for them to ski down 5 months out of the year. As I look at the mountains that are covered in snow it makes me wonder what do they look like in the summer when all the snow is gone. Do they turn all multicolored from wild flowers like they do in Alaska, or do they just stay green as the fresh grass grow? Do the skiers who use these mountains in the winter for skiing, also use them in the summer for hiking? Do they really appreciate what God gave them? Maybe it's just that I'm from the north central part of Texas where there are no mountains, so I see these mountains here in a different way than those who are from Salt Lake and get to see these mountains year round. But then again, there are other people here living in the Fort who are not from the Valley and I don't really here them talking about the beauty that they get to see every day from their own window. When I first got here, I was so easily distracted from my job of cleaning the guest rooms because I would just look out the window at the mountains watching skiers race down them and just stand in awe. We would all sit out in the hot tub talking about the beauty of the stars and the sunsets, but no one ever really mentioned the mountains themselves. Coming down the mountain on my first attempt at skiing, I got to see the sunset right between two other mountains. I wished I had brought my camera with me to try to capture to beauty of what I was blessed with, but I know that just like my attempt at skiing that day, I would had also failed at capturing the true beauty of that sunset. I have not been able to see anything else like that since, but I'm hoping that as my skiing gets better, I will once again be able to see that image again, only this time with a camera in my hand. Instead of racing down the mountain as fast as I can, I will be the one who is slow and having to let others pass me. But in the end I will win the race because I will be the one who got to appreciate the entire beauty that will be surrounding me instead of being the one who got the most runs in before dark. So, I'm challenging all the skiers and snowboarders out there who are reading this....the next time you get on your skis or snowboard, don't just hurry down the mountain to see how many runs you can get in or which one of you in the group was the first one to the bottom...instead go a little slower and try to appreciate to beauty that you were given. Everyday the mountains are changing, rather it's because it's freshly covered in powdered snow, or if it's just because there are new skiers making more ski marks down the trails, it's still different and that means a different type of beauty.

The Fort

The Fort...
What else is there to say? The Fort is a place where everyone could be theirselves and are accepted as they are. We all come from different places all over the United States and yet, for one winter we are all in this one place surrounded by snow cover mountains and nothing else seems to matter. No one cares about age, race, background, or anything else except for if you ski or snowboard. While there are a few of us who never done either before getting here, that hasn't stopped anyone from attempting to at least get some strapped to our feet and hit the ropes...and then the mountain. These people are becoming a new type of family to me and I hope that the friendships that are still forming will continue to grow everyday and even continue after we all leave this place and enter the real world once again. Once the snow melts and the mountain closes in April we will be scattered across the United States again. Some of us returning to love ones in Texas, or Delaware, or Mississippi. Some of us will start new adventures in Alaska, or California, or even Europe. But, no matter where we go in April, we will all have memories of spending the winter here in Alta....rather it was our first winter here, or our fifth. It doesn't matter because at one time we were all in the exact same place at the same time. And that place is The Fort.