Deer Valley, I am lucky. Love, Tina

Right now I am on a plane, Delta flight 1802 from Salt Lake City, Utah to Atlanta, Georgia. Sitting first class, buzzed off of the Cranberry Vodka cocktail I downed in the Crown Room prior to boarding. I am lucky.

I’ve always (well, not ‘always’-but for the majority of my late teen to adult life) said I do not believe in luck. I don’t really. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Every single itty bitty decision you make every day prepares you, leads you, places you where you are today. Every one. How you dress. How you speak. What you say. What you eat. Everything you do every second of every day effects what will happen the next second, the next day…I believe that. Things happen because of and for a reason. Cause and effect.

But sometimes… I can’t imagine what I have done to deserve the life that I am currently living. I am humbled. And grateful.

Exactly to what or whom I am grateful, I am not currently sure…but that is for another day. Another path. Another story.

For this particular trip, I owe my appreciation to my husband, Matt. Last year, he had a particularly lucrative year work-wise, and to reward him (and everyone else who made the President’s Club quota – which was about twenty others on the sales team) and a significant other, the company treated us to a five day four night stay at the Montage in Deer Valley, Utah.

*Side Note – it is quite funny to me to see how those who can afford a vacation on their own dime are rewarded with nice vacations (or something else expensive), while those who are ‘struggling’ or just not quite as well off have to pay their own way for everything. I guess the title of Truett Cathy’s book “It’s Easier to Succeed than Fail” really is true. I’ve been on each side and can clearly see the rewards of competence, hard work and most importantly - timing. It’s exponential.

**double side note- I just finished a much stronger Cranberry Vodka cocktail (it is 3:22 Utah time, but 5:22 Georgia time…so I can truthfully say, “It’s five o’clock somewhere”…and it’s Sunday…so do not judge me for the third cocktail I am about to order. Thank you.). I am particularly enjoying the pleasure of being buzzed. I would love to be in the state eternally…but will try to refrain from becoming an alcoholic… only for the damage it will do to my waistline… because right now, I think that’s the only harm it could do. I am much more interesting, fun, and insightful while slightly under the influence…

But anyway… about the trip…

The Montage is a brand new hotel… like…brand spanking new. It was finished only two months ago. And it is fabulous. The architecture and landscaping were just right (not overdone. more like a natural, understated mountain lodge)…but the service and other ‘small things’ made it …well… worth it (‘it’ being the money we would’ve paid had Matt’s company not footed the bill). The bathroom tiles were heated (I would love to do this to our house at some point in our relatively distant future. There is nothing worse (actually there are a lot of things worse – but I’m using this phrase for emphasis on how much I enjoyed the heated flooring.) than stepping out of a comfortably hot shower onto a cold tile bathroom floor.); they heated your snow boots, so they were nice and toasty when we were ready to put them on and hit the slopes; they helped you put your boots and skis on if you wanted; they left decadent chocolate covered caramels in a cute little silver box at the foot of your bed during the turndown service…and the food was excellent.

That is just the hotel. Now I’ll tell you about our experience.

The first day.

We landed in Salt Lake City Wednesday afternoon, jumped on the 45min shuttle from the airport to the hotel with several other SecureWorks couples, then checked in. Of course, upon check-in we had an escort show us around the resort… where to go shopping, where to get fitted for skis, where to eat, where to snack on the complimentary s’mores from 4-5 everyday ;)… Then, after receiving our luggage from the bellman, took a nap ((It’s amazing to me how hard traveling kicks my ass. I sit on an airplane for 3hours and 45 minutes with ample opportunity to nap and very limited calories being burned, and all I want to do is take a nap when we arrive. WTF, Man?)before treating ourselves to the s’mores (with homemade vanilla, cinnamon, and peppermint marshmallows) and trekking over to Compass Sports. We talked with the ‘ski experts’ and were fitted with beginner/intermediate skis. Matt owns his own boots and helmet, but I was fitted for those, as well. And, as I’ve come to expect…I had to wear men’s boots because my feet are so damn big… at least they were brand new...

After that, we went back to the hotel and prettied ourselves up for the SecureWorks’ dinner. We grabbed a drink, mingled with the big wigs (who are actually quite personable and a pleasure to be around), ate dinner, and roasted a few more marshmallows before heading back to bed...yes. I realize, it's a tough life...

The second day.

The next morning we grabbed a bagel and coffee at “Buzz,” the coffee/dessert/breakfast shop at the Montage, on our way to pick up our skis and hit the slopes (this became our ritual). I was particularly nervous, as I have only skied a couple of times…and the last time was a couple of years ago… but, I strapped up and hit the greens… it wasn’t so bad, and by lunch time we were skiing blues without falling on our asses… actually I don’t think either of us fell the first day, which is quite impressive in my book considering the level of slopes we decided to tackle.

We pushed ourselves pretty hard for a few hours, then dropped back by the resort to grab lunch at Apex (he had a burger and I had a pulled pork sandwich). Without much ado we geared back up and hit the mountains once again…finally calling it a day around 3:30 and jumping in the hot tub for half an hour. *on the first day, we ran into SecureWorks’ CTO Jon R. both times out and skied a few runs with him…he was a little better than us, so decided to go his own way after getting a taste for our skill level…

That night (Thursday), we had private reservations with the CEO and the other best of the best 2010 performers at Mariposa...cracked open several bottles of Caymus Special Selection and enjoyed a fine dinner with excellent company...It was probably 10pm Georgia time, before we actually started eating, but we all had a blast and enjoyed every bite...before we fell asleep on the 10min shuttle back to the hotel (just kidding - we didn't fall asleep, but we - or at least I - could have...)

The third day.

Friday, we were a little late to the slopes (finally jumping on a chairlift pretty close to 10am)…and I was damn sore. After a couple of hours, I had fallen several times and was losing my sense of fun, so I hit greens back to the resort and walked around in my running shoes…which felt fantastic after wrestling my way around in ski boots and fighting my way up and down the mountain in 6ft skis with sore muscles… but Matt stayed out** and we met back up and ate lunch at the resort pub, Daily’s, around 2 o’clock. (he had fish and chips, and I had a bbq chicken pizza.) We debated hitting the slopes again, but decided to save ourselves for more fun on Saturday (it was getting really windy and the visibility was minimal –which doesn’t make for great skiing), and hit the hot tub once again to treat our muscles… **while I was out monkeying around the hotel, Matt had accidentally made his way to a black diamond and flipped down the mountain with an excellent story to tell.. you should ask...

We went back to the hotel and took a nap… (well, I did, while Matt went to the mandatory employee only meeting)… then headed to Park City around 7pm to walk down Main Street and shop before our 9pm reservations at Zoom (Robert Redford’s restaurant). It was windy and snowy, but we enjoyed ourselves and bought a few trinkets. We met Matt’s good friend (and colleague) Dan B and our CTO Jon R at the restaurant and enjoyed WAAYY to much food… two mac n cheese appetizers, spicy buffalo onion rings, calamari, Osso Bucco for Matt, Pecan Crusted Trout for me, and Hanger steak for Jon and Dan, then we each got desserts…. Jon and I had something chocolate, while Matt had two scoops of ice cream and Dan had cheesecake…. We wobbled home…again...

The fourth day.

Saturday, we got up early and were on the slopes by 9:20…hit a couple of greens on our way to what quickly became our favorite blue, “Nabob,” and enjoyed a couple of hours of this run and “Birdseye”… We felt ourselves getting better and better and loved how wide, steep and not-so-crowded this particular run was… especially in the morning…on the BEST snow yet… but.. unfortunately, I had to call it an early day, as I had a spa appointment at two ;)… we grabbed a little lunch at Daily’s again (he had the fish and chips and I had chicken fingers and fries), and I headed back to the room to prepare for my massage while he went back out on the mountain….

So, I change and get to the spa about 30 minutes early to take advantage of all of the amenities (sauna, steam shower, private hot tub, fruit infused water…you know... the usual ;)… then they called me back to a room with an unbelievable snow covered mountain view… it was phenomenal… afterwards, I ran into a couple of other SecureWorks’ wives in the lounge… I mentioned I couldn’t hang out because of our appointment to bobsled at five required us to be in the lobby and ready to go at 4… She retorted with… “are you going with Dan?”… “yes”… “He broke his wrist…” uh oh… and another story begins…

...to be continued...the plane is descending and our friends Megan and Skip are cooking for us tonight...so it will be awhile..

p.s. sorry for the play by play - but not only am I writing for you, but also for me...so that I remember what we did each day... I'll try to make the next one a little shorter and juicier... and maybe I won't be quite so 'buzzed'... :)