Bubbly

She's got a way of talkin'
I don't know why it is
But it lifts me up when we are walkin' anywhere

She comes to me when I'm feelin' down
Inspires me without a sound
Billy Joel

So I am almost done with week four of this trip and it really seems to me that many of the people here have chosen 4 weeks as their stay time. Which is not to say that there are no one or two weekers, there's plenty. It's just that people are always asking me how the program has changed since the name change and one of the examples I say is the guests seem to be staying for longer times. There are a couple other changes I have seen with, to me, the most prominent being that each week there are almost no guests that have previously done the program. The Ridge loves to quote it's 50% return rate and I am sure many of these guests will return at some point, but I think there was maybe 3 people out 65 this week that were not on there first trip to the ridge. You are also seeing more people staying for over ten weeks which is close to unfathomable to me. And you are seeing less "whales" and more people that emptied their savings or used 3 credit cards to pay for this because they felt they needed this place. And whales are not bigger people they are people with bigger wallets much, much bigger wallets.


Spent more time this week working on my triathlon prep. Here is a picture of the sand hollow pool lanes where we start the race. I wish I was going to be in this pool for a longer segment on race day. I originally thought the swim segment was around 800 meters but I have come to find out that it is .5 K which translates into 16 lengths of the pool. I swam the full course in around 11 minutes this week. My goal is to complete the full segment including the changeover onto the bike in under 10 minutes. I had hoped to open a little lead over some of my competition here but the few minutes I may gain will evaporate quickly over the next two legs. I saw the bike course as well. Not very hilly by any definition. 2 moderate hills on the way out and one bigger hill on the way back.


This is Jane and Jen both of whom were here in the fall when I was here. Jen is on the staff right here and Jane has taken herself to beautiful Appleton, WI. I am so proud of both of them. They have done more since leaving here than most all of the guests I have known.

Friday night is here and 15 of us are going to see Colbie Caillat in concert in town here at Dixie St. College. Should be a really fun town trip. A few people were like I shouldn't go I will want to have a few beers at the concert :) Ah... yes.... this is Utah, they will not be having special 44 0z. colbie cups of beer at the show. Now if you read further back I did see Colbie in Madison and was a bit underwhelmed by the show but it was mostly because I had seen Bruce right before her and frankly following that performance was not possible. Also when searching for fun in St George anything that could possibly be fun and not involve food or booze is a welcome addition to life here.

Speaking of sober fun in Utah, tomorrow night is once again sober karaoke. Got a couple duets lined up to hide my singing voice. A shout out to my new friend from San Diego, Michelle who looked like she had swallowed poison yesterday when trying the mushroom soup. Just one of the many things that makes me laugh when I'm here is watching the people try the different foods. You are so damn hungry that the thought of not eating everything is sacrilege but then you swallow some beet soup and think I'd rather die than do that again. Then later you will be sitting around talking about the food, because that's what we do here, talk about food a lot, and someone will say how much they loved the beet soup. One thing we all agree on though is the chocolate strawberries everybody loves those. Have a great week Peace and lots of Bubbly Love, Jim