SWISH!

OMG you guys! I had such a good time skiing this weekend! I would show you lots of pictures of me smiling and skiing, but the only pictures that exist are on my Man’s iPhone. So, maybe later on that?

The weather. Was awesome. Beyond awesome, actually. It was so beautiful and warm that I would periodically take off my goggles and gloves on the lift and just raise my face to the sky and take it all in.

I took Friday off from work and we had plans to get up at 5:30 and head to Maine. We actually got up closer to 6:15 and headed up closer to 7am, but dude, whatever: VACATION DAY.

My Man drove, which was great, because I may have snoozed a bit in the car on the way up. We got there about 3 hours after starting out, and we’d already had two coffees each by then, so life was good. We went to the ski-rental place and rented me some boots, skis and poles. When the rental-guy asked me what kind of skier I was I replied: “um, not-awesome?” When he gave me a look that asked for some clarification I elaborated: “…and cautious.” So, I got some pretty cool skis and new boots and we were on our way to Sunday River.

Now, my Man is an expert skier, but in a completely lovely generous move spent the entire weekend on not death-causing slopes. For me. I think that’s love. We started out pretty slowly and he doled out calm and considered advice that was really very helpful in pushing me to improve. Advice like: “hold your hands like you were holding a lunch tray”, and “pull your back leg to meet your front leg when you turn – that way you won’t almost rip in half when your legs go in completely different directions”. He’s a knowledgeable guy… Plus the mountain was near-empty because it was a weekday and I was confident in the knowledge that I could go slow or fast or completely unpredictable without ruining anyone’s run.

We had lunch at a lodge mid-mountain, so we had the best view ever. Everyone there had peeled off their jackets and hats and was just enjoying the ridiculously sunny, warm weather. Ahhh.

That afternoon we skied to our hearts’ content until 4pm and then had a beer before heading to the bed & breakfast to check in.

We stayed at the Jolly Drayman, which was really quaint and adorable and had a squeaky bed. But! They also had very good English pub/Indian foods and we had a bottle of Malbec with dinner that put us over the edge into sleepiness.

When we went upstairs to crawl into bed and pass out, I thought about how nice it was that I wouldn’t have to hear any screamy cats while I tried to sleep. EXCEPT! We were watching South Park, and it was the episode where Shelley is babysitting Cartman, and Cartman’s cat is in heat, so every few minutes, the cat would start screaming and it’s like I was home. Oh, the irony was delicious.

We woke up on Saturday at a few minutes before 8 and went down to the dining room for breakfast. I had French toast and sausage (giant bangers) and coffee and juice. It was a good start to another beautiful ski day. We headed back to the mountain and shortly after starting we ran into some of the Man’s friends, J and A. They were super nice and didn’t mind dumbing it down for me. They would ski really fast, wait for me, ski really fast, wait for me. It was kind of ideal since it was fun to ski, chat, ski, chat. Also, though I’m no athlete, I did manage to improve a lot over the course of the weekend. And I think that next year I’ll try to make it a priority to do this more.

At lunch we met some more of my Man’s friends for a parking lot BBQ and beer party (you’ve got to enjoy the nice weather when it strikes) and we lounged a bit, only to head back up the mountain for a few last runs before the slopes closed for day-skiers. We enjoyed another beer with the parking lot partiers and then left to return my rentals. On our way back to Boston we stopped for some pizza and ran into some of the people we’d been skiing with. We went to their ski house to say goodbye as they prepared for a night of drinkin’ and another day of skiing. We drove home, drinking coffees and my Man listening to baseball-related podcasts as I dozed off next to him.

Something kind of amazing about all this: after skiing energetically for two days I am NOT sore. Last year I was sore for a week after the same thing. People – I’ve never had such concrete evidence of the benefits of my working out. I know objectively that working out is supposed to make me better and stronger, but I almost didn’t believe it until now...

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Completely unrelated to skiing: Oh cripes have you seen 2012? What a crazy-terrible piece of crap that was. By the end I just wanted to cry thinking about all the money that had been spent making that awful, heavy-handed, clichéd piece of garbage when people are still trying to rebuild their homes in Haiti. Or feed their kids in Africa. Or pay for healthcare here. Oh, Jeebus 2012. NO.

EDITED TO ADD: I was going to post the pics my Man sent until I realized that I look ridiculous with my giant puffy ski jacket and my little tiny head. Not flattering!