I'm back at work after a great weekend. I had better have liked it, too, because there will be no more days off from now until we go to Ireland at the end of April. I have to save up my vacation time, and even then I'll need to take time off without pay. That's three months without a day off, people. Aye-yiye-yiye.....that's a long time! So, let me revel in the past weekend's fun and hope it can sustain me.
Friday, I left work halfway through the day to go meet OH and drive to Central Oregon. His company pays for all of the employees to go to Sunriver for the weekend. That means free housing, food, and drink, with time to go do whatever you want to while you're there. And not only do they have beer, but bottle after bottle of hard liquor, and the boss makes the drinks.
Saturday, we decided to go skiing. There is a shuttle from Sunriver to Bachelor, so off we went. This was my second time skiing ever, and in the second country I've ever skiied. Oh la la, so international! Yeah, right: the first time I skiied was in Canada, 400 miles away.
Mt. Bachelor is big, and intimidating. I stayed on the same run the entire day, and was scared to death the first time down. It looked steep! I snowplowed nearly the entire way. Sooo cool looking. The second trip down was better, but I needed to keep going slowly. By the 5th or 6th time, I was getting the hang of it and doing more turning instead of snowplowing. I skiied all day, and by the last two times down the hill, I was turning and not snowplowing at all. Most of all, I had a chance to practice what I learned the first time, and it was fun! Except for the people.
The bane of my skiing experiences so far have been the other people. I don't mind crashing and falling because of my own mistake, but I HATE it when other skiiers/snowboarders make me crash because of their proximity and then I go out of control. They are all around, swishing up from behind or slowing down and turning unexpectedly in front of me. It makes me nervous, and when I get nervous I lose my concentration and am more likely to crash. And, can I also say, what the hell is up with snowboarders who stop and sit in large groups in the middle of the run??? This is a phenomenon which MUST END NOW.
Here is my open letter to snowboarders everywhere:
Please be advised to move off to the side and out of the way of others when you want to sit down on a ski run. I am a new skiier, and not totally in control at all times. Because of that, I require space in which to exert whatever control I may have managed to maintain while flying down the hill at G-d-knows-what speeds, with only my tenuous new skiing skills between me and your soon-to-be-flattened selves. I can see it coming, that if you continue to sit down in the middle of the run, one of these times you are going to get your asses ran the fuck over. And if that happens, I will not be sorry because you are stupid to sit there in the way of people who are flying down the hill on all sides of you and screaming "ahhhhhh!" Do you see the ski instructors??? They are there because people are taking lessons. If people are just learning to ski, they may not be so good at it; and maybe if they're not good at skiing, they're also not good at stopping.
You deserve to get ran over if you sit there, MF, so don't go crying about it when it happens. Because it's going to happen.
Are we clear? Good.
-Me
I didn't run into anyone, nor anyone into me, but there were a few close call. It was a huge pain in the ass to try and avoid all the people, dozens of them, who would sit down in the middle of the run. Crazy!
I love skiing, and OH tells me that when I get better and go on the other runs, there will be fewer people to contend with. I love the sound of that. Also, there are fewer people if we go skiing during the week or go night skiing. I'm all for that!
In the meantime, I'm making copies of that letter and passing it around in a vain attempt to change the world. It so won't make a difference, but I just had to say it.
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