Tourist season is upon us again here in the Valley. We (my roommates, friends, the people with whom I ride the bus) are back to the busy schedule - working 7 days a week (and many of those are double shifts); fielding questions from people who stop us in the street (something about us must scream "SHE LIVES HERE"); hoarding Emergen-C (in the hopes of warding off inevitable colds); hardly sleeping at all. Restaurants have waits. City Market is out of things. The people-watching is out of control.
A friend of mine in college, JKM, spent his summers in Pagosa Springs as a raft guide and waiter at the local steakhouse. He used to joke about having to paddle fat tourists down the river, and then turn around and serve them huge steaks at night...thus shooting himself in the foot. I think my winter is sort of similar, except in reverse: I get to ski with kids all day and then turn around and babysit them at night. If I've done my first job well enough - and the kids are sufficiently wiped out from skiing - then my second one is a breeze.
This week we had a BILLION kids at the Treehouse. My friend IY is just like Mitch Hedberg, except still alive and with Cuban heritage. Together we taught 24 never-evers on Sunday, and it was awesome - we had that magic carpet running like an assembly line. I had to be at the Ute on Monday, but I had many of the same kids again Tuesday-Thursday, and they were a) well-behaved, b) really good skiers (I had them at Level 4+ by the time I was done on Thursday), and c) pretty funny. One of them fed me the line that is the title of this post. I'd forgotten how much FUN it is to teach skiing to these kids.
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My bracket doesn't totally suck this year. Of course I'd picked Nova and Notre Dame to both go into the 3rd round, and NO one saw Murray State coming, but otherwise I'm faring much better than I have in recent years. I have Syracuse taking it all in one bracket - which is probably not going to happen - and Kentucky in the other. (I hate everything about Kansas.)
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A friend of mine in college, JKM, spent his summers in Pagosa Springs as a raft guide and waiter at the local steakhouse. He used to joke about having to paddle fat tourists down the river, and then turn around and serve them huge steaks at night...thus shooting himself in the foot. I think my winter is sort of similar, except in reverse: I get to ski with kids all day and then turn around and babysit them at night. If I've done my first job well enough - and the kids are sufficiently wiped out from skiing - then my second one is a breeze.
This week we had a BILLION kids at the Treehouse. My friend IY is just like Mitch Hedberg, except still alive and with Cuban heritage. Together we taught 24 never-evers on Sunday, and it was awesome - we had that magic carpet running like an assembly line. I had to be at the Ute on Monday, but I had many of the same kids again Tuesday-Thursday, and they were a) well-behaved, b) really good skiers (I had them at Level 4+ by the time I was done on Thursday), and c) pretty funny. One of them fed me the line that is the title of this post. I'd forgotten how much FUN it is to teach skiing to these kids.
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My bracket doesn't totally suck this year. Of course I'd picked Nova and Notre Dame to both go into the 3rd round, and NO one saw Murray State coming, but otherwise I'm faring much better than I have in recent years. I have Syracuse taking it all in one bracket - which is probably not going to happen - and Kentucky in the other. (I hate everything about Kansas.)
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So long story short: I had to chip all the ice off the sidewalks in front of the Ute today, and I was thrilled about it. It occurred to me - whilst I was chipping away - that there exists at the Ute an air of non-machismo amongst my coworkers. I work with all dudes (there's one other girl, KH, but we work exactly opposite schedules, so she doesn't count), and there is no question that they see me as an equal. They put me through the ringer. Outpost was an amazing place to work, but it was deeply sexist: in 6 years there, I never had the chance to sell a pair of skis, and I never took out the trash, and none of the male employees there had to input the information from a rental form in the computer database. The Ute is special. I can't play the girl card. I think that's how it should be everywhere.
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My roommate AB's Argentine boyfriend left today. I'm heartbroken, both for her and for me. He's a good egg, and they were a good match, and I liked hanging out with him and I liked who she was when he was around. I know she's going to be hurting in the next few weeks, and I don't like to see her sad. I also don't like to think about the fact that I'll probably never see him again. It's a big world - one in which we all move around a lot - and although I plan on living well into my 10th decade, I suppose it's fair to assume our paths won't cross again. My path also won't cross with my dear friend GC, the South African lifty from last season with whom I spent a ton of time, and with whom I still talk. I guess this speech is a way of saying: I'm thankful that God put these people in my life, and I'm wicked thankful for Facebook.
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My coworker and friend CM is funny. We work at the Ute on the same days, and he has a job in Snowmass the same days that I'm there, so we end up with a lot of face time, which means: we're so comfortable with each other that we act like siblings. Another guy at the Ute calls us the Twins. We get along well...most of the time. CM thinks I'm "crazy" (his word - he means "eccentric," not "unstable"), and he's crafting a list of reasons why: I'm a germaphobe; I love statistics; I say things he finds ridiculous. Anyway, he wears his shoes a full TWO AND A HALF SIZES too small, so really, he can't throw stones. But as we were having a conversation about this the other day, he said this, and I found it funny enough to write down: "It feels so much more...aggressive. Agile. You think ninjas wear their shoes a size bigger?!"
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I always pray when I wake up in the morning. Lately it's been mostly: "Thank you for loving me even though I'm such a screwup. Please help me to not suck so much today, and to love other people as much as you love me."
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Katie gets home today! She's been in Scotland for 11 days for a school spring break trip, and I am absolutely losing my mind without her. It's almost embarrassing how often I've texted/FBed her even though I know she can't respond and won't get any of my messages until she's back on American soil. On a typical day, we talk about every two and a half hours, MAX. I can't cope right now.
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I always pray when I wake up in the morning. Lately it's been mostly: "Thank you for loving me even though I'm such a screwup. Please help me to not suck so much today, and to love other people as much as you love me."
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Katie gets home today! She's been in Scotland for 11 days for a school spring break trip, and I am absolutely losing my mind without her. It's almost embarrassing how often I've texted/FBed her even though I know she can't respond and won't get any of my messages until she's back on American soil. On a typical day, we talk about every two and a half hours, MAX. I can't cope right now.
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A woman was in the Ute the other day, and she caught me texting (my mom of all people) from behind the counter. She told me this story: she's an administrator at a high school in Texas. There are 2300 students at her school. They have a no-texting policy in place, and they charge $15/infraction when kids are caught breaking the rule. So far this year - just since September, mind you - the school has collected $7,000 in fines!!! I asked her what they used the money for, and she said, "Oh, it goes toward the greater good." She told me that they host a big luncheon for all the teachers at the end of the year. I think that's awesome.
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Chaco makes dog leashes now! I mean, why wouldn't they? That's two of my favorite things in one - yellow labs and quality webbing.
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So my friend ES works at the Nastar race course at Snowmass. There are big shacks at the top and bottom of the course, and they're heated, so he keeps his ski boots there overnight. He told me this story: The other day, at the start of his shift, he put his ski boots on. One boot felt weird, so he tried to ignore it, but after a moment he somehow came to the conclusion that there was a MOUSE in his boot! He called a couple of kids over to him - they were in ski school and about to race - and said, "Watch this!" and took his boot off and dumped it over. All three of them watched a terrified little mouse go sprinting across the snow toward the trees. :)
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Chaco makes dog leashes now! I mean, why wouldn't they? That's two of my favorite things in one - yellow labs and quality webbing.
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So my friend ES works at the Nastar race course at Snowmass. There are big shacks at the top and bottom of the course, and they're heated, so he keeps his ski boots there overnight. He told me this story: The other day, at the start of his shift, he put his ski boots on. One boot felt weird, so he tried to ignore it, but after a moment he somehow came to the conclusion that there was a MOUSE in his boot! He called a couple of kids over to him - they were in ski school and about to race - and said, "Watch this!" and took his boot off and dumped it over. All three of them watched a terrified little mouse go sprinting across the snow toward the trees. :)
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Happy Vernal Equinox!
Happy Vernal Equinox!
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