I took Friday off of work to spend an extended weekend at Holiday Valley with some friends from my professional organization. It was one of those spontaneous sort of things–a few of us talking over beers at the Boston Mills social event we had in the beginning of February. One couple had just started skiing this year and had never been to Holiday Valley, so me and another couple who were skiing veterans were encouraging them to go. The next thing I knew, we were planning a trip down there together.
Which was nice. It’s not that I’m short of friends, but I really like to meet more people who enjoy some of the activities I enjoy so that I have people to call to do these activities with. To add to my excitement, these are two thirty-something couples who have decided that they never want to have children. I need more friends like these who are more available to go out and do things as more and more of my friends choose to have children and, thus, have no time to hang out with me. I know it sounds cruel, but that’s how it is. I’ve decided that I do not want to ever have children and that’s my purgative. I’m lucky enough that I now live in a day and age when I have that choice and I’m glad. I’ve felt since college that motherhood was just not for me. Now, for the first time in my life, I feel free enough to express that option.
I need to find more adults who do not and never plan to have children. It’s not to smite those friends of mine who do have children–I like kids enough that I don’t mind other people’s kids in small doses. And I will always be there for my friends and support them through their own life choices. But I have to face the fact that their life choices will take up time in their life that they previously had to do stuff with me. And that’s okay. But at the same time, I need to find others who are consciously making similar life choices as me to fill the void left behind by the friends who are now consumed with parenthood. Just because I chose to not have children does not mean I have to be lonely.
Anyway, we had a great weekend. I think we all got along pretty well. Michael even came up on Saturday. The conditions were fair all weekend–definitely a lot icier than I’d have liked it–but skiable until early evening when we quit. Since it rained so hard on Friday, I’m really not surprised. I still managed to get in three days of skiing. I longed for Colorado as I listened to the scraping of my skis cutting ice, but I tried to enjoy it for what it was. At least I wasn’t at home sitting around doing nothing, I guess.
Saturday Michael pushed me to the limits. I love how he makes me braver than I really am. Usually, I suggest we do one black diamond. We do it, and the next thing I know, he’s suggesting that we do several runs of them in a row. But it’s okay because I tried a bunch of runs we didn’t get to the last time I was up there and I found some that were really fun. He killed my legs, though, but all the exercise felt great. I also have a little rule about skiing: If you don’t get scared at least once, you’re not trying hard enough.
My most unstable moment was on The Chute. We had originally wanted to go down the neighboring Edelweiss run, but a race was taking place on the slope and we were already too low to go anywhere else. The Chute is usually pretty icy and Saturday was no exception. I actually stood with legs shaking about a third of the way down from the top and I couldn’t bring myself to move for about 20 minutes. Michael told me when I finally came down that he thought I’d never leave. Some people on the lift going overhead even shouted an encouraging, “You can do it!” to which I grouchily barked back, “SHUT UP!” (Sorry whoever that was–I’m not normally such a bitch!!)
After finally convincing myself to turn and get the rest of the way down the slope, I was not so discouraged as to stop skiing. We then hit the next few slopes–Shadows and Firecracker–and I had much better luck. Both slopes were not free of ice, but there was enough gravely snow on top that you could safely make turns. I even liked Firecracker enough that we did it twice. So all was not lost.
Michael counted 37 runs for us for the day. We pretty much skied the whole mountain, or at least parts of it, from about 9 until 4:30pm with a one and a half hour lunch break. It was really a great day, all things considered. I still would have liked some nice fluffy snow, but oh well. This is what you get in the east. Kind of depressing but nothing much I can do about it except learn to make the best of it.
I skied with the rest of the group on Sunday. The conditions were about the same (if not worse) than the day before so I was skiing a bit more conservatively. Which I guess was good because while we were making a run down Cross Cut (an easy black diamond), R–one of the newer skiers–blew past me. I thought nothing of it, except a little bit of jealousy because I’ve been skiing longer and I’m much slower. She looked confident and her form was better than I’d seen it all weekend.
When I got to the lift at the bottom of the run, R was nowhere in sight. The rest of the group was collected down there and we kept looking around trying to find her. Nervous, her husband started heading back towards the end of the slope and the rest of us followed. That’s when we saw her standing there, off her skies, talking to two other skiers. Turns out she wiped out, went through the netting in front of a snow machine, and ended up in the ditch at the bottom side of the run!
She was standing and talking and just looked a little shaken. Her snow pants had a small rip on the one side. She said her head had slammed on the top of the netting (it looked like a soccer goal post) and that if she hadn’t been wearing a helmet, she’d probably be in need of medical attention. When we got back to the main lodge, she found that the padding in the back of her helmet was cracked and the strap at the back was no longer connected to the helmet. So it appears her helmet had functioned properly and that she did hit her head very hard.
She decided she was done for the day, which was probably a good thing because after we ate lunch, the weather got colder again and the conditions just continued to deteriorate. Before R and her husband left us to go home, she invited us to meet her at Peek-N-Peak next Sunday if the conditions are good. We kind of laughed–I guess an accident doesn’t unravel her! I’m thinking she probably woke up a little sorer than she realized this morning. She took a pretty hard hit to the head if her helmet was any indication. I guess it’s a good thing I’m conservative with my speed! Though, admittedly, I am getting a bit faster.
The incident pretty much deflated the rest of us. I skied a few more runs with A and S, the other couple, before they quit. I then proceeded to ski an additional hour by myself, but all the runs were pretty much a sheet of ice so I just didn’t have the balls to try any of the black diamonds Michael and I had done the day before. I quit at around 4:15, about fifteen minutes before my pass was to expire anyway. Drove home without making a stop for food and was back at my place around a quarter to 8. I scarfed down the rest of some tortilla soup I had in my fridge with a baguette and watched Battlestar Galactica. Was a little disappointed that the episode didn’t advance the plot as much as I’d hoped. Starbuck appears to be, as the fan podcast predicted, the daughter of the missing Cylon #7 model. I had hoped they’d make her something more mystical, like an angel or something, but they didn’t go there. Oh well.
Anyway, now it’s back to the grind of work. I’ve got a bit of trip depression. Also, I ate so much this weekend and drank so much beer that I totally canceled out all the goodness gained from the exercise. I can’t help it, though–skiing makes me hungry. And thirsty. I’m never going to lose weight with this damned “exercise to eat” policy in life. I wish food didn’t taste so good. Bleh.
My legs are still a little sore. Even my knees. I’m a little worried about that. It reminds me of that “Sunscreen” song from the late 1990s where the singer/speaker says, “Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they are gone.” I’ve noticed some knee aching after cycling and skiing these days so I’m wondering what I’m doing wrong to cause it. I certainly don’t want to blow those out! It sucks getting older. When I was a kid, I was made of elastic and I could literally kill myself with exercise without doing any harm to my body. I miss those days.
Mars Girl on Two Wheels 