Today is Wednesday, but it feels like Monday to me, because I'm just coming back from a four-day weekend. This was an uncharacteristic use of vacation time in the first half of the year, as I tend to hoard my time for fear of not having enough at the end of the year until I realize that I'm running out of time to use it all. So why use two days now? To go skiing!
We've been going to Ruidoso for long skiing weekends since I was a kid, once every year or two. When I was in school we combined it with President's Day weekend, my dad would pull me out of school the Friday before as soon as I was counted in attendance (shh! don't tell!) and we'd drive out, ski Saturday and Sunday, then trek back and hope that I didn't have any outstanding homework.
Since we don't get President's Day at my office, we wanted to avoid the holiday weekend crowds, drove out on Saturday and got back yesterday around dinner time, with two days of skiing in between. So I made progress on two projects: my secret swap handmade, and my snow bunny skills.
The super-secret project for my Gilmore Girls swap is going well. I would estimate I'm about 40% done, thanks to the nine-hour drive each way. Since I gave away a little bit about the texture of the knitted item last week, I'll sneak you a peek at the yarn (this is the stock photo, not my own socks):
This project has been pretty simple, it doesn't necessarily involve anything too complicated, but it does show me how far I've come that I'm not really intimidated by the techniques it does use. The more you knit, the less scary it gets.
The same is true for skiing. It's something I've done for years, but like I've said, only a few days at a time. There's only so far you can get in your technique for getting down a mountain slope in one piece over a weekend. What I've been trying to do the past few times we've been out is to transition from the beginner's wedge to the more controlled parallel skis, setting my edge and just generally making more of a connection between what I do with my body and where I end up.
I'm a cautious skier. Some people may be okay with just careening down at vast speed and coming to a crashing stop somehow, but I am a far more cautious student of the sport. I take it one turn at a time, and my dad can get down the mountain, back up in the gondola and down again in the time it takes me to do a single run. Let's put it this way: in a race, there are rabbits, there are turtles, and then there's me. But just like working with metal DPNs (another hint!), the more I do it, the less scary it becomes. By Monday afternoon, I was really starting to feel comfortable. I wasn't tearing down the gulch, but I wasn't stopping and starting as much, and I was enjoying it more than fearing it.
Hopefully I'll get back on the slopes soon, but in the meantime, I'm trading in my poles for knitting needles again.
Don't forget, there are more WIP posts at Tami's Amis.
Where is Ruidoso? Been years since I've skied. Enjoyed it when I was younger, no urge to do that again. Why didn't your parents just call you off the day instead of letting you be counted as there, then whisking you off? Goodness, today parents would be suing the school for not knowing their child wasn't there, since legally they're responsible for them during the school hours.
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Ruidoso is in new Mexico, it's the southernmost ski spot in the US, not far from Roswell.
DeleteAnd the reason I would go for at least some of the school day was for that all-important perfect attendance record. He'd come at 11 and sign me out as having a doctor's appointment or something. Just a little rule-bending, I usually didn't miss out on much because it would be on or near Valentine's Day, so for many of those days it was a party day, exchanging cards and candy.
Now I get it, he signed you out, I thought he just came and got you thus my question. Thanks for the visit and geography lesson, lol.
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