Boys’ night out

The sun peeked out from the clouds many times today. I took my time getting up because I knew I wouldn’t be near the top of the list. I got Sasha again and Owen was there too, but the other two kids I expected were so late returning that I willingly gave the ones I had away to Tom so he could get a class together and go, when Tameca dropped me to blues. There were two boys who wanted to be in a class with boys, not girls, and she wanted me to take them because the rest of the blues there were girls.

Going back to blues wasn't good for me. I traded one annoying whiner for much worse. The oldest one who whined a lot that he wanted to be with boys was possibly the worst: he was annoying to the other children too, even ones that weren’t in our class, and he kept saying he wanted to go home because nobody liked him (though I was not included in that, because I’m equally and fairly mean to all of them.) He was a bit of a smart-ass. Then I got a young boy and girl who were friends from home. All of my kids were very poorly behaved. That boy picked fights with the other one. The girl was very loud. The first thing I did was to take all their poles away because the girl didn’t have any and blue kids don’t need them. The boys whined about it, especially the bigger one: he kept complaining for a few runs even. The other guy decided after one run that it’s easier to ski without poles, so that was not a problem for him. The littlest one’s parents were overprotective and said they could come to pick him up after lunch, but he was actually the quietest and easiest to handle of the whole bunch. He just needed to be shaken up a bit in the morning to wake up, so he’d catch the chairlift in time. I spoke to two sets of parents on the phone at lunchtime, spending a lot of phone money, and they all agreed to leave their kids in ski school for the whole day.

All my children were hellions: they didn’t pay any attention and preferred to fight amongst themselves or scoop up snowballs to throw while skiing. I use that sometimes as a balance game but they were really unruly. They delayed a lot in following directions, but they did ski in a very orderly line in whatever order I put them in. We spent all morning on High Meadow just because I couldn’t teach them anything. We also took a hot chocolate break just before the Cats had lunch, and I stole a few fresh French fries then.

After lunch we did one run down Snowdancer and a run down Roscoe’s Road, a hidden and easy ski-school-only trail that goes alongside Kokopelli. I’d never been there before. It was a narrow track through very pretty fields of powder, with nice views. One of the boys kept getting stuck in the powder and knocking his ski off because he followed me whenever I went into it to cut a short track alongside the “road.” I let them have a snowball fight there but because the clear track was so narrow, there was some risk from other classes coming down. We were very visible, and I stood up our skis in the powder and told them to run for the side of the road when I shouted “car!” but we still delayed a class or two. The parents of the two who came together asked me if they listened and paid attention and I couldn’t resist saying, in these words, “Not even a little bit.” Basically, I was just babysitting today in a dangerous environment. I got a $5 tip because that was all that one of the parents said she had on her.

Instead of waiting for my friend Sean like I should have, I skied down Lookout Ridge with Tom, which was a pretty boring groomed run and didn’t give me the mogul or powder rush that I needed to unwind after my frustrating day.

After work there was a one-hour indoor training session that I wanted to attend because it was called “How to stay mellow when teaching red and yellow.” It was about how to teach very small (4-7 years old) beginners. For psychological advice on keeping “mellow” all they said is that small children have yet to develop a lot of physical abilities, and they simply take a very long time to learn how to do many things that we think are simple, so we should just cut them a break on that account and be patient. Other than that it was brainstorming for games or methods to teach small children and beginners, things that I feel if I didn’t already know I could figure out on my own. So that was sort of a wasted hour. Simon obligingly waited for me at Smokie’s eating chips for that whole time.

We planned to go out tonight, Simon and Dan and I. Simon drove me home so we could take showers and I could change clothes, and then we went to the Wasatch Brew Pub in Main Street Park City, where we met Dan with perfect timing. That place has some of the best beers available anywhere around here, because they are locally brewed and some even have alcohol in them. We sat at the bar about 20 minutes with a beer each because the bartender pushed them on us, and in that time they cleared us a table. I had a different beer with dinner: we all ordered hamburgers. They have delicious buffalo burgers. The American buffalo (bison) may be one of the only land animals more tasty than the cow, and it’s leaner and healthier meat too. After dinner we walked over to the Java Cow, a silly-looking coffee and ice-cream shop, for ice cream cones. I had chocolate-chip mint ice cream, which is my favorite flavor next to rum raisin. It was a very enjoyable night out with the guys and improved my mood.

Tameca asked me to take two days off between now and Sunday, because business is expected to calm down and she doesn’t want anyone to get into overtime. I decided to take tomorrow and Friday off. I also reminded her that I’m quitting. Now I only have three days of work left, Saturday through Monday, and five days that I can ski on my own before I leave here.