Groundhog’s Day

If there were a groundhog today, he would have seen his shadow, and winter would go on. That’s a good thing. It’s still sunny spring conditions but my business is a winter business. I’ve worked at least a little every day since I came back from California. I might be able to work non-stop until the 10th, and then work almost non-stop again until the end of the month when I go home. If I get any days off, I intend to spend them skiing.

Today Alicia was about to list me on Yellows, but I reminded her that I had returns so she put me and Jeronimo on Greens again. I had six kids... Two of them I took before Jeronimo could sign them in when I caught their parents speaking to them in Hebrew. Another two were my seven-year-olds from yesterday, and the others were the first arrivals, a brother and sister named Isaac and Lydia. I saw Camryn, Eitan, and Connor skiing around later today so there must have been a third green group formed while I was on the hill. My two returns were very nice to me: Noah kept handing me my gloves, and reminded me to do my paperwork at lunch. Jacquelyn was responsible about waiting for others and getting on the chairlift, and always cooperative and excited to try steeper trails.

I had the kids do two laps on the magic carpet to prove they could turn and to teach speed control through turn shape, and I made them go to the bathroom before we left. While on the carpet Emily asked me for advice on how I would teach a beginner to turn. She teaches Cats so it has to be simple. I said I teach pressure on the outside foot, and pointing the toes where you want to go while in a wedge. For my kids I did a very quick review of the stance and how to turn, then I just got them skiing a lot down High Meadow and having fun. They enjoyed the artificial rolling hills and the short steep section that I use for testing beginner courage. Greg and his blue group skied up while we were there and tried to pick an even steeper spot to jump down, to show us up. That was amusing motivation for my kids.

Once I got the fun and laughs going the kids fed off each other’s excitement so I had a pretty happy group all day, and they also reinforced each other to try things that scared them, like skiing between two close trees near the Spongebob trail, or that trail itself. The two Israeli girls were the slowest as they had only been skiing for one week in Whistler, but they didn’t let their fear stop them. After lunch Shir, the slower of them, kept saying she was sure she recognized me from somewhere: she said I’d visited at their house, but they live in Florida so I said she must have met my doppelganger.

I asked Gabriella, a photographer who takes the kids’ photos, to get a picture of me on my camera so I can show you the uniform vest. I have a lot of work to do uploading photos.

Noah felt ill and complained of a headache after lunch. He was always very excited to ski so I knew it was serious and I left him in the “sick & sad” corner to rest and watch movies. Sadly, he could not join us for two runs down Snowdancer. I took the first steep part very slowly and spoke to the kids all the way, so I had no falls there and they thought it was a lot easier than they’d anticipated. Heartened, I decided to try teaching intermediate material like plow-parallel turns, edging to grip the hill and even “railroad turns” which are basically pure carve turns on the flat sections. They took to it well, and half of my class graduated to blue. I promised them and their parents that I’d do my best to teach them tomorrow, and completely forgot that it’s my day off.

At checkout only half of my kids had safety tags (and I was lucky to even get those.) Jacqueline was never properly checked in today. The Israeli Emma’s father (also acting as guardian of her best friend Shir) got injured and was down at the clinic with the tags. I needed Alicia to check half my class out. I I gave everyone their report cards but only remembered to collect two of those silly “I am a lost student” plastic tags. They all look the same and aren’t numbered... Jeronimo advised me to just grab a handful and keep them in my work jacket in case I forget about them, so I have some at the end of the day.