Valentine’s Day

Nope, I was not at work on time this morning. I only rolled out of bed at twenty to eight. Luckily I got a ride to work with Josh so I could have my cereal and a placebo potion. We missed the safety meeting but got there just a minute late for lineup. I was first position on Greens out of six instructors on that level. Most of us had returns and I acted as a lead on green, suggesting we each just grab five kids in priority order and try to sort them out on the hill or at lunchtime.

I got Caley from last week. I hardly remembered her but she remembered me, and she was my best-behaved student. I also got two noisy, annoying brats who were in Daphne’s class yesterday. They didn’t follow instructions well and got me short-tempered before we even left the learning area. They said Daphne wouldn’t ride on the chairlift with them and after my first ride up I understood why. Then I never let them ride up the chairlift together and tried to keep them separate in line, and I also made it clear that we could do the fun runs they wanted only if they could pay attention and learn to ski better, so they behaved better. Still, I punted those two boys into different classes ASAP and picked up Brandon, my return from yesterday. I also reluctantly accepted one of Keith’s returns from him in trade, because he was too strong for the class of three kids Keith ended up with.

Lunch is at the ballroom down at the Grand Summit hotel from now and through the holidays. You can kill half the day getting there, eating, and coming back. I tried to swap for Hannah and Holly, my other returns, but the guy who had them had a class that was too weak to accept any of my kids, and we both had five, so it sadly didn’t work out. It was a hectic day with all the swapping and moving around. I only got down Snowdancer once, though my five were eager for it. Brandon got a stomach ache about two thirds of the way down, and one girl started crying in fear though she had already skied it before. So I took a break to put him in the “sick & sad” corner and then we went for a last run on Spongebob’s trail with the little girl’s father who caught us at the bottom.

The trick of putting cash in my pocket as bait earned me a $5 tip from Brandon’s aunt, which I spent on booze immediately after work: I went up to Smokie’s with my instructor friend Sean and his friend Sean. It was snowing hard all day while I taught, but the storm abated just when I got out for my run down. The sun came out to light up Doc’s Run, but it doesn’t light Silverado Bowl at that hour. The snow was good there, which was a small comfort after a hard workday.

Emily invited me to join her and Chris for drinks at Park City. Sean & Sean mentioned some “Un-Valentine’s Day single’s party” at the Sidecar bar, so I suggested going there. I took the 10:00PM bus (and got there at about 10:40 PM) and it was really fun. They had heart-shaped sugar cookies that I ate a bunch of, and I drank water until Chris’s clients bought me a beer. There was a band playing, called “Swagger.” They wear kilts and play country/folk/American music and Celtic rock, and include a talented fiddler. I went up to dance in the hoedown even before my beer. Valentine’s Day also made it easy for me to learn which out of all the cute snowboard instructors are single.