Left with Jean and Miranda on Friday afternoon for a weekend of skiing in Bethel, ME. Miranda's bf Ben picked us up at "Manch-Vegas" (where the cheap and efficient Southwest Airlines dropped us off) and kindly drove us to the ski locale. We arrived too late on Friday to do anything other than stock up on food.
The weather couldn't have been better. Daytime temperatures were in the high 40s and low 50s--I skied without a jacket on both days. I was the only one who had to rent equipment and it took a couple of runs before I caught up (ski-level wise) with the rest of the group. (Though since Ben is a snowboarding neophyte, I didn't feel that I was holding everyone back.) Soon I was parallel skiing well, and doing my best at a John Kerry impression: left, right, left, right.
We skied until 4pm and then went back to the Motel to swim in the heated indoor pool and sit in the hot tub. I played monkey-in-the-middle with two boys (7- and 9-year-old brothers), which was almost as good a work-out as the skiing. Their father asked me if I was a Patriot fan, and I responded unhesitatingly: "absolutely." I didn't want to risk the chance that he was opposed to some Eagles-loving stranger playing with his kids. :) Eventually, I joined the "adult table" in the hot tub.
Sunday included more skiing. By then I was confident enough in my abilities to ski on my first ever black diamonds! The black-diamond "Downdraft" was extremely icy and that run was a touch more frightening than pleasurable, but I survived intact. I also attempted moguls, and let's just say that I've made wiser decisions in my lifetime. (Moguls were more than a touch more painful than pleasurable.)
The three of us actually got back to the DC area in time to catch the last half-hour of the Super Bowl (and crash the WWSB party). My prediction to the monkey-in-the-middle kids' dad that the Eagles were "toast" turned out to be true...although really I was just regurgitating conventional wisdom. Came home to find that I'm flying to Oklahoma tomorrow for work and will miss West Wing on Wednesday :(....sigh
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