Destiny Skywalker

So the other day I entered my actual TIME skiing (28 minutes apparently, according to Strava) and I felt like it gave me reasonable steps. My Garmin, unfortunately, gives me zero step credit for any skiing, so I always end up really low on ski days.

I have to hope that the teacher referral does not carry a lot of weight. Unfortunately, her teacher seemed like a great fit and willing to accomodate and then she did a 180 on us, using a lot of shaming and just generally being rude to Q for having ADHD. So right back to where we were. Great.

A couple yays. The toxic soccer season is finally over. Q played her best game of the season today and even the coach had to finally admit it. We had one sub and he started her on the bench. He ended up keeping her on the field the entire game after she came in. The girls realized they had a shot at the semi-finals in the state tournament and blew it because they all started sniping at each other and blaming each other for every tiny mistake. Basically, the same stuff they do to Q on a regular basis, but to each other. It was disappointing. That, combined with admittedly a few totally blown coaching calls ended their tournament hopes in a loss. Technically they could still move on, but only if the team they just played loses their next game 0-6. Not happening. I am thankful it is over. We've found Q a few training opportunities with other clubs and private facilities with a few of the teammates she actually liked to prepare her for tryouts in May. She has a month off until lacrosse season starts. It looks like a few of her classmates are going to play, so I hope she makes some friends at lacrosse. They combine age groups by grade, and most of her teammates from last year stayed in the lower level because they are a grade younger and only a few are moving up. We are also looking at having Q assessed for the gifted program for next school year. I think she is pretty bored and her teacher seems to be getting a little frustrated with her inattentiveness, even when I don't think she's truly not paying attention, but painfully bored and doodling to stay somewhat engaged or just sit still. We got her standardized test scores from the old school and they were back to pre-pandemic levels (90+ percentile), so I feel pretty good about her testing in. Also having E assessed, although I'm not sure they will really do a good job of accommodating him so that he can succeed. I admittedly am not sure if he's ready for that classroom environment, either. It is a grade 4/5/6 combined classroom, which is not my favorite set up. E is doing really good at school on the new incentive system. SpEd teacher is either overwhelmed or checked out, not sure which. I will be amazed if she returns next year. E also just earned his Bear rank as of this weekend. I wasn't thrilled about all the stuff we had to do at home instead of at meetings, and rushing to get it done before Blue & Gold in February (what the heck are they supposed to do the rest of the year?). However, he is very proud of himself when he earns a new belt loop, so there's that.

Yeah I have been struggling with jetlag. Took a lot of naps this week lol.

Tonight was a hot mess. I have never seen so many middle school ski busses in one night. The place was totally over-run by early teenage dumbasses. Q went to lessons and her and her instructor got taken out by a snowboarder right in front of the lift. I actually saw it happen right after I loaded and I set a new Strava record for getting down the hill to see if she was ok (I apparently had already set a new PR today but then I broke that by a full minute). No need for ski patrol, thankfully. She's progressing well, but I'm not sure about doing lessons next year. Might take another year off to just ski. She's with a group of older boys and keeping up with them, mostly because they are dumbass middle school boys. I think private lessons would be overwhelming, though. But she is working on getting forward in her boots, which is exactly what I want. I think we are taking her rentals back and asking for an exchange. The brake seems bent or too wide, I'm not sure. I don't think it actually affects her when she skis but it does make carrying them a total pain in the ass. Not sure we are going back to this ski shop next year. Play it Again is double the price but they had better quality skis. Not the best night. Hoping next week is better.

Oh I have totally seen the ads for Carv and realized I am shit lol. I also just like to ski in control, though. I want to look like an effortless skier. I hate/love those people. I'm short and my skis are 156. I'm easy to box out. I think the issue is that there really is no place close to live to the mountain, so no one wants to work there. It used to be a bunch of south American kids working there in the winter for skiing while it is summer back home. Since COVID, though, those kids are gone. The pass is out in the middle of nowhere, and there isn't a lot of local lodging. It's not a resort town. There's a couple of cabins up there but it's not ski-in, ski-out. But yes, I'm also sure those kids make absolute crap money, too.

Had the first night of lessons last night. Got there at 4:15 and it was totally dead. Like a 3 chair wait at the busiest lift. Cafeteria was dead too. Less busy than last season, and I thought last year was pretty light. It got busier around 6 and then lessons started at 7, so I went as far east as I could, away from the main lift. Probably got in 9-10 runs last night, and I ended up waiting like 20-30 minutes for Q's class to get back (bad move on my part, definitely could've gotten in another run). I am realizing this mountain is not in good shape. They are understaffed and things like lighting is starting to become an after-thought or pushed off to save costs. One of our favorite runs is temporarily closed at night because a bulb or two is burned out, but I also noticed they stopped grooming one of the closed sections so I assume its also to save on grooming. I also heard they are down to one snow-cat (they posted that they had to close a chair because one broke down, so hopefully its not that one!), so no wonder grooming is non-existent. Now that they are owned by Boyne, there is no excuse for shit like that. Skier etiquette is at an all-time low. I cannot believe how many asshats I saw loading 2 at a time on quad lifts when lines were long. On 3 runs, I rode by myself because people intentionally boxed me out at the last minute so their 3 could ride without me, or I had a group of 2 paired with me and held back so they wouldn't ride with me and get their own chair. The number of people who think they are special and deserve a private chair is ridiculous. It's one thing if its a 3 chair wait, it's another when it's a 10 minute wait to get on. I felt like a total ass riding the chair by myself because I figured people assumed I was one of those princesses needing their own chair. It was almost 4 times but once another single rider jumped on with me and we had a nice chat on the way up. Q is doing much better now with her contacts in. She is in the level 5/6 intermediate class (parallel turns, not quite up on edges yet), which is the highest level they offer for youth under 16. I actually kind of missed skiing with her, because she can keep up with me now. Her instructor said she did well (glad to hear I was right about her placement). He did say she is a good skier, but needs to slow down a bit so she can work on technique, which is exactly why I put her back in lessons. I don't want her to start in with the bad habits and get stuck there like I am. At the same time, she is used to skiing with me now, and I am a fast skier for a woman (tall dudes with long skis are way faster than me), with the exception of women who have skied on a race team or something. (Side note: my GPS died so I don't have an exact time, but pretty sure I PR'd Alpine last night and got down in about 3 minutes.) They did tell me that she can start being an assistant instructor at 13 (unpaid volunteer, but I wonder if it comes with a lift ticket), and can apply to be a certified PSIA instructor at age 15. Seriously, she might be interested enough to do it, and I would definitely help get her there if she wanted to do it. Once I dreamed of being a ski instructor but ain't nobody got time for that with 2 busy kids.

I felt so bad today I had to eat something. I don't know if I'm under counting my portions or what. I'm not weighing but I tend to use volume measurements. I woke up super hungry and could not get that awful gnawing feeling to go away the entire day. Finally when I got home I ate a handful of almonds and then saw we had some apple pie left and ate that slice. Had a small bit of spaghetti for dinner and some meatballs for the protein. I feel a heck of a lot better. For breakfast I had eggs and a banana, chicken noodle soup for lunch, 10 carrots and half a hummus packet, and a prepackaged protein shake. So it's not like I'm starving myself but I felt like absolute crap.

Stevens is Epic. Baker is still independent. They're only open 9-3:30, though, so we'd have to commit to all day Saturday or Sunday, no night skiing. It takes about 60-75 minutes to get to Snoqualmie depending on conditions and traffic. It can take as long as 2 hours in really bad snow. Baker is probably a good 2.5 hours away, but rarely any traffic. Stevens is about 2 hours away and the road is terrible (2 lanes, closes often, poorly plowed). Stevens is apparently operating much better this year but I've had too many bad experiences the last 5 years.

I decided to buy some stuff on L.L. Bean because all the Facebook ads kept showing me cute stuff. I held off and waited for Christmas Day because they were supposed to have a big sale. $10 off a $90 sweater is not a big sale. That's a coupon. Lame.

Clearly they were just closed for the holidays. They'll send it any day now.

You sure it doesn't sync? https://support.walkertracker.com/article/94-devices-and-apps-that-can-link-to-your-account

Is there anyway you could rent the space to a company? Like Steve and Kate's Camp? I think they are associated with Bright Horizons. Then they are responsible for finding the adults and you just rent the space to them. They rented from the local school district this summer. We didn't use them because we have a permanent stop payment on Bright Horizons on our bank account from some shady shit when we pulled E from the daycare, and they suddenly pulled money they refunded to us. Which really sucks, because they are our company's backup care program administrators.

Yesterday I tried to go and Q wouldn't get her pre-teen ass out of bed. I was pretty pissed but then I said fine we will go tomorrow (today). Then I looked at the website and saw that only Central was open, out of the 4 mountain areas. So I said we better get up early. They open at 9. We didn't even leave the house until 9:20 because she couldn't get her new contacts in and she was slow. Drive is great. Then we get to the exit. I spent 30 minute just on the ramp so that I could turn around and drive 75 minutes home. I could tell there was zero parking. I was furious. They way oversold lift tickets because they didn't anticipate passholder demand. Yes you did anticipate the demand, you just didn't care. They issued a social media apology. I might be finding a new home mountain next year. The 2 hours to Baker might be worth it to not deal with Boyne vs Vail race to the bottom.

Her loosey goosey physician said oh you're probably pre-diabetic because you're overweight and have high blood pressure. I need to move to Louisiana.

Ugh that one is hard to let go of. I had to let go of that one, too. Coaching is so much effort because there is so much planning, and you really have time for nothing else. I realized I would have to give up Girl Scouts to do it. I don't really do resolutions, but I'm kind of in fitness mode. So I should probably resolve to do 3 weight based workouts a week because I suck at doing those.

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My BFF got prescribed Ozempic a few years ago and is now a size 4, down from a 14. My doctor is too uptight because I'm not fat ENOUGH and my blood sugar is awesome. But now they're having shortages because it's over-prescribed for weight loss (but clearly it works, soooo...).

Most places want the consistency of seasonal help. I get it, it's easier to hire someone for 3 months rather than a la carte. Admittedly, we'd use our vacation days for these breaks, but then I could probably also work from home for some of it. My bosses tend to understand oh you have to work from home for a day because school is out, cool. But getting them to agree to all summer is tough. We are thinking about asking our bosses if we can go 3/2 hybrid schedule for the summer. I'm just not confident E will do well in summer camps, largely because the staff is usually minimally trained and just there to collect a paycheck with the minimum effort. Or maybe we could do 1 day a week childcare at one of the camps I mention below. Out here, there are a few places that offer school day off camps, and then they also offer summer camp a week at a time (some are even a day at a time). Places like that could probably accomodate that model. Traditional East Coast outdoor summer camps would not do well in that model.

Guns? For real? Sigh Texas.

I'm pretty sure it was for real up 3 lbs, because I was consistently down 7 lbs overall and trending downward. Honestly, I gain weight just looking at cake. I have strong German farmer genes so my body is convinced famine is around the corner.

Sorry I forgot I never replied. Walker Tracker also looked good. Really I just want something that auto-syncs. Keeps people honest and I don't have to remember to enter it somewhere. Anyone doing Dry January? I partied a little too hard with whiskey and champagne on Wednesday, but my birthday is in January so it's basically always a no-go because I probably want a steak and wine on my birthday. Also I'm going to Luxembourg the week before, and I'm hoping I get a chance to try some local wine with dinner. But otherwise I'm not drinking much because of this stupid diet. I'm up 3 lbs since the holidays. Sigh. I tried, somewhat. But I also enjoyed myself. Time to get back to the routine (which is honestly easier when I'm working because I like the meal planning that it forces me to do).

We'd love it. I think the kids would benefit from a 2 or 3 week break every quarter instead of the long break over summer. I hate being pigeonholed into only taking vacation in the summer, especially since that's when Seattle is beautiful and it sucks the rest of the year. E in particular really gets messed up because of summer break. That's just too long for him to be out of the routine.

It really has been a hot mess the last few weeks. The day after we went, they had to close I-90 for hours because of pileups and jack-knifed semis. US-2 to Stevens Pass (owned by Vail, so you know it's stupid crowded) is even worse, and they will just shut it down for days. I-90 is rarely closed all day. You live in a warm area most of the year. You'd get way more out of it than I do. Someone once scolded me for not biking to work when I lived 2 miles away. Yes, in professional work wear, in the rain, and along major roads (40+ mph, some with no bike lane) for 80% of the way.

I found out that our local schools are considering moving up the school start date to late August because of all the snow days we've had the last few years. School currently doesn't get out until June 18th (and now the school districts have started to recognize Juneteenth as a holiday, which means we get that day off and then the kids have to go back). Seattle schools had a teacher strike so now those kids are looking at possibly being in school until after July 4th. I'm kind of a fan because the end of June seems so far away, but I liked how easy it was to spend Labor Day away.