A December Recap

Christmas Lights

It’s been over a month since I’ve lasted posted…sorry folks, I’ve been busy. 

My December was crazy. I left two days early for Winter Solstice Break, meaning that I had to cram what felt like a year's worth of schoolwork into three days. I was literally about to collapse under the amount of school related stress I'd somehow brought upon myself. I was at the point that when studying for my Europe map test, I was getting so overloaded that I could only sometimes distinguish the different between Croatia and Slovakia. While reading my textbook I read the same paragraph a record shattering 34 times before gaining a pinch of meaning. It reached the point where I finally gave up and spent two blissful hours baking gingerbread cookies...because seriously, what's more important: holiday spirit or my future?

(Attention to the future college admissions officer who could potentially stumble upon this blog. I earned a 100% on my map test and the gingerbread cookies were an hour reprieve from a 7 hour homework marathon earlier that day. The textbook...well, that's where I'll be right after I finish this post.)

I then abandoned my “desperate student” title for the much preferred “ski bum” lifestyle.  Ski Bum meaning that skiing is your #2 priority, only topped by texting your mother frequent updates. Which is how I found myself crammed in a van with eleven other teammates, playing cards by flashlight while a ski bag hit me repeatedly over the head. I've got to admit, it's a super fun way to travel. (I’m actually not being sarcastic.)

Skiing

We arrived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming with just enough time to preview the wrong race course, tackle a Albertson’s customer service fiasco and find a way to equally allocate two beds amongst three girls. The first race was an enormous confidence booster for me, and I was happy with my performance. The second race, which after a minor faux pas on my part, sent my mentality and motivation spiraling into nothingness. It was a what-the-heck-were-you-even-thinking type of race, but nevertheless helpful.  Besides when your race doesn’t go well, there’s almost always a teammate you can celebrate for. Shout out to Leah, Julia, Sydney, Skylar and Mila for making the podium, great job to Claire and Kate for being so freaking fast. 

After that I went to Idaho, where I spent my time perfecting fast arcing turns, breaking trail in knee deep powder and hurting myself tobogganing. The skiing up there was amazing. Amazing…with the sole exception of the time I was sure I was going to have to go rescue my hypothermic family on a stolen snowmobile...long story. My cousins and I baked french macaroons, somehow managing to get powdered sugar on every inch of the kitchen, but the 11 cookies that me managed to scrape from the pan turned out great. I had a terrible hash brown cooking experience, where if I’d tried, I could have squeezed the olive oil out of batch by hand. Under my extreme misgivings, and that of some of my family, I drove a snowmobile for 3 kilometers, I'm generally a safety hazard near anything with wheels and more horse power than an electric scooter. 

After new years fireworks, I came back home and participated in a local skate skiing race, in which all the peppermint flavored candy I’d so happily scarfed down over the past ten days seemed to be conspiring against me. The race went as to be expected.

A Belated Cheery December,

Victoria