A girl can work AND ski....

Turns out, if you live in Maine, where I live, you can work a full day (starting pretty early, I might add, and including a quick trip to the pediatrician for a kid with an ear infection), and still fit in a few runs on the ski hill after work.

Yup, I’m not kidding. Today I did a bit of early morning before the kids were up school work (as well as threw together a lasagna). Then we entered complete crisis mode, as one kid woke up with a serious earache, and the other woke up with wicked cranky pants on. Nevertheless, we proceeded as the day was intended to be – me to work and kids to school/daycare. I then managed to teach both my classes, and attend a meeting in between, and meet with an advisee in need… Then I headed off to Titcomb, so I could see Alden during his break in the middle of ski program (when a colleague heard that he had an ear infection, she said, “and you are going to make him go skiing?” Damn right I am. And, he’s going to like it, too. Really, he was excited and wanted to go skiing, ear infection notwithstanding.)

I skied one run by myself, and then three or four with Alden, after he finished his ski program.

A few concessions:

I did let my morning class out a bit early, so I could get Alden to the doctor.
I was late to my lunchtime meeting.
A babysitter picked Alden up from school and took him to his ski program (I was still teaching class then).
Ray did pick up Milo from daycare.
I did use no-boil noodles for the lasagna.

Lest you think I have turned into superwoman, I wanted to be clear about those few things.

Anyway, the point was not so much about what I managed to do, on this day that had quite a rocky start, but, to note how cool it is that I can go and do a little skiing after a day at work.

Sunscreen in January

My mom says she likes it when I write blog posts (instead of just putting pictures up on flickr), because then there is some writing. So, I thought I’d try to get back in the habit a bit.

Sunday, Alden and I went skiing over at Titcomb. It’s 15 minutes, door to door. No lift lines, really (okay, no lifts, either, at least in the vertical traditional sense: just two t-bars and a rope-tow), such a quick walk from the parking lot, and there you are, skiing. Actually, I dropped Alden at the bottom of the rope tow, from the car, that is – you can drive right to the rope-tow, and then let him ski there alone for the few minutes it took for me to go get rental gear (still waiting for my gear to arrive.…).

We had a great time. Alden already has a sense of the mountain, the trails, the different things he likes to do: little jumps and bumps, cut-throughs from one trail to another, paths and patterns he likes to follow. He has not yet started his after-school ski program, but he already can easily get down the mountain, and it is a delight to watch him.

It was a lovely sunny day. I put sunscreen on us both and wore my sunglasses the whole time.