I started waking up at about 5:00AM, and forced myself back to sleep until 7:30. I showered and went downstairs at about 8:00 for breakfast. Margie and Bill were down there. Margie and I had a conversation about our “Sleep Mates.” She mentioned that she’d wished she’d brought hers along as Bill was “really cracking some” (snoring) last night. I told her I had mine with me, and she couldn’t believe another person knew what she was talking about, much less owned one.
I had a bagel with cream cheese, a small glass of orange juice, a banana, and some coffee. “Brian” was on duty instead of Amanda, and he’s cute! He’s straight, and real nice.
I went upstairs, put on my ski clothes, and had a little panic attack because I couldn’t find my poles. I remembered laying them down last night, and thought it was in front of the amoire, but they weren’t there. Turns out I’d left them down in the lobby! I got downstairs, found them, and began putting on my boots. Bill and Margie seemed very interested in my boots, “Oh rear-entries. I haven’t seen those in years. I got some money for my antique boots.” Well! I said, “As long as these boots and these skis keep working, I’ll keep using them.” And I wanted to add, “Besides, rear-entry is my favorite.” Bless their mess.
I got on the gondola right at 9:00. I had such a great day skiing. There was light snow for the first one-and-a-half or two hours. I fell twice during the day. One time I went flying over a little cliff that I didn’t even see. The visibility was a little diminished with the snow. I was going pretty fast, hit this cliff, and went flying in the air. I immediately stuck my legs up in the air so I could land squarely on my ass, and keep my skis from going flying. That worked, I didn’t loose my skis at all. Just turned my legs parallel with the mountain, got back up, brushed off, and went on my way.
Later, I got stuck in a real steep area on the mogul side of a run. It looked to me like if I turned, and pointed my skis back toward the groomed side, I could get back over pretty quickly. What I didn’t factor in was the moguls hidden under the powder. I took off fairly fast thinking I was heading right back to the smooth area, and almost immediately hit a hidden mogul. This time, I feel forward onto my stomach and lifted my legs up over my back a little too late. Both skis popped off and I slid a little bit further. An instructor coming down with a small class grabbed my uphill ski and delivered it to me.
I called Robert, mom and dad, and Steve from the gondola at different times. Dad is always so funny when I tell him where I’m calling from. When he hands the phone to mom, he says, “It’s John. He’s calling from…” with a touch of amazement in his voice.
I took an hour break for lunch, but didn’t eat anything. I just went into the lodge at the top of the gondola, sat down in front of the huge fireplace, took my boots off, and just relaxed. There were some nice looking men there, but on the balance, I’d say half straight and half gay in the place. I went back out at about 1:30 and skied until 3:30. I left the mountain at a different lift, and it turned out my hotel was right at the bottom of the road from it! The deal!
Other than breakfast today, I had a oats ‘n raisin bar on the slopes, a couple of cubes of cheese with some crackers at “apres ski” at the hotel, and one chocolate chip cookie there. Bill was down there, and I told him I was offering Margie to use my Sleep Mate tonight if she wanted to. He said, “Let me tell you something. She snores too!”
There were two “family members” in the lobby then, too, enjoying the apres ski goodies — Gary and Mark. They were from the Orange County / Los Angeles area. They invited me to join them at their table. I told them about my trip to Irvine, and we talked about gay two-stepping and country line-dancing a bit. They got “the poop” from Brian on good places to eat, and then invited me to join them for dinner. I thanked them, told them I was dieting, had overeaten last night, and was not going to have dinner tonight. I said, “But if you go out tomorrow night, and I run into you here, I’d love to join you then.” We’ll see what happens.
Another (straight) guy was also in the lobby talking a long time with Brian. He works for a television station as a free-lancer.
They went upstairs to get ready to go to dinner, and then Margie came down, ready to go out with her group in about 15 minutes. She was lamenting about not being able to wear her fur because it was too hot out. She then had to whisper the dirt on the other couple she was with, how the man made her and Bill lose two hours of skiing today, because he went off into the woods to pee, was supposed to meet them in a certain place when he came out of the woods, didn’t, they alerted the ski patrol because they thought he might have gotten hurt or lost in the woods, but later found him in the bar drinking. “I’m not coming out here again when those people are here.” she said. She’s a trip. She told me she didn’t need the Sleep Mate because she has put Bill in a separate room that she can close the door to. “We’ve been married for 46 years, and we haven’t slept in the same bedroom for the last 30 of them.”
Once home, I changed out of ski clothes, and then walked down to the post office. It was a good little walk, which was great. I got 50 postcard stamps, and mailed the 11 postcards I’d already written. On the way back, I stopped at the grocery store and bought fat-free bolgona, some more fruit bars, some fat-free chips, some baggies, and 13 more postcards. I really want to stay on my diet this week. Tomorrow, at breakfast, I am going to take an extra bagel when I go upstairs. I’m going to slap a couple of pieces of the bologna on it, put it in the bagggie, and put it in my suit pocket. I’ll have that for lunch, and that’ll keep me on track. I’ll have some chips, too. Not only will this help me diet, it’ll save a heap of money, too. Bonus!
Back at the hotel, I put the bologna in the fridge, got in my swimsuit, and went out on the deck downstairs in the jacuzzi. How wonderful! While in it, I called Irene, and we had a 40-minute conversation. I had to get up twice and restart the jets during the conversation. Always so good (and easy) talking to her. She shared a delightful moment thinking about me at school recently, when it was too cold to go outside, and the youngsters had “P.E.” indoors, and were being taught line dancing. Turns out it was the Electric Slide, and of course, she had to get in on it. I was grinning through the whole story.
After the jacuzzi, I wrote out the additional 13 postcards, and then, though I easily could have fallen asleep right then, decided to get dressed and go put the postcards in the mailbox I had seen down the street on my way back from the post office and grocery store. It turned out to not be where I thought it was, I had failed to make a note of the crossroads it was on, so I then decided to walk across town to the Skye Hotel and see what was going on in the bar, looking for a mailbox in route. I found one right in front of the area where the entrance to the gondola was. The Skye Hotel bar was deserted. I really can’t see how this place is making it. And that’s supposed to be “headquarters” for Gay Ski Week. This entire day, I did not wait in one line for a lift, and I did not sit with anyone on any lift. Good for me. Bad for business. I walked back to the hotel.
Once home, I grabbed my laptop, my book, and my phone, and went down to the lobby, where I caught up this diary. Brian came over and chatted a bit. Turns out he’s part owner of this place. I’m surprised. He seems like he’s maybe 30, and he really doesn’t seem like the own-your-own-business type. He’s very laid back, and uses the word “like” a lot in his sentences. 🙂 We talked about how Gay Ski Week really seems to have gone down hill, in terms of attendance, in the past couple of years.
While I was catching up my journal, that television guy came downstairs and went outside into the jacuzzi. He saw me, through the window, grab an apple, and a few minutes later he came into the lobby, dripping wet, and said, “That looked so good.” He is quite slim, and has a nice hairy chest and belly. Not that I noticed.
Just before closing this entry, Gary and Mark returned from their dinner. They ended up eating at a place that Brian didn’t recommend. That Mark seems a little high maintenance, and I hardly know him. He has a lot of questions for Brian. Perhaps he’ll actually take one of Brian’s suggestions before the weekend is over.
Brian’s locking up now. He asked me where I worked and when I told him IBM, he said he used to work for Borland, doing Java and C++ programming. Gave it all up to run this place. Good for him!
He also said that eventually he’d like to have Internet access here in the lobby, perhaps with a wireless LAN. I gave a big “yes!” vote on that. 🙂 I’m about to go upstairs where I’m going to do just that — try and connect to the Internet. I know that I have mail from Steve and Robert, as — on the phone today — they both mentioned sending me some.
Got connected, checked all my mail, responded to Jay, Steve, and Robert. Had an AIM chat session with Jay and Steve at once. Nice to be in touch.