keeping my toes warm.

This weekend was spent entirely amongst family, skiing. Saturday we skiied Vail with my aunt & uncle from London, drove to Steamboat Saturday night and spent Saturday night and Sunday with A's family. Saturday was a picture perfect day at Vail with killer snow and brilliant blue skies. Sunday started out fine, but ended in unendurable pain. Sunday morning actually was quite nice as long as I ignored the ever intensifying pain my ski boots were causing my feet. By about noon it was to the point where I didn't even have moments of respite on the chair lift, and skiing itself became more a contest in how little addional pain I could inflict on my suffering feet than an exercise in skill. By 2pm I had accepted that I was going to be a quitter and bow out early. Unfortunately for me we were on the far, far, far side of the mountain and it took me an hour still of terrible skiing/sliding down the mountain to the base. I went immediately in search of an expert boot fitter, but couldn't even make it inside before I had to stop in the middle of the thoroughfare and tear my boots off in a fit of rage. What is it about being in pain that makes me so angry?? I hobbled into the ski shop and threw my boots on the floor. The guy set about figuring out how to fix the problem. I was explaining my hypothesis, which was that they were just too narrow and my feet are too wide. Wide feet run in the family after all, so the construction of the boot itself is really just wrong for me. Then the guy reached inside my boot and pulled out - I am not exaggerating - FOUR layers of toe warmers. In addition to having wide feet, I am also afflicted with poor circulation, so I rely heavily on toe and hand warmers. Apparently at the end of the ski day, I thoughtlessly remove my boots and throw them in the basement where they usually live without considering the fact that my toe warmers are still inside. Come the next ski day, I just add more in there, somehow without realizing there are multiple layers already installed. (That's the part of the sotry that makes it unbelievable... How do I never notice there are multiple layers of month-old warmers in there? It reminds me of the time A put on his contacts twice, so that he actually had two layers of contacts in one eye. He'll be thrilled I included that little anecdote). Needless to say I looked like an idiot. Still, I maintain the boot is at fault to some degree, so I got them stretched anyway. Problem solved. And now I'll actually pay attention to taking the toe warmers out at the end of the day.

In other news, it's winter again here and I woke up to this:

It doesn't make me feel at all like celebrating anything, including St. Patrick's day. In addition, not only do I have your affliction where I crawl into bed feeling like I haven't done anything useful, but I wake up at 2am and can't stop thinking about everything I have to get done. It's brilliant I got that project, but I am STRESSED out about proving myself.

Wish me luck, I'll be BUSY.