Winter Wonder Weekend

It has been an exhausting weekend, exhausting in the best sense of the word. While Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a holiday for many, I was only fortunate enough to get the day off due to the fact that I'm scheduled to work this coming Saturday. The chance to sleep in with Michael, who also conveniently had the last two nights off of work, was like a blessing sent straight from heaven.

As we were leisurely eating a late breakfast - cereal for Michael, leftover Persian rice with barberries from Pacific Market for me - Amy V came upstairs, obviously dressed for some kind of athletic activity.

"I was wondering, would either of you been interested in cross country skiing at Snoqualmie with me today?"

At first I was uncertain, but after Michael checked his email and confirmed that his friends were, in fact, coming over at 1:00 to watch a movie (which, in my opinion, is a terrible waste of a beautiful winter day in Seattle, seeing as those appear so seldom), I took the chance.

Now, neither Amy nor I are accomplished cross country skiers. Amy had done cross country a grand total of once before, conveniently only last month, while I also had only one previous experience - if you count trying it out ten years ago on a PLU outdoor recreation outing where our proposed hike was aborted about 100 yards from the parking lot due to a lack of visible trail markers at Mount Rainier. As someone with some downhill ski experience, I find cross country an altogether different beast, and going down a bunny hill that wouldn't shake even a novice downhill skier becomes a challenge of Herculean proportions on Nordic skis. Still, we managed to ski six kilometers and enjoy it, and I only fell once, when attempting a little "telemarking" in the final downhill stretch back to the lodge.

We were back home by 5:30, in time for me to meet up with another friend for dinner. Over beers at the Fiddler's Inn we fell into discussions about politics, feminism, and international perspectives. That, complemented by a delicious toasted cheese and roasted pepper sandwich, made a great way to unwind for the evening. There may be blisters the size of nickels on the backs of my heels, but tonight I'll fall asleep a happy woman.