First Chair, Last Call: 11 Rules for Life in a Ski Town

This post is dedicated to the wonderfully inimitable Ms.Meghan Hicks, whose grocery store frustrations in Park City inspired the topic.

Sugar Bowl Sunrise - photo by Andrew Pinkham

1.  Accept the weather. Most of the time in the winter, it’s gonna dump, at least if you live in the Sierra. Get your fat boards tuned. Get a Honda snowblower, a big shovel, and a strong back. When it doesn’t snow, remember how much you hate shoveling and go ice-skating. Summer? In Tahoe: 80 Degrees and sunny, every day. Count on it.

2.  Use beer as currency. It may not get you everything, but it can go a surprisingly long ways. If you know the right people, you can pay with beer for most services – ski tuning, boot fitting, work on your house or car. You can also pay for most anything with ski comps (if you work at the resort and get comps in your paycheck) – things like haircuts, massages, yoga, etc. Always find out if people are willing to trade services, too. This saves everyone money!

3. Drive a Subaru. Well, you might drive a Tacoma, but just make sure your vehicle can handle the snow. Get snow tires. Don’t be that guy that shuts down the freeway because you had an accident. Don’t get yourself stuck on the unplowed streets of your neighborhood because, trust me, they will still be unplowed when it’s time to drive to work or the ski hill. Being stuck on a powder day fully sucks.

4. Don't think you're awesome. No matter how amazing your skills at skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, kayaking, rock climbing, swimming, or running, there will always be people who can kick your butt. People with Olympic medals and huge sponsorship deals. Small town, big talent. Your ego may take a hit, but at least you’ll have no shortage of partners willing to join you on your crazy endeavors.

5. Shop at the thrift store. Did you know a lot of rich people live in resort towns? They get rid of stuff on a shockingly frequent basis – stuff they’ve barely worn. One summer I bought two incredible Ann Taylor dresses at the thrift store for a total of $7 and wore them both to weddings. Plus, thrift store shopping is Earth-friendly, and that’s how we like to roll.

6. Stay off the interstate in a snow storm. Because you can bet some idiot is breaking rule #3.

7. Tip big. You plan to come back to that bar/restaurant/hairstylist, don’t you? Make friends, and it will serve you well in the future. Karma, baby.

8. Talk small. Your “private” conversation is never private. Be nice, because someone is always listening – someone who either knows you or knows what you’re talking about.

9. Be a good dog owner. Adopt from the pound. Pick up after him. Take an obedience class. Don’t bring him to indoor parties. And don’t even tell me he’s part wolf. You’re full of it!

10. Don’t go to the grocery store on holidays or weekends. This one is very important. It will be so crowded, YOU WILL LOSE YOUR MIND! Once it took me 15 minutes to find a parking space at Safeway. Then I spent five minutes searching for a cart, but they were all being used – every last one! I finally helped someone unload her groceries into her car so I could have her cart. Needless to say, once I got inside the store, the experience only went downhill. Lesson learned. Now, if I run out of food between Christmas and New Years, I grocery shop at 6:00 am. Or I eat canned beans for dinner without complaint. (Don’t go to restaurants at these times either, by the way.) 

And, my most important tip?

11. Don’t bitch. There are down sides to living in a resort town, definitely. But just remember: You live where other people come to vacation.

Starting 2012 with 31 Days of Adventure

Author's note: Thanks to everyone who participated in fundraising for Heifer International by commenting on my blog. I took a cue from Nathan and doubled my pledge to $2 per comment and am rounding up to an even $40. It's going to "where most needed" for Heifer. Hooray!

I'm always on the lookout for adventure, as you know. So, when Katie over at Adventure-Inspired posted about 31 Days of Adventure, I didn't even have to finish reading her post before I knew I was on-board.

31 Days of Adventure is a project taking place this January, put on by Amy of Expand Outdoors and Lydia of Wander Lydia. The concept is simple: Each day during the month of January, they'll email you a daily adventure meant to challenge you and make your day just a bit more interesting. I have no idea what these adventures will be, but I can't wait to find out!

I explained the idea behind my blog's title in this post. The concept is essentially exactly what Amy and Lydia have laid out for 31 Days of Adventure. Adventures don't have to be huge in order to enrich our lives. Most of the time, in fact, adventure is all about perspective. Overcoming an unexpected challenge doesn't have to be an aggravating experience if you simply look at it as an adventure.

Here's an example: Last Friday was my last day of teaching school before the winter break. Believe me, it was painful keeping the kids focused that close to Christmas, but vacation was so close I could taste it! (Plus, I kept them busy by giving two tests on Friday. Yes, I am that teacher.) I'm fortunate to have a carpool partner who lives in Truckee and teaches at my same school in Reno. When we got on the freeway Friday morning, the road information sign immediately told us the highway was closed and we should take the next exit. Crap!

I steered us down surface streets toward the far end of town hoping we could take the last freeway entrance and get past the closure while Katie researched the situation on her iPhone. Turned out we wouldn't be able to bypass the closure and a hazmat clean up would keep us trapped in Truckee for several hours. Who would give my students their tests!?

We called a couple friends to discuss our re-route options and decided to take Dog Valley Road - a dirt road that would reunite us with the freeway in the hills west of Reno. It's a summer-only route that neither of us had ever taken, but with the lack of snow and my trusty Subaru, we decided to go for it! It turned our 40 minute drive into a 90 minute adventure through the mountains. Kind of an exciting start to the work day, and definitely a daily adventure. Our principal, who is apparently familiar with Dog Valley Rd., couldn't believe we made it in to work, (but we're dedicated teachers that way).

If you want to get involved with daily adventures in January, just head on over to the website and sign up to get the emails. If you have a website or blog, you can also add it to the list of participating sites.

Happy adventuring!

Apology

In our house, we have what we call the "two shoe rule." That is, we (my husband and I) are each allowed two pairs of shoes on the downstairs shoe rack. The rack, which currently lives in our as-yet-unfinished mudroom, looks like this:

And, as you may have guessed, not a single pair of shoes in that photo belongs to my husband. Further, I count a total of seven pairs of running shoes. Seven! Plus one single.

I'm really not certain how this state came to be. 80% of my mileage can be attributed to only two of those pairs of shoes, and another two pairs I certainly haven't worn for at least six months.

But has anyone called me out on breaking the two shoe rule? Not once. Not even a peep.

In addition, he made creative use of the situation ...

with a X-Talon door stop through the construction zone (accounting for the single on the shoe rack).

There's a whole lot to be said for flexibility in a partner.

So, ... yeah. Sorry, sweetie.

Weekend Adventures

 

Morning SUP on Donner Lake