Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Update Central

Working at Sugarbush degenerated from a fun sociological experiment with ski benefits, into an experience not unlike banging my head against a concrete wall for 9 hours a day. The bosses just got crankier through the season while the bureaucratic bullshit piled higher and deeper.

On Thursday night Jesse and I watched the movie Office Space. It's about a cubicle dweller who gets sick of his idiot boss and just stops coming into work. I had had my fill of Sugarbush and didn't want to come in on Friday, especially since Jesse had that day off... so that morning I called the lift ops office and talked to one of our bosses. I said,

"Hi Ben! This is Heather. Last night I watched the movie Office Space, and this morning I had some really great sex with Jesse. So yeah... I just don't feel like coming into work today. Bye!"

I heard Ben gasp "Oh my God!" followed by shocked silence. I hung up and collapsed into laughter.

That day Jesse and I drove up to the Northeast Kingdom to visit his friends who had built two really cool houses up there. The friends were having a get together later that night. Jesse and I really wanted to stay, but that would mean leaving either really late or really early the next morning to make it back to work. Neither option seemed palatable...so we decided on a coin toss. Heads up we quit work, tails, we go back. The toss came up heads, quit work. We both looked at each other - then decided on doing two out of three. The next toss was tails. The third and final toss ......... Heads. I looked at Jesse and smiled. YES! You just can't argue with a coin toss.... :-)

That night I got to meet a bunch of their friends and munch on yummy food. We all stayed up late talking and listening to music. Jesse and I slept on their futon couch while a couple of other people slept upstairs, and a couple more shared the big dog bed with Freedom, the dog. That morning we all enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. Jesse and I were a bit in shock, wondering what we were going to do now, and enjoying the feeling of not having to go back to the evil Sugarbush.

We've got it figured out now. We're going to try and sell a bunch of our stuff, then run away to Florida in his jeep. I'd love to take Toby instead, but my car insurance is due in a couple of weeks and I don't have the $324 to spend. We don't have much money between us, but we're undoubtable going to have a great time. Jesse has never been to Florida! It's going to be wonderful to show him all the cool places mom and I have traveled to over the years.

We're leaving within the week, hopefully. Today we're spending getting all of his things together. Tomorrow we tackle my room, then outfitting his jeep for traveling. Then off to Saint J to visit his mom and say goodbye, then Florida, here we come!

We'll go down to Naples to visit my mom and Susan. Explore the Everglades and the Keys. Soak up the sun, sand, and fresh fruit. We'll need to find jobs, or at least rob a bank. We have the gas money to get down there and a stash of food. We'll figure out the rest as we go.

This is so exciting! I'm oozing happiness to have found somebody I can travel, talk, go on crazy adventures, somebody to share life with. Yummy!

Friday, February 11, 2005

Insomnia

I can't sleep. Today is the day I go back to work from my two days off. I spent my days off futzing around the house, then yesterday I woke up at 4am and decided to go to Burlington. When I walked out to Toby, the plow was just barely going by. We must have gotten at least 8 inches overnight.

There were people strewn off the highway everywhere. I spent a lot of time going 40 mph. As daylight crept over the mountains, it revealed a fresh white snowscape. Everything was coated in wet powder. The power lines sagged over the road, the pine boughs bent to the trunks.

It feels like a new chapter in life has started. The constant rain two days ago cleared the air, then the snow unified everything under its monochromatic blanket.

Things with Jesse are swell. When skiers getting on my lift ask how I'm doing, I reply, "Peachy keen!" I'm just so happy all the time. Life with Jesse seems open to so many possibilities. I find myself staring at him lost in space, feeling like I've known him my entire life...utterly comfortable. I haven't yet found anything major I don't like about him. So far he hasn't found any of my major skeletons either. Heh heh heh.

Yesterday I stopped by the mountain and rode up the lift to midstation where he was. Gave him some hot cocoa, a clementine, and stole kisses when nobody was watching.

When I came off the mountain I went to a local garage to have my muffled tightened. It had shaken loose courtesy of a snowbank I happened to run over while in Burlington. I had crawled underneath to tighten it up myself, but needed the torque of some air tools. When Toby was in the shop, I had them install the power steering belt I hadn't gotten around to, change the oil and the fuel filter, and look at where my seat was bolted in. They ended up welding the muffler to the piece of pipe that had come off it. Lets see it try to shake loose now! The guys at the Sugarbush Service station were really nice and reasonable. All this took about an hour and cost $60.61.

Last night Jesse and I got dressed up for the heck of it. He wore his bright red pants, pretty white hemp shirt with silver buttons, black hemp vest, and green John Deere baseball hat. I wore the embroidered skirt he had gotten me, a blue crushed velvet shirt, silver dangly earrings and my tiara. Once we got dudded up we decided to go out to eat. A lot of smiles were cast our way.

Time to go get back in bed. I need sleep for work today!

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

The amazing dissapearing Heather

Hi again. Long time no blog. Bad Heather, bad!

Driving home from work last night I was craving something sweet. I made a deal with myself - if there was a parking space in front of La Brioche, I'd buy something. What luck! There was a swath of 4 parking spaces in a row right outside the door. This never happens, especially during rush hour. I took it as a divine sign and bought a rich and gooey creme brule. I got it to go and drove with my knees through downtown, cradling the container in one hand while eating it from my titanium spork in the other.

This morning I awoke with dreams of rich custards dancing through my head. I actually slept in till 7:30! Peter left for work so I had an entire house to play in by myself. I spent the morning tearing apart my room in pursuit of a w-2 form I had put someplace safe and hadn't seen since. Listened to a couple cds from Banjo Dan And The Midnite Plowboys, Zap Mama, and The Bluegrass Gospel Project. Was in a southern mood from the bluegrass and celebrated by frying up a batch of crispy corn fritters. Finger lickin' good!

Cleaned out my van and rigged up a new sound system for it using a portable cd player and the old speakers from the computer. With the subwoofer on, it sounds as good as any car stereo.

I did a bunch of other cool and exciting things, but I don't feel like sharing. I'm entering a phase of wanting to fully savor the events that happen to me and not go writing about them in such a public space. I have a thing against people knowing too much about me. I know that sounds strange coming from a person who has so many web pages about different facets of their life...but this blog is different. It's been more about personal thoughts and feelings, instead of events or projects, like the rest of the web presence has been.

I do have to keep this updated though, so mom can read it and know I'm still alive. Even before she ran off to Florida, we used each other's blogs as a way of communicating with each other. Lately she's been complaining I don't write enough.

It's time for both of us to grow up. I need to learn to be my own person, shape a life for myself, and she needs to learn to take her pills on time :-)

Sunday, February 06, 2005

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Why Sugarbush Sucks

The bastards at Sugarbush hotlisted my pass yesterday! I was all bouncy and ready to go skiing yesterday when I found out. Being hotlisted means your pass comes up as invalid when it gets scanned by a ticket checker. Mine said I was a "Safety Violator". The powers that be don't want me to be skiing on the mountain, even if it is my day off.

I don't see how they can legally do that. Everybody who buys a ticket agrees to not hold Sugarbush responsible for any injury and/or death that results from that activity. It's no different for employees, especially employees there on their day off. So they don't want me skiing with a broken arm ... that's nice, but it doesn't seem like they're able to legally stop me. If they wanted to disallow me because of my injury, they'd have to also bar everybody else with injuries - or it would be unfair discrimination. I know of lots of people who ski/board while injured, in casts, etc. Not the smartest thing I know, but it's legal. The whole Sugarbush policy seems fishy to me.

At least I got in one ski run the day before. :-) That morning I tripped while going into the lift shack and fell on my broken arm. They sent me for x-rays at the clinic at Lincoln Peak to make sure everything was still ok....which it was. Nothing bent or out of place. When I got back to my side of the mountain, I took one run down on skis before resuming work. Ahhhhh.....it was so nice!

Well after getting hotlisted, I spent the day driving around and goofing off instead. Bought a bunch of fresh, yummy food. Went over to Jesse's house that night and made us fettucine alfredo, sauteed carrots in butter and drizzled with maple syrup, and a salad of baby greens, bell peppers, farmer cheese, and all sorts of other yummy things.

Today Jesse and I have the day off. I made us brunch of french toast with fresh strawberries and vanilla whipped cream. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Supper? We'll see.