Park City Recap

This past weekend Matt and I journeyed to the home town of Ted Bundy (serial killer), Scott Wolf (played Bailey Salinger on Party of Five), John Schnatter (founder of Papa John’s Pizza) and Mitt Romney (if you don’t know who that is, you should read a newspaper).

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We jumped on a plane Thursday evening after work and arrive at the Salt Lake city airport by 10:00 local time. The flight was relatively painless, thanks in most part to the Delta agent who clued us in to the shorter security line at JFK terminal. Why Delta seems to have such a hard time operating efficiently at this one terminal it beyond me. Two years ago, after waiting in the check in lin for 45 minutes, we missed the bag check cut off time and were forced carrying on all our luggage. We accomplished this by putting on all of our ski gear to go through security and abandoning a suit case in the lobby. Thankfully we learned our lesson and made sure our bags made in through on time.

We stayed large house near the base of Park City Mountain with 16 other people  (yes, I said 16). Matt and I were the last to arrive but thankfully, a pull out sofa was available in the basement living room area. While there was no door to our “room” I was just glad that I wasn’t sleeping on the floor. Of the 16 other people, Matt and I knew a grand total of 4. One of our friends organized the trip and it included people he went to high school with, people he went to business school with, people he worked with (us) and people he lived with. It was fun to be in such a large house – I imagine it was like what a co-ed fraternity/sorority house would be like. Unfortunately, since we were only there for 3 days, I didn’t have time to institute house rules, chore charts or a noise curfew. So, I am sure this comes as no surprise for anyone who knows me, I was definitely ready to come home. But that isn’t to say that I didn’t have a lot of fun while I was there.

We skied Park City on Friday, Snowbird/Alta on Saturday and Deer Valley on Sunday. The weather was between 50 and 60 degrees the entire weekend and I probably reapplied my SPF 60 sunscreen at least 4 times each day. And while the snow wasn’t the greatest the fact that I didn’t have to worry about the cold was well worth it – we were skiing in t-shirts and light weight jackets! We also downloaded the best app on our iPhones – the GPS Ski Tracks app, that allowed you to see your total number of runs, altitude skied, and maximum speed among other things. Clearly this was up my alley and Matt and I spent the trip trying to ski faster than each other (something that didn’t make my mom too happy). I am thrilled to report that I ended the weekend victorious, topping out at 52.5 mph!

By the end of the trip, I was both exhausted and sad that this was the only ski trip I would be making this vear. As a result, I’ve been gearing up to give my parents the hard sell on buying a condo out west. I really could use some more skiing in my life, and I could probably do without the 18 person party house…

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I know – I am old.

Thanks Jack for planning an incredible cruise ski trip.

Sucked in by the Sap

I blame my parents for my addiction to crappy tv. Growing up, not only did we not have cable, but we only have 4 channels on our tv. I grew up on ABC, NBC, CBS and far far too much PBS. While other kids were watching Punky Brewster, 90210 and Melrose Place, Abby and I were watching Mr. Rogers and Square One. We had a limit of 30 minutes of tv each day during the week and an hour or so on the weekends. Reading, playing games and swimming took up most of our time. In truth, I was blissfully unaware of all that I was missing and honestly didn’t mind, or realize, that my childhood (and teenage years) were lacking the quality tv time of my peers.

When I went off to college I started to hear stories about Dawson’s Creek. I felt left out as I never got to meet Dawson, Joey or Pacey. Thankfully, the DVD box set came through for me. I started to form relationships with people my friends had known for years. Rory Gilmore and I became fast friends as we shared the stress of college. The parents on 7th Heaven taught me many life lessons. And I partied with Salinger siblings.

Over the years, my obsession with tv has changed from classic 90s family shows to reality shows. I now spend countless hours watching shows like American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, the Next Food Network Star, and Toddlers & Tiaras. Recently, I have become hooked on to two new shows: Losing it With Jillian Michaels and America’s Got Talent. Both of these shows have one thing in common – they play up the sap.

On the surface these shows are not good. One show follows a family struggling with obesity for 1 week of their lives. Watching over weight people learn how to eat appropriate sized portions and visit a gym isn’t a great plot for a show. The other show scours the country for marginal talent. I think that Winter Follies, the annual talent show at my high school had much more talents acts than this show is able to find. Really the acts are more bizarre than talented. But what draws me into to these shows are the sappy stories. The story of a family overcoming the evils of southern cooking. The story of a boy suffering from epilepsy who has found peace in indoor kite flying. The story of an old watch maker who shared his love of playing the harmonica with the world.

These stories of people, from the most obscure places around the world, I am embarrassed to say, have moved me to tears more than once. So I thank you, sappy reality tv, for allowing me to continue my quest in making up for lost time. Ironically, I do this by sitting in front of the tv, losing time from reality.