December 31st started out with a half work day. I then got a chance to meet my friend Aubrie down at her gym so I could learn the proper form for push lifts with an Olympic bar. We went over forms for push press & push jerk. From there we had lunch at Lady Marmalade & grabbed pedicures at the Ten Spot to treat ourselves to some foot love.
I can’t put my finger on why but I got myself into such a funk later that day. I got anxious and worried. Memories of previous new year’s eves weighed heavy on me. Last year was the first time in a while I had an amazing new year’s eve. Katie & I designed an amazing night and I guess I put a bit of pressure on making another epic night happen. Thankfully, Katie knows exactly how to pull me out of a funk. She tried all sorts of things to pull me out. I even tried having a bath, reading and laying down for a nap. All of a sudden I had an idea. I texted her and asked… “is there a big hill near your house?” I got it in my head that all I wanted to do was toboggan with sparklers at midnight. I had some boxes from my latest Magnum shipment at my place. Katie was in charge of grabbing garbage bags and I still had the sparklers that I bought for last year’s celebrations.
The night turned out perfectly. We wanted steak for dinner so we headed off to The Keg. It was a 2 hour wait time so we walked down the street to Coquine and were seated right away where we feasted on steak. I had lobster with mine and we chatted the night away.
We headed home to bundle up and build our toboggans & walked over to the hill. We laughed our heads off trying to sled on the grass. We had brought a lighter for the sparklers but it was out of fuel so we literally ran back to Katie’s for matches & a candle to light the sparklers with. We rang in the New Year with smiles on our faces and sparklers lighting the night.
I headed home right after as my exhaustion set in. I had also eagerly booked a snowboarding lesson at St. Louis Moonstone at 9 am so it was going to be an early morning. I picked up my friend Rich at 7 am and we headed up to the hill. I had an amazing lesson & we took off to enjoy the day.
I learned three things while boarding this year.
1. I really should have checked my goggles from my childhood days of skiing. The foam pretty much completely fell off while I was on the hill and I had a nice eye vent going on in the wind.
2. The instructor actually taught me how to break with one foot getting off the ski lift which my first instructor in Ottawa last winter never did so I’ll take that as a win. I also didn’t fall once getting off the lift which I can’t say about last year. So I’ll take that as a win as well!
3. I took my first lesson over the Christmas holidays last year and was getting pretty good, I started going a little faster and took an epic wipe-out that left me with bruised ribs for a month. This year, I felt confident but still held back after my lesson on the slopes. I’m fully equating snowboarding to love. I fell hard last year and hurt myself, so I was hesitant & held back. It’s just like love. When you’re a kid you launch yourself down the hill at full speed and jump into your first love because you don’t know what it feels like to be hurt. I just want to fly down that hill again 🙂
