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Happy 2006, everyone! As Bobby so kindly pointed out, we are now halfway through the first decade of the new millenium. Since I'm old enough that graduation (1999) and Y2K feels like just yesterday, I find myself a bit stunned by this. Where does time go??
(Somewhere, Bobby is muttering about Elves and fan fiction and noveling projects....)
This year, we decided to do something other than go over the parents' and eat pizza and watch the damned ball drop...so we went to the mountains for New Year, the Appalachians to be more specific, in Western Maryland.
I've been out to Western Maryland once before in my life, on vacation with the inlaws a few years ago (before they were inlaws, incidentally). The drive alone is worth it: It is beautiful, hard to believe you are still in boring ol' Maryland. It only takes a fifteen-minute drive west from Ellicott City before one starts seeing mountains on the horizon, and it's all uphill from there.
(Yes, I am aware how horrifically unfunny I am.)
Our New Year's destination was the Wisp Resort in Deep Creek Lake, a rustic tourist town built around the largest human-made lake in Maryland. Wisp features skiing and snowboarding as well as just about every form of hoity-toity resort recreation...but we were there for snow tubing. Snow tubing involves sliding down a hill in a ginormous innertube, kind of like sledding, only you pay for it and they create a few hills to soar over for your money. The advert for the New Year's event sounded really cool: A $25 ticket bought you all the snow tubing you could want for five hours, then onto a party in the lodge with live music and food, and fireworks at midnight.
Per usual, we invited lots of people. And per usual, only Bobby, Potter, and I ended up going. I've really realized in the last year that most of our friends are terribly boring when it comes to doing things...except Potter. I think Potter would go to Jupiter with us.
We left early and had a pizza supper at Brenda's Pizzeria in Deep Creek Lake, which seriously has some of the best pizza ever. Take it from one who eats lots of pizza. We arrived at Wisp and got our consent forms and tickets squared away just in time to arrive two minutes before the tubing park opened. There were literally about 20 people there, so I thought, "Cool, right? The fewer, the merrier!"
The DJ who was playing music at the park said to get started early, as there were about a thousand people coming, but I thought he was kidding.
Umm...no. Unfortunately not. The website advertised 300 adult tickets and 300 kids' tickets for sale. They had 450 snow tubes...and literally about 1000 people. So we got in a few runs and then the population began to burgeon. Soon, they were running out of tubes for everyone, so you would turn in your tube at the bottom of the hill, wait in a crowd to get another tube, wait in line for the lift, then wait in line at the top of the hill to slide down.
I timed it once, and at peak time, the whole process took us 45 minutes.
And the cold was of a profundity that was most displeasing to Felak, who is a tropical animal. Yes, I know, I went into the Appalachian Mountains on New Year's Eve...I deserved it. I did. I thought that I could take it--after all, I had the whole enchilada in terms of ski gear--but it was windy and snowing and so ungodly cold...around eight o'clock, my feet hurt so badly that I had to go inside for an hour and thaw, and when we returned again, I could only stay out for another hour before having to trek back inside. Bobby and Potter were fine--curse the female thermostat--but I was so drained by eleven o'clock from the cold that I could barely keep my eyes open. In other words, Felak was seriously strugglin'.
(Somewhere, a husband is nodding vigorously.)
At eleven, Bobby and Potter returned to the lodge for the party. There, we discovered that the food we had been promised had already been taken away. That was fine for me, as I had a nice air bubble sitting in my stomach (gross, I know, but I can't burp, so it just sits there and I can't eat), but Bobby was hungry. All around us, people were eating little bags of chips that they'd bought from the food court, which was closed except for chips and sodas for purchase. Bobby waited until we got back to the hotel and bought a bag of Doritos and a bag of rainbow chip cookies--that was New Year's dinner for him. Potter and I enjoyed a big helping of nothing.
When we'd arrived, we'd rented an overpriced locker ($5!) to stow my purse, knowing how funny places get about "lost and stolen articles." Then they charge you $5 for a freakin' locker...convenient. At 11:15, I decided to go retrieve our stuff since the tubing park was closed and we could beat the rush out after midnight. Lo, when I went downstairs, the locker rental was closed. The problem with this was that I also had to put a $5 deposit on the key so that (pardon my language) fucking locker cost me $10. Ten dollars that--after the holidays--I really didn't have.
Oh, but don't worry: Wisp will be getting their key by mail and Dawn will be getting her refund. They will also be getting a politely worded note about places that claim to be upper-crust "resorts," then overbook events without adequate staffing so that their guests can turn in their rentals or *gasp* eat dinner. Why do places have to act like this? I am literally the easiest person to please. I am willing to endure all sorts of hassels for good reason, but don't take my money and don't charge me for things that you don't intend on giving.
The snow tubing was really fun. I could even forget how cold I was, sliding down those hills. It's amazing how unbelievably fast one goes on those things; Bobby and Potter got air on the second hill. (I think I'm too small and light to get enough momentum for that.) I will go again...but during the day, when it's not snowing and unholy cold. And not to Wisp. It was not worth the two-and-a-half-hour drive.
The midnight fireworks were really nice, though. We went out to the parking lot and it was just the three of us: Potter on a big pile (chucking ice at Bobby, of course) and Bobby cuddling me. The fireworks were literally right in front of us; it was quite spectacular. And, from the sounds of things, the billions of kids that were tearing around the place tooting on the New Year's horns that some intelligent soul decided to give out were having a ball...which means that I probably would have been scowling and further unhappy.
New Year's conclusion: We had fun, but the resort really let us down. Per usual, we invented our own fun. Like hollering Monty Python quotes back and forth on the lifts. Or doing crazy walks in the parking lot. We really are an easy-to-please group.
Then came the drive back to the hotel, a half-hour away. While we were sliding down hills and such, the sky deposited a healthy inch-and-a-half of snow on the ground, followed by a scrim of freezing rain. So driving on narrow mountain passes with a precipice on each side in the ice, in my tiny Japanese car, proved exciting. Not to mention the SUV idiots who would come barreling up behind us and ride our bumper until Bobby could pull over and let them pass. One ass even had the nerve to honk at us after we pulled over to let him pass. Because I'm sure he had somewhere very important to go at 12:30 on New Year's.
On top of the ice and snow, we found ourselves in the worst fog I've yet to see. We literally could not see ten feet in front of the car...so the drive was almost as exciting as the actual evening!
I do have one favor to ask of everyone: If you requested a holiday story and have not let me know through a comment or another channel that you have received it, would you please do so? I have several stories still "unclaimed," and while I realize that a lot of people have been away for the holidays, I need to know who I need to begin pestering personally. (And pestering I will do...I didn't spend hours on those things to have them wither away, unread, because people missed my first post. Nor do I want people to miss their stories simply because they were offline for the holidays.) So if you could just let me know through comment or email that you have your story; I don't need to know if you've read it or liked it--this is not a ploy for concrit or comments--I would appreciate that. (If you've already left me a comment or email to this effect, of course, ignore this.)
To those who missed my first post, the holiday gift stories are tagged here, with the first post giving a summary of each, as well as labeling to whom each belongs. Thanks to all and Happy New Year! :)
(Somewhere, Bobby is muttering about Elves and fan fiction and noveling projects....)
This year, we decided to do something other than go over the parents' and eat pizza and watch the damned ball drop...so we went to the mountains for New Year, the Appalachians to be more specific, in Western Maryland.
I've been out to Western Maryland once before in my life, on vacation with the inlaws a few years ago (before they were inlaws, incidentally). The drive alone is worth it: It is beautiful, hard to believe you are still in boring ol' Maryland. It only takes a fifteen-minute drive west from Ellicott City before one starts seeing mountains on the horizon, and it's all uphill from there.
(Yes, I am aware how horrifically unfunny I am.)
Our New Year's destination was the Wisp Resort in Deep Creek Lake, a rustic tourist town built around the largest human-made lake in Maryland. Wisp features skiing and snowboarding as well as just about every form of hoity-toity resort recreation...but we were there for snow tubing. Snow tubing involves sliding down a hill in a ginormous innertube, kind of like sledding, only you pay for it and they create a few hills to soar over for your money. The advert for the New Year's event sounded really cool: A $25 ticket bought you all the snow tubing you could want for five hours, then onto a party in the lodge with live music and food, and fireworks at midnight.
Per usual, we invited lots of people. And per usual, only Bobby, Potter, and I ended up going. I've really realized in the last year that most of our friends are terribly boring when it comes to doing things...except Potter. I think Potter would go to Jupiter with us.
We left early and had a pizza supper at Brenda's Pizzeria in Deep Creek Lake, which seriously has some of the best pizza ever. Take it from one who eats lots of pizza. We arrived at Wisp and got our consent forms and tickets squared away just in time to arrive two minutes before the tubing park opened. There were literally about 20 people there, so I thought, "Cool, right? The fewer, the merrier!"
The DJ who was playing music at the park said to get started early, as there were about a thousand people coming, but I thought he was kidding.
Umm...no. Unfortunately not. The website advertised 300 adult tickets and 300 kids' tickets for sale. They had 450 snow tubes...and literally about 1000 people. So we got in a few runs and then the population began to burgeon. Soon, they were running out of tubes for everyone, so you would turn in your tube at the bottom of the hill, wait in a crowd to get another tube, wait in line for the lift, then wait in line at the top of the hill to slide down.
I timed it once, and at peak time, the whole process took us 45 minutes.
And the cold was of a profundity that was most displeasing to Felak, who is a tropical animal. Yes, I know, I went into the Appalachian Mountains on New Year's Eve...I deserved it. I did. I thought that I could take it--after all, I had the whole enchilada in terms of ski gear--but it was windy and snowing and so ungodly cold...around eight o'clock, my feet hurt so badly that I had to go inside for an hour and thaw, and when we returned again, I could only stay out for another hour before having to trek back inside. Bobby and Potter were fine--curse the female thermostat--but I was so drained by eleven o'clock from the cold that I could barely keep my eyes open. In other words, Felak was seriously strugglin'.
(Somewhere, a husband is nodding vigorously.)
At eleven, Bobby and Potter returned to the lodge for the party. There, we discovered that the food we had been promised had already been taken away. That was fine for me, as I had a nice air bubble sitting in my stomach (gross, I know, but I can't burp, so it just sits there and I can't eat), but Bobby was hungry. All around us, people were eating little bags of chips that they'd bought from the food court, which was closed except for chips and sodas for purchase. Bobby waited until we got back to the hotel and bought a bag of Doritos and a bag of rainbow chip cookies--that was New Year's dinner for him. Potter and I enjoyed a big helping of nothing.
When we'd arrived, we'd rented an overpriced locker ($5!) to stow my purse, knowing how funny places get about "lost and stolen articles." Then they charge you $5 for a freakin' locker...convenient. At 11:15, I decided to go retrieve our stuff since the tubing park was closed and we could beat the rush out after midnight. Lo, when I went downstairs, the locker rental was closed. The problem with this was that I also had to put a $5 deposit on the key so that (pardon my language) fucking locker cost me $10. Ten dollars that--after the holidays--I really didn't have.
Oh, but don't worry: Wisp will be getting their key by mail and Dawn will be getting her refund. They will also be getting a politely worded note about places that claim to be upper-crust "resorts," then overbook events without adequate staffing so that their guests can turn in their rentals or *gasp* eat dinner. Why do places have to act like this? I am literally the easiest person to please. I am willing to endure all sorts of hassels for good reason, but don't take my money and don't charge me for things that you don't intend on giving.
The snow tubing was really fun. I could even forget how cold I was, sliding down those hills. It's amazing how unbelievably fast one goes on those things; Bobby and Potter got air on the second hill. (I think I'm too small and light to get enough momentum for that.) I will go again...but during the day, when it's not snowing and unholy cold. And not to Wisp. It was not worth the two-and-a-half-hour drive.
The midnight fireworks were really nice, though. We went out to the parking lot and it was just the three of us: Potter on a big pile (chucking ice at Bobby, of course) and Bobby cuddling me. The fireworks were literally right in front of us; it was quite spectacular. And, from the sounds of things, the billions of kids that were tearing around the place tooting on the New Year's horns that some intelligent soul decided to give out were having a ball...which means that I probably would have been scowling and further unhappy.
New Year's conclusion: We had fun, but the resort really let us down. Per usual, we invented our own fun. Like hollering Monty Python quotes back and forth on the lifts. Or doing crazy walks in the parking lot. We really are an easy-to-please group.
Then came the drive back to the hotel, a half-hour away. While we were sliding down hills and such, the sky deposited a healthy inch-and-a-half of snow on the ground, followed by a scrim of freezing rain. So driving on narrow mountain passes with a precipice on each side in the ice, in my tiny Japanese car, proved exciting. Not to mention the SUV idiots who would come barreling up behind us and ride our bumper until Bobby could pull over and let them pass. One ass even had the nerve to honk at us after we pulled over to let him pass. Because I'm sure he had somewhere very important to go at 12:30 on New Year's.
On top of the ice and snow, we found ourselves in the worst fog I've yet to see. We literally could not see ten feet in front of the car...so the drive was almost as exciting as the actual evening!
I do have one favor to ask of everyone: If you requested a holiday story and have not let me know through a comment or another channel that you have received it, would you please do so? I have several stories still "unclaimed," and while I realize that a lot of people have been away for the holidays, I need to know who I need to begin pestering personally. (And pestering I will do...I didn't spend hours on those things to have them wither away, unread, because people missed my first post. Nor do I want people to miss their stories simply because they were offline for the holidays.) So if you could just let me know through comment or email that you have your story; I don't need to know if you've read it or liked it--this is not a ploy for concrit or comments--I would appreciate that. (If you've already left me a comment or email to this effect, of course, ignore this.)
To those who missed my first post, the holiday gift stories are tagged here, with the first post giving a summary of each, as well as labeling to whom each belongs. Thanks to all and Happy New Year! :)
