0114_02

14 jan 2002

"he enjoyed it.� the meter doesn't lie."

beware... this is a long entry.� the juicy stuff is at the bottom half.

did i mention that i like YELLOW?� that ski jacket i have was a version that banana republic put out back in 1996; it was a replica of the north face jacket, with a goretex outer shell and a polartec fleece that zipped into it.� but the best thing about it is that it's ALL yellow!� no silly black north face patches!� you really can't miss me coming down the mountain wearing that thing,� heeh.

so friday afternoon i left work at 4 and headed home to take a shower and pack.� we were supposed to meet at our place at 5 to hear out, but i had to take jay to pick up the car (a monster-sized ford expedition), and then jerry came over, and while we waited, we played halo for a bit.� it seems that everyone who comes over and inquires about the xbox gets an introduction by me to the sniper rifle level.� anyways...

peter finally came, and at 6:30, we finally headed out.� traffic was kind of bad, so i suggested that we head to walnut creek (to pick up the 5th guy, alan), by way of 680 instead of 880.� so after crossing the dumbarton, we traveled SOUTH on 880 for 5 miles, cut across on auto mall parkway, and then, to my dismay, traffic on the 680 was YUCK.� i felt hella guilty.� eventually, it picked up, so i didn't feel that bad.

there was this huge blanket of fog everywhere.� visibility was like 20 feet or so, and it was kind of scary driving 80 miles an hour on the 80.� it suddenly lifted past sacramento or something.� but anyways, we got to reno (eldorado hotel) just before midnight.� we were going to cram the five of us into one room, but that clearly wasn't going to happen, so we got another room (we eventually got two adjoining rooms), and promptly split it up into the hot room (jay and peter, who like their rooms to be a sauna), and the cold room (the rest of us, who crave the brisk temperatures).� i was afraid of alan's snoring, though.

i followed peter and alan down to the casino, and after alan promptly blew like $20 on slots, the two of them hit the roulette table.� "yeah, let's look at the past numbers to figure out the pattern."� rrrriiiiiggghhht.� surprisingly, though, some people did really well on roulette.� but not the two of them.� after peter lost all his money and alan was down to $20, he cashed out and we slept.

jay gets the award for "most eager beaver" on the trip.� he wanted to get up at like some ridiculous time like 4am to hit the slopes, but we compromised to 7am and actualy got up at 8am.

and on to the skiing... that picture up there on the slopes was taken BEFORE i started skiing.� i mean, i hit the bunny slope once before that picture was taken up on the summit of mt. disney, and i was doing ok.� but it was a bad idea to follow three seasoned snowboarders and one seasoned skiier... because the blues that split off from that summit were FUCKING STEEP.� like more than 45 degrees.� at first, i didn't think anything of it, so i just went down nonchalantly, but i kept on gathering speed until i finally lost control and wiped out gloriously.� i lost a ski, and i kept sliding down further, like 40 feet or so.� luckily jerry was behind me, so he backheeled his snowboard edge with my ski.� but it was BITCH putting the ski back on, because it was all ICE, and at that incline, i couldn't get any solid footing.� so that's why it took like 10 minutes to put on my skis.� eventually, i had to stumble over to the side of the mountain to prop myself up against the trees.� but then, i couldn't get out of the trees, so... on and on it went.� my day was beginning to suck really badly.

after one more wipeout, i made it to the bottom again, and hell, i said why not and went up with them again to the summit.� this time, i was really tentative.� i just stood there, staring at the slope, panicking about the fact that i wasn't going to make it down.� when i finally started, i did a faceplant and slid another 30 feet or so.� alan was behind me this time, and as i was sliding, i was like, "hey!� this is not a bad way to get down!"� so i just kept sliding, going down face first for another 50 feet or so, with snow and ice going down my shirt and alan screaming at me to stop.� after i got up, i just stood there, motionless, basically paralyzed.

finally, i just got pissed at myself, said, "FUCK IT" and just barreled down the mountain.

after that, i was just having such a miserable time that i split from the group and just sat in the lodge and smoked.� i went on the bunny slopes like 10 more times, and the last time, i was really careless, so did the SPLITS on my skies, lost both of them, and really fucked up my left knee.� it was bruised and swollen.� stupid me.� and that was it for me.

i hate snow sports.� *bitter frown*

i spent a lot of time sitting at the snow park, watching the kids play.� i saw a lot of good parenting that way... i mean, how often do you see parents coaching their kids, encouraging them, taking care of them?� so many dads and moms were giving all their attention to their kids... it was really heartwarming.

there was this one girl, named justine, who, after finishing her skiing for the day, just walked toward the group of kids having a snowball fight.� but she was a timid one, so she just stopped short of them, knelt down, and started playing with the snow all by herself.� once in a while, after making a perfect snowball, she would silently give it to one of the boys, who would take it without even saying thank you.

maybe justine was really shy.� maybe she liked playing by herself.� maybe she didn't know how to initiate herself into the snowball gang.� but in any case, i felt a little sad, and a little bond with this girl in the cute red helmet.� maybe because it reminded me of how i was as a kid... all shy and not knowing how to play with other kids, and feeling largely ignored.� and after thinking about it a little more, maybe it was because i still feel like i'm like that.� anyways, it was rather poignant experience for me as i sat on a little ice boulder, smoking and watching justine and the rest of the kids.

so after skiing, we had dinner at the peppermill buffet.� when we got there, we realized that we had come to that very buffet two years ago when we went to reno.� the food was not bad, (it had BETTER be good for $25 a pop!), and i ate a lot of meat.� i did get some vegetables, but not before smothering them with melted cheddar cheese . yum.� i restrained myself from eating too much, but the mixture of food (imagine your stomach, with gravy, cajun sauce, creamy sauce, cheese, all sorts of shit all mixed up and gross) made me puke a few times.� that's the problem with these kinds of buffets... you get a weird mix of stuff that just can't possibly coexist peacefully in your system.

jerry and i hit the blackjack table.� damn.� the dealer got like 4 blackjack's in 10 minutes.� my glorious moment was when i got two ace's on a $10 bet, so i split them, doubled my bet to $20, and the dealer bust.� but that was probably the one highlight of our game, as a new dealer came in, and while both jerry and i were up, he promptly reamed out asses and took all of our money in a matter of minutes.� we left after losing everything.� fuck.

people were tired that day from skiing.� i had messed up one of my nails (big bruise underneath the nail), and my knee was throbbing.� so a lot of us just passed out for a while.

then, we went to a club, despite having to drag jay out of his slumber.� his eyes were totally bloodshot.� the dancing was good, and i especially like the area against the wall.� there was this hot girl named isa or something.� i got my whiskey, peter got a cigar (i was so impressed by that), and alan and i smoked up a storm.� it was a good night, just relaxing, enjoying the view, chilling out with alcohol and nicotine.� i don't think i'll ever forget seeing peter just sitting there, puffing away at his cigar with a tanqueray and tonic in his other hand, saying, "i love this."� it's hedonism at its best.

so that was about it.� we drove home on sunday without a hitch, and just like that, we were once again in surburbia, far removed from the slopes and the hot girls and the casinos...� but it was fun, despite my lack of affinity for snow sports... it was all about hanging out with the guys.� it really is a shame that we don't all take vacations like this that often... the fact that it's mainly a yearly thing for me just makes me sad, because that means i won't get another chance this year.� *sobs*

so, anyway, i thought about strip clubs a lot.� being in nevada, where society seems a lot more relaxed, my mind started to wander a bit, kind of like how i thought about porn rather frequently when i was in japan.

but anyways, strip clubs must be like an alternate dimension or something.� i mean, here, in this place, women clad in skimpy outfits will just sit in your lap without any prompting at all, take off their clothes in a flash, grind your crotch ferociously, and you don't have to expend any effort save give them a little money?� what kind of a place is that?� it's like all the rules of dating and courtship are just thrown out of the window.� very surreal.

but i think i'm rather desensitized to nudity.� what would probably get me excited is not the naked part, but the flirty affectionate part of a lap dance.� i bet the grinding would just chafe, unless you're wearing silk pants or something (right...).� but it's the little intimate stuff, like the stroking of the hair, the kisses on the earlobe, the breathing near the neck, that would get me excited, i bet.� i mean, if you really think about it, that girl who's giving you a lap dance doesn't give a shit about you.� she just wants to finish her dance, put on her clothes, and get her money so she can do the same thing over again with another guy.� but how unsexy is that?� so i wonder... i bet the only way i can get aroused is if i pretended that this girl was actually sincere, like a girlfriend... and it'll be those playful affectionate things that she does that will do the trick.

i dunno.� that's just me.� i bet most guys would bust a chub simply because there's a naked girl in his lap, though.

on the drive back, jay mentioned snowballing, as discussed in kevin smiths' first movie, _clerks_.� you can e-mail me if you don't know what that is.� i think someone else mentioned how gross it was, but i thought about it a little bit, and i realized that i had done it before.� i dunno.� i don't think it was particularly nasty... it's just a fluid, and it's natural, right?� hm.� sometimes what grosses some people out amuses me, because i think i have a high tolerance of what people will do.� but what i will not go anywhere near, though, is anything having to do with shit.� ugh.

speaking of shits, we ate meat the entire time there.� well, some people had salads at the peppermill buffet, but for the most part, meat dominated our diet.� so you can guess that it totally clogged us up.� one guy could only expel small pebbled-sized stuff.� and on the drive home, i realized that i hadn't taken a dump since thursday.� i got a little worried, but after i got home yesterday, i promptly took three dumps.� yup.� three.� *phew*� i hope i'm back to regularity.