Ski

Ski Trip 2002

I didn't want to waste space on my blog... so here it is.
Props to those who can get through the whole thing in one sitting.

Saturday Morning. Went to sleep at 1, woke at 4. Managed to get to the church at 4:45, and it was pretty cold out there. Dad hung around, checking out the bus, and I staked out seats for Michele and I right in the middle of the bus.
Got on the road at 5:30 and Michele promptly went to sleep. I was on my own. I pulled out my Two Towers book and got through maybe 2 pages. I was starting to get pretty tired, so I pulled out my nice comforter and laid out on the floor and got some sleep for a few hours. It was kind of comfortable, except for the hard floor part. It was that or sleep in a cramped chair. We got some lunch and again back on the bus.
I love going on these trips. The people I sometimes talk to, I got to know them a lot better. So I talked to Jason, Carrie and I hung around each other a lot this trip, and Jorge and I were together a lot. Julian is very hugable and a lot of fun. Stephanie and Christina - got to talk to them a lot more. I felt like I wasn�t a leader, more like a student going on a trip.
During this trip, Carrie had to go to the bathroom every hour, so she was known for that. Because of this, some of the guys found a �P� on the side of the road... it was a letter used in a marquee. Well, they took it and gave it to Carrie for her to hold up if she had to go. There was a quote taken in reference to the �P�.
Later, Frank, Jorge, Michele, and I got to play Phase 10 - a really fun game that takes a *long* time. We took over the table on the bus, so we had room to play. You have to play ten rounds of cards, and whoever phases out first, wins the game. Frank was way behind, and I got in the lead. On the last phase it was between myself, Michele and Jorge. After 3 hours of playing this game, I *really* wanted to win. I finally got my set down, and after you do that you have to throw down all of your cards - just get rid of them. Well, I WON!! I was anxious in my seat cause as soon as frank finished his round, I would throw down and win. I threw all my cars down and freaked out squealing and cracking up that I won. Yay! Jorge gave me a nice victory hug and I was so happy I won. By this time it was close to dinner. We stopped and got dinner. We got back on the bus and this time Josh sat in front of me and Jorge beside me. Now it was cold and for some reason, the window
was bringing in cold air. I pulled out my pillow and gave it to Jorge to set against the window and then I pulled out my nice comforter and put it over us. Jorge was grateful and he just slumped over and went to sleep. For a while, Josh, Michele, and I though he was dead cause he *wasn�t* moving. Michele checked his breath and nothing, I put my hand on his back and felt he was breathing. The guy just didn�t wake up at all. Even I was tired at this time and trying to get some sleep. In the position I was in, it just wasn�t working.
We finally got to the hotel at 2:30 - 21 hours on the bus- and Jorge helped me lug my stuff up to my room.
This is when Michele and I met out roomies. Hu, yeah. I had a clue that there would be problems when Caroline snarked at us �It sounds like there are 50 people in this room!� - Michele and I just looked at each other and stared with the �I think she�s trying to tell us to shut up� �You think so�? �I�m thinking so.� We got to sleep and I woke up at 8 - guess what decided to tag along?? Oh yeah - that horrible sickness I�m known for. Lovely. So I got about a good 5 hours of sleep that night. Tried to sleep more till we had to leave for skiing at 11 - didn�t work. I went down to the lobby and sat on the
couch and cried at Jeremy. I was so upset that I couldn�t go skiing.

Kristen got me some nausea medicine and I kept on chugging every 15 minutes. Oh yeah, during the bus ride to the rental place and mountian, guess who decides to sit next to Jorge - the one who snarked �Sounds like there�s 50 people in this room!� - Caroline. The annoying twit buzzing around my head the entire trip. So yeah, she started talking to him and whatever. I didn�t notice much cause I was busy with being horribly sick.
We get to the rental place, stood in line, and I got a pair of ski boots in like 5 seconds. The first pair the guy picked out for me fit perfectly. Now to stand in another line. I get up to the guy who fits my ski�s and we have a contest on who is more sick.
�Why don�t you smile�?
�Cause I�m sick.�
�That�s no reason. I�m sick to.�
�But did you throw up this morning�?
�Yeah, but not from being sick. Plus I have one hour of sleep.�
�Same here.�
Finally he fit my ski�s and I was able to move on. This same guy
actually hit on 3 other of our leaders. One who was married (Kristen) and Caroline - he kept on touching Caroline, and some other. Anyway, we get to the place and Michele and I wander around for a bit before I board the shuttle up to the mountian lodge. I sat up there for the rest of the day. At least it was amusing. The lodge sat on the Black hill so I got to see everyone wipe out. I sat there from 12:30 to 3 and then some kids from the group came by and I wasn�t alone for the rest of the day. Which was nice cause I was completly bored.
They had a fire and I sat in front of that with everyone, then I went outside to look for the kids where I saw Jorge wipe out on a Black. I found him and said we were leaving and we watched the shuttle to the bottom leave. So we walked to the area and waited for the bus. Nice little time there. Jamal and Julian came with us and Jamal told us how he was educated. The ski patrol made him watch a video, and put a big red E on his ski tag, it was meant not to let him on any lifts that led up to Blacks. He had gone out of control, crashed through a baracade and almost ran into the side of the lodge. Then he pretended to be from Chile (cause he said that�s the only place that had skiing in S. America) while the patrol took him away.
Got on the bus and Michele and I sat at the table with Jorge across from us. The seat in front of me was empty and Julian (Jorge�s bro) sat for a second. Caroline came up and said �No wait! I wanted to sit next to Jorge so I can get to know him!� - she must have realized how bad that sounded cause she tacked on �.. And Shannon and Michele too.� *Everyone* noticed this. I just remember sitting there getting pissed off, cause she was all touchy and she invited him to her church. �I go to Calvary chaple - you should come one Sunday morning!... oh, and your bro too.�
When we got to the hotel, and were planning to go to Applebee�s for dinner. They were out of food, so some of us travled down the road to some Waffle House type of thing. There were quite a few of us, but when we got to the place it somehow dwindled down to Michele, Caroline, Jorge and I. There was no more room at the bigger table (where most of the church was) so we had to sit at a booth.
Classic moment, Christina and Michele noticed this. Jorge sat down first, then Michele, being Michele sat across from him. Okay, choice. Sit next to Jorge and look like I might be pushy or sit next to Michele, look like whatever, and let Caroline sit next to him. I wasn�t having any of that, so I sat next to Jorge. Michele said she saw this all playing out and my expression was �hm, where to sit.� and I just plopped down next to Jorge. Christina said she saw Caroline just stand, looking down at me for a few seconds before sitting.
�And in this corner we have Shannon, 127 lb, 5.8" brunette. And in that corner, Caroline. 200 lb 6.0" blonde.� So that war of females had begun.
There were a few bits where she tried to make me feel stupid in front of him, but it blew up in her face. I wasn�t eating then cause I had first just had a burger at the lodge, plus I was still feeling queasy. Caroline busts out with �You know, I hate it when people come to a restraunt and don�t order anything.� I looked at her and answered with a snarky �sorry� said something like �I�m still feeling sick, and I already had something.� Then they got on music with Guns and Roses - Jorge likes all of that old rock, and Caroline liked them too. I was just sitting there listening and she looks at me and says �Do you like them�? I said �no.� � very nicely. Comes back with �Do you like music�? Me = ticked. I came back with the snarkiest face and attitude I could muster (without looking snotty in front of Jorge) with a �yes�. Number three. Caroline asked Michele how she got saved. Then she asked Jorge. My turn. Not a word to me. We must have sat there in silence for about
10 seconds with Michele just cracking up on the side cause she knew I was waiting for it. Finally Michele asked me - we deducted that Jorge already knew so that�s why he didn�t ask.. So Michele laughed and asked me �Okay Shannon... how did you get saved.� I said I got saved in first and second grade - twice. Caroline, trying to make me look bad says �So you think it�s okay to get saved twice�? I look at her with this dumbfounded look and was like �No duh, I was 6 years old. I didn�t know.� I explained and then somehow it happened that when our food came, Caroline was left out of the conversations. I mean, I would have felt bad for doing that but the little frell ticked me off so much that night. We walked back and Caroline was ten feet ahead of us with me, Michele and Jorge walking back. It�s one thing to be new to a group and try to edge your way in. There�s a certain protocol to it, she broke all of that. She was touchy, and was acting like she had been our friends for a while. You can�t do that -especially with Jorge because he is very shy. It took the guy 3 months to be able to talk to me normally!
Okay, got to the room, and set out all of my clothes for the next day (we were leaving at 10) I was determined to go skiing. Got up, felt perfectly fine, then after an hour I started feeling sick. I was pushing myself though. Got on the bus, still felt sick. I even threw up the nausea medicine beforehand. Got off the bus, felt sick, on the hill, felt sick.
Jeremy pelted me with snowballs and tackled me, throwing snow on me. That�s when I started feeling better, oddly enough. Kristen and Michele made me get on my ski�s and I slid down the hill towards the line and promptly freaked out and fell down. I finally got in line and onto the ski lift. This hill we went up was a nothing hill, but I was still freaked. I went with Jon and took a picture. Got to the top and started off. This tiny little hill, I must have fallen like 5 times down the thing. Kristen and Josh followed me and watched to see why I�d fall. Kristen saw what I was doing... I�d start going, seem like I was going fast, freak out and fall down - that was my main problem. She assured me that I wasn�t going fast. Then Josh told me that I had to keep my legs stiff, cause I was wobbly. Got to the bottom of that hill and then they took me over to another hill that lifted up to a blue and green. The levels go Green, Blue, then Black. Well, we get up there and the freaking green was CLOSED!!!! I was flipping out. Surprising enough, I went down the blue and I didn�t fall. I was even able to stop
and everything!!! I was so happy I finally figured out how to ski! Yay for me! Not to mention my first real hill was a BLUE!!
The next few hours, sure I fell but at least I was skiing and I knew how to stop. One time, the only reason I fell was because Michele started screaming bloody murder, so I freaked and fell down - no wait. It was more like I ran into a snow wall. My ski was stuck in there and it was hard getting out of that thing.
No one must have believed that I can ski because every time they passed me on the ski lift I was on the ground yelling at them �I can ski!! Really I can!� So one of those times I had managed to get up without taking a ski off, so I tried it again. Didn�t work. So instead I started down the hill crouched down on my ski�s. I wasn�t stopping so I tried to lay down and I KEPT ON GOING!! I was laying there thinking �why the heck am I still moving�?
We did more hills and then came to the lodge for lunch. I was so tired and exhausted that I started shaking. I got a bottle of water and Michele went to get me some chicken soup. I finally stopped shaking and that�s when Jorge went to teach Kristen how to snowboard. I stayed inside. They came back and then I went back out with them to teach Michele how to snowboard. Oh my goodness. Hysterical. One time, Michele started going and couldn�t stop. We were at the top of the hill yelling at her to stop! Lay down!! She finally fell but kept on going, heading right for this one snowboarder. She starts yelling at him to get out of the way, and... just think of a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle. For snowboarders, they have one foot attached to the board and one foot free. So there was this guy scrambling to get out of her way, scooting along, We were all cracking up at the top of the hill.
We saw Carrie and Jon sitting at the bottom of the hill so we went to join them. I sat and talked with Carrie and we watched Jeremy and Jonathan come down the hill. Jeremy is a good skiier, and he shaved snow at me while coming up to stop. Nice.
We saw Corey come down in a tee shirt, ski pants, book bag with
headphones. He�s a great snowboarder because he has no fear at all. While we were waiting, it was decided that Jon and Michele would gang up on me and pelt me with snow for a few minutes. Not fair at all.
We all met up at the bottom of the mountian, and decided to meet at the
smaller hill (cause our skis were at the main lodge) and have a snowball fight. We got over there and the ski patrol had already told them no snowballs cause it was dangerous, so we kicked snow at each other.
Then we went into this tiny restraunt to warm up where we sat for a while and then all of us decided to go skiing one more time. No problem. I got my skis on and got in line with everyone. We went to one small hill and it had been drizzling before, which means the snow had a layer of ice on it, so it was slick. I picked up speed and fell down. At the bottom, everyone else had gone on except Jeremy and Jorge. Jeremy says �We�re going to the left.� and leaves me trying to get my ski on. There was something wrong with that ski cause I could not get it on. I stood there for ten minutes trying to work that thing to get
it on, but it wouldn�t work. So I gave up and went inside. Everyone else had been waiting for me at the bottom so after ten minutes they left. I am so glad I didn�t go with them because Kristen, Michele, and Sam wiped out so badly. Kristen�s ski *and* boot came off, Michele, flew down the mountain and landed at the bottom - where she started crying. The story is too long and has to be told in person, but all three of them were in pain after that run. So glad I didn�t go with them, instead I hung out with some of the kids and got a �snow goddess� shirt. Very cute.
Back to the bus, headed to the hotel and then over to Applebees where I sat with Jamal, Julian, Frank, and Jorge for a bit till we got a table. Michele and I split an appetizer and I sucked it down too quickly and got a stomach ache. Left early, and packed up the room. I had a nice shower/bath and then went out to the lobby to find Carrie cause she had my hat. Walked in on the Bible study, so I just sat and listened in. Afterwards, Carrie took me to her room where she made me listen to a song she thought fit perfectly to me. �Don�t mess with my man.� She woke up to it and thought �Shannon!!� I was cracking up as I listened to it on her MP3.
I was really hoping that I wasn�t holding the Jorge thing against Caroline - she might be really nice. She was feeling sick that night and I felt bad for her. I offered some of my many medicines, but she didn�t want them. Okay.
The next morning, New Years Eve we had to be on the bus by 6 am to drop off Doyle at the airport in Lynchburg. Ick. Lynchburg is home of Liberty University where the concert is. I tried to sleep, but I already had a good amount, so I was awake. I left Michele to sleep and sat with Carrie. Then Christina and Jeremy sat behind us so we talked and messed around. We stopped for breakfast at Hardees, and when the bus was leaving I thought we were missing a few kids. I look out the window and three of our girls are running towards the bus, I started yelling "Stop!! We're missing some!!" Later on the bus and I sat at the table with Frank and Jorge with Carrie across from us. Carrie found a splinter in her hand so we were trying to dig into her hand to get it out. It was then we had the nice Frank/Carrie argument where he said he was the driver that ran over her dog. Nice.
After we dropped off Doyle at the airport, I sat in the front with Jeremy driving and Jonathan and Carrie, Kristen, Michele, and I had lots of fun. Now was the time of my yelling out "Okay. Go!" when the bus was stopped at what looked like a normal stop sign intersection - everyone started laughing and I had no idea why. Jose tells me �There�s a red light!� I look down, under the visor and see red. I didn't know there was a light. I stayed up in the front bothering
Jeremy on driving the bus and we stopped by the local mall to walk around.
Chris (Jorge's cousin) wanted to get him a gift, and Michele invited me along. No problem. Then Jorge starts following us.. okay, I'll be the distraction. *g* So for the hour while we were in the mall I was dragging Jorge off and away whenever I would get 'the look' from either Michele or Chris. It was one of the nicest times I've ever had in a mall.
Back on the bus and over to this little area that had a buffet, Italian, and an Ale House. A few of us chose the Italian. We had with us Corey, Sabrina, Carrie, Michele, Jeremy, Jonathan, and their sister Jenny, Geo, Dale, Jorge, and Chris. It was a lot of fun... Corey is very amusing and you can not tell he is the pastors son. Somehow the subject of gay porn was brought up, and for a while there I was wondering if I was around Scapers instead of the church youth group. I just remember that lunch all of us laughing at Corey.
Load into the bus and off to the 5 star Econo Lodge. Yeah, my room reeked of smoke. Lovely. I kept the door open to get it to air out and sprayed lysol all over the room. It actually worked and after a few hours the smell had gone.
During this time I hung out in Carrie, Stephanie, Christina, and Sabrina's   room as they made over Samantha. She is a brain and if she'd just take a bit of time on her hair and make up - wow. At the end of the night she was beautiful and all the guys noticed it too. It was really cute. I finished getting dressed in my red velvet hip huggers, gold glitter long sleeved top and scrunched my hair. Got on the bus and borrowed Michele's jacket cause for some reason I didn't think it'd be that cold (hadn't really been that cold before - oh well) we got into the ampitheater and somehow managed it that Jorge sat next to me. He went off to sit closer and Carrie came to sit next to me. We saw Reliant K, Out of Eden, and Audio Adreneline came on at 12:15. So before midnight I somehow got next to Jorge again. I showed Jeremy and Carrie the mint I had in my mouth and a second before Jeremy joked to Carrie if I wanted gum or something, so when I showed them the mint they started cracking up.
Midnight came, I got a nice hug and then sat back down waiting for AA. The youth took up three rows, Jeremy was in front of us dancing all goofy and he looks back, all of us are sitting there, starring at the concert, and even some had fallen asleep. "You guys suck!!" he tried to yell at us above the booming bass. Didn't work very well.
We get out of the concert and it's pouring cold rain. Nice. I had Michele's jacket still so that kept me pretty covered. All of them had thought Jeremy was coming to pick us up, I didn't think that sounded like him so I called him and indeed, he said 'if I walked, you guys can walk too.' So, here's the trek to the bus. Finally get on, soaking wet and cold, with me ringing out my hair. Back to the hotel, I finished packing and it was already 3am. We had to get on the bus by 6am. So I didn't even put on PJ's. I just slept in my travel clothes. By the time I got into bed and asleep, it was 3:30.
Then to have a heart attack waking up at 5:30 because Michele says she didn't do this (and I believe her) but it felt like she just jumped out of bed and I spazzed out. It was probably just cause I was sooo tired. Everyone loaded on the bus and we, all 37 of us (except the driver),passed out cold. I laid on the floor with my pillow and comforter, and Josh realized this was a good idea and did the same. We slept on that bus from 6:15 to 11. I have never heard us that quiet before in my life. The only reason we woke up was because we stopped for breakfast at Dunkin Donuts. Sat with Carrie then we moved over with everyone else.
Back on the bus, and later stopped at a hardees - they have the best burgers!! Except not so great cheese fries. Jorge was in there with me, so I said Michele and I were going over to Sonic to hang with everyone. Get over there and the wind was blowing and it was freezing. Michele and I decide to trek back over to hardees in the nice enclosed area. Pass by Jorge and Michelle and are called wimps. Kristen decides to come with us and she just bolts across the street in front of these cars and there I am looking like I'm about to get run over. All the cars stop for me and I run across the road. Back into nice area and I get some fake tattoos and a beautiful ski trip ring. I dubed it so.
Back on the bus, Jorge sits next to me on the isle seat and they put Star Wars on. Poor guy is falling asleep and I ask if he wants to trade seats so that he can have the window. Being the nice guy he is, says no it's okay. After I see his head bob a few times, I make him change seats with me. Big dork. I watched Star Wars until it got fuzzy and we had to turn it off.
Heee... I�m amused by this little event. Carrie took out her lotion and started to give Geo a hand massage like the manicurist do. I told her it was my turn next, and while she was doing this Jorge, Nicki, Stephanie, Jason, and Caroline were standing near by. We made a plan for me to give a lovely little massage to Jorge. It had to be done very innocently though. I told her I�d give her one and she�d say it�s nice and tell Jorge he should get one. She did and when I was finished I just asked nonchalantly �Want one�? motioning with the lotion. He said yes, so we all switched seats.
Guess who was standing there the whole time... yep, little Caroline seeing this whole thing. Jorge was practically drooling on the seat and he said thank you when I was finished- I know I can give nice hand massages. I was a happy little camper then.
    The rest of the trip was uneventful except for the part where I hear a voice say "Jorge won't let me touch him." I was so confused cause I thought it sounded like Caroline, but I wasn't sure. Both Michele and I hear this and we both looked up and I see Caroline standing there. Michele and I trade glances like "I can't believe she just said that." And start laughing. Later I realized she was meaning Jason whom she nicknamed Jorge - I know, weird.
We got to stop at this trucker stop... very nice. It's like a little store with showers and everything! Well, that's when I saw all the fuzzy monkeys. They were so cute.
Then our tire blew. On the right there are 2 sets of tires and a single in back. The single one blew. We stopped at a Subway/gas station at about 10:45 and wow those people were ticked cause they were closing at 11. At about 11 I was explaining to Michele "No they can't kick us out. That's retail." Well, I swear 2 seconds after I said that the lady gets up yelling "All right now, you all have to get out. Leave!!"
There was silence through the whole place then we started cracking up. We sat outside for a bit and got cold so we invaded a waffle house. Walking back Jonathan had me hysterical because we were walking though the bushes and a sprinkler must have broken cause some water was gushing so he starts yelling "There's a squirrel pooping in there!!" I was laughing so hard I couldn't get up the stairs, and he was yelling at me to hurry up before the squirrel got him.
Now about this time it was Carrie�s turn and we were trying to get her next to Jonathan. I go up and �take her seat� so that she had to sit next to Jonathan. Jeremy comes up acting like he�s gonna sit next to Carrie. Both Carrie and I give him a glare and tell him no, go sit over there. He takes the hint and Jonathan sits. Yay! During this time we watched the rest of Star Wars and snarked on how badly it smelled in the back of the bus.
It was really bad - a bunch of sweaty boys. Jonathan had all of us cracking up and by the time Star Wars was finished we were 30 minutes from home. I went to the back of the bus and sat with Michele and talked with her a bit - snarking on different events that happened. We got home at 1:45 and I got to sleep maybe 2:30 or so. The next day (Thursday) I was planning on going to work at 9 am� heh, yeah right. I slept and my parents came in my room asking if I wanted anything from the store and if they could borrow my car. NO!! Nothing from the store and take the frelling car!!! All I wanted to do was sleep. I just couldn�t figure out why they were bothering me at 8 or 9 in the morning when I was so tired. Fell back to sleep and woke up later. I rolled over and the clock says 3:28. I laid there for a few seconds talking to myself �Is it 3:30 in the morning?? It can�t be three in the afternoon!!� Yes, it was. I had slept 13 hours that night. I later asked my parents when they had come in to ask about the car and such � about to nail them on why they were bothering me at such an early hour. Nope. They came in to talk to me at 1pm! I couldn�t believe it. Even when I woke up at 3:30, the rest of the day I was sluggish and tired. Even on Friday I was dragging and so tired. At least I have the weekend to get caught up.

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