taking the wheel

Learn to drive stick:

Saturday night my good friend said goodbye to my boyfriend saying she might never see him around again. Why, you ask? Because on Sunday he was going to teach me to drive stick and that would inevitably be the end of our relationship. She obviously knows me too well.

Sunday morning we drove out to an empty community college parking lot and I climbed into the driver seat. I said "I promise not to yell at you as long as you are not a jerk and don't yell at me."

Fast forward to now. I have decided that teaching someone to drive is the hardest most frustrating task one can take on. I mean think about it, how did your first few times behind the wheel go? Was there arguing, screaming, slamming on the breaks, slamming car doors, silent rides back to the house? See what I mean.

Back to the parking lot. I seemed to start off well. If you told me like a checklist of actions I could execute them and come to a stop, or shift into 2nd. Now, the trouble starts when that checklist is thrown out and now I am told "OK, go." Ah I can't remember that whole series! My teacher doesn't understand that those 3 or 4 simple steps seem overwhelming to me because it's second nature to him. The frustration starts.

So I only kill the car once or twice in our first laps around the parking lot. Then a few other cars enter the lot. I hope they are here to park, but lucky me, they are 15 year old kids learning how to drive. These kids add to my stress level, the anxiety kicks in and I start killing it it more often. You can see both myself and my boyfriend pausing and taking deep breaths before each exchange of words. We are both trying not to lose it.

Boyfriend decides I should take the road (yeah in case you are wondering that is a road as in not a parking lot) to another parking lot with no people. He almost has to turn the wheel himself to get me to turn out of my comfy parking lot. As we are exiting the lot (against my will) of course...I kill it. We are sticking out of the lot blocking both lanes of traffic on the road. I start panicking (even more than I already was) and kill it again. Now I am sweating profusely but 3rd times the charm and I get it started. We make it to another parking lot where I have to calm my nerves before making a few more circles.

I build some confidence and get on the road again to go to yet another parking lot. I decide to try parking. Short version, I can't park. Also, anyone who can parallel park a stick shift, on a hill, in San Francisco deserves a gold medal, Nobel Prize, and a PhD in driving.

I'll practice again soon. Maybe I'll make it to the streets by December.

P.S.= points to me and my boyfriend for keeping our cool the entire time

Blue Square

Learn to ski:

So after watching that video it should be apparent to you that I am a phenomenal skier. I mean maybe if I had started last winter I'd be collecting gold medals right about now.

Ok maybe not......I know I look so awkward, did not put my arms down once the whole weekend, and I swear I was going faster than it looked! Despite all those things, I was able to make it down the mountain and didn't even fall once the whole time!

The weekend started with a "Rise and Shine" private lesson with Terri. Terri was awesome and looks like a "little person" in all the videos I have, but I am pretty sure she was at least 5 feet. Skiing basics seemed to come back to me quickly (thanks dad) which was a pleasant surprise to both me and Ter. I could make it down the bunny slope fairly easily and could do the nice wide wedge turns. Anyway, my hour with her flew by and then it was time to go off on my own.

You saw how my first run without Ter went. I went on all the green runs Northstar had (the levels of difficulty go green circles, blue squares, and black diamonds) and built some confidence on day one. Then my second day on the mountain, in 10+ years, my boyfriend decided we should go to the summit (tip top of the mountain) for lunch. There are no green circle runs at the top of the mountain....ahhh.

So I worked up the courage by the end of lunch to make my way down, what he so casually called "an easy blue square that they can't technically make a green circle." Uh huh, sure. I was doing ok even after I freaked out at the very start of the run and forgot how to turn. After getting over that I made my way down. Until, I suddenly couldn't see my boyfriend in front of me anymore.

As I got farther down the run I saw that he had gone down what looked to me like a sheer mountain face...I'm talking 90 degrees to your death. (It was probably more like 45 degrees but hey this is day two for me). He is sitting at the bottom of this cliff impatiently motioning with his hands "come here" like it's some easy journey between here and there.

There I was stuck at the top of this slope panicking. I told myself I had to go down sooner or later so I should just start going. I slowly crossed the slope going across and not down even a little coming to a complete stop on the other side as I was too scared to turn my skis even a tiny bit downhill. I stood there frozen for another few minutes trying to gather some courage. Ok time to do this I can't live on this mountain.....I went to turn downhill and just couldn't make myself do it, freaking out again. Now came the tears, dammit.

All I could think was "I'm never going to make it down this mountain, I can't do it, I am stuck forever!" Then "why are you crying? This isn't going to help you get off this cliff!" Here I go.....extremely slow and steady, while quietly weeping, I made it to the bottom of this (honestly, mini) slope. I did it!

I went over to where my boyfriend was sitting waiting for me and started crying again. He laughed at me a little (jerk) then felt bad (as he should). After composing myself we finished the rest of run and got back in line for the chair lift. I told him we had to go do that run again. He protested, saying I didn't "like" that one. Uh yeah I hated it and cried and though I was going to die of hunger and hypothermia after being stranded on the top of that slope for months on end. Yes, I did not enjoy myself but I made it down and knew the best thing for me would be to go back up and do it again. I had to conquer that mountain before I let the memory of that run swear me off skiing forever.

So up we went. I was a ball of nerves but there was no turning back now. As, we came upon that slope again it looked a million times easier than before. In addition to that there were a bunch of other skiers and I couldn't take all day to make it down. So after only a few seconds I turned downhill and worked my way down. It was so much easier! The adrenaline kicked in and I didn't even pause at the bottom I just continued on down the run patting myself on the back for a job well done. By the time I got to the bottom I was physically exhausted but so psyched!

Learn to ski: check
:)

cross it off

I did it! See the awkwardness that is me skiing for the first time in about 12 years. Stay tuned for more about the trip.....

Slightly Slacking

So this past week has been pretty slow goal-wise.

Learn to ski:

I called Northstar to reserve a lesson for bright and early Saturday morning. I was excited about this goal at first. Now that it's days away I am TERRIFIED. I tried to mentally prepare myself and calm my nerves by watching some YouTube videos on 'How to ski.' Pretty sure it made me even more nervous. Damn. I want to back out of this trip so badly. Don't make me go!!

side note: Skiing is a really expensive activity.

Read 10 books:

The Libraries are still being a-holes and keeping multiple books from me. So instead I go to Barnes and Nobels on my lunch breaks and read there. Last week I picked up Einstein's Riddle: Riddles, Paradoxes, and Conundrums to Stretch Your Mind by Jeremy Stangroom. Not really the type of book I would qualify in my 10 for the year but, nevertheless, awesome.

I have always loved riddles and those kinds of things. You know...Mike is taller than Eric but shorter than Casey or you have a 3 gallon and 5 gallon container and need to measure our 4 gallons, etc. This book if full of fun things like that to torture your brain. Luckily, there are answers in the back to the ones that actually have answers. After reading that only 2 percent of people can solve Einstein's Riddle I printed it out so I can work on it later. I am determined to be one of the 2%. Wish me luck.

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe. --Albert Einstein

So that is everything I have done related to my 2010 goals.

In other news, I tricked a party of people into eating vegan 7 layer dip at a Super Bowl party...muhahahha. I got a few compliments, the entire thing got eaten, and no one had any clue! I love it.

I didn't pay to much attention to the famous Super Bowl commercials but this one killed me:




I also got a promotion at work. Go me!