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I originally planned to do separate posts on all of these topics but now I’m sitting here in YVR airport about to leave for 2.5 weeks thinking I’d better just write a big post to catch up instead.

Scott and I are on our way to Melbourne for #jornapalooza via Guangzhou, China. Apparently we are allowed to leave the airport in China (thanks 72 hour transit visa) so we may explore a bit there too which I am pretty excited about. The subway goes right to the airport so it should be pretty easy. Unfortunately they speak mainly Cantonese there so I won’t be able to dazzle everyone with my sweet Mandarin skills though. But it would be fun to get some street food and look around a bit.

Australia is going to be fun too. The whole family has rented a big house on Phillip Island for the first few days, then Jessie comes to Melbourne for Easter and a baby shower, and then I go to Adelaide for a few days to visit Cassia! I am iksidid.

Anyway that’s pretty much all the updates about what’s coming up. And now to catch up on the last month…

Calgary was super good this year. We spent a week at COP training in the icehouse and on the skeleton track and then competed in an Alberta Cup race on the last day. I had a lot more success sliding there compared to last year. I have learned SO MUCH this season and understood the track and sliding so much more. My starts were very very slow compared to everyone else and I would start each run in last place, but I must be ok at driving because I ended up gaining spots every run. I ended up coming 4th in the race (out of 7 competitors). My goal was not to come in last place and I definitely succeeded in that so I was happy.

This year I stayed at Ally’s house the whole time and that was awesome. It’s always great to catch up with old friends and her and Scott are very fun. I was busy a lot of the time I was there but we still squeezed in going to a nice oyster restaurant, going out to the barn for a ride on her horse, and going to watch some of the Brier curling. BTW curling is really fun to watch live!

Sliding in Whistler was going pretty well too. Sliding from the top was getting less and less scary every day. Every session I would try and push just a tiny bit faster. We ended up having quite a big turnout for our last race of the season, BC Champs, including OTHER GIRL SKELETON SLIDERS!! I came in 4th, aka last place, but I was competing against World Cup/ICC level sliders so that was to be expected. I was still pretty happy because I got a huge PB time on the first day of the race, and then another PB on the second day.

BCBSA ended up giving out medals to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places, and then a separate medal for the #1 BC slider. Originally they gave the BC medal to Jane, because she is from North Van (although she hadn’t even been in Whistler all season). But after the awards she came over and put the medal around my neck. She said I should have it because of my two PBs. :’) It meant a lot to me, that was really nice of her. So I now have my first skeleton medal.

I took a pretty big hit on my last run of the race so I decided that was a pretty good time to end the season. It has been nice to have spare time again, tbh. It was such a good season, with our new coach and new friends and new teammates. I learned SO MUCH. And now I have 6ish months to try and get stronger and faster on land before next season and tryouts. My goal for next year: an international race… which should be possible because I should be able to at least do the Whistler NAC race. Fingers crossed.

What else?..

We’ve been going to trivia every couple of weeks. Our team is called Patty O’Lanterns and we rule. We plan on doing a lot of trivia over the summer so let me know if you want to come sometime. We also plan on doing a lot of patio time at our house too.

Once I get back from Australia I am starting weightlifting lessons two times a week (instead of once a week) so next time you see me I’m going to be ripped.

All joking aside, this was actually a really tough week. Wednesday morning at work we all found out that our boss had unexpectedly passed away the day before. It was a huge shock and a huge loss for us all. He and some of my coworkers had worked together for more than 20 years, and his partner also works in our department. So so so sad. He was such a great guy and definitely a lot more than just a boss to us. Our work family lost a good friend. I will miss him.

Well we are getting pretty close to boarding time so I’m going to post this and get ready to go. Until next time (hopefully not for so long).

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Last weekend was AWESOME!!

On Friday I worked a short easy shift (while watching the Lake Placid World Cup race… so cool to see my friends racing!!) and then we all headed to Mahony’s for Christmas Lunch. Thank you doctors for covering the bill. We opened our secret santa gifts and I got an awesome tea tumbler. It’s so nice! Now I need to get some loose tea to put in it.

A photo posted by Rosemarie Perkin (@reirameso) on


Scott, Rosemarie and Lauren picked me up and then we headed straight to Whistler. Half way there we realized that Scott didn’t put my skeleton backpack in the car so I was missing a speedsuit, shoes, mouthguard and gloves. But my coach helped me scrounge up a pair of shoes and a speedsuit (that was actually way nicer than the suits I have) and I borrowed gloves from Matt. Thankfully I did have my helmet. I had a bit of a rough session but it’s all about gaining time on my sled. Then we checked into our hotel and went straight to the outdoor hottub. Ultimate relax. We got upgraded to a big penthouse room so everyone had a real bed, which was much better than we expected.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early for SANTA SKI DAY!! There were around 200 santas this year. And one Christmas tree. Rosemarie got TONS of attention and fifty million pictures of her taken. I tried to stick close to her so I could be in pictures too. If your eyes are sharp you can see me a few times in this video.

A photo posted by Rosemarie Perkin (@reirameso) on


There still aren’t that many runs open, but the ones that were open were good. It was my most successful ski day in a while… I even went on a couple black diamonds. Scott, Lauren and Liz did quite well as well.

I have been here for 4 years and I somehow managed to never go the peak of Whistler??!! I always wondered where that inukshuk was that people always post pictures of. I’m not quite sure how that happened. We chickened out on skiing down the bowl though…. it had a scary entrance and there were SO many people around. Someone was even video taping!! But we skied down the saddle instead and it was lovely. So pretty up there.

My snazzy santa suit was actually one of those skin suits that covers your face too. No I didn’t ski like that. But I put it on at lunch and creeped everyone out, hehe. Man oh man that suit was a big upgrade from the felt dollar store special. So comfy and I had lots of mobility. It’s still in perfect shape so I can use it again in the years to come.

After skiing a FULL day, we drove straight back to downtown Vancouver to go to Scott’s work Christmas party at the convention centre. Rosemarie took the car home and Scott and I checked into the Pan Pacific. We got dressed up fancy super quick and only made it to dinner with a few minutes to spare. Scott didn’t even have time to shave, which he later regretted…

Dinner was good, same as the other years. Then they started the speeches. We couldn’t hear anything at all because the table behind us was super rude and loud. So then they were giving out the Award of Excellence… I could barely hear but then I heard the words “telephone” and “sense of humour” and “he” and was like….. wait…… and then “SCOTT JORNA”!! Scott won the award this year!! He got a sweet trophy and a sweet cheque! I’m so happy for him, he has worked really really hard this year and it’s so good that he got recognized for it. He had no idea!


PS Saturday was also Scott’s birthday. Earlier in the evening his friend had given him one of those pointy kid birthday hats and he almost went up with it on, haha. He got some pictures taken with important work people and lots of handshakes.

THEN, to cap off a really great day, we found out the hot tub at the Pan Pacific was open until midnight (and outdoors!) and we still had time to go for a soothing post-ski dip. It was the perfect way to end a really high adrenaline day.

Next morning we slept in super late and then went out for a nice southern-style brunch at Chewies, which I will review later.

Anyway yeah, so that was our Super Fun Skeleton Santa Birthday Party Hotel Brunch Weekend!!

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1. I forget if I mentioned it already or not, but I joined a spartan barbell weightlifting gym and have been going to lessons every week. It’s been super fun!! The coach is helping me re-learn how to squat and deadlift properly, and slowly teaching me the Olympic lifts (snatch, and clean & jerk). The Oly lifts are very complex lifts and even though it’s been a month I’ve still only snatched the 20 lbs bar, and I haven’t even cleaned anything. Last week I learned how to jerk (hehe). I jerked the 30 lbs bar, woop woop.

2. I finally got trained out at the UBC nuc med department and have been working out there a bunch lately. It’s very different than VGH, so quiet and lonely. Only two techs there, with two cameras, although one camera is old and doesn’t get used that much. It’s good to have another site where I can potentially get shifts though. But from 2:30-4:00 I pretty much just stare at the printer in fear that it’s going to print out a suprise last minute requisition.

3. I applied for a PET job at the BC Cancer Agency, had an interview, got asked for references, got a call back…. and then didn’t get the job. Bummer. I really thought I got the job for a while. Maybe it’s for the best though because I am still getting lots of shifts at VGH, and it’s already going to be a busy winter. I always think I’m not going to work a lot, and then end up working almost every day. Hopefully I am fine without PET.

4. This is week 7 of no sugar or simple carbs. I feel good, more stable, less crazy cravings for sugar first thing in the morning. I’ve lost 10 lbs, and Scott’s lost like twice that. However I also feel weaker while exercising, which isn’t ideal. I want to quit the diet so I can get stronger, but the weight loss is addicting tbh. Just 5 more lbs?? One more week?? I don’t know. I think even if I do start eating sugar again, it’s not going to be a lot. Maybe just low GI foods, like a pre-diabetic diet.

Anyway it’s a beautiful blustery fall day today and we’re going to watch the Ottawa vs. Vancouver hockey game tonight. The tradition continues.

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My level of motivation for training for skeleton goes up and down dramatically all the time. It varies from WHAT’S THE POINT, I’M NEVER GOING TO BE A COMPETITOR to I TOTALLY COULD BE A COMPETITOR!!!

Right now I’m in the I TOTALLY COULD BE A COMPETITOR state. I’ve actually been doing sprints!! Running is definitely my weak point, since ummm… I hate it. But I watched a billion videos on youtube and am now full of all sorts of tips and hints to make me faster. Today I videotaped myself at the track and reviewed after each sprint and it actually helped A LOT. The videos helped me see that I was planting my foot too far forward, heel striking, and looking too far down. Lots of problems but at least I know some specific things to work on.

I’ve also been doing lots of shrugs to help develop my neck so I can resist G forces better, upright rows so that I can lift my own skeleton sled into the car, cleans for power, etc etc. The off-season is all about doing everything you can to be a better slider without having any ice available.

I know it’s not very likely that I’ll ever be going to the Olympics or anything but it would be nice to not have to be embarrassed by my start times. My goal for this winter is to move up to starting from the top of Whistler, but maybe my goal for after that could be competing for realz. I would love to be able to do the Canadian selection races (one in Calgary and one in Whistler) so that I could have a ranking. Forerunning big races could be cool as well.

I was invited to participate in the Calgary icehouse push camp this August but unfortunately I am scheduled to work every day that week. That would be a lot of money to give up, plus I don’t even think there is anyone available to cover me. Plus flights and everything = $$$$. Sigh. I am hoping there will be another trip at some point over the winter again though.

So the next thing coming up is the summer testing. In the meantime, MORE RUNNING/LIFTING/JUMPING. :D

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sonobe

Scott really wanted to put his sonobe on his head. He mentioned it to me three different times.

Rosemarie and I are going to Listowel next month to visit our grandparents. We managed to get a REALLY REALLY REALLY good deal on flights thanks to YVR Deals. $278 roundtrip including the taxes!

Casual life is weird. When I look forward in my calendar I look really NOT busy, but when I look back in my calendar I see that I worked 3-5 days a week pretty much every week. Finger crossed this keeps happening for the next month until the summer schedule kicks in (where I know I have tons of work).

Scott’s citizenship application has been officially received. They sent him his study pack today. For his test in…. approximately 24 months according to the immigration website.

I should do another crafts update because I have been doing a lot of crocheting and cross stitching!! Soon.

I keep going through waves of emotion about off-season skeleton training. From “I SHOULD TRAIN SUPER HARD SO I CAN BE COMPETITIVE NEXT WINTER AND WIN RACES” to “I’M NEVER GOING TO ACTUALLY BE A COMPETITOR SO WHAT’S THE POINT” and back and forth and back and forth. I find it really difficult to train after working certain tiring shifts at work though, so my regimen hasn’t been super consistent, but I still have been doing weights a few times a week. And I actually started running again, something that I really really hate, but is necessary.