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A lot happened last weekend.

It all started on Friday. Of course it had to snow 10 cm on the one day that I actually had to drive to work (I was supposed to pick up my skeleton friend Matt and drive straight to Whistler after work). The roads were horrendous. I got to work no problem (yay Subaru) but I had to park on the street and was worried all day that someone was going to slide and smash into it.


…And someone did. The back left corner was pretty smashed. The front is damaged as well from hitting into the car parked in front of me. At least the person left me a note. This was my first time dealing with an accident so I wasted a lot of time figuring out what to do. Unfortunately because of that I couldn’t meet up with Matt in time and I had to miss skeleton practice. Usually that would be fine, but it was a race weekend (BC Cup) and Friday was “official race training”. I got some texts from Matt and our coach saying that I might not be eligible to race on Saturday or Sunday because I missed the training. I was double sad.


The next day I was told that I could still come and be a forerunner (test person) and they would try to make my runs count as official race runs. I was told they would have to talk to the jury and see if they would let me participate. Of course I really wanted to!! My first ever skeleton race??!! So exciting!

I didn’t find out I was actually racing until the very last second. I was frozen because one of the bobsledders sliding from the top crashed and we had to wait for a long time while they inspected and fixed up the track. I was first to slide after the crash. My first run was ok until the last straightaway. I ping ponged a bit before the finish line and lost a lot of time. I had the worst time (out of the three of us). Then we went back up, the bobsled crashed again and we got re-frozen and I had another bad run.

There were three skeletoners and one bobsled going from the top, and three skeletoners and two bobsleds going from Lower Ladies start. It was a weird mix of official and not official… the people going from the top were competing for medals and points, but we weren’t really… yet we had a race official with us and had to ask a jury for me to be allowed to participate. Iunno.


Race 1 was disappointing but I just kept thinking Race 2 is its own separate thing and I’m going to do awesome. Our coach found speedsuits for us (that we can keep!) and everyone was pumped. I was optimistic and less distracted (I thought).

Everything was feeling good and then the bobsled crashed again. This time was pretty bad, he crashed in corner 4 and slid the whole rest of the track upside down. We saw him come by our start area upside down making a horrible scraping noise. Not cool. (He is fine though). The track was pretty gouged and we had to wait a long time before it was cleared for sliding again.

Again I had to go right after the bobsled crash. Frozen and distracted. I steered myself right into the wall at the start. SO DUMB. Even though the rest of my run was fine, I lost a lot of time with my start so I was in last place again.

Then one of the skeletoners from the top hit a wall and flew off his sled. So crazy. (He is also fine though). That scraped the track quite a bit too so more waiting, more freezing. Last run of the weekend what do I do?? STEER MYSELF DIRECTLY INTO THE WALL AT THE START AGAIN. I was like “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” down the rest of the track.

Matt and Grant had some great runs. The track was fast and they got some PB times. I beat them a lot in practice but I came decisively in last place in both races. Sigh. The pressure got to me I guess! I think the cold and stress of the car might have had something to do with it as well. Anyway it was still fun and I’m glad I got to participate, and I can’t wait to beat those guys in the next race. :D I’m going to go do some track visualizations now…

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Last weekend was SO FUN! Skeleton, Santa Day, Hotel, Hot Tub, etc etc!

Scott, Rose and I drove up to Whistler super early to dress as Santa and get a free lift ticket. There were 165 Santas this year!! You can see a bunch of pictures here. Scott and Rose had a great day on the slopes but I am saving my ticket for another time because I had skeleton.

It was pretty warm out so the skeleton track wasn’t its fastest, but I still managed to go 120.07 km/hr on one run on Saturday. I’m still the only one of our little group to go 120+ and now I’ve done it twice!! Hehe. The track seemed extra smooth? I don’t know, it felt like a different track than last month. I didn’t have any of the same problems I had last time.

Sunday was even warmer. We shared the track with some sliders from Korea and the US, plus two 2-man bobsledders! It was actually really cool to watch the mega-thighed Koreans and the crazy bobsledders. Do you know how often bobsleds crash?? A LOT!!! (Although we did not see any crashes.) I do not see the appeal of bobsled.

I had a couple great runs and a couple terrible runs! Lots of bumps, oops. I feel like I am learning tons at the moment though so it’s all good.

And the best part…. I get to be in a race this coming weekend!! I will be competing in the BC Cup Race 1 and 2. :D :D I am so iksidid!! I will go up on Friday for practice, and then the races will be on Saturday and Sunday. By the way I am still not sliding from the top but there are enough of us that can go from Lower Ladies that we can have a real race.

The other part that made the weekend supah fun was that we booked a hotel room for Scott, Rose, Chris, Matt, and I to all cram into. Hot tub party times! I really enjoyed myself. I rate last weekend A+. I hope we can have another like that again.

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I quit my data entry job, kinda. Working 55+ hours a week at two jobs was really bumming me out, so after much deliberation I told my boss that I was too busy to work there any more. It was a hard decision because once my training at the hospital is done, my hours will drop off a lot. Thankfully he said if I want to come back later… I can! Great news!

Working at the hospital is going great. I am pretty much working full time until the new year. I am getting tons of training, and also covering some vacation. It’s been nice working on my own. Injections seem SO MUCH EASIER now that no one is watching me, haha! So far I have done a week on the MIBI cameras, and two weeks of hotlab training. Next week I will be doing cardio.

Skeleton last weekend was super fun. I was pretty nervous before the first session. I wasn’t sure what the coach was going to get us to do. Thankfully he suggested doing a few runs from Maple Leaf (curves 11-16) and then deciding if we want to move back up to Lower Ladies (curves 7-16). (Here is a little track map/infographic.)

I did three runs from Maple Leaf. The first one was crap because I was way too far forward on my sled. Then the second and third one were awesome, so I moved up to Lower Ladies. I did three more runs from there, beating all the boys, with a top speed of 117.51 km/hr. Then my neck was too tired so I skipped the last run.

The next day I started from Lower Ladies right away. I did four runs from there, beating all the boys again. The track was a little slower, so my top speed was only 116.09 km/hr. After four runs my neck was tired so I did the last three runs from leisurely Maple Leaf. Even though Maple Leaf seems so slow and boring I think it’s still worth doing because that is more track time for me. I can use those runs to think about things like making sure my heels are touching and what the corners look like.

I can’t wait until the next session because I am finally figuring out where I want to be in each corner (last year I was just along for the ride, haha!), and should be able to improve my times and speeds a bit. It’s been hard for us to get ice time though, because of those dang Olympics. Fingers crossed I get to go again by mid-December.

Morgan and I had a nice ladies night with wine and a fire and a movie and popcorn.

I finished a few more audiobooks since my last post.

  • Paper Towns by John Green, a YA novel that was entertaining, but nothing remarkable.
  • Allegiant by Veronica Roth, the third book in the Divergent series. I heard some people say they didn’t like it, but I thought it was fine.
  • 1984 by George Orwell, which I enjoyed, once I figured out that this was NOT the book with animals.
  • The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, a pretty boring book about small things that turned small things into BIG things.
  • Steve Jobs – The Biography by Walter Isaacson, an interesting book that convinced me that I really do not like Steve Jobs. He was such a jerk to so many people!! And all those characteristics of Apple products that I strongly dislike (closed systems, glass screens, high prices etc. etc.) were pretty much all due to Steve Jobs himself. I would not have got along with him in real life.

Kevin asked me at work the other day how Scott was, and I replied “I have no idea.” because 1) I was only home for about 3 minutes in the last two weeks, and 2) he is growing some kind of horrific mustache and I refuse to look at him.

We have to clean out the pantry this weekend because we leave for Hawaii on Wednesday after work and then Rosemarie will be coming home with us! As far as I know she will stay with us in December and then find her own place for January. I’m looking forward to lots of sister time next month!!

Also HAWAII!!!! I can’t wait, I can’t wait!!!! (said Arthur)

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After a long (short!) week of work I am off to Whistler for a skeleton weekend. It’s my first session of the season and I am excited and also scared. I wonder what we’re going to do this weekend and I wonder how it’s going to feel! I’ve got better clothing this year, so hopefully I stay a little warmer. I’m also stronger this year, so hopefully things are a little easier. We shall see!

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I GOT A JOB!! I have been hired as a casual at the hospital I went to in my first summer, and I start tomorrow. I am so so happy and excited and also petrified. When you’re a student you can make mistakes all the time because there is someone watching you and helping out. Now if I make a mistake it’s all on me! But I am very happy because the team at the hospital is great. I feel so lucky that they picked me. :)

I will apparently get a bunch of shifts this month to get re-trained, and then it will die down a bit after that. I have no idea how much work I will get… it could be anywhere from 0 to 40 hours a week. So for now I am still going to work a few nights at the data centre. If(/when) I get hired at a another hospital I should be able to quit the data centre.

Hey we also have a new niece!! This is very very recent news, I don’t even know what the name is yet or anything!

Scott’s brother Brett arrived the other day. In the first few days of his visit we: set off fireworks, went to a CFL game, ate poutine, shopped, watched hockey on the projector Scott borrowed from work, played Munchkin and Settlers, and more. Right now him and Scott are in Seattle going to an NFL game. And on Tuesday they’re going to a Vancouver Giants game, where they have rinkside seats for about 1/10 of the price of a Vancouver Canucks nosebleed section seat. That should be fun. I would’ve gone too except I will be at my second job. :/

I had fun watching skeleton with Brian the other week. The race had less effect on who gets to compete in the World Cup as I thought it did though. Some people were already qualified from last year. Cassie Hawrysh did awesome, but Jon Montgomery and Melissa Hollingsworth didn’t do as well. A person crashed, unexpected people did great, and two ladies tied for first and had to share a medal. I am looking forward to the upcoming season even more now!!