Weekday on the Slopes
Sabrina Di Marco
From my office window I had watched the snow fall early in the week. Big, fat, white flakes floated down onto the ground, retuning the panorama from early spring grass and cement to a winter wonderland. Acting as a mix of meteorologist and math wizard, I calculated that I would indeed be able to squeeze in an extra day on the slopes. Work and so many other commitments demanded attention, but so too did those big white snowflakes coming back for a final hoorah and unexpected season finale. A tribute to them was necessary. Later that week I was thrilled to indulge in my ski day. Yet I was concerned that the beautiful flakes of snow from earlier in the week would not be enough to provide good conditions on the slopes. On the ski lift I spoke with a woman who had been there all day. She came up with her two teenage kids. She was telling me about how they exhausted her because they were not as passionate about being out on the snow. Sometimes they wanted to ski and sometimes they didn’t. Now they were in the chalet playing video games while she indulged in a few solo runs. She was a radiant, real woman. I asked her about the snow. On this April day, knowing that the resort wasn’t making snow this late in the season, I feared barren or icy patches, or terrible slushy snow. As she paused I could see that she reached deep inside of her emotion from the day in order to answer me honestly. She said, “well, it is really . . . amazing!” and released a big, happy smile. Not believing her at all, I thought that it was great how positive she was. She was the epitome of all those inspirational memes on social media. She was taking a spring condition ski and making lemonade.
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