Skiing and Getting Sick

Yesterday we (Benji, Heidi, Patrick, Michelle, Tony & Glen) went skiing at Massanutten. We had a great time! We got there and I tried in vain to get my borrowed ski boots on. I took them back out to the van and rented some instead. I rented a locker for $1. The thing was, it charged a dollar every time you opened it. I put in my duffel bag and forgot that my cap and gloves were in there. I soon realized it and opened my locker to get them. I retrieved them and closed it again and inserted another dollar. As I turned the key, I did it wrong and opened it again. I put in another dollar. I went out to the ski slope and got ready to get on the lift. I saw Tony giving his gloves to Benji. I had a brain wave and remembered that I had seen another pair of gloves in my bag. I went over and gave Tony the key so that he could retrieve the gloves. Another dollar...

I had a great time skiing Rebel's Yell most of the evening (we went night skiing). One time someone cut in front of me and I executed a radical maneuver to avoid them. I fell and my skis popped off. I tried in vain for about twenty minutes to get my ski boots back on my skis. I finally trudged back to the top of Rebel's Yell and asked a ski patrol guy for help. He said it was one of the weirdest things he ever saw, and said that he didn't have a clue how to get it back on. So they sent me back down on the ski lift; they called it downloading; not how I usually think of downloading =). On the way down I met Patrick and Michelle coming up. I told them my skis broke, and Patrick was like, "Yeaaahh... Sure...." They had called and told the guy at the bottom that I was coming, but he had forgotten all about it. As I was coming in, I could tell that he didn't see me, so I yelled "DOWNLOAD!" a couple of times. He finally heard me and stopped the lift. It was pretty late in the game when he finally managed to get it stopped and two young ladies had almost landed in my lap because they were about to ride up on the chair that I was coming down on. My ski boots also got stuck under the lift and it took a little wiggling to get them out.

On the way up in the lift one time we had fun laughing at first timers Tony and Glen as the tumbled and swerved down the hill. One time Benji, Patrick, Michelle, and I were all at the top of Rebel's Yell together. Patrick went first. He went almost straight down! He was flying! I came at only a slightly reduced speed behind him. Benji was quite a bit slower than I was and Michelle was slower than us all. I came over a little rise in the hill and I see Patrick clomping as fast as he can in his ski boots up the hill. He had gone too fast. As he was flying down the hill, his skis decided to stay where they were, and he kept going. He did a complete somersault in the air and landed on his feet. He was running for all he was worth back up to his skis cuz he wanted to beat me to the bottom. I started roaring with laughter as I flew by him. Needless to say I beat!

As we drove out of Massanutten all of a sudden our headlights illuminated two cop cars sitting beside each other. The one turned on its headlights, did a U-turn, and fell in behind us. Tony who was driving and I who was in the passenger's seat were the only ones who noticed it. We were both like, "Oh crap..." It followed us a bit to see if we would go any faster. We didn't. He turned on his lights and Tony pulled over. He came up and asked for registration. I dug through the glove compartment looking for it. I handed it to him. He said that that was the insurance. I called Dad to ask him where it was. He wasn't sure. The cop finally said "Forget it..." About that time the other cop went by with his lights on chasing someone else. He said that he would have to issue a citation for going 57 in a 40. Some very uncomplimentary things were said about cops while he was back writing out the ticket. It was a bit nasty how they had it set up there. People are coming down this hill in automatics and are going faster than they are trying to... I later thought about it that another reason that he followed us for a bit before turning on his lights was that it would have ruined his buddy's speed trap. The ticket ticked Tony off so much that later when we stopped to eat (none of us had had supper and were famished) he didn't eat anything. We jammed out to the Shrek soundtrack on the way home.

We all stumbled wearily and sorely to bed at about 1:30 AM. Patrick stayed at our house for the night rather than driving all the way home. This morning when I awoke, I could barely move, I was so sore. I slept til 11:30 or so. I tried to get up and then I realized: I was sick. Jeff Nisly (of Software Builders) emailed me the other day saying that some computer programmers from Kansas thought that it was about time I updated my blog. Well, they got their wish. With this next portion, I think maybe the old saying comes into play, "Watch what you wish for, or it might come true."

I have not been this sick for a LONG time. For you vitamin aficionados, consider this: The last ten days is the first time in the last couple of years that I stopped taking my multi-vitamin (we have been out). Now I get sick for the first time in years. All of my shoulders and the back of my neck is totally stiff and hurts if I move just a little bit. I have a fever. One time I touched the metal chest beside my bed and jerked back in pain at how severely cold it felt. I haven't had the privelige of losing consciousness. When I am awake, I hallucinate. When I am asleep I dream nightmares. My throat hurts. I have a roaring headache. I have experienced different kinds of headaches. One kind where the pain twists through my head, another where it is at my temples, and another where it is a double headache. Both halves of my head ache with a strip of no-hurt running right down the middle. I alternately sweat and shiver. Pile on the blankers, throw them off. Analgesics moderate my suffering somewhat, but not entirely. I feel the need to put my life in order so that I am ready to die, for two reasons: 1. I feel like I might die. 2. I think I have a better idea of what hell is like. I have briefly thought of suicide, but PTL only briefly; I am in retention of my intellect enough to realize how stupid and retarded that would be. Disjointed poems and songs run through my head; portions of The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe:

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping...". "Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December, Eagerly I wished the morrow; vainly I had sought to borrow ...surcease of sorrow" "And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me---filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,"

Amazing how much of that applied to me! Also Simon & Garfunkel's Homeward Bound:

But all my words come back to me In shades of mediocrity Like emptyness in harmony I need someone to comfort me

I am on the Youth Committee and so we are having tonight's New Year's party at our house. I am course am sick... grrr... Mom brought me some of the pizza they had for supper. I guess it was because I was sick, but it was most unusual: About thirty seconds after I would eat each piece, my south end would rumble for about 5 seconds. Man, if everyone would be sick all the time, the world's energy needs could be solved in a hurry. As a precaution, I put on some clothes before they came. I would never live it down if in my hallucinatory stumblings I ran out in front of the entire youth group in my skivvies. If my writings tonight seem to ramble and seem a bit off the wall, it is because I am still sick. I am writing this from my room on a laptop with a Wi-Fi connection to our network. Let's just say that I'm getting my hangover earlier than most people do on New Year's Eve.