Reading Week 2007

it is a weird feeling to be more stressed at the end of a holiday than the beginning. and this isn't the usual "bracing for the return to work" stress, this is literally the fallout from my past week.

i love my family and i love our trips and this was no exception. we did all the wintery things that an imaginary sitcom family would do during a week in quebec: shopping in montreal, cross-country skiing, ice skating, glissade, downhill skiing, eating fondue in front of the fire ... seriously, we are ridiculous. so why do i feel like i would have been better off emotionally had i stayed in ontario?

things started off well. i went to kingston for a night to get myself organized and pack up my winter stuff, most of which still lives in my parents house. my mom and i hit the gym on saturday morning and we drove to montreal in the afternoon. i was made fun of repeatedly for wearing a skirt over leggings. it was awesome.

we just shopped and hung out in montreal on sunday and drove to st. sauveur in the late afternoon. the chalet was great and i nearly beat my dad at scrabble.

things took a minor turn for the worse monday afternoon. after repeatedly stating that i wanted to have a relatively easy cross-country ski day we ended up doing a 10 km trail that varied between blue and black. as did my bottom by the end of it. i mean, when the options are hitting a tree or taking the dive you take the dive, if only because your new x-country skis are so pretty. to be honest it wasn't so bad until the last hill which was literally the bottom of an old downhill trail. i thought i gave myself another concussion and then cried for about an hour and a half.

tuesday was a pretty relaxed day. i went to the spa for a massage and then we just slept and hung out for most of the afternoon. by this point in the week my family had already compiled a pretty long list of "things sarah doesn't like". if i ever feel like being publicly ridiculed i will post it. apparently my dislike of underbites is unreasonable.

wednesday was awesome, for the most part. we went to l'esterel to skate on the 8km track they made on the lake. the weather was perfect and we had a couple of hours in the afternoon to glissade (tubing down a hill: the lazy man's toboggan). my sister's boyfriend came up that night and stayed for the rest of the trip.

do you remember that sesame street song about belonging? you know "three of these things belong together, three of these things are kind of the same". yeah, i was the one that did not "belong there". usually when i am the 7th wheel it is because i am hanging out with my married friends and it isn't such a big deal. being trapped in a cabin with three couples is total balls. i had to consciously tell myself that "it is ok to be single". how lame is that???

we went downhill skiing on thursday and left on friday. i stayed in kingston that night to do my laundry and teach my mom how to use her new iPod. it was ok being back in toronto on saturday and apart from nearly getting in the middle of a crack-addict fight in kensington market i had a fun night out. but things took another turn this morning.

we had a party for my grandfather's 85th birthday today. i should clarify that i use the term "party" loosely because it wasn't fun. my family is full of characters and this is both a blessing and a curse. the conversations were as varied as the technicalities of certain jewish laws to how my grandfather accidentally took my dad to the strippers when he was young. my grandmother sat me down to tell me that my aunt was angry with me about a comment i made a couple of years ago and, in the same breath, sighed and said that she really wanted to be alive for my wedding. i had no response.

now i am just lying in bed recovering. dreaming of becoming a recluse.