The bi-yearly transition
Today was my last day at the golf course for the season.
Very appropriately, the first big snow storm of the season hit as I was leaving. I'll probably hit up A-Basin to ski tomorrow afternoon.
So, I'll have 5 days off, then it's time to get the lifts ready here at Keystone.
This is the shortest time off I've taken between my two seasonal jobs. I usually like taking 2-4 weeks off, squeezing in a trip to MI in there. But of course, I just took that trip the other month.
I actually kind of wish I had some money to do something cool. 5 days is still enough to get a mini-cool trip to nowhere. But I don't think I can afford to "travel eat", and my car should get a tune-up before I go on a big trip again.
I'm going on a tangent. Back to original idea...
It feels sorta weird going from summer to winter this quickly. I usually enjoy the time to purge one season from my mind and jump into the next. But this time, I was golfing last week, working on the course up until today, now there's snow on the ground and I'm about to go skiing and get back to work on the lifts. I hate to say it... but I don't FEEL ready for winter.
I mean... I'm sure I will... once the snow is consistent and I got my ski boots and "snowmobile ninja" mask on for a few weeks. But until then... something feels off.
I dunno.
--------
So next week is pretty much Lead and Supervisor re-train, and learn about how the new gondola works. It'll be good to see those friends again.
Then starting the week after that, we'll have wave after wave of newbies.
Thank god we wear name tags. I'd never remember any of the first-year'ers names.
Anyways...
I'm really, really hopeful that we'll have a cool crew this year.
Last year sorta sucked. Vail Resorts decided to stop their H2B Work Visa program. I lost all of my South African and Australian friends I made over my first two years here. That was depressing. And they were replaced by a bunch of.... guuuuuuh... KIDS. 17-20 year olds. Very few of them didn't make me want to punch them. Last winter was pretty lame in the social aspects. (the skiing was awesome, though)
To be fair, not all of last year's rookies sucked. There were a few good ones. And the good news is that a lot of them are returning. James A, Sunny, Devin, TimmyTron, Schylur, Caitie... few others, I think.
But... I really want cool people this year. I want good workers and good people. I want people who will work hard for me on the mountain not because they think I'm a boss, but because they respect me as a friend, and hope I'll buy them a drink at the bar after work. I want people who will have fun with their job this year. People who won't pout and sit in the goddamn lift shack all day (I'd put locks on those things if they didn't have most of the controls in them). I want people who will make an effort to hang out with each other and go to events with each other outside of work, like this summer with Travis, Erin, James T, Opie, James A, and Caitie...
...
Goddamn... this was a good summer.
Ok, I want this winter to be like this summer, but colder... I think that's what I'm aiming for... but it's harder to do. I knew all those golf course people for at least 6 months going into the summer, most longer. But the winter brings in over 70 new people, to my zone alone. It can be hard to make good friendships with that many strangers, especially when you're a sort-of boss.
...
...
All my friends are lifties or golf course people... what the fuck? How about I get some fucking friends outside of fucking work? FUCK, how the hell am I this lame?!
*throws empty Gatorade bottle across room*
GODDMAN ADULTHOODNESS!!!!
Very appropriately, the first big snow storm of the season hit as I was leaving. I'll probably hit up A-Basin to ski tomorrow afternoon.
So, I'll have 5 days off, then it's time to get the lifts ready here at Keystone.
This is the shortest time off I've taken between my two seasonal jobs. I usually like taking 2-4 weeks off, squeezing in a trip to MI in there. But of course, I just took that trip the other month.
I actually kind of wish I had some money to do something cool. 5 days is still enough to get a mini-cool trip to nowhere. But I don't think I can afford to "travel eat", and my car should get a tune-up before I go on a big trip again.
I'm going on a tangent. Back to original idea...
It feels sorta weird going from summer to winter this quickly. I usually enjoy the time to purge one season from my mind and jump into the next. But this time, I was golfing last week, working on the course up until today, now there's snow on the ground and I'm about to go skiing and get back to work on the lifts. I hate to say it... but I don't FEEL ready for winter.
I mean... I'm sure I will... once the snow is consistent and I got my ski boots and "snowmobile ninja" mask on for a few weeks. But until then... something feels off.
I dunno.
--------
So next week is pretty much Lead and Supervisor re-train, and learn about how the new gondola works. It'll be good to see those friends again.
Then starting the week after that, we'll have wave after wave of newbies.
Thank god we wear name tags. I'd never remember any of the first-year'ers names.
Anyways...
I'm really, really hopeful that we'll have a cool crew this year.
Last year sorta sucked. Vail Resorts decided to stop their H2B Work Visa program. I lost all of my South African and Australian friends I made over my first two years here. That was depressing. And they were replaced by a bunch of.... guuuuuuh... KIDS. 17-20 year olds. Very few of them didn't make me want to punch them. Last winter was pretty lame in the social aspects. (the skiing was awesome, though)
To be fair, not all of last year's rookies sucked. There were a few good ones. And the good news is that a lot of them are returning. James A, Sunny, Devin, TimmyTron, Schylur, Caitie... few others, I think.
But... I really want cool people this year. I want good workers and good people. I want people who will work hard for me on the mountain not because they think I'm a boss, but because they respect me as a friend, and hope I'll buy them a drink at the bar after work. I want people who will have fun with their job this year. People who won't pout and sit in the goddamn lift shack all day (I'd put locks on those things if they didn't have most of the controls in them). I want people who will make an effort to hang out with each other and go to events with each other outside of work, like this summer with Travis, Erin, James T, Opie, James A, and Caitie...
...
Goddamn... this was a good summer.
Ok, I want this winter to be like this summer, but colder... I think that's what I'm aiming for... but it's harder to do. I knew all those golf course people for at least 6 months going into the summer, most longer. But the winter brings in over 70 new people, to my zone alone. It can be hard to make good friendships with that many strangers, especially when you're a sort-of boss.
...
...
All my friends are lifties or golf course people... what the fuck? How about I get some fucking friends outside of fucking work? FUCK, how the hell am I this lame?!
*throws empty Gatorade bottle across room*
GODDMAN ADULTHOODNESS!!!!