And at last, I returned to the not-so-far North

...and was back in Ellicott City in time for a Christmas Eve/Christmas morning snowstorm that has left a good 2.5 inches of snow here, though the roads are fully cleared by now. A good Christmas, all things considered. Didn't feel quite so abrupt in getting here as last year. Last week Daniel and I spent a full day driving around various local shopping venues on our last-minute Christmas gift mission, which was fairly successful, if you discount the hour+ spent finding parking spaces.

And what did I get for Christmas, you ask? Let's see here. A copy of Microsoft Office for OSX (essential, but boring), a full set of the hardcover Lord of the Rings from my brother, a cordless optical mouse (which I've been playing with from across the room, seeing what kind of range it has on it... answer: more than enough for my needs), a copy of An Incomplete Education, which I was surprised to receive, given that I've never mentioned it. Good, though. I could use a reference to write my Swordbowl questions. Ummm... other than that, mostly clothing and cash, plus the usual (and welcome) Amazon/Barnes & Noble/Borders gift cards from various relatives.

Oh, and I got some nice socks. I'm very happy with the socks.

But now that Christmas is over, it's that time again-- time to head slightly south and rather west to Virginia, where the skiing promises to be excellent, which almost makes getting up to leave at 10AM tomorrow seem worth it. Ha. Suuure it does. My brother and I were informed of this tonight at dinner, and we exchanged a sympathetic glance that dissolved into slightly manic laughter-- Hehe! Those crazy parents! They think we're going to be up by then! Aren't they silly! Sadly, this improvised plan of laughing off the departure time failed, and we're getting woken up at nine. So of course here I am, not even attempting to go to sleep. Ah, well. That's what four hour drives are for.

Adjusting to being back home has been a challenge, and not just because I have people who expect me to wake up in the morning... although that's certainly a big part of it. I'm suddenly aware how much more I've come to value my privacy, or maybe just long hours of solitude, and how little time alone living at home affords me, at least when everyone's on vacation. It'd be easier if I could just sleep until three and stay up until four or five, and thus have a good six hours after everyone's gone to bed, but my parents still seem to resent my sleeping until noon, and inevitably, ten minutes after twelve, someone will open my door, and that'll be the end of it. I should really have a conversation with them about this, because it's quite annoying, and being awoken about forty minutes before I'd probably begin waking up on my own tends to put me in a foul mood for the rest of the day--it ruins what's usually a thoroughly entertaining 12:00 REM cycle, to begin with--but that'll have to wait until we're back from skiing.

I can kiss my privacy goodbye in Virginia, of course. Being at Wintergreen can be positively stifling if it's not ski season, as my room is right off the great room/kitchen/eating area, and visits to the mountain come with the expectation of cheery family activities such as nightly board games and walks along the golf course after closing. Which is part of the reason that I love skiing, when I can manage to evade those family members who want me to ski "with them." (How is it that I'm related to you people again?) Not that I don't like skiing with friends, when I have the chance, but in general, I find skiing to be one of the most enjoyable types of isolation.

Slip off a chair at the top of an open run, look out across the Blue Ridge, and you hear nothing but the distant whir of snowblowers and the sound the air makes as you cut through it, down the slope. I'll ski any hill; the less populated, the better. Though on the other hand, there's a certain thrill in evading other skiers (after all, moving obstacles are what the bunny slope is all about), gauging their next move, planting a pole and making a stylish cut around them. (If an obnoxious snowboarder, +2 points if you can create a spray of snow on the parallel turn.) I'm not a reckless skier, nor even an agressive one, but I've spent a good sixteen years skiing downhill, and I adapt well. I'll probably never consider myself an expert, unless I decide take some more serious lessons someday, but I'm not afraid to race someone down a black diamond.

So I'm looking forward to the next few days, in spite of the various nuisances of being in the mountains, away from the cable connection, etc. With any luck there will still be a fresh coat of powder on the slopes by the time we arrive tomorrow afternoon, and Dan and I can get a few good runs in before dinner.

That said, I should probably go to bed. Hopefully I should have another update here around New Year's, when I get back to Maryland.