Day 1 of the New Year

It is still sunny and beautiful out here on the Island. It's so clear that you can see the ocean and the mountains on the mainland!
This also means that we have not been getting any snow - at all 0cm in more than 48hours. Where's the balance?!?! The switch between epic heavy snowfall and none at all seems a bit extreme... at least I haven't even had to look at a shovel in days.

Since it has been so nice and the guest are in until tomorrow (so there isn't anything pressing for me to do), I decided to get out and wander around the village late this afternoon. It was good to get out and enjoy the scenery, fresh air and sunshine!

The hill has recovered 100% from the snow fall now; all the lifts are operational, all the runs are open (Alpine and Nordic) and the parking lots are cleared again. The banks were getting so tall and there was so much snow to deal with that they had to haul snow off the mountain in trucks to find somewhere to put it all. The snow pack has settled a bit and is 495cm currently.

The tummy seems to be getting bigger all the time! My cloths are rapidly getting too small now - in fact, just the other day Paul and I were going into town to visit with his family, so I thought I would put on something other then my stretchy pants. I pulled on a pair of dress pants and was surprised to find that they caused bit of a muffin top! I decided that this may be acceptable, in these circumstances, but that I should see how they would feel sitting down....

As I lowered my myself into the chair the button exploded out of its seams, and went rolling across the floor. They just don't make pants like they use to and they still felt too snug even with the button MIA.
Needless to say, I wore my stretchy pants out that night. Its a damn good thing they are in fashion.

Both Paul and I seem to have a growing affinity for the Island. We really enjoy driving past all the small farms on our way to town and day-dreaming about where we would want to live out here. The land seems almost enchanted; Fog hangs over the green pastures that appear suddenly in breaks between stretch of thick forest, modest homes nestled in the trees with smoke curling from their chimneys... I am amazed at how many colors - how many shades of green there are every where you look even though its the middle of winter. Nothing like the greyscale of Calgary 8 months out of the year.

However, I am afraid to write that all may not be well right now in our mountain paradise...

Paul is understandably not challenged or engaged by his work, which makes for long, tiring days. He's pretty beat at the end of the day (I am too if I have been working as well) and we often call it a night early. There is still the hopes that another position will come up, but its not guaranteed.

I am increasingly feeling lonely and isolated; The hill has very little night life (if any), most staff live off the mountain, and my job has no interaction with the main resort and very little with the guest here. This has made it very difficult to meet people and means that I generally just hang out at home or work alone in an empty Chalet. It is also challenging that Courtenay is 45min away and we really don't know much about where to go or what to do once we get there.

I hope that once we can afford to buy a ski pass for me that things would get a bit better. It is still always more enjoyable to ride with friends, however the freedom to be able to get out and have something active and engaging to do should still make a difference. Right now I just feel stagnant - I am not use to such a slow pace.


In the mean time, Paul and I have started looking into some ideas of things to together as well as something to get me out and meeting people. There is a prenatal yoga class in Courtenay that I would really be interested in and a few concerts that sound promising. Paul has even suggested flying me back to Calgary for a week, which would be great but I don't feel like it would solve the fact I would be coming back to the same situation.

I am not sure what is going to happen ultimately. The idea of coming back to Calgary could be the best choice for our overall happiness, but for some reason feels like running away or giving up to me. It'd hard to know what to do, what would be best for us now? In 4 months? For us as a family?