An Answer to the Greatest of Questions

I've accidentally ran into the answer of one of the great questions of the universe. Where can a guy meet a nice girl? If you're a male looking for the answer to this ageless question, you can rejoice because I'm about to divulge what must be one of the best kept secrets of dating.

In two words the answer is: figure skating. As regular readers know I've recently gotten into the sport of figure skating. I love the sport and the effort of trying to continuously improve myself. Before this I never found a good place to meet nice women, but now I'm practically beating them off with a stick. Okay, there aren't really any sticks involved, but I am in the unique situation of multiple women showing interest in me. The really funny thing (in that sick funny kind of way) is that I don't really want to date anyone at this stage in my life and have been graciously turning them down. I would have loved this information just a few years back, but now it's wasted on me. It's a messed up world in which we live.

In other news I'm heading to Sunday River Mountain this weekend for a weekend of snowboarding. It should be fun!

Big Brothers Big Sisters - Interview

I had my interview today, and everything went well. It was pretty easy stuff. I just had to answer some questions about my past, and how I would respond in certain situations with my little.

Now I need to wait 6 weeks for the background checks to get done.

Outdoor Skating

While I was skating last week at my normal indoor rink, a friend mentioned that the natural outdoor ice was good for skating. I guess this only happens once every few years in Massachusetts. More often than not, the lakes freeze in a way that is not good for skating (ie rough ice because it snows right after freezing). This year it just got cold and dry. I decided to check it out.

I was amazed at how good the ice was. It was certainly bumpier than indoor ice and it had a few skate grabbing cracks, but it was very skatable. I was able to do my fancy turns and even some of my simple jumps. A big plus was that the ice was all mine!

In the picture below you can see that someone shoveled off the ice in some patches. I'm not sure who it was, but I thank them.

Big Brothers Big Sisters - Applying

I've been thinking about volunteering with Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) for a few years. For those not familiar with BBBS, it's a nationwide program that is essentially a youth mentoring organization matching adults (which they call bigs) with children (which they call littles) who typically come from lower income families where the child lacks stability and/or role models. BBBS tries to match littles and bigs that have similar interests. The responsibility of the big is to spend one on one time with his little just doing something the little finds fun. I figured having fun helping out children is for me!

I finally decided to call BBBS last week to get my application process rolling. First I filled out a web application with basic information about myself and three references. Then they emailed me a few forms that I filled out. There was a short one page questionnaire and a few forms allowing them to perform some background checks. I understand why they need to do these background checks, but it still makes me sad to think such a process is necessary.

Next Tuesday I have an interview scheduled with them at 7:30 AM in Worcester. Don't let the time scare you away from volunteering. They were very flexible on the times for an interview. I choose that time because I'm usually up before 6AM so 7:30 is very reasonable for me, and allows me to go there before going to work.

I'll post more about this after the interview. If everything goes well, I'll spend about an hour a week doing fun activities with my little sometime in the not too distant future.

Have fun!

Snowboarding

I went snowboarding for the first time this year at Wachusett Mountain. This is crazy late for my first snowboarding outing. Normally I head out in November or December, but this year it was too warm then. Finally in January it cooled down, but we still didn't get any snow. This past week we got our first real snow (a whopping 2 inches). So pretty much all the now is man made which isn't as nice as real snow, but it's decent.

I decided to head out to the mountain on Sunday because I thought the Super Bowl would help keep the people away from snowboarding/skiing. I was wrong. The mountain was packed with people. Having to wait in a line to get on the chair lift was kind of a bummer, but I still had fun. It was good to get out.

I still remember the first few times I went snowboarding about eight years ago. I just kept falling throughout the day and by the end I was so incredibly tired. The day after those first few outings was incredibly painful. My muscles were so sore I could hardly move. Despite all that I remember learning to snowboard as a fond memory. Sometimes I wish I could tire myself out like I did back then, but once you've learned how to snowboard it's impossible to get that tired while boarding.

Now that I have a taste of it, I want more. I plan on asking around work to see if I can find some folks to go snowboarding for a weekend up in Vermont where the bigger mountains are.

Peace!