Don't Smoke a Bowl, Ski One Instead

Sunday 20 April

So I'm just going to preface this with I AM LIVID ABOUT (a certain scene in) GAME OF THRONES AND HAPPY ABOUT SKIING AND THIS DAY IS JUST HELLA WEIRD HISTORICALLY AND I AM IN A VERY WEIRD PLACE IN MY LIFE SO YES. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE.

Anyway. 4/20 PRAISE IT (or, an atheist says Happy Easter) began at six AM when my mum flipped on a light switch in my home in the Rad Arvad and told me to get my shit together we were going skiing. I got my shit together (ish) and we headed out after first having to backtrack since none of us could remember if we kenneled up the dogs (three potentially senile dementia patients on the way to the mountains—what could possibly go wrong?).

We drove up remarkably quickly while listening to my new music and ABBA and such and that was great, and then we got to Vail and it was COMPLETELY DESERTED for the first two hours—I had Yonder to myself today and it was amazing (that's my favorite) and China Bowl was still open and the snow was flawless (I mean, it was spring shit but I freaking love the spring shit). It was amazing. We headed back to the front side around 12:45 and everyone was dressed up and drunk and stoned and happy and just generally it was a fabulous day, as closing day always is. No one cares about social decorum and I think that's beautiful. Everyone's so completely happy about it, too—it's an entire mountain of people that truly love winter sports, instead of all the shoobies that usually show up there.

Potential deaths today: Launched myself off a jump in the terrain park. Screamed. Also, lost control on a CATWALK and slid ten feet before stopping. Success.

My sis and I also look like we're on drugs:

Don't Smoke A Bowl, Ski One Instead

And yes, we ARE wearing Bud Light necklaces. You should have seen the pinwheels we had on our helmets.

I love skiing. I've always loved skiing. I'm not quite sure why or how it became so necessary for me to go to the mountains at least every two weeks and count on static and kinetic friction and gravity to let me slide down a hill or whatever. Sometimes I do find myself thinking about other things, like, "Oh Thrones tonight is gonna be good" or "Hey I get to brief the Roe case! Awesome!" or "OH CRUMPETS NEW YEAR'S EVE" (you don't need to know), but for the most part, it's one of the few activities that's purely physical and I don't have to think about it. It's natural. It's easy. It's a lot like politics is—I don't have to try particularly hard, though in most cases the mountain responds quickly to my will. Which is nice.

Anyway. Bypassed the closing day celebrations (because THEY HAD RED BULL INSTEAD OF ROCKSTAR WHAT THE HECK) and went to lunch/dinner with the mum and the sis, and that was delightful as always, as we mostly ended up taking selfies and then holding the pinwheel out the window on the highway to see if the air resistance it offered was high enough to blow it off completely. It was great and we laughed our asses off. Those two aren't half bad to hang out with. Gods be good I love them so fucking much.

Honestly, I love all of the people in my life so fucking much, which I think is important because we don't ever say these things until it's too late and that's tragic. And I'm trying my hardest to eliminate the tragedy from the tragicomedy that is my life. So just know that I really appreciate and I care deeply for you, even if I don't say it out loud that often—you cross my mind a lot, honestly. I'm not given to bouts of sentiment, but that doesn't mean that I don't care at all. You must know that.

Ya. But then I took a Very Brief Nap on the way home and then hung out for awhile at home before I drove back to BoCo, wrote a blog, freshened up, and grabbed Connor before we watched Game of Thrones, which, okay, I have a Lot Of Feelings Over (there are more spoilers here than there have been in past weeks), so get ready for "Breaker of Chains:"

My Whole Life Currently

So anyway, started off with Post-Purple Wedding Scenes where Sansa Gets the Hell Out of King's Stupid Landing, and then we saw my boy Petyr, Tyrion/Podrick scene which BRB CRYING MY EYES OUT, #Tywinning for days because he's going to manipulate poor Tommen and also he's going to talk to Oberyn Martell (the goddamn king of everything and just HELL YEAH he's the greatest and also potential quotables galore), Stannis is hella frustrated with Ser Davos (love that guy), Scooby and Scrappy Doo (The Hound and Arya) are still running aimlessly around the Riverlands, Ygritte is sexually frustrated shooting men, I HATE THENNS I CAN'T TELL YOU ENOUGH, Jon Snow needs some saving, Dany is kicking some ass and also we saw Hizdahr zo Loraq (REMEMBER THAT KIDS) and also she has a Huge Crush on Daario (my knees went weak too). You can skip the next part if you want because I have Rage.

But the thing I'm most pissed about is the STUPID ALTAR SCENE BECAUSE FIRST OF ALL, NO, SECOND OF ALL, NO, AND LASTLY, NO!! Okay, yeah, they're incest twins, and they're in a church, and their dead incest son is next to them. But in the books it was a fairly decent scene that revealed how much these two broken humans needed each other. This was AWFUL. You've got Jaime, who's been saving Brienne from being taking advantage of this WHOLE TIME and hates rape; and you've got Cersei, who I respect because she doesn't let anyone except for Tywin tell her what to do and would never let anyone, least of all Jaime, get away with that, and ALL OF THAT WENT OUT THE FUCKING WINDOW IN THIS SCENE. It was rape. It made me viscerally uncomfortable. I have seen a man's head explode on this show and it didn't make me this uncomfortable. It should make us this uncomfortable.  Don't think for one second that this was okay. Incest is bad, but INCEST RAPE IS WAY WORSE. I AM LIVID. YOU SHOULD NEVER, NEVER RELY ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AS A PLOT DEVICE. This is and remains my main problem with this show, because it writes interesting and complex female characters that remain true to the books (sometimes, I'm still miffed over Cat's treatment S2 onward) and then introduces side characters that die horrific, sexualized deaths (i.e, Ros, Talisa) for NO REASON. YEAH I'M ANGRY. I DESERVE TO BE AS A FEMALE AND AS A LOVER OF THIS SHOW. I DESERVE BETTER.

Sorry. Angry rants are never a lot of fun to read, but angry, nerdy quasi-feminist rants are a little worse. I'm just angry because it contributes to a culture where people think things like that are okay, and if you want to talk to me some more about this come and talk to me face to face or text me or Facebook message me or whatever and I'll talk with you about this. Because it's important, but it's also personal, and I know this is a personal blog but I have some limits on what I'll share to the general public.

Bottom line: It's morally wrong and I feel insulted. Thanks, HBO. What the fuck.

Anyway, to continue down the feminist warpath (and honestly to calm me down a bit for the rest of the week), I'm going to read the Roe v. Wade opinions. Woot.

So this week do what you love, tell people what they mean to you, SKIING IS THE BEST, and have passion in whatever you do otherwise what's the point?

Thanks, as always, for reading :)