The Megatrons and Me

Sorry, my last post may have been a tad grouchy. It's that darn inversion. It gets me every year. However, I am here to tell you that dreams do come true. I was awakened last week to a text at 5am. It stated that the whole district was delayed 2hrs. 2 wonderful, delightful, marvelous hours. It would seem that nothing could top that, and yet the beautiful sun has also been shinning in and out of storms. That has meant snowshoeing and cross country skiing. Yeah! I even got to take my students cross country skiing. Who wouldn't love skiing and plucking kids out of the snow? It is a delight and afterwards, those little darlings said things like, "Our teacher was the only person out there who did not fall. She is a superstar." Gosh, I love those kids.
And so it was with these happy thoughts I headed down to Bryce Canyon to cross country ski with friends. Little did I know it would be different, much different. Saturday morning as we ate breakfast at the lodge, I was lost in my own thoughts about how good life was with the clean air, beautiful sun, and my health returning. Suddenly, my ears perked up to the end of the conversation that had been taking place. "Ok, so who is doing the triathlon?" When those words were said and I saw the faces around the table begin to shake yes, I knew I was in trouble, big trouble. My head began to spin, and I frantically searched every face at the table and realized to my horror that everyone there was a . . . . . "Megatron." This bit of information might fill you with panic too, if you knew what a Megatron was. Basically, it is someone who does everything with megatronical force. (The spell checker is going crazy with these great words.) However, Megatrons don't know they are Megatrons. They think they are regular people. They say they are taking things easy and just having fun, which may be the case for them, but normal people like myself, who are gasping for air, have a hard time believing this. I like the Megatrons and do things with them, however, usually in outdoor activities, I like to make sure the paparazzi are there. The paparazzi are the friends who take pictures of everything and anything. Paparazzi make it possible to pretend like you are interested in their pictures, while really you are simply trying to breathe. However, on this trip I had failed to confirm that the paparazzi were coming. Big mistake.
We got on the trail and I optimistically tried to remember my superstar skiing status. However, these people were like machines. Up the hills, around the bends, through the trees. Push, push, push. I found myself falling behind, and so in my haste I tried to speed up and fell. Which shouldn't have been a problem. Except, we were skiing in the pre-made ski tracks and when I tried to help myself up by pushing my pole into the ground outside of the ruts, it sank down, all the way down, and so did the other pole, my hand, my head, my body, everything. You might say that the snow was pretty deep there. At this point I just started laughing because have you ever tried to get up on skis after falling down without using anything to push off of? It can be a bit of a problem, especially because I knew the Megatrons were so far ahead. However, where there is a will, there is a way, and later, quite a bit later, I got up. Victory!!!! However, this was just a small indication of what was to befall me that day. You might say it was a little bit of a rough day for me. However, in the end I just let the Megatrons go ahead, because the sun was shinning, and the canyon was beautiful and I really was having a wonderful time. And even though I'm not a Megatron, that is ok, because I have been told I am a superstar.