1. I love my birthday and celebrate for three months. The 3 month celebration is called “Megan’s Festival of Joy” and begins January 1st
2. I love to ski – obviously 😊 if there are bumps on the mountain that’s where I will be found
3. I have a daughter (that fact probably should have been first MOTY points) the babe is so strong, courageous, smart, funny, and beautiful
4. Winter is my favorite season and would rather work all summer and have off in the winter
5. I teach special education and now you know why I’m off in the summer
6. Travel is important to me and I visited all fifty states by the time I was 16 and I’ve been to 10 other countries
7. I’m the youngest of four, two boys and two girls. Sometimes people think I’m an only child so I wanted to publicly announce that I have siblings ❤️
8. I have a fabulous community of family and friends. I feel pretty lucky to have the friends I do and the support system that surrounds me with love 💕
9. I was a runner for a bit and ran a bunch of long distances. I suppose I am still a runner
10. I love to entertain and I love my house.
11. I’m an empty nester and this is the first time in my life that I have lived alone. Of course the babe comes back on holidays but other than that the house holds just me
12. If we have spirit week at school I’m all in with the wackiest outfits but I haven’t dressed for Halloween in over 15 years
13. I am a sugar addict. I have been trying for a few years to give it up. Sometimes I can be found in the candy aisle touching the sugar inappropriately and muttering under my breath “I can’t have you. I’m better without you.”
14. I drive a 2008 Toyota RAV4 with almost 250,000 Miles. He’s called Louie and it’s the longest relationship I’ve had with something that identifies as male
15. I also drive a scooter, Yamaha Vino, called Donna. That beauty of a scooter is named after Donna in Suits. She gets things done like Donna. I have a scooter skirt for her so I can push the season
16. I prefer black diamonds over regular diamonds but I do love jewelry. I always appreciate receiving diamonds, pearls, silver, and gold for my birthday. Just in case you were trying to figure out what to get me 😉
17. I love school. It feels like I am always a student and really want to get my doctorate. Maybe for the purpose of learning or maybe so I can hear people say Dr. Capuano
18. I’ve always had a Vegas name (or fake name for certain situations) and for the next decade of my life I will be known as Zohra
19. There is a set of rules for dating me. I enjoy going on dates, long walks, pina coladas, and getting caught in the rain. Nah just kidding (for those of you in my age bracket you will understand). For real, I do have rules
20. I love to talk and tell stories. I like to talk about me and could list another 20ish but will end with this fact…I love me 😁

I am one month away from the best day ever, my birthday!! I’m going to do the 30 day blog challenge over the next month.

Blog’s Name

Mid-life ski crisis…

My friends started Lift Ticket TV (https://lifttickettv.com/) three years ago. They set out to ski every Pennsylvania SkiPA Resort in one year. I tagged along for some of the trips and in that season realized I skied the same resorts over and over.

I was having a ski crisis!! I started skiing at 10 years old and had only skied about 15 resorts in almost forty years. I had to fix that dilemma. So now I’m working on 50 slopes in my first 50 years.

I have some grand plans for this season. I’m planning a trip to Salt Lake City and hope to hit four resorts in two days. I’m visiting a friend in Wisconsin for a weekend to ski the local resorts. Denver another weekend and hopefully hit at least three mountains. Plus, of course, trips north to New England.

Life is too wonderful to have a real midlife crisis. I’m alive, healthy, surrounded by a loving community, and I have too much energy to wallow and worry about the past.

We’re in this world together so let’s plan to live life with love, courage, and kindness, do what we love, and do it often!!!

Mountains to go in challenge: 17

Days on snow 18/19 season: 6

Home for the holidays. It’s what people do (there’s even a song about it). It’s what I have done my whole life. Growing up my Mom would make sure we celebrated Christmas at our house then we trekked to Pittsburgh to visit the rest of the family. For the past 19 years I celebrated with my daughter and my family. For seventeen of those years I had to share the babe with her father. For seventeen years I’ve been a bit of a grinch.

Home for the holidays. It’s not what we did this year. My daughter and I headed to Canada for a ski trip with another family. It was skiing for the holidays this year. This year I was not a grinch. I was so happy, skiing and with my daughter for the Christmas week. The grinch in me disappeared. I like the holidays again.

We had a great time at Mont Tremblant in Quebec. The resort is gorgeous and with the French being the language, we felt like we were transported to a small village in France.

Mont Tremblant took advantage of the below freezing temps and made snow everyday. The temperature was great for snowmaking and it meant we skied in below freezing temps. Brrrr With blue skies and lots of layers we had so much fun!!!!

The mountain has a variety of levels and nice long slopes. There is a gondola to take to the top along with some big lifts. The gondola was a nice ride to take the chill off.

The staff is friendly and helpful. The village is filled with shops and restaurants. You must have the poutine and beaver tails. I definitely want to go back…after I reach my 50 in 50 challenge of course.

Skiing for the holidays was something new, there are some sacrifices like not seeing the whole family. I missed seeing the church decorated and singing Joy to the World. Even without seeing the family, our time away was surprisingly guilt free (says a woman brought up Catholic 😊). We lived in the moment. We thought about the meaning of Christmas while skiing and Mont Tremblant provided the most beautiful backdrop. We even sang Christmas carols on the chairlifts (your welcome fellow skiers). I recommend skiing for the holidays. I’m sure we will be slopeside in future Decembers.

So I continue my quest for 50 new slopes…

Mountains to go in challenge: 17

Days on snow 18/19 season: 6

Skiing may be an individual sport but is a social activity. Afterall, there is a ski term that is all about socializing – apres ski!!

Most chair lifts hold more than one person and the rides up can be almost as fun as the trips down (almost). Ski lifts are a great place to meet people, it can be like speed dating without the romance (or if you are lucky, maybe a little romance). I met several people who were real ski bums back in the 70’s and 80’s. I met a man who decided to learn to ski at 75 years old and he was 85 when we chatted. I met a woman who was on the Olympic team. I have met some memorable people over the years. I have also learned useful tidbits from locals.

If you are trying out a new slope, ask your lift-mates about the local scene. Usually locals are happy to talk about their town’s history, nightlife, social scene, etc. I actually skied on the Appalachian Trail at one mountain (thanks to a lift mate telling me about it). If you are skiing your mountain, share your local hot spots and interesting facts with visitors.

Over the years I have had my winter friends and my summer friends. My non-skiing friends know that they won’t see me as much in the winter. My love of skiing has been the reason for past breakups with men (or boys in my way past). They didn’t understand why I would choose to go ski over spending time with them. My last longish relationship started during ski season but I made him keep it a secret for the season. My rational…, no man ever lasted a ski season and I didn’t want our mutual friends to feel uncomfortable when we ended it.

As I get older I am valuing all of my friendships. My non-winter friends may not see me as much but I do make more of an effort to spend time with them. Of course this season I am on a mission to get my last 18 slopes in so I will be traveling a little more than usual. I have had offers from friends to visit and hit a few slopes near their homes, other friends offered their ski homes. I am in awe of the kindness!!

I have been skiing for forty years and I have been surrounded by a community of friends over those years. I became a single mom 17 years ago when the babe was 2 years old. My skiing community surrounded us with so much love and support. My daughter grew up knowing that the mountains are a fun, safe place. She could see my peace when we arrived at the mountain and she would become calm herself. This community has given me strength and has helped me through some times that traveling alone through life would have been a little tough.

 

Skiing is my favorite thing to do in this world and I think about it at least once a day. At 10 years old I fell in love with that rush down the mountain and I continue to be smitten. Two years ago, as I was fast approaching 50, I realized I had only skied at 15 resorts. Being on skis for almost 40 years and only skiing at 15 resorts – that was definitely a crisis!! I’m not one to have a real mid-life crisis but I was having a serious mid-life SKI crisis. I needed to hit more slopes!!

The 16-17 season, I skied 6 new resorts and the 17-18 season, I picked up 9. I will be 50 years old in February (5th and my birthday is another love of mine!!!) and need 20 more before turning 51 reaching 50 slopes in my first 50 years.

Working on this goal has been a fun adventure. I am visiting new places, sightseeing, and meeting lots of people. Skiing is social, we talk on the lifts, in the lift lines, at lunch, at the bar apres ski (or maybe it’s just me who likes to talk). As I tell people about my self-imposed challenge I am asked about a blog, so here it is.

This challenge is forcing me out of my habits and waking me up to new things. One of the perks of being in a mid-life ski crisis is if I do any traveling in the winter I look for places to ski along the way. Instead of stopping at a rest area, I stop at a resort. One of these places was in Michigan and it was a fabulous detour. I was on my way to Chicago for a wedding and found Swiss Valley right off the highway. When the GPS said in one mile turn left, the landscape was flat without a mountain in sight. After a half mile, the road turned down into a valley and everything was covered with snow. Parked in a lot with one other car, a truck filled with teen boys looking at me with puzzled looks, I realized I was an out of towner and this resort didn’t see many new faces. Swiss Valley’s buildings look like Swiss Chalets and the rental area is mostly filled with benches for small children. I skied down one slope, went up one lift, down again, up the other lift, and then “down up and in”. I was in heaven!! It was the best break for a long car ride.

This challenge is about the Swiss Valleys out there. Little gems searched out that would have been missed just traveling through life content with habit.