Rise n' Shine with Darian. Worked on getting him to ski without having a death-grip on my arm. Lottsa tears. But at the end of the lesson he asked if I was going to ride the Sherpa with him and his family. Skiing with him again on Sunday. Then scored a 3-hour with three lads from Oakland: Hilliard, Clairmonte (aka Monte aka ____), and Jordan. They decided that I should call them all different Power Rangers: Hilliard was the Red Ranger; Clairmonte was the Blue Ranger; Jordan was the Green Ranger. When I said I'd be the Pink Ranger (since I have pink gloves) they laughed: it's one of the girl rangers. Then I said I'd be the yellow ranger (because I have a yellow helmet); they laughed again as it's the other girl ranger. When I asked what ranger I could be then, they all exclaimed "The Black Ranger". They failed to see the irony with me being the white instructor (they were all African American kids). Good day skiing The Big Easy, then Arrow, then Vista Express. Temporarily "lost" Hilliard and Jordan when they skied ahead of Clairmonte and I (we had to stop for a pee-in-the-trees break). The two runaways did the right thing both staying together and waiting at a chairlift, albeit the wrong chairlift. Had a Code 1 scare, but they skied back down to the mid-mountain area before we could start the search, so all was well.
“The best place in the world to ski is where you’re skiing that day.” — Warren Miller
