The Eternal Sunshine of My Spotless Mind: Merry KissMyAss in the VT

As previously stated, the Vermont trip was just awesome. In fact, I'm still in 'awe' of it. I really wish I was there right now, as desolate and bland Vermont is. At least it's away from here.

Going back to work wasn't as bad as I had feared. It's been pretty slow, which is really good. I'm so glad that I've actually progressed since I've started working at the law office. I'm finally in a position where I have confidence in talking to clients and associates and I feel like I have some command in how the office is run. Yay me for growing up.

Anyhoo, back to the Vermont trip.

We left for Vermont in the wee hours of the morning, around 6 am which was just great because we made it to Vermont by around 3 pm. Just perfect for the guys to have time to sleep and the girls to explore the town and go shopping. When we first arrived at the hotel, we discovered that although we had booked a suite with a kitchen, we were given a regular hotel room with just two queen-sized beds. Uh oh. Not a great situation for nine people. In my lifetime, I've never really had the pleasure of experiencing discrimination... until then. When Alex and I first walked in and Alex opened his mouth, I could tell his posterior immediately changed from welcoming to stand-offish and rude. He didn't really seem too sympathetic that our hotel reservations were messed up. In the end he promised us (promised us) that we would get the room we had asked for the next day.

So for the first night, we had to go out to eat. We ate at T.G.I.Fridays which was a real treat since we don't have that here and I hear about it all the time on T.V. I would said that place is like the equivalent to Jack Astor's here. I also discovered that the alcohol they served is not the usual 1.5-2 ounce alcohol drinks that I'm used to up here. I had ordered a Cosmo with Patron ("Get the Patron, and tell 'em that it's on...") and they gave me a mixer full. Yeah, needless to say I had to make 4 other people take some of it because I could barely finish a glass. I'm such a lightweight.

Besides the lack of appreciation for a multi-cultural world, I also noticed the people of Vermont (and quite possibly the rest of the United States) are at most, livin' it ~~large~~ obese. Man. Whit, Meg and I went clubbing on the third night, and I must say, we were the hottest chicks there. I felt like we were celebrities because 1.) We were not White; 2.) We were overdressed (Whit was in a dress and my shoes were just too expensive for that place); 3.) Quite possibly the best dancers; and 4.) We were not fat. I totally appreciated Toronto clubs right then. The snobbiness, the dress codes, etc. In any case, us girls had a great time dancing, drinking and laughing [at other people]. The cab ride back to the hotel was even a blast as we made our own rendition of "I'll Be Missing You" with the cabbie. Ha.

So now for the best part: Stowe. The mountain was just incredible. As we were driving towards it, I remember being awe-inspired with the view and the massiveness. There were tons of trails, for a wide range of skills to choose from. They even had a separate mountain for beginners and experts and you could go to and from each using the Gondola! It was just incredible. I was even able to try out some new skills like go on a mini-half pipe (I digress, I chickened out on the mini jumps). Stowe also made it real easy for anyone to try out different sports from snowshoeing to snowboarding to snowblading because rentals were so cheap. My second to last 'new thing to do' of 2007 was snowblading. I have gone skiing once before so snowblading was going to be tricky especially since I was told that it is faster and there is less control than with skis. Ooh boy. I thought for sure I was going to die on those things but it turned out to be quite great and it was exactly as I was told. I would do it again ... the next time I'm in Stowe. After snowblading I went night snowboarding (which was as harrowing as snowblading in the day).

On our last night, we celebrated by going to the Olive Garden. Now, when's the last time you at The Olive Garden? It was probably like 10 years ago for me. We ate heartily and then went back to the hotel room to try and finish the booze we barely touched since we first go there. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention how we fared for the past 4 days with respect to food. See, the hotel clerk promised to give us a kitchen suite for the rest of our trip. Did that happen? Nooo... instead, they tried to make up for it by putting a microwave and fridge in our hotel room. Needless to say, it would not suffice since we had budgeted to cook for ourselves (microwave dinner for 4 days? No thanks.). So we went to Kmart (when was the last time you saw one of those?) and bought an electric stove. We brought it back to our hotel room and ... cooked in the bathroom since it was conveniently near a sink and there was a fan. Yup, it sounds gross, but at the time, we really had to make do. It really reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer makes his meals in the shower. Which would you say was more sanitary? You're probably wondering how we survived with one kitchen-bathroom and 9 people (of which there was 5 girls and 1 Minh). Needless to say we survived but not without a little tension, a little violence and a whole lotta jostling for the bathroom in the morning. Dare I say it made us as a group closer? Maybe, maybe not.