Valentine's Day is always a funny day of the year. Statistically it's not the day with the most breakups, actually two weeks before Christmas takes that title, but it's third on the list just behind Spring Break. Actually I was surprised when I looked into some stats on Vday. The biggest one that surprised me was that approximately 40% of the 180 million Vday cards purchased is done so by parents. I believe this because I have gotten more cards by my Mom on Vday than by boyfriends. I also suppose that parents also buy cards for their partners as well.
My Vday was spent at the gun range unloading magnums of bullets at cans and targets. Then on the slope with the snow feature I love the most, the half pipe. I made chicken noodle soup from scratch, yes I love to cook too. And cuddled down with the special person in my life to watch movies. I guess to me it's not about spending money or doing lavish things, although flowers don't hurt but I feel that way with any day of the year. Valentine's Day is about doing things I love to do. I was sure to call my parents and let them know that I love them.
The last two days have been training intensive working on drills, visualizing and trying to get more breakthroughs. I also have been playing travel agent booking flights, cars and hotel rooms. There has also been the dealings with Canada Snowboard about confirming spots for contests which are a couple weeks away. I was amazed at how I could not get a confirmation for contests that I needed to book logistics for. Or a concise schedule for Canadian Nationals at Canada Olympic Park, I wonder if they know that flights do not get cheaper closer to the date? Well this is nothing new to me, just a little frustrating when you are trying to snowboard on a budget. My sponsors are awesome Sony is really supportive for what I need. More sponsorship would be great to cover a training/competing years which costs over $50,000, non Olympic, and over $80,000 for a Olympic qualifying year. Canada helps with a couple thousand, which is a grant, that I apply for every year and haven't ever benefited from. Thus is life. When you get lemons, make lemonade as the story goes.
I am thankful my parents raised me to pursue and that I really love riding half pipe. There are ALWAYS challenges and triumphs and new things to learn. I feel I am expanding as a person in life, love and labor.
Still, this week is flying by so quickly, the Quebec World Cup will be upon me soon. It will be a great contest!