Abrams Goggles

Lindsey landed in Chicago yesterday afternoon.  I wasn't feeling very homesick until I thought about all of my Bloomington friends reuniting while I'm still in Gtown living the hospitality dream.  I was texting with Kassy the other day about our usual shenanigans and it hit me that I haven't even talked to her on the phone since before I left.  It's hard enough to keep in touch with my family, let alone my friends.  The good side of all of this missing is that I have faith in the friendships that matter to me and I don't think daily phone calls/skyping is necessary to keep us going. BUT Mom, Bret, and Dave arrive in three days :) I'll be getting off of a grave shift several hours before they arrive, so we can all be exhausted together.  I think I am most excited to just sit around and have family time that requires me to do nothing.  I love the constant flow of activities, traveling, eating, drinking, talking, laughing, moving, doing, etc. that goes on around here, but it will be nice to have some down time.  I'm also looking forward to taking them to the Christmas market.  A good portion of my paycheck has been spent here on amazing German food and drink.  The feuerzangenbowle is my new favorite.  It's easy to see how money goes so quickly in the Christmas market, the hot drinks and delicious treats warm you up to the elements and allow you to stay longer.  A vicious cycle of amazingness.

The girls and I have come up with a term for how you begin to feel towards the opposite sex after being in Garmisch for a few months; Abrams Goggles.  Similar to drunk goggles, they skew your perception and make whoever you're looking at becomes more attractive, funnier, great story tellers, and awesome listeners.  I wouldn't say this term is 100% accurate, but I completely understand how it occurs.  The ratio of males to females here is about 3 to 10.  The good ones go fast and if they don't, they take advantage of the disproportion.  So after being here for a while working, living, and socializing with the same group of people you begin to see the guys that you would have never considered before as having potential to date.  Danielle and I also recently compared the whole Edelweiss operation to a series we began reading, The Hunger Games.  It is in a post apocalyptic North America where the people are divided up into 12 districts (ELR departments...front desk, gift shop, food & beverage, custodial, etc.) with each district becoming less desirable.  Then you have the Capitol (Marc Jansen, GM), who wants to remind the people that they will never be in control again so every year there is a fight to the death among chosen citizens known as the Hunger Games (Peaches on a Tuesday).  It really isn't that bad, but it strangely fits.
On a random sidenote, several days ago I missed the 5:30am shuttle and left about a quarter after six to walk to work in a heavy snowfall.  I made it about 200 meters before a massive snowplow pulled over and asked me "Edelweiss?" I confirmed and he waved for me to jump in. It never once crossed my mind that it wouldn't be safe, it's an old Bavarian!  I climbed the three steps up to get inside and the old German man and I attempted at our best broken conversation while he drove me to work.  As I pulled up to the resort the ponds guards were getting a good laugh out of it and commented on my very nice taxi.  If only I could run into this guy every morning.  He saved me a lot of time and energy because the 5:30 shuttle is meant for people scheduled at 6.  There is a definite lack of planning here.  The majority of people who ride this shuttle have to be to work at 7, but wake up earlier than usual so that they don't have to make the walk in the cold, dark, snowy morning.  Several people have mentioned bringing the 6:30 shuttle idea to Jansen, but I honestly can't see anything happening with it within my time here.  It's a pretty obvious idea and they aren't implementing it for some reason we are overlooking.  Snow tires for my bike it is.