FOMS and How to Handle It

F.O.M.S. Ever heard of it? It stands for Fear Of Missing Something. It strikes you when you are perfectly happy doing what you're doing, with the person or people you are with and yet...somewhere there is another person or people or event or idea that you want to be a part of as well. Some would call that Having Your Cake and Eating Too, or You Can't Be Everywhere At Once? I call it FOMS, that odd little squeaky voice in the back of your head or the pit of your stomach that is whispering, "You are missing out."

Yesterday was the supposed Last Day Of The Ski Season, even though they extended it by one week (this week) with just 2 lifts running. JC went up at 10 to go "out the gate" and ski deep into Bear Creek and then back to the area. He really wanted to do a couple of runs in the afternoon, I was not as committed just because he is an expert expert skier and I am not so great on my board, but I figured, ok, agree to it and then just see how the day plays out and this is how it played out:

I texted CoCo and we headed up together over on the gondola, she was headed to the Magic Carpet to see her niece and nephew ski for the first time (he was skiing in diapers--gotta love it) so I did a Milk Run which really looked a lot more like Chocolate Milk Run with all the dust storms we have had recently. The snow was extraordinarily heavy and wet and slushy, then she called as I was headed up 7 to do a Coonskin, we connected, did another Milk Run and then booked over to 9 to meet up with J and E, her bro and sister in law and 2 of their friends as well. And we are haning around Giuseppe's when I see JC skiing towards us and it was so nice to see him on the mountain, but he was off for more runs and I was with The Group. Which was all fine and good, it's now 1pm, the snow is incredible up higher where it is colder and deeper, but after a couple of Gold Hill runs I realize I don't want The Group, I just want to tool around and do what I want, when I want without the What Run Are We Going To Do Next conversation in the lift line. And as I am gearing up to tell them that I am ditching them, JC skis up on the other side of the lift line and I duck the rope and we hop on the chair and head up for a Dynamo. He is an incredible skier, wow and more wow. Second ride up he wants to take me to Gold Hill 1.

So looking at that picture, taken with Dad and Herb from the Prospect Lift, the first chute on the left is Gold Hill 1, then 2 then 3 and so forth as you go to the right. So we cut across the top and go down part of the chute and then into the trees and out the "apron" at the bottom. There were some tough spots for me to navigate on my board, partly because it was super steep, but we had a lot of fun and paused in the woods to smooch for a minute. Then we were off to Prospect to try and get a beer and crapola! they don't sell them up there, so we headed back to Giuseppe's where we ran into Rick and Tommy T. and Stryker and Lance and then Val and Mel and had a couple of Coronas and a huge crispy tangy saucy cheesy Chicken Parmesan Sub!! and sat on the picnic tables people watching, all the retro ski suits and wigs and capes (I love capes) and general revelry of the Last Day Of The Season (sort of).

This was my first time ever (truly) snowboarding after drinking a beer, or in this case 2, and I was a tad nervous. I was tired and buzzed and cold and it was late and I am still hoping to somehow impress JC with my snowboarding abilities, which it turns out were never forthcoming, based on the lack of compliments--rats!--but we cruised down Bushwhacker, picked up a bottle of Zinfandel and caught the bus home, where we lounged on his porch in the sun, drinking a PBR, nibbling Porter beer aged cheese and rosemary crackers, enjoying the play of clouds in the blue sky (Ali, we saw a llama, a dragon, and a wormy cloud trying to snake his way over to the others to join with them) and listening to the new mix I made on my iPod for JC to take on his last days of skiing.

All well and good. And then I get a text from B, wanting to know where I am and if I am out. JC said, Do you feel like you are missing out? Keep in mind that 97% of the people that live here are now mostly together at the bottom of the lift, drinking beers and revelrying and listening to a too-loud DJ playing '80s music, and here I am on this sunny porch really really happy to be with my man, but then that little voice starts to pipe up and I admitted that, yes, a part of me wants to be down there, but not at the expense of being where I am right now. So I ask you: How can you be in two places at once?

Well, it turns out that you can't! I know, it's total crap. So I surrender to where I am, and I embrace being exactly where I am in this moment. And you know what? It worked.