The Endless Après Ski

(the reunion before the reunion)

This is my first newsletter… the idea is to talk about one element of the past month in depth. This will then be followed by short blurbs about other things that I found interesting during the month. Feel free to leave a comment and explore whatever else is on my website.

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A suggested account on Instagram was the harbinger for my ten-year reunion. The idea of a ten-year reunion didn’t entirely sneak up on me; before I saw the account, I recently made a comment to my mom about whether I would go or not to a ten-year reunion, and she mentioned that it was more common for people to attend the fifteen-year. But to know that other people were thinking about it, and that a committee was already formed to put it on, was a bit surreal. While high school feels more or less put away in the past, I don’t feel ready to have the conversations that I feel should happen at reunions. When I think reunions, I imagine talks of kids and marriage, and not my current status of solo apartment living and part-time school. But, perhaps I’m more ingrained in adult life than I think—were I to go, I’d have to ask my boss for time off and get a sitter for my cat.

A few weeks ago, I went to Mammoth with friends from high school on a snowboarding trip (it’s possible some of those dudes may be reading this post). This trip happens once per year, and while this annual trip is not new to the people I went with, it’s new to me–hell, $nowboarding is too. When I moved to Sacramento last year, I had a little bit of extra money and entertained the idea of snowboarding. While I could have gone alone, I reached out to a friend in the group and asked if they would be in the Tahoe area snowboarding, and by coincidence, they had a cabin booked. It was a bit of an ordeal getting there; I was driving up from visiting my family in Long Beach the same day I made it to the cabin, meaning eight hours of driving to Sacramento, dropping the cat off, and then another two hours of driving through the snow to Tahoe. There were multiple moments when I considered flaking, chances to grasp onto valid excuses: the long drive, road conditions, insane lift ticket prices (ty skateboarding <3). However, it felt like something that had to be done, and this feeling was validated when I saw my buddies pull up in the Tahoe snow, their familiar voices making me feel like I was back at cross-country practice. This was followed by a great time playing poker, drinking wine, and snowboarding, and the end of the trip was marked by, “Until next year!” text messages in the group chat, as we ostensibly would want to repeat such a good time in the following year.

Fast forward to about two months ago, and I was getting a bit worried. I had bought my lift passes for the season, and while the snow conditions weren’t great, my chief concern was whether or not this group snowboarding trip would happen this year. With the group chat as bare as the slopes, it felt important to me that it happen again. Feeling a bit out of place being the newcomer to the group, I revived the group chat, asking, “Is there a trip happening this year?” After all, one of the guys is in a PhD program and another is getting married, and it seemed like a natural progression of things for the trip fall through the cracks. For a few hours, it was radio silence. Then, the plans materialized before my eyes and I was pencilling in a stay a June Lake in the then coming weeks.

Funnily enough, in years prior, I had seen their posts and felt a sense of being left out. It looked like a good time, meeting back up with friends from high school. I wondered why they didn’t invite me, and tried to understand why: maybe it was because I didn’t snowboard, or maybe I had grown apart from those guys. But, looking back, in high school I was someone who said no to lots of things, especially things that I was nervous about. In college and in my early twenties, I finally became someone who said yes to things more frequently, and I thought that this portrayal of myself would somehow magically lead them to extend an invite. Now, I’m learning that with distance, responsibility, and the good-ole sands of time, sometimes the only way to join the lives of those you care about is by asking, or perhaps even butting your way in.

Not to diminish my relationships with my new friends in adulthood, but this trip offers something special. These high school guys witnessed me grow up, whatever that means. They bring up embarrassing things from high school, the act of which is haunting initially and then cathartic, trivializing things that seemed so daunting to face at the time, like fights at track and field practice. The trip is a tether to another time, not only as in g o s s i p, but in the fact that even if I only talk to these guys once a year, they’re some of the few people who have an idea of my narrative at a large scale, updated once per year.

What I appreciate a lot about the trip is the effort that everyone puts in, even when the snow conditions are shit. Each person comes from a different area of the state, hours away from the slope, and has to take off work and pack. Luckily, at least to me, the process didn’t feel like an ordeal, likely because of the novelty the trip offers. When you’re in school, new things are happening all the time: new classes, a new quarter. But while working, nothing necessarily has to happen. Strangely enough, Tuesday donuts even become uneventful. You can repeat the same day verbatim week after week if you’d like, bar a nuclear disaster or getting drafted or something that totally won’t happen ever.

Now, on to the subject of the ten-year reunion—even if it does seem a little early, the opportunity for novelty seems too good to pass up. Hell, Poly is so big I’ll probably meet more people that I never knew than people I socialized with regularly—I think it’s worth attending for that reason alone. Last weekend, I went to a “Stranger Party” where the members of a friend group each brought a stranger to the party, and it was absolutely brilliant. So, if you’re wondering if I’ll be at the Long Beach Poly Class of 2016 Reunion, you bet your ass I’ll be there, along with my lofty dreams of home ownership.

Other miscellany:

I am working to get surgery on my hip for a torn labrum. Why this shit had to happen after the greatest half-marathon of my life is a mystery but at least I got my licks in (5:55/mile for 13 miles :o). The recovery is six months though, which I am nervous about. 

Through conversing in Spanish, I became friends with Juan, my apartment’s handyman, and he is going to invite me over for Guatemalan food. I am also slowly learning Mandarin. 

Mountains by Mary Timony is a great album. Flesh by David Szalay is an alright book. Deep End directed by Jerzy Skolimowski is a crazy-ass movie. Regularly attending the Dreamland Cinema in Sac is one of my favorite parts of 2026 so far.

I get this $4 breakfast burrito with hella shit in it at work and it is the only way I make it through the day. If you have a better deal, LEAVE IT IN THE COMMENTS.

Very thankful for the Sacramento Comedy Spot and my Shoes-Off family. Asians selling out the theater >>>>