“Great Expectations” ended with Alice accepting my proposal at her business, Vulcan, Incorporated, Christmas party five weeks after we met. So Christmas 1988 is upon us, and to many in the San Francisco Bay Area, that means skiing. I had never skied. Had never tried. Alice was a member of the Bota Baggers Singles Ski Club of Dublin and Pleasanton. They skied. They drank. They tried to hop in beds with other members, invariably of the opposite sex. Alice skied, loved to dance, didn’t drink, and frustrated a lot of club members of the opposite sex.
During our first week as an engaged couple – no ring yet, another story there – Alice asked if I had ever been skiing. I replied, “No, but I have a burning desire.”
Fast forward to the week before Christmas, and Alice came to my Walnut Creek house and placed numerous strange looking packages under my Christmas Tree. On Christmas Morning she joined my youngest son, Jeffrey, as we unwrapped our presents. My first package contained a pair of skies, the next ski poles, the third ski pants with bib, the fourth ski boots, the fifth – do you see a pattern here? – ski goggles, then a cap, then gloves, then …. Even I started to notice a theme in the presents Alice gave me. No ties. No cologne. Only ski gear.
So I said/asked: “I don’t ski. Does this mean skiing is in my future?”
Alice replied: “You said you have a burning desire.”
I replied: “Yes, I do, but not for skiing.”
Alice satisfied my burning desire, and about a month later I started skiing too.
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