Matt and Janie

I strapped my front foot in to my bindings, adjusted my goggles and turned the volume down on my ipod. I looked behind to see my best friend doing the same thing. "Are you ready?" I asked. "Let's go!" she replied.

We rode right onto the lift. There is rarely a line up on our mountain, it is part of what we love about it.
We both took our seats on the quad chair. Lizzie sat on the left, and I sat on the right.
I am a goofy rider, so I rest my right foot on the foot rest while Lizzie rides regular so she does the opposite. I lounge into the corner of the chair with my left foot stretched out on to the seat. It is our routine, it is how we ride the chair when we are together.

I glance back at the incredible scenery, the beautiful snow capped rocky mountain ranges behind me, and turn my head forward to see the incredible winter wonderland in front of me. We both take a deep breath and we know why we love this so much..... Nothing matters right now, not our kids, our housework, or our jobs. This is time for us, we get to marvel in a wintery dream, we get to enjoy the incredible backyard we are blessed with, and we use this time as a kind of therapy, a time to confide in each other. On the chairlift, no one hears you, what we say on the chair, stays on the chair......but not anymore now I have decided to blog about it.

Once we are air born, I look to my friend and say "have I got a story for you today!!"
"oh I can't wait!" she says.

I begin my story and I speak fast, because I know the chair is only 9 minutes long.

So you know Matt my old roommate? Well of course you do because you live right next door to me, well remember last summer, when he came back from the city to visit, and he brought his new girlfriend?

Did you meet her? Oh you did, I thought you might have. She is a great girl eh? I really like her, I have gotten to know her quite well over the past year.

She is not like him though....... Janie was raised in a very wealthy family in Ontario, she is the youngest of two daughters her father owns a cable company and he is also a pilot. Her mother is a banker. Janie's mother is a woman who demands success from her daughters, she has a life planned for them and they are expected to live up to it. Janie's parents have placed enourmous pressure on their daughter.

Janie is so innocent Lizzie! It is Incredible! I have never met a girl her age that is still so sheltered from the world.
Remember on my birthday when we had that girly girl weekend getaway and she had never even tried a Martini?

She is 25 years old and she missed out on so much of what most people consider a normal part of life. All throughout her University and High School life. She was so focused, she worked hard to succeed, she trained to swim and was completley dedicated to her sport and her schooling.

Before moving out west,Janie had a boyfriend for 7 years, he was everything people would expect a beautiful young girl like her to be with. He came from the same town she did, he was educated and had been accepted to medical school. Janie had applied for the same school but she was not accepted, this devastated her, because it was the plan to go to University together, now she would have to look into other options.
Janie's boyfriend felt she should change her plans in life to support him, but never considered the thought of changing his plans to support her and her swimming.

It was the man's job and he would look after her, they would marry, she would give up her dreams and have his children. In Janie's world, no one thought this to be a problem. Janie's had grown up with this guy her whole life, his parents were dear friends of Janie's parents. When their relationship ended, Janie's family was even more devastated than she was.

Janie had tried to end the relationship, she told her boyfriend that she was going to move west for University she knew her mother would be upset but she had to be strong because she felt that her life was missing something, she knew she had to make a change.

Her boyfriend, refused to be dumped so he turned the tables on her, and suddenly it was he that wanted to end it He told Janie that the relationship had become mundane and he felt she wasn't supportive enough of him. This shocked Janie but she knew it was over anyway so she cried and then she got brave, packed up and moved out west. Janie had no idea what she was looking for but she knew one thing she was lacking and that was FUN.

This is where it gets interesting though. Janie meets Matt, and falls in love, BUT I really don't think Janie even knows who Matt is? I am not sure she understands what she has found in him.

I know who Matt is, I lived with him for 8 months, and in that time he became like a brother to me. Matt and I spent many evenings talking and learning about each other, we went through a lot at the same time during that 8 months and it led me to know Matt better than I though I would have.

When Matt moved here to snowboard and hadn't a clue about life out here after leaving his wealthy family in Australia, I knew one thing the boy loved to party.

Matt went to a private prep school when he was growing up. Matt's father was a successful Engineer and his mother did not need to work. Matt's mum managed the household, which was a big job in itself. Matt is the third child of four, he has two older brothers and a younger sister. The family lived comfortably on their estate, they enjoyed playing basketball and tennis on their courts, or lounging by their large pool. The older brothers had moved on and both were successfull like their father.I remember one day, Matt showed me his family's estate on google earth and I thought it must have been quite a culture shock for this wealthy kid to end up in my little condo here in the mountains, living the simple life

Matt was fortunate and his father paid for him to get a degree in Architecture. After one season of waiting tables and snowboarding every day, Matt had to go and pursue his career which is why he is now in the city, he is there working as an Architect.

Matt loves to surf, skateboard, and snowboard. Matt was able to surf all the time as a kid, because his family had a house on the beach. Matt's family was wealthy so he enjoyed a lot of ski trips and extravagant vacations.

Matt is a socialite, and he got into a bad scene before he came to Canada. He took a lot of pills, and did a lot of cocaine, living here he didn't know anyone at first with him so he gave it all up, but he continued to smoke pot. Marijuana is so accessable here, esspecially being a ski town, it seems that it is a big part of the culture here and very accepted. Matt loves to party and drinks and he loves to hang out with friends. Janie had never even seen pot, let alone anything else!! She rarely had time for her friends because she was so busy training and studying.

Matt is gifted and has a natural flare for sport.
Janie is also very athletic, she is on Canada's national swim team and it is expected that she will compete in the next summer Olympics, the only reason she didn't go to the games in China was because of a muscle injury.

Matt and Janie met at a mutual friends house on Halloween 2008, they are both incredibly easy on the eyes and they are both fit, so they had an instant attraction to each other.
Their relationship blossomed from there. Janie moving faster along with it faster than Matt.
Matt came back home from the city (here in the mountains, is what he calls home in Canada) for Christmas that year and told me about her, I knew he had met someone great.
Janie spent Christmas in Ontario with her family. It was only about a month later that the relationship took a turn ,they had declared their love on facebook, and moved in together in the city. It seemed that Matt had met his Canadian girl and fallen in love. The only problem was, Janie only knew Matt's healthy, driven, successfull side. She had never known the mountain Matt we all knew.

"Bar!" Lizzie shouted. "oh, sorry! I wasn't paying attention again!" "Me neither!" Lizzie said.

Lizzie and I started to laugh as the chair slowed to a near stop (the safety feature kicks in and if you don't lift the bar it stops). Lizzie and I both looked at the lifty in the hut at the top and mouthed the words "sorry" for once again failing to pay attention. The girl in the hut giggled to herself, knowing this wasn't a first for the two of us.

we rode off the lift and headed to the bench to strap in to our boards.
"What run will we do?" I asked. "Do you even have to ask?" Lizzie said.

I knew we would rip the main run first we always did. "You're right, let's warm up on the groomer, I have a need for some serious speed!" I laughed

"Me too!" Lizzie agreed, besides the faster we get to the bottom the faster we will get on the lift so you can continue with your story!!