Skating on a Frozen Lake
Spring Break in Barrie
This year has been quite difficult, especially since Yuki left in September to chart her own course and I suddenly found myself single. School has been unexciting and I’m unmotivated moving from desk to kitchen to bed seemingly on autopilot day in and day out. There was a fortunate change last week with spring break and an opportunity to get out of the city for a few days. Although the school scheduled a crit the day after reading break we were still able to have half of a week’s break.
Like at the end of summer, my friends and I were able to get out of town and head up to Barrie for a few days. Although I’ve been skating at the outdoor rinks in Toronto every week, this was the first time that I got to skate on an actual frozen lake.
The first night we drank a lot and then went skating at about 4 in the morning. Jenna’s neighbour has set up a really nice rink on the lake and even has a set of hockey nets. It was dark out but there was just enough light pollution reflecting off the clouds to skate around and shoot the puck. With hockey nets we were also able to take some serious shots, though we called it a night after we’d lost both pucks.
Needless to say, the late night made for a slow morning, although, Evan and Jenna’s breakfast was certainly delicious. We played chess and went tobogganing, two activities I haven’t done in ages.
Jae also showed up and after dinner we had a team chess match. Three people to a team each taking a turn making a move but not strategizing together. None of us are any good at chess so in the end it didn’t make a whole lot of difference and any blunder made the match just that much more entertaining. It was also Zak’s first time playing chess and although he lost this round, he won his first real game when we played 1v1.
It was great having a getaway and the lake skating was the best part. Zak and I went skating in the morning on the third day too and I would have gone again on the fourth had he not left the day before to get home for Valentine’s day.
I’ve been lonely for a long time, even in the company of friends. Breakups are rough and with hunkering down during a pandemic I’ve been just waiting for time to nullify the pain. Hopefully something will happen in the summer so that I can move on but in the meantime I’m very grateful for my friends who have taken care of me and glad that we got a small break from school.
