Story Submitted by Milo:
Gwen and I had been dating for a month and a half when I took us skiing for the day. I try to go a few times a season, and Gwen hadn't gone in a while.
While we were going down one slope, I coasted a bit ahead and saw a fork in the trail. One of them was marked easy, the other one less so. I waited for Gwen to catch up, and when I saw her coming around a bend, I started off again, but slowly, so as to allow her to catch up. She could very clearly see me from where she was.
I was going for not more than thirty seconds when I looked behind me and saw no sign of Gwen. She didn't answer her cell phone. I went down the rest of the way and hoped to find her at the bottom. She wasn't there.
I waited for a half-hour before going up in the lift again. I went down the other path in the fork and called for her, but there was no sign. I tried her cell over and over. No answer.
I searched for her down at the bottom and then in the lodge. I told the ski patrol what had happened, and they said that they'd look for her.
I waited in the lodge and searched around outside for several more hours. They made an announcement over the speaker system for her to report to the patrol station. She didn't show up. I was in panic, and thought about going up again to look for her.
She finally did call. "Where are you? Are you okay?" I asked, hardly able to push the words out fast enough.
"I'm fine. I've been up and down close to a dozen times. Where have you been?"
I explained my concern and asked her why she didn't pick up her phone or call me back.
She said, "I don't know. I figured we'd just bump into each other again."
"I've had them looking for you! I searched for you! They made an announcement! I called you twenty times! And you didn't think once that I was trying to find you?"
She paused before saying, "Yeah. You're a little obsessive and psychotic."
I couldn't really comprehend that statement, and when we finally did meet up, she was distant and didn't seem at all happy to be back around me.
The drive back was awkward, and whenever I tried to make conversation, she barely spoke. She didn't thank me for the day and didn't ever call or write me again. All because I cared.
Wow. I've never posted before, but this one prompted me to post.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but the OP could have avoided this whole mess simply by waiting for her at the sign post in the first place. Just because you can see her doesn't mean she can see you, especially if she's moving and having to dodge other people and (if this was an easy slope) schools of little kids. Unless you wear something very distinguishable, people tend to look alike when there's crowds of them (my brother was never able to recognize me coming off a slope until I bought a new ski jacket that wasn't black, for example). Would it really have killed you to wait a few more seconds for her to catch up, instead of just heading off by yourself?
Also, mountains cut down on cell reception. She may not have even gotten most of the calls. And even if she did, depending on what pocket she keeps it in, she may not have heard it. I used to keep mine in an inner jacket pocket, and I never noticed the thing vibrating or beeping when I was skiing (i.e. motion that causes far more vibration than a phone) and the wind was whistling in my ears.
So yeah, while the OP's concern was admirable, I personally think the OP was at fault here.
I'm on the fence. I've been skiing before--although I hate it--but when you're with someone, it's rather important to stay with that person, or something like this might happen. She should have waited at the bottom for him. He said he waited for 30mins--she should have come back. And when he asked her why she didn't answer her phone or respond to the overhead page, she was very indifferent about it. So maybe he panicked prematurely (although searching for "several hours" is not exactly a short period of time), but if she saw he was trying to find her, she should've contacted him back.
ReplyDeleteShe clearly ignored at least SOME of the calls and failed to show at the end of the run for 30 minutes.
ReplyDelete"...a little obsessive and psychotic." Ummmm, I think not. Concerned and worried, yes.
OK, so maybe he should have waited til he could tell her which fork he was taking, but if he says she could have clearly seen him, we have to go with:
A) That it may not have been that crowded and/or
B) He did have enough of a recognizable outfit on that he felt she certainly saw him and choose the other path anyway and/or
C) The distance from the bend to him was short enough and again, she DID see him and then choose the other path anyway.
I'd have done close to what he did in this situation and feel she's is quite the Bitch.
Oh man, all these tl;dr posts.. thank you churro to summarise my thoughts exactly.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with the posts that she is quite the bitch, I feel as though there might be more to the story than we were told. He mentioned that they had been dating for a month and a half - maybe he was overbearing all the time and she just took this as the last straw?
ReplyDelete