May I invite myself?

It begins like this: You get a phone call from a person you barely know, who says: “I'm stopping by Park City and would like to ski with you.” You move a few things around to block the day and you answer “why not?”

Then the fellow asks, “any good hotel around?” which translates into “can I sleep in your home?” Over the years and many mistakes later, we have become much smarter and respond “try the Peaks Hotel, next door.”

Relentlessly comes the next question from that semi-stranger: “What about dinner together?” which means “can I have dinner with you?” Once more, I respond perfectly: “impossible on that night, we have other engagements!”

The day arrives, I pick up the impromptu guest at his hotel, drive him to the resort, watch him get shell-shocked when he has to lay down $102 for a one-day lift-ticket. From that point on and until the lift closes at 4:15pm, it's skiing, skiing non-stop; the man wants to get his money worth!

Out, the conditions are great but the weather is cold, I ask: “Do we break for lunch?” My guest responds “No, I have prepared a sandwich, and I always eat on the chairlift!” I oblige, and feel very fortunate that my companion shares his cold sandwich with me. I certainly can appreciate the fact that he didn't want to put himself in a situation in which he would have felt obligated to buy me lunch!

He's a very good skier and I show him the best spots on the mountain, plus even shoot him skiing powder on my GoPro helmet-cam. At the end of day, I take pity on him (huge mistake!) and as my wife had previously suggested, invite the free-loader to dinner at home.

Of course, he shows up empty-handed, talks a lot about himself, drop lots of names, mentions his trips to Europe and St. Moritz, his impressive education, his kids, but shows little, if any interest for us. At 9 pm when we wish he would go, the man pulls up his laptop to bore us with pictures of him with some irrelevant folks. We signify to him that it's late and when he finally leaves us, he forgets to say thanks for the day and the delicious meal he just devoured...

Guess what, we've learned another invaluable lesson: The human specie never ceases to amaze us, we learn something new everyday and in the process are becoming much smarter. These enhanced social skills can always come in handy!