Skiing and Snow Monkies

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After getting next to no sleep--which is not uncommon in my life--I was awoken by my phone alerting me that it was indeed 7:30, and I should...no will be getting up. NOW. Outside wind and cloud had combined to make snow overnight, and after dragging my sleepy butt out of bed and pulling on winter like clothes I headed upstairs where the smell of pancakes awaited me, along with three girls very anxious to get out in the snow. As I love snow, I had no problem with this. We lugged on our coats, gloves, and shoes and went tromping around the snow and building more walls for our EXTREME SNOW BALL FIGHT EPIC BATTLE.

We were soon wrangled up and taken to Deerfield to get fitted for ski boots and skis. It didn't take too long, and soon me and Audrey were on a lift and heading down the bunny slope. It was fun, and a lot easier than I had remembered: a thought that I would later regret thinking. After an hour or two of bunny hills Terry announced we would all be going on green trails. Audrey and Izzy informed me that they were easy. I was overly confident with my good luck on the bunny hills, and Green didn't seem TOO hard. So I enthusiastically agreed. We all went on a ski lift and it took off. It went high.

Then it went higher.

and higher.

Apparently the only way to get to the Green portion was to go down a Blue portion. If you don't ski and are thinking of skiing let me inform you. Green is the easiest skiing you can do next to the bunny hill that is dotted with four year olds. Then there are Double Greens, then Blues (which, I found out, have nice STEEP hills to go down) and then Double Blues followed by Blacks (Vertical hills off mountains that if you don't know how to ski will result in embarrassing and COLD death). Green sounded fun. It sounded easy. And for those who have had more than two lessons when they were sixteen, probably ARE. But I haven't skiied since I was thirteen or fifteen or some such long ago age.

My knee had started to hurt after the bunny hill but I, being stupid, young, and overly confident, went on it any way. I went down a hill and fell. No big deal. Then when we got to the bottom of the hill we went to another skii lift and went higher still. Turns out, 'Green' goes all the way to the top of the mountain and you follow trails going down it. We were at 8,000 feet, or a little higher I think. Any way. The point is, by the time I got to the bunny hill I was stopping every twenty feet in pain with both knees hurting and legs shaking and asking Isabella "are we there yet?" and trying not to cry. So I laughed instead.

I laughed for all I was worth and made jokes and inwardly screamed "OMG if I were a horse you would SHOOT ME BY NOW. PLEASE SHOOT ME. PLEASE!" One of my highlights however, was when I was going down a particularly grueling part of a Green where there are bumps. You know, the kind you see in the Olympics? Yeah. Those. I was doing good avoiding them, but was going a little too fast (because it hurt SO much to go slow. The strain was killing me) and instead FLEW over one. I mean, ACTUAL air.

I landed it, and I silently applauded myself, though it was short lived. Instead I realized I was going WAY t0o fast, and so did the thing I did best. I fell. However, I fell next to a hill, so my skis dug into the snow and I fell into nice soft powder; the very same that my skiis kicked up and threw over me in a wall of snow. I DID think that was pretty funny (But perhaps that was the pain talking).

We got home, and Audrey and I got into our bathing suites, and high tailed it into the outside jacuzzi. I felt like a snow monkey, and I have to say, they sure have the right idea! The snow surrounded us, be we were toasty warm in the water. At one point we got up the courage to get out and stand in the snow, counting to five before rushing back into the jacuzzi. It was actually pretty fun! My knees felt good in the water, but by the time it was dinner I couldn't make it up or down the stairs without going sideways. I took Tylenol, but my knees are still swollen--though not too terribly. I have no idea what they'll be like tomorrow. Never in my life have I felt it more that perhaps, PERHAPS, I'm actually aging. Again, that COULD just be the pain talking there.

I've promised Terry that I'll ski the bunny slope with Audrey tomorrow, and I figure, since he'll be going on Greens with every one else, he won't see me sitting most of it out. I'm THINKING the only way I'm going to be able to stand my knees tomorrow is with drugs or alcohol. Or both. Either way, tomorrow is going to be VERY interesting. And most likely very painful. But in all honesty, the skiing WAS fun, and I had several 'proud' moments, and lots of funny ones. So, worth the shredded knees I suppose.

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Comments

[Dana]

Hey nice bathing suit, lol. Yea skiing does that to my knees too. Just not muscular enough, or used to it. My dad is usually trying to get me to ski stuff that's more challenging than i like and my knees always crap out like half way down. Being scared and fatigue dont help in skiing or dirt biking, just makes you sloppy, and then your gonna eat it. Definitely medicate tomorrow before and jacuzzi after. Plus take lots of breaks for umm like food or a hot beverage, or snowman building or something lol.

[keelygoesfar]

Hehehe. I was so beat last night that I didn't go to the jacuzzi, but I took an advile! LOL! I know what you mean. I've always been a bunny slope person, and it WAS lots of fun doing the green runs, but a few were VERY hard and really took a toll on me. I've never had that happen before. Kinda mad about it actually XD.