Ski Bunnies

This week my sister Natalie invited me to go skiing with her. It was incredibly uncharacteristic of me to go given it is the week before Christmas and the fact that I haven't been skiing for 11 years. I took skiing lessons when I was in college and actually got quite good, especially since I was raised in the South where they shut down the city if it snowed a quarter of an inch. But the last time I went downhill skiing was on my honeymoon in Grand Targhee. Eric and I rented skis and started down the mountain. In true Eric form, he zoomed off ahead of me. As I started down I noticed that it seemed an awful lot harder than when I had skiied in college. Even going down the hills I had to work hard to get my skis to move. When I finally reached the bottom of the hill I was red-faced and out of breath. Eric wondered what in the world had taken me so long and why I was so out of shape. After telling him how hard it was for me he concluded that there wasn't any wax on my skiis. So we took them back to the rental shop and after seeing my crimson face they immediately exchanged them. But I digress- that was 11 years ago and even with nicely waxed skis I was very nervous to try skiing again. I kept hoping it was like riding a bike- once you learned it would come back to you no matter how long it has been since the last time. My sister Natalie is better at about everything than me and skiing is no different. When I first got on the mountain I felt like a baby deer learning to walk- all wobbly and unsure of myself. I stuck with the green runs although I really wanted to try "Bassackwards" just for the name alone. I mean how cool is it to say, "Yeah, I skiied Bassackwards today." But that was a bit outside my comfort zone and skill level for the day. I did master "Big Emma" though. It is amazing how familiarity breeds confidence. The first time I went down I fell about 10 times. The second time I only fell once. The third time I felt like a freakin' rockstar and the fourth time -"Hey, is there Olympic skiing for women over 30!" Needless to say it was just the diversion from my life that I needed. So thank you to Nanny for a fun time and for being patient with me and thank you to my mom for watching my "Oh, yeahs."