I Am So Proud of Myself

Riley and Maggie last winter in Germany. Still, no snow in NY. Our ski mountain had to make their own!

Yesterday was my first day of ski lessons. I have to admit, on my drive to the mountain, I was very nervous. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to like skiing, because if I did, everyone in my family would be so happy. So if I hated it, skiing would be fun for everyone but me.

I tried skiing twice before. (Well, only once, because the second time I went, I drank beer in the lounge by myself and appointed myself the "official photographer)." The first time, was in high school, and I went last minute with a bunch of my friends. I remember going on the slopes, with these red pants I had- I didn't have snow pants, and my winter jacket that year was a winter jean jacket (do you remember them)? Yeah, I must had looked like a moron!! My first act of destruction was falling off the t-bar going up to the bunny slope on the first and only ride up. I thought it was funny that I fell off, so I laid in the snow, laughing, oblivious that I was supposed to quickly get out of the way to avoid the oncoming t-bars that were racing towards me. I think my friend threw herself on me and we both managed to get out of the way. Almost getting myself hurt, and haven't even skiied yet! Once on top of the "Bunny Slope" my friends gave me a 2-minute lesson on snowplowing, and they left me to go down the slope by myself. They cheered for me to join them at the bottom, as I tumbled by way down. Literally tumbling... I was like a bowling ball, ready to strike. I threw myself down the bunny slope like a lion. I was going so fast, forgetting the quick snowplowing lesson, and a bunch of little kids were my bowling pins, and I think I got a strike! They all fell down, as I crash in front of my friends who were waiting for me. Of course, they were all laughing, and to my horror, all the kids' parents that I crashed into were yelling at me. "You're too old to be on this slope!" So, that was my first experience skiing.

This time, I got myself a warm winter ski jacket, goggles, ski socks, ski hat and ski gloves. At least if I was going to suck, I would look good this time! When we got our boots on and I found my group outside (all the other moms and dads were who first-time skiers), I felt relaxed. I knew a couple of the moms in my group, and I knew if at least I sucked, I would have fun doing it. My ski teacher is a young college kid, who reminds me of someone that I would had hung out with if I were in college still. He was a total joker, so I knew I would feel comfortable with him. We started just walking in a circle with our skis on. Then we were given that famous snowplow lesson, and had to go down a very little hill. Skiing, this time, seemed easier, since it reminded me of rollerblading. We went up this other hill, and we had to get ourselves on this conveyor belt type thingy, which I had never seen before. Once we were up the hill, our teacher told us to practice going down, using snowplowing and turning. I felt like I did a good job, and my favorite part was when my teacher called me Lindsey Vaughn, because I was going down the hill, kind of fast. Yup, that was pretty cool. After our lesson, I was reunited with the kids and Tim and our best friends, who are also doing the lessons with us. I was shocked at how good Riley was. Maggie, on the other hand, was making me nervous. Every time she came tumbling down the hill, I thought for sure she was going to break something. Tim worked with her for a bit, and as I was sitting in the snow with my friend (it was over 40 degrees and I think we were making snow angels), I glanced up to see someone like Maggie coming down the hill, snowplowing. It wasn't until she was at the bottom that I could confirm that the girl was indeed my daughter, and I started cheering for her! I was so proud of her progress!

We had so much fun during our free ski time. The man working the top of the conveyor belt kept teasing me, "Oh, you are going to be so sore tomorrow." "Oh, you better get something to take tonight so you're not sore." He was kind of heckling me. So this morning, not one muscle sore! So I am so proud of myself for skiing well, and for not being sore.

When we got in the car last night, I saw the real big mountain (with the chairlift), and that looks scary. So, I really shouldn't be so braggy right now about my skiing, because I still haven't touched my skis on the actual real mountain!

But, I feel good about conquering something that I thought I would NEVER do again.