Thursday, February 12, 2009

No Longer A Fraud

I grew up at the foot of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. 
Even so, I have endured colder winters and more snow while living in Iowa and Connecticut than I ever did in Colorado. 
Strange but true. 
When my sisters and I were driving my parents crazy during the winter months, they would take us sledding or cross country skiing. Sledding was usually a fun event but cross country skiing, not so much. Even though "suicide hill" took all one's strength to climb
 with a sled in tow, the ride down was always worth the effort. Cross country skiing was all effort and no pay off. Any small hill to coast down meant frustration trying to ascend it on the return. Downhill skiing, the winter sport that most outdoorsy types anticipate with joy, was too expensive for our family of 6. As a result, I never went downhill skiing in the 10 years that I lived in Colorado. How can that be? That's like someone who lives in Florida and has never visited Disney World. Weird.

Last week, I went downhill skiing. 

My sister, Kari outfitted me with the gear and took me on the moving carpet up to the top of the baby hill. She is the most fantastic teacher. The slopes of CT are no where close to the same caliber as CO but never the less, they were still tricky for this novice. I tumbled more than a few times and bent both of the ski poles I had rented. Ooops!  Once I got the hang of it though, I started to think that I might like winter. Ok, that's a bit of a stretch. 
Alas, I am no longer a fraud. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hehe... you bent the poles :-) oops. Sounds like you had a great time. I've never been skiing either! crazy.