Adventures in Falling On My Butt ;)
Jan. 8th, 2007 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
batskeetsHELLO MY DEARS! It is time for a friendly reminder: I have a big Friends List, so if you're new to the party and haven't made yourself known yet, don't just sit there like a quiet little lamb, wondering why I haven't Friended you back yet! Make yourself known via comment, or something. I've been seeing new names crop up on the Friend-Of list as of late, and I like to know a thing or three about who's doing the stalking, before I add. ;)
Saturday was, as expected, a day of Adventures in Skiing! :O We went with a chick from Ben's job (Amy) who likes to snowboard, and she was kind enough to loan me some warm-weather stuff and drive us all out to Hoodoo. First off, let me just say: when you are already something of a klutz, adding skis to the equation sure won't help with that. ::rotfl::
Of course, I like to call myself an expert in falling (see also: jump inside fall!), so that wasn't particularly painful, in and of itself. :) However, falling is *nothing* compared to using your skinny chicken arms to haul yourself back up. Also, having your legs bend in funny ways due to your skis being present does not make your knees very happy. And, well, it just gets frustrating to fall on your ass every five seconds; falling is only fun when it's planned, heh. ;)
Anyway, we slogged through the first run, which was incredibly slow, due to all the falling and stuff. I kind of expected to be falling down a lot, but it still gets frustrating after a while, so I eventually got to whining and cursing like a sailor through a lot of it. I definitely have to note that Ben is possibly the most patient person on God's Green Earth. He helped me figure things out, without patronizing me or making me feel like even more of a doofus, which is pretty critical when I get into the flailing and cursing phase of learning. ;)
After the first run, it got a lot better, because I got to take a few minutes to rest and re-center while going up on the lift again. I'm a firm believer in Taking A 10 Minute Break when things get too frustrating, but you can't exactly *do* that when you're in the middle of a ski run. I think that's what I needed, though, because we did two more green runs, and yeah, I bit it a couple of times, but it was still a marked improvement, and I was actually having fun, and felt like I was getting the hang of it.
So! At that point, we went up to the top of the mountain to check out the crazy-awesome view, and we scoped out a run on the map that would be easy enough for me to manage. This is the part where I learn that A) Hoodoo labels their ski runs for crap, B) Ski Patrol people are nice, and C) Snowmobiles are not difficult to tip over. ;p
We made our way around towards the run we'd picked out, and that was pretty easy--it was icier than the other side of the mountain, so I crashed a few times, but it was certainly manageable. But, at some point, we took a wrong turn, so we ended up somewhere that was way steeper than I could handle. x_x I was genuinely freaked out just looking at it, and I *really* didn't want to be going that fast when I wasn't all that good at stopping. After spending some indeterminate amount of time inching down the slope--with me falling down a whole lot and occasionally being all, OMGI'MGOINGTOFALLANDDIEAAAGGH--the ski patrol came 'round because they were closing the lift soon.
After talking to them for a few minutes, we figured out that we'd somehow ended up on a blue run instead of the green one we'd wanted, so that explained the ridiculous level of steepness. The ski patrol dudes helped me inch down the hill some more, until a snowmobile came to pick me up and take me down to the lift, where I waited a few minutes for another snowmobile to come and take me back to the lodge.
The snowmobile guy showed up and I hopped on, and within 2 minutes of us taking off, we managed to eat it into a snow bank and tip over the snowmobile! We didn't get hurt or anything, but another guy had to come up and help right the thing and dig it out of the snow. Then, later in the trip back, we almost ate it *again*, and although we didn't tip over, my rental ski poles got bent to hell. The rest of the ride was uneventful, but when we got back to the lodge, we noticed that one of my skis had gotten lost, so the poor guy had to go back and look for my missing ski. ::rotfl::
Anyhoo, long story short, he found the lost ski, and I didn't have to pay for the bent poles, because, um, they apparently didn't belong to the rental place. I have no idea how it happened, but I guess someone else took my poles, or I took theirs, or some such thing. Overall, I'm not any worse for wear, and I'm glad I went, even after all the nutty events of the day. I do think I'd like to do more easy stuff, though, and maybe go someplace where we'd know the runs better, so we don't end up in the wrong place like that again. ;)
We came back to town, where Amy's husband had some very tasty beef stew waiting for us, and we got to try out their Wii. After hearing all the blather about how awesome it is, I can't say that I disagree, heh! It's pretty fun, and the controller thingy is surprisingly accurate.
Yesterday was a slow day, but I was totally fine with that, after all the excitement of the previous day. :) Played around with camera flash experiments, watched Nightmare on Elm Street--which is pretty corny and hilarious--and got some photo stuff done.
Tonight = first wushu practice of winter term. Competition is in Feb. for some of them, and March for most of us, so playtime is over. Muahaha!
Saturday was, as expected, a day of Adventures in Skiing! :O We went with a chick from Ben's job (Amy) who likes to snowboard, and she was kind enough to loan me some warm-weather stuff and drive us all out to Hoodoo. First off, let me just say: when you are already something of a klutz, adding skis to the equation sure won't help with that. ::rotfl::
Of course, I like to call myself an expert in falling (see also: jump inside fall!), so that wasn't particularly painful, in and of itself. :) However, falling is *nothing* compared to using your skinny chicken arms to haul yourself back up. Also, having your legs bend in funny ways due to your skis being present does not make your knees very happy. And, well, it just gets frustrating to fall on your ass every five seconds; falling is only fun when it's planned, heh. ;)
Anyway, we slogged through the first run, which was incredibly slow, due to all the falling and stuff. I kind of expected to be falling down a lot, but it still gets frustrating after a while, so I eventually got to whining and cursing like a sailor through a lot of it. I definitely have to note that Ben is possibly the most patient person on God's Green Earth. He helped me figure things out, without patronizing me or making me feel like even more of a doofus, which is pretty critical when I get into the flailing and cursing phase of learning. ;)
After the first run, it got a lot better, because I got to take a few minutes to rest and re-center while going up on the lift again. I'm a firm believer in Taking A 10 Minute Break when things get too frustrating, but you can't exactly *do* that when you're in the middle of a ski run. I think that's what I needed, though, because we did two more green runs, and yeah, I bit it a couple of times, but it was still a marked improvement, and I was actually having fun, and felt like I was getting the hang of it.
So! At that point, we went up to the top of the mountain to check out the crazy-awesome view, and we scoped out a run on the map that would be easy enough for me to manage. This is the part where I learn that A) Hoodoo labels their ski runs for crap, B) Ski Patrol people are nice, and C) Snowmobiles are not difficult to tip over. ;p
We made our way around towards the run we'd picked out, and that was pretty easy--it was icier than the other side of the mountain, so I crashed a few times, but it was certainly manageable. But, at some point, we took a wrong turn, so we ended up somewhere that was way steeper than I could handle. x_x I was genuinely freaked out just looking at it, and I *really* didn't want to be going that fast when I wasn't all that good at stopping. After spending some indeterminate amount of time inching down the slope--with me falling down a whole lot and occasionally being all, OMGI'MGOINGTOFALLANDDIEAAAGGH--the ski patrol came 'round because they were closing the lift soon.
After talking to them for a few minutes, we figured out that we'd somehow ended up on a blue run instead of the green one we'd wanted, so that explained the ridiculous level of steepness. The ski patrol dudes helped me inch down the hill some more, until a snowmobile came to pick me up and take me down to the lift, where I waited a few minutes for another snowmobile to come and take me back to the lodge.
The snowmobile guy showed up and I hopped on, and within 2 minutes of us taking off, we managed to eat it into a snow bank and tip over the snowmobile! We didn't get hurt or anything, but another guy had to come up and help right the thing and dig it out of the snow. Then, later in the trip back, we almost ate it *again*, and although we didn't tip over, my rental ski poles got bent to hell. The rest of the ride was uneventful, but when we got back to the lodge, we noticed that one of my skis had gotten lost, so the poor guy had to go back and look for my missing ski. ::rotfl::
Anyhoo, long story short, he found the lost ski, and I didn't have to pay for the bent poles, because, um, they apparently didn't belong to the rental place. I have no idea how it happened, but I guess someone else took my poles, or I took theirs, or some such thing. Overall, I'm not any worse for wear, and I'm glad I went, even after all the nutty events of the day. I do think I'd like to do more easy stuff, though, and maybe go someplace where we'd know the runs better, so we don't end up in the wrong place like that again. ;)
We came back to town, where Amy's husband had some very tasty beef stew waiting for us, and we got to try out their Wii. After hearing all the blather about how awesome it is, I can't say that I disagree, heh! It's pretty fun, and the controller thingy is surprisingly accurate.
Yesterday was a slow day, but I was totally fine with that, after all the excitement of the previous day. :) Played around with camera flash experiments, watched Nightmare on Elm Street--which is pretty corny and hilarious--and got some photo stuff done.
Tonight = first wushu practice of winter term. Competition is in Feb. for some of them, and March for most of us, so playtime is over. Muahaha!
