Skiing

After we arrived in NY we went back to Mom's house for lunch. At around 1;00 we left for the 3 hour drive up to Otis (in the Birkshires). The drive was nice, I was very tired and so was Harrison so we both slept. I also had uploaded a book to my iPod so I was listening to that on the way up there as well (The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella (author of Confessions of a Shopaholic)). We didn't do much that afternoon. We made dinner and just relaxed.

The next day Cliff and I went skiing at a small hill right in Otis called Otis Ridge. It has been quite a while since I had been skiing, 6 years to be exact. For Cliff it was about 2-3 years. But the last time I was skiing I had injured myself, tore my ACL in my knee. It was very painful and I had months of physical therapy afterward. So I was a bit nervous to ski again. My plan was to take a few runs down the bunny hill to get my self warmed up and then go up the chair lift to the green hills. So after we rented skiis and bought our lift tickets we headed out.

When I approached the bunny hill, there was this incline up to the tow rope. Well, I was having a hard time just getting up to the tow rope, I kept sliding back down the incline. There was a huge line of kids behind me, so I let them go ahead while I attempted to awkwardkly make my way up the incline. By the time I got up there I was going to wait until there was a break in the rush of kids, but that wasn't coming any time soon, so I inserted myself in the line and got my self set up to grab the tow rope. I reached for it...and then fell. My ski came off when I did so I was able to get up fast. I then decided I was going to bad this idea and go right for the chair lift.

I couldn't have been more wrong. I got on to the chair lift with no problems. Easy peasy. But as we approached where we needed to get off, I started to panic. It looked like a steep srop off to go down once you got off of the lift. Well Cliff got off with no problems and I hesitated a bit too long and didn't get off. I was now about 4 feet off the ground and the operator stopped the lift. Thank goodness there wasn't many people skiing that day. The lift operator came over and told me I couldn't go down the lift that I had to get off. He told me to jump. I looked at him like he was out of his mind. I told him I absolutely couldn't jump, and if I was going to he had to take off my skiis. He took them off and I still felt I couldn't do it without breaking my leg. So he told me he would lift me off. I again looked at him like he had 7 heads. I told he I was too heavy. He chuckled and said he was a big guy and to just slide into him. I didn't think I could do it but I trusted him and slowly began to slide off of the lift. He did in fact lift me off and place me safely on the ground. I thanked him profusely and appologized like a gazillion times. Cliff, meanwhile, was totally speachless, he couldn't believe I didn't get off.

Well that little experience didn't boost my confidence. I was very anxious and skiied very slowly looking for the green hill. Half way there I went to move my hair out of my eyes and my pole hit my eye and my contact lens popped out and I lost it. So now I am extremely anxious and half blind. It was a spectacular day so far. Well, I finally made it down the mountain. I didn't hurt myself, but I wasn't going to go up that chair lift again.

I waited for Cliff at the bottom of the hill while he took some runs. After about 40 minutes he wanted to get something to eat. We went into the chalet and realized we only had $3 and they didn't take cards, so we shared a sprite and rested. The rest of the afternoon I mastered the bunny hill and became more confident in my skiing.

I need to try it again, hopefully at a place where I feel more comfortable.