MERRY CHRISTMAS: "i wouldn't quite call it shredding... though i believe the word "tumbling" sums it up pretty well..."

Today.
I am the sorest I have been since my first day of pilates at Vassar with Theresa kicking my butt.

Yesterday,
My first day snowboarding.
EVER

Incredible. In every way.
Incredibly fun.
Incredibly hard.
Incredibly painful.
Incredibly cold.
Incredibly beautiful.
Incredibly fast.
Incredibly unsteady.
Incredibly snowy.

Can I just stress how hard it is to learn, especially for someone who isn't terribly coordinated or skilled in the way of doing things that are lacking friction with the ground. Not to mention I easily submit to the laws of gravity, so hence the bruises and aching muscles.

Besides feeling like I am recovering from being hit by a bus, it was awesome. And despite feeling like I am recovering from a fall from the top of a very tall building, I would do it again in a heartbeat... if it was free... and once I wasn't this sore.

It was simultaneously the most liberating and hardest thing I've done in a long time, and I couldn't think of a better way of spending Christmas morning. Drew had to work 7am-4pm and my lesson was from 9:15am-3:00pm. Perfect. The mountain was empty in the morning. No lines, no "let's-try-out-my-new-gear-that-I-got-for-Christmas" tourists, and tons and tons of new snow. The flakes kept falling, covering the tracks of those that had shredded or fallen before you.

My instructor sucked, but I learned a lot.

I also fell a lot. Most of the falls were great; my forearms or bum hitting the fresh powder. Only once, on what I made sure was my last run, did I bite it so hard that my head began throbbing as soon as I stopped sliding. That was when I called it a day and took the lift back down.

I called Drew on my lunchbreak and he asked, "how is my little shredder doing?"

I responded with, "i wouldn't quite call it shredding... though i believe the word "tumbling" sums it up pretty well... but I am better than I was a couple of hours ago!"

yehaw.