Day Away

Last Thursday, I went skiing for the first time as a resident of Colorado. I suppose that in the opinion of the natives, it's really my first time I've ever really skied (I don't know if they count my one time in high school when I went with the youth group to Mount Kato in Minnesota. It's whopping 240 feet don't sound all that impressive to folks here). Anyway, with a death/funeral to deal with over the weekend and more work this weekend, I needed a day off. I heard Cal (a member of our church) was going to take another beginner out to Keystone on Thursday, so I asked if I could tag along. Cal, being Cal, happily obliged. We picked up Mike from the airport around 8 and were at Keystone by 10:30. Cal was kind enough to give me a few lessons, take some time on the bunny hills with me, and then take me down my first run. I was quite impressive, if I don't say so myself. Cal was also kind enough to snap this shot of me going off a sweet jump:

I told you I was impressive.

Okay, that's not really me (I know you're really surprised). But I think I did all right. I got off the beginner hill, went down a few runs, and didn't fall too much--except when Cal "accidentally" took me down one of the hardest blues in the place. Then I looked more like this.

I'd like to think that mine were more impressive--that there were higher speeds involved, a bigger spray of snow, a few more acrobatics on my part--but they probably weren't. Regardless, this little clip captures a few key elements of my wipe outs: (A). The desperate flailing of arms before the inevitable fall. (B.) The slow, humiliating slide down hill (C) The high level of entertainment/comedy involved for onlookers (Cal's a really nice guy, but I'm sure even he laughed a lot on Thursday).

Despite all that, it was a good day. It was topped off with a big steak at "The Mint"--a place in Keystone where you pick/cook your own steak. (Sometime I'll have to write about the steak from Japan which was "raised on beer and massaged twice daily..." (the massage was before it was killed--I asked). I would've ordered it, but I couldn't bring myself to pay $60 for a chunk of meat. But really--how would you like to massage livestock for a living?!)

So again, a good day. I didn't think about work (well, very little. Mike kept asking me questions) and it felt like I was gone longer than a day. I was hoping to take Jill Monday (OUR day off now that she has her new job) but I've been fighting off this terrible cold that she had last week (durn preschoolers) and think I better rest up instead.