More like swish-swish-THUMP.

So we went skiing this past weekend. And here are a few things I learned:

Lesson #1: Lydia is not athletic.
Skiing is very full of drama. You gotta put like eight layers of clothes on (if you're me), rent all this crap, fit into these weird boots, then carry all this mess out to the slopes. By the time I was dressed and got all my crap outside, I was worn slam out. I needed a nap. This lesson was reinforced throughout my skiing experience.

Lesson #2: Lydia is not a skier.
We got our lift tickets and rentals a mere 7 minutes after the first lesson started, and the next one wasn't until 2 hours later, so we decided to put me on the skis in the practice area for a little while and see how it went. If I needed a lesson in 2 hours I could always sign up for it, if not, I could just go on my merry way and not waste 2 hours waiting around. So Bryan and I made our way to the top of the practice hill (not even the bunny slope) and put on our skis. Let me summarize the next hour and a half by saying that every time I started to move on the skis, I fell down. It was an exact repeat of my first attempt at skiing 9 or 10 years ago. But I tried!

Lesson #3: Lydia can give up sometimes.
I'm not a big fan of giving up. There have been very few things in my life that I have tried but failed at. (Usually I can gauge pretty well if I can succeed or not... and I typically don't do things I suspect I won't be able to achieve.) But after giving myself a mild case of whiplash and crying by the trees and just being plain ol' exhausted from trying, I gave up. It wasn't a good feeling, and in fact it still kind of pisses me off, but it was the best choice for me. It was either that or wind up injured... and quitting seemed the better option there.

Lesson #4: Lydia has a very supportive husband.
This lesson I already knew, but Bryan was so great about the whole thing. I felt the worst about leaving him without a skiing partner, but he's such a good sport that he didn't seem to mind too much, and he was able to ski a bit later that night with his friend. He didn't even think I was gross when snot was pouring out of my nose as I boohooed on the side of the hill. ;-)


The moral of the story is, I probably won't try skiing again. But that's alright, there are other things to do on ski trips! Next time I'll go straight for the snow tubes. :)