good morning after all

According to my Instagram feed it seem like the only things I do are go to concerts and go skiing. While that's not all I do, these two activities are some of very favorite and are usually the most picture worthy. This ski season has given me some of my favorite ski days. I got a new pair of skis for Christmas and I have absolutely loved them. With my old pair of skis I had a difficult time skiing in powder, but now I crave floating through the pristine snow. I love looking down a run and see a field of white ready for me to make tracks. It was days like that that made it worth getting up at 7:00 am on a Saturday. The ski season is pretty much over (praying for one more powder day), but I had some amazing days and no regrets.

Bluebird day at Brighton

View into Park City from Brighton

Blue skies at Alta

Freezing cold day at Snowbasin, but with 20" of new snow I didn't mind

Did you see the sky today? Talk about blue.

The Orange Bubble at the Canyons. Heated seats on a ski lift are nice.

good woman down

Last Friday I went skiing by myself for the first time and I have to say it was one of the best ski days I have ever had.  I have been complaining for a while that I didn’t have anyone to go skiing with on my Friday’s off.  I was a little skeptical when my roommate told me I should just go by myself.  I’m normally ok with going places and doing things by myself, but the thought of skiing alone had me a little scared.  What if I crashed and hurt myself on a run and no one found me?  What if some psycho sat next to me on the lift?  What if I slid off the road into a ditch and no one could see me?  She said I would be fine.  She also said she used to do it all the time when learning how to snowboard and that it was the best. 

Friday morning I packed up my car and headed to Powder Mountain (they had the best deal I could find on short notice and I just like the resort).  I got there about 9:30 and the place was empty.  I think that is what I like about Powder, it isn’t crowded with out-of-towners.  It is more of a hidden treasure for locals and visitors in the know.  My first couple of runs I was completely alone, I didn’t pass anyone and no one passed me. 

On my fourth run my first fear happened.  I was cruising down a blue and not really concentrating on my technique when I caught an edge and was propelled forward.  My skis popped off as I was sliding face first down the steep slope.  When I finally stopped, I saw that my poles were still around my wrists but my skis stopped quite a ways up the slope.  I laid there for a little bit, trying to catch my breath after having it knock out of me.  As I pushed myself up, I realized that when I tried to brace myself during the fall I totally pulled something in my left shoulder.  I was not happy about that because I had been skiing for less than an hour.  I had to tell myself that I wasn’t hurt because there was no way I was going to waste a whole day.  The pep talk did me good and clicked back into my skis and continued on my merry way.

The remainder of my solo ski day was fantastic.  I met quite a few people on the lifts and skied some runs with a couple of them.  I even saw Ed Roland, lead singer of my favorite band (or a guy who looks a lot like him, I couldn’t tell).  I skied until I could ski no more (because they were shutting down the lifts).  On the way home I realized that my shoulder definitely was hurt, I had a hard time lifting it, but I’m so glad it didn’t hinder my most excellent day.

my pain may have been a good thing

I usually only wear high heels on Sunday for church or the rare occasions I drive to work. Friday night, however, I was trying out the heels with jeans thing that I have been told some guys really like. The roommates and I were going to SLC for dinner. I was walking to the car when all of a sudden I found myself falling down the concrete stairs toward the front of my car. I can’t be certain, but I think I tried to catch my balance and ended doing a 180 which saved my butt from a big bruise. My left leg, just below the knee, wasn’t so lucky. Of course the roommates didn’t get to see my graceful fall; just me sprawled on the garage floor. I got up and immediately knew I had to change my shoes. I took off the heels, quickly limbed upstairs to my room, and grabbed my much more sensible, but still fashionable boots.

As we were cruising down I-15 nearing the Farmington interchange area (I know they have a name for it but I can’t remember because it hasn’t caught on like the “Spaghetti Bowl”) we saw one of those UDOT signs that said the left lanes were blocked due to an accident and lots of break lights. We came upon a multiple-car-pile-up that had occurred maybe a minute or two before we got there. It seemed to be caused by the slowing of traffic following a previous multiple-car-pile-up.

All three of us rubbernecked as we slowly drove passed the two scenes and couldn’t help but wonder if we had been on the road just a few minutes earlier if we would have been one of the cars with the smashed-in front end. So if my tumble down the stairs and the resulting changing of the footwear saved us from a wreck, then I’m glad my pain resulted in something good.