A teeny weeny ski adventure...

I love mountains, I love snow and I love snow clad mountains, of course...and I invariably accompany D on at least one skiing trip every year...not for the love of skiing, though :-)

One of the reasons I accompany D on his annual skiing adventures is because I really hate hearing him crib and hold me responsible for being a deterrent to the growth of his adventurous spirit by not encouraging him to ski …any discussions on this issue always end up with us engaging in arguments about him not having enough space in the relationship to get involved in activities which he enjoys whereas I don't…well, well I am sure that would sound familiar to a lot of girls who are either married or in relationships and they would definitely vouch for the fact that “ the space in a relationship” issue is the basis of many an argument in most reasonably “normal” households …

Anyways, now coming back to the point…so the other day, while I was asserting my dislike for adventure sports, specifically skiing, a friend asked me something to the effect of why I couldn't or rather wouldn't allow D to go skiing alone with his friends…that got me thinking...there is definitely no real compulsion for me to accompany him on his skiing trips …after all I do give him the “space” and let him do a lot of other things on his own without being clingy…tennis, golf and not to forget most importantly I allow him to sit on the couch and gulp down can after can of beer while watching football, basketball and all those 'n' other sports, season after season after season :-), while I sacrifice watching many of the 'oh so entertaining' episodes of the “Desperate Housewives” in the process …

As a matter of fact, we did explore the option of him going skiing alone with his friends this one time a couple of years back…the plan was that while he was away, I would catch up on some chick flicks and some reading…but you know the kind of tricks the female mind plays in such scenarios…throughout that 12-14 hour period that he was away, I was distraught with scary speculations…my mind was clogged with horrifying thoughts and “what ifs”…'what if' he fell down and seriously hurt himself with no one around him to help him…'what if' he needed to make an emergency call and there was no cell phone signal on the slopes…'what if' he decided to break the promise he had made to me and graduate to those dangerously steep and treacherous “Black diamond” slopes….what if…what if…what if…I was scared…so much so that like the proverbial 'nag' I couldn't resist the urge to keep calling him every 10 -15 minutes to just check on him…needless to say, the day didn't go off as planned or as well as we would have liked for either of us…after this episode, the consensus was that for the peace of mind of both of us, we would either venture out on skiing trips together or wouldn't go at all …

As far as I am concerned, I have never been a fan of any form of adventure sports,whatsoever…so I always knew it was highly unlikely that I would develop a real passion for skiing…however I realized that to be able to make these skiing trips with D enjoyable, in addition to my skiing gear, all that I needed to be equipped with was the ability to laugh at myself (an absolute essential if you want to survive among those toddlers whizzing past you with such dexterity while you fumble,tumble and fall all over the place ) and an ability to chit-chat with “like minded” strangers loitering around at the base of the beginners' slopes….fortunately I have developed and nurtured both these abilities over the years…when I say “like minded” , I mean people who would much rather be cuddled up on a couch in front of the tv sipping hot chocolate rather than be on the ski slopes…:-) and believe it or not, you will them aplenty at the ski resorts...

Anyways, so the first time D and I went skiing, after the above mentioned episode, was supposed to be a two night “ romantic getaway” at the Show Shoe Resort in Virginia…I went out on to the snow all geared with skis and poles but without ear warmers and a hat…and as you can imagine, after slipping, sliding, falling and getting up a number of times, I was numb with cold and ended up spending the rest of the day getting pampered at the spa :-)….the second and third times we went skiing, I was in the company of like minded girlfriends and ended up spending the day at the base without venturing out on to the slopes, choosing instead to chit chat about our lives and catching up on all the gossip that was doing the rounds :-)...

This time around however, the couple of friends who were accompanying us on the skiing trip were all revved up about mastering the “art and science” of skiing…so I really didn't have much of a choice…

As soon as we reached the base, while D set out to ski on his own in the intermediate slopes, the other three of us took beginner ski lessons…to cut a long story short, I tried skiing down the beginners' slope a couple of times with my friends with little success to boast of ...I was never able to complete the whole ride downhill without falling …I would either fall while getting off the lift at the top of the hill or while trying to stop at some point on the slope while skiing downhill…

Close to the end of the day,while D was busy negotiating and skiing down dangerous terrains, a second friend of mine had graduated from the basic beginners' to the mid level beginners' slope while the third friend had reached the conclusion that as far as skiing is concerned 'you either get it or you don't' and he very wisely decided that he was better off sitting at the resort sipping coffee and watching a football game rather than venturing out on to the slopes again...so that left me…I decided to go back to the basic beginners' slope alone this time around…needless to say, I was scared…

The first time I came down the slope, I had a bad fall while trying to stop…there was this sweet little 5 year old girl, Sarah, who had taken the beginners' skiing lesson with me, who adroitly stopped near me on her way downhill and gave me a helping hand to get back on my feet...she egged me on to accompany her to the top of the slope and skii down again…and though I was still shaken after the bad fall, I didn't really have the heart to disappoint this little toddler…so I reluctantly decided to give this whole skiing thing another try …this time when I got off the lift at the top of the hill, I was still on my feet and didn't fall…that was one winner, for sure…I let Sarah ski down the hill first and thereafter started my venture downhill…as I gained momentum on my way down, I began to panic like I had the earlier times…I desperately wanted to stop …and in an attempt to do so, in skiing lingo, I “edged”, “wedged” and “turned” and to my amazement there I was in the middle of the hill at a complete standstill and very much on my feet …whoa….another winner here :-) …with renewed confidence I was prepared to negotiate the remaining part of the terrain downhill…and I think I did pretty well this time….'cause I reached the base of the slope in one piece and most importantly ,on my feet…and there they were Sarah and two of her little friends skiing up to me and congratulating me with 'high fives' … and I sure had a ear to ear grin on my face…after all this was my first successful skiing venture in all these years…whoa…I was in fact ecstatic…

Funny, embarassing, touching, exhilarating…if any experience could be all of this at once….this was it …a teeny weeny accomplishment in the big picture of things…but an accomplishment for me, nevertheles!