Kicking the shit out of inner demons ~ The story of how I became a HAWT Colorado mountain Bettie

I love winter!  I wasn't born in Colorado but I'm definitely a Colorado girl.  I wouldn't move anywhere else for all the Diet Coke on Earth.  I love our summer, spring and fall, but I REALLY love our winter!  I love the snow.  I love my snowboard.  If I had to choose between Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream and my snowboard, I would choose my snowboard. (Now that sayin' somethin'!!)   I would probably kick my DC habit if I thought I could get an extra month of snow.  

This picture is from closing weekend at Beaver Creek last Sunday.  A beautiful warm spring day, the perfect ending to a somewhat snow-lacking yet satisfying winter.  We ski'd together as a family both Saturday and Sunday but Will and I kicked it hard Sunday afternoon when the rest of the fam headed down for the day.  He took me up to Park 101 and had me doing rails ... didn't go so well, really, but the bruising has gone down and I escaped with all limbs in tact so it's all good.  Flailing and wailing aside, I was one hawt Bettie, let me tell you.  I took all of the jumps and even landed a 180 that was really more of a 90 with a graceful skid, nay prolonged crunch, into a 180... but I landed it and since I out-aged most of the folks around me by a decade or more, I was pretty impressed with myself.  

I have not always been quite so adept on the slopes.  In fact, you might say the slopes and I have had a bit of a rocky relationship in the past.......

I ski some.  Sorta.  Not really.  Well, I used to but two winters ago I experienced a panic attack of epic proportions right at the steepest part of Latigo.  I suddenly forgot how to ski.  Snowplow?  No idea how to do that. My body suddenly went numb and had no idea what to do.  I was actually finishing off a fairly successful day of lessons with an older gentleman ski instructor so WHY this happened right at that moment I'll never know.  I made the poor instructor carry my skis up hill to the cat walk.  I had been paralyzed by fear and it was one of the most humiliating and defeated moments of my life.  I will never ever forget exactly the terror and disappointment I felt. I quit and I don't quit.  "Never ever ever give up" - it is something we tell our kids all the time, it is our family motto and I pissed all over it. I was suddenly destined to be "that" mom.  You know, the one that goes to the spa and sits by the fire reading a book while her family is up on the mountain being all sporty and active?  Major suckage. (No offense to anyone who enjoys being that mom, it just isn't me.  Well, unless it involves margaritas and sun tan lotion, because at the beach?  I'm definitely that mom.)

I started snowboarding last winter because John and the boys decided they wanted to learn how to board.  They were going to take a private lesson and throwing me into the mix wasn't going to cost any extra.  It was my last chance to start on the same level with them and possibly redeem myself in my own eyes. It was a steep learning curve for all of us but I will never ever forget the day that I actually "got" it.  I sucked it up and made the freakin' "C" turn downhill and I didn't die.  I didn't even fall, well not right away anyway. It was small in the scheme of learning to board but it was a watershed event for me.  That one stupid turn changed everything for me... on the surface I was facing a fear but in reality I stomped the shit out of a horde of demons that day.  

I love that our family bond grows stronger each time we are on the mountain.  Winter, Summer, Spring or Fall (humming a little James Taylor).  Still, I favor Winter because it is the season that I get to prove over and over again that I can do most anything I set my mind to and that one experience does not and never will define me. I feel a sense of control on the board that I never felt on skis. I can navigate most any terrain now and THAT ROCKS!  Go ME!

Next winter?  

Let's just say that I plan to pull out all the stops, and do a little of this.......

**My apologies to family, friends, and neighbors for my recent and escalating use of profanity on my blog.  Mom, I would tell you to consider it a literary device but unfortunately, it doesn't seem to appear on any list of literary devices ever published.  Yes, I am just anal enough to have looked.  Alas, I have no excuse other than it felt good at the time.