True Story Tuesday

Well, my friend Kat inspired me to participate in this blogging tradition. Unfortunately, I can't reciprocate with a funny story about Kat, because she is practically perfect in every way.

I have many true stories I could share, but for some reason I have chosen one of the more embarrassing ones! Let me tell you about my first (and only) experience with downhill skiing.

I was a teenager the first time I went downhill skiing. I had been cross-country skiing since I was a small child, and was quite confident in my skiing abilities. No one, however, took the time to inform me of just how different downhill skiing is from cross-country skiing.

The skiing itself was not so bad - I had some falls, of course, but I managed to put on a reasonable performance. It was the lifts that gave me trouble!

First we tried the chair lift. The concept of backing into the seat when it came up behind me was absolutely foreign to me. It took several tries to catch on. The first time I attempted it, I lost my balance and fell, and the chair whacked me in the back of the head while I was trying to get back up. It was the stuff comedies are made of, and could have been taken directly out of an Abbott & Costello film.
I finally mastered getting ON the chair lift, but then came the second challenge - getting OFF! My technique involved waiting until the last minute and jumping off as the lift was circling back around. I would then lose my balance and crash at the bottom of the lift area, making it difficult for other skiiers to navigate around my prone form.

My crowning moment of glory, however, came when I was heading back up the bunny hill for another run, and was feeling quite confident that I had figured out the t-bar lift. I nonchalantly leaned up against the lift (copying the more accomplished skiiers, of course) as it gently pushed me back up the hill. What I was NOT expecting was the sudden jerk when the lift had to stop and re-start at one point. When the lift started back up, I flipped over backwards with my ski caught in the t-bar. The lift then proceeded to drag me up the hill by my foot.

I am sure that to this very day, there is a picture of my face in the ski hill office, with a little warning beside it: "Do NOT let this person near any of the lifts!".

And THAT is my true and slightly embarrassing story!