The XXI O-WHIMP-ics

I like the Olympics. Partly b/c it consists of weird sports that nobody ever really sees the 3 other years that the Olympics aren't on. Take curling. I think I could do curling. I practice almost daily. Well, the sweeping part. I guess I ought to start pushing my children down the ice to bump each other out of the circle for the full practice.

But it has really started to bother me that most of the athletes are younger than I am. I mean let's face it: I am a year and a half from 30. I didn't think it would bother me to get older but everyone always talks about how they wish they were in their 20's again. So, I've decided to really "live up" the rest of my 20's. I decided to give snowboarding a whirl--something I've always wanted to try and to prove to everyone how spry I was. After all, I'd been inspired by Shawn White....

The "bright" idea came while I was up at Pomerelle with Dad, Jace the Race, and Super-Decca. JC and Decca are multi-talented and can do either or. Dad is a die-hard skiier (my favorite part of the day came when Dad started giving me advice about how to snowboard). Jessica and I have the same shoe size and we talked about switching. So, towards the end of the day, we switched.

(Picture insert: this is Pomerelle two years ago. Top is Dad and I skiing. Bottom is Decca putting on her bindings and the ACTUAL snowboard that I rode).

First problem: I couldn't get up. Second problem: I couldn't figure out how to steer the dang thing. Uggh. I was so discouraged but sweet Decca had turned into MEAN, ORNERY Decca and wouldn't give me back my skiis. I figured out that if I flipped the board over so I was face down, I could get on my hands and knees and get up. Then thanks to Ms. Ornery, I actually learned to steer. Third Problem: I'm right-foot first, not left-foot first like Decca. She also forgot to tell me not to catch myself on my wrists.

But in the end, I made it down the mountain. Not gracefully, but I was starting to get the feel.

All-in-all, I'm still on Lindsay Vonn's side and I'll be spending most of my days on two rather that bound to one. I'll probably even try it again. But for now, I'm enjoying the Olympics in the La-Z-Boy STILL massaging my sore shoulders (yeah, how come my shoulders are sore?) and wrists. But how does Shawn White do it?