I heart Vicodin

Thought of the day...

Burton Snowboarding Pants (a gift from the girl) = $100

Lift ticket at Ski Beech = $40

Snowboard rental = $25

Torn MCL and dislocated knee cap resulting in doctor bill, prescriptions, missed school and work = $150

First snowboarding trip overall = PRICELESS




True, I may be sitting here with my leg in a splint, pain killers in my blood stream, and a knee the size of a watermelon, but still, I'm satisfied. Snowboarding was an absolute blast! I imagined it would be.

Starting back when I was younger, I wanted to skate. I dreamed about it. A good majority of my friends were skaters and watching them do there little tricks amazed me. But, something about the idea of face pavement didn't settle well with me. So I spent a few years of my youth watching my friends collect bruises, cuts, and broken bones from skateboarding, only trying a trick or two every now and then on a borrowed board. I was envious bur I never got the courage to buy my own board. I did however escape injury free.

Headed to Hawaii. I do not think there was one person who found out I was going to be stationed in Hawaii that DID NOT say, "You gotta learn to surf!" Indeed, I couldn't spend 3 years in Hawaii and not learn how to surf right? But in actuality, it wasn't until I got to the island that I realized just how bad of a swimmer I was. I can hold my own in a pool, but in the ocean, the under current and the waves make me so nervous that I can't even float or tread water. Damn near impossible to learn how to surf if you can't even swim! Once again, a dream shattered.

But now I'm back on the east coast, back in the mountains. Mountains = snow. Another fascination, snowboarding. But this time, I wasn't frightened by the idea! I am aware that people get injured from snowboarding all the time but I reasoned that falling face first in the snow had to be a little less painful than say sliding across the face on some pavement. Also, I'm pretty sure you can't drown in the snow. I'm sold!

This past weekend, we celebrated Dee's birthday with a trip to Ski Beech. The crew consisted of me, the girl, and Kaya, plus the friends, Slim and Rae, Jessie and Dee, and Liz. It was sad that Kaya, the snow dog, couldn't actually come on the mountain with us tho. Anyway, Slim, Liz, and D all skiied, while me, G, and Jessie snowboarded. (Rae just held down the fort drinking beer in the lodge, atta girl!) G was the only one who actually knew what she was doing! And she does it rather well I might add. But Jessie and I had desire to learn and hell, everyone starts somewhere right? I knew I was in for a treat the minute I stepped into those bindings. The exact thought, "Oh shit, this is gonna hurt....alot"

It did.

Ride, fall, ride, fall ride fall. And that was just the first 5 minutes. The process of just getting from the Bunny Slope, to the first lift we decided to get on was not the easiest task I'd ever completed. Even in the first couple of falls, one in particular, pulled hard on my knee, my bad knee. I know it seems rather brave or stupid, either way you wanna look at, trying to snowboard with a bad knee, but I was deteremined that nothing was going to stop me.
I was far from the only one having a little trouble. Dee, well we kinda ran into one another. Slim went off the mountain and fell then some guy followed that same path and landed on top of her and the two had to struggle for a few minutes trying to untangle themselves and their poles and their skis. Liz was concerned about me and Dee so she waited for us before she headed down the little hill to the lift. G described it this way, "SO Liz starts on her way, smiling at me, and just slowly going along then BAM! Face first in the snow."

We aren't the brightest crayons. We got on this lift, assuming that it was a beginners lift, when really NONE of us thought about looking at a map or something that would send us in the right direction. After a few moments, we started to realize, "Uh oh, this thing isn't stopping." And it didn't stop until we reached the top! We all stumbled off the lift and glanced at the mountain that went STRAIGHT DOWN. It was an intermediate slope but to a bunch of beginners it looked as if someone might break something. Liz proclaimed, "I need a beer", D said, "I think I'm just gonna slide on my butt the whole way down." Slim said, "can't we just ride the lift back down?" Jessie said, "fuck it, we're here let's do it!" Some random 12 year old said, "It's not hard" The group just scowled! I think I just kept muttering, "Are you serious?" Everyone was terrified, well, except my baby. She says, "oh it's ok guys, it's only an intermediate slope!"

Jessie went straight to it. I saw her do the ride, fall, ride, fall thing, until she disappeared into the fog. (visibility was HORRIBLE) G waited on me to get started. Ride, fall, ride fall. It was frustrating! That whole not being able to stop or slow down without falling really kinda pissed me off.



There was one time that I got ahead of Jessie and I heard a noise behind me, looked and saw her board coming straight for my head. That was awesome. But truthfully as I got to the beginners slope I started having some nice rides where I was up for more than 30 seconds. What was bad tho was not being able to slow down, I'd get going and riding rather well but get nervous about the increasing speed, it felt like I was flying! What a rush! But kinda scary when you can't control it you know? So sometimes I would fall to stop myself, other times, I'd just be riding along and SPLAT, no idea what happened just ended up sliding on my face, butt, shoulder. Needless to say, there are many bruises in many places. Finally I made it to the bottom and found G. Man she was awesome, far more advanced than anyone else in the group, she'd ride a little then stop and wait on me to tumble past her, then ride some more. Well we waited on the group for a bit. Jessie had that fearless "I know I'm gonna fall so why not do it fast and hard" attitude. She had made it down before us. G was worried about the skiiers. Hadn't seen them since the top. We gave it a few minutes, then headed off to the right lift this time for another run. I started getting a little more comfortable riding. Still couldn't control speed or turn really well. Then it happened. I got all the way to the bottom and didn't want to hit anyone so I was getting ready to fall to stop but the board did it for me. I'm not sure what happened exactly I just know that when I landed the snowboard went one way and the knee went another. I felt my knee cap sublocate once again (even though I was wearing my brace) and really didn't think I'd be able to get up and walk. But I couldn't look like a wuss. I managed to pry myself out of the bindings and get off the slope. I told G to go take some rides without me that I needed to rest but to come get me before the lifts closed so we could go down once more.

Off to the lodge. I found the rest of the group drinking beer and after I limped my way up the stairs I joined them. Everyone had a horror story. It took Shannon, Liz, and D between an hour - an hour and a half to get down the first slope! OH WOW!

By the time I finished a beer G came to get me, I wasn't about to tell her no! So we went out again! Yeah, I was in some pain, but snowboarding is fun! I mean I really did enjoy the rides I had in between falls. We took a new slope, it was intermediate. The best part was getting off the lift and unable to control my direction, clobbered G! She had done such a good job of staying up as we slid down the little hill off the lift but then I came along and sent her right to the ground. I made her go on without me because I knew it would take me some time to get down . It was steep, much like the first part of the first slope. Ride, fall, ride, fall, ride, fall. Still the rides I did manage were getting longer but now, with my knee already in so much pain I was so cautious of not having another fall like that. I wanted my falls to be on my own damn terms! So when I started gaining an uncomfortable speed I'd lay it down. I do believe the highlight was when, I'm not sure how it happened, but my board turned around on me, my back now facing down the mountain, then POW! I did this kinda back flip thing and landed directly on my head. I saw stars and just laid there for a minute just sure that I'd busted my head open. I didn't think snow could feel so hard! I just laid there and didn't move for a few minutes. Until I made sure everything was in tact. (later I found out, I did in fact bust my head open a little bit to the point of blood) but nothing serious. After I gathered myself, I finally got down the mountain. Again, managed a few nice rides. By the time I reached the bottom tho, my knee was done and I knew it. After we finally got home, I knew I'd have to make a trip to the doc's office the next morning. I was surprised to find that it wasn't only my knee cap, that I aslo messed up my MCL. YAY! But I'm now positive that a knee surgery is in order. Not due to the injuries from snowboarding! But I'm going to continue to get injured if my knee continues to have these problems. So we'll see!

Even two days later, covered in bruises, particularly a bruised ego, and stoned off the vicodin, I'm ready to go back! Next stop....SNOW SHOE! I rode goofy this time, safe assumption considering I do everything but write, lefty, and my attempts to skateboard I was a goofy. Maybe next time I'll try regular and see if that will keep me above the snow a little more. Who knows. But it doesn't matter. I'm ready to fall again. The ride before the falling is totally worth it!