my new trick

I am an old dog, but I can still learn to roll over for a treat.

Or a seriously discounted snowboard.

It was the end of August when my mom sent me this text: "Do you have any interest in learning to snowboard? There's a woman at work who is selling one for $150. It was only used once and the boots are your size."

I was still wearing flip-flops at this point, so I wasn't really thinking about freezing my fingers off on the mountain, but I told her I'd buy it and resell it if I suck. [I found out later that the con-woman had already bought the board, but wasn't going to tell me until I agreed to cough up the $150.]

I am a moderately competent skier and have been skiing for most of my life, so when I took my snowboard to Hidden Valley this weekend, I had forgotten how demoralizing it is to learn. I was on my face at least 15 times on the first run. At one point, I was laying with my face in the snow, with the wind knocked out of me, unsure if my left arm was still connected to the left side of my body...

...and I was laughing so hard that there were frozen tears sticking to my face. It was so exciting for me to be completely defeated. And cold. And wet. And in pain.

Aristotle said: we cannot learn without pain.

So, I must have been learning a lot. [I was learning yesterday too, and still must be learning today!]

Every run was a little bit better, and by the end of the night I could make it down the big kid slope without falling. I'll be keeping the board.

By the way, I learned that Burton Snowboards are among the best you can buy. And, that the entire package (board, boots, bindings) can go for anything between $500 and $1000+. I got a serious discount. I really gotta learn to roll over.