Saturday, December 27, 2008

notes on repeatedly falling down mountains



after I was finished with my surgery shelf exam, E and I went on a wintry vacation to Salt Lake City to ski. I have only ever skied once before in my life, but picked it up fairly easily and loooved it. E on the other hand is a snowboarder. I decided to try something new and go snowboarding along with him. Here are a few pictures of me falling down the bunny slopes at Brighton on our first day:










After that debacle, E forced me to take two days off because I hit my head fairly hard and I couldn't walk properly because I did something to my coccyx, and was as a result forced to hobble around like a little old lady (I told E he could go on and ski without me but he very kindly refused and kept me company). we spent a day napping and eating and looking for somewhere that served beer stronger than 3.4% or whatever the heck they have there:

and another day walking around and seeing all the wonders of downtown Salt Lake City.

We also took a several mile walk in a snowstorm and it was beautiful! I've only ever seen snow before on top of a mountain and it was really cool to see it blanketing a city and making everything all white and pretty. Granted, I didn't have to deal with any snow maintenance but as long as someone else is it was fantastic.



I tried snowboarding once more, this time at Snowbird.




I was very good at going only in one direction, but as soon as I tried to pivot and turn the other way I ate it. Every time. This time I'm fairly certain that I gave myself a concussion. At first I was worried that it was a slow sub-dural bleed, but when I didn't lose consciousness after a few hours I calmed down. I also ran into a small tree branch. but I kicked that branch's @ss and broke it off when it hit me in the face, so I think we both won.
Moral of the story: I'm not meant to snowboard. It feels completely unnatural to me to have both feet stuck together, and it's insanity to intentionally travel down a mountain on a smooth surface backwards. Next time I go out for winter sports, I'm going back to skiing. It may not be as hip, but it will hopefully preserve my brain from being smashed against the inside of my skull. And that's a good thing. Brain cells are awesome.

Also awesome: Salt Lake City, surprisingly. people are friendly, it's really pretty, and I could see myself potentially living there for five years during a residency. Although I've heard rumors that I would be forced to begin saying "Oh my HECK!" when angry instead of the normal cuss words. Seriously... people say that there. so weird.

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