Who needs knee caps to be cool?

Today was the first day out snowboarding for the season. I started 3 years ago - juuuust over the age of 30 - for the sole motivation to have Deondre think of me as the absolute coolest. Otherwise, I would NEVER have ventured out on a slippery 5' piece of plastic that's STRAPPED to your feet and go flying down a mountain. It just doesn't make much sense otherwise.

So we did a lesson today – me and D – to learn how to better go on our "toe side" and link our turns. I've been a chicken since we started - staying on my heel side ensures that I will fall squarely on my ass... which last time I checked has MUCH more cushion than my face, knees, wrists and other body parts on the front of me. On toe side, if you fall, there goes your knees. Again and again and again. We had a very compasionate 16 year old instructor with braces with little pink rubber bands on them telling us "good job!" "there you go!" "you almost had it!" Yeah, little miss - I ALMOST just had it. If you're talking about a trip to the damn chiropractor.

Deondre was "breezin'" past me, which I learned from him means "blew by you wicked fast, mom!!!". Cool - I'll use that in a sentence this week as I fly by a tractor trailer on the highway or something and shock the snot out of him.

We finished our lesson successfully and said a "peace out" to our sophmoric mentor. We had one of D's friends with us who was out for the very first time ever, so we took turns going down "Easy Acres" with him (hell - that's really where I needed to be anyway). He kept saying things like "this is the BEST DAY of my life!" and "this is the BEST birthday party ever" (Which, BTW, this snowboard trip was a clever substitute to throwing an actual birthday party for Deondre, who turned 9 two days ago). The temperature was a horrifying 4 degrees, but we went up and down those hills until we couldn't feel our faces, toes, arms, fingers OR our knee caps.

But you know, I'm still happy as heck that I can make it down the hill and that I'm getting better and better so that sooner or later, I'll hang with D on the bigger hills and maybe "breeze" past him. (Which, make a note, I managed to do ONCE today. And only once.)

But now that we're all home and toasty and fed --- the day is summed up as physically cold and infamously "cool".