I Am (Not) An Expert

We just got back this afternoon from a ski trip to Holiday Valley in Ellicottville, NY.  Kim taught me to ski when I was 20.  She had grown up skiing but the Bucci's weren't skiers.  For our first outing, Kim and I went to Swain Mountain in upstate NY.  After a couple trips down the bunny slope, Kim thought I was ready to try the rest of the hill.  She gave me one last piece of advice as we headed up the chair lift for the first time -- "Be aware of what's in front of you.  Whatever you do, don't run into anyone from behind.  It's the worst thing you can do.  If you think you're going to hit someone, just fall down first."

We took a couple of runs and everything was going great.  I was feeling pretty good about myself.  We started down another slope and, all of a sudden, I could feel myself losing control.  There were a bunch of people stopped to my left and I remembered Kim's warning.  Whatever happened, I couldn't hit them.  I shifted my weight to my left leg, managed to make a turn to my right, breathed a sigh of relief -- and plowed straight into Kim from behind.  I completely leveled her.

I've now been skiing for over 20 years and, thankfully, Kim remains the only person I've run into.  I'd like to think I've gotten good at skiing but, the unfortunate truth is that I don't think I have.  Sure, I can ski the expert trails and even make my way through some moguls.  But, the sad truth is that I'm still the guy you see heading down the slope while you're on the chair lift who has you saying "I hope he's not behind me when I'm headed down the trail."  I found this out at breakfast on Saturday when Kim and Jay said "We saw you a couple times yesterday when we were on the lift and you looked crazy.  What were you doing?"  I was practicing my form, I said.  They burst out laughing and proceeded to describe my "form" for me.  I'll spare you all the details but the phrases "bent over," "crooked," and "too fast" were used. 

Speaking of Saturday's breakfast, we ate at one of my all time favorites -- Dina's in Ellicottville.

The Belgian waffle, which is almost as good as ... 

... the corned beef hash with two eggs over easy and homemade white toast!

I may not be an expert at skiing but I can certainly pick the right breakfast spot.