sOnoUwbCoaHrding

earlier this week, a friend had invited me to hang out friday night. mid-week, this invitation became a spontaneous trip to wisconsin to try snowboarding.

now, my typical introvert tendencies would have been to say, "no, thanks for the invite, but i'd rather stay in my warm apartment, not risk injury, loss of sleep or the awkwardness of getting to know new people."

but, i've been trying to put that side of me aside as i've been here in chicago (i still value that side, but we need to compromise sometimes).

so, i agreed with this spur of the moment invitation, not knowing where we were going, what time we would return or the actual physical difficulty of snowboarding (my friends are trustworthy, so this blind faith was okay...).

after fighting rush hour traffic, we finally got out of chicago friday night and arrived at tyrol basin around 9:45pm-ish. the basin was open until 11:30pm for snowboarding/skiing.

i was very nervous to do this, mainly because i don't like to do things i'm not good at :), as well as i knew we didn't have much time to learn how to snowboard.

here is me pre-snowboarding. what hopeful idealism!
after leaving the warmth of the ski shop (and me wishing desperately i would've opted for skis), we went to the bunny hill and tried to master the rope lift.

now, i used to be able to do this quite easily on skis (since i haven't skiied for awhile, i shouldn't make that a general truth!), but grabbing on to a moving rope while being slid uphill on your snowboard involved me falling every 3.4 seconds. then small children would run into me as i lay wriggling on the ground (ok, maybe an exaggeration).

but, when i finally made it up, i took a self-portrait:
after some time with my well-meaning and much more talented snowboarding friends, i attempted to get down the bunny hill.

this was, simply, exhausting!! note to self: eat more calories and have energy gel on hand when snowboarding. thus, by the second time of attempting the rope pull/lift, my muscles were similar to jelly and begging me to return to the ski lodge and sip on warm beverages.

instead, my other first-time snowboarding friend took photos of ourselves on the hill (this was the highlight of my trip).

what i looked like on the hills:
though i'm in snowpants and giant boots, i can still look fiercely sexy:
my dear friend alissa, i was so thankful for her being there!

all in all, i was glad to have the experience, though i am incredibly sore today. i think i prefer skiing overall, but maybe i will attempt to refine my snowboarding skills at a later point. or... maybe not :). nonetheless, i was so grateful for the car time and building relationship with new friends!