Colorado at Christmas - Play hard, suffer harder

Yes, it's 2013, and I've clearly missed all of the usual benchmarks (happy holidays! all the best of 2012! goals for 2013!).  Those may yet come, just delayed, a bit like this post which finds me back in balmy Southern CA.  Balmy, compared to the chilly temperatures in Colorado!

The short version of my break would be this: Indulged in almost every way possible - way too much food, drink, and adrenaline.  I don't regret the food and drink, but the adrenaline rush left me limping into the new year, literally, with a bruised tailbone.  I fear that this blog thing has veered from documenting my *awesome* life (please note the ironic tone) to a catalogue of woes and injuries.

Lest I complain too much, I should say that I had a great time in Colorado.  We had fun in Boulder as we finished up Christmas shopping and also bought cheese and booze for my family, whom we met met up with in Keystone for 6 days of fun in the snow.  Finally, we returned to Boulder for the new year.  Despite my apprehension about skiing, hitting the slopes was one of the highlights of the trip.  We arrived in Keystone on the 25th, and skied the 26th-29th.  Michael and I spent the first day on our own, finding our "ski legs", a quicker process than I expected, and then proceeded to explore most of the blues on the mountain over the next few days.  We enjoyed spending time on the slopes with different groups and people - various siblings and even my 74-year-old father!  Before our trip, I worried about my knee, as always, and I was concerned that some of my recent nagging pains would trouble me.  However, it appears that skiing is a great activity for someone suffering from plantar fasciitis and a weird hip pain because I had no issues with those on my skis!  We finished our days with plenty of good food and drink, and I usually played at least one or two games of foosball with my nephew to top off the night.

While in Keystone, I discovered the thrill that comes with tubing, an activity that I had observed and that seemed fairly innocuous, families schlepping their tube(s) up a hill and then heading down the hill with said tube.  We had reservations for tubing on Saturday night, and I wasn't feeling super excited about it, especially because the temperatures started to drop and it was well below 20 degrees by the time we started our tubing experience.  Still, it did look like fun in the informational video that we were required to watch before we headed out to the dark and grabbed our tubes.  This was NOT the idea that I had in my mind - there were 5 or 6 different "tracks" for tubing, music was blaring and disco lights were glowing.  Okay, I could have fun with this.  I decided to go down one "run" - Michael and I hooked on to each other, they gave us a hard spin and we were flying down the track!  I kept my eyes closed the first time down, and then decided that it was tons of fun and that we should do it again.  Which we did, and I kept my eyes open this time!  The third time (charm, supposedly?), we hooked up with my niece, going as a group of three, and we were on a different track, one that was much steeper, allowing for more speed and more air!  It was on this run that I met my tubing waterloo.  I was so focused on holding on to the two tubes that I forgot to concentrate on keeping my back up.  Big mistake - my backside took a pretty hard hit.  I tried to not freak out because my niece was there, but I called it a day, or a night, turning in my tube and waiting for everyone else in the group to finish.  Meanwhile, I kept cursing myself and my bad decision to participate in tubing, although how was I to know that it presented such dangers?  As my sister-in-law, a doctor, later said to me - "There is an age at which one can no longer do tubing.  It varies for everyone, but you are at that age."

After freaking out that I had seriously tweaked my back, I came to realize that I had probably *just* bruised my tailbone.  Definitely one of the worst bruises that I've ever had (and in one of the most inconvenient places), but I don't think that I'm suffering from long-term damage.  It did, however, put a bit of a damper on the rest of the trip for me, and I've been fairly grumpy, in part from lack of activity and in part from the ache-ness.  I did, however, learn an important lesson about tubing and my body - we do not get along!

I did feel somewhat gratified that I used the icepacks and the arnica gel that I took to Colorado with me.  Perhaps if I hadn't taken them, none of this would have happened?  Or maybe I would have had to invest in more packs and more arnica.  Who, by the way, travels with such accessories?  I do, obviously, and they sure came in handy!