It Hurts So Good

If you need to laugh- really laugh, not just courtesy laugh- then go cross country skiing. Unless you are good at it, it is one of the funniest things a couple can do.

Charley surprised me yesterday with a x-country ski date. I have more experience than Charley does in this activity, and I let him know about my extensive x-country background as we drove to the park.

"I used to ski all the time at Afton State Park. I love the hills there. It's such a great workout," I told him confidently.

Somehow we ended up on the only black diamond trail in the park, and it got to the point where Charley had fallen down so many times that he took off his skis and walked.

I, on the other hand, faired much better on this trail. I had to look away from him because I was laughing so hard at his clumsiness. I really thought I was going to have an accident in my pants.

"Good job honey," I encouraged him tenderly every time I was able to stop laughing.

I had a lot more trouble, however, on the easier trails.

After my successful navigation of the hills on the black diamond, I proceeded to take one fall after another for the remaining hour of our date. Pretty soon Charley was giving me instructions, which is usually how it works in our house anyway.

One of my more graceful spills occurred as my skis somehow left the groomed tracks of the trail and took me into a field of prickly thorn bushes.

I was laughing so hard that I did have an accident in my pants.

At that point we decided to call it a day.

"It actually made me feel a lot better when you started to fall," Charley told me as we made our way back to the car.

I was glad that my inability to ski as well as I thought I could brought joy to my dear husband.