Up the slope, out of the box

An article in January Shape magazine listed several suggestions to improve your happiness, ranging from singing out-loud to laughing to personalizing your work space (with pictures, not just empty Mountain Dew cans).

After reading the article, I realized I had completed two of the suggestions: asking a stranger his or her life story and completing a physical feat, even if it's alone. I combined both of those tasks by skiing -- by myself.

When skiing alone, you are forced to meet people as the lift operator calls out for singles to fill up the seat on the ski lift. After plopping down on the frozen seat, you then have at least five minutes to learn the life story of the person sitting next you.

You are a captive audience with your only possible out being a 30-foot drop to the snow below. If I had been skiing with someone I knew, I would have stayed in my comfort zone, ridden up the lifts with that person the entire time.

Instead, I met people I never would have encountered any other way and will likely never meet again. There was Heather, a ski instructor (hence how I knew her name) from Vermont who was attending the University of Colorado but taught body surfing, rock climbing, martial arts at a variety of scenic locations -- that is near the ocean -- in the off-months from skiing.

She had reached the ripe-old age of 33 and was wondering whether she would ever meet the right man to settle down with, even though she had lived on five continents and visited nearly every state in the union.

There was the woman from Estes Park, who was returning to skiing after a 15-year hiatus and a former career as a ski instructor. She was skiing with the oldest two of her four children. While her third son favored video games over the slopes, her only daughter was apprehensive about taking up the sport since was quickly going deaf. A faulty gene was causing her to lose her hearing, with the change likely complete by May.

Her mother had wanted to do expose the 10-year-old daughter to as many things as possible before the youngster could no longer hear her mother's voice or anything else for that matter.

There was the conductor of the Fort Collins Symphony, who had come with his son and nephew but was abandoned because they were part of that group neither he nor I understood: snowboarders. (Anyone who has tried snowboarding and quit because their butt and hands were frozen from being on them all the time will understand my disdain for the sport.)

My one-time lift companion had graduated from the University of Southern Colorado and was just a little bitter about USC not having the chance to capture the entire college football championship. Yet, he didn't even know or feel consoled by the fact that USC had won the collegiate volleyball championship at the beginning of December. You just can't make people happy sometimes.

While I will venture out of the box  to try something new, I will continue to huddle in the corner when I'm ever asked to teach small children in specific tasks. I have nothing but respect for all teachers, but especially for those at the elementary level and this was never more evident than when I watched my children in ski lessons.

Imagine putting small children on little, slick boards, pointing them downhill and hoping and praying they avoid each other before reaching the bottom. Add to that the cold and wind and outfits which become impossible to remove when the bladder calls and you are ready for disaster. I'll leave the ski instructing (as well as photographing groups of small children) to the experts and stick to cheering from the sidelines.

***

While we're on the subject of doing things by yourself and trying new things, I spent the past week doing my "homework" before seeing the third installment of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. My husband, who had read the books and seen the first two, wanted to see the final movie, but recommended that I rent the first two before going to the theater.

Over the course of four days, I watched both of the three-hour films plus all the DVD-extras. I was able to fast forward through some of the fight scenes and pause for popcorn breaks. After sitting through the 3 1/2-hour final installment, I learned a valuable lesson: You needed to see the first two movies to really grasp the third and I should have just waited for it to come to come out on DVD. My back and my butt would be in a lot better off.

-- Ronda Graff will likely never watch the Lord of the Rings movies again but has started reading the Fellowship of the Rings -- now that she knows how it ends.