Who You Callin' Crazy?

At eighteen, the amount of mistakes I'd made rivaled the amount of annoyed customers standing in line at the DMV. But that didn't prevent me from making more. Nope.

I, Krystal Wade, was an idiot.

Now, I know what you're thinking: Krystal's going to rant and tell us what we should and should not do.

Wrong!

Neener, neener, neener! (Maybe I never matured past five. Shh!)

I, Krystal Wade, am going to tell you about one of the more innocent mistakes I made. One that will probably never make it into My Life: The Darker Side of Me (or whatever the heck I decide to call my life story.)

Weather forecasters predicted a doozy of a snowstorm. I'm a sucker for snow. Always have been. So, my boyfriend suggested we go snowboarding.

Squee!

However, I grew up in Texas. My parents never took me skiing. Real snow only existed in my life for about a year and a half, since I moved to Virginia. But the daredevil in me said grab life by the horns and hit the slopes.

My boyfriend owned a board, something custom fit for him, but I had to borrow one from a friend. This friend spent an hour or so trying to figure out if I was "goofy footed" or if my left or right foot was the lead.

Let's just say I was clueless.

Excited and all big-eyed, we hopped in the car, fought the snowstorm, and arrived at Massanutten a few hours later. My belly swam with excitement. Night blanketed the snow-capped mountain, and snow drifted from the sky like, well, snow.

We purchased our lift tickets and were off. Nameless boyfriend wanted to hit Diamond Jim, a black diamond. I went with him. As soon as I stepped off the lift, I knew I was in trouble. Snowboarding is like having one leg, or I imagine that's what it's like. My left and right foot fought for control. I realized Diamond Jim sloped at an angle I didn't like.

But I had to do this. I couldn't be afraid. Daredevil, remember?

I lead with my right foot then slid down the mountain . . . fast. Too fast! Speed is not for me. Left foot fought for control. No, right foot wanted control. Had to slow down. Oh. My. God. My board turned sideways, and I scraped down the mountain with a load of passerby's shaking their head and muttering "snowboarders".

"Just watch me," my overly confident boyfriend said.

I watched him, all right. I watched him snowboard down the side of the mountain and not wait for me. Jerk.

Determination told me to get up. So I did. My board turned sideways again, and I allowed the front edge of it to touch the slope. I flipped over three times before landing on my back with the wind knocked out of me.

A kind guy about my age stopped then helped me up. I was crying. What the hell was I thinking? I'd never snowboarded before. I hated heights—if it were daytime, there's no way I'd have been up there—and I certainly preferred building snowmen over this strange exercise.

"Sit down," the guy I probably should have been dating said. "Slide down the rest of the way just sitting. Have you ever done this before?"

"No."

"Why are you on the hardest trail?"

Anger coursed through me. I didn't know I was on the most difficult trail. No one told me. Nice guy skied away, leaving me pissed, scared, and sore. Seriously. My back hurt like a *****.

I took his advice and made my way to the bottom while sitting on my rear. My boyfriend passed by a few times, laughing. The kind guy stopped every now and then to make sure I was okay. I made a couple attempts to strap the board on and ride down, but wound up hurting myself even worse than before.

Needless to say, my boyfriend and I broke up.

Moral of this story: Always know what you're getting into.

*Stop glaring* I had to slip some kind of positive message in this! Okay, I've told you about mine; I want to hear yours! What's the craziest/stupidest thing you've ever done?