Skippress - Index

Skippress - SkiPress US Vol.7 No.3 - Index

MOUNTAIN GIRL BY BETH JAHNIGEN
WHAT ABOUT
The Ring?
The big concern is getting ‘the ring.’ What most
girls don’t think about is what to do with it
once they get it. Mountain Girl explains...
Forget the fact that an engagement ring symbolizes decisive commitment,
absolute monogamy and total devotion.
Not to mention it brands the wearer as completely off limits: “I don’t care
how hot you are, I’ll buy my own drinks.”
Because, believe it or not, there are even more signifi cant implications of
getting engaged and getting ‘the ring.’
Especially if you’re a skier.
Once a girl gets over the initial shock that her boyfriend bought an engagement
ring instead of that Polaris RMK 800 snowmobile he’d been eyeing
for the last six months, her fi rst thought is, Do I ski with my ring on? What
about surfi ng? And biking?
As ridiculous and superfi cial as this sounds, it’s true. And it’s not as absurd
as it sounds. True Love not withstanding, there are a lot of practical reasons
why the ring should be left safely at home.
For instance, what if your ring doesn’t fi t under your gloves? Do you shove
it in anyway…cutting off your circulation, compromising the grip on your
pole and ultimately sacrifi cing your performance and safety? Or do you leave
it securely on the bathroom counter…where your fi ancé will see it and
inevitably wonder if you’re picking up guys on the chairlift?
On the other hand, as a show of commitment to your loved one, you could
swap your gloves for more roomy mittens. Who cares if you have the dexterity
of Edward ScissorHands wrapped in Gore-Tex? Your fi ancé will be happy.
That is, until you tell him your ring went fl ying when you pulled off your
mittens at the top of the lift to buckle your boots. In addition to sentencing
yourself to summer vacations at the ski area summit with a metal detector
for the next ten years, you are also condemned to a lifetime of harassment
and family jokes for losing the ring.
To add insult to injury, the ER
doctors had to actually douse it with
oil and pull it off my swollen fi nger
with pliers.
Don’t even bother trying to explain that you lost it because of the stupid
mittens you were wearing to make room for the ring in the fi rst place. It
doesn’t matter. At this point, you can’t win.
Think I’m exaggerating? I just happened to have my engagement ring on when
I foolishly — and unsuccessfully — rode my bike off a two-foot log drop this
summer. The seemingly harmless princess cut, diamond solitaire not only tore
into my skin but left painful, purple bruises around my broken fi nger.
To add insult to injury, the ER doctors had to actually douse it with oil and
pull it off my swollen fi nger with pliers. The things we do for love…
The fi nal irony is, that when my fi ancé rushed into the emergency room,
he didn’t even notice — or care — where the ring was. Which made me
realize… maybe the ring isn’t so important after all.
26 THE LOOK BOOK 2008 more mountain girl on skipressworld.com
Illustration: Zela Lobb