On skiing and other insanities

I've been finding the news about Natasha Richardson's death awfully upsetting. It always does when it's an accident like that. Something that would perhaps had never happened had she stayed home that day or gone shopping or to the beach or done anything else instead. Not that one can't have an accident or die in one's home or the beach or the mall, but I think you understand my point. It's one of those "If only if..." kind of situations.

It also hasn't done much to diminish my fear/distaste of skiing and other related cold mountain activities. I've just never really caught on to the appeal of hurling oneself down a slippery mountain. I find curling up with hot cocoa with marshmallows and a book in the lodge to seem like a much more appealing activity. A crackling fire, a soft blanket, solid ground--all undeniably delicious.

When I was in high school, my mother had a dream where I was paralyzed in a skiing accident. The odd thing about it is that I'd never expressed any interest whatsoever in skiing; nobody in my family had, but it just so happened that the next day my school announced that they were organizing a ski trip. My mom is one of those moms who tends to have semi-prophetic dreams, so when I told her about the trip and she told me about the dream she'd JUST had, it cemented my vow to never partake. My interest in the whole thing was really quite low, and I had no desire to test out my mother's intuition. So I stayed home while my friends went, and I read and didn't break anything (while at least two of my friends came back broken or sprained or otherwise injured).

My family is more of a warm weather family anyway. We prefer the pool to the snow and a cozy living room to the snowy backyard. We're an indoor family, and I'm quite happy with that.

On another (only semi-related) note, am I the only one who ever confused Natasha Richardson with Blythe Danner? I realize it's ridiculous as Blythe is a couple decades older, but they are all (were all, I suppose) part of that group of actresses that's all collarbones and elegance. Not exactly the most high-brow of films, but I really adored her performance as the insecure (and insufferable) wealthy hotel guest in Maid in Manhattan.