My nemesis fence was worse in my imagination

As with most (but certainly not all) things, how I imagined the fence that took me and Charlie down last fall was much, much worse in my mind than in real life.  In fact, it was so easy in real life that I went from fear (pooping fear prior to leaving to drive down today) to disgust that such an easy fence knocked us out of 5th place in the champs class and resulted in so much rehab.  It rode easy peasy.
We warmed up over a vertical, and most of Charlie's jumps were pretty good.  Meg and I did a bit of 2 point in our canter warm up, but I stayed pretty light to keep Charlie fresh.
We started with a little log, then an easy ramp to an up ramp bank to an off bank.  Then an A frame with some decent scot's broom on it (so you had to jump on the right, left, or high over the center; I took the right).  Then we did my nemesis.
It was just riding up to it, 4 strides, up the bank, two strides, off the bank.  I was a little scared and stiff so my down bank was just me standing straight up and trying not to hit Charlie in the mouth, but he didn't bat an eye.  John confessed later that he was a bit anxious too, but then saw how easy it was for Charlie.  His additional theory is that Charlie, unlike most horses, accelerates when he comes into a new field.  He said most horses don't, but look around.  He said he saw it at Inavale too, but didn't notice it was consistent until he saw us do it today.  So he expected we came across the culvert, accelerated and just came in too long and fast and got it in 3 1/2 strides instead of 4.  I said that sounded exactly right.
He said he doesn't like for horses to jump cross country too much because they get dull to it, and especially for xc he likes to keep them sharp, but he let me jump it twice because it was obvious the first time that I didn't believe it was really that easy.  It was also nice that John knew I was scared, didn't make a big deal out of it, but worked around it.  He's the greatest instructor.
From there, we went down and did the ditch a few times each way, then the big honkin' ditch with the solid fence and scot's broom.  Just like the last (two) times I rode it, Charlie jumped it like a breeze, and I just had to not think about it and look up.
From there, we went to the water and came in between two fences, off the bank into the water, over the corner, and around a nice table.  Charlie hesitated a second looking at the water but then went on in.
John asked us if we wanted to do anything else and I said "yeah, the pimple" and he said "you know that's a 3' fence on top, right?" and I said "yes" (although I had no idea) and so we had to ride to it very forward, then pull him together, then kick-kick-kick.  At the top, Charlie hesitated, hung in the air, then went down the back side like it was no big thang.  But as we came up the hill, holy christ the fence was huge.  I completely froze, and thank god for sweet Charlie who figured it out, jumped it, and went on his merry way.  It was great to jump something like that with John right there (and telling us the sequence of steps) because it will make the log on the hill at Inavale now seem like nothing.
John said that we are both solid on xc, even if I have a "bewildered" look on my face a lot of the time, and that what he wants us to do next is start stringing the fences together, so that if we have a bit of a downhill after a table, we notice it and think ahead to the next fence and think, "I need to put him a bit together because that is also a bit downhill".
It was a really fun lesson.  I get it, not wanting a horse to get too used to it - John used as an example if we did the pimple 5 times, Charlie would jump it exactly the same each time, but by the 5th time rub it. I wish I had two - one to drill me on, and then one for the shows.