Sunday, April 21, 2013

Saturday Night Skate

On Day 21 of 30 Days of Blogging, I'm not going to use a suggested topic, and will instead talk about a tiny adventure last night: Kristin and I went to the skating rink.

This is our second trip out to Oliver Springs to skate together. Kristin has been out there a bunch of times for derby, but now that she's not active in derby she still wants to skate, so she invites friends to go. There's another rink closer to us somewhere, but Kristin doesn't like the floor at that one, so we've gone to this one instead. The first time, we went by ourselves, but last night we met up with a few of her friends, and both times we've stayed a few hours and it has been generally fun. Kristin brings her own skates (of course, since she has expensive derby skates), but I just use the rental skates:

skates

How can you go wrong for $1.50?

Our two trips (so far) to the skating rink have taught me a few things:

1) Skating is still cheap entertainment. Less than five dollars, including the skate rental. Skating, like bowling, remains popular for kids in high school and junior high because it is cheap and you can have fun even with minimal skill.

While I'm on the topic of skill...

2) I can't remember how to roller skate. I'm a decent ice skater, I think. It's possible that has changed since I haven't gone ice skating since moving to Tennessee, but every other time I haven't ice skated for a few years and then pick it up again I've gotten the knack of it back in under an hour. As for roller skating, I seem to have no muscle memory of this remaining, and spend most of the time hugging the wall or circling very, very slowly around the outside of the rink. When we lived in Alaska I skated all the time, and knew how to roller skate before I learned how to ice skate, but I guess it's been way too long to have retained any of that.

3) The skating rink has not changed since you were twelve.

rink

It doesn't matter when you were twelve. The skating rink is timeless. There are still girls continuously screaming at the top of their lungs, and there are still boys who can do intricate skate dancing moves that you will never be coordinated enough for because they come to the rink every single night. The snack bar still has nachos, candy, and soda, the skates still look the same, and really the only differences are the music and the kids texting while they skate.

4) 12 year olds wear a lot of mascara. Seriously, I don't remember kids wearing nearly this much makeup when I was their age.

On the plus side, I haven't fallen, yet.

Probably because I also haven't done more than three laps in a row.

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