I Guess I'm A Little Stiff...

Today was my nephew's birthday party at a local roller skating rink. Dave and I took the kids fully intending to sit on the sidelines or help JonJon in the little beginner's rink (which does not require skates). We get there and get the rental skates on the kids. Let me tell you they are ickier than rental bowling shoes (who really wants to stick their foot in a pre-sweaty skate?) . Eddie takes off and does pretty good. In my opinion if you are upright in a pair of skates, you are doing good. Erica takes off and hugs the wall, but she remains upright too. Hey, whatever it takes right? Dave sacrifices his toes and takes JonJon off to the beginner's rink, so I think I'm getting off easy. Well it isn't long before JonJon says he is ready for the big rink. As much as I try to talk him out of it, he wants no part of the kiddie area. This requires Dave or I putting on a pair of skates. He has a bum ankle, I have a bum thumb. Guess who wins a pair of sweaty skates. I rent the skates and try not to think about all the feet that have been in there before mine. After I'm all laced up I very carefully make my way to the rink. I tell JonJon to let me make a lap around first to get used to skating. Just an FYI I only went skating a handful of times as a kid and only once since getting married, so it has been a while. I get out on the floor and scoot my way around very slowly. I'm like the little old gray haired woman going 3o mph in freeway rush hour blocking traffic. There were tiny little three year olds skating backwards faster than I was. I finally make it around doing my little shuffle the whole time muttering things like "watch out" "show off" "whoa, whoa, whoa" but I stay upright. I gather JonJon and we make our way around the wall a few times. I also went a few more laps solo.

After the party was over (and I was back in non-rolling shoes) Dave said he was impressed with my skating. He said that "I never fell even though I looked like a mannequin on roller skates" .