Ouch! I Hate Falling

Had a spectacular fall at the rink last night. Nothing like eating it! What made it worse is that I was about to leave, and had just gotten off the floor to get one last drink of water before taking my skates off. I was rolling along on the carpet at a good clip, when this evil plastic tie thing was laying in my path. The debris on roller rink carpets can be so dangerous. I attempted to roll over it but it was way too thick. It felt like I did about 10 seconds of flailing around trying to get my balance, but there was nothing I could, I was going down. To make the whole thing worse, I went down flat on my belly, an odd way to fall. The most common way to fall is right on your money maker. Not me. Flat down on my belly, chin on the carpet, the whole thing. So embarrassing! A few people came over and helped me up -- I'm sure it was quite a sight. I did throw out the evil zip tie that tried to kill me (see image below).Beyond that, I had a ball skating last night. Paul is taking me under his wing so much, it's awesome! He's a rather demanding teacher, not big on smiles. There's this cool synchronized skating that goes on around the outside of the rink that looks amazing and difficult. The skaters that do it keep about two inches between each one, no joke. Paul has decided I need to learn it, which is so awesome. So last night he was showing me the steps and trying to get me to skate all close behind him. That was a bit too scary for me but it was cool to learn the steps. Now practice, practice, practice as always.

He was also working with me on my backwards skating. I have stalled a bit with my backwards skating; what I do I can do well but I haven't graduated to the next level. He showed me the next steps over and over; it's quite hard and Paul is not a hand holding kind of guy. You just have to get it on your own. I put in a lot of practice and felt like I was slowly starting to grasp it...maybe. Even though it's the beginning of November, it is SO hot in San Diego right now. :) You gotta love it! Can't wait to skate this weekend in the beautiful sunshine with brilliant blue skies above me.