Skatesgiving

Hello Blog World! I come with tidings of great skating...okay I had to make the little Christmas reference. Yes the holidays are upon us, taking up valuable skating time. But it's all about time management and I for one will not be Christmas shopping on Adult Night. That's not going to happen. I was off work for the past weekend and you know I spent the whole time rolling. It was awesome!

But the highlight of my time off was undoubtedly the Thanksgiving Skate at Skate Depot.

I can't say enough good things about this rink. Here is a rink that is for the skaters, run by people who love skating and the rink patrons. They show this by offering special holiday skates, all night skates, they provide us with cold drinking water - what else could we want? I had the absolute best time up there! For the first time ever, I was able to skate in the fast lane! Not the whole time of course; I always make sure to move to the left after a pass so that people much faster than me can go by. But I was holding my own and it was absolutely thrilling! I also did a ton of backwards skating and it was awesome to just go into it and not feel intimidated.

My backwards skating is totally going to the next level, it's way awesome. They had a special in Cerritos all women backwards for three songs. I hung in there! It was great. I am most definitely going to get a grip of Fridays off so I can go up to Cerritos at least once a month. I seriously need to skate up there more often and the car ride just seems shorter and shorter.

In other news, the parade got rained out last weekend. It sucked so much. I was so looking forward to it. Unfortunately water and skating just don't mix and it rained cats and dogs all last weekend. I sure hope we get to do it next year, that is so up my alley.

That is my main update. Just skating and more skating. Been going to the rink on the weekends again. Despite the rumors that the rink will be closing, it has been dead, dead, dead. Too bad that people in San Diego don't want to support our last roller rink. Oh well, I will do it for you.

Sk8 Life

Hello fellow skaters! It’s Tuesday so you know I’m on a cloud, so ready to get my roll on at the rink tonight! I have made some awesome progress in the past few weeks since I updated my blog so listen up. November 11 was Veteran’s Day (Go Veteran’s!) so I had the day off and the rink was open for the kids being out of school. Awesome for me! I was one of about four adults there but no worries, I’m Little Miss Zip-Out-Of-The-Way nowadays so I don’t mind the kids at all. I had a great time on Thursday and Wonderboy showed up later in the afternoon. He wants to help me with my backwards skating, which is so exciting. I am so grateful to each and every skater who takes the time to work with me and teach me.

Working with Wonderboy on Thursday, he observed my backwards skating and then asked if I could pick up one of my feet. Heck no! Not going backwards that’s for sure. So that was his diagnosis: to get to the next level in backwards, I need to learn to skate backwards on one foot. Much harder than it may sound. Luckily he is willing to work with me and I have already taken some baby steps in that direction. It’s very hard but so exciting to feel myself inching towards a new goal.Saturday I was at the rink again, more chances to practice my backwards skating. I also have been working on some forward rexing moves that Paul has been teaching me. I have been trying and trying to mimic his movements but I know I am doing it wrong. Saturday something finally clicked in place: I knew I was doing it right, I could just feel it! So awesome!

Sunday I was so eager to show Paul what I had learned, and sure enough, he said I was doing well! I showed him my “one leg backwards” moves as well and he was pleased. Wonderboy thinks I might be able to do backwards crossovers in the next few weeks if I keep working at it. That would be too cool so I am trying not to get ahead of myself, just keep working and hope it happens.

This Sunday I will be skating in the Mother Goose Parade in El Cajon. It’s going to be great fun! I was told to save up my energy so that I can skate for three miles (gulp). Sounds hardcore but I am ready. So if you’re in the Cajon Zone, do come out and check my skating moves!! Happy Winter Skating ya’ll.

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.