If You're Lucky Enough to be Irish, You're Lucky Enough

St. Patrick's Day greetings to all my readers, all 17 of you! Haha It's St. Patrick's Day and I've got to find some leprechaun roller skating images on google.  Hopefully that's what you are looking at right now.

St. Patrick's Day and roller skating don't really mix, although there is a rink in L.A. where alcohol is served at the adjoining bowling center.  I really couldn't imagine skating drunk, that just sounds terrifying.  It's so easy to make a mistake when you're sober, who knows what you might do if you're drunk.  But I digress.

You know I've been getting my roll on.  Adult Night this past Tuesday was so fantastic.  For one thing, there was only a handful of amateurs, so that's always good.  The DJ played lots of my requests, which is awesome.  And there were no major accidents the whole night, thank goodness.  (There was a bad one a few weeks ago that ended in the paramedics taking the girl out. Scary.)  I am feeling so awesome in my new skates, I just can't believe I left them on the shelf for six months!  Was ready to sell them!  There's a time and place for everything.

My backwards skating has improved dramatically in the last few weeks.  My buddy, DJ Dave, has been really helping me with my backwards crossovers and has driven the point home about shifting my weight from foot to foot.  This is the basis of roller skating and the key to success on your wheels.  I still kinda suck at turning around but I am working on it all the time.  I am also learning backwards couple skating, which is so totally exciting.  Of course also very easy to get knocked down but so far, so good. 

We really rocked on our downtown routines on Tuesday night.  I saw the amateurs looking on, mesmerized.  One of them came up to me and asked if we were professionals.  That made my night.  When everyone is on the beat and we are perfectly synchronized, we probably do look like professionals.

In other news, I am skating at the rink this weekend, which I am so excited about.  It's been at least a month since I was able to fit in skating on the weekend at the rink.  I'm especially glad because they are saying rain this weekend so probably no beach skating.  Then Cerritos later this month, so excited!  Can't wait to get my roll on Skate Depot style.

Skate or Die

Good morning skate family! I am writing today in very high spirits, I have been having lots of wonderful skating adventures and having the best time.

Skating on Tuesday was so fantastic.  Although I have only been wearing my Douglass Snyder skates for three weeks, I feel like I have already acclimated to wearing them.  My skates were still hurting me, so one of my friends suggested that I cut up some make up sponges and put them on my toes.  Wow, worked like a charm!  Tuesday was my first time not having pain with my skates, and it was so awesome.  I was skating fast, I was doing my roller dancing, and just basically feeling like a million bucks in my bad ass skates.

Last weekend I skated up at Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale, CA.  What a funny and interesting rink.  Very small with a super low ceiling, probably about the same size as Skate World.   The rink is maintained in a 1950's style (including no locks on the bathroom doors) so that movies can be filmed there.  It was a family night, but these kids behaved so differently from the kids in San Diego. Skating was extremely uniform, certainly no texting while skating (so rampant here).  There was a sign at the entrance that said "no fast or reckless skating", and this rule is clearly followed.  I'm not used to skating so slow; I never got a warning but I definitely got some stern looks.  But it was so easy to backwards skate amongst those kids because they didn't dart around at all.  There was a bucket in the middle of the floor with cones around it from a leak in the ceiling. It was pretty funny, every  now and then the DJ would come on the mic and say "avoid the bucket".

So Moonlight was okay but I didn't think it was all that like people have said.  To be fair, Audlt Night would probably be way better.  The following day was supposed to be the Race on the Base but it got rained out, it was pretty crappy.  The rain was very intense.  To make up for it, I located an afternoon session at another rink so the trip wouldn't be wasted.

Went to the Fountain Valley Skating Center on Saturday for their afternoon session 11:00-1:30.  This rink is HUGE compared to Skate World, and I just loved it.  The lovely wood floor is unfortunately painted over, but I loved it just the same.  It's so nice to skate on such a big floor and be able to really practice some steps before you get to the turn.  This rink appeared to have fairly strict rules as well; I went in the middle to practice my crazy legs and was immediately told that skating in the center is not allowed.  There were three little kids having lessons so my skating there would "interfere" with the lessons.  Whatever.  Skating was fun, the music was top 40 but definitely more upbeat, so I can work with that.  When I saw the lessons had ended, I made a plea to the DJ to allow me to skate in the center, and she begrudgingly said yes hahaha.  I quite enjoyed ths rink and would love to hit it up for Adult Night, but it's on Thursday and neither of these rinks hold a candle to Skate Depot in Cerritos. 

I'm so excited to turn the corner with my Snyder skates.  I had four different people pay me compliments on Tuesday night, and I really feel it is because of the skates.  Even though they are so heavy, I have adapted to them quickly and what can I say, I'm just in love.