Last weekend I took my friend Ms. M ice-skating for her birthday. This is the friend who convinced me to go on the ghost tour last year for her birthday. Let me say this year was much less terrifying, although it was still scary in its own way. When I say it was scary in its own way, I mean that my germaphobe friend was terrified of the ice skates that smelled like someone with horrible smelling feet had worn them without showering for about a week, and then died in them. I’m not joking. Or exaggerating. I never exaggerate. Anyhow, we walked into the rink and the smell of feet just hit you. It almost hit us off our feet! Ha ha, get it? Anyhow, it was bad, but we got our skates and somehow willed ourselves to put our feet in them.
As we were sitting there waiting until open skate time, someone opened the door and a very, very cold burst of air hit me. I had worn layers, but only 2 and they were pretty thin. The air was freezing and it cut through my wimpy little jacket. When it’s 115 degrees outside it’s hard for me to even fathom that I could be cold ever again. Apparently it is possible. Luckily Mr. C was nice enough to drive all the way across town to bring me a sweatshirt – a sweatshirt I may have not even needed when we began skating and it turned into a work-out, but I didn’t really want to mention this since he drove all the way across town to bail me out.
I had been ice skating once and I remember being pretty good buddies with the wall that time. Ms. M and I took our first steps into the ice and I think our eyes both got big at the same time. It was VERY slippery and we didn’t stand up quite as well as we had thought. We hugged the wall about half the way around (well I did at least) and then we eased our way out farther. Soon we were going faster than the wall huggers but not quite as fast as the 5 year old kids who felt the need to show everyone up. I seemed to flail my arms around more than everyone else, but I was ice skating! It was so much fun, and quite a workout!
I also learned a very valuable lesson about future parenting while I was there. Under no circumstances are any of my children going to the ice skating rink alone. Apparently, kids tell their parents they’re going to skate but let me tell you there was not much skating going on. What was going on was some hockey….the kind with tonsils involved. We did have quite a bit of fun narrating the stories as we skated by. At one point there was a couple making out when suddenly the guy stopped to check his cell phone. REALLY? What could possibly be more important than the high school girl who is probably lying to her parents to make with you? I wasn’t allowed to stop and ask that question unfortunately.
We were doing awesome, skating pretty far away from the safety zone of the walls. We were talking, joking around, and I may have been getting a little too sure of myself. In order to counteract this, I fell. I actually screamed a bit first, then fell. Remember my friend, the one I took out for her birthday? Well she was super helpful when I fell. She asked if I was ok which was very friend-like and helpful. She then proceeded to laugh so hard after I stood up that she had to skate to the wall so it could support her while she laughed uncontrollably. Oh, and the couples standing in that corner taking a breath from their make-out sessions, they saw my fall too. I sat on the ice for a few minutes laughing and collecting myself and a very nice kid came over and asked if I was okay. He probably thought I broke a hip or something. He was nice though; I bet he’s not one who lies to his parents about his reasons for going to the skating rink.
Overall it was so much fun. I felt like a penguin at one point (not while I was laying on the ice however). At the end, we took our skates off and unfortunately realized that the horrible smell was now contained in our socks and most likely our feet (we didn’t smell them directly). It was so very, very gross. But, very worth it. I can’t wait to see what we do next year!
Happy B-day Ms. M! I’m so very proud to call you my friend!
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