When I was a girl I had a deep love for the skating rink.
Of course, I thought that I was the queen of skating.
It was the 80's and the skating rink ruled!
I loved everything about it.
The bright lights, the loud music,
the thrill of picking up speed,
showing off with the backwards skate,
dancing in my skates in the center ring,
winning at the Hokey Pokey,
pigging out on nachos at the snack bar,
looking for a boy to couple skate with,
and skating into the bathroom to escape ugly boys.
You can imagine how thrilled I was
when one of Griffin's friends had a skate party for his birthday over the weekend.
I felt confident as I strapped on my skates and embarked to the rink.
It had been about ten years since I last skated
but that didn't matter...
remember, I'm the queen of the rink.
Suffering from delusions of grandeur,
I was taken off guard to discover that
as I glided out into the crowd I felt a bit wobbly.
I tried to play it off and look awesome.
I'll just go ahead and tell you that I failed miserably.
I slowly shuffled my feet to get my groove back when
out of nowhere, a crew of what looked to be seven year old kids
came whizzing up behind me
and I squealed like a little girl.
Before I had a chance to recover,
a posse of pre-teen girls rounded the corner
and nearly knocked me over.
I spun in a circle while spinning my arms to keep my balance.
Just as my skates got beneath me,
a bratty kid barreled past and gave me the stink eye.
It was terrifying.
I made a run for the safety of the carpet.
There I met with Griffin who felt pretty awesome
in his roller skates.
This was his first attempt at skating and
he did great on the carpet as he sped around.
I dropped my cool facade and just enjoyed watching Griffin
experience something new and exciting.
We even braved the rink and skated around hand in hand,
falling all over one another and laughing our faces off.
Griffin looked over at me
in the glow of the disco light
as if I was the coolest Mom on roller skates.
Suddenly, just as quickly as I had been run off the rink,
I knew that I was still the queen of skating.
Meanwhile, over in the arcade, Koen had
high jacked the Deer Hunter gun.
He pointed it at innanament objects
like the Air Hockey table
and screamed "Pow!" and "Take that!"
Roger was so proud to see his youngest son
take an interest in hunting.
We totally ruled the rink!
12 comments:
I love skating and like you am still queen of the rink. Somewhere there are pictures of my post baby tail on skates taking a break feeding my munchkin before hitting the floor again. Believe it or not I had my OWN personal pair of skates that were snow white with purple and pink laces.
I typed in a whole long comment and the computer ate it. Sigh.
I had a roller skating party when I turned 7 and an ice skating party when I turned 10. I even took formal ice skating lessons for a while when we moved to KC, but then I had to stop b/c of the in vitro....LOVE the first /top photo, Leigh. You're amazing.
Looks like fun. I haven't been on skates in so long I don't think i could do it.
I know how you felt as it is just how I did when I took Dexter earlier this month.
My late husband was a national roller-skating champion....a long time ago. I saw him skate once. It was after the rare occasion when he lost a bet. We dug his skates out of the attic, dusted and oiled them. We assembled at the skating rink down the street from our house with a handful of friends. He knew the owners of the place and they cleared the floor for him. It was magical. He went forward, he went backward, he went sideways, he boogied. The crowd was roaring...so he jumped. He soared through the air like a bird and landed right on his butt....bouncing bouncing bouncing down the floor. He didn't miss a beat, he got right back up, skated off the floor, out the door, into the parking lot and all the way home. I never saw him skate again. Thanks for the story Leigh and for reminding me of memories made at the skate rink!!!
I've never been a good skater but I used to hang out at the rink all the time as a kid. I used to pull myself along the railing till my arms were sore. Weird kid. I know.
Awesome. I hope Oliver loves me as much as Griffin loves you. And tell little Mr. Koen that we would greatly appreciate it if he could make a trip up this way and help us out with a little squirrel problem we're having. Darn things keep getting in our attic!
xo
Like Caroline, I've got a few squirrels that need hunting, myself. Last time they got in our attic, they chewed through the roof, unbeknownst to us. The next big rain ruined the ceiling in my kitchen.
=)
PS. I'll bet you are still queen of the ice. You just need to reclaim the crown!
I am also under the firm belief that I am still the most awesome skater that I was in junior high. I'm not going to try it because I don't want to burst my own bubble or break a hip.
I loved the skating rink, and when I was in junior high, I went every single Friday night.
Last year, I had that experience of taking my daughter for her first time. It was so much fun!
I love that you are still queen of your rink.
That's awesome - even more awesome than that totally rad carpet there :)
Roller Skating...ahhh, and couples skate was my first hand holding experience...what was better? Love the pics of the skates...
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