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De-iced

Dear Reader,

I have a theory that underneath our adult exteriors hides a version of our seven year old selves that likes to get out once in a while.  I've long since outgrown the pastel pink heart wall paper that I choose when I was 10 and that still hangs on the walls of the bedroom where I grew up (and where I'm sleeping now), but I've never really given up on the idea of being a dancer or an ice skater (Or both!  Why choose?!)

So when my mother asked me if there was anything I wanted for my birthday this year, I asked for figure skates.  Just like the wallpaper, these were duly picked out by me and paid for by my parents.  (Thanks, Mom and Dad!)  And I signed up for adult Learn to Skate classes at the ice rink in Tulsa.

Class 1, Lesson 1, Demonstration 1: How to fall without bruising a tailbone or blowing out a wrist.
(Hint: This is one of those times when a little extra padding around the hips helps.  Pass the donuts.)

While I appreciate the value of falling skills, I never remember until after I've landed that I was supposed to do it differently, so they're not overly useful to me, and I was pleased when we quickly moved on from falling to staying upright skills and even moving forward and backward skills.

I have no natural physical aptitude, so adult me had (and met) very low expectations of my ability to learn to skate.  But seven year old me never stopped thinking - "Hey!  This is fun!"  Wishing to please my inner child, I decided to pack my ice skates for my summer in Maine and make an effort to improve my falling if nothing else.

New York and Maine are cold places much of the year.  The ice rink in Tulsa is open year round including during the hot summer months which I'm escaping.  It never occurred to me that ice rinks in New York and Maine wouldn't be open year round.  Alas.  The common skating season in these rural parts of the country seems to be between October and March!  I will need to drive an hour into Augusta, ME to find year round public skating.

It is with great disappointment that I scratch ice skating off my summer ToDo list and hang up my skates in the closet next to a dusty bag of Barbie dolls.

If summer comes, can fall be far behind?
~~ LeAn

Comments

  1. Don't you worry, Winter is Coming, they say...

    ^_^

    ReplyDelete

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