Ice Skating

 Nathan won a contest at work for stabbing lots of people--uh, I mean, giving lots of flu shots.  He won four tickets to go ice skating!

I must admit, I was completely underwhelmed when I heard the prize.  Ice skating?  I think I have only been once in my life, as a child.  I don't think it went well.  I've been roller skating, of course, and that didn't go well either.  In fact, the last time I went was in college.  At that time I finally realized that I really hate skating so I vowed never to go again.

Fast forward 14 years and 3 kids later and I must say I failed to take into account the heartfelt yearnings of my children to go skating when I made that vow.  I decided to be a sport.  So we dropped Bellana off with a sitter and went.

The kids had a blast.  And I hated it.  I couldn't leave the railing and kept having visions of twisting my ankle or breaking my tailbone and putting an end to my exercising.  It wasn't even really ice, just packed snow that I actually sank into in several places.  The kids did great and Nathan was zooming around like a hockey player.  It was almost a relief when Vander had a potty-training mishap and we had to leave.  (Almost.  Unfortunately, we didn't have any spare underwear, pants or diapers.  Parent fail.)

All I can leave you with is this poem I wrote back in college when I made my vow.

My Roller Skates

I bought a pair of roller skates, but boy did I get gypped!
I flopped and flounced and bruised and bounced and tossed and trounced and tripped!
I bumped and thumped and whumped my rump, I scratched and scored my knees.
I filed my elbows to a stump and kissed the floor with ease.
My feet would slip
My neck would whip
My head would whack
My skull would crack
I did a flip and hurt my hip by landing on my keys.
I flailed and flapped and burned and chapped and scraped and taped my palms.
And when I crashed my thumb got mashed! (I wasn’t very calm.)
I ripped and nipped and stripped my pants, then slipped and fell again.
I flew with flair into a chair and kicked and nicked my shin.
I fell on my knees,
my shoulders,
my fanny,
my stomach,
my elbows,
why, it was uncanny!
I paid for the shoes and the roller rink rates,
but I didn’t spend ANY time on those skates!