Roller Skating

This weekend I went to a birthday party. A roller skating birthday party.  Actually, I took my niece to a roller skating birthday party. Her mom (my older sister) hasn’t been feeling well lately, so in came her auntie to the rescue!! One of my other (I have three) sisters came with me so I wouldn’t be sitting in a lame skating rink all alone with a bunch of moms I don’t know.

On the drive up to pick up my niece I expressed to Amy (my sister) that I wanted to roller skate as well. She looked at me as if I’d grown a third eye and said something like the following “Are you kidding? Do you know how long it’s been since I was on roller skates? We’ll look ridiculous!!”. We decided that it had indeed been a while for both of us since our last roller skating adventure – like 15 years since either of us had strapped on skates of the roller variety. Nevertheless, I wanted to do it. Amy did not. I convinced her by employing all my years of extensive training in negotiation. It was brilliantly done. It went something like this…
<insert whining voice here> “Come on Amers – we’re going to a skating rink in Marysville (a podunk town 40 minutes from my house) on a Saturday morning – we’re not going to see anyone we know! We can look ridiculous  – nobody will ever know! It will be fun. Puh-leeeeeease?”

We arrived at the roller rink and after smuggling in our water bottles and FiberONE bars (callously disobeying the posted signage that expressly forbade outside food/drink INCLUDING water), we got in line for our skates. Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice ring out “Hey – I know you!”. It was my former co-worker of three years. Someone I most certainly knew well. Go figure. The ONE person I know in Marysville is at the same place, same time as me. Amy was most displeased. However, I made the most of it – I’d kind of lost contact with this particular co-worker, and was very happy to have an opportunity to reconnect. So, while skating in the same shoes I think I wore 15 years ago, to the same music, doing the chicken dance and the hokey pokey, I caught up with my friend. It was nice.

Apparently my niece had never been roller skating before. There were several times Amy and I had to convince her (crying) to come back on the floor. Eventually she had a good time, but she BIFFED it a couple times pretty badly. Poor girl.  So, after about an hour of skating with a 10 year old death gripping our arms, Amy and I decided to take a break and eat our smuggled food while the rest of the party devoured pizza and cake.

Now, I have a very guilty conscience – so eating my little snacks was very hard for me. I kept hiding my food under the table after every bite. Amy made fun of me – but I didn’t care. I felt completely justified in my stealth when a few minutes later an employee came and scolded Amy for having her water bottle saying  “Ma’am, there’s no outside food or drink allowed – including water. You’ll need to put that away.” Lordy. That sister of mine is so embarrassing. Ha-ha.

Overall it was a great day. But geez – I don’t remember skating hurting my calves so much when I was a kid. Whew!

As a side note – it has now been 5 days since I checked Facebook. I feel so out of the loop. People know things that I don’t know. My friends are making comments and I can’t see them. It’s driving me a little nuts. BUT – my house is mostly clean, I’ve had much more quality time with my hubby and kiddos, and I’m sure I can last another 5 weeks. Oh goodness. It’s been 5 days and I have 5 weeks to go! (sob)