Roller Skating...

Sunday afternoon Alex was supposed to have a Cub Scout activity at a skating rink in Cleburne. A.J. was taking both boys and was, himself, planning on skating.  I told him I'd go but there was no way I was skating (story to follow).  When we got there no one else from his group was there but we decided to make it a fun afternoon family time anyway.  One thing that has changed from when I was a kid going to school skating parties at our local Roller Dome besides kiddie roller skates with velcro, is that for the newbies they have push carts for them to use.  Both boys used them as did 75% of the kids there. A.J. and I laughed seeing all the kids out there on the rink with their white push carts - they looked like a bunch of mini elderly people attempting to skate with walkers.  But they were actually really handy and gave the boys a lot more confidence out there.  Alex had an absolute blast and is ready to go again.  I thought Ayson would go crazy but it really took him a long time to warm up to it.  I have a feeling we'll be doing it again soon.

The reason you will never see me on skates goes back to when I was a freshman in college.  Our college and another little private college had a joint skating party.  I've never been a fabulous skater, but I could get around the rink without critically injuring myself.  Midway through the evening the rink had one of those "games" where you circle the rink in groups of three, and when a whistle was blown you'd have to whip around and go in the opposite direction. I was sandwiched between two guy friends, both named Brian, and we began circling the rink way too fast for my comfort. The whistle would blow and then we'd whip around really fast and keep going. On our second or third lap one of the Brians fell, landing partially in front of me.  We were going so fast I had no time to react and I ended up running in to his leg and doing a major face plant on the floor.  I sat up reaching for my eye and looked at Brian - he had this look of horror on his face. There was blood everywhere. In no time I had a group of college kids forming a circle around me while one of the pre-med students "administered" care to my eye.  It was like a circus side show or something. There was talk of getting a stretcher, an ambulance...no way! Ultimately I was driven back to our school's doctor by my friends and was thrilled to receive stitches from the middle of my eyebrow to the outer part of my eyelid.  Amazingly enough this was the first of two times that I'd receive stitches while in college.  So that's my story.  The end.