My RSS Feeds
free skate
around and around and around and around in a disco-lit circle. it was the OfficeOps monthly rock n rollerskate party and we were skating our hearts out around and around and around the cement pillars and milling hipsters and caged bands. while Laurel took the practical approach and started slow, practicing her stopping and starting and turning before picking up speed and style, I did things the way I usually do - heading full steam ahead with no preparation and no attention paid to what was going on around me. and so I wiped out, straight on my ass, the first casuality of the night.
kickball, dodgeball, rollerskating... there's been revival in all things playground-related. barely into or out of our twenties, we are already trying to reclaim our lost youth. we knew that for nostalgia alone the rock n rollerskate was going to be a good time, but it ended up fun beyond sheer novelty. the League Radio DJs flooded the space with old and new and hip rock & roll and kept the pace skate-friendly, and the bands were shockingly good. These Bones got me to stop circling and buy their EP, impressed both with their music and how nice they were. We Are Scientists got me to nearly wipe out a second time as I tried to dance and skate. Laurel was partial to the indie-pop bent of The Hong Kong. All three bands admirably rocked the hell out of the 6x6 steel cage.
around and around we went, pausing every few laps to catch our breath or bypass the crowd or take note of someone's particularly impressive style. still slightly off-balance, I would try to copy a move by turning mid-skate or weaving my feet in front of each other, only to pitch forward and barely catch myself from falling. I kept upright though, and kept moving forward. we watched a tall boy with curly hair easily navigate around crowds of people, feet crossing in front of each other, and a petite girl in a shirtdress skate backwards beautifully. all of Laurel's roller rink memories began sneaking back, and she told me stories about the cool older kids hanging out at the rink (unsupervised!), with their gang of friends and skate tricks and black satin jackets billowing out behind them as they soared, unfettered, past the junior high schoolers. how could a burgeoning adolescent not want to be a part of that? how could a pre-teen not fall in love?
when the circling became dizzying and a break was needed, we retreated to the smoking room to talk books and movies and boys and where it all goes wrong and right. the next break was spent exploring the rest of the fantastic OfficeOps space, including the Bunny Skate room (for those who believe in practice over impatience), the refreshment stand (glass beer bottles + roller skates seemed a bad combination, but there was no tragedy), and the arcade. we tried three of the pinball machines, looking for one that would give us a fair shot at a solid game (damn those too-far-apart flippers). at the third machine I put in my quarter, standing over the game in my skates, holding onto the sides, waiting for my ball. I felt myself going down, slowly, inevitably, my body pitching forward, then backward, then sideways until I was sprawled out on the floor, my left hand and the left side of my ass once again taking the brunt of the fall. Laurel and a random couple stared down at me. "What happened?" they asked as they helped me back to my unstable, rolling feet. I had no idea. I rubbed my hand, watching the immense bruise slowly developing across my palm. I thought how funny it was that once I got going I could barrel forward, picking up speed with each turn around the rink, avoiding close calls with other skaters and pedestrians and immovable objects, always forward forward forward, faster and faster, forever catching and losing my balance. But as soon as I stop moving, I crash to the ground.
Four hours and innumerable loops of skating and reverse skate and rock and roll and beer and pinball and falls and falls and falls, we took off our four wheels and put back on our boring walking shoes and walked out (so slow, comparatively!) into the cool July night. a few hours ahead of us were beer and pizza and a trip to the zoo but for now it was about the novelty and newness and coolness and unselfconscious joy. it was all about the free skate.