Category Archives: Ice Skating
Tasty, Pain-Free, and Warm
It was a chilly-but-sunny Saturday here in Washington, DC – the perfect time to look back at three beautiful things from the past week.
1. I cooked Brussels sprouts for the first time ever on Tuesday night. I used this recipe (which I found via Twitter and immediately saved to Pinterest – yay, social web!) and they were delicious. So good, in fact, that I can’t wait to make them again.
2. Because I had FSA money to burn at the end of 2011, I finally agreed to get the night guard my dentist has been advocating for years. (According to him, it’s apparent that I grind my teeth horribly while asleep.) I was skeptical that it would do anything, but I realized yesterday that I haven’t woken up with a headache since I got it. Given that I normally awake with one a couple of times a week, this a wonderful, unexpected outcome.
3. I found fleece-lined yoga pants to wear for my skating lessons, so now I will have appropriately flexible pants that are also warm.
What’s been beautiful in your world this week?
Seasonal Differences
My skates, with their badass skull-and-crossbones blade covers.
I’ve been taking ice skating lessons for nearly six months now – two sessions of basics and one session of hockey skating – and have noticed a huge difference in how people react to seeing my skates as the weather has changed.
In the summer, people really wanted to talk to me – they were curious about why I was carting ice skates around on a hundred-degree day. Wanted to know where I went skating.* Asked why I had hockey skates instead of figure skates. (Ah, gender norms!) Now that it’s winter, however, not one person has said anything directly, but several times, I’ve heard people start chatting about skating when they caught sight of me.
“Do you know how to skate?”
“Not really. I’ve tried, but…”
“Wow! I haven’t been ice skating since I was a kid!”
“Me neither. We should go!”
“Have you heard that at the zoo they’ve got some kind of surface you can ice skate on that isn’t really ice?”
“What? What is it?”
“I don’t know…”
(I don’t know either, but I’m looking forward to giving “the world’s best eco-friendly synthetic ice skating surface” a try.)
So, ice skates are clearly a conversation starter – but with whom is a very different matter. I’m not sure why I find this to be so interesting, but I do. To be honest, I’ve preferred people’s winter approach, since I tend to be shy with strangers, but I did find people’s excitement over the incongruity of summer skating to be fun.
***
* Telling people where I skate has shown me that, despite living in the DC area for almost 14 years, I haven’t lost my New York accent completely. Every conversation went pretty much like this:
Stranger: So, where do you skate?
Me: At the rink above the Ballston Mall where the Caps practice.
Stranger: Where?
Me: At the Ballston Mall.
Stranger: Where’s that?
Me: In Arlington.
Stranger: [blank stare]
Me: Virginia?
Stranger: [blank stare]
Me: On the orange line?
Stranger: Oh! The Ballston Mall!
Me: Uh, yeah.
Inside my head: That’s what I said, dammit!
After this happened a couple of times, I related these convos to a friend who is a DC native. She told me the problem was that I pronounce it “Bawlston” and not “Ballllllllston.” I can’t even begin to make that much of an “L” sound, so I guess Ballston will have to join coffee on the list of words that I will never pronounce in a suitably southern way. Oh well!
