The Weekend Update, with Dawn Felagund
Well, my weekend is a few hours from ending, but I can't complain, as today shouldn't have been a weekend day at all. But Bobby and I proclaimed ourselves deserving of a Mental Health Day, and so we took it, and I did nothing but write like a crazy fool all day. Well, almost nothing :)
Friday, we usually drive to Belair for gaming. But because of previously mentioned affronts that included forgetting Felak's birthday party and scheduling a second event on the same night and expressing no regret about it, we stayed in Ellicott City instead. No loss. We had more fun here anyway, and--Bobby and I figured it out--counting gas from sitting in rush hour traffic and tunnel tolls, it costs us about $13 to make the round trip to Belair on Friday nights. It is not so bad to travel there outside of rush hour, but to even think about the Baltimore Beltway between the hours of two and eight on a Friday is to doom oneself to spend hours in traffic. So we have to go through the Fort McHenry Tunnel, which is a two dollar toll each way. Plus, gas in our area is currently hovering at about $2.99 a gallon, and Belair is an hour drive, often half of which is spent in traffic. (Despite avoiding the Beltway; by virtue of it being a circle, it intersects with I-95 twice on our way to Belair.)
So we went ice skating instead.
We tried out a new rink, the Columbia Center, because it is very near to us. We will not go on a Friday night again. I felt like I'd lost ten years and found myself at a middle-school dance. The session began at eight. First, we waited fifteen minutes to get in and pay our $6 admission fee. (It was a two-hour session.) The place was packed, and I think that if 2% of the crowd was over 18, that was being generous.
Bobby and I own our own pairs of hockey skates, but poor Potter had to use Mental Rentals™. Bobby skated off, into the crowd, and I began slowly circling with Potter, whose Mental Rentals™ were really giving him grief. We made it around exactly twice before he fell and sliced his wrist with his toepick. And so Potter was done and proceeded to begin playing a 1995 arcade game for 25 cents a play with a bunch of kids. Six dollars well spent.
After fifteen minutes of skating, the guards blew their whistles to clear the ice. So Bobby and I huddled into the hockey area, which was relatively teenybopper free. They then proceeded to take the next half-hour (which cost us $1.50 per person, recall) to 1) do the funky chicken dance, 2) do the Cha-Cha-Slide, and 3) do the limbo. While this was going on, skating was not allowed, so Bobby and I sat in the hockey area and watched middle schoolers ducking under a big pole and slowly begin filling our area--when they were "out"--with their squealing my-balls-won't-drop-for-five-years voices and middle-school drama.
That got me thinking--and remarking to poor Bobby, who was trapped in a small box with me with no way to escape my wisdom--about organized dances. In the '80s, you had the Electric Slide. In the '90s, it was the Macarena. Now, it is the Cha-Cha-Slide. It seems to me that they're getting dumber. Now, they tell you the moves to do. I remember, in fifth grade, learning the Electric Slide because, apparently, it was a key to social success. The Macarena just happened naturally: Watch it once or twice, and you've no choice but to learn it. Now, you don't even have to hear the song once before being able to do most of the dance. Weird.
After the middle-school dance segment concluded, the zamboni came out (which took an additional ten minutes), and we then sat for five odd minutes after that, before being "allowed" back on the ice.
So 15 minutes of our session was spent waiting in line. 30 minutes was spent watching kids dance. 10 minutes was spent watching the zamboni circle. And five more were spent doing nothing (?) for a grand total of one hour of wasted time. So we spent twelve dollars for the two of us to circle the ice, while trying to avoid getting hit by twelve-year-olds who can't skate but want to show off for their "girlfriends," for exactly one hour. Actually less--because we left fifteen minutes early in anticipation of minivan mayhem outside.
Needless to say, we won't be going back there anytime soon, not on a weekend night, anyway.
Sunday, I had skating practice in the morning. Oh, did my instructor ever kick my butt! First, we did loop jumps. Loop jumps are not a favorite of most rollerskaters, as they involve jumping off the right outside edge and landing on the right outside edge. So there is no assistance from toe stops; no clean little *hop* from one foot to another. It is all up to the motion of the arms, hips, and free leg to make it around for the full revolution, so it tends to be difficult...and scary. At least my knee was well enough for it (although I still can't do jumps off my right toe stop without getting an EEK!AI!OWW!). Jumps are not my forte, but I was doing passably well (for me) on the loop jumps. (Which are probably the hardest jump I know short of axles, which I'm too scared to even try.)
After that, we worked on spins: on low sit spins and upright outer forwards, both of which were going very well for me. I took an additional half-hour of practice after that (as we have free use of half the rink from the hours of eight until noon), and all in all, it was a great practice, and I can't wait for group class on Wednesday.
Next, we drove to IceWorld to register Bobby for his hockey league and stayed for the next public session, which was so much better than the Friday night snafu at Columbia. I am not a strong ice skater, but I do well enough. I know my limits and do not surpass them, as it would be quite embarrassing to spend years doing crazy moves on my rollerskates and performing in shows with no ill results and then break my leg trying to stop backwards on ice skates. So I circle the rink at a modest pace and watch the figure skaters and let Bobby tear around like a crazy fool, spraying ice up on the boards, and think about stories and Elves and whatever. It's quite relaxing.
Today, I set aside for writing and catching up on minor housework. We went out in the early afternoon to Party City to pick up some Halloween decorations. Dumb 'gund couldn't resist buying a pumpkin carving kit because there was this headless horseman design that Bobby and I were ga-ga over, and that he kept saying he knew I could do. Feanorian pride much? (If I post pictures, it turned out well. If not...you know!) We also got Teh Awesome Candy Bowl, with a green hand poking out of it that grabs you when you try to take a piece of candy. Tacky, probably, but I love it and can't resist putting my hand in it whenever I walk by. (Actually, the thing is so sensitive that shadows activate it, so whenever we walk by, the hand flops over and intones, "Happy Halloween" or "Trick or treat" or "Want some candy?" Bobby just walked by, and it asked him, "Want some candy?" The guy came today--finally--to fix the light fixture in our study, and the thing was going so crazy that we had to shut it off.)
Bobby, Teh Grandmaster of Outer Illumination, also had to get a string of pumpkin lights for the balcony. Can you tell we love Halloween? We have also scheduled a Spook Movie Night for Thursday and are going to rent something dumb and purportedly scary. In my heart of hearts, I must be a very cheesy person because my favorite holiday is Halloween, and the cheaper and dumber the thrill, the more apt I am to love it.
And I got a lot done on AMC today. I wanted to reach the New Year feast, and I am just about there. Maitimo went all philosophical on me at the end, so I hid the scissors and let him have his say. Feanaro is being a little creepy. Tyelko and Carni are listening at doors, Nerdanel's distracted, Mai's thinking about getting laid, and Macalaure is strugglin', so it's AMC as usual ;)
I wonder if I'm going to miss it, when it's done? It's hard to say I will because, as soon as I do, I will begin work on one of the preceding or following segments. The Never-ending Story!
Tomorrow is back to work again. I shouldn't complain, but I'm going to anyway: Boo. I wonder what has not been done in my absence.
Until then,
MDFotF