Skating Mishap
I went skating tonight, even though it was like -15 out. I wore about twenty eight layers, and it was actually quite fun. I laced my skates well enough that my feet survived, and every time they got too painful, I took a break that actually helped a great deal. It was like, once I restored blood flow to my feet, I felt fabulous!! The downer was that the ice was really bad, so coasting was pretty tricky, with lots of near-trips. There were also tons of people out on the ice, including lots of children.
Then I went back inside to put my boots on, and lo and behold, there was a puddle of hot chocolate in one of them. There was some sort of brownie troop there, and I had seen them passing out a few cups of hot chocolate to a few kids when I was putting on my skates, but I never IMAGINED that it would end so badly for my footwear. I was so upset, I wanted to cry.
These stupid boots have been nothing but trouble. I didn't even want new boots in the first place, but when my old ones gave up the ghost, and stopped being waterproof, there was kind of no choice, as I refuse to walk around all day with wet feet. Ew. They were at least on sale, but I immediately gave myself severe blisters by wearing ankle socks with them, and even now create new blisters every couple of days... plus, they require a great deal more upkeep than my old ones, needing to be sprayed all the time.
I hopped over to my friends, who had wisely stashed their footwear in another part of the room. They were all sad for me, and I ended up using a huge wool sock from Rory to put over my sock, ideally to then put the boot on, but I just couldn't do it. I ended up hopping to his car, which he had illegaly parked in the employee parking lot, and he gave me a ride to my car which was about 4 blocks away.
What a crap-tastic end to a good night of skating!!
It made me really excited to go to Ottawa for Winterlude, though, and finally skate the canal!! Although, I must say, considering I skated about 10 minutes before I needed a break, there is NO WAY we are skating the length of it!!!
So now I am sipping hot chocolate and watching the opera Aida. It is as boring as hell, let me tell you. It's from 1981 (taped then, not written then!!), which was apparently a bad time for the art of opera. Pavarotti is the tenor, with a glorious voice, but as a friend of mine said, he is like the sun on stage - everything else must revolve around him. He is also far to fat to be a Captain of the Guard and war hero. The female lead is also brutal - a glorious voice, but TERRIBLE actress. She's also very huge, and has really flowy costumes to hide this, but ends up waving her arms around constantly so that her costume trails out around her, and seems to call this acting. She also has some sketchy high notes. I mean, sure, they're pianissimo, but if you can't make them good AND quiet, at least make them good!!! The role of her father is played by this man who looks CRAZY!!! He has these huge eyes all the time that make him look like he's going to stab someone at any moment, even when he's talking to his daughter about happy things (for 20 minutes.) Needless to say, I've barely been paying attention. It's definitely one of those operas where you can be doing a lot of other things as well, and still keep up with the plot line, because it's moving at such a glacial pace. I dunno, maybe it's better with better actors, and in person. Maybe.
Then I went back inside to put my boots on, and lo and behold, there was a puddle of hot chocolate in one of them. There was some sort of brownie troop there, and I had seen them passing out a few cups of hot chocolate to a few kids when I was putting on my skates, but I never IMAGINED that it would end so badly for my footwear. I was so upset, I wanted to cry.
These stupid boots have been nothing but trouble. I didn't even want new boots in the first place, but when my old ones gave up the ghost, and stopped being waterproof, there was kind of no choice, as I refuse to walk around all day with wet feet. Ew. They were at least on sale, but I immediately gave myself severe blisters by wearing ankle socks with them, and even now create new blisters every couple of days... plus, they require a great deal more upkeep than my old ones, needing to be sprayed all the time.
I hopped over to my friends, who had wisely stashed their footwear in another part of the room. They were all sad for me, and I ended up using a huge wool sock from Rory to put over my sock, ideally to then put the boot on, but I just couldn't do it. I ended up hopping to his car, which he had illegaly parked in the employee parking lot, and he gave me a ride to my car which was about 4 blocks away.
What a crap-tastic end to a good night of skating!!
It made me really excited to go to Ottawa for Winterlude, though, and finally skate the canal!! Although, I must say, considering I skated about 10 minutes before I needed a break, there is NO WAY we are skating the length of it!!!
So now I am sipping hot chocolate and watching the opera Aida. It is as boring as hell, let me tell you. It's from 1981 (taped then, not written then!!), which was apparently a bad time for the art of opera. Pavarotti is the tenor, with a glorious voice, but as a friend of mine said, he is like the sun on stage - everything else must revolve around him. He is also far to fat to be a Captain of the Guard and war hero. The female lead is also brutal - a glorious voice, but TERRIBLE actress. She's also very huge, and has really flowy costumes to hide this, but ends up waving her arms around constantly so that her costume trails out around her, and seems to call this acting. She also has some sketchy high notes. I mean, sure, they're pianissimo, but if you can't make them good AND quiet, at least make them good!!! The role of her father is played by this man who looks CRAZY!!! He has these huge eyes all the time that make him look like he's going to stab someone at any moment, even when he's talking to his daughter about happy things (for 20 minutes.) Needless to say, I've barely been paying attention. It's definitely one of those operas where you can be doing a lot of other things as well, and still keep up with the plot line, because it's moving at such a glacial pace. I dunno, maybe it's better with better actors, and in person. Maybe.