So, I had my first skating lesson. The little old lady that helps me is super cool. She's from Texas, the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but I don't hold that against her. Under her tutelage, I hope to become a strong enough skater to join a beginners hockey league. I can go forward. I can scooch backwards a bit. I am actually getting faster going forward too, but I have a small problem. I'm sure you already know. Stopping. Haha! I haven't quite mastered how to stop without using my face or the boards. She's trying to teach me how to do the one foot plow thing, and the two foot plow thing. Apparently, my right foot is completely retarded. My left foot isn't much better, but at least it does what I want it to do for the most part. It's been way exciting getting out on the ice and seeing the small improvements. I have been skating at UAA and it's been super great. Not too many people, and the people out there are super cool and supportive. They don't get crazy on me when I say "Watch out! I can't steer!" Every once in awhile, one of the figure skating coaches will remind me to bend my knees, or push my foot out and plow. Even the old guy that does hockey skate drills gives me encouragement, so it's kind of fun. My last time out he said in passing "You're getting it!" Made me smile!
I have been there enough times, they are starting to recognize my face I guess. The girls that figure skate are fun to watch. I enjoy watching them as I take a "foot break." I also don't like to be in their way while they go through their routines. It's public skate so I don't have to sit out, but I choose to so that I can take a break as well as enjoy watching the more graceful skaters do their thing. Watching the skaters also gives me time to watch how they move so that I can apply some of what they're doing while I go out again. Clearly, there are some differences between hockey skating and figure skating, but the basic principles are the same. Balance. They make it look easy, but they have been doing it a long time. I watch the older gentleman while he does hockey drills and I try and do my own remedial version of them. I even got the courage to skate across the rink through the middle without the safety of the walls. I also find myself skating around further and further from the wall.
Towards the end of the session on Saturday when I was the only one on the ice, I made an effort to do a drill where I skated around certain points of the ice and did turns. Each pass, I tried to make the pass tighter and tighter. I'm sure that is where crossovers will come in handy. I made one feeble attempt at a crossover, but I was clearly not ready for it yet. It felt good to be moving on the ice like that and to be cutting in and out of my marks. I almost felt confident! Haha!
I worked up a decent sweat and enjoyed my walk back to the bus. It was a beautiful day to be out and though I didn't see any wildlife other than a few bugs and one pretty cool bird (I need to learn what kind of birds they were), it was still very lovely. Because of the rain the last few weeks, everything is green and more and more wildflowers are springing up everywhere! I just love that I can walk places on these paved trails or unpaved and it's wooded and gorgeous! Usually, you see plenty of moose out and it's always exciting to come across them, at a safe distance that is!
After my skating lesson on Friday night as I was prepping to head out to my bus, my friends Mark and Devin hit me up about going to see the Green Lantern. I was down, so Mark came and picked me up from the rink. It was fun to hang out with the boys. It ended up being me and about seven boys! Sheesh! Lucky me right???? Haha! Sadly, the only one of interest has a girlfriend. Oh well...
Mark was a bit hungry and wanted to hit up someplace for food. We ended up at Burger King...yeah, he likes fast food, but it was either that or McDonalds, so I voted for BK. He drove us down to the Port and we ate and chatted until after two or three in the morning. We saw it get dark, then start to get lighter. Technically, the sun sets around eleven-ish, but it doesn't really get "dark" until around one or so, then around two or three, it starts getting light again, and the official sun rise is something around four-ish. It still fascinates me how light it is at these hours of night.
I have been there enough times, they are starting to recognize my face I guess. The girls that figure skate are fun to watch. I enjoy watching them as I take a "foot break." I also don't like to be in their way while they go through their routines. It's public skate so I don't have to sit out, but I choose to so that I can take a break as well as enjoy watching the more graceful skaters do their thing. Watching the skaters also gives me time to watch how they move so that I can apply some of what they're doing while I go out again. Clearly, there are some differences between hockey skating and figure skating, but the basic principles are the same. Balance. They make it look easy, but they have been doing it a long time. I watch the older gentleman while he does hockey drills and I try and do my own remedial version of them. I even got the courage to skate across the rink through the middle without the safety of the walls. I also find myself skating around further and further from the wall.
Towards the end of the session on Saturday when I was the only one on the ice, I made an effort to do a drill where I skated around certain points of the ice and did turns. Each pass, I tried to make the pass tighter and tighter. I'm sure that is where crossovers will come in handy. I made one feeble attempt at a crossover, but I was clearly not ready for it yet. It felt good to be moving on the ice like that and to be cutting in and out of my marks. I almost felt confident! Haha!
I worked up a decent sweat and enjoyed my walk back to the bus. It was a beautiful day to be out and though I didn't see any wildlife other than a few bugs and one pretty cool bird (I need to learn what kind of birds they were), it was still very lovely. Because of the rain the last few weeks, everything is green and more and more wildflowers are springing up everywhere! I just love that I can walk places on these paved trails or unpaved and it's wooded and gorgeous! Usually, you see plenty of moose out and it's always exciting to come across them, at a safe distance that is!
After my skating lesson on Friday night as I was prepping to head out to my bus, my friends Mark and Devin hit me up about going to see the Green Lantern. I was down, so Mark came and picked me up from the rink. It was fun to hang out with the boys. It ended up being me and about seven boys! Sheesh! Lucky me right???? Haha! Sadly, the only one of interest has a girlfriend. Oh well...
Mark was a bit hungry and wanted to hit up someplace for food. We ended up at Burger King...yeah, he likes fast food, but it was either that or McDonalds, so I voted for BK. He drove us down to the Port and we ate and chatted until after two or three in the morning. We saw it get dark, then start to get lighter. Technically, the sun sets around eleven-ish, but it doesn't really get "dark" until around one or so, then around two or three, it starts getting light again, and the official sun rise is something around four-ish. It still fascinates me how light it is at these hours of night.
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| This is what it looked like around midnight-ish, one o'clock when we arrived. |
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| This is what the light was like around 245 - 3ish or so. Pretty wicked right? I think this is when it was starting to light up again. |
