Take Two

Sunday night I walk up to the big building in the back of the community center lugging my giant orange skate bag on my shoulder. I set it down and proceed to help take down 64 long folding tables and stack the 256 chairs in the big hall. Soon we are staring at roughly 3,000 square feet of bare cement littered with gum wrappers, pull tabs and ashes from BINGO. Two women grab big brooms while the rest of us stretch and suit up for exercises. As I throw my sweatshirt into my bag I catch a glimpse of my new wheels, I can’t wait to see how they feel on the glassy cement. We do crunches and squats and something called the kayak and I am so antsy I can’t contain my inner third grader, I start whining “When are we gonna get our skates on?” “I wanna suit up. Let’s go!” and soon enough Sandra D. Molisher looks at me and says “Good job ladies, let’s get our skates on.” I almost squeal with glee and a few on my teammates nod and smile at my Christmas morning attitude.

I described these wheels as the mountain bike I traded my twelve-speed for and on a wood floor that was true but on cement tonight it’s like a ten-speed mountain bike. I am stuck to the floor firmly and adjust my skating to include long strides and all my strength. I no longer have to rein my speed to keep from skidding into the tables folded and stacked at the far end of the room. My legs unfold and I am zooming past my team mates and approaching Punchy Love fast. I try to swerve around her with a flick of my ankle and the new wheels don’t respond. I grab Punchy’s hips from behind to avoid bonking my forehead on her butt. I hear her in front of me say “What the f*ck?” and respond with “It’s me… I love them…. Huff puff they’re sooo grippy!” She says “good” and skates to the side of me. I can’t help but show off now and Punchy is paying attention so I have the perfect opportunity I say “Watch this!” and I sprint taking the corners as tight as I can, I am really flying now and one of the referees gets in front of me, I turn my ankle a little harder this time and lean, again have to reach out in front of me to grab his hips before slamming into him. Five or six more times around the imaginary track and I finally get my swerves and turns figured out.

By the end of practice my legs are sore again, like when I first came out of my fifteen year skating hiatus. It’s a good sore, the kind that tells me I really worked hard. The skin on my feet will make adjustments in my calluses over the next few weeks and by bout time my new wheels will be an extension of me. They are going to keep me safe and help me stay upright. As the grease in my bearings loosen and burn up as I put more hours on them they will get faster and faster. My husband told me when he used to skateboard the first thing he would do after buying new bearings was take them apart and soak them in rubbing alcohol to get all the grease off, when reassembled they are fast as lightning. I don’t have the nerve to mess with my bearings like that – I’ve always been a recommended dosage kinda woman. I really only take two when the bottle says take two and I think I’ll just put the time in on these bearings instead.