Sunday, January 14, 2007

Rollin' with my homies*

I know you're probably all anxious to hear about my exciting roller skating adventures, but first, I have a little housekeeping matter to grumble about a bit. Could someone please tell me how all the rest of you with Blogger accounts managed to switch over to the new version with seemingly no issue at all, but when I finally sucked it up and made the change myself, Blogger decided to turn half of your comments into "Anonymous" ones? We all know I fear change, so I ignored all those "Come on over to the new version! It's a party! All the cool people are here, and we're serving up drinks and snacks!" messages and stuck to the old version for weeks. I finally figure it's safe to hop over, and Blogger does me wrong like that? I am not pleased.

If anyone has any tips as to what I might have done to create this small yet annoying conundrum, please do fill me in. I suspect that it is not my fault, but given my lapses in tech savviness of late, I cannot be too sure. Case in point? I finally got on the ball and got myself a Bloglines account today (you know--so I can keep better track of all the clever and interesting things you're all saying in presumably a more timely manner). I managed to get all my favorite folks in my list, despite having no idea which feed to pick when presented with three or more similar options (RSS? Atom? What the hell is the difference, I ask? I went with the very scientific method of choosing the one with the largest number of existing subscribers, because, you know, when in doubt, mob mentality's the way to go). But when I went to log in again later, I actually sat in front of my computer, mind-blank, thinking, "What was that site again?" People, I forgot the word "Bloglines." There is no hope for me.

So now I am cranky and more annoyed than I should be (perspective is not always a strong suit of mine either, it seems), but luckily I know how to lift myself out of that annoyance, and that is by talking about roller skating. As I told a few people last week, I have not been roller skating in at least 13 years (and probably have been only two times total in the last 20 years), but yet, I was ridiculously excited about my Friday night plans, because I was operating on the theory that roller skating always = fun, no matter what the age or year or situation.

Friends, I am happy to report that my theory held true. I can't speak for any of my companions, but I know that I had a blast. There was skating, yes (in the same tan skates with brown laces and orange wheels and stoppers that I grew up with at Big Wheel Skate Center in Sheboygan**). But in addition to the skating, there was Skee-Ball and Pop-a-Shot with tickets redeemable for prizes. There was also a snack counter with nachos and slushies and a DJ propped up in a high, carpeted-wall booth. There was even a Chicken-lays-an-egg machine, the likes of which I haven't seen since the days my sisters and I traipsed to the ABC Grocer near my grandma's house on weekends when my parents were away. In short, I was on nostalgia overload, and I loved every minute of it.

I am happy to report that I did not fall once. I am less happy to report that the aforementioned DJ did not play Beat it, nor did he play the Ghostbusters theme or that other song -R- was pulling for last week. In other words, the music pretty much sucked ("Old School and Funk" apparently means heavy on the "Funk," not-so-much on the "Old School"). In addition, there were creepy loner guys a-plenty, so for any of you hoping I'd find an interesting couple-skate partner, I have to disappoint you by saying that I pretty much avoided eye contact with all single-looking men on the floor. In an e-mail last week, The Magical Boy warned me that if I see any slightly burly and shady-looking blond women, I should get the hell out of there. I'll have to tell him that wife-beater-wearing, slicked-back-hair-sporting guys were a much bigger concern for me, but I avoided them nonetheless. Frankly, creepy, greasy guys are actually a pretty familiar aspect of roller skating that I'd somehow all but forgotten about, so I'll chalk that up to nostalgia as well and take no bad memories from it nonetheless.

Anyway, you asked for photos, and I do aim to please, so here are a few pictures from the evening...

Here -R- and I are, getting ready to hit the rink...

R and me

And here's -R- and the Incredible H, looking adorable as usual...

R and H

Incidentally, -H- has a real name, and it does not even start with the letter "H," and yet, I cannot help calling him "H" in person nonetheless. It's a drawback of web aliases, I have to say. He'll just have to deal with it, I think.

Here are some of my friends skating, proving that roller skating really is like riding a bicycle, i.e., you never quite forget how to do it...

Jamie and Lisa

Ryan

Go Carrie

I got very few pictures of myself in action, what with being in control of only my own camera and all. I have to say I'm impressed I didn't drop and roll over the damn thing, pulling it out of my pocket repeatedly throughout the night. In any case, here are my feet on skates, the only photo-evidence I have of my being out there and upright on the rink.

my feet

Here I am playing Skee-Ball, however, in case that's a consolation of any sort.

Skee-ball... check out that form

This is apparently the face I make when I'm disturbed that the newfangled balls are made of plastic instead of wood.

Plastic? WTF?

And this is the face I make when I retrieve my tickets from the machine after a reasonably admirable showing in the game.

Tickets!

My ticket-gaining was nothing, however, in comparison to Lisa and Ryan's efforts at Pop-a-Shot...



They took home a Whoopie Cushion and several stickers and temporary tattoos. I traded my tickets for a blue, irridescent dinosaur who's currently monitoring my, er, monitor...

Grrrr

...as well as a shiny ring that was, unfortunately, so uncomfortable that I've already misplaced the damn thing somehow. It matched the one Jamie cashed in her tickets for, however, so we had a "Wonder Twin Powers Activate" moment to commemorate the whole event:

Wonder Twin Powers, Activate

-R- and -H- are Wonder Twins as well, though they went the less girly and shiny route and chose creepy black spider rings instead. (I didn't get a close-up, so you'll just have to trust me on the details in both cases.)

Spidey powers, activate

And that about wraps things up, I think. I hope your weekend involved bad oldies and plastic spiders and chicken vending machines as well, but if you weren't so lucky, I hope you had a fine time nonetheless.

Group


_______________________________

* I know, I know: that subject line was cheap and predictable, but what would you have titled this one? "Roll with it, baby"? "Roll on"? "On a Roll"? Frankly, this is just one of those times where the cliched and predictable subject lines are the only ones coming to mind.

** I mean same as in same style, but frankly, they were quite likely the same exact skates that have been on the shelves since 1984 as well, given the amount of wear the poor skates showed.


14 comments:

-R- said...

I would like to point out that in the picture of H and me sitting down, you captured Red Hat (the guy who we think was hired to do crazy tricks and get everyone at the rink excited about skating) and one of the three blonde ladies who had choreographed skating routines. There were some serious pros at the rink.

It was really fun! Thanks for inviting us.

steve said...

Excellent post! Dig the pictures and the rollerskating - looks like fun.

As for the "anonymous" problem - you've tried republishing, right? Yours is not the only blog I've seen with that problem.

Mair said...

BWAH! Monitoring your monitor. That really gets me.

Stefanie said...

R--Oh my gosh, you are right! How did I not even notice those folks in that pic? They did have some serious skillz-with-a-z. I wanted to incorporate a description of Red Hat's horizontal skating maneuver into this post, but without a photo, I guess I figured there was no point. No one would believe me or really grasp the wonder of it.

Steve--How do I republish in the new Blogger interface?? I don't see a Republish button anywhere anymore... You have gotten my hopes up that this problem may actually be fixable, so clue me in if you've got more info, OK?

Malia--Glad to amuse. I know how you like cheesy wordplay. :-)

L Sass said...

That is amazing! I wonder if there is any where to roller skate in NYC besides the Roxy... I should definitely check that out!

Anonymous said...

Please tell me the DJ at least played "Whip It"! That was totally my roller skating song. I love love love the pictures and it positively kills me that I couldn't go. Must now go research the roller skating situation here in Philly....

lizgwiz said...

I was never a very good roller skater--possibly because there wasn't one in my town when I was young, and we only went once a year with our Girl Scout troop to the neighboring town's rink. Or possibly it was because our skates didn't have groovy orange wheels. That might have made all the difference!

Jasclo said...

Glad it was a success! Those photos almost make me want to stop by the old skating rink when I visit my family this weekend. Almost.

metalia said...

Aw! Looks like you guys had so much fun! So you mean to tell me there was no couples skate to "Every Rose Has Its Thorn?" Because I don't know if it's an official roller skating outing without that...

Stefanie said...

L Sass--Oh, there HAS to be one somewhere, right? Good luck with the search!

GG--No! No "Whip it," either! Seriously, "old school" did not mean to that guy what it apparently means to the rest of us. It was one of the few really disappointing parts of the evening.

Liz--No groovy orange wheels? I thought those were standard! Oh, and I didn't have a roller rink in my town either (we didn't have much of ANYTHING in my town), but there was a bus once a month that we could take from our city hall to the rink in Sheboygan (about 20 miles away), so I must have done that pretty often.

Michelle--(Is that you, Jasclo?) You should definitely hit a rink. But maybe with friends. The loner folks there were a little odd. :-)

Metalia--I believe we've just found the generational divide between us. By the time "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" came out, I wasn't sporting roller skates too often anymore. Funny how we all have our songs we associate with skating, though.

Anonymous said...

You got me with a DJ propped up in a high, carpeted-wall booth. That is so true, but why?

And is this new version of Blogger the reason why whenever I want to comment on a Blogger blog, I have to enter in my name and webpage every. Single. Time.

Switch to TypePad, people. This is all I'm saying.

Stefanie said...

Aw, man. Another reason to be annoyed with the supposedly new and improved Blogger?? I'm sorry. If there were an "Undo" button, I would click it.

Unknown said...

But the thing with the switching, since I have been considering it, is that I know I would go crazy trying to figure out how to transfer all my posts from blogger into the type pad or any other I pick.

Stefanie, I have not given into switching for that very same reason.

Also, it looks like you guys had a blast! I haven't been roller skating for over 20 yrs not easily.

Paisley said...

Oh, the carpet! The CARPET!

It looks like fun! :)

After my rehearsal dinner we all went out to an arcade and had a fabulous time whooping it up. Everyone pitched in their tickets and bought us a ladybug night light.

yay!