Twirl-arina. Mmm, not quite yet.

You probably couldn't tell just by looking at me.
Even people who've known me for years may never have been able to guess, ascertain or even intuit. Except my mom, that is, since she has the special God-given powers of 'knowing' me.
The guy I rented the hybrids from probably couldn't tell either.
But, you can ask the ice...

I'M A SKATER!!! I SKATE!! (said in the voice of Bill Murray's character, Bob Wiley, taken from the scene where he's strapped to the mast of the sailboat)

Yes, folks, it's true... after 33 years of living in rink-less, frozen pond-less areas of California, the inner ice skater in me finally emerged today at the Joy Burns Ice Arena at Denver University. I held that railing like it was going out of style as toddlers whizzed past me, carving ice onto my pant cuff. Humiliated? Not even for one second!! After going 'round a few times, I even approached this, pardon the expression, bad-ass hockey chick and asked her for some tips.

"So, today's my first day out here on the ice,' I said cool-ly, 'and, uh, I'm thinkin' I should probably practice falling. So, what do you think is the best way?"
She looked around and then straight into my eyes with an intensity that only people on 'the ice' can really share.
"You know, the trick is, just don't tense up-- JUST DON'T TENSE UP! Man, snowboarders you know? If they don't, like, clench their fists as their falling... they like break their wrists and stuff, like all the time. So, just, if you're gonna fall, just clench your wrists and just go with it, ya know?"
"Yep, okay, just go with it. Okay."

What else do you do with such awesome free advice like that? Continue to skate next to the railing and then grab on for dear life before you have to clench your fist and just 'go with it'!! That's right folks, I didn't fall today, not even once!! I probably will tomorrow, though, if I get up enough chutzpah.

So, I skated for an hour. Most of that time I actually practiced stops, swizzles (which were really more like swoozles since I haven't had any lessons and just read about them on some beginner's site I found off of Google), turns and glides. Half of the time I practiced these things NOT TOUCHING THE RAIL!! I'M AWESOME!!!

So, needless to say, I was on a major high at the end of the public skate sesh. So high, I told my roommate at lunch (consumed a lamb gyro in about 5 seconds flat after that hard core workout), that I needed to go out and buy my own skates RIGHT THEN. She complied, being on the same high herself and needing her own pair of pretty skates, and we drove over to the nearest Play It Again to try some on. They had a perfect pair in my size for a super good price, but Christine wasn't convinced, so we went on over to the 'best' skating shop in Denver, where they had no skates in stock, but gave us a complete education on each brand and type of skate, blade, etc and tried to get us to order their least expensive which prices skyrocketed out of our budgets. So, armed with lots o' information, we drove right on back to the first store and bought us the cheapo ones. Good brand, lesser model. Maybe in a couple of weeks when I'm doing spins and flips I'll invest in the more expensive ones, but, for now, my beautiful, new white Jackson Glaciers are all I need to get out there, clench my fists and 'go with it'!

I totally took photos, too, of me on the ice-- well, one photo was taken of my by Christine-- and of my new skates, but I can't find the cord that connects my camera to my computer for uploading. BOOOOOO!! You'll just have to take my word for it: I'm a skater.