his birthday

He's 26 now, which means he's once again officially 2 years older than me. This makes me feel deliciously young and naughty to be with a man so old. But of course that's just silliness.

In celebration of my husband's birthday, I got together all 5 of our friends here in Pittsburgh aka all 5 of the people we know in Pittsburgh - and we went out for dinner and drinks followed by ROLLER SKATING. I put it in caps in hopes that that will help you experience the same amount of anxiety I do when reading, thinking, or hearing those words.

ROLLER SKATING.

If it hadn't been for the fact that it took us an unexpected 40 minutes to get to the roller rink after drinking (and eating), I might actually have maintained the buzz I'd so carefully cultivated in hopes of diving on to the floor under the disco ball and having some miraculous epiphany that would allow me to glide effortlessly across the wood floor.

Sadly, we got there later than we'd hoped due, in large part, to the fact that this roller rink was out in a weird part of Pittsburgh. It was as though we'd wandered into the Twilight zone... or an "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" episode. We turned a corner, and all of sudden we were in the 1950's. When we got there we found out that the roller rink had just celebrated its 60th anniversary... in 1998.

And just so you know, despite the fact that skating terrifies me, I had to make a significant effort to plan this out because it just so happens that two of our friends have freakishly large feet and I needed to call in advance to find out if they could even provide size 14 and 15 skates.

In the process of speaking with the nice man on the phone, I found out that Tuesday night - Greg's birthday - was their Adult skate. At first that sounded a little risque to me, but I decided to inquire further. "Waltzes" and "Organ Music" were his answers. I warned our friends, but they were all intrigued, so we planned to arrive for the "Adult Skate" at 9:00 p.m., an hour into the session that would last till 11:00 p.m.

We walked in the door and knew we'd fallen deeper into the rabbit hole than we'd originally thought.

The Rink was far less than crowded, but it was moving along briskly regardless. There were about 20 senior citizens circling the rink on skates.... dancing.

The women were wearing skirts shorter than any skirt should ever be, and the men were escorting them around and around. They went forwards and backwards, they spun in circles, they did kicks, toe touches, quick foot work and more, and they were older than most of our grand parents.

We stood dumbfounded for several minutes. Even after renting our skates - we felt like trespassers on some sacred evening. "Hoodlums" as one of my friends termed us.


One couple in our group went out onto the floor during the next "Couple's Skate", and the guy ended up falling a couple of times. They got yelled at by one very scandalized elderly skater in a blue one piece dress that ended about an inch below belt height.

You might be wondering why we would go rollerskating and risk such a thing as an "Adult skate" in an "Are you afraid of the Dark?" part of town. The answer is because my husband is an accomplished roller skater and that was his birthday present. Snazzy new roller skates with a set of indoor and a set of out door wheels. The day he got them he went around the block once, but claims he almost died on one of the hills. Ever since, he's been dying to try them on a nice flat rink - so I sucked it up and made it happen.


Greg was having a great time, circling around all of the rest of us, doing great forwards and pretty darn well backwards. I hobbled back and forth along the bench a few times squeaking whenever I lost my balance (Involuntary), clutched to Greg for a single (10 minute) lap of the rink and then sat back down to enjoy the show.

That didn't last long, when - for the first time - the chasm was crossed and I was invited for a skate around the rink with Ed. I warned him that I was awful. I warned him that I might fall. He wasn't having it and quietly offerred again, "Wanna skate?"

So I skated.

I think Greg was jealous.

Although, I wasn't the only one of us that Ed asked to escort around the dance floor!


What a player!

By the end, we were even getting tips on how to do some tricks. This guy was skating circles around everyone, including Greg.


He even gave us the low down on all the other skaters - most of them were professional roller skaters in their day, in shows and competitions. This was the one night a week they could keep doing what they love.

And at 11:00 p.m. on the dot, the carriage turned into a pumpkin, we handed our rentals back and headed out into the night, away from the eerie turned delightful experience.