Junior High All Over Again

So for Christmas this year, the "biggie" gift the girls got were their roller blades. Yes, yes, I know they're "inline skates" but I refuse to call them that. I don't know why. Guess we pick our battles and that one happens to appeal to me. LOL

Since the day they got their skates (Dec. 28, because that's when they got back from their dad's) we skated every day except for Sunday and Monday (yesterday.) Both were busy days getting back in the swing of things so there just wasn't time for skating. Well, if any of you could ever see me in motion, withOUT wheels, you would realize there's a very good reason my mother didn't name me Grace. Add wheels and you've pretty much got a traveling circus act. I'm comfy on them, but I'm just not graceful. For that matter, it would be hard for ANYone to be graceful on the bumpy surfaces we have to go over before we get to some smoothe places to skate on, but that's beside the point. When I'm out with my girls, I don't care much what I look like. People drive by and smile at us because it's "cute" to see two little girls who've gotten their mama out on wheels with them. So I don't feel self-conscious. No problemo.

Today is Tuesday, which means that after school the girls went to their dad's house for the afternoon. Well, I've decided that skating is a good way for me to be getting some exercise. I enjoy it and it's much better than me thinking of jogging. I ran in high school and it's just too much wear and tear on the joints. But I like skating and it's really hard for me to find something I enjoy doing...exercise-wise. (Give me a good book or my computer and a sofa and I'm easy to please...but it doesn't do much for the body, lol.) So today I got home, messed on the computer a little while and fought of the temptation to skip or at least put off skating and I got up and headed out. I was lookin' gooooood. Pink shirt, brown shorts, knee pads, and a blue helmet. I was a veritable rainbow. Add my fine moves and I'm sure it was a sight to see.

Well, all of this is just background info, so I hope you're still hangin' with me. I'm getting to the point of all this. I got about a block from my house, on very bumpy road, so there is NOTHING smoothe about any move I make. Those little wheels stop dead on a pebble-size bump and that throws my body forward and I look like Bambi on ice. But I do NOT go down...and that's all I care about. Or is it? See...confident mama who's not worried about what people think when she's out skating with her kids...didn't have her kids and apparently that means she didn't have her confidence either...at least not all of it. Because just as I get to that block away from my house and I round the corner, just one house away I see a school bus stopping. Now if it were elementary I wouldn't care, because most of them really don't care if you look like Bambi on ice. But nooooooo. It weren't no elementary bus. Nope, it was *insert some serious scary music* a JUNIOR HIGH bus. Oh dang. My brain begins scrambling for a place to hide. Please don't let the kids see me. They'll think I'm so un-cool! I'm feeling a bit of panic. Then I realize it's too late anyway so I've got to go with acting like I don't even notice the kids getting off the bus, right? Meanwhile my brain is back in junior high mode. It's plotting comebacks to throw at the kids when they make their snide remarks and I'm ready for battle. Only my way of battle, since I'm all grown up, is to not really fight it anyway but to maybe beat them to the punch line. Or say something really smoothe, like "I know...you guys only WISH you were wearing this helmet." Yeah, I'm no cooler than I was in junior high, lol. How can the junior high bus do that to a 37-year-old?? HOW, I ASK YOU!?? HOW!? And that's not the end of this sad tale. As the kids walked away from the bus and began heading home, I heard giggling. I just KNEW it was about me. Seriously. Mean kids. lol

So I finish my skate, got some good exercise, too. As I got back into my drive way I began pulling off the gear and realized just what an important part of my whole ensemble my knee pads were. No, I didn't wipe out. But as I looked down and began to reach for the velcro I realized how nicely they accentuated the gelatinous state of my thighs. Yeah, it was an enlightened moment. Now I've GOT to keep skating...burn away the gelatin. lol Somehow I don't think the two pieces of pizza and the four swiss cake rolls I just ate are going to be overly helpful with that. Hmmm....