I guess technically I have been a bad Canadian, because neither of my children had set foot on an ice rink until today. I don't know why it had never occurred to me to take them skating. Well, actually I guess I can think of a few reasons:
1. I am not exactly a wonder on ice.
2. Neither child ever hears much about skating, and, thus, this kind of outing has never been requested.
3. Skating feels like a Winter thing to me, and it never really feels like Winter here.
4. Any Californian who actually ever does mention skating, calls it ICE skating, as opposed to just plain old 'skating', which kind of irks me.
As it turns out, it didn't need to occur to me after all, because Clara was invited to a birthday party at an ice rink today. The parties that she goes to these days have about a 50/50 split of parents who drop off their kids and leave, and parents who hang around during the party. I tend to be a dropper offer, since Clara enjoys venturing out alone from time to time, and I don't enjoy chaos all that much (despite that fact that I frequently use Nietzsche's, "One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star" to defend my methods). Trevor and I dropped Clara off, but decided to return a bit early to hit the ice ourselves. I had warned Clara ahead of time that she would fall many times, and that skating could be quite frustrating at first. I needn't have worried. The girl took to the ice with great confidence. It turns out to be a good thing that I waited so long to introduce her to the sport, because she is plenty tall enough to hold onto the boards for support. With every lap, her grip loosened, her steps widened, and her smile grew. I am so proud of her. She wonders now if there are any pop stars who also skate professionally....
The last time I put on skates was over 15 years ago, when I was living in Ottawa. I will never forget the beavertails from those little shacks along the Rideau Canal. It seems crazy that it has been that long...if anyone reading this has skated with me since I was 23, please let me know. The only close call I can think of is sliding around wearing boots on the Lochaber Mines Flowage (er, um, that is - LAKE), attempting to play hockey with shovels and rocks...
I didn't have complete confidence in my ability to teach Trevor how to skate, but I felt that I could at least keep us both vertical- which I did. It was quite a workout for my back to glide on two thin blades while carrying around a 40 pound boy by the armpits. Thankfully, Trevi liked to stop after each lap and run around on the rubber mats.
As we watched the Zamboni work its magic, I began humming the Hockey Night in Canada theme (well, it was more of a duh duh duh duh than a hum), and only wished that we could stop at Tim Horton's for some crullers on the way home. One can dream......
An ice day. A very nice day.
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