It seemed like a good idea at the time, but the fact that my friend had to help me out of my office chair this morning because my tailbone hurts so badly suggests otherwise. Today is my birthday and I am suddenly feeling every bit of my 31 years.

You know what, though? Our afternoon at Skate Daze was totally worth all of the bruises, rug burns, and sprains that we acquired.

It was such a nostalgia trip visiting this place. While it was my first Skate Daze experience, it reminded me so much of this place back home, Roller Kingdom, that was popular for birthday parties and school outings growing up. It had all things I loved most about my Roller Kingdom days: the bright lights, neon print rugs, cheap pizza, and the DJ playing old school pop songs…and then when the music stopped having to rush and claim a spot in a numbered corner and hoping they didn’t call your number forcing you to exit the rink. Ahhh, memories… 

We grabbed our rental skates and snagged a rink side table to set up shop. We laced ourselves in and uncoordinatedly made our way onto the skate floor. I was feeling confident on my first few loops and thought to myself “this is like riding a bike – it’s coming back to me!” Lies, all lies. As soon as one child cut in front of me causing me to quickly dodge him, I lost all control, skated right into the carpeted edge and face planted. Ouch.

Ain’t nothing but a thing – onto round 2! I had a good second run; I was feeling the beat of the 90’s pop songs, skating alongside my friends while managing to pose for action shots, and waving to our other friend who was in charge of the video footage. Good times. Until they had all skaters change direction on the rink.

Clearly, I am much more skilled at skating clockwise because as soon as we had to reverse directions my feet flew out from under me and my butt hit the ground…hard. Like so hard the referee came over to check on me. Ugh. This wasn’t a “that will hurt later” fall either, it was an “oh no, I think I broke my butt” type fall. I played it cool and did another loop before hanging up the skates for the day.

Injury aside, this was such a fun day! Maybe next time we will go on a Tuesday when it’s Adult Retro night – less chances of small children causing me to wipe out 😉

skatedaze.com/

-Leah