I was THAT girl for a second

Back in October, when I was entertaining the notion of joining boot camp, I took a short honeymoon with my sweetie (the first of many, I hope).  I had already emailed Viva to ask about joining boot camp, which was the first step, but hadn't made a commitment to it yet.  Viva recommended that I check out Sin City Skates for my equipment and mentioned that if I couldn't make it down to San Diego, they would help me get the right fit over the telephone. 

We were in Big Bear for an overnight stay when it occurred to us that San Diego wasn't too far out of our way back to Santa Barbara.  OK, it is in the opposite direction of Santa Barbara, but we would have the advantage of being able to skip L.A. on the way south.  That was when I made the first commitment to roller derby by dropping a bunch of money on skates and gear for a sport that I had never tried before.

I should mention that the girls at Sin City Skates are really helpful and it was worth making a trip there, though I've also heard that they are super helpful over the phone as well.

On the way home, we did have to go through L.A., during rush hour no less.  Matt had the brilliant idea of looking for a roller rink where I could try out my new skates while we waited for traffic to thin out a little (by L.A. standards).  We stopped at the Holiday Skate Center in Orange County to acquaint me with my skates.  This was my first time on skates since I was about 13 years old.  I penguin-walked a little, until I started to find my stride.  I felt like I was moving along pretty well until a real roller derby girl passed me.  And passed me again.  She sped by effortlessly, lapping everyone on the rink.  I felt intimidated, impressed, and a little star-struck, even though I have no idea who she was.  All I know is that she was a Rock Star.  I turned to Matt and said "I want to do that!"

Yesterday, I was her for a second.

On Christmas Eve, we drove down to Glendale to do our last-minute shopping for a pair of children's skates since we weren't able to find the right size locally.  We went to the Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale to buy the skates and picked up some extra rink time as well.  There were only about 15-20 people there, and not a single roller girl.  I was instantly one of the best skaters there.  I spent most of the hour and a half practicing steady, controlled crossovers, being careful not to go too crazy since I was skating with people who were less comfortable on skates than I was.  As with all the rinks I've been to in the past few months, the music was pure crap.  I miss the rock and roll (AC/DC, Survivor, Pat Benetar) of the 80's rinks, but I'd be even more content with some 70's funk.  No such luck.  I'm forever going to associate the 2010 Top 40 crap with the year I learned to skate.

Toward the very end of the open skate time, the rink cleared, the little kids left and there were just a few of us.  I no longer had to worry about falling in front of someone who couldn't dart around me.  It was like a parting of the clouds.  I went for it, practicing my crossovers while gathering more and more speed.  I might struggled to keep up with a pace line, but or a second, I was that girl I had seen that the OC rink, the Rock Star Roller Girl, gliding past everyone else on the rink.