All week long I've been thinking about last Saturday's uncomfortable day at the rink.  I've decided to take a break from classes there, and try some place new.  I've been looking at Polar Ice Gilbert, which is about 9 miles from my house, the opposite direction from Oceanside.  They also have adult Saturday classes, actually at a better time, 11:30 a.m. as opposed to Oceanside's 9:45 am.  The Director of skating over there said I could come by this Saturday to watch the adult classes, to get an idea of how it is.  I will definitely be doing that.

Who knows, after 5 months at one place, maybe it's time for something new.

So today, Friday, I took personal time off work to relax at home.  It turns out Gilbert has an adult public skating session from noon to 1:30 every Monday and Friday.  So I decided to go today and check it out.  It was wonderful!!  There were 3 of us there...all around the same age...which meant no teenagers and no hockey players.  There was Val, who helped show me where everything is, and there was Melissa, who was practicing to be in an all-adult competition in Cincinatti next month!  Wow.  Very cool.  Such nice ladies, and it was really great to hang out with them out on the ice.  It was really inspirational to me to see other ladies my age interested in skating...and skating so well.  It gave me a lot of encouragement.

I practiced everything I already knew how to do, even that Wall-tz Jump (stay tuned for the day that's not spelled Wall-).  Val was really nice and gave me some tips on transitioning from frontward to backward skating.  I think I practiced that the most, along with just simply skating backwards.  Since there were only 3 of us in that huge rink, there was never a fear of running into anyone.

Also, their ice feels different from Oceanside's.  It feels smoother.  Softer.  It'shard to explain.  It feels more slippery, but in a good way.  Maybe there aren't as many bumps, nicks, or cuts in the ice?  I don't know the reason, but today was exhilerating for me!  I skated about an hour and 15 minutes, and it was over too soon.  I also felt that today I didn't have to take as many breaks to stretch or rest my feet as I normally do.  Not sure why that would be, but I was glad!

Val and Melissa are so lucky, they both work from home and live near the Gilbert rink, so they can take long lunch hours and come skate Monday and Friday.  I'll only be able to do that if there's a holiday from work that day, and the rink is also open on that holiday.  Otherwise, I won't be able to keep taking personal days off work just to skate. :(