The scratch spin saga...

Now, I know that most of you must be bored to tears hearing about my ice skating saga, but seriously, I just can't help it. I love ice skating. Just to describe this obsession, I worked at the ice skating rink all morning long, then I put on some skates and made sure little kids made it to their lessons on time. Then I came home, and Tanner and I got the kids ready for swimming. Jonny went with us. We splashed and played and ate dinner and then came home. Put Tanner to bed. Got the girls cleaned up. Let them play for a little bit and then put them to bed. So, I sat here staring at the computer when I realized that, hey, it was only 8:25. I could still make it to the evening skate session.

So...yes, I grabbed my keys and went BACK to work. Skated for 2 hours. Came home.

But those two hours...you have no idea how wonderful it is to lean into your blade and cut a thin layer of finely ground ice as you take your first lap. The swishing sound as you pull one blade in front of the other and the immense speeds you attain as you round the corners. And then there is that heart stopping moment as you roll onto that lovely spot on your blade and with a quick flip you're suddenly going backwards and your hair gets blown into your face.

None of that compares to what I finally accomplished tonight. My scratch spin. It has been haunting me for almost 3 months. It's relatively simple to learn how to spin. It's just a matter of staying centered, pulling in your blade and standing on the balls of your toes. Voila, you have a spin. But there are all sorts of different spins, and the first real, marketable spin one must learn is the scratch spin. You've all seen it during the Olympics. The skater is going backwards. Their body twists. Then the arms swing around, the leg goes up and as the leg pulls into a triangle so do the arms then everything tightens up and the leg straightens while the spin just keeps getting faster and faster. That's the scratch spin, and I finally managed to pull off THREE successful spins.

My legs are tired. My feet are sore. My arms ache. My back thinks I'm crazy. But, my scratch spin thinks I'm all good.