Instead of blathering plausible or far fetched goals I will simply jot down what I did over this past weekend. It’s now Tuesday night so I should write it down now or I’ll forget about what I did. Basically I had a nice full and active weekend.
Friday night was rest but a time for rejoicing because I watched the Yankees season end. In this blog I haven’t posted my thoughts on baseball, but I’m somewhat of a fan. I played little league until 8th grade and as an adult have cheered for various teams from moving around some. Since I’ve been in New York City I picked the Mets as my team. I live and work in Queens, and liked going up to see games. However the past three years the Mets stopped being competitive, so I stopped paying attention. Even so the Yankees irritate me with their always acquiring the best free agents, and thinking it a right to win championships. I also think their quest for championship makes them not loyal to their players. Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui were traded without much fuss or fanfare. I think Derek Jeter should hope his batting average doesn’t dip below .300 at any point in his career. I started to follow that series, and the Texas Rangers are a younger team with some drive, and play good. So that was the start of my weekend to happily watch that game.
Saturday I meant to wake up super early. After turning off my alarm a few times I woke up around 11 or so. After coffee I started my full skate day. I got to Forest Park around noon, and really enjoyed my session. The weekend before I had a cold and did not skate, so this was the first time skating in two weeks. It took me awhile to warm up, but then I felt I did some good things. On the mellow bank I was able to do my switch frontside 360’s well, and I think I’ve learned them with more pop. I am not rotating the whole way, but even with a little pivot it felt great. I also did frontside big spins fast on the bank transfer. I did this before but it still gives me a challenge. Mostly I recognize some of the other skaters there and feel like somewhat of a regular. On facebook I’m a fan of a site that calls itself NY Skateboarding, and through them I learned that there was a contest at the Rockaway Skate Park. I work down there, so I thought it would be cool to check it out. So around two after my nice session I took the bus to the rockaway skate park. I didn’t want to enter it, and I got there they were contesting the mini ramp. I found that ramp hard to skate but people skated it well. I skated part of the park while that was going on, and had fun. I surprised myself with doing a low railslide with some speed. I also ollied over a higher rail that was about knee height. The contest on the big part of the street course and I watched it for about 20 minutes. I was amazed that these kids try handrails like it is nothing. When I was a teen, I really didn’t do much in the way rails, and now it looks crazy.
Saturday night I had dinner with a group of librarians that I’ve known for years now. Our meetings are not a regular as they once were, but I always enjoy catching up with them. We ate at a seafood place near where I live. It’s called London Lennies and they are having their annual crabfest right now. Eating crabs I always get nostalgic for Baltimore. When I was a kid to teenager we went to a place called Ocean Pride in Timonium MD. This place was always a treat. They had wooded tables that they covered with brown paper and they would dump the steamed crab onto the table for a family or group to share. I’m always a big fan of eating, but this was great, and even worth a trip to Baltimore at some point. With that memory in mind I got the bagged crab special at London Lennies. Only one other of my friends ordered this, everyone else ordered regular entrees. We got to the restaurant at 9:30 and I think finished at midnight. The crabs took a long time to eat. But it was delicious and I remembered how to dissect and get all the meat out of the shells. It was also nice to have a longer dinner with my friends, and not get rushed out after a quick meal. I might go back to London Lennies before the crabfest is over.
Sunday morning the alarm went off like a siren. But I remembered I made an appointment at the Flushing Meadows skate park at 11 with a friend I haven’t skated with in awhile. So I showered, left my apartment, and was early enough to have a McDonalds breakfast. I had a sausage biscuit with egg meal with a large coffee. I got to flushing meadows around 11:20. It was not too crowded, but I noticed right away that there were some good skaters. I saw a guy with more of a belly than I do ollieing the 6 steps. Even though I drank the coffee I still felt tired, and my legs were sore. At this world famous park, there are rails, steps, and ledges. But I had some fun on the simple curb. I got a few backside 50-50’s or grinds. The other way frontside is easy for me, but I never got the hang of doing them backside. Once I get the motion I could take them to higher ledges. I got a few, but I also fell and scraped my forearm. I fell again and hurt my shoulder a little bit. So I decided to move on to another object. On the knee high ledge that skaters use as a manual pad I did noseslides easily enough. So I decided to try noseslides to shuv-its. On a few tries I got the basic motion of it. When I tried to commit I came close but I rolled my ankle badly. So less than a half hour into my session I turned my ankle. My friend texted me that he was on his way there and would be later because transit was messed up. The weather was perfect, and I decided I’d wait. I’m glad I did, other skaters saw me rubbing my ankle and I had some conversations. An ice cream truck came along, and I got a hot dog and soda. These days when I go to skate parks I always skate non stop. This was nice to sit and watch for about an hour. I was amazed at the ability of some of the skaters that day. This kid that looked like he was twelve did the 6 step rail with ease. I saw someone try 360 inward heelflips and 360 hardflips. I didn’t think those tricks were even really possible. My friend came and it was cool to see him try to grind down the handrail or ledge. Since I did not skate for an hour or so I felt rested and skated for about an hour taking it really easy. Overall I was there from 11 to 2:30 or so. Today, Tuesday, I’m very sore from this weekend. I think I learned a lesson that if I’m going to skate like that I have to stick with the gym workouts. Conditioning is necessary for that kind of exertion.
Sunday night I had dinner with my sister, which I glad I’m able to do. We ate at a fancy pizza place and then went for cake.
1300 words to describe my weekend which means it had to be good.
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