habitually probing generalist

I went to Elizabeth’s (my coworker) rollerskating birthday party last night.  She turns 26 tomorrow, so she is just 4 months older than my son.

Most of the rest of her friends that joined us are about her age; about 30 of us in all I think.  We didn’t exactly take over the skating rink, way too many adolescents for that, but we made a good showing nonetheless.  I think we all got on skates, although a few never actually made it into the rink proper.

I was quite surprised to find out I can still skate almost as well as I used to, except I got sore and tired far more quickly.  Actually, my skating consists in going around the oval at a fairly decent rate with just a bit of bobbing and weaving.  No skating backwards or dancing though.  But then I don’t dance without wheels under my feet.  I have to say I’m very proud, and highly relieved, that I didn’t fall
once, nor did I crash into anyone.  By the end of the evening I was
definitely flexing my knees more to lower my center of gravity to try
and stay somewhat stable, though.

They had races by age group and gender and one of E’s friends asked if we could have a special race for our group.  Only about 8 of us, evenly mixed gender-wise, had the gumption to do it.  I ended up 3rd which ain’t bad seeing as I’m old enough to be, or almost be, the father of most of them.  Karin, one of my other coworkers, who watched, said that while we were racing some little kid said, "I thought they had an age limit to get in here!"  Little brat!

Not something I want to do often, but I enjoyed myself.  Maybe I’ll go again this spring before I try and learn to inline skate.  I had the (probably ridiculous) idea that I should’ve been able to strap on my inline skates this morning and go do a halfway competent job.  Of course, the slight hangover, general achiness, 30 degree weather, and goood sense kept me from doing something so completely foolish.

After skating, some of us went to the Brass Rail, where others met us to continue the birthday festivities.  That review isn’t entirely accurate, but it is close enough (except, the men’s room is far from immaculate).  And who knew we had knife-fight bars, strip clubs (plural), and just what is a fern bar?  I really don’t understand the appeal of cheap bars.  Well, I do.  I guess, for me, it’s sort of like my understanding of public "I read these books lists" or the usefulness of much social software.  I understand on a conceptual level, but not at all on an experiential.

I don’t know if the Brass Rail is the smokiest bar in town or not, but it has to be close.  I drank Guiness in a can.  Well, I did have a glass, but still.  And it cost about 2/3 of what the rest were paying for pitchers.  Ah, youth.  I had a decent time anyway I think. 

I listened to lots of conversations about TV, with much of it about English and Japanese TV shows.  Although slightly more interesting sounding that much of ours, they still sounded completely inane.  Of course, there was lots of talk about games and game systems.  Some movie talk, but few I have seen.  Some grousing about how old they’re getting, but not from Elizabeth.  And then some poor soon-to-be thirty-year-old woman whining about that, but even more so about the "complete lack" of unattached, heterosexual males at GSLIS.  At least she finally clarified that she meant hottie single hetero males.  Luckily I never had that delusion.

I left after 3 beers and stopped at Merry Ann’s Diner for some food on the way home.  A young couple (mid-20s) came in while I was eating and sat in the booth next to mine.  The girl was trying to tell the guy about something she had saw on a "thing" on the side of the road somewhere, but the best she could come up with was "bulletin board."  They spent 2-3 minutes trying to come up with the right word, but just couldn’t.  She whined that she ought to be able to do better beacuse, "I’m a teacher, after all!"  [I'll leave that alone.]  I let them suffer and they moved on fairly quickly to some inane talk about his freshman dating experience.  When I was done and heading up to pay I leaned in to her as I wallked past and said, "Billboard."  They were extremely grateful; evidently they had been drinking too.

I got home about 1:45 aM and immediately took a shower.  I don’t like showering when I’d rather just fall in bed, but it’s certainly is better than sleeping in your own "personal ashtray."  I got up around 10:45 AM and have been lazing the day away. 

So far, my shins and hips are a little sore.  But the real test will be tomorrow as my exercise induced pain usually takes 1 1/2 – 2 days to show up.