ice block mipmup.

having only ice skated (maybe) twice before, i was ready for an adventure with our six-year-old niece, my better half's goddaughter. all she wanted for christmas was a "skate day" with me (see gift cert i made above). which is kinda funny considering my husband is her ninong. she "allowed" him to come along. he's a much better skater than me, so i was relieved. i figured it'd be pretty easy and fun.

it was both of those things and oh so much more. we had been skating for about an hour and i was feeling confident. practicing ma moves, even going backward. we had just picked up our niece for the 25th time and it happened. some kid, who i need to kill later, fell into me while my back was turned and i fell square on my tailbone.

sure, i had fallen skating before. how could i forget that knee problem that still haunts me? but this was absolutely excruciating. i did get up mainly so that i didn't completely embarrass myself, secretly hoping that i would be fine. but i wasn't. my ears starting ringing and the entire ice rink felt like it was way far away in an echo chamber somewhere. i started to get tunnel vision and everything began to go dark. i told my better half that i was going to faint. i felt nauseated. i heard my better half tell me not to faint. he skated away while i stood with my now-traumatized niece and told her i would be ok. he came back with the ice skater helper guy we had made fun of about 10 minutes before this (nice karma).

he pulled me off the ice and i sat down, now extraordinarily hot. i put my head down because i heard that's what you were supposed to do when you were about to faint. things started to come back, but i felt out of breath. it was hard to talk. sat there for maybe five minutes and it passed. got up, took our two complimentary, come-back-don't-be-afraid-of-the-ice-even-though-it-hurts-you-sometimes passes the guy gave us and went to eat.

i figured i either was going to faint or i was in shock from the injury. my tailbone is ok today, but i still walk "like e.t" according to my husband. think i may have sprained my wrist, too, but it seems to be much better today. my new nickname around the house is "ice block mipmup."

so the lesson in all of this? yes, skate days are fun and sometimes, easy. but they can also almost kill you. i think i taught my niece well.