Whip It

"We deserve better villains." -- Bliss Cavendar

First and foremost, welcome to the New Year ladies & gentlemen! Did you miss me? Did you miss us? Sure you did. You have been gazing intently at facebook waiting ever-impatiently for either Kaka or I to give your lives meaning in this New Year by updating our blog and giving you something to do with yourselves. Either that, or you're bored shitless and you wanna know what's up. Well, are you in for a treat, sir, or ma'am! I am here to tell you the tale of my New Years celebration and to recount my adventures in sickland.

If you'll recall, Kaka helmed the blog all by herself last week. I was curled up under my bed-covers muttering in pain, and moaning with the bubonic plague, or some degree of modern equivalent. My room and I became closely acquainted last week as I tossed and turned holding my blankets, and wishing I still had somebody, anybody, to hold me and make me feel ok again. Stephen made me soup once, it was supposed to be pasta, but it was good soup. Aaron baked me cookies when I was sick. They always tasted like ass, but they sure did make me feel better. This time though, I was all alone. No worries though, because I got to look forward to weekend adventures. I should pause for a moment and thank one person in particular who made my weekend amazing just by being a part of it. Ms. Gina Leonardo is the single most amazing person on earth. Thanks to her, I made plans to do something I've wanted to do for years and never had the time, or gall to do by myself! Roller-skating.

A few weeks back, Gina and I resolved to hang out together and decided that the best idea we could possibly have was to go to Skatedaze, in Omaha, and  go skating. We set the date for january 1st and that week of being bed-ridden was only bearable because I was looking forward to spending time with my friends on Saturday evening and reliving a part of my childhood that I remember with the fondness that most children recall Christmas, or their birthdays, neither of which mattered much to me.

Originally, Gina and I were going to go alone, then it grew to Myself, Gina, Katrina, Chris, Jake, Cameron, Kayce, Corey, Justin and Alexandria. Sadly, as the week progressed, Katrina caught my plague, crossing her and Chris off of the list, which meant that Cameron wouldn't be joining us. kayce had to pull out because of prior obligations with a group of people she used to, wait for it, go skating with. and Alex never got back to me. Finally, on Saturday night, at six o'clock, when we were supposed to have left, Gina, Justin and I met at my apartment, and we left to find something else to do, since everybody had cancelled on us.

After a trip for coffee and a stop-off at the movie theatre to see if there were any good movies, our White Knight, Corey gave me a call, and said he had showed up. I secretly celebrated and we all went to Skatedaze to have adventures. It was great. I fell on my ass repeatedly. I held hands with Gina, and watch Corey play DDR. I drank an ICEE, and felt awkward in a building full of 12 year-olds. This is easily the best $11 I could have possible spent, ever. It was a fantastic idea. At first, I was terrified that my skating skills would be tragically lacking. As time went on though, Gina and I picked it up pretty quick. Corey had a head-start on us, and Justin wins the awesome award for the evening because he jumped WAY out of his comfort zone.

All in all, I've never had a better time with a group of friends. It was light-hearted, and childish. It was truly innocent fun, the kind that I don't get to have very often. I've decided to make this a monthly activity, and I thoroughly encourage ANY of my friends to come and join me. Skating used to be the weekend activity I enjoyed the most. It's frivolous and whimsical. It used to mark the beginning of summer, and the middle of the weekend. My first experience holding hands with a boy I liked was at Skateland. Even recounting something so stupid and silly makes me giggled inside.

So, to Gina, thank you for suggesting we get together and have an adventure together.

To Mr. Corey Stone, thank you for not bailing and for getting us to come in the end.

And finally, to Justin, well, you know how I feel, we've talked about it already. Thank you for being pretty bomb.