At a Toastmaster’s meeting recently one of our members, a woman over sixty, had just returned from Michigan where she had ice skated for the first time.  She said she decided she was going to learn to ice skate.  I told her I was very interested in having an ice skating buddy.  Having grown up on a northern Illinois lake I know how to ice skate and it really is like riding a bike, in that you don’t forget no matter how long it has been. We exchanged numbers but of course I lost it and she doesn’t make every meeting.  We’ll meet up again but in the meantime…

I guess I’m getting to that point in my life where I realize that I’m not getting any younger and that if not now, when?  After skiing in Colorado that weekend with Joe and Tina, I came home with a yearning to live in winter wonderland country.  I relished in the snowstorm that hit while we were skiing, and happily took the ski lift back up in a white-out just to experience that wonderful feeling of wrapping the scarf around your face and bracing through it as you turn into a human snowman in a matter of minutes.

Obviously I’m not moving to Canada or Colorado anytime soon.  I started thinking about the ice skating again.  I made a decision to buy ice skates, so that I wouldn’t be deterred from skating because of the lousy rental skates that pinch your feet in all the wrong place.  I went to the local “ice palace” and was delighted to find it an active place – hockey teams of all levels with local competition trophies and banners, skating lessons for all ages, including adults, and a pro shop that had the cutest ice skating competition costumes you ever saw in your life. The girlie girl in me was just tickled pink.   I was fitted with a pair of skates but unfortunately by the time they were sharpened the public session was about over.

I don’t think I have ever worn a pair of ice skates that were sharpened, so hopefully my assertion that “it’s like riding a bike” will not sound foolish by the end of the week.  While I was waiting for the skates to be sharpened, I got all the info on the adult classes.  No, I am not to old to learn how to skate backwards.  Yes, I can sign up for an eight week adult class on Wednesday nights that happens during public session.  Yes I can learn to do some fancy dancy things if I want to.  I’m not too old.

When I got home I did a google search: skating competitions for seniors.  I don’t really want to compete, but it exists, can you imagine?   I’ll be happy if I can skate backwards, but what if…I can do crossovers?  What if…I can do a little teeny jump?  What if…I could skate anything other than straight ahead?  What if…I could put on my iPod and glide around the ice and pretend…?

Tonight I happened upon Dancing with the Stars on TV.  I have seen this show in the past and don’t follow it, but it dawned on me during only this second week of the show, that these people – like Andy Dick for heaven’s sake – can learn to dance like this in a very intense but short period of time, then maybe I really can learn to skate backwards.

Back in Illinois, my friends and I would fake figure skate, always dreaming for more.   It really never occurred to me until recently that I can put on a pair of skates, take some lessons, and pick up those little girl dreams where I left off.

I’ll keep you posted, but right now I’m seriously thinking it might be prudent to do a google search for those protective hip pads they sell to older folks.