Whoah! Yeah!

"...Kickstart my heart/Hope it never stops..."

I went out with the family to celebrate a relative's birthday in Plainfield, IL. I don't know if you've ever been to Plainfield, Il but let me tell you, all that's there is a plain field! Nothin' to visit but cornfields, dirt bikes extravaganzas, cookie-cutter housing that looks like it's begging to be hit by a tornado just to make things look a ltitle different block-to-block. and the local quickie meth lab where Habib is not welcomed to run the shop but Gunther is!

The activity chosen to commemorate the occasion was the Skate West Skating Rink. Going to the skating rink as an adult is different than going as a kid. I remember going there to skate to songs like "Who Shakes the Best", "Baby Got Back", and the all-time favorite "Mama Said Knock You Out"...you know, clean, wholesome family-oriented music. I remember watching my best friend racing other kids in the speed skating competition, and being just as cut-throat as the rest of the kids when taking the corners. My friend was so vicious he would cut kids off in the corner and cause them to fall down just to get trampled by all the other skaters behind them. One night my friend and I hit the rink and the fast skate came around. I was much to slow with my "Mondoblades" on (they were "Mondo" cuz they weighed like 50 lbs. a piece and went about as fast as a guy who took a "Mondo" hit) so I sat this one out. I'm glad I did. The race starts and the kids are vying for position in the first lap. Come the second lap, my friend cuts off another kid, which he's done plenty of times before. Well, this time, apparently this kid was taught all the virtues of speed skating like control, speed, stride, and cornering...but he wasn't taught the minor convenience of stopping himself! In a hunched over position, this kid, with the crown of his head, went head-first into the purple concrete wall! He collapsed immediately.

Time slowed down at this moment. Everything became surreal. The music faded out in the background. The disco ball turned ever so slowly, and the crowd fell silent. It stayed that way for what felt like an eternity...until I bust out laughing hysterically onto the floor. Everyone turns around in slow motion and looks at me in disbelief.

Once the ambulances left the rink, we found out that the kid had broken his collarbone and wouldn't be able to do much of anything for a while. My friend and I bailed at the sound of that news never to return to that rink...until the next week when we returned to pick up girls.

"Whoah...Yeah...Ba ba ba ba ba baby!"

Currently listening : Dr. Feelgood By Mötley Crüe Release date: By 08 April, 2003