Skating @ Bryant Park

I love art prints. About 3 years ago I purchased a print of a blond girl (I asked the artist to customize it to blond for me) ice skating in the city. It's very sweet, and I have always imagined myself as that girl on the ice in the city. The print has traveled with me through all of my apartments since and is up above my desk right now. 

I love ice skating, but I really love figure skating.  I have no idea if this is how they are technically different, but for me:  ice skating = skating around with your friends, maybe throwing in a trick or two, figure skating = backward crossovers, edge work, jumps, spins, fancy arms, etc. I was a regular at Peaks Ice Arena in Provo, UT. (LOVE THAT PLACE). Peaks charges $3 for 30 minutes of skate time for figure skating – meaning only people with their own skates who know what they are doing can get on the ice. The NYC rate for this same amount of time is $28. So that's a bit of a markup. It has yet to be in my budget. 

it was a pretty day. 

Fortunately, NYC offers Bryant park, a skating rink in the city that is completely free for people with their own skates. I immediately booked a ticket the minute winter village opened up. I knew I wouldn't get to do much figure skating since it's a public skating rink, but I figured something is better than nothing. 

They have a policy that you can't leave anything unattended while on the ice. You have to either strap it to your back or pay a $15 fee. I debated this – I'm cheap but also HATE skating with anything on my back. I hate running with something on my back. I'm honestly not a huge backpack fan in general. I decided since I was getting the ice time (70 min) free, I would just pay $15 for the bag check. 

I show up on Monday morning, put on my skates, leave my guards in my bag, and take it to bag check. Turns out I was at the wrong window and bag check is in a tent across a concrete path. In case you aren't familiar with figure skates, you can't walk in them on concrete. So I put my guards back on and take my bag to bag check. I place my guards on a rail next to the rink (a very common practice at skating rinks) and go on my way. I'm skating maybe 5 minutes when I get hunted down by a worker at the rink who informs me that I cannot put my guards there. They need to be strapped to my back. I explain that I don't have a backpack because I paid $15 and put my bag in bag check. Also, my guards aren't in my bag, because bag check is across a concrete path. 😐 The lady there (I think she's the manager or whatever) was not working with me in the slightest. She just kept repeating that they had to be on my back. I take my freakin' guards and start to skate away. One of the workers that heard the whole thing comes up to me and says "just put them under a bench". Very kind. Appreciate that. I do. 

Not 5 minutes later, I am approached by another worker who says that I cannot put my guards under the bench, I need to carry them. So that's a safety hazard. If I fall, I would not be able to catch myself. They could also fly out of my hands and hit someone else. Not that I would fall when all I'm allowed to do at the rink is skate forwards and not do any tricks, but still. It's a fair point. He insists that I have to carry them. I go over to my guards, and this broke me. I had been so excited to ice skate again. SO EXCITED. It's something I'd dreamed about since my last skate at Peaks. They wouldn't let me do any tricks, they wouldn't let me skate backward at all, and they wouldn't let me leave my guards unattended. I started crying. I was also PMSing which may have been related. There was honestly a lot of stress going on in my life and I think I had over-valued skating's ability to help. So I'm just standing there next to my blades crying when the same worker who helped me earlier asks if I'm okay. No. I am not. I explain to him that they keep getting mad about my guards. I say I could take off my skates and walk in my socks over to the tent so I can put the guards in bag check and then walk back over and put my skates back on, but this very nice man just takes my guards and hides them behind I door. I really appreciated the kindness. 

I made the most of my skate. The only real thing I could do was forward one-foot slaloms. So I did a ton and really worked my glutes and quads. 

I told the guy that helped me how much I appreciated him and he said "Don't worry, I'm always like that. As long as I'm here, you don't need to worry." WHAT A GEM. We should all be more like him.