pasithea

So. Yesterday I did some real skateboarding. I tucked my board through the loop of my backpack and bicycled to the train station, then practiced slaloming the handi-cap signposts at the bottom of the ramp. At one point I tried to do a super-fast turn by grabbing the signpost as I went around it and left the sign ringing for about 2 minutes as it wobbled back and forth.

At work at lunchtime I took my first decent-length ride, going over to Terman on campus to get a sandwich. Lotsa different terrain. Concrete, no problem, asphalt, no problem, brick, no problem. Those metal grating pedestrian bridges. BRWAAAAAAAAAAAZT! Man those things are loud. Came back a different way. Basically did alright. At least I remember how to steer and stuff.

After I ate, I finished up some stuff I was working on and started a long job that needed to run and I went out to the parking garage. It's 5 stories and totally empty on the weekend. Booya! On the downside, it's textured concrete and is slick as Hell, so when I went around corners I was getting about THREE FEET of sideways slide when I wasn't crouching much. Pretty awsome. It made terrible noise and I could just see that any second I was going to take the skin off my elbows. Coming down the straightaways, I slalomed the line-divider turtles. I got more confident on this when I discovered I could run over one and stay on the board. (At first I was hitting every other instead of every one) but I got where I was kicking the board and squealing the wheels to dodge back and forth between them on the downhills. Still though, a lotta fear on the whole falling down thing. :)

Soo. After about a half hour in the garage, I called it quits (I was out of water) skated back to my office, finished up work stuff, then called Stacey and asked if I could by some armour. She said yes, so I bicycled back to the train, rode down to the Sunnyvale station, then from there to Fishbank. They had a 'set' of knee, elbow, and wrist-brace for $21 and a helmet for $25 so I got both. (Especially since the cops apparently love to ticket adults at the skate park if they're not wearing gear and the fine is ~$165. (What is it with cops anyhow? People have hobbies, what's the point of hassling them? I mean I know cops hobbies tend to include 'being an asshole' but seriously, they need lives)

Biked home, geared up, then skated to an empty parking lot behind some buildings near the train bridge and practiced for about an hour trying to do an ollie, quick turns, and stuff like that. I did a few fairly-decent wheelies and about three tail slides that made me go, 'Booya!' but nothing real exciting. Spent about an hour there, then skated to 7/11 to get Stacey chocolate as promised, decided it was too expensive there and rode down to Safeway, and got her chocolatey goodness, then skated home (total loop is probably about a mile)

So far I haven't fallen down but man was I sore last night! (Curiously, I feel fine today though) Skating makes me drink a LOT of water (about 4 liters yesterday, and I still felt dehydrated this morning) and it makes me stinky! (Oh glory be the showers!) :) Anyhow, fun though. Rag Doll looks even more goth now that she has scratches down her face. :)