I’m excited that I’m approaching the halfway point in my 50 First Dates. I think it’s a good idea to have a recap of the Rules that I established for myself in the beginning.

The rules for this adventure are pretty simple. The only reason for them is to keep me excited and motivated to continue to #50 and to keep it fun and interesting to write and read about. Rule #1: I’m going to do my best to not repeat the same type of date more than once. Rule #2: The dates must put me pretty well outside my comfort zone in some way and #3: they must be fun.

Though I’ve chosen to step away from dating over the last 3 years, this self-dating thing isn’t and hasn’t been about being mad at men or against dating. It all started as a way for me to become whole on my own after my 24 year marriage blew up. I wanted to get comfortable and excited about experiencing things on my own. I’ve accomplished that. At this point, it’s about putting myself out there and shaking up my very routine single mom life by stepping out on my own to try new things. After all, how much Netflix can a girl watch? Life is short and it should be lived.

Now onto the details of this date. I chose to try out Adult Skate Night at Skate Country . I grew up on roller skates as an 80’s kid in Phoenix. We were ALWAYS on skates. The roller rinks were basically our home on the weekends. Our parents would just drop us off at the rink and go about their errands. We would even get dropped off for the occasional All Night Skate. This BLOWS my mind because we were all between 9 and 11 years old. Rollero was primarily our skating Mecca, but we also liked Great Skate . My growth as a roller skating pro ended at age 10.

We left Phoenix and moved to rural Maine, where I traded my roller skates for ice skates. I would shovel the snow off the lake in front of our house and skate on the bumpy lake ice. I traded ice skates in for rollerblades as an adult. My Ex and I would rollerblade for MILES on Robins Air Force Base. The roads were so smooth and they were so well lit with street lights. We would go out at night and just skate, skate, skate.

Adult Nights at the rink are Tuesday and Thursday nights from 8-10 pm. I was pretty anxious about Adult Night at Skate Country. I’ve been back on roller skates with my Dudes for kid parties and events, and I can move around the rink pretty well, but I’ve never gone to a rink on my own and have never gone to an Adult Night session. I felt a little queasy about it. Adult Night was impressive. I can skate and have stamina, but this crowd could SKATE! People were twirling and whirling around all over the place. They were dancing and flowing. People were teaching each other twirls and moves in the small center rink. It was basically an amazing dance party on skates.

These are moves that I saw a little bit as a roller rink kid in the 80’s, but I never advanced to learning them. It was inspiring and looked like so much fun to skate dance and twirl. I have zero artistry or finesse on skates. I’m more like Apolo Ohno on Short Track. I skated for most of the 2 hour session and I also spent time just watching and admiring the skaters’ skills and pure love of skating. I want some of those moves and some of that freedom and joy.

It looks like Skate Country offers lessons, and I think I want to take some to add some artistic flavor to my power skating. I do a lot of competitive and intense fitness activities. I’ve been wanting to add more expressive physical activities to my menu. This might be one of them! I’ll let you know how the lesson goes!

Thank you for reading! Stay Tuned for Date #25! It’s already scheduled and reserved.