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Sometimes my existence is like archaeology, a little.

For example, I have a delicious bookmark tag called "adventur". It's where I stash webpages about events, exhibits, and other things I might like to go ADVENTURING to. This morning I thought I'd clean it out a little and found I had bookmarked the hours for the Millennium Park skating rink.

The thing is...I can't skate. I mean can you imagine? It's not like I've never been on the ice or anything, but I can't even stand up without falling, let alone move around. And nobody thinks it's a good idea for me to learn now, right?

So the question then arises: why the balls did I bookmark it? What was my aim or goal? Do I have friends who need this information? I have no idea. It's like a hieroglyph.

In case you're wondering, however, here it is. IDK. Enjoy.

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They could give you one of those ice-walker things! Terminally embarassing, yet supremely useful.

You mean a stack of overturned buckets which you push around till you learn out of sheer humiliation?

I thought you meant these: http://www.yaktrax.com/
Which is the opposite of skating (but supremely useful!)

I had a pair for a while, but I didn't find them very useful. Nearly impossible to get on or off, and walking on anything OTHER than ice was a perilous proposition at best.

They do require judicious application. I usually carry a plastic grocery bag and take them off once I get to the bus stop, or leave them in the car ... depends on how far I'm going and how bad the ice is. Good boots can be a better solution - I prefer not to change shoes, so this is a lighter-weight solution.

The problem for me was that they weren't exactly easy to take off. Every time I put them on or took them off it was twenty minutes of struggling, and I sliced my hands to hell and back -- but the next size up just fell off my boots. :/

My ambition is never to be in Chicago when those hours would be meaningful. Not only can I not skate, I don't even want to be in place where there is ice.

THIS. Even though I live in a city that is covered with snow all winter, I avoid ice as much as possible. And I would not voluntarily attempt to move about on ice while perched on metal blades :p

Might be a good place to take photos, but please keep off the ice!
(Also, belated congrats on the new job - looks like you're easing in nicely.)

Might be a good place to take photos

It totally is. I was Chicago a couple of Decembers ago and it is neat, especially at night.

Thanks! Trying to ease in, anyway...:)

Open-air ice skating! As an Australian, it seems like magic that it's even possible.

Oe of my ambitions is to do this with my girls: the Rideau Canal Skateway (http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/places-to-visit/rideau-canal-skateway).

Check out the video, it's totally worth it. :)

(We went to the winterludes in 2006, but the weather was so mild that weekend that the ice sculptures melted away and the Rideau Canal was closed to the public. Since then, we have't been able to go again. Ironically the reason we can't go is because IT'S ONLY OPEN IN THE MIDDLE OF SKATING SEASON, when we don't have a single weekend available of skating competitions...)

Edited because of html fail. My brain, it is TIRED.

Edited 2011-10-05 00:49 (UTC)

I skated a bit of it two Februaries ago and it was amazing - and also pointed up just how out of practice as a skater I was! But I do totally recommend it as a thing!

Near here last year (or was it the year before?) they had some sort of wood based outdoor skating rink for Christmas, on the basis that it wasn't viable to expect ice to stay frozen with our usual winter climate.

The punchline being that last winter was the coldest on record and we had snow on the ground for weeks on end...

The thing is...I can't skate. I mean can you imagine? It's not like I've never been on the ice or anything, but I can't even stand up without falling, let alone move around. And nobody thinks it's a good idea for me to learn now, right?

Sam, the only way ANYONE is going to let you even remotely get near a pair of skates (ice or otherwise) is if you wear one of those padded sumo wrestling suits you occasionally see on reality game shows, or enough foam padding that you look like the Michelen Man's long lost brother.

Better go for the padding; I can only too easily see the skates (or something in the environs, or maybe a passing bird flying with its eyes closed) puncturing the inflated sumo suit and rendering it useless.

Ah, yes. The annual Chicago Stay-Puft Ice Capades.

I read this as the "Chicago Stay-Put-capades" at first and I'd just like to say that I think some Stay-Put-capades are an excellent idea.

They could be the opposite of adventurs? For when you and R stay home and have capades.

Didn't you have a bunch of links for people visiting Chicago? Maybe it was a part of that?

That could be it. Usually I tag those differently in delicious, but it might have slipped past me...

I THINK IT'S A GOOD IDEA.

Skating is delightful! And if you go with nice and relatively stable friends, you can cling to the edge for a while, and then when you feel to you can cling to them.

I'm betting you marked it when you were having a bad day - suicidal tendencies... or missing your cast-maker ....

Possibly you were intending to go for a bit of schadenfreude, watching newbie skaters fall down while you laughed on the sidelines? That's peculiar.

I don't get ice-skating. A skate blade is far too narrow an object to expect me to balance on.

Man, whenever I've tried skating it's ended in disaster. I've only ever tried roller skating though. (SAM DO NOT GET ANY IDEAS.)

I'd be interested to try ice skating, because I actually do have good balance, but I will only agree to go in lots of padding and also with my friend who played ice hockey for years and then I will not let go of her the entire time.

I did eventually learn to ride a bike, after all...

In general think it's a great idea for people to continue learning new and exciting things, but you have something of a history of injuring yourself on ice without having blades attached to your person; the addition of a potential weapon seems ill-advised at best.

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