My friend Nate and I were listening to some tunes at the office today. He was digging waaaaaaay back into the ol' iPod files, playing all our favs from back in the day.
At one point, he started playing Air Supply. I was instantly transported back to my childhood and the Golden Spike Roller Rink where I spent many a breathless Saturday night wishing for some boy or another to ask me to join him in the Snowball Skate.
I tried to explain the Snowball Skate to Nate. See, all the girls would line up at one end of the rink and all the boys would line up at the other. Then one boy would skate over and ask one girl to skate around the rink with him.
If they were particularly experienced, the boy would skate backwards while holding the girl's hands as they glided around the rink underneath the spinning disco ball. Then someone would blow a whistle and the duo would separate. The boy would go choose another girl to skate and the girl would choose another boy to skate. Repeat and repeat until the sappy song ended.
I told him how my friends and I would bunch together in the corner, holding hands and whispering about which boys we wanted to skate with and which boys we would sooner break our necks than skate with. Inevitably, the Snowball Skate would end and none of us would have been asked to skate by any boy. We would slink off the rink, dejected. Sighing, we'd promise each other that the next time....yes, the very next time....he'll ask.
One day I got asked.
The song that was playing was Air Supply's "All Out of Love" and when he took my hand to skate, I thought I would barf. Then, when he turned around to skate backwards, I nearly passed out. I just kept thinking of how I would absolutely DIE if I fell down and wondering if my hands were too sweaty and then (ohmygodohmygod) freaking out that they would become too sweaty if they weren't already (OHMYGOD) and then....
Tweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!
Someone blew the whistle and I made a beeline for the nearest exit. There was no WAY I was going to go over to that wall and pick another boy to skate with me.
Tonight as I watch Dax playing on the floor with his daddy, I can't help but think about the fact that someday he'll ask a girl to skate or to dance or to take a walk around a moonlit lake. And maybe that girl will be so nervous that she spends every second with him worrying that she's going to upchuck. Or maybe that girl will snub him, saying she'd rather break her neck than skate/dance/walk with him.
And, see? I'll be ready for the day he comes home and says, "I don't think she liked me. She didn't say a word to me and, when I let go of her hand, she wiped it on her pants." Then I can tell him about the first time a cute boy asked me to Snowball Skate.
And I figure he will either be sufficiently confused or bored enough at that point to forget all about that silly girl.