So part of my unofficial duty as a Dad is to ensure that my family gets new experiences, explore new possibilities and the like. Even though I talked about it from time to time, we decided to go ice skating. We had attempted to go once before, but that time the rink was closed off to practice or meets or something or another, so we did miniature golf instead, which is hardly the same thing. And then last Friday, a last minute peek at the rink schedule showed that every Friday was open for public skate - except the current Friday. But Sunday was looking good, the rink in Kirkland was open, which was a hell of a lot closer than the other rinks. And this was a ice skating rink, not a roller rink in Everett that we tried to substitute but ended up not finding.
So on Sunday, we paid 31 bucks (more expensive than my basic math had estimated) and got everyone in skates. Alex went with his Mommy and I took Zoe, and it took seriously less than 2 minutes for her to start panicking and crying. She told me she was afraid and didn't want to skate anymore. Of course, I was trying to keep her calm and focused on the other kids who were seemingly have effortless fun, but she was too focused on the fear to even give it a chance. She wouldn't even budge with me to get off the ice. Seriously took us five minutes to move a few feet to the next exit off the ice, and she had simply given up. I thought, well, that's that. So much for skating. It took my wife and Alex about 20 minutes to go around the rink once, grip by grip along the wall, but when they made it back I was happy to trade off. Alex was a little more ambitious, despite falling a number of times - he was game for more. At first I was holding the wall too, because I had only skated maybe twice in the rink that I remember, maybe just once even. Anyhow, we inched we way along the wall too, with me catching him numerous times before he hit the ground. I liked it when he said, "Thank you for holding my hand, Daddy" after a near-spill.
Anyhow, after a while I got the hang of it, realizing that the wall was a crutch and really, you need to just convince yourself that falling isn't that bad. You just gotta go for it and push ahead. So I got relatively good at it for a newbie, so I was able to hold both Alex's hands and skate slowly. Zoe garnered up her courage and she went on the ice again, and she had a ball. I catered to her princess aspirations and hummed a ballet type song, and she just had fun. She fell once and I came tumbling after, and to avoid slicing off some fingers I had to fling myself over her and land on my knee. But we laughed it off and went on. It was really a nice time, one of those moments that I want to store in my memory for a long, long time.
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So work's been work, and drama mounts, gets boring, and mounts again. Well, today out of the blue, I was taunted good naturedly about my work ethic. I was always doing something, either sorting or cleaning or doing something that was related to my department. They compared me to another worker, who did the same thing except she really did a lot of odd things that weren't in her department, mostly just to ward off boredom and keep busy. Anyhow, these guys like to talk and joke around about women and sex, and also they like to text message. Pretty stupid things. Now anyone who knows me knows that I like to joke about sex, but not necessarily brag about it or be rude about it, which is what my co-workers do. They do it within a lot of people's earshot, and they talk about conquests and stupid shit. I generally stay out of it because I don't want to be associated with a sexual harassment lawsuit, but also because I do find it a bit degrading.
Point is, I kinda had the last laugh because my new boss came up to me and asked if I wanted to join the company as a full time employee, instead of a contractor. She said that she's seen me working hard, so she'd like me on the team. This was a little bittersweet for me because yeah, it was acceptance which I like, but at the same time, it was still a job that I took on just to wait till something better comes along. I'll probably apply for the position anyway, and see what happens. The pay bump that my co-worker suggested is lackluster, but I'll see what I can get away with, I suppose.
1 comment:
ice skating is fun, i havent done that in years. i used to go with a few clubs i was a member of at wwu and stuff, i fell down a bunch too.
o wow congrads on the chance to move up. goodluck with that. my company is going to hell in a hand basket. looks like i might have to quit. sucks
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