Judy's Turn

The Reluctant Blogger Returns (and is a Facebook fan???)

Note from Judy: Welcome back Lainie! The images that come to mind of someone joining Facebook "under duress" are pretty funny. Next thing we know, you'll be writing Facebook applications. The graphic below is from the London Friday Night Skate. As Lainie mentions, San Francisco skaters started it all.

With head hung low, I return to Judy's Turn to compose a blog. Not being a "blogger," it never feels entirely normal to me. But my good friend Judy says her blog misses me, so for her I will think of something to say. Apparently life, at some time around the holidays, got the better of me and pushed blogging off my radar. I'd warned Judy that I'd probably eventually flake even though I was honestly trying not to. 

So, what's been happening?  Basically the same stuff that's always happening.  Framing pictures and skating. Not simultaneously of course. If I could make a living from skating, I believe I could easily skate eight hours every day. In fact, twice in the past month I've skated MORE than eight hours in a day as a result of participating in 2009's San Francisco"Sunday Streets." Easy; no sore feet or legs or anything. Just pure joy.

I've mentioned before that one of my main skating agendas is to re-grow the famous San Francisco Friday Night Skate.  San Francisco, twenty years ago, began to give rise to all the Friday Night Skates of the world --  most of them are still going strong and some have thousands of skaters participating every week.  Sadly though, ours has dwindled down to mere dozens and we're not sure why. Most likely just the simple fact that inline skating seemed to lose favor and was replaced by skateboarding;  young kids aren't seduced by rollerblading the way they were ten years ago. In fact, neither are adults; ten years ago it was all the rage but now the average age of rollerskaters is probably mid-40s. 

One of the ways I've taken it upon myself to attempt to regrow the Friday Night Skate (FNS) is by sending out an inspirational email to the list of SF skaters every Thursday night reminding them to show up!  Many skaters tell me they love my weekly emails and some declare that they have saved every one of them in a folder. A few even swear that my email has pushed them off the couch when they were on the fence about attending. But alas, we still rarely even have 50 attendees. 

Then, a phenomenon seemed to occur.  Last Thanksgiving I was recruited, under duress, to join Facebook. Whatever. Didn't think much about it.  But lo and behold, before I knew it, skater acquaintances started finding me and requesting that I be their "friend." I THOUGHT we were already friends!  Suddenly I realized there were LOTS of skaters on Facebook. I thought, "hmmm... maybe I've got another tool here for inspiring folks to come out and join in on the Friday Night Skate."  So, as a partner to my Thursday night emails, I now send a Friday morning reminder on Facebook.  Here's the kicker: skaters are showing up that I've never met, never even laid eyes on; they are FIRST-TIME Friday night skaters!  Go figure.  Go Facebook!!!

How's this for an Economic Indicator?

If you had any doubt that we are in deep economic doo-doo, you only had to get to the second commercial on the Superbowl broadcast.

It was for Avon ladies. Not a car commercial, not a computer commercial, not even a beer commercial. One of the prime spots of the broadcast, right after Jennifer Hudson blew the roof off with one of the best renditions of the Star Spangled Banner ever, was an advertisement extolling the virtues of becoming a door-to-door salesman of handcream.

Great. Time to sew all our assets into the mattress.

Did you listen to it? One of the women in the ad -- and I really, really hope she was a paid actress and not an actual Avon lady -- said that in two short weeks she had already sold $800 worth of Avon products. I don't know the commission rates on Avon products, but what is that in actual payment? About $200? That will keep a fine cardboard roof over her head.

And that's all I saw of the Superbowl before suggesting to my husband we go catch a movie. Although I'm not sure that Slumdog Millionaire was any less depressing.

Skater's Relief

Yikes.  We're a mere few days away from Christmas.  This can strike panic in the hearts of many, or not.  For me, the panic is the perception of never having enough time to finish the framing projects I've promised.  This is nothing new; it happens every year.  At the moment, typing a blog post is sweet diversion; my hands are sore from cutting mats and cranking vices, and I'm tired of standing on my feet on concrete.   Ahhhh... this is where skating comes in!  I simply can't imagine a better form of stress release than diving into an exercise routine that you love.

Last week was so cold and rainy that there was no window of opportunity to skate.  Even the Friday Night Skate on 12/12 got a mid-skate deluge at about 10:30 pm.  (And again, we diehards chose to finish out the entire route in the pouring rain.  Nearly everybody fell or nearly fell.  I ripped my jacket and briused my hip.  It was silly, but I must admit to feeling happy about getting in the full 12 miles.)  So after a week of no skating, and a VERY hectic week of framing, I was chomping at the bit to strap on my skates for last night's Friday Night Skate.  And boy was it worth it.  Most of us showed up in Santa attire, or some form of it.  Hats, lights, red leggings, green elf tops, etc.  It was a very festive night.  And most skaters were feeling what I felt, an eager anxiousness to SKATE.  The night air was clear and brisk.  It was a perfect night for rolling through the streets of San Francisco, and we all had a blast.  There were so many people "out on the town," enjoying the dry weather and the city lights and entertainment.  Ice skaters at the Embarcadero and Union Square were out in force.  Everybody was happy last night.  It's a nice sight to witness when our daily news is filled with gloom. 

If there's anybody on your Christmas list who's a budding young athlete, why don't you consider procuring for them a nice pair of rollerskates or rollerblades?  (And then encourage them out to Golden Gate Park on a sunny Sunday and I promise you... they will get all the free skating tips that they could possibly want!)

Merry Christmas.  Happy Hanukkah.  Joyful celebration of all types.  May we all embrace the season and look joyously towards the fresh new year on our horizon.

Skating Union Street Christmas Parade

Every year, Union Street in San Francisco hosts a small town parade for Christmas and another one for Easter. Easter has actually always been the bigger of the two but both have typically brought out a good amount of happy spectators. A group of Friday Night skaters has always participated in both.  We do this as a good will gesture, as well as for fun sociability. For the past nineteen years, Friday skaters have invaded Union Street as the halfway mark of our weekly nighttime route. We have a long rest stop at Union and Fillmore where we descend on the corner market, and then basically take over the street for the uphill trek up to Polk Street.  The parade organizers have always loved having our participation.We are festive, musical and courteous in our friendliness. On Easter we dress as skating cows (the neighborhood is called Cow Hollow) and on Christmas we dress as elves. We always draw huge smiles, as well as expressions of wonder from the children.

This year, unfortunately, the parade was canceled for economic reasons. It was a disappointing shock. I guess the merchants association simply couldn’t justify the expense, and many businesses didn’t feel much cause for celebration. But what did we skaters do? We went anyway! (Sadly though, there were only seven of us participating. We usually have a couple dozen or more, but I guess the majority of skaters simply weren’t feeling it… especially knowing there was no official parade.) There was however a Santa available for photos, and a wee bit of Christmas activity in the vicinity of the Santa station. So on what was a normal Saturday evening, suddenly there exploded a loud blast of Christmas music (our leader, D, has amplified music that fits into a jogging stroller) and a gaggle of red and green elves. Even though it was the smallest participation ever, it seemed that the onlookers were noisier and happier than ever before. They came out of stores and restaurants to cheer us on. We felt that they were REALLY wanting to see some holiday spirit. I guess there just hasn’t been enough of that so far this year. 

The skaters that got the most attention however actually weren’t skaters at all. They were two pugs that their skater-owners dressed in red and green and placed together in their own jogging stroller.  Every couple hundred feet, we had to stop so that people could pet the dogs and/or take a picture with them and us. So the moral of this story I suppose is:  even when “times are tough,” go out and spread some fun and festivity.  It will make everybody feel better.

Happy holidays!

Due to some technical difficulties, Judy is getting the credit for this story. Be assured that this article was written by Lainie, our skating correspondent. Great story Lainie. Good follow up to my sort of negative one yesterday!  -- Judy

Skating Ups and Downs (and Shakes and Jiggles)

I've been skating an average of fifty miles per week for the past twenty years.  This is a very good thing, however it has its downsides as well. Skating nearly ten miles per day takes a fair amount of time.  Beyond the actual skating time, which is approximately an hour, is the time taken for suiting up and suiting down. This usually also includes driving to the park or the beach, and parking. (Skating from my house has never really been a good option, due to a variety of badly paved streets.) When it's all said and done, I typically devote nearly a couple of hours per day to skating. This can sometimes be a problem, cutting into what could be productive time doing other things... like working, or staying in touch with friends. But it's still a choice I'm continuing to make, and probably always will.

Here's another bemusing feature:  I can tell that most of you are like-minded on the natural product line of thinking. (I've never purchased mainstream products at a department store cosmetic counter; I've made my lifelong product purchases at establishments like Rainbow and Whole Foods. Or in Louisville, at Rainbow Blossom, way back in the 70s!)  I was just this past weekend laughing with a skating friend about the body deterioration that NO product, natural or otherwise, can impact. I have the most muscular legs of any 52yr old that I know. But, talk about gross, my skin is an entire separate entity that seems to have a life all its own and no connection to my underlying muscle mass.  Literally. My skin is a crepe-like mess that shakes and jiggles with disgusting independence. I was telling my skating buddy that I think I've reached the point where the only solution is covering as much skin as possible.  Forget the products.  They don't work. 

The skating buddy I was chuckling with just turned 60 in September. She's the most entertaining dancer in Golden Gate Park. I am in awe of her. She's definitely not trying to look 40, or even 50, and nobody cares. She's an institution, and we all hope to have her energy when we're 60. (She spent TEN years coming to the park just spectating before finally getting the courage to strap on her skates and thrill to the music.)

I guess it doesn't matter what captures your fancy; if it gives you something to get excited about each day, then it a wonderful thing! Come on out to Golden Gate Park some Sunday. The park is a San Francisco gem, even if you choose not to enjoy it on wheels! Being a spectator at 6th Avenue is always entertaining...

(FYI: things don't really get rolling strongly at Skatin' Place until the 2pm hour.)

China Culture Through the Eyes of a 20 Year Old

Our son has a month left of his six month studies in Beijing. He will return in December and go back to college in California. We haven't heard much from him, even though he has experienced the Olympics, sliding down sand dunes in the Gobi desert, meeting other students from all over the world and losing big at poker in Macau. Along the way, he's picked up some of the language. We speak every few weeks but it's been hard to understand if he really is comprehending the differences between China and the US. We were intrigued by the opening ceremonies and wonder, from a government perspective, what you must do to have your citizens agree to perform perfect and complex routines with boxes over their heads.

After last night's phone call, we finally got some insight. For Instance, he recently went to a Kanye West concert. In the US, you always go later to a concert because the headliner isn't on for at least an hour after the show starts. So he and his buddies nearly missed most of the concert. Evidently, they start on time in China without an opening act and everyone sits in their seats very well behaved. Over the summer, he and his friend joined the Beijing Normal University baseball team and learned that they play baseball with a different type of ball that has little resemblance to a baseball. The other team members can't even play baseball. He found that odd. When he's shopping for bargains, he says that the Chinese are crazy for T-shirts with English words written on them. One of the most popular and prominent at the outdoor markets says "one vodka, two vodka, three vodka, die." He's buying it for all of his friends. My favorite is the boxer shorts with an edging of Scooby Doo characters and a big King of the Hill logo right in front.

Those Olympic Opening Ceremonies make a lot more sense after hearing his stories!

More Skating!

From Judy:  Bizarre, but true Lainie! If you're enjoying Lainie's skating stories, you can always add a comment to the post.

I'm not a blogger.  Not even close.  But my dear friend Judy insists that people are enjoying reading about skating, which seems totally bizarre to me.  The only people I know who enjoy reading about skating are SKATERS!  In fact, for the past 4+ years, I've been sending out a Thursday evening email to the SF Skaters list reminding everybody to come out to the the Friday Night Skate.  (I also give the weather report, full moon report, report of any out-of-towners we know who might be in attendance... etc.)  My skating buddies would worry that something was seriously wrong with me if my weekly get-out-and-skate email didn't appear in their inboxes.  I am known as the Ambassador to the Friday Night Skate, and I take my duties seriously!  If any of you want to join the sfskaters list, then simply go to www.cora.org and click on "join the sf skaters list."  Of course, I have no idea why you would want to do this unless you happen to be a San Francisco skater!

This past week our daughter and her husband were visiting.  Brenna used to rollerblade a bit as a teenager, but never felt any fanaticism towards the sport like her mother.  (I ice-skated all my young life and had a recurring dream that the world's roads were actually made of ice... which is why rollerblading is a natural extension of my youthful passion.) Interestingly enough, it turns out that our son-in-law, Matt, used rollerblading as his primary form of transportation when he was an undergraduate student at Harvard.  He couldn't wait to get out to Golden Gate Park on Sunday and be a part of the weekly excitement that happens at 6th Ave/JFK.  My buddy "D" (the infamous "Godfather of Skating") brought skates for Brenna and Matt but unfortunately Brenna's hurt her feet a little. Matt however was in heaven.  Everybody was commenting about his awesome skating skills.  I was proud!  And my skating community was happy to help me show off all our cool tricks, group dances and even the post-season Thriller dance.  My daughter thinks I'm nuts (always has) but Matt loved it all!  In fact, he claims that he wants to try to initiate a Friday Night Skate in Tucson, where they are currently living.  (They are both doctors.)  So good luck, Matt!  (My advice: Find a cool route with a smooth clean surface and SPREAD THE WORD.)  My suspicion: Um, Tucson is not much of a skating town...  it would be a miracle if it took.

Okay, well here's the political stuff.  San Francisco law considers skates to be in the same category as toys.  Bikes can share car lanes, but skates can't.  Skaters are supposed to skate AGAINST traffic (like pedestrians) which is ludicrous.  The order of business that we took up at last night's board meeting is to change these laws.  Other cities have succeeded, like New York.  I'm not a skate commuter, but I know many folks who strive to be.  I know this will be a long hard fight, but we are up to the task.  

And, oh, by the way... did y'all catch today's news about obese children?  It seems that overweight children as young as 10 yrs old have the arteries of 45 yr olds.  That SUCKS.  So if you happen to know any kids in this group, and nothing so far has seemed to work for them... try suggesting skating! 

Thriller weekend

There's always something interesting going on...

This past Saturday, 10/25, was Thrill the World day.  All around the globe, in full Halloween spirit, groups of people danced simultaneously to Michael Jackson's infamous "Thriller" (which crazily enough happens to be the biggest selling album of all time.  Go figure.)  This was a synchronized dance, no matter your time zone.  On the west coast of the USA, starting time was 11am; some countries danced late at night.  In San Francisco, the majority of us performed on skates. 

The event was a hoot.  It began with a conference call from the (Canadian) organizer, so that all participants could hear the countdown.  For many groups however, the conference call didn't go as smoothly as hoped.  No matter; we could all count down easily enough, given all the technological devices in attendance.  So at the exact second, the zombies emerged. 

There was all manner of costumed involvement. The Golden Gate Park skaters were somewhat mild, despite our ghoulishly painted skin and scars here and there. However, we were joined by some zombies from Dolores Park who were very serious and VERY ghoulish.  In fact, they were a little over the top and disturbing.  But they really knew the dance well, since they'd performed it last year and therefore didn't have to spend time learning the steps this year.

The dance is six minutes long!  Everybody has to learn the same precise script; every beat has a corresponding word and movement.  Trust me, it took a LOT of brain power to learn this thing.  In fact, we'd been practicing every Sunday for the past 3 or 4 months. I'm pretty sure we were the only group in the world on skates, but I can't be positive.  Turns out that approximately 4200 people participated this year.  Some groups consisted of hundreds of people and some groups had less than a dozen.  San Francisco had close to fifty.

I noticed about half a dozen young boys in our group that I'd never seen before.  I learned that they were sixth graders from a middle school in Daly City.  Their teacher, who also danced, was offering extra credit for anybody in her class who could learn the dance (and be willing to perform it in SF on 10/25.)  It was awesome.  I thought it was a fabulous idea on the part of the teacher to have initiated such a fun project; the kids got to improve their memory skills AND get a little exercise in the deal. PERFECT!

For info if you're interested, see www.thrilltheworld.com   There are also MANY videos on youtube if you search Thrill the World.  Those that I've seen from San Francisco so far are not that great; they only show a small percentage of our group.  I'm sure more will post as the days go by.  But what a fun and unusual activity right before my favorite night of the year -- Halloween!

So Happy Halloween to all.  Stay safe and have fun!

Friday Night Rain

This past week’s Friday Night Skate started off great. Warm, muggy, windless and with plenty of participants. At exactly the halfway point, which is the market stop at Union & Fillmore, the evening’s rain made an appearance. Within minutes, we could all tell it was going to be serious. Serious, that is, for a group of outdoor street skaters who hate having their expensive ball-bearings ruined by water. Almost immediately, our crowd started dispersing. Some removed their skates and ran for the bus. Others grouped together and phoned a taxi. Our organizer, David, who pushes the music stroller that keeps us at high energy, suddenly disappeared into his wife’s car when she and it appeared out of nowhere. I looked around at our remaining group and thought how VERY wet we were going to be if we attempted to skate the remaining (shortcut) five miles.

It's no surprise that we who were left were the weekly “diehards”… the old guys (and one female – me) who’ve rarely missed  a Friday Night Skate for years.  I was ready and willing to pay for a cab back to my car, but was intently talked out of it. It was the “hey, we’re tough” syndrome. And the “hey, it’s tradition to get drenched once a year” line of thinking. Oh well, I thought, let’s go for it. And we did.

We all made it back without injury but skating in the rain is an entirely different type of skating. It’s all about short strokes; no long glides and NO jumps or quick turns. Yes a body always feels wonderful after three hours of skating, but regarding that “getting drenched” thing… I’m just not into it.

There’ve been enough times that I’ve been there/done that over the past twenty years. My tough guy needs were satisfied YEARS ago. Isn’t it interesting though that we old guys (and I mean this literally, as we were the oldest of the bunch) were the ones who braved the rain and stuck it out? It’s kind of like the exercise version of a strong work ethic. I still wouldn’t advise it however… keep your cell phone handy and call a cab!

(Note from Judy. I can personally vouch for Lainie's work ethic - she's the only one in our book club who read the assigned book - Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women many years ago, when we were in our issues and intellectual phase. She is a living legend in our meetings - and it seems to come up in each one - since the rest of us dropped out after a few chapters.)

Zumba Dancing, Michael Jackson and Skating

A couple of days ago, I volunteered at the Sunset Neighborhood Community Festival. Between morning setup and afternoon breakdown duties, I hung around and watched the stage entertainment. One of the acts was a display of Zumba dancing, about which I was immediately interested.

I'd never heard of Zumba dancing UNTIL a few months ago when our son-in-law's father emailed me to say he and his wife had gotten involved in it. I found this particularly fascinating because they are NOT dancers. In fact, their biggest worry about the wedding last April was the thought of having to dance in public! Zumba dancing looks like the most fun form of (wheel-less) aerobics imaginable. It's a Brazilian based musical beat that keeps pumping while the dance steps keep throbbing. Everybody is smiling, sweating and having a great time. The wonderful part about watching it at yesterday's festival (other than the fact that I now know there are classes available in the Sunset) is that a few young people got up out of their seats and joined in. They couldn't resist.

Okay, so, I started marveling again about those sedentary youth. Yes, technology is a fascinating and important draw but it DOES tend to keep kids indoors and sitting down. Childhood obesity is an epidemic. What gets kids moving?  A compelling musical beat and some bodily moves that are FUN.  Maybe that's why this other crazy thing I'm involved in is happily capturing a few young souls. October 25th is a worldwide simultaneous reenactment of Michael Jackson's Thriller dance. Thousands of dancers around the world will be performing it at the same moment, and it's part of a Guinness Book event. We (the 6th Avenue Golden Park skaters) have been practicing and learning the steps for several months. At the SF Sunday Streets event you can see how people are jumping on board. To my knowledge, we are the only group performing on skates. Our weekly park practices have inspired several children; at least three kids younger than 13 yrs have committed. And they are GOOD! Their brains are fresh and they can learn six minutes worth of dance steps. Yes, I said SIX minutes. This is a long dance! If you're interested in learning and/or being a part of this thrilling event, start practicing. Get your zombie groove on and come on out. The official dance will be on 10/25/08 at 11am at 6th Ave/ JFK in Golden Gate Park. Cameras will be rolling! See you there...