Black and on the Rocks!

Shortly after I had my transplant, I created a 'bucket list' of things that I wanted to do now that I was given this second chance at life. One of the things on my list was to go ice skating.

Well, one night, Ray was bored and decided that we needed to go out and find something to do. He surprised both Tia and I by pulling up to the local ice rink. Tia was absolutely against going on the ice. She kept informing Ray and I that black people don't ice skate. I, myself, just feared how long it would be before I was being rushed to the hospital for breaking my leg or fracturing my skull.

Ray was very hopeful and upbeat about the whole thing.

We got on our skates and I attempted to walk around in them. (It was sort of the way a drunk person tries to walk a straight line during a sobriety test, except the drunk person would have been doing a better job at walking then I was.)

Ray guided me to the edge of the rink as little kids zipped by me. I thought for a minute if it was worth the risk of falling on my own butt if I put the tip of my skate out and tried to trip one of those little overachievers.

We stumbled onto the ice and I soon became something similar to watching an amateur try to perform a high-wire act. My arms and knees were flinging everywhere as I tried to keep my butt and the ice from becoming friends. Tia, on the other hand, took to the ice like a swan to water. You would think she had been ice skating for years the way she gracefully moved around the rink. The girl, who just 15 minutes ago wanted to go back and wait in the car, was now skating rings around me and Ray. (At this moment, I SERIOUSLY thought if it was worth the risk to try and trip Tia the next time she swooshed passed me.)

In what seemed like forever, I managed to make one loop around the rink. Ray was patient with me, but never bothered to hide his laughter as he watched his wife flap around the rink like a fish out of water.

As the night went on, I grew a bit more confident on the ice and was at least able to look like a normal human skating- although I still held on to the edges of the rink for dear life.

At some point in the evening, (although there are two different stories explaining what happened), Ray and Tia somehow collided, causing Ray to fall hard onto the ice. His head hit the ice, bounced up and then hit the ice again. He lived, but his cell phone didn't. Ray managed to walk away with a nice little gash above his right eye.

When it was time for us to go home, Tia could not stop talking about how much fun she had and how she wants to take ice skating classes and become a professional ice skater. So, our plan is to try to make it to the rink once a month and if Tia continues to get good grades we will look into enrolling her in some upcoming classes.

Ray and Tia taking a pit stop on the ice as I sat down and rested.

Tia swooshing by me on the ice.
(Damn little overachiever!)

Ray's scar.