Elissa, Kricky, Berry, Shaz and myself decided to go roller skating last night. We were originally gonna go to Riverside Arena in Plymouth but were denied due to place being closed. We decided to go the Skatin Station II in Plymouth. I went there sometime last year for Katie McGowan's skating party, so I thought I knew what we were in for. I called information to get directions and found out it was hip-hop night. I was pretty psyched about the hip-hop. The parking lot was packed. We thought it was cool that it wasn't empty. We walked to the door and looked at the skaters through the glass. The place was filled with bruthaz and sistaz skating at hyper speed going nuts. It felt like a time warp back to 1980 New York. It was pretty intimidating. Aside from 4 other people and the staff, we were the only white people there. As we were paying admission, this affeminate black guy comes in saying that those skaters are crazy. He gave us tips on how to not get plowed. "Stay on the inside perimeter." He was very helpful.

We went to get our shoes and posed for some pictures. Some teenagers were looking at us like we were crackheads because we were posing. Also notice that the shoe guy was smiling in the pictures. On to the skating, I seemed to underestimate my skating abilities. Its hard to force yourself to glide instead of walk. I paired up with Berry and we skated together. I told her to keep skating if I wiped out. So I was getting acclimated to skating all hunched over because I didn't want to fall. I saw my sister fumbling around the rink, she seemed to be having some trouble as well. While, Berry and Elissa were doing great, skating all graceful and stuff. I think I got around one pass ok and was getting the hang of it. And then BOOM I get hit in the back by a 50 mph fridge sized guy that was skating backwards. I wiped out so hard. It really sucked. I hit the ground about 4-5 times after that. I tried to get to the benches where Kricky was hanging [He opted to not skate due to the Menancing nature of the speed skaters] and fell again. I looked behind me and saw all these turbo skaters coming at me when all I was trying to do was get to the wall. So I crawled really quick from the middle of the rink to the wall. Some kids sitting at the benches were making fun of me, but thats cool. I needed to recoup so bad after getting slammed by that guy. So all took a break for awhile and talked. I guess Shazy fell down on her way out of the rink. I was so beat and busted. By this time the people in the rink stopped skating and were actually skate dancing, it was so wack.

So we went back out to the rink when the skate dancing was over. I was more comfortable this time. I got to pay more attention to the freaky things the other skaters were doing. One girl was doing the splits and bouncing in the middle of the rink. Another girl kicked up her legs while she was skating. Everybody was doing these crazy ass tricks. Their tricks made me laugh and lose my balance. It was so out of control.

We came back and took a break when they started the 3/4 people synchronized couple skating. Soon after, they turned up the heat with R. Kelly's Heaven I Need a Hug. I had to go out for that. People were dancing like mad too. This one was lifting his hands up to the sky when the chorus played. That was too much. We skated a little bit more and called it a night. I ain't never been skatin like that ever before. It was a great ghetto time.

Afterthoughts:
· Skating at that place was like skating at the World Championships. We need to go Smallville before we can step up to that crowd.

· Next time, Skateland.

· I don't care how slow or bad I skate, I will make it to the championships. But I ain't doin no splits.

· Berry was telling Shazy about how to get rid of guys bother her. She told Shazy to tell them that she had I.B.S. [Irritable Bowel Syndrome] I looked at Shazy and was quiet. And then she busts out and tells Berry that she did have it for a month.

· There was a white girl with sweats and a Peaches mullet.

Click on a number below to see pictures from Roller Skating in Da Hood. If you want a zip file of these images, email me.