I really missed ice skating. The rinks are still closed. I wanted to pick up rollerblading, but it appeared to be dangerous. Falling on ice seemed less risky than on concrete, especially for my age.

This week, I finally tried out rollerblading after Đán, my second son, consistently asked for a pair of rollerblades. He made the transition from ice skating to rollerblading with effortlessness. He just rolled off naturally. His fearless personality seemed to help. I, on the other hand, felt uncomfortable and anxious. Unlike ice skating, rollerblading seemed harder to control. I hadn’t been able to glide my feet like I could on ice.

I am slowly trying to relearn the skills I made in ice skating. I started yesterday and it was a disaster. My feet hurt like hell in new rollerblades. Today, I made a bit of progress. I am taking my time with it to avoid falling. With my age and weight, falling would be really bad. With hills and uneven pavements, I need to learn to stop. I could not do the snowplow stop nor the hockey stop like I could on ice. Luckily, there’s plenty of YouTube tutorials to learn.

I signed myself up for ice skating lessons at the MedStar Capital Iceplex. I wanted to learn the proper techniques. I decided to skip level one and start at level two since I already knew the basics. I went to the first session yesterday after work.

The instructor was fantastic. She made ice skating look effortless. She emphasized the importance of having a good posture. She showed us how to shave the ice for us to learn to stop. She demonstrated the snowplow stop and the hockey stop and advised us not to do the latter until we learned the former. I already made the mistake of learning the hockey stop on my own. She also showed us how to fall without hurting ourselves—fall on your back pocket. She taught us to do backward swizzles. I haven’t even learned forward swizzles, but I managed to do fine. I need to practice that on my own.

The session was only half an hour long. I wished it was longer, but she gave us enough materials to work with on my own without feeling overwhelmed. I am glad I signed up for it. I can’t wait to come back next week. I also need to invest in a pair of ice skating shoes. I still don’t know what to get.

While I was waiting for our session to begin, I talked to a friendly lady. She moved from Atlanta to Arlington for her new job. She works at the embassy and she will be assigned to Sài Gòn for two years. She is now learning Vietnamese. I offered to help if she wanted. I told her I wanted her job. I asked her why she wanted to take ice skating lessons and her answer was just to try out something new she hasn’t done before.

We went skiing again this weekend at Whitetail. The kids went on the blue and black slopes. I was still on the greens, but started dipping in a blue. I took a level-three lesson in the afternoon. The instructor was helpful. He gave me confidence to go back on the blue slope I fell horribly on the first day I skied. I thought I would never go back, but I did five runs without falling. Because the kids didn’t use their ski lessons, I used them for myself. I took another lesson in the evening, unfortunately it was not as good as the earlier one. I was a bit disappointed. Nevertheless I am loving this expensive sport. We went nearly every weekend and I didn’t even want to look at the charges. I felt a bit guilty about it, but my wife encouraged us to go. She kept saying winter is almost over; therefore, go enjoy while we can. Isn’t she a fantastic mom? Since this is our first season, we just dived in. Next year, we will plan better with seasonal pass, rental, and advance booking.

I feel fortunate that my wife and I have jobs that allow us to spend on these activities on top of other expenses. I am not bragging, but acknowledging the importance of having a stable income. If I were to do freelance for a living, I would be dead broke. I had quoted three potential projects earlier this year, but none sealed the deal. The latest one came from an old friend in middle school. She reached out to me to redesign her business website. I gave her a quote with a generous discount and we both agreed on the price and the services. Before starting the project, I asked her to provide me access to her web server. She seemed startled and wanted to know why. I explained to her that in order for me to make changes to her existing website, I would need to upload the files (webpages) to the server, which is a standard practice on any web development project. Of course, the client has to trust me with the credentials. She went completely silent and didn’t respond to my emails. It felt weird. I guessed she didn’t trust me.

I wanted to do freelance to give me opportunities to do more creative projects than my full-time job. These incomes cannot support me full time, but more like bonuses for vacations or ski trips. Still, they are much harder to land these days. It’s all good though.

In addition to skiing, I am also getting into ice skating. We went to the rink near our house every Sunday. I also discovered a rink near my work with only a dollar on Tuesdays. I am going to incorporate that into my lunch break. I am taking my time to learn one technique at a time from watching YouTube. I am still in the process of learning the hockey stop. I am a grown-ass man trying to learn these sports. I guess it is true: 40 is the new 20.

I am starting to like ice skating and skiing. On Monday, I spent five hours with Đán in the Fairfax Ice Arena. I skated a few times in my teenage years, but I didn’t do it the right way. I kept bending my feet. For the first time on Monday, I could skate with my feet straight. It felt great. I got a good workout and to spend time with my sons. Đạo didn’t like ice skating too much so I took him home after lunch. Đán and I continued until he had to go to swimming practice. I am looking forward to spending more time with him.

On Tuesday, we went back to Whitetail Resource for more skiing. Unlike the first time, I learned to control my speed and my turns. These two videos helped me tremendously. I didn’t go on a wild slope, but I managed to get pass the easier slope with just a few falls. I am definitely looking forward to more skiing in the near future.

I need to get some exercise and these two sports seem to be good for the winter. The ice skating arena is so closed to my house. I can go any time they have public skating. I should take some lessons though for proper techniques.

Dear Mrs. Ostroff

You probably don’t remember me. My name is Donny Truong and I attended Reynolds Middle School almost thirty years ago. Because I could barely speak English back then, I had to take ESL instead of your English classes. I did, however, take chemistry classes with your husband.

I remember Mr. Ostroff vividly because he had a passion for skiing. He used to take a few minutes before each class to tell us about skiing. He even organized ski trips with the students. Unfortunately, I never took the opportunity to go skiing with him and other students.

This past weekend, I went skiing for the first time in my life and I thought of my wonderful chemistry teacher with an enthusiasm for skiing. I tried to look him up on Google and your name came up instead. I’ve learned that you are also an author. Congratulations on publishing your books.

Just a quick note to thank you and your husband for the knowledge you’ve instilled in us during those crucial years of our education.

Regards,
Donny Truong

When I was in seventh grade at Reynolds Middle School, I had a chemistry teacher, Mr. Ostroff, who loved skiing. Each day before class, Mr. Ostroff would talk about skiing for five minutes or so. He organized annual ski trips for students. He also put together fundraising to pay for the trip. Although I never signed up for any of the ski trips, I always remembered his enthusiasm for this sport. It never crossed my mind that I would never want to try skiing.

Last year during the winter holidays, my wife decided to let the kids try out skiing. She signed them up for lessons. She encouraged me to take lessons as well, but I hesitated to drop $200 for an hour of skiing lessons. The kids loved it. They wanted to sign up for another lesson the next day. They now can ski very well.

Yesterday, we took the kids to go skiing again and my wife just signed me up for a beginner group lesson without telling me. The group consisted of me and another Asian guy. The instructor taught us how to stand, how to wedge, and how to stop. I didn’t do too well. Before the lesson ended, he asked if we wanted to try out the beginner slope. The other student refused. He felt he was not ready. I was like, “Sure, why not?” He asked me if I wanted to get on the lift or the magic carpet, I chose the latter. When we got off the carpet, he gave me a few rules of the trail and told me to ski slowly. I did not even ski. My skis skied by themselves. All I heard was, “Make the pizza. Make the pizza.” Thank goodness, I didn’t crash into anyone. As we ended our lesson, he told me to practice some more before going back to the slope. He also recommended another lesson next time. I thanked him for his time.

I continued to practice and practice. As the night fell, the slope got less crowded. I went back on the magic carpet and implemented my wedges and stops. After that I took the lift for a longer slope. Then I took another beginner slope with the kids and my sister-in-law’s husband. Then Đạo asked me to join them on a steeper slope. My sister-in-law’s husband told me that one was twice as long and twice as fast. I was like, “Sure, why not?” Holy smoke, I plowed straight down the steep slope, landed head first, rolled down, got up, put my skis back on, and plowed down again. I repeated that process until I got over the steep area. The kids were so happy to see me make it down. Đạo said he was scared, worried, and about to call the ski patrol if I didn’t come down in another two minutes. The instructor did not tell me about side slipping.

It was quite a learning experience. I definitely need more practice before getting back to the steep slope. Skiing is not so bad overall. I can live without it, but I guess I’ll do it again for the kids’ sake.