#skating?

「 NEW INSTAGRAM UPDATE 」— @jaytatum0 JUST POSTED A PHOTO!

jaytatum0. — missing her more than anything right now. 

I’ve been going to a skating rink regularly since the beginning of the year as a way to get more active, have fun, and perhaps meet some new people.

I try to avoid Saturdays and Fridays because those are the days with the most kids, but I went this past Saturday because I really wanted to.

I was taking a break from my laps when a teen walks past looking beneath the bench I’m sitting on. I assume she’s looking for her shoes or something.

She turns back to her friends and shouts “Where are we supposed to charge our phones??!?”

Hilarious.

The rink’s construction date pre-dates both this child’s birth AND the advent of cell phones. I know this and what it means, but this young lady surely does not.

It’s also interesting to note the mindset of assuming that all or most public spaces will freely provide electricity to charge your mobile devices.

All of this on top of the fact that she and her friend group were barely able to skate but insisted on being out on the rink, with their phones, while struggling to stay upright.

What kills me is that Geno didn’t used to be angry–his friends back at home all knew him as easy going and boisterous maybe. Not angry. But Pittsburgh, despite the crowds and his team, is very lonely, and the language is difficult and convoluted as ever and Geno has never felt this angry at himself. For exactly what, he’s not sure. For being unlovable, maybe. For being too slow to pick up the language, for being not as good at hockey as he should be. For closing himself off from his teammates when he knows very well that these people might as well be the only ones who might even give a damn about him.

Sidney makes him feel worthy of a lot of things. When Sidney kisses his lips, when he giggles into his neck after Geno garbles out the awful knock knock joke he heard from one of the rookies, when Sidney looks at him when he comes home like Geno lights up his entire day, when Sidney throws himself into learning Russian even though he just can’t get some of the words right and starts pouting. Sidney does everything with a sort of fierce determination, and loving Geno, of course, has never been an exception. 

Geno could’ve never imagined that less than ten years later, his daughter would be pulling him on the ice during family skate, and Sidney would be chatting with the rookies while cradling their baby son, feet clad in knitted bootie skates.

“Go play with Olli,” Geno says, letting his daughter stumble over like a baby deer.

He overhears Olli ask his daughter quietly, “You think your Papa will get mad if we go hog the desserts table?”

“No,” his daughter says wisely. “Papa never gets mad.”