Roller blading-a west coast workout staple-Apparently

Seriously there are times when I'm pretty sure I could make it as a reality tv show star just by having a video camera taping my every adventure(think Mr Bean-meets sex in the city-meets reality). Evidently I have yet to acquire that oh so standard-in-everyone-else fear of public embarrassment thing I always hear about so:

Everyone roller blades here in Vancouver and I hadn't done it since about 5th grade. I remember the craze, got some for Christmas, used them exactly 3 times and then forgot about it. So instead of trying the obvious(easing into it) I went ahead and took my self(all decked out in rollerblading appropriate gear) my dog Cleo and some seriously misguided courage straight to the seawall(tons o people, lots of things to run into)

To get things started off right I forgot to bring a bag so I had to hide my shoes in the bushes-off to a great start. Then Cleo, in all of her wondrous ridiculousness, informed me that she is terrified of roller blades by-you guessed it-cowering and tripping me. Luckily she quickly figured out that they wouldn't eat/maim/or otherwise harm her and we were off!
We managed to make it from Richards street(from this beautiful little park with these beautiful yellow metal lawnchairs that overlook the bay.....just awesome) all the way to the Cambie Street Bridge along the seawall(a glorious 40 minutes or so of pure bliss)

All in all it went really well(I didn't do anything reality tv worthy...which is, by the way, a good thing) In fact I was so encouraged by my performance first time out after 12 years or so that I decided to just roller blade home.

One small problem: I had never learned to STOP(well other than grabbing on to something or just skating onto the grass)

This was not so much of a problem on the seawall because it is fairly flat and smooth. The sidewalk(and crosswalks, oncoming traffic etc) is an entirely different story(keep in mind that I still have my dog, who is crazy)

The way to our place on Robson is uphill mostly with a few severe downhills in between(a detail that escaped me on the walk there nearly everyday we have been here)and is in the middle of the city. There are about 20 stoplights from here to there so you can imagine me, not knowing how to stop grabbing onto ANYTHING appearing stable in order to avoid rolling into oncoming traffic, and not choke my uncharacteristically well behaved K-9 in the process.

When we made it through the front door Doug asked how it went in his usual sunny manner(with undertones of "surprised you are alive...this should be interesting") and I reported to him that our first outing had gone well( I should mention that he looked pretty surprised) "Now" I told him "I just needed to figure out how to stop"(and then proceeded to show him how I had tried to stop like you do on ice skates) He laughed, tried to explain ALL of the physical reasons that stopping like you do on ice skates would never work and then pointed down at my skate and said: just use your brake....."gasp! my what?" I made the same face at him that I do when he fixes my computer with a look of complete horror and disgust(why does he have to be so damn reasonable and calm all the time anyway :))

Needless to say next time out should be more fun for me and less scary for oncoming traffic(and oh yea Cleo)