#314

We went to the roller rink for Megan's school skate night. M 'n' m wear rollerblades, which are an abomination; it's roller skates for me, baby; with rainbows, pom-poms, bell-bottoms, disco; actually, I missed all that; I don't remember skating before 1980. I remember sucking at it though. Indeed, my roller rink memories are conflicted because I had fun but was horrible on wheels and it was embarrassing to be so bad at a thing and Josh, goddamm Josh, could skate like Travolta could dance and I knew Desiree and Ashley were starry-eyed under their feathered bangs, whenever Josh glided by and through and around them, backwards, spinning, squatting like a catcher on one leg and sticking out the other leg — fucking Josh; what is that move called anyway, made me wanna be Josh before I wanted to be Robin Yount or Rickey Henderson even. Old jealousies die hard. Josh was one hell of an athlete. Pretty sure he doesn't read this, or Desiree or Ashley. I don't know when rollerblades become popular, but they aren't for guys born in the seventies who pushed the pumpkin and not the puck (I was a basketball player).

Rickey Henderson stole 130 bases in 1982 and 1406 in his career. Lou Brock is second with 938 career stolen bases, and Vince Coleman was no slouch, but Rickey was the man; he was my favorite player when I was a kid. He had longevity and quite a personality too. In the early '80s, the Oakland A's discovered a $1 million accounting error. They investigated and determined Rickey was the reason. The GM asked him about a $1 million bonus he had received and Rickey said instead of cashing it, he framed it and hung it on his wall.

Back to the roller rink: When Michael had skates on and I didn't, he was two inches taller than me. A glimpse into the future?

Against a very good left-handed pitcher who plays travel baseball for Hoffman Estates, Michael hit a ball almost to the parking lot yesterday. I love watching M 'n' m compete. I love watching them play music. I love watching them do just about anything except cop an attitude and not pick up after themselves and not put away their clean clothes. The clean clothes one really bugs me.