Where has all the time gone?

This one is gonna be a cluster of a post. It's hard to say exactly what happened here. It was a Tuesday, and I worked three jobs, starting at a horribly early hour. IS and I met up at middle mountain for some skating. We cruised around the blocks in lost circles like a flock of geese trying to take off, only without the honking but with a few tricks here and there. It was still too early to avoid the hordes of pedestrians. That was my excuse for skating so slowly, but in my heart, I know I should have charged through them, scattering them with an elbow, like bowling pins, smashing and grinding and flipping and slappying and destroying like skateboarding should be done. But we didn't.

Instead, having done the take off goose circling, we ended up heading out east. At some point, at cruising altitude, I insisted to go in a grab a beer and a microwaved 7 curry burrito (shits on point this year) and we sort of stooped up in the seven and drank a round or two. We cruised on, but the hardcore part of the session was hazy, by this point. It's not a good thing, or a bad thing. On this night, it was a good thing though, because we cruised back to the three stair park, which I haven't skated for nine weeks, to the day.

Suddenly, a session was happening, on a cool and breezy Taipei night. It doesn't get better than that. The spot is tight, in more than one sense. Previously, I thought that anything more than one at a time was a little too many, but after tonight, I have to admit that two, with music, skating in the same chirality, makes for a much better session. Especially with IS, who makes little 'woop' and 'arp' and 'reet' sounds if you miss a trick, but makes louder sounds and happier sounds if you land something, no matter what, and then you find yourself doing the same, and somehow the energy of the session is built up by this until you're trying tricks faster than you ever would have, because each time just a layer of energy building up for the next.

We eventually left and circled like landing migratory water fowl; very slowly, without intent. Astonishingly, we ended up at a seven and had a few more beers. Then I blasted home. There's a lot more to be said about the delicate details of skating across an empty Taibei late at night, but I have to work early so you'll have to imagine what it's like to click and clack across the endless tiles, ride up and down the kickers, slappy the stuff in between, and wonder where all the time has gone.