Anyone who knows me knows that I am not the world’s most coordinated person. On more than one occasion I’ve fallen down stairs, tripped in traffic, or even fallen over while simply standing still. Recently, I had incident where the spike of my heel got wedged in someone’s doormat. It resulted in me almost falling through their front door and then having to bend over, take my shoe off, and pry my heel out of the mat. Not one of my most shining moments. Because I’m not particularly graceful, I wasn’t sure what to expect from slapping on a pair of shoes with blades on the bottom and propelling myself across a sheet of ice.

I moved to Knoxville almost 4 1/2 years ago. Each winter I’ve wanted to go ice skating in Market Square but I’ve never made the time to do it. If you don’t live in Knoxville, Market Square is a historic district full of boutiques and local restaurants and it is the perfect place to people watch and listen to live music any night of the week. It has a lot of personality and is quintessentially Knoxville. Every year the city sets up an ice rink right in the center of the square.

Ice Skating

When we got there it was about 45 degrees outside, which was absolutely perfect for skating. The crisp cool air added to the fun winter atmosphere and it was cold enough that you could bundle up but not get overheated while on the ice. The rink was decorated for the holidays with Christmas lights and oversized ornaments. Music was playing and everyone was skating and laughing and wearing their winter coats.

We made our way onto the ice and into the herd of people. It took a few laps to get aquatinted with the ice, but once we got our sea legs, or I guess in this case ice legs, it was smooth sailing. The main challenge wasn’t the slick surface, it was avoiding being run over by the kids on the ice. I felt a bit like Tippi Hedren getting dive bombed by seagulls. Skating was both exhilarating and relaxing. It felt wonderful to just let go and have some pointless fun. Despite my innate clumsiness, I managed to stay relatively incident-free and maintain my dignity. There was one moment while getting off the ice that I almost took a spill, but I somehow managed to stay vertical. So I’m not counting it as a fall.

I had an amazing time and I can’t wait to make this a yearly tradition for as long as I call Knoxville home.