Hi @amyx, I just met you today in 
The Terminal. I'm still quite new around here. Your poem was really good, despite the mostly bad news it contained. This is a nice way to "turn a frown upside down", as the saying goes. I'm not really talented with poetry, myself.
I remember ice skating when I was young. I was more into rollerskating back in those days, but I did try a bit of ice skating as well. In fact, I used to rollerskate to and from work at one point, haha. This was in the days long before the new-fangled "inline skates" were invented.
Wow! I’ve never met a non-online skater! How do you balance on 8 wheels like that?
Haha, it was much easier to learn how to balance on the traditional rollerskates than the in-line skates / rollerblades. Ice skating and rollerblading are very similar to each other, so it isn't as hard to switch from one to the other. But learning to ice / blade from traditional rollerskating takes a while to get used to. With the rollerskates there isn't as much effort to balance your feet, and they are normally heavier, too.
I’ve only ever tried quads on in store. I remember I couldn’t stay balanced, I’m so used to inner side of the edge balancing and turns.