(Originally written on 4/19/2012. Update included below.)

I haven’t updated this blog in a while and for that I apologize. I recently accepted a position with a new company and the transition has occupied more of my time than expected. I started writing an entry a couple of weeks ago but it started to run off the rails (this one might too). I hope to return to it later.

I took a couple weeks off of skating but my first week at my new job involved doing training in downtown Chicago which is roughly an hour commute by train for me every morning. Not that this is an outrageous commute, but I really don’t operate well without sleep. Collin Martin let me spend a couple nights at The Pull Skateshop which saved me about four hours on the train and $50 in commuting costs, and also gave me an opportunity to spend a couple of nights powerblading through the loop with some old friends.

The interview process for the new position put me in an odd situation I haven’t faced in years: I lied about rollerblading. As far as dishonesty in a job interview goes this is pretty benign, but in my final interview with my soon-to-be boss I was asked how I had spent my previous weekend. I impulsively responded that I had enjoyed the unseasonable 80º midwest March weekend riding my bike, which wasn’t so much a lie as it was lacking in meaning. I had been riding my bike an hour each day, but only as a means to get in shape so I could rollerblade better. I spent the majority of the weekend trying to film a section for an extended video and blog project which I assume would have been a more interesting story than riding my bike aimlessly. What’s worse, the lie has taken hold and in my introductory bio that was emailed out to everyone in the company was a line about how much I like to bike. Again, I do. But it misses the point.

This wouldn’t even seem significant if I had stopped there but while getting my haircut for my first day of work the stylist asked me where I was going afterword and I said “to play basketball.” This was an outright lie. I haven’t played basketball in probably 10 years and I immediately wondered why I didn’t tell her that I was actually going to a skatepark. It’s not like I was embarrassed. I have literally devoted years of my life to trying to share what we do with the world.

Again, who cares right? Except earlier in the month I was skating with a buddy who is a much more accomplished rollerblader than myself who had found himself in a situation where his co-workers discovered some of his sections from the late ’90s on YouTube and then proceeded to ask him why he was working in an office rather than enjoying the spoils of a successful career as a professional skater in a beachfront mansion (this answer we all know). When I asked him why they didn’t already know about his past as a handrail assassin his response illuminated my own reasons for hiding the truth: “it’s just too hard to explain.”