Skating on Slush, $hopping Plush

If you haven't seen the new Tanger outlet mall in Deer Park yet, you should take a little ride. It's great architecture that looks like something from Florida or Puerto Rico. But it's in the middle of an industrial area that isn't the best. Or at least WASN'T the best when I lived in Bay Shore 15 years ago.

With stores like Saks, Nieman Marcus and Juicy Couture, I was certainly out of my element. But I was there to actually see the skating rink first, and shop second.

We parked at one end and carried our skates aimlessly trying to

figure out where the rink was. We played "male" today and didn't ask anyone. We finally stumbled upon it and found a narrow swath of ice surrounding a fountain area. It was "cute" in it's smallness.

$10 for a two hour session and $4 for rentals for our friend Ellen who hadn't been skating in quite some time. She was really here for the shopping and had to endure our skating fix. She was nervous, so were we.

I've never seen so many people hit the ice in one place. I knew something was wrong. The kids were falling as soon as they got on. The adults were falling. There was even a four teenager pile-up in the corner. We figured we were doomed.

Ellen wanted to hug the rail for a while. She did and Wendy and I stayed close as we watched so many others hit the deck.

The little Zamboni came out to cut the ice, but the weather was not cooperating. It was a balmy 40 degrees and puddles were forming faster than they could squeegee them off. We didn't skate for long. Ellen, feeling her luck was about to run out any moment, left the ice. Wendy and I continued a few more times around the circle, dodging falling toddlers and speedsters.

When the slush was an inch thick at the entrance, we knew OUR luck was about to run out and got off the ice quickly. Not exactly worth the $10, but it was skating.

Rather than trying to locate the car to drop the skate bags, we began shopping in the designer name stores in search of a dress for Ellen for the Installation dinner on Valentine's day. I and my Islanders jacket and pink skate bag was grossly out of place. Especially when we went into one of the stores where the dresses were on SALE for a mere $1500.

I did manage to find a few really good bargains at Hilfiger and Ellen did indeed buy a beautiful brown dress and brown satin shoes, even though I thought all of us had agreed to wear red.

Hmmmm... oh well.