If I tell you this story, you have to promise not to laugh. I am serious....no laughing!
I finally talked my mom into taking me skating for the first time and I am sure it was a disaster. I remember actually thinking that I would be an instant prodigy and my parents would have no choice but to pay the ungodly amount of money to put me in lessons. Apparently, they could not see my talent! I could feel my dream slipping threw my fingers.
Then one day I was watching the news and they announced that Kristi Yamaguchi, my idol, was coming to Dallas to skate at the Galleria. I knew this was my last chance and she was my only hope of reaching my dream. My eleven year old self imagined that I would be the only one who would possibly show up to watch her skate. After all, no one loved skating as much as me! I was horrified to find out that my Mom had offered to take some of my other friends with me to the Galleria. I knew they did not appreciate her talent or the sport as much as I did. As the night approached, I had heard that there would be hundreds coming out to see her skate, which meant that I would have to come up with a plan to reach her. So, I did what every other eleven year old would do, I wrote her a note and folded it into a paper airplane. I won't tell you exactly what the note said because that is between me and Krisiti, but I will say that I more or less pleaded with her to give me free private lessons (remember you promised not to laugh).
On the car ride I tried to hide my paper airplane, but my friends eventually saw it. They laughed but I didn't care, I had a dream. When we arrived at the Galleria, I was heart broken when I saw the gobs of people there to see her skate. We had to sit on the third level looking onto the ice. At the end of the show, I proudly flew my "dream" plane onto the ice and watched as Kristi skated around it. Then a man appeared on the ice and picked up my paper airplane along with hundreds of stuffed animals and flowers. I knew deep down that she would never read what was in that letter, because if she had I would now, no doubt, be an olympic gold medalist in figure skating!
Fast forward 19 years later and I still have a slight obsession with figure skating. Shawn has refused to "tie sharp blades onto our little girls feet" until they turn four and know how to skate on a side walk. Abby has only accomplished one of those fetes. But that doesn't stop me from taking them to see Disney On Ice, which is exactly what we did Easter day this year.
They were a little bit preoccupied with the toys and $15 snow cones, but I can tell they have a love for skating. I have even heard Abby say that she was skating an 8. Seriously how does she know that, must be instinct?!! ;)
