A Girl After My Own Heart

One of my greatest stress relievers when I was growing up was gymnastics. It was a place for me to pound out my frustrations and swing away from my stressful life. I would say that my parents weren't thrilled at my choice of sports. Even though, they still put up with it and poured large amounts of money into it. My mom drove me to lots of crazy places to compete and she attended most of my meets. I competed through a private gym and also for my high school. I actually switched high schools to be on their gymnastics team - they were always competitors for the state title. Once I graduated from high school, I found a gym at the college I was attending and taught for a semester there. After that, I pretty much had nothing to do with the sport. That is until now.

A factor on my "PROS" side for moving to Pennsylvania was that there was a gymnastics facility about 5 minutes from our house. And to make it even better, they offered adult classes. Oh my!! I hadn't been in the gym since I was a freshman in college. And now, I had that "badge of honor" of three children sitting on my thighs! But last fall, I gave it a whirl. And wouldn't you know how quickly most of my skills came back to me. The first day I went back, I could barely hang onto the bars, let alone swing on them or even do a "kip" - one of the hardest tricks to learn on the bars and probably the basis for every other move you will do on them. Now, I'm swinging freely and once again enjoying the release of pounding that spring floor with back handsprings to relieve tension.

I have also enrolled both the girls in the gym. Since the fall, Olivia has moved from a simple recreational class, to a kindergarten elite class, to an invitation only pre-pre team class and now into a pre-team class that meets 3 times a week for 2 hours a day during the summer. Gabi is in it more for exercise and being able to wear those awesome GK Elite leotards that her sister wears. The gym held an annual class meet a couple of weeks ago for most of the team and pre-team levels. Olivia got a good taste of what a real competition would be like - judges, rotating events, scores, saluting the judges at the beginning and end of your routine. And let me tell you, my little girl shone!! She really had a knack for all the glamour and show that goes into a successful gymnast. I was quite impressed and proud of her. She looked so cute! It was after that meet that her coaches invited her to move up to the current pre-team level that she is in now. She really showed them that this was something she is good at and potentially something to take her through life.

And believe it or not, I've met some opposition from a certain family member, reminding me of all the time and energy I put into the sport, all the injuries I incurred during my competition years and even as an adult how my posture is so much like a gymnast and how all those years in the sport has probably contributed to many of the aches and pains I have acquired as a thirty something adult. Wanna know what I have to say to that??

I'd do it all over again. Now as an almost all-knowing adult, I'd do it all over again.

It was my out, my release, my stress reliever as a very confused and hurt teenager. It kept me out of trouble. It's in my blood. I loved it then and still love it now. And if my daughter loves it, it will be in her blood too. And she will want to be in the gym and practice and compete and deal with the pain and pressures of being there. And if she wants out, she can get it out. And what makes it even better for her, she's got someone behind her who knows all about those ups and downs of the sport, someone who understands words like "kip", "aerial", "back walkover" and all the other terminology, someone who knows how to spot all those tricks and now can actually do them along side her (with several minutes of stretching beforehand these days).

I recently saw an interview with former Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes (Hills Gymnastics, MD). In that interview she shared that when she was in the gym at the tender age of 6 & 7 years old she saw the gym as a big playground, a place to bounce and jump around and nothing more than that. I think that is the way Olivia sees it. It is fun for her. I want her to keep that attitude as long as she can. And when that attitude changes and she doesn't want to get out of the car to go to practice, then we will talk and reevaluate. I know I'm not the only parent out there that has come across this dilemma. What happens when she gets to the point that she doesn't want to get out of the car to go to practice?? How will I feel knowing all the money I have put into the sport and the time spent driving her to and from practices and competitions?? I know the gymnastics road, I have taken it. But should I deny my daughter the chance to shine, the chance to develop a potential talent, the chance to shape her self-esteem. That answer is pretty clear. And the former question, I'm just going to cross that bridge when I get there.

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Blank Stare

Okay, so this is seriously post dated again. Deal with it.

I have found that moving to the great state of Pennsylvania (notice that I didn't say PA, everyone here call this place PA, when I lived in Ohio, did I refer to it as OH, no, I called it Ohio) . . . anyway, when I moved to this great state I have found that they like lots of red tape. Nothing can be done easily, lots of hoops to jump through. I found this out when I started to research the prospect of getting my car registered here.

Now, I must back up and let you know that I started looking into this last summer before we moved. Our car registration in Ohio (not OH) expired the month we were moving. I thought it would be perfect planning to just go ahead and skip the Ohio registration and just get it registered in Pennsylvania since we were going to be living there within 15 days. But no can do, according to the great powers that be, you can't do that, you have to live here first before we can register your car here. And on top of that, you've got 20 days to do it once you move here. Ha, I say, I'll show you. Fine, I registered my car in Ohio for the 15 days of that year that we would be living there. And do you think that I switched my registration within the restrictive window of 20 days. I think not. I will deny that if anyone reading this works for the powers that be. It was my way of giving this state the middle finger.

In my defense, I did start the first step of the process, getting the title for the car, as soon as we moved. Of course, the yahoos sent it to the wrong address and it turned out to be an unforwardable piece of mail. And once we actually did get the title, months later, I called the Ohio people to get the paperwork to get the title transferred and wouldn't you know that Pennsylvania requires that that piece of paper that was unforwardable has to be notarized. Back to the drawing board I went and waited once again. When I finally did receive the correct, notarized piece of paper that I needed to apply for my registration, I went searching for the correct department that I would need to submit these pieces of paper to. And to continue down this negative path that I seemed to be taking, wouldn't you know it that there isn't just a department to go to, you have to go to several places to actually complete the process of getting your car registered. I decided to go through AAA, since we were members, it would be cheaper and according to the people I talked to, I wouldn't need to incur the extra expense of getting our licenses switched over first. Great! Something positive!

So, months later, my husband and I had a kid free morning and took the big step to actually go to AAA and get this thing done. I can't tell you how awful that experience was and if my husband didn't have any grounds to divorce me then, after that day, he sure did! Basically the lady at AAA told me that since I had made that phone call about not having to have my license to register, the law had changed and now you did. I literally banged my hands down on the desk and almost jumped across the desk. What that meant for me, is that I had to once again, postpone this event and find a time to come back. And to add fuel to my fire, I wasn't the one that would be coming back, it would be my hubby because the car was registered in HIS name. This time my hubby caught me as I tried to jump across the desk and try to attack this poor woman. And to continue to press my buttons, she tells me that since we couldn't get a pencil rubbing of our VIN number, we had to go to another location to have that done. Luckily, that location was across the street and it was free. The only positive thing that did come out of that visit. So, as we leave the AAA office, I was fuming, furious and quite on fire. As I storm out of there, I state, loud enough for the entire office to hear, "Another reason to hate the state of Pennsylvania!" My poor hubby, he just followed as close as possible behind me and pushed me out the door.

So, my friends, it's done. My hubby went back a few days later, got the same lady in the AAA office, who didn't seem to have any memory cells of our meeting and got the car registered. It was a sad day when those Ohio tags came off. It was like signing another part of my past away and accepting the fate that I have been given. And to make matters worse, this state only requires one plate in the back. My poor baby is just staring at me with this blank stare. I hate that. I can't stand looking at it. To make me feel better, I will be buying the specialized plates for the van. I think we're going to go with the river otter because it looks cute. And as far as the front is concerned, I think I'm going to have a personalized one that says:

"Get out of my way I learned to drive on the Beltway"