Flexibility is a Good Thing........

Flexibility is a GOOD thing, so why did it take me 50 years to figure that out?

Katydid (and Frogger Blogger, when she's not inconsiderate enough to go to GRADUATE SCHOOL and render herself unable to attend sisterly events for a period of time) have both humored me and gone along with my passion dedication obsession attraction psychotic interest in college gymnastics. They have driven to my house to attend home meets (the meets aren't actually at my house, you understand), they have spent nights away from their families and/or dogs (or brought their dogs with them, when we discovered we weren't nearly as sneaky as we thought we were), and they have accompanied me to faraway locations like Nashville and Jacksonville and Birmingham to attend 7-team meets that begin to look like a 3-ring circus.

Because I sometimes often always take even good ideas to ridiculous extremes, I made plans to attend not only all six home gymnastics meets this year, but three away meets. I have already told you about last week's meet, so don't be afraid that I'm going to go into all THAT again.

Katydid and I had made plans to drive to another meet in Alabama tomorrow night, this time in Auburn. It's a much more reasonable drive, only a little over two hours, so we were planning to come back home after the meet, getting back between 12:30 and 1:00 AM.

Katydid is unable to go, however, due to an ongoing illness, and she texted me today to see if I could get someone else to go. My mind immediately started spinning, wondering who besides my sisters would be willing to go along with me to see something they probably don't give two rips about. Hubby doesn't even like to go to the HOME meets, much less drive two and a half hours for one. And get off the golf course early just to do so? Not gonna happen.

Then a thought occurred to me.

"Psst. Hey, Bragger. You spent $10 on the tickets. You could just ... NOT GO. Save the $65 or more in gas. Watch it online. Go to bed at a decent hour. Avoid driving through Atlanta during rush hour." (Even my thoughts are long-winded.)

So I decided not to go, and I'm ... relieved. Worried about Katydid (so I wouldn't have enjoyed myself anyway), but relieved.

It also saved me the added pressure of writing tomorrow night's Favorite Things Friday blog post tonight. It's a win-win-win situation.

And we should win.

When an Interest Becomes an Obsession......

A blog is not only a nice place to record one's thoughts, it's also a great place to let people know something that is too awkward to talk about. I haven't told anyone about this. Not my sisters, not Lawanda the Warrior Princess, not Sweet Girl, and certainly not Hubby.

And I don't even know why it's awkward. Or why I'm embarrassed about it.

Maybe the fact that I AM embarrassed about it is an indication that I SHOULD be embarrassed.

Whatever.

The fact that I have become obsessed with gymnastics has been well documented on this blog. And in many (most?) of the conversations I've had with many (most?) of my friends.

It's not just that I like to watch gymnastics. It's that I want to UNDERSTAND it. I don't want to be able to identify a wolf jump or a sheep jump or a tkatchev or a Yurchenko because I have the misguided idea that it might IMPRESS someone.

I want to know it just because I want to know it. It is the desire to learn that motivates me. If I ever master gymnastics, God only knows what I will take on next.

To that end (the one of mastering gymnastics, I mean).......

And no, I haven't decided to take up the sport myself at the age of (almost) 50.
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I have decided to become a gymnastics judge.

I first became intrigued by the idea when a read a blog by a well-known former NCAA gymnastics coach who has retired (ahem). She wrote a very coherent (for her) piece about judges and her respect for them, and she detailed what they have to go through in order to become judges. She piqued my interest when she said that judges come from all walks of life, and some of them don't even have a gymnastics background. They just have a passion for the sport. I certainly meet both of those criteria. She also made the statement that the requirements for becoming a judge are the same as or more than the requirements for a bachelor's degree. Well......not really. Not at the beginning.

I bounced the idea around in my head for a while, and finally I contacted the person at the state level who would know about such things. I was astounded at her response.

"Oh, you just have to memorize the level 5-6 compulsories and take a 50-question multiple choice test. The next test in Atlanta is in June; I think you'll be ready for it."

It seems a weird order of things to me. You take the test, you become a member of USA Gymnastics, you have a background check, you have to pass a safety and risk management course (offered online), and then you're a judge.

Seriously?

I'm already learning. Levels 5-6 are the first competitive levels, and apparently every gymnast does the same thing. Same skills, same order, same execution. Honestly, it sounds boring, but you have to start somewhere. I ordered the DVD in addition to the book describing the compulsories because I'm such a visual person.

I am already a little - make that a lot - intimidated by the list of deductions for each skill on each apparatus. But hey - I only received the compulsories book yesterday. I've done the introduction to the safety course, and I only have a month to finish the rest of it. I'm thinking the August test will be a better choice than the June one. The June test is only 5 weeks away, and two of those I will be gone.

I am by no means stupid enough to think that this time next year (or ANY year for that matter) I will be the head judge at the NCAA national gymnastics championships. I may never judge a competition of ANY kind, and if I do it will likely be the cute little things who are probably more interested in how the bow in their hair looks.

Whew. That feels better, to get it off my chest (finally). I feel like I have just confessed a terrible crime. Or at the vest least a sin. Why is that?

Individual Event Finalzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........

I darn near dozed off during the NCAA gymnastics individual event finals tonight. It could possibly be due to the fact that we only had one dog in the fight this year instead of an entire team, but still. I thought the vault competition would neverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr drag to an end.

There were some highlights, one especially wicked one and one especially touching one. For the wicked, a hot-shot sophomore from a team in the state directly to our west whom I would love to hate but she's just so darn good, mounts the beam with a very simple step up from the spring board to the beam. Only this time either she stepped wrong or the beam moved, because it just wasn't there when she stepped. I really can't describe how it looked, but as Katydid described it, "I missed her mount, but when I looked she was just sort of dangling off the beam." Awkward! She came in last on balance beam, and I would feel sorry for her except for the fact that she kicked our collected arses at the SEC competition.

The touching moment came from a vaulter from some western school who also only had one dog in the fight. For her second vault (yes, the competition wasn't already interminably long enough, but they require each vaulter to do two DIFFERENT vaults in the individual event finals, judged by six judges, dropping the high and low scores and averaging the remaining four, and the FOOLS that hosted this event didn't even have the decency to have electronic scoring), this girl ran down the runway, leaped onto the springboard, and planted herself squarely in the middle of the vaulting table. I swear I think she had those little birds tweeting around her head. But she gamely saluted the judges and ran back to the corral, probably wishing she were somewhere else. At the very end of the competition, however, they allowed her to come back and do her second vault again, I'm guessing because her misstep was due to an equipment malfunction. That's the only time I know if that you get do-overs in gymnastics.

Our girl tied for second on balance beam, so that's our only consolation prize from nationals this year. I can now consider the season officially over, and perhaps I can find something else to obsess think about. Home tomorrow and back to school Monday for the home stretch, the last 4 weeks of school. Twenty days. I can do this.......

Friday Night.....

Spending the night with my sisters after going to the gymnastics meet tonight. It was a win for UGA, but we've got some work to do before UCLA comes to town next Saturday.

Tomorrow morning we are going to meet with our brother and mother to make final arrangements for Mom. She's not dead (that would be why she's invited to the meeting) or even sick. She just wants to make sure everything is taken care of.

We just want to get together for breakfast and laughter.

Feeling a Little Cheated.....

They're calling for snow here in the Deep South tomorrow. Oddly enough, the farther south you go, the MORE snow you are likely to see.

I'm kind of bummed out about it.

Usually all it takes is the hint, the ghost, the mere suggestion of a snowflake to close schools around here. Schools are already closing for tomorrow in our area, and it isn't supposed to start snowing until around lunchtime.

That means that at the very least we should have a short day tomorrow.

Except tomorrow is already a day off. It was originally a teacher work day, which is the next best thing to a holiday because the grown-ups get to gossip a lot more, go out for lunch, and leave earlier than we usually do on a Friday.

Then our governor decided schools needed to furlough teachers an additional three days this semester, and tomorrow became a FWOP day. Furlough Without Pay. They actually indicate it as such on our paychecks when they deduct it. Yes, I realize I explained it the last time we had a FWOP day.

So the snow tomorrow won't close schools at all. I can sleep in and bum around all day.

Except that I have to drive 40 minutes to my least favorite type of doctor's appointment at 9:30 in the morning.

And if the snow starts after lunch as they are calling for it to do, it will make driving treacherous. At the very time I want to leave to go to the gymnastics meet.

I wish it wouldn't snow. And if it does, I hope the gymnastics meet gets postponed.

But not Saturday or Sunday, as we are supposed to go to the beach.

Unless the snow cancels that too.

I'm too tired to explain THAT one. Story at eleven. Or tomorrow.

Praying for no snow or enough to postpone the gymnastics meet,

Bragger

FANatic.......

I really wish I could care a little less about sports competitions.

Tonight our gymnastics team lost their third meet in a row. And I'm taking it a little personally. The loss tonight was to a team to whom We. Had. Never. Lost. Before. In. 65. Meetings.

For the second week running, we had a score that began with an 8. That's E-I-G-H-T. I didn't know the judges even HAD a card with an 8 on it.

The 8.7 tonight was from a senior. Our anchor. Our rock. An All-American. National beam champion two years ago. Has scored perfect 10's on both balance beam and uneven bars. Eight point seven.

I will confess that I know NOTHING about coaching college gymnastics. Or any level gymnastics. Or anything else.

But I'm guessing this is NOT the path to another national championship.

If there is a bright side, and I'm struggling to find one, it's that all week I planned to make the 3-hour drive over to our neighboring state to the west so I could see this debacle in person.

Thank all that is holy for bad weather tonight.

Considering professional therapy,

Bragger

Lying Weatherman.....

I'm glad we were smart enough to believe what we felt on our skin instead of what the lying weather people told us.

It was supposed to be warm enough to ride bicycles today. Team Chi-Chis scheduled an informal ride from a location that is (fairly) convenient for all of us. The high was supposed to be around 56 or 57.

That's doable on a bike.

Then they started hedging. Maybe 54. Or 52. That doesn't seem like such a huge difference, but keep in mind that we are constantly moving. At blazing speeds.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Then they said there would be NO sun today, that the cloud cover would be in place all day long. I was skeptical, since the sun came out beautifully yesterday and warmed things up some.

But we canceled, and boy am I glad we did.

I don't think it got out of the 40's today. And I didn't get out of the recliner. Much.

Hubby played golf, but he used his brand-new golf cart cover, complete with a propane heater. He says you have to love the game of golf to play in conditions like these. I have my own ideas about what that indicates, but I'll just keep those to myself.

It's just as well that we didn't ride. I got home from South Carolina at 2:00 AM. I am getting way too old to stay out that late. I don't intend to do it ever again.

Until next Friday night, when I may . . . may . . . may just travel to Alabama for a gymnastics meet.

I have a very short memory.

Too Close to Home....

Right before I got home yesterday, lightning struck a tree (maybe two) in our neighbor's yard. He lives directly across the street from us. Two tall pine trees have scars down them that are apparently about 2-3 inches deep. I know that because their son came over to inspect the damage, and I saw him put his hand into the wound on the tree. He's a science teacher at one of our local high schools, so he would certainly know how to measure 2-3 inches.



When the lightning struck, it knocked a speaker off the wall right next to Hubby's chair. It also knocked a picture off the wall and his glass off the side table, but those could have been casualties of the falling speaker.

Worst of all, it killed something in one of the gazillion electronic gadgets that all work in symphony to provide us with television entertainment. We have the 50-inch t.v., a surround sound system, the satellite receiver with DVR, a Blu-Ray disc player, and the Wii system. Needless to say, we have a plethora of cords and wires and remote controls.

After numerous curse words, four calls to the satellite provider, two calls to the television manufacturer, and one trip to the local gadget store for even MORE cords and wires, we once again have television. Which is a good thing, not because I watch a lot of television, but because Hubby had just about run out of curse words.

And the fact that the gymnastics championships will be televised on Saturday, and I need to record them so I can sustain my addiction through the long off-season between now and next January.

Planning My Life Away....

Hubby and I have planned our Fall Break to a casino in Mississippi in two weeks. (Whoever came up with the idea of a Fall Break for public schools, I think I'm in love with you!)

We have also planned our Spring Break trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. It's the only place we've ever vacationed that hubby said he would like to go back to. He's loved every place we've been; he usually just thinks that with all the places in the world to see, once you've seen one you don't need to go back there. I, on the other hand, would vacation in Aruba every single year.

Katydid and I have planned an April trip to Nashville for the SEC gymnastics championships. Which makes me want gymnastics season to start. And I'm hoping our other sister will go with us too.

I feel like I have just wished/planned an entire year away. Sheesh, we're not even done with college football yet.

Friday Night Fantasies.....

Get your minds out of the gutter.....not THAT kind of fantasies.

Some random places I'd like to be this weekend.

At the Oreo Cow Farm, where they gave out free beer and Oreo cookies during a bicycle ride. I had a beer; my sister had the Oreos.


St. Thomas.............

Cabo san Lucas, Mexico........


Charleston............

Gatlinburg.............


Watching a healthy Courtney Kupets compete in a gymnastics meet........


Las Vegas......

Myrtle Beach.......


St. Augustine (okay, probably not a wise choice, what with TS Fay churning around in North Florida).........


The Georgia-Florida football game...... with another win for the Dawgs......

A Billy Joel concert anywhere.......