Datebook: Tuesday, August 15th

I think I’m going to need your help.

Things start changing for many of us next week.

Summer ends for most of us within the next 7 to 10 days. I know, I know, this is misleading. It is not how the families in “Dirty Dancing” functioned. They seemed to have the whole summer to lounge in the Catskills, staying for that awful group number on Labor Day weekend.
But, school starts for the majority of us the week before Labor Day.

This is where things are starting to fall apart a bit for me.

I’ll just list the problem areas:

* I am employed to teach high school students. (Okay, I’m not sure I heard a sufficient groan there. I am supposed to teach 17 year olds the joys and wonders of “Beowulf’. I am to try to sway them away from “My Space” and text messaging and discover the wonders of reading! Ok. That’s more like it!)

* My daughter is starting college in less than two weeks while she also trains full time. Is this really possible? This is the Ying and Yang of skating—we buy used college books so we can pay for the replacement beads that came off at Lake Placid (Excuse me, if beads come off it should be scored at least a level 4 lift!) and ice time.

Yesterday she skated 8 sessions. Yes, 8. Fortunately we have a 300.00 punch card which should last 4 days.

* My son will be a senior in high school. What was I thinking? Even getting past my initial lack of planning, I could have held him back another year—he has a late birthday. He has been involved in rec league sports which costs about 40.00 for the entire season (including uniform) but now he is getting brochures from MIT, Bucknell, and Princeton. Oh, in case you don’t know this, FASFA does not consider skating expenses in the formula for loans, grants, or scholarships. Instead, I imagine this group, similar to Keebler Elves, who laugh and yell out, “Here’s another one with skating expenses!”

* And finally, here is the BIG one--my daughter is preparing to leave in the next few weeks for her first international assignment. And the jacket has not arrived yet. Oh, I know, you are probably thinking I should be worried about the week she will miss from college and the new terror alerts, and the fact that she might have to use hotel shampoo instead of her required Pantene combination shampoo and conditioner. But I feel I can be honest here. We all know, it is all about the jacket. My daughter saw the first one 10 years ago, from across the rink. It was as if E.F. Hutton had personally entered the building. Not a sound was heard. And we found out, “you can’t just buy those jackets, you have to earn one.” (Well, except last year when you could actually buy a replica, which was exactly the same). You have to make Team USA. And we see people wear them proudly, their badge of honor, years later—coaches, judges, former skaters, who were members of that coveted group. The “letter jacket” for skaters. The elite varsity club. Those beautiful red, white, and blue jackets (except for last year when they were black) that proudly claim the USA team (except for last year when it was a tiny, microscopic flag). And so we wait. And the big question, what will it be? The jacket that dreams were made on? Or the one I could have bought last month for 129.00. Either way, it will be special—the real thing! But when will it come? There is now the daily watch for the mail, Fed-Ex, UPS. There will be the trying on. Photos that need to be taken. Oh, and I will have to call my daughter and tell her it arrived!

So, I think you understand now why I need your help.

How am I going to give up that jacket?

Mombo #9