Datebook: Saturday, July 28th ~ 2007

My daughter is a bit concerned since I am writing everyday that I may cross the line and talk about things that are too close to her.

I told her that was ridiculous and she doesn’t need to worry. I have other things that happen in my life and I don’t need to focus on her.

Skaters sometimes think they are the center of the universe….

Anyway, my daughter has been dating her boyfriend (another skater) for almost eleven months now. He is charming and they seem very happy together and whenever I see them I keep thinking how “sweet” it all seems. If this were the movies, little animated hearts and flowers would be springing out above their heads. His part would be played by a younger Matthew McConaughey/Ashton Kutcher type, and hers would be played by a combination of the actresses that made up the most recent “Charlie’s Angels”.

Her best friend is also dating a fellow ice dancer, although I’m not sure I’m supposed to even know about that, but I don’t think that is one of the things I’m not supposed to write about because, well, it isn’t even about my daughter, right? And my daughter’s best friend’s partner is also dating a former ice-dancer…so I think you see where I am going with all of this ice dance nepotism.

You’re right—reality TV. It would be a good pilot anyway. Just imagine: a group of dating ice-dancers sharing a house in an urban city while viewers watch as they beg their partners to rub the bunions on their feet, compare run-through statistics, and pool their lycra wear for a hefty power wash in the Maytag. The cast would all be in bed by 10:00 and up by 4:45 crunching granola, peanut butter, and packing power bar lunches and talking about edges, twizzles, and Charlie White (I think all ice dance conversation eventually touches on Charlie White from what I have observed).

Of course, being in a reality TV series my take away from their training time so I’m not sure the coaches would let it go to production. But, I was thinking, we could have a game show type event after the Saturday competition in Placid, and contestants could enter with either their skating partner, or their skater boyfriend/girlfriend, for a round of “ICE-PARTNERS”. It would probably be formatted like the old “Newlywed Game”. We would need an emcee for the event and I would probably cast Jon Cole or Bob Horen in this role but I may be overlooking someone. They would ask questions to determine which team knows the most about each other to acquire points. (For the purposes of simplicity, we would use base numbers without pluses or minuses for performance).

Sample questions could be:

“What would your partner probably say as you skate away after your coach tells you to do the fifth free-dance run-through of the day?”

“What is your partner’s favorite Compulsory Dance of all time?”

“If your partner were going to be a flavor of Gator-Aid, what would it be?”

“If your partner were going to invent a Compulsory Dance, what would it likely be called?”

Anyway, I hope my daughter will be relieved to see I have other things to think about in my life besides skating and her involvement in it.

Oh, her answers for the game if mothers were allowed to play-- “Shoot me now”, Paso, Fruit Punch, and “Pop-N-Lock Waltz”.

Mombo