I've held this post in a draft form for a few months now...thought it was time to share it.
My son's lot in life is this: his mother (me) volunteered to lead his younger sister's Daisy Troop. Potentially, for the next eleven years he will be subjected to events, outings, and meetings all about Girl Scouts. He will be asked to sit patiently while we finish up cookie sales. He will be expected to carry crates of craft supplies to and from my car; and to and from the meeting again and again and again. He will eat granola bars and sip juice boxes while a gaggle of girls sing songs about friendship and camping. This is his future--it is inevitable and it began for him this past year: he accompanied me to a skating event.
I'm not sure if all skating rinks are stuck in a time warp--or just the Skate King in Bellevue, WA. The carpet (and carpeted benches) appear to be the original pattern and shag; and also appear not to have been vacuumed in the last twenty years. My daughter invited her BFF (not a Daisy Troop member) to go with us to a Girl Scout event celebrating the 150th birthday of Girl Scout founder Juliette Gordon Lowe. There was a patch involved (exciting!) and the promise of meeting other girl scouts. My son wanted to invite one of his friends, but alas the car only holds three passengers. His first disappointment of the evening.
We arrived at Skate King and parked a few rows back because we had to--the place was teeming with Scouting activity. As we walked across the parking lot Jeffrey stepped in a puddle that he actually meant to avoid. It was more like a pothole...deep and full of water. Great. Now he's got wet shoes and socks. His second disappointment of the evening.
As we wait our turn in line to get inside the skating rink--both kids start to see other families they know from school and our neighborhood. As it turns out almost everyone is a Girl Scout. The line is moving at a snail's pace as groups (like our little foursome) purchase tickets at the window. Then there some swap happening where you have to take your white ticket and swap it for a purple ticket so you can get your skates. Meanwhile the girls decide they need to use the restroom. I turn and ask Jeffrey if he would mind holding our place in line. As a look of panic creeps across his face I quickly remind him of the group behind us in line--and the girls from his classroom. He calms down. But we're going to have to tack this on as his third disappointment.
The girls and I sneak in the 'Exit' door and make a beeline for the bathroom. When we return to our spot in line, Jeffrey isn't there. He's sitting on a carpeted bench looking dejected. I asked what happened and he says that we had to purchase our tickets before we got in line. Now, I'm pretty sure that I put us in the right line because there wasn't another line to be seen. I walked over to a much more organized-looking leader and asked her if we were in the right line. It turns out that we were in the right line the first time and rather than being a good troop leader and find a spot at the back of the line...we cut. Hey, shit happens.
Now we're back in line--we get our rental skates. I opt not to get a pair because I'm not sure any of the kids are capable of roller skating. And it looks like I was right. All three of them are trying to hold my hands as we make our way onto the skating rink. Sort of a slow shuffle with Bean falling at every movement. I'm trying to hunch over and coach and keep them all on their skates, but Bean takes a nasty fall which makes me re-think my methods. I ask Jeffrey, again, if he'll mind waiting for me off the rink while I get the girls going. Bean's BFF is cruising along--it's a shuffle, but she's vertical. That's also when I went and got a pair of skates for myself.
We make it around one lap and the girls are doing well. Everytime Bean reaches up to grab my hand her center of balance goes awry and she goes down. I keep telling her that it's probably not a good idea for her to hold my hand. I feel awful as she's so unsure of skating and all she wants to do is hold my hand, but I'm not kidding you. Every single time I take her hand her feet go rocketing out from under her. But her tenacity and determination that night surprised me. I let the girls continue around and I go back in search of Jeffrey.
He's mad. He's seething. He's frustrated because he can't skate (tried once and fell) and he's not going to try again. He wants us to leave. Major disappointment #4 when I tell him that we're not going anywhere and if he chooses not to skate then he's welcome to wait for us by our table. I'll even give him a few bucks to play video games, but I'm not leaving. He's mad. But he takes off his skates and returns them to the rental counter. He takes my two dollars and plays a couple of games. Then I send him over to get snacks (birthday cake!) and find a table where he can watch us skate. But that also included another disappointment--he wanted the crap from the snack bar and I made him take the free stuff.
The final half hour of the event ended up being really fun for us all--the DJ orchestrated it so that each age group got to have a turn on the rink alone. When it came to the 18 and over turn the kids all looked at me. Oh, I sucked up my pride and skated gingerly onto the rink...along with one other mom. Really? Hundreds of people here and there are only two of us willing to skate? But I think we were just early...as the music started we were joined by ten other brave souls. Now, I am not a skater--no inline for me. I wobbled and couldn't really turn correctly; and my legs were aching by the end. Each time I made a lap I looked over at three smiling little faces and I knew I made the right decision. High-fives all around!
Last song of the night--the Hokey Pokey. And it was a free-for-all in that even those who were in shoes were invited to come onto the rink and do the hokey pokey. Jeffrey joined us and stood next to a friend of his...another brother who shares a similar lament. We did the hokey pokey and we turned ourselves around; and headed home.
Until next time...thanks for reading.
Kelley
Twitter: @Kelley_Myers
Blog: http://oscarina.typepad.com
