The end of this class session, and Coach telling me that Saturday is out now, just hammers home that this is the end of the Saturday Routine as I've known it for about the past year. From here on out, the Skating Schedule will be catch-as-catch can, barring divine grace by Lidwina herself. Worse, even that only lasts until Mid-July, and after that I can't promise he'll be on a rink at all until September. During those six weeks, I'll be lucky if I see him myself.
What happened? Life happened.
Dad works at a theatre, so his schedule is always a bit wonky, but we've had the benefit of some regularity because of where he works. This summer, the show that has scheduled itself into his space suddenly cancelled. This means Dad is effectively out of work for the summer.
Now don't panic. This isn't the end of the world. Dad has the fortune of being able to get freelance work, but the bad news is that we won't know where or when or for how long or how much until twenty four hours before it happens. Which means we will have twenty four hours to scramble daycare if we need it, or Skating Lessons if we can. We're keeping Stitch here through Mid-July so he can compete at Home Rink.
After that Competition, we're forced to send Stitch off to his Grandparent's so Dad can have more hours and more freedom to get that freelance work. We'll be fine, but it sucks beyond words. Not just for the skating, but for Us in general. I've been waking up in the middle of the night, feeling near tears, facing the fact that I won't have my son at all or my husband around much for six weeks. My floor is giving out from under me.
We're going to try to bring Stitch home as much as we can for that six weeks, but with gas prices going up as high as they are, it may not be feasible. We may only get two weekends, tops. Grandparents tell me that they will take him to the rinks in their neighborhoods, and I'll tell them and Stitch the neccessity of keeping up practice, but without the regular instruction it's just Life Support.
Bottom line, I don't know what's going to happen. And I can't tell anyone at the Rink because you know the old adage. I mentioned it to Ms V and she seemed thrilled because Gordon could "catch up." I need a hug and a reassurance that it's going to be okay, not words of happiness at our misfortune, thanks.
I'm sharing my favorite cocktail recipe; French 75, named after the gun, which we may find we want sometimes at the rink.
2 oz. Gin
1 oz. simple syrup (or 2 tsp. superfine sugar)
1 oz. lemon juice
Brut Champagne or other dry sparkling wine
Combine gin, sugar, and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into an iced highball or collins glass. Fill with Champagne. Garnish with a twist of lemon.
I thought about writing some fancy toast we could share, but when you start to tally all that a skate mom does, it gets unwieldy. So, from Tot to Freestyle Whatever, here's to you, Skate Mom.
For anyone following my Twitter feed, this morning was just pure angst. I thought I was used to testing days; I suit him up, tell him to skate his best, and it's all okay. I didn't realize that Freestyle parents were an entirely new factor in this equation, and one that I'd have to deal with.
Private lessons were fine. I didn't watch too much, I was talking to Fab Mom in the lobby. She was saying how awful the music was that her daughter was skating to in the show, and why all these lesser rinks had such great shows and ours were so awful. "I mean, the costumes aren't here yet."
(25% show business, it's all good!)
I'm not totally in love with the boy's music, but they're having fun. Things could be worse. There could be animals involved. I just took this information in stride and then worked a knot out of a muscle in her shoulder.
Stitch came out, talking again about that Toe Walley, and we walked to the store for a drink. I got orange juice, since I was feeling ill. We ran into maintenance friend out walking his dogs, and I let Stitch play in the field while the weather was nice. It made me a little sad that these are the final days of this routine. Once you get used to something, it all changes again. He read a new Junie B book while we waited for the Power Flow class to finish, and let him know I was proud of his patience.
When it was time, I got Stitch in skates and sent him downstairs. And that's when my morning went downhill. The kids were skating around when I saw Gordon at the door. WTF, he's not here during this class. Ms V came in and spotted me, so she came on up. "Has Coach talked to you?"
"About what?"
"About summer. She's not doing Saturdays this summer."
Um, this is news. "No, I didn't know about that."
"So when is Stitch going to have his lesson?"
"I guess I'll have to find that out."
"Coach told me to get thisandthat ice, so that's when Gordon can take his lesson. Did she tell you anything?"
"No." In fact, no one helped me with the practice ice form.
"And Coach Diamond passed Gordon, so Gordon can have his Zuca now!"
My ire is rising. "That's nice."
"Coach X didn't want to pass him on the power three turns, but they eventually decided to just do it. And Coach told me to sign him up for Freestyle 2, so I guess that's what we'll do."
You guess? I just nodded and smiled, having nothing at all polite to say at this.
Near us, two other moms are giggling and chattering away at how their daughters are moving up so quickly, and how they didn't waste any time at all in "the baby classes." They provide the background noise to Ms V's vile spewing.
"Do you think Stitch will pass?"
"I'm pretty confident."
"Do you think she will put him in Freestyle 2?"
That doesn't matter. Since Coach hasn't asked me about summer, she doesn't know about summer, and summer is going to throw a wrench into whatever plans she's got that she hasn't filled me in on. "I don't know, we'll see." Why have none of these things been mentioned to me?
The kids are doing okay, Stitch has the strongest half flip and Power three's of all of them, but I realize that of the four kids total, three of them are Coach's private students. The fourth is along for the ride but she doesn't know it. Stitch flubs the spiral, again, refusing to lower his shoulders. I don't know what's going on there, but it's not me doing it so what am I supposed to be mad at? Ms V is chattering on about the other coaches and Freestyle and my ears are surely bleeding and I'm out of beads so I can't escape. Finally her phone rings so she has to leave. The other women are still laughing about something, pointing at their daughters who are flummoxed by a sit spin but at least they aren't stuck with the babies anymore.
I watch, and I worry, and I plan.
Sure enough, Stitch and the kids come off the ice with their papers. As I suspected, Coach has passed most on Pre-Free and Freestyle 1. She has recommended Freestyle 2 for Stitch. Most of his scores are 5's, which I consider "passable average."
I didn't stay for the "congratulate yourself with Coach" moment that the other moms were sharing. I walked out, parked Stitch on the floor with orders to get his skates off, and went to the office. I left a note for Mysteria, asking for a Gamma and Delta patch test the following weekend. Let's see how that goes, because that jacket has two big empty spots, two big goals that supposedly have been reached but Stitch doesn't have the goods yet. If I don't hear from her today, I've been told she's in tomorrow so I can ask in person. I don't care if she doesn't like me, this has to happen.
I came home and talked with Dad. Stitch can't register for summer session since I can't promise him to be there every weekend. He will be all Coach's for summer, once a week when he's around, plus the practice ice he's hopefully got. At the end of summer he can take the Freestyle 1 test, and register for FS2 in fall on schedule. Can it work? Sure, but only if he passes the tests. Dad then called the Gamma/Delta test "Damma" and we laughed. Damma indeed.
It saddens me that Stitch is in the middle of this. Is anyone thinking of him and his Patch Quest but me? Yes, he can do the stuff better than the other kids, I see that plain as day. But this doesn't mean he can be thrown in over his head too fast. The other kids are awful because that's what they did. Stitch can do better. We all owe it to him to be better. I'll make sure of it.
I'm just about done with the front panel embroidery work. While I'm not entirely happy with the uneven laydown of the green hex cuts, I think this is the nature of the bead shape and I need to adjust my technique to compensate. Perhaps weaving a peyote or modified brick stitch between rows to force them into position, which is what I did on some of the sharper turns with good results. (My Facebook friends have been more than patient with my endless progress shots and I thank them for their kindness. I just get so excited about the Shiny.)
At any rate, Bird #2 is going to hit a stop point soon, because when dealing with more than two colors of beads I like to be at a table. Once he's done, I will affix the crystal and begin on the back embroidery. This is much, much smaller and shouldn't take more than a few hours. Ripping out the interfacing proved to be just as time consuming as the embroidery, so I'm going to look for an alternate material for pattern work.
The back of the beads will be sealed with a 50/50 mix of polyacrylic and water, which will allow the appplique to retain its flexibility and ensure all my knots stay down. I was unable to find a suitable matching buckle for the back, so I'm just going to make one. Since I ordered the larger bag of gunmetal grays by accident, I have more than enough to create a buckle from a cubical right angle weave and plenty left for Stitch's Pink Panther outfit. (Will need Fuschia crystal as well...)
All in all, this has been an incredibly enjoyable project, and as it's winding down I feel a bit sad. I can't wait to see it on the ice, yet this means I will soon say goodbye. Ah well, lots of pictures. I will embroider another bird to keep in the portfolio as a hard example of my work, and hopefully get some commission work out of this deal.
I've been talking about the various half jumps that Stitch has begun working on. Right now he's learning Waltz, Half Flip, Half Lutz, and some weird step thing called a Half Toe Walley which invited an evening's worth of Wall-E jokes during dinner one night.
In Skate Parent Land, that weird place in the stands where everyone sits and stares and asks, "which one is yours" and "how old are they", Jumping is the first and final measure of your kid's skating ability. If your child is not jumping, then they cannot skate. Period. That is the culture of the Stands. Do you remember The Two Questions? Well, now there are three. Age, Level, and what kind of jumps can they do?
Even I find myself sinking into this warped mentality. When other parents ask me what level he's at, and I say Pre-Freestyle, I've been quickly following up with "Oh, but he's learning that Lutz thing!" as a qualifier.
Of course, this is silly, and it's not all about jumping. Today I read a fabulous interview with Patrick Chan, who says that his best coach was the one who taught him how to use the blade properly, and not focus on jumps. I also recall reading somewhere that within a four minute program, a skater spends about thirty seconds total in the air. Me, I love to watch the dance step sequences the most.
I've heard Rink Gossip of kids who could jump like demons but had terrible technique otherwise. I had a chat with one mom where she bemoaned that Figure Skating had become so ugly, and that it was the focus on Jumps and Extreme Gymnastic Poses that was doing it. We then did a Parental Pantomime of the A-Frame Spin together, perhaps as a token of our shared opinion.
So, as of today, I am making a promise to myself and to Stitch to not participate in the Jumping Contest. When Other Parents ask me, I'll say I don't know what jumps he can do and I don't really care. I'm getting weary of the insinuation that Stitch can't skate simply because he's not making full rotations yet.
