I don’t know when it happened that I got so old… but there are times that events remind me that I am starting to think and act like an old guy and that I am just not a kid any longer.  Case in point was this past Friday.  I was in Dallas for a trade show, and the last day of the show, most of the people from the event checked out and left, but we did not have a flight out until Saturday.   Thanks to that, while we were closing up our booth, our hotel transformed while we were gone.

Gone were the show attendees, and in came many, many (I mean MANY) kids (and some families) from the University of Texas (Hook ‘Em Horns) and the Oklahoma University (Boomer Sooner).  Awash in a sea of Orange (Texas) and Red (Oklahoma), I watched somewhat amused at first seeing this group of kids acting like a bunch of country bumpkins in the “big city”  (Side Note:  Being from the NY area, I guess I have much higher expectations of what to find in “The City” and Dallas was sorely lacking in this regard).

But as night fell, my amusement shifted a bit.  As I watched them get dressed up and head out for a night on the town, my amusement changed to somewhere between disbelief or dismay.  I watched as normal young girls turned into Bratz Dolls.  I say that because, it was so stunning that I couldn’t believe it was real, it was more like a campy 80′s comedy sort of slutty, trashy look that was so far over the top that it was almost (I said almost) comical.  As I saw one walk out of the hotel to meet with her friends wearing 4″ (or better) clear platform shoes, I couldn’t help but utter to my parter, “When did this turn into hookers on parade?”

And then I thought about my little princess.  And a cold chill ran down my spine.  ”Oh, hell no,” I said to nobody in particular.  She is not going to be anywhere near something like this.  I am locking her up and bringing in tutors.  Perhaps I should take her to see Tangled when it comes out this fall… this way she has an idea of how long I expect her to be locked up.

I went to college in the 80′s during the era of Madonna, and mini-skits, and falling of the body oversized sweatshirts, and still by our standards, “these kids today” seem to be out there.  I don’t know.  Am I just getting old?  Are you afraid of what it is going to be like “out there” when your kids are ready to strike out on their own?

Well, as I mentioned last week (has it really been a week already?  I have go to find a way to find more blogging time), LatteGirl went off to Lake Placid to compete in the ISI Lake Placid Championships.  Without trying to sound to braggy (but how could I not be at least a little braggy), she came home with 3 gold medals and a silver in the four events she entered.

Obviously, she was also thrilled.  But besides being tired (on the last day they went snow tubing before a 5-1/2 hour ride home), there was a certain… I don’t know what to call it, really… listless undertone to her mood.  What could make a child who just did so well in her competition, had fun swimming (she has continued her streak of swimming in every hotel pool she has ever had the opportunity to swim in… be it frozen for ice, or warm for swimming, apparently you just can’t keep my child away from water).  So what could this reservation in her jubilation be?  She denied it at first, so I didn’t push the issue.

The following morning, I inquired again, and I found out the problem.  It seems there was another girl that is from her skate club that was signed up and in all the save events (and same “flight” as they call it), as LatteGirl… meaning they were competing head to head in each of the 4 events along with other girls from other skate clubs.  As I pointed out earlier, LatteGirl came home with 3 gold and a silver.  This other girl, whom LatteGirl only knows because they have the same coach, but LatteGirl still considers a “friend” came home with 3 silver and a bronze.  Do you see where this is headed?

Yeah, by the time the trip was over and they were heading home, her friend was no longer speaking to her, and in fact was giving her dirty looks whenever LatteGirl looked in her direction.  This troubled her.  She didn’t like that fact that her friend was mad at her, but couldn’t reconcile what she should have done differently.  She believes you should always do the best you can, and besides, this competion, the judges just decide on a winner… there is no scoreboard of points to look at to judge a “level”  So she really couldn’t throw one of the events if she wanted to (there was no way that was going to happen, she is every bit as competitive as I am, and letting up is just not her style), and besides just because she may have thrown an event doesn’t mean that the judges might not have given the medal to somebody else anyway.

It is a shame.  I have always tried to instill good sportsmanship in Lattegirl, but it seems to me that this girl’s parents didn’t bother to teach her good manners or how to be a good sport.) I tried to reassure her that eventually this little girl would probably move on and eventually forget all about coming in behind LatteGirl at every event this time, and who knows, at the next competion she may be the one that comes out on top.

["Not a chance," she says, "next time I will be even better." ]

Yup she is my child alright