Monsters on Ice

We have a home video of Ryan and I--as small children--"ice skating" around our living room with the Olympics playing on television in the background. Our eyes are closed, we take a deep breath and it seems like the rest of the world has disappeared around us.

I can only imagine how real ice skaters feel when they are spinning around and soaring through the air. I have a feeling it far surpasses the feeling of landing on carpet and realizing your dreams are nothing but that--dreams.

My fascination with ice skating brought me to these pictures; I needed a good laugh this morning, and these surely provided it. Why? Because, after my battle with sports photographers when I played basketball, I realized that these would be the type of shots captured of me had I decided to pursue my childhood dreams.

I remember opening up the sports page after a big game and seeing my worst nightmare: A large photo of me, trying to grab a rebound. This wasn't some Sports Illustrated-esque picture in which I am gracefully grabbing the basketball; a perfect combination of determination and beauty on my face. This was pure humiliation. It didn't matter if I was in the game 2 minutes or the full game-- I would wake up to my dad eating his cereal and chuckling at the morning paper. "Check out 3A. I think it beats last week," he would say in between bites of Lucky Charms.

I would sigh heavily and then flip to the page, ready for my daily humbling. Sure enough, my lip would be snarled like a Rottweiler ready to bite and the waving of my hands in defense made it appear I had 10 fingers on one hand. I, to this day, still think the sports photographer had it out for me. I don't know who he was or where he lived (he should be thankful for that) but I do know that he probably had all the guys at the newspaper bring popcorn and a soda over to his computer for the daily photo reel.

"Dude, what did that Reely girl do this week?"

"Check this out. If you thought last week where she was falling out of bounds with the ball in her hands was good; check out THIS face. You can't even tell she's a human being."

I give you this background to say--it's probably a good thing I didn't end up being an ice skater. I would probably be caught in poses such as this and with faces that have not a trace of beauty and grace.

I know the whole "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" thing is not really in effect here-- because, technically, I am re-publishing pictures that these skaters wish would disappear.

I somehow feel justified in the fact that I endured such embarrassment and did NOT make it to Olympic glory. Truth be told, everyone needs to take a minute to laugh at themselves. I know that every Saturday morning I got the chance to do just that. I have heard it said that, "Those that laugh at themselves will never cease to be amused." If this is indeed the case, my joy will be unending.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures; I hope they were a reminder to be silly, make goofy faces and never take yourself too seriously.