I have a lot of

skating and martial arts stories. As I've told you my daughter dance skated and competed all over the place. We went to this one competition in South Carolina, which is about a four hour drive from our house. It rained, and rained! We got there and their parking lot was gravel with pot holes full of mud. Yeah, you know what's coming! As we were walking across the parking lot her skate box came open and in the middle of a puddle went her skates. What a way to start a day and it didn't get any better! Several of the girls in her division travel and wind up competing against each other at most of the competitions. This competition was no different. My daughter liked to skate last, she felt it gave her an edge. She would see the level of difficulty the other skaters had in their routines and she would know how hard she had to try. When it came her turn, she went to plant her toe stop to do a jump, and hit something on the floor, which caused her to loose footing and she fell hard. She got up finished her routine then skated over and picked up a button from another girls costume and skated off the floor. She place fifth that day, for a regional that wasn't bad. It did make for a long ride home.