Laura's Dreams Come True

The poor blog has been much neglected over the past couple of weeks. Sorry, dear blog! I have much to share and am not sure where to start. A lot has been happening in my classroom, but I also took a trip back to Omaha for a fun time. My sister, Suzi, has been pestering me to hurry up and write about what we call THE BEST WEEKEND EVER, so I will indulge her wishes and my happy memories. If you do not want to hear about figure skating and my little girl dreams, please stop reading and check back next week. Seriously.

My mom recently asked me how this whole ice skating obsession started, so I will take you back in time for a Laura History Lesson.

I honestly don't know how it started, but I remember as a little girl seeing figure skaters on t.v. Of course the women skaters were my favorite, and Kristi Yamaguchi became my favorite sports star. I remember watching the 1998 Olympics on t.v. and seeing Tara Lipinksi win the gold medal. The front newspaper article the following day showed her screaming as her scores were announced.

Sitting on my grandparents back porch, I used to draw these pop-up pictures of me skating with the audience in the background. I had a Kristi Yamaguchi Wheaties box and a Tara Lipinski poster hanging in my room. Fast forward to Christmas time when I was around nine years old. A couple of weeks before Christmas Day a very large box appeared in the living room addressed to me. I had no idea what was in it, but even more baffling was the fact that it didn't weigh anything. I would pick it up, shake it, but nothing moved inside. Weird. Christmas morning came. The big box was the last one to be opened. I started unwrapping, and inside was..... wait for it.... another wrapped box. I unwrapped the box, and inside... you got it! Another box! This went on and on. To me, it felt like a very long time, although I am sure it was not. How slowly time moves when you are little! As I unwrapped and unwrapped, I became a little irrational. I thought maybe it was a joke. Maybe there was nothing inside! Finally, I came to an envelope. Inside were two tickets to Stars on Ice featuring Tara Lipinski, Kristi Yamaguchi, and Scott Hamilton. I cried. I think it was a mixture of happiness and relief at getting to the bottom of the gift. Later that year, my mom, Aunt Cathy, and I went to the Civic Center in Omaha to see my favorite skaters. We were up in the nose bleeds, but I didn't care. The next year we went again and got better seats. I was hooked.

As the years have gone on, I have jeopardized the t.v. on Sunday afternoons to watch competitions and have annoyed my family by asking them to tape the shows when I am not at home.

My tastes have evolved over the years, and now I love to watch the men and ice dancers the most. For who knows how long now, Evan Lysacek has been my favorite ice skater. Suzi, like in most things, follows after my excellent taste. Propelled by many cheers and screams from Suzi and me in the living room, Evan became National, World, and then Olympic champion. The night of the Olympics I skipped my classes and parked myself on the chair in front of the t.v. My mom fell asleep during the excitement. HOW?!?

Moving on. Suzi and I developed a new life goal: meet Evan Lysacek. Evan joined Stars on Ice that year, and as I had been going more or less regularly in the past, I wanted to keep going, especially with the thought that I could see my favorite skater in action. Wouldn't you know that Stars on Ice wasn't going to go to Omaha that year. So Suzi and I took a little road trip to Kansas City. Evan was also competing on Dancing with the Stars that year and didn't make it to our KC show. Bummer. The next year Stars on Ice didn't even go to KC. We traveled to Chicago. We signed up for the meet and greet hoping to get to meet him. No luck.

About two years go I decided to move to Nicaragua. Plans were almost finalized. Someone came up to me and told me U.S. Figure Skating Nationals were going to be held in Omaha in 2013. I didn't believe him. Nationals haven't been in Omaha since the '70s. If Stars on Ice doesn't come here, there obviously isn't much of a market. I checked the internet anyway. My informant was correct. NATIONALS WERE COMING TO OMAHA. And then it hit me: I wasn't going to be there. I was moving to Nicaragua. It seemed like a serious blow. I move out of the country and Nationals comes to Omaha! My hometown! 10 minutes away! After some moments of despair, and a chat with my parents, we decided that tickets could become my birthday and Christmas present. I decided not to fly home for Christmas so I could use the plane money later.

Oh my. I haven't even told you my main story yet and I have written half my memoir. I need to do some school work and then will continue this story...