Nick and I have been busy as usual. We trotted down to the Columbus area this Saturday to watch our cousin, Sue Borchers, coach her Varsity girls basketball team in Granville. We met up with family and had a great time in the stands sitting together. Bill Borchers had a very healthy processed cheese and oversalted tortilla chip snack while Tim, Kelly’s hub, chopped down a questionable looking Reesie cup. With eating habits like that, you’d wonder how Sue manages such a wondrously athletic and successful life.
Sue Borchers coaching her Aces
Nick and I left immediately after the game to head back to Cleveland for my Christmas present – tickets to the US Figure skating Championship! It was freaking cool as all get out. I’d never been to anything like this before and I was moderately excited. But then once you saw the skaters, the amazement went to a whole other level.
As you can imagine, Nick and I have a combined knowledge score of ZERO when it comes to figure skating. Although, I do follow it when it’s on, I have a working and basic intelligence of different jumps, technical elements, and a general Who’s Who among the stars.
The top 25 or so skaters are separated into 4 groups with the lowest scorers going first. These skaters are grand and wonderful but when they fell, fell flat on their stomachs, sprawling in ungraceful splats on the ice and causing big a OOOHHHHHHHH from the crowd. They were allowed five minute warm-ups and it was so neat to watch them practice.
AND THEN the top 10 were on. The difference between groups CANNOT BE STRESSED IN A BLOG. It is drastic, to put it mildly. Even the difference between the top 4 skaters is so radical from the top 6-10 spots. The first difference is the SPEED of the skaters. The top 5 or so skate at a speed that makes me wonder if they are all on crack, or some version of crack for figure skaters. They are so much faster than the other skaters, it’s unbelieveable. When they fall, it STILL looks graceful. And I cannot imagine how controlled and strong they have to be to get up and keep going with the world watching them.
The winner was a student from Bowling Green! GO OHIO!
Nick and picked our favorites and they changed every 20 minutes or so. (We have no loyalties…) and when we became snobby enough to criticize and offer feedback after a performance, it was in the sophisticated manner of, “Can you believe she fell twice? Get it together, girl!” Or Nick’s in depth analysis, “Is it just me, or did she just seem kinda tired?”
Regardless, it was a magnificent gift. I suggest that, someday, you attend an event that you normally would not get tickets to, but you like watching on television. Seeing it in person brings it to a whole other level.
Not Sue Borchers