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As a person who thinks of herself as an ally for those who are not treated equally in this world because they aren’t white or heterosexual, I am constantly infuriated with white people who make up attacks on themselves to cover up their crimes or issues, and then blame black males (race-baiting). Back in the day, it was Susan Smith, who drowned her two children in South Carolina. Then, the Runaway bride from Georgia. Today it’s a mentally ill woman who claimed she was attacked for supporting John McCain when she just made the whole story up for whatever reason. Here’s the story.
Face your own issues, stupid people, I want to say.
Well, I’m done coaching cheerleading for the seaosn. Last night was our last game. Don’t even get me started on how sad I am the season’s over. Because I am very sad. I miss the girls already, plus if we had more time together, they could keep accomplishing more stunts, etc.
C-A-T-S
Let’s list out the season’s accomplishments, shall we?
In 10 weeks, our squad:
- Learned and performed 5 (maybe 6) different dances, including one for homecoming with Varsity.
- Got three straddle basket tosses.
- Tumbled in the dances and on the track (including the very cool standing back handspring ripple line that ended with SG’s standing back tuck!
- Learned 30+ cheers/chants
- Cheered in 9 games (two were one quarter of a varsity game)
- Created a 5 1/2 minute long dance that the entire squad choreographed in small groups.
- One stunt group mastered their twist off cradle from a half – as sophomores, I bet they can get a full twist off next season as juniors!
Three members of the squad compete with the gym where the school’s squads attend cheerleading camp, adding expertise to our team.
10 of out 15 girls can tumble beyond a round-off. Two girls can do aerials (a round-off with no hands) and two can do round-off back handspring back tucks consistently. One can do a standing back tuck. I am sure others on the squad can do these things, but probably have to get up their confidence level some more before they can hit these tumbling skills on a regular basis. At any rate, I am pretty sure that of the four squads we have at school, JV Football is the only one with this many girls who can tumble. By the time they reach varsity, they will greatly increase the visual interest level the cheerleaders can offer. I’m excited for them and their coach.
The girls on my squad were so sweet to each other – truly good friends, never exclusive. Many of them told me when I had one-on-one interviews with them in the middle of the season that they’d made new friends they otherwise wouldn’t have gotten a chance to know. Also, I really had fun getting to know their mothers (and some dads!) at the games! It was a wonderful experience all the way around, and I am grateful for the opportunity to coach and get to know these girls.
Amended post:
Here are our three straddle basket tosses (they fliers are doing a toe touch in the air after being thrown out of the basket toss):
It’s been a long time since I posted! Sorry, all three of you who check my blog on a regular basis! I don’t have any hula hooping or burrito stories to share (although I did eat at Willy’s last night as I dig their tofu).
One exciting thing: I voted today! It is always exhilarating to me to vote. Getting to vote early makes me believe that I am saving space in what will be huge lines on November 4. It’s going to be an exciting day, that one!
Also, I went to my 10 year high school reunion. It was fun. It was a bit of a let down in that it wasn’t as widely attended as I had anticipated it would be, plus most of my closer friends were not there. A few were, though, as well as my husband, so that was fun. We schmoozed, mingled, ate, drank, and danced. Once Josef stopped dancing and started looking kind of tuckered out, I danced a little while longer to spend time with my friends but then decided it was time to go home. I think we got back to my parents’ around 11:30 p.m. – such wild partiers are we! 
If you’ve never been to your high school reunion, I encourage you to go. It was funny – I thought, 10 years ago, that I would never go. But curiosity and the confidence in myself I acquired over the last years made me realize it wasn’t a big deal and I should go. I was pretty excited about going and was happy I did. Again, I wish more people had been there, especially for the dancing. Something I never had enough confidence to do in high school was dance at school dances. It wasn’t until college that I realized I wasn’t under a microscope, no one cared if I wasn’t doing some elaborate routine or didn’t have sweet moves, if I thought I was welcome on the dance floor, then I was welcome to be on the dance floor.
Also in exciting news: becoming a teacher is a lot more easily within reach than I had anticipated! More on that later. I have more work to do, like getting my work and experience resume together as well as my high school and college transcripts in hand. I am really energized by the possibilities right now!
Have a great day, all three of you readers!
Every so often – and probably more often than I can recall upon waking – I have a recurring dream about being back in high school. Usually I am a senior, and the constant scenario is that I have been skipping a class, usually history, all year and suddenly it’s dawned upon me that it’s important that I pass this class.
This morning, in a Benedryl-induced sleep, I ventured back in time, yet again, to 10th grade this time. Not only had I been skipping a class, I couldn’t remember if it was history or reading.
Aside: Reading? Who takes reading in high school? I think the last time I took a class called reading was in 7th grade, where I had English and reading back to back with all the other nerds (affectionately said) at the end of the day: a double verbal whammy.
It’s 10th grade in my dream, and I’m at home (have never seen this home before!). I’m running late for the class I’ve never been to all year. I can tell by the time that I have an hour and ten minutes to get there, but I can’t remember if an hour is 60 or 100 minutes OR which class it is OR where it is.
The thought goes through my head that I simply don’t care. Soooo unlike me. Especially back then. I was that kid who wept for a week if I got less than a 95 on something. It wasn’t until 11th grade that I accepted that I wasn’t perfect.
A friend of mine appears in the dream. She’s not actually anyone I know, but she is a classmate and tells me it’s just October so I can easily make up all the work I’ve missed. I don’t believe her.
So now I’m panicking as I am dreaming about running late and why don’t I care and how many minutes are in an hour? Confusion mounts as I search for shoes and the door out of the house, which sprouts passageways and places that seem to be outside but are really part of a treehouse or something? I don’t know.
Fortunately, I woke up before it got any more confusing.
Why do I keep going back to high school? What is my unfinished business? I guess I am not fully excited about the 10 year high school reunion coming up? I thought I was excited, but I guess I’d feel better if more of my close friends were going to be there.
