Top Ten Things I Learned at Nationals

1. The fabric of our lives is apparently rhinestone-studded Lycra. 

2. It is always darkest slightly after midnight when you're trying to find something to eat after spending dawn to dusk in an arena with overpriced and over-fried food.

3. The only true event heroes are the arena ushers who don't hassle you when you're seat-jumping because you don't have a ticket, just a credential that gets you in the door - and to the bathroom.

4. At a certain point, there is no place to hide in the arena except inside your mind because someone will inevitably find you - even in the bathroom.

5. On this "road less traveled," not even AAA can help. There's no accurate Triptik marking the potholes and pitfalls. You're on your own.

6. Occasionally the light at the end of the tunnel is the train; all you can hope for is an adequate siding and the hope that this, too, shall pass.


7. When the ship gets temporarily grounded, skating fans are the only effective life preserver by continually buoying the spirit.

8. It's much sadder than expected to witness the Lost Boys leaving Neverland because it means they are growing up - and you are growing old.

9. There is an eventual end to each chapter of this story; all one can hope for is a last line that reads, "And they lived happily ever after. "

10. Skating is a just a sport. Family is everything. 

...Actually, family is the only thing...