in all the flurry of thinking about how i'm planning to wring andrea's neck for that godawful placing on saturday and what kind of explosion was trying to take place inside my skull that night, i forgot to mention the most amazing thing that happened at the meet.
there was a little girl competing with only one arm.
this kid did a beautiful cartwheel on the beam, which was why i looked at her in the midst of the meet, and then i realized she hadn't done a one-hand cartwheel for difficulty - she just only had one hand.
let me tell you, a one-handed cartwheel on a beam is pretty fucking hard to do even when you've got the option of putting that other hand down. in seven (?) years, i've taught one athlete to do it, and i sure as hell can't do it myself.
she did a front handspring on the floor. with one hand. i just about wet my pants.
apparantly, according to the kids who caught on long before any of us did, she even did a bar routine. i'll be buggered if i can figure out how, but she did it.
and this poor little girl, every time she did anything, the crowd just went nuts and fell all over itself clapping and cheering and hollering - and she just kind of looked around like, "what? what'd i do?" she didn't seem to understand how impressive what she was doing was. totally oblivious. she was a doll.
by comparison, some of the kids with two arms with the gigantic attitudes ought to have taken notes, not to mention their crazed parents. don't even get me started about parents from this weekend. i very nearly slapped some who weren't even mine.