Well things continue to move along here! The year is in full swing. We’ve just had Fall Family Festival weekend at the end of October, and are gearing up for fall Community Day and our President’s Reception Open House this month. I’ll tell you more about the November events in my next post.
Many of our students and their families come together on campus for Fall Family Festival weekend for some good times. For our freshmen, it may be the first time they’ve been reunited with family since arriving at SLU in August. The weekend was held October 24-26 and included events like a faculty/staff vs. students sports day, dinners, a comedian, a theatrical performance of Ubu Roi, a student talent show, and the Harvest Moon Festival. The weekend concluded on Sunday with a lakeside mass and final brunch. Although I didn’t personally attend many of the events, it was fun to see the freshmen wandering around campus giving their parents the ‘grand tour’ from their new perspective as Saint Leo students!
As for me, I’m continuing to do better every day. It’s a slow process…a lot of two steps forward, then one step (or sometimes three steps) back. But we’re getting there. The past few weeks have been fun for us as a family as we spent my birthday evening in Orlando at Universal Studios. We had dinner at the Hard Rock café, where I got to explain the significance of the Berlin Wall to my daughter as the café has a piece of it on display outside the restaurant. We followed that with a performance by Blue Man Group at the adjacent Sharp Aquos theater. If you’ve never been to see them, you should absolutely go. They were AMAZING! My daughter was selected to go on stage to participate in one of the skits, and returned home with a set of blue fingerprint-stained drumsticks as a result! It was a lot of fun, and this birthday seemed to have extra significance this year given what’s been going on in my life!
Annie and I enjoy Universal Studios CityWalk on my birthday!
After being thoroughly TP'd at Blue Man Group!
But the best event of recent weeks was definitely the horse show! Annie and I both made debuts at our local Harvest Days Horse Show in Tampa. I drove Narcisse (aka ‘Emmy’) for the first time. We made a few mistakes, as she is being shown in a new division and is still adjusting to some of the different rules in that class, but she was one of the most talked about horses at the show! Let me tell you, it is fun when you hear people talking about ‘that gorgeous black driving horse’ and know they’re talking about YOUR horse! We didn’t win, but for our first trip in the ring, we did just fine. Now we know what we need to focus on over the winter and we’ve gotten the ‘first show jitters’ out of the way! Next show will be in March, and I can hardly wait.
Me with Narcisse in our debut performance. And yes, she is black. She had to be body clipped before the show because her hair was woolly (think black chia pet), so she has a sort of grey cast to her in this pic.
But the crowning event was my daughter’s debut with her horse Answered Prayer (aka ‘Fred’). This was nerve-wracking as it was going to be her first time showing off of a lead line, completely under her own control. Her horse is wonderful, but he is still a big (17 hands) high-powered show horse so there was some slight worry he might get too pumped up in the show ring atmosphere and make her too nervous to handle it. It’s impossible to simulate the horse show environment when you are training at home, so that is always the ‘X Factor’ when you get to the horse show! But I’m happy to report that she did a beautiful job…she had a few minor mistakes and didn’t place as highly as we’d hoped, but she had a solid, safe and most importantly – FUN – ride! Her grandmother, father and I both survived the occasion without any chemical intervention. I joked with several people who were confessing that they’d missed most of Annie’s ride as they were too busy watching me at railside instead. I explained that I was absolutely in agreement with the philosophy of preaching ‘Don’t Do Drugs!’ to our kids, but that in cases like this I felt it was probably highly advisable and in some cases medically necessary for parents watching their children show to take whatever was necessary to keep from throwing up, passing out or causing any other disturbance or embarrassment. Once the class was over and I was watching her waiting in the lineup for the awards, I was totally overcome with pride at how far she has come, and with [WARNING: SHAMELESS PARENTAL BRAGGING AHEAD!] the natural talent she possesses, how far she may be able to go if she sticks with it!
Annie on Answered Prayer at her debut horse show on November 1, 2008. All three generations of us - kinda cool! She's actually the sixth generation of our family to be involved with horses!
So the bottom line is that this was really the first time I truly looked at her as a young lady, not my ‘little one’ anymore. That is probably partially to do with the fact that her stirrups are just two holes shorter than mine (not saying much, I have the world’s shortest legs for someone my height) and that she was wearing my jodhpur boots (yes, I am sharing shoes with my 10 year old). And of course, it was the first time she’d been in full makeup (eyeliner, mascara, lipstick, blush) – and for those of you worried I’m turning her into another JonBenet, it is customary for children who are riding to wear makeup, sort of like being in a stage performance or in figure skating – because they are far away from the judges and spectators so it helps their features to stand out. Trust me, we were both happy when she could scrub ‘that stuff’ off her face later on in the day!
Annie all set to ride (except for her coat) with 'that stuff' on her face!
But I am realizing more and more every day how important these milestones are, and how they seem to be coming faster and faster. I am just certain that when I wake up next week it will be time for her first dance, next month will be her prom, and next year she’ll be graduating and getting ready to head off for college herself. Where does the time go? I’m sure any of you parents reading this are sympathetic to my feelings. And to the students reading this…don’t worry. One day you’ll be a parent and I promise you will understand! It’s hard to let your kids grow up, partially because you guys are just so darned cute when you’re little (that, and we can actually pull off putting you in ‘time out’ and you’ll forgive us), and partially because it means WE are getting old…er. So students, take it easy on the folks. This upcoming change is a big adjustment for them too.
