Another One In The Books

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Does this thing still work? Can I put words here? I THINK MAYBE I CAN!

And that, my friends, is what it looks like when we're out of town for a cheer competition. Things turn real quiet, but somehow I still manage to post. And now I have all of the things to catch up on! Let's start with the important thing: cheer competition.

Look, I have really strong opinions about being plopped in a convention center with literally thousands of cheerleaders wearing glitter and sparkles and REALLY big hair. I keep all of those opinions to myself (mostly) because MY KID IS ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE OMG. I know I've asked this several thousand times, but how did that happen? I still don't understand.

Regardless, Alexis is a beast on the mat. This year's national competition was no exception. She and her entire team showed up, did the best they could have done, and walked off the mat with zero deductions. Apparently that's good? I don't know how cheer scoring works, but they were pretty happy with their performance.

Alexis, as usual, was money. The thing that doesn't get mentioned enough is that the kid has a WICKED work ethic. She will put in the hours to get things perfect because she can't stand to be less than perfect. It works for her. I honestly can't think of a single time that she hasn't nailed her performance when on a stage, which is exactly how she earned her way to front and center at cheer.

It's also why the rest of the day was so confusing.

For reasons I will never understand, Alexis' team didn't compete until late at night. As in, she didn't have to be there until 5:45 and then stood around for HOURS before hitting the mat, so she had an entire day to do anything else. We chose to use that anything else time at Universal Studios, which should have been a solid distraction.

It wasn't.

Alexis spent the entire day acting a nervous mess. If I weren't lazy, I'd go back and bold and italicize the word "mess" because HOOBOY WAS SHE A MESS. Alexis was visibly nervous, which turned into out loud nervous, which turned into STOP IT, KID. YOU GOT THIS. She seriously drove me nuts worrying. Cheer is a team sport; all she can do is her own personal best and hope the rest of it comes together.

She couldn't do that, though. Nope. She had to stress and worry and bite her nails and freak out and blurgh. She was annoying. ANNOYING. There was no moment when it was more apparent than the moments after I finally said, " We need to head to the hotel so you can change."

Did you know Alexis is capable of being an Olympic-caliber speed walker? I KNOW IT NOW. The kid may have walked to the car, mostly because I kept yelling at her to walk, but she did so FAST. There were several points as we trudged through a parking garage when I almost bailed on the kid. She was moving so fast that I was a sweaty mess and it seemed like maybe I should just stop and eat some ice cream or donuts or something instead of dragging my butt all the way to the car.

Eventually I got there, though.

Er, later. Much later. In fact, I didn't get there until a full five minutes later than Speedy Fluffycheerbutt. Some day she will tell the tale of how her very old mom slowly trudged through a parking garage, torturing her with slowness, but I'm going to hit her with my walker and tell her to get off my lawn when it happens.

I don't run for cheer competitions. Period.

I do run to see my kid in her element. Always. Alexis was in her element and it was fantastic and I'm super proud of how hard she's willing to work, even if she chooses to focus that energy on toe touches and duck lips and such. She's a swell kid.