Hi everyone!! I am in Dallas for the weekend and had a chance to skate at the Dr. Pepper Starcenter in Duncanville. They have very nice ice!

Anyway, this was the first time my sister has been able to see me ice skate (we both used to roller skate). She was hanging out back and watching me through the glass. This is probably a good time to point out that my sister is almost 2 years younger than I am.

She came in to tell me that one of the skating mom's had congradulated her on her DAUGHTER'S skating! ;-) My sister was not amused ;-) When I saw the woman out there, she said she thought I was a 16 year old skater! WOW! I guess I wasn't skating like an adult, eh?

Hugs!!
Danielle

ps) My sister has sworn me to secrecy with our family, I can tell them about being a 16 year-old, but not the daughter part ;-)

You go, Dani!

Remind your sister that there was distance involved in this mistake.

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Dani,
Well we just missed each other! I normally skate at the DR Pepper Star Center in Euless and we had no ice this morning because of a hockey tournament. We almost went to Duncanville but at the last minute decided to go up to BlueLine as that is where I'm taking my Gold Moves in two weeks and since its an olympic size rink I wanted the chance to get used to it. Shouldn't have bothered as they were using the freestyle session for a tryout for a Christmas show and there were 40 or more basic skills skaters on the ice! Are you going tomorrow?

Tell your sister Dani, not to be too upset about the mix up. I once went through customs between China and Hong Kong and had the customs man ask if I was travelling with my parents. Only thing - I was travelling with my aunt and my older (but only by three years) sister! I just laughed, and when I reached my family, I said "Hi Mum, Hi Dad!"
Anyhow, congratulations on the compliment. It's always so nice to hear something like that said by a stranger.

Sorry, I fly back to Florida tomorrow morning! I met two coaches there, Monica and Terry, who were both quite cool! (Even if Terry is pulling for the enemy ;-)

Boomer Sooner!
Danielle

Actually, she was standing right next to my sister!

What a great compliment!! I'd be thrilled if someone mistook me for "one of the kids." Usually they mistake me for "one of the moms."

But you were on the ice!

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Too funny!!!!

Must have been your youthful exuberance on the ice!!!


I think I've finally reached the age where I'm never mistaken for someone younger.

The worst part of my looks is that I have a resemblance to U.S. Congressman Dick Gephart (Democrat). I'm Republican and he's older than me.

I can't tell you how many times I've been asked if I were he. Even had to show someone that worked on his local campaign committee my drivers license to prove I wasn't him.

People always think I am 10 years or so younger than I am and I take it as a compliment. One skating mother once said "I thought you were like 18 when you were skating but then I saw you up close and realized you were older. " She didn't mean it as an insult but it was funny!! So I just said, "Yeah about 20 years older" and laughed.

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Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.
Maurice Setter

I had a similar situation too...

At my first (and so far only) competition, I was all dolled up with makeup and hair put up, etc. One of the skating moms (who doesn't know my age, but I skate with her now 10 year old kid) said that I now "look more mature... more like my age...like my late 20's." Boy, did I laugh!!! (I was 33 then!) Then I said I hate to think how old you think I was when I'm out on the ice with my ponytail. She said I look like an older teenager.

Another story...

I was walking into the rink in my usual jazz pants outfit to the rink. A couple of young teenage boys (about 13-14...sounds like their voice has changed a bit but it's still changing) were picking on me and trying to get me to "kiss him" (along with some other less platonic comments about how tight my jazz pants were...) I was not amused at the time...but now thinking about it, it was quite funny since I was old enough to be their mom.

Cheers,
jazzpants

I do think that skating keeps us looking young - perhaps it's all that cold air is good for us? I could have sworn my first coach was only in her twenties, yet she was nearing retirement - you couldn't tell by her face, only by her slightly arthritic fingers. And my present coach's wife is notorious for looking like a teenager, but she is in her early 30s.

But a skating friend of mine turns out, to my surprise, to be 63 - I would have sworn she was 20 years younger than that!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I was at the other end of a similar situation. I have a beautiful 30 year old sister who is a model. I'm only 3 years older, but I'm overweight and don't usually put much effort into my make up, hair, clothes, etc, so I sometimes feel a bit intimidated when I'm with her.

This past summer my husband and myself decided to treat her to a vacation with us and our daughter to Disneyworld. We were at one of the parks and one the photographers at the entrance asked if we would like to have our picture taken and we said yes. Afterwards she asked if we would like one of the children only. I was like what children? There's only one kid (my 6 year old daughter). Then the lady said "isn't the other one your daughter also?" I almost died. Then when we went to pick up the pictures the guy who printed commented on how pretty our daughters were.

Needless to say, I felt miserable the rest of the day. However, one good thing came out of the experience. I decided to go on a diet and put a little more effort on my appearance.

I am sorry about that experience! :-( In all seriousness, I made sure that my sister realized that this was entirely a compliment about my skating and not a comment about her at all. I think I succeeded. It is scary to me when people really mean well and can ruin someone's day.

I am glad there was a positive outcome! How is the diet working out? Are you happy with the results?

Hugs!
Danielle

I hate when that happens.

Similar story. Back when I was married, we were moving into a new house. The movers had finished unloading all of our stuff and the foreman of the crew asked me "when is your baby due?"

Unfortunately, my wife wasn't pregnant at the time.

Fortunately, she was just out of earshot when he said it.

She put on quite a few pounds after we got married.

I know that when people say those things they mean well, but they can really hurt someone's feelings. I can also relate to Gary's anecdote and I'm glad his wife didn't hear it.

Two years ago a nurse asked me to leave my grandfather's sickbed because she thought I was pregnant and could catch his pneumonia. I know she was only trying to be nice, and I later felt awful about snapping back at her that I was not pregnant, I was just very fat. However, when you are overweight you tend to get very defensive about things like that.

Anyway, I lost about 38 pounds after that little incident, but I've gained back about 15 in the past 9 months. I went on a diet again about a month ago and I've lost only 2 pounds, but at least my clothes fit better.

Don't know if this will help, but I've lost 45 pounds through Weight Watchers combined with skating. Recently, I gained 4 pounds back while hosting visitors, took it off, and then regained it. I have now gotten rid of 2 of those and have figured out something that really works for me. On days that I don't skate, I am very strict about what I eat. On days that I skate, I allow myself an extra treat, or just relax a bit about what I eat. I think this is working because the skating allows me to let up a bit and not feel deprived. For me, that feeling of deprivation just makes me want to eat more. Even on days when I don't feel up to much on the ice, I do lots of crossovers and swizzles/dips to burn up the calories. Re the pregnancy thing, someone in my office once asked me if I were expecting back when I was very thin and had put on maybe 3 pounds. At this point, I'm old enough that I don't have to worry about that kind of mistake

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Unless you have a medical problem, losing weight comes down to:

Burning more calories than you take in.
In other words, diet and exercise (it takes both).

A few years ago I found out I was diabetic. I was 6'-1" tall (still am) and weighed 193 lbs. My doctor told my that I needed to lose weight (huh!!!!). He put me on a 1600 calorie per day diet recommended by the American Diabetes Association. He also told me that I needed to exercise.

I had all of the motivation in the world as finding out I was diabetic scared me.

In the first month, I worked out on either the weight bench or the treadmill every night and stayed strictly to the diet. By the end of the month, I was down to 172 lbs (looking gaunt and drawn).

Since then, I've been able to control my diabetes with a single pill a day and watching what I eat. I'm not on a strict diet, but try not to intake more than 2000 calories a day. I still occasionally go out to restaurants and don't feel guilty eating a little extra. My current weight is 184 lbs and I'm happy there.

I'll probably lose a few more pounds after I get my shoulder/rotator cuff back in shape and can get back on the weight bench again. In the meantime, my exercise is my skating.

It'a amazing what a little fear can do to motivate you.