Roller Skating and Patience

Yesterday I took Nicole roller skating. Now this should be a fun and relatively simple undertaking, but of course, it didn't turn out that way. It took an hour, yes, you read that correctly, to successfully get a pair of roller skates on.

First, a preference was cited for roller blades. Yes, I am now absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt convinced that Nicole needs her own pair of roller blades. That means I might only need to suffer through one more lengthy episode of finding skates that feel comfortable.

The roller blades in her size were adjustable from size 1 to 3, and I think we had them adjusted to every mm in between. Then the tongue in, tongue out, flap in, flap out, too tight, too loose and every combination in between. Finally a determination was made that they didn't feel good and we needed to go to the old fashioned kind. Of course we tried three sizes before finding a pair of those that fit too.

Then we needed to lace them. Too loose, too tight. Not loose enough. Not tight enough. One hour before she got out skating. I am not kidding.

And somehow I stayed sane and patient through it all, and I'm not kidding about that, either. I don't even think I let out a single exasperated sigh, although I probably came close. So it either means that I am developing more patience (thought it would never, ever happen) or I truly am becoming less multi task oriented, which would become a good thing. Why? So that when I am with others they feel my interest and presence, so that I am not as scattered, and that I am not living life as a whirling dervish. I am trying to slow down, take each moment and add lots more white space and margins to my life, and value relationships over all else.

So today I flew down to Florida with the girls for three days of what I hope will be fun. We will have two days at the Nick Hotel, and two days at Disney, and all as a result of supporting the Big Brothers Big Sisters Auction. Win Win all around. Fundraising for them, an unbelievable deal for us. My only comment about flying is that TSA must be getting lax because 3-1-1 must have gone out the window as we got through with several tubes of 4 oz. sunscreen. Yes, I knew it was over sized, but risked it anyway, and they created a security breach by letting us through.