sk8r gurl

Last night I had to meet someone for dinner at 6 pm. I knew that I would have to rush home afterwards to get home by 8. Only, I wasn't concerned about the Olympics and the Women's Figure Skating Short Program. I had to watch American Idol. It's down to the top 24, man!

(The ladies quite disappointed me and it is clear that there are only a few front-runners including Mandisa, Paris Bennett, Lisa Tucker, and Nanny McPhee, with the rest of the girls being extremely forgettable. I have much higher hopes for the guys this season so I am stoked for tonight's episode.)

As I was watching Randy, Paula, and Simon, I vaguely recalled that Figure Skating was supposed to be on television, but I shrugged it off. The little girl that I used to be would NEVER miss an Olympic Figure Skating competition. Who have I become? Am I really more concerned with American Idol which is on two or three times a week for about 4 months of every year, than I am with the most prestigious competition in the world that only comes around once every four years? Heck yes, I am! If you would have told my 12 year old self that this would happen, I would have been appalled. I have very fond memories ("Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories...and we've already missed the spring!") of watching the Olympics, particularly figure skating and gymnastics, with my mom and sister. My sister and I would pretend to be the commentators ("Oh, she missed that triple axle ever so slightly, No! No! It's over, that mistake was HUGE!") but we really had no clue what we were talking about. Can anyone really tell the difference between a triple axle, a triple flip, a double toe, or a triple lutz? I certainly can't, but my gosh, I know a Pamchenko when I see one!

Is the problem really me or is it because there are no figure skaters this year with the likeability factor? Sasha Cohen? She is to me the Dominique Moceanu of figure skating. Meaning, I was over her before she even began. Granted, Sasha Cohen does not rank as low as Tara Libiteme, but she is no Michelle Kwan either. I like to think that had Michelle still been in the competition, I would have cared last night. But what happened to the days when we had competitors like Kristi Yamaguchi, Nancy Kerrigan, and Tonya Harding ALL IN THE SAME COMPETITION? Those were the good days. The days when all of the world tuned in to see who was going to get clubbed. I distinctly remember cutting out pictures of Nancy and Kristi and putting them in my school notebooks (not Tonya, I never liked her even before she hired some dude to take Nancy out...maybe it was the bad dye job and 80's bangs?). Are the Olympics losing their luster? Is it because I am older and seeing Olympic hopefuls born in 1989 (the "old" athletes were born in 1984) just depresses me? Or maybe it's because the Olympic routine changed in the early 90's and we got 2 Winter Olympics within 2 years, so we cared more. Or, OR, maybe it's because I can look the winners up on the internet long before the program even airs and I don't have to sit through any Bob Costas fireside chats, anxiously awaiting the next pop-up in the bottom right corner telling me how many minutes are left until the Figure Skating competition starts.