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I'm actually writing this in some random town roughly 18 miles from Asheville. I'm not entirely sure of the name, but I'll make it a point to find out before the end of the day. See, the whole reason I'm here is because youngest sister Robin has a gymnastics meet today and I haven't seen her compete in at least five years. That may not be very supportive of me, but allow me to defend myself and state that for 10 years straight, once every two weeks, I wasforced to attend these "Gymnastic meets" of not her, but my other sister Sarah. I don't know if that's enough to justify my lack of attendance in your mind, so I'll just describe these little meets in the worst possible way.
imagine yourself as a ten year old boy sitting in an overly crowded and poorly ventilated gymnasium with no form of entertainment other than eating. Everywhere you turn, there are girls in tight body suits, and I don't mean hot girls... I'm talking about the not legal, 4-11 year-old kind. Anyway, every two minutes when a girl gets ready to compete on the floor, this overbearing out-of-tune piano music starts to play. The tune isn't catchy in the least, and bears a striking similarity to pantomime music. imagine putting up with this particular song for nine hours every other saturday... Do you see now why I decided to stop showing up to these things?
Once my sister got promoted to level six, She was able to select the music that was played when she would have her turn at the floor, but that means nothing! The pantomime music just totally ruined the experience of gymnastics for me. Sarah got as high as level seven, and became a coach after that. Robin was already following in her footsteps, and is on the eve of becoming a level seven herself. Last time I saw Robin at a meet would probably be two years ago when she was but a lowly level 4, so it's been a while.
This morning over breakfast, Robin randomly says to me "So how come you don't come see me compete anymore?" and I'm just blown away. If given the choice to come to one of my band concerts or Quiz bowl competitions back in my high school days, she would always refuse to go... just like I would refuse to go to her gymnastic meets. Still, I felt bad about it. This is my sister we're talking about here, and I should try to be supportive of all her endeavors. (except for that one time when she wanted to toast her poptarts with a magnifying glass and nearly set the house on fire)