Due to the lack of decent ice time for those of us who must work in order to remain on said ice, I have returned to the thankless job of being Ice Monitor for the Sunday morning sessions at the rink in Manhattan. Thankless is the key word here.
This Sunday was the first real morning and I received "attitude" from a new parent. When I asked him if he had purchased a card for his lovely little darling, he snapped that he would take care of it later. I asked if his child was skating both sessions and the asshole gave me the hand. He had to watch his darling daughter while she had her lesson. Her coach, the father informed me, told her she could skate this session. I reminded him that it wasn't free and that he had to settle-up BEFORE his daughter took the ice. Again I got the hand.
He settled up with another monitor; one who, I suppose, didn't want to kick his ass for his attitude.
As he was waiting for his daughter to take off her skates, I loudly said, "I'm a volunteer and I don't take crap from anybody. I'm an adult; I don't have to."
If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: THIS IS NOT MY HOME CLUB!
I had a lesson on the second session and perhaps from having to walk back and forth so much, or the amount of champagne I drank (love champagne - drink of choice) or the fashion show I attended the day before, regardless, my timing was slightly off. An ill-timed movement of my arms in a jump sent a searing amount of pain through my shoulders. It's amazing how a new pain can cause your eyes to tear when you least expect it. Jump landed; shoulders screaming.
Side bar: didn't tear rotor cuffs; just strained them severely. There's something else wrong with them, but I forget what it's called. All I know is: better living through chemistry!
Session ended, one of the higher level skaters complained about two or three of the lower test skaters who skate through a special program in upper Manhattan. Okay, it's Harlem. The Novice Lady insisted that the uptown girls kept getting in her way; her mother chimed in that they (uptown skaters) needed to "stay where they're supposed to" (she meant the west side of the rink). However, the more she said it, the more my blood began to boil. Her darling daughter constantly got in my way during my lesson. This child saw me in the air and decided to stop right where I was about to land (I landed anyway; she moved). And the true culprits of horseplay on the ice were 2 new girls on the session, NOT the uptown skaters. I finally said that her comments were bordering on racist. Although I was told no, and I corrected the mother about the skaters, I will always have these comments in the back of my head.
Figure skating is expensive, yes. But it doesn't have to be an elitist sport. It's the snotty-ass bitches who try to make this an elitist sport. Personally, I'm sick of the attitude.
The club isn't doing well financially, probably because of that elitist attitude. Either way, I had some ideas to get additional skaters (adults) on the ice. Must wait until regional competitions are over to have the club president bounce them off the rest of the board.
Can't blame a girl for trying.
