No Parking on the Dance Floor

Lori Doss was such a part of my own high school experience that I have few memories that don’t include her. For example, when we both worked on Saga, she’d ask me to reach the 3R box (the box of forms we used to draw layouts), which was kept on top of a tall storage cabinet. At the end of the school year, Lori gave me an award called “Reach the 3R Box? No Prob!” in a custom recognition event that Mrs. Manetta designed.

Phew: how do I remember these things? I think I still have that award. Anyway, wouldn’t you rather read about Lori’s beautiful daughter? Her email is the rest of this post:

I have been reading and keeping up with everyone on the blog. Could we ever have imagined the paths our lives would take?

I don’t know that my life has been very exciting, but here it is. After graduation, I went to LSU for a couple of years. My parents transferred to Virginia, and I soon followed. I married in 1991. We moved to South Carolina, and I continued my education at the University of South Carolina. A year later, we moved to St. Pete Beach, Florida. I had my daughter, Kiersten, in 1994. Bliss turned into turmoil, and I divorced in 2001. Kiersten and I moved to Winter Haven, Florida, and we continue to live here with my parents.

I taught kindergarten for several years, but I now spend the majority of my time being a mom and helping my parents. (They still have their air conditioning business.) I long ago traded in that 1984 red convertible I used to drive in high school, and I am now an SUV-driving carpool mom.

My daughter, Kiersten, will be 12 in May, and she keeps all of us quite busy. She has been a member of a competition dance team since the age of 7. Kiersten and her teammates are the 2005 first overall national dance champions in all categories competed: small group, large group, super group, and duet/trio—that one was Kiersten and her duet partner! She now dances 5-6 days a week for an average of 4 hours a day.

I pick up 7 middle school girls from school several days a week and drive them a couple of blocks to the dance studio. I often hear them having the same conversations about school, boys, complaints, etc. that I remember having with my friends. Some things never change!

On top of the competitive dance team, we also have to fit in the school dance team, the school spring musical, and the usual homework and social life. To top it off, she is on the principal’s list (no grades lower than a 94). Added to the schedule is the daily health care routine and doctor appointments: Kiersten has cystic fibrosis.

Well, that’s about it in a nutshell: short and sweet. The forwarded pictures are one of Kiersten in mid-air taken by a dance photographer. The other is of her in her usual school uniform and ponytail headed out the door in the morning. And the third one is of her and her friend Chloe. Kiersten is the short one.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I will be able to make it to the reunion. I will certainly have all of you in my thoughts!