Don’t Cry. Its Just Figure Skating.

I mean come on, who would cry when they saw figure skating?

Who? Well, the person writing this blog entry. As I’ve probably mentioned on this blog before, I am out of control obsessed with the Olympics, summer more so than winter, but winter equally. I mean summer features gymnastics, a sport that never stops thrilling me and swimming that features a man-fish named Michael Phelps.

Not that the Winter Olympics lacks for drama. There is skiing and of course figure skating. Figure skating during the time of the Cold War was the stage where the socialist system was to be proven to be the correct system. And they had some spectacular skaters, male and female. I’ve been watching figure skating since Scott Hamilton won the gold medal in Sarajevo. I watched the dueling Brians in Calgary. And Tonya and Nancy. I remember where I was when I saw the news about that. I was in 11th grade, home sick with the flu.

OK, enough about the my particular obsessions. Last night I went to Stars on Ice at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. Given my long standing obsession with figure skating, it would be a natural thing for me to watch of course. But the show was absolutely out of this world.

It started with the skaters doing an entire number to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, which is in my opinion one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. Watching it and the following numbers, I slowly noticed that I had a tear in my eye. I looked over at my friends. Almost everyone else was crying. I thought I would go there to see the grace and style of the skaters, but I never thought their performances would carry so much emotion with them.

It was wonderful to watch skaters I have seen on television for years, including the AMAZING Evan Lysacek but the absolute stars of the night were Meryl Davis and Charlie White. I remembered them from the Olympics and how sweet they seemed with their moms watching their performances. There were tons of teenage girls in the audience, in love with both of them. By the end, whenever Charlie came on, the women I was with yelled out “marry me Charlie” whenever finished skating. I would never do something so juvenile. No, I’m totally kidding. I did it too.

I walked out of there thinking “I want to go to one of these shows everyday for the rest of my life.”

Let’s see some pictures from last night. Of course there are a ton, but who can really resist Charlie White? Nobody. I dare you to. Even if you can resist him, check out the photos anyway: