Last night was the return of Hockey, so I decided today would be my return to Blogging! Speaking of hockey I went to the game last night and Panthers won! Woo Hoo! When we pulled up to the arena we noticed how many cars were turning into the handicap entrance. We parked and walked up the walkway towards the entrance. You have to walk past the handicap parking to get to the entrance. Since when did being obese grant you up close parking. There were so many extremely large people getting out of there cars and the only thing wrong with them was that they were large. No other handicap. This really pissed me off when I noticed that the lot for handicap parking was full and a gentleman had pulled up in a van that was carrying two kids in wheelchair's and now he had to park in the regular parking, far from the entrance. Now I am no skinny Minnie, but being large is not a handicap. We then go inside and we sit in our seats, when a very large mother and son sit down. So I know the argument that some large people can't help being big, because of these two examples. I have a cousin that is on a competitive ski team and has rode her bike several times from PA to DC over 300 miles! Now she is a bigger women, about 200lbs. She is still this big even though she is more active than anyone I know, but even though she is naturally big, she has never used it as a handicap. The second is myself. I coach cheerleading, ride my bike 10 miles three times a week, walk about 4 miles twice a week, and swim laps once a week. Even with all this exercise I still weigh 160 and I watch what I eat, I have never used this as a handicap. Now back to the women and her son that sat in front of me. When they sat down they were breathing so hard that I thought I was going to have to call the paramedic for them. In the first period of the game they both each ate a hotdog, a personal pan pizza, and a pretzel. They washed that down with the largest coke they had at the arena. After the intermission the came back to their seats, wheezing harder then before. They now each had a cookie (very large Otis S. Kind), shared a tub of popcorn, shared a bag of peanuts and washed it down with two more extra large sodas. Now it the end of the second intermission and I can hear her talking to the usher of the section. She is explaining that she doesn't feel that she can make it back up the stairs to her seat - three rows up, about 10 steps - can she please just sit in the handicap seats that are at the bottom of the section. Now there were two available and the usher said yes, but what pissed me off is that when they sat down, the each had another pizza and the 3 foot twizzler that the sell there and washed it down with another extra large coke. Just because you are large you are not handicapped. And just because you are lazy, you are not handicapped. So what if you can exercise and never loss weight keep it up so that you can walk from the regular lot to the entrance, and you can go up the 10 steps to get to your seat. With continues hope - Mel.