A Dirty Little Secret

You know, my daughter is a lovely, little girl. She's just got a sweet little smile and a kind spirit, and really, she's just a lovely little girl. And oh, she loves to dance. I mean, LOVES to dance. And with this, she's developed the nasty little secret of all dancers: smelly feet.

Her feet and dance shoes smell to high heaven. They smell like a cross between rancid fruit and a dead animal. One whiff will gag a sanitation worker. Over the last couple of years, this issue has gotten progressively worse. It's to the point where I don't let her take her dance shoes off in my car. She can take them off in the studio and safely stow them in her dance bag or she can wear them in the car and take them off in her room, with the door closed and put them in her room, but she may not take them off in my car as the smell will remain for a minimum of 3 days.

So, last night, she had a 30 minute rehearsal. She came out of the class and handed me her shoes and I nearly lost my lunch. And disaster of all disasters...she hadn't brought her dance bag. Now, I considered forcing her to hang her shoes out the window while I drove as fast as possible the 10 miles home. The problem was if she dropped a shoe, it would be tragic: she's competing Saturday and new shoes in competition are bad, very bad. I thought about wrapping them in plastic, but I didn't have any and I really didn't want to open the plastic when we got home. Then, I struck on the best solution. She could wear them in the car and I could drive the Dad's car until the stench cleared in mine.

If you saw me cruising around in the Dad's car today, now you know why. I wasn't really trying take care of his car. I was avoiding mine. I don't know if there's a solution to this little secret, but let me tell you...if you ever go back stage with a group of dancers, you will smell exactly what I'm talking about and it will be a memorable experience.