Spring Vacation: Day 2 (April 12, 2012)

(Sorry no pictures today! There are some in the linked blogpost though.)

On the second day of our trip we started the morning with chores for Kevin.  His parents had asked him to tile a small area in front of their backdoor.  I suggested we take the kids (my SIL's kids stay with her parents for "daycare" each day she is at school or work) to the children's museum to keep them out of the way, but I don't know if the suggestion was misunderstood (that we do it later when Kevin could go?) or just ignored.  Either way, it worked out fine, because once told, the kids stayed out of the way. 

At some point, Nan had come over- and brought donuts :)  I didn't get to visit too much, as I was on kid duty.

So Kevin tiled, and I played.  C. and R. showed me their toys and we played music- LOUD.  C. likes to turn his music machine up HIGH, and I kept turning it down. The toy drum set we were playing on was loud enough, I didn't need the radio too!  Luckily it was a nice day so we went outside in the backyard.  They have spray bottles and we all sprayed each other.  R. (who is not quite 2) was really cute, as she couldn't get the strength to push the sprayer unless it was facing her!  We all got quite wet!  I was really impressed with C.  He is the only boy I've ever played with (he's 4.5) who didn't turn it into a gun!  I know he plays with guns (and lightsabers) so it was fantastic that we were able to have a water fight without it being a violent thing! 

Now that Kevin was done, we blocked off the tile area and played with play-doh until Jill stopped by from school.  Then we went out for my favorite lunch: Freebirds!

Unfortunately we were not able to stop by to see V. (the new baby) as her other grandmother was in town too, so we spent the rest of the afternoon at Kevin's parents, and then headed out in the early afternoon for our next event.

First, we stopped by our old high school and man has that place changed!  We visited an old teacher both Kevin and I had, and he told her about his PhD. (This was our chemistry teacher- without her, he probably wouldn't have gotten into chemistry- she was fabulous.)  Sadly, the theatre teacher was not there.

Then we made the treck up to Northcross mall (seriously Austin, you have too much traffic! It was only 3:30!) and met up with my Dad for a public skate.  I posted about that here: http://skittles-skates.blogspot.com/2012/04/vacation-skating.html

After skating, we stopped by the Bernina store on Anderson lane and my Dad bought me a rolled hem foot.  Dad and Kevin also waited while I got a 5-minute demo on some machine, so I could get a free Craftsy class.  I have to tell you- I got a good deal on my machine.  This one was clearly lower end, not nearly the same function and no embroidery, and it costs the same as mine did.  Wow. 

Then we went over to The Hills to meet my Mom and went out for sushi.  The dinner was good, but the best part was the appetizer: Kobe Beef Gyoza with goat cheese and a blueberry sauce.  OMG- amazing.  I could have licked the plate.  Afterwards, we headed out for my Dad's favorite: frozen yogurt!

Freeskate Dress

So this was Another weekend filled with glueing rhinestones. This one for. My freeskate program. My intention was to really bling up the red dress and do this one lighter, but apparently I spaced them too far apart on the red dress because the opposite happened. This one has about twice as many stones.



There was no clear way too adorn this dress like the red one, so I did a lot of sparkle on the straps, and then random outlining of the curves of the flowers. My coach had suggested i outline one or.two flowers but it looked weird and fought with the velvet design so I did this instead.



It looks kind of goofy up close, but when I take off my glasses and its a bit blurry, it just adds all over sparkle, so i'm hoping that is how it will translate from a distance.

Competition is this weekend! Then onto quilting! (except next month I am taking two graduate classes, so I will have even less crafting time.)

All Finished (I think)

I usually keep skating updates at my other blog, but this one was crafty, so I thought I'd add it here.

I bought this dress from FigureSkateWear.com You can see the front and back "before" views at their website. I got the stones from Beadsfactory.com their prices were the lowest I found for 10 gross. (I went with Preciosa instead of Swarvoski, as some people say they actually sparkle better from a distance, and well, they are a little bit cheaper. Having seen them side by side with the Swarvoski ones I had from something else (just one or two) I will tell you I can't tell the difference. A warning about Beadsfactory- their shipping is absurd, although, even still the rhinestones were the cheapest I could find, just beware.

I did also order a test cross from an ebay seller that were represented as "crystal, a good substitute for Swarvoski" and while Kevin never took them to the lab to test them, they look like plastic, so I'm glad I didn't go with that avenue- although those were cheap.

I used Crystal AB 20ss, and as I said, ordered 10 gross, although it turns out I would have been fine with 5 gross (I used just under 3 gross for this dress, and wanted some for another dress), so since BeadsFactory only sell by 10 gross, I spent more than I had to. But- who doesn't need rhinestones! I see lots of sparkly decorating in my future.

Doing these dresses took a weekend, as I had to wait for the back to dry overnight to do the front. It was super easy- about 1/3 of a bottle of E6000 and 19 toothpicks were used. There are a few stones where the glueing is a bit wonky, but from a distance they all look good.

What I did on my winter vacation: Part 2

Visit Ice Rinks! And skate at some.

First a good part of the family went skating at the Fritz Diedl rink in Westwood, NJ (I think). My Dad said this is the rink he used to skate at as a kid. My cousin Catie showed off some of her skill (nice jumps! She has a beautiful waltz-loop) and I got to show off my spins (she isn't doing a backspin yet, and mine was functioning nicely). My cousin Julia just started lessons and she showed off her swizzles, and my cousin John is a wanna be hockey player. Other cousins came too, along with some Uncles. My Dad skated with me and it reminded me of when I was little and he would hold my hands so I could skate backward and do spirals at North Cross Mall. I had talked about ice dancing, so we held hands and I showed him how you do the strokes in time to start a dance. Kevin also skated and he did great but had a really bad fall. I don't think he'll be skating again. He doesn't really like it, and his abs hurt for days. Thankfully he didn't hurt his knees.

Then I went skating at Hackensack Ice House. This was a meet up with two ladies from skating forums. It was FREEZING. Probably the coldest rink I've been in. (Seriously don't think I'll do the adult camp. That would be a LONG day in the cold) But on the ice, it wasn't a problem at all. I don't remember being cold at all (and I had feeling in my feet the whole time.) The ice was really hard, but it was very beneficial for my spins- they were centered and long. Very happy Jessi!

Then in New York we visited the Bryant Park rink (so crowded and the ice looked horrible) and the Rockefeller Center rink (not too crowded, suprsingly) but we didn't skate at either.

I'm sad we didn't skate Rockefeller Center, but with Kevin hurt and Dad already getting the chance to skate, it just seemed like way too much money to spend. It's an experience I'm okay without.

I checked the bag with the skates due to the terrorist attack on Christmas day, and I felt that the time with my family and internet friends was well worth it.

Skate Bag

I originally intended for this blog to take over for my skating blog, but I've decided to keep my practice posts over at Skittles Skates on livejournal. But here's a skating related post for those who don't keep up with that one.

I subbed LTS today (grr... the adult for the first class didn't show up, so I got to twiddle my thumbs for an hour) and then I helped two tot classes, including one HUGE class, that was just fantastic.
When I came home, I brought my skates in, rather than leaving them in the car. (I know, you shouldn't do that.)

So I decided I should clean out my skating bag. This is everything that was in my skating bag. (My bag is a backpack).

I’m not even sure how all that fit in there. This is what actually belongs in my skating bag:

It’s still a lot: 2 skates, 2 ankle pads, stinkeez, a microfiber cloth, mismatched gloves, a fleece, hard guards I never use, a screwdriver, oder eaters that are about ready to be thrown out, tissues, chapstick, a pen, a notebook, the LTS guide, 2 patella tendon straps, my MITF and dance diagrams on a keyring, dance CDs, my checkbook, and a baggie with my membership cards, a hair tie, nail clippers, safety pins, shoelaces, blister pads, and band aids.

This is the stuff that shouldn’t be in there:

3 pairs of socks, including 2 handknit, a sock in progress (I was working on that today), 5 baby sitter club books (I lend them to a girl at the rink), leggings from Wednesday, a shirt I brought as a back up for Detroit, sharpie’s from Detroit, assorted pens and pencils, food packets from Detroit, random money, misc pieces of trash, including an ice cream tester spoon, a sticker from skating in Arizona, a synchro receipt from a year ago, and mail from a few weeks ago.

Motown Tango Part 5: Footwork and Knitterly weirdness...

After the zamboni break we got back on the ice and began the footwork portion of the seminar. This was a good thing to save for last, because while it is hard, it is not exhausting.

We started by going over the different types of turns (I was interested to see mohawks and choctaws on the list with crossovers and chasses as steps- not turns...) and then set out to a patch that Amber had traced out (the small group meant everyone got their own circle 8 with room to spare.) Here we started with just basic forward inside and outside edges, and then moving onto backward ones. I think my circle was perhaps a bit too large for my height (just a teeny bit), but am ashamed at how weak my back edges are, especially. We are spoiled by the half lobes on the MITF test- getting the full way around the circle, especially on back inside is nearly impossible! At this point, I should have taken a picture of my patch, as all we had done were edges and it was an absolute mess.

-Three turns
Then, we moved onto 3-turns still on the circle. Amber and Alissa had written a "lesson plan" on the rink glass and they alternated through points. Once again my main thing here was that I need to bend my knees. In back 3 turns I was turning fine but I could never seem to get back to the center of the circle (we were still doing these all patch style).
-Brackets
Moving on to brackets I was pleased with my forward inside right bracket and made a good effort at the left one. The outside ones were terrifying and I gave up going from the center of the circle, that had me moving just too fast to even think about turning. Amber just kept encouraging the knee bend, but I think I need a sports psychologist for this one. We did not do backwards ones.
-Counter/Rocker
Also only do forward ones here. Here Amber and Alissa talked a bit about telling the turns apart (counter points where you are heading, like a C points to the new part of the sentence, and rocker points where came from, like the curve at the top of an R points backward.) Then we gave them a try. These made A LOT more sense to me then when I've done them in LTS because of the position on the circle- it was easier to tell I had done it right if I ended up on the other side of the circle, with the flag going the right way, then when I had to look for the "S" across the line. Not surprisingly the rocker/counters that correspond with the 3-turn/brackets that I am good at were stronger.
-Twizzle
Then we went to the end of the rink and tried forward inside twizzles. We traveled across the rink just trying to do one, then back the other way trying to do a double twizzle on our good side, and a single on the bad side. I think I did one or two double twizzles, though they may have been to slow and would be called as double 3s. Alissa also showed us her twizzles.
-Put it all together
We spent a few moments where we were to take 3 different types of turns and 2 different types of steps and put them together. We needed to have 2 full rotations of direction, and to do all 3 types of turns in both directions. All I can say is I'm glad I'm not at a level yet that needs this sort of footwork requirement!

At the end when we were discussing what the necessary things were to get a footwork level, Alissa demonstrated her straight line footwork, and we tried to call the steps as she went. I would not make a good technical caller. Then we talked about how different footwork is now then it used to be and Alissa took off skipping along frantically on her toe picks in imitation of someone's footwork (someone famous, as everyone else knew who, and I recognized the name but can't think of it now...) It was quite funny for someone who had been pretty quiet all day.

At the end I took a 15 minute private lesson with Alissa. We worked on my backspin a bit, which due to the nerves of working with her wasn't fantastic, but did improve with her suggestions. I flipped to my inside edge once (NO! Do not want that habit) so I was not happy about that. She suggested I move where I am holding my arms when I pull in, and that I go into the entry with more power (yes Courtney, I know you've said that too...) and after a few tries they were noticeably better than the first few I demonstrated. Then we did some footwork- outside mohawks and that pretty much came down to bend your knees. Talked a little bit about the difficulty of the early moves patterns when end patterns show off your bad side, and she said that it's really important to conquer one sidedness early. I think it's too late for that!

In closing, I have to say that the DSC has the best ice that I have ever skated on. This includes Kettering, Troy, Coralville, Cedar Rapids, St. Louis, Chicago, and Dallas. It was soft and silky and easy to get an edge into. Seeing as how I had power pulls that actually growled on inside edges, it was definetly the ice helping me out!


Knitterly weirdness- the Yarn Harlot has had a thing for sock pictures for a long time. It's a way she documents her travels and connects them to her knitting. I also imagine it makes socks more special, as she can trace their journey. As such, many sock knitters have begun taking sock pictures, and it was something I wanted to do. The Yarn Harlot donates to Doctors Without Border's for pictures taken with heads of state, high level politicians, or candidates for such. She also really likes famous people with socks. The SKA group on Ravelry recently had a scavenger hunt (which I couldn't particpate in...) and one of the top point getters was recognizable athletes (most of which were in the background of pictures... say at a baseball game.) I was disappointed it wasn't just a bit later- as I had a chance to get a recognizable athlete picture with a sock. I decided to do it anyway! So here are my sock knitter's with Alissa and Amber. (For the scavenger hunt since Alissa is in her Team USA uniform, I would actually get extra points for the uniform too, haha) Alissa and Amber, apparently both knit- though only scarves. Alissa was asking me how the extra needles work, and since I didn't have the 4th one with me, it didn't really help the confusion. She told me this was not the weirdest request, and that a guy who asked her to sign his chest with a permanent marker was. (When I told Kevin I was going to ask her to sign my boot, he misheard me. When he realized what I had said, he recommended I say "skate" to avoid any misunderstanding...)

For Alissa and Amber's good humor in taking pictures with my sock, I am going to donate to Doctor's Without Border's.


And that concludes the "short" recap of the weekend. Can't wait to go back next year!

Motown Tango Part 4: Spins

Today was the BIG draw for me. I have to admit- the main reason I went to this seminar was to get a chance to meet Alissa Czisny. I've only ever had two favorite skaters- and she is one of them, Kristi Yamiguchi being the other. Her name is what attracted me to the seminar, the time I spent skating with other adults is probably what will pull me back.

I was quite nervous how Sunday would go, as I was INCREDIBLY sore from jumping so much Saturday. My left quad- a muscle I was pretty sure I didn't have was killing me. My left hip flexor was the worst. My feet weren't nearly as sore as I expected them to be- still, I was worried I wouldn't be able to do my best or get the most out of this day.

We met at the rink and started with off ice with Debbie Pitsos. Debbie did a fantastic off-ice class that was similar to Jonathan's, but not quite the same. Both warm ups had me exhausted by the time I got on the ice, however, my knees didn't bother me at all this weekend, which leads me to believe I need the warm up! While we were warming up upstairs we could see one of the Czisny's taking advantage of the empty ice by doing some figures. We assumed it was Amber, as Alissa was driving in from a show and we expected her to be late- later we found out it was indeed Alissa, who also mentioned her figures are not as good as Ambers. (Alissa would not trace out the circle 8s for us to practice on, instead having Amber do them all.)

So finally the time came to get our skates on. I have to admit I rushed just so I could get out to the ice quicker. Not everyone had that idea, so we did have a bit of wait time, but we filled that time talking to Alissa and Amber, and skating a little bit. (I tried to warm up on ice as well as stop and say hello, but really really tried not to be fan-girly). Alissa and Amber were both very nice, with Alissa being much more reserved, though I think she warmed up to the group quite a bit by the end.

We started with spins. Amber talked about the things you need in a spin entrance- stepping into the circle, bending the knee, PUSH, and keeping the weight to your heel. Then we went out and tried a few. I did 2 really bad ones, 2 pretty normal ones, and 1 PERFECT spin. I was very pleased with myself. Then we come back to the group. Amber asks if anyone did a nice one they want to show, and I said I had a good one, but also some bad ones. Thinking we'd look at the tracings we'd already done. Nope- she wants to demo the spin. Now, I'm nervous! I have to do the first demo of the day in front of my skating idol. I wind up for a spin, and start a spin that travels, but not a ton. Amber points out that my entrance was exactly what they asked for (thank you!), showing how I stepped close together, directly into the circle... and that if I held a bit longer before 3-turning I would have centered better. She also tells me Alissa was excited to see an opposite spin. Of course, Alissa doesn't say this.

So we break out again, and do some more. While working on these spins, Amber and Alissa make their way around, and this was the only time I think I worked with Alissa during the spin section of the seminar. She watches a few spins (Nervous!) and then works with me on ATTACK in the entry, and tells me I have good knee bend in the wind up, but I need to stay down and not come up before the push. I incorporate her comments, and after a few tries center a really nice spin with her watching. That made me feel really good- one, she saw it, and two, she knows her comments helped.

Then we group back together and talk about camels, and seperate again. My camels are not going well. My legs are so tired at this point I'm shaking (and I take a few seconds to go eat some almonds to see if food will help). I never had to deal with dizzy, but physically exhausted was an issue. Amber and Alissa again help around the rink, and when both were at the person on either side of me, Amber calls us all back together- oh well. Then we talked about the difference between a flat camel and a bow and arrow camel. I think I've been doing a bow and arrow, as my shoulders are usually perpendicular (well, they should be) to the ice- though my arms tend to be all over the place. Alissa demonstrates a gorgeous camel, which Amber tells us is not a true flat camel but is not a bow and arrow. A bow and arrow offers me control, a flat camel more speed, Amber says.

So I give both variations a try and find that neither offers me speed :) But I can hold my edge better with the flat camel. Amber comes over and works with me a bit, and I tell her I feel a bit like an airplane. She suggests I really concentrate on getting my upper body parallel to the ice, because my leg is fine. We try a few, and she says they are looking better. There were some really nice camels on the ice, and one of the men had a very fast back camel (he demonstrated for bow and arrow).

We group back together and are split into groups for sit spin and layback variations. Alissa takes the high group and Amber the low group. I was a little sad to not get to work with Alissa, but Amber is really what I needed. Watching the two coach these groups, it seemed Alissa worked the way her coaches probably do- she stayed at the wall and skaters would come back to her and then go back out. Amber skated among us, and was hands on if she wanted a position change. Amber is the style of coach I needed to be with for this part. We started with a Y-spin variation. (Um- this was supposed to be the easy group...) Amber showed us how from a sit spin we should grab our calf, then our ankle with the other hand, then the boot with the first hand and pull up into an upright spin. Because of my flexibility issues, I realize I'll have to do this from a back-sit, something I can't do! So I work on back sit, and Amber tells me to really think about being straight and back on my blade, unlike the forward sit where you lean front more. I do this and slowly progress to attempting to pull my leg up. This gets me to about a dog/fire hydrant position. HAHA.

Next we do a twisted sit spin position (I can't remember what she called it, but she said there were 1,000 different names for it.) This is the sit spin where you take your opposite arm and set it on the thigh of your free leg, and then lift the same arm as your free leg into an open position and look at it. My issues here: 1)I think I lost the sitting position 2) this makes you spin SO much faster it was terrifying, and 3) I have no nerve connections when I skate. I knew my head wasn't looking at my arm, but I couldn't make my brain fire the things that tell the head to turn, or my hand would be flipped the wrong way, but I couldn't get my brain to communicate with it to turn around. Yes- I am that disconnected. But it was fun to try.

Then we moved into laybacks (or head tilt ups, really). Amber talked to us about holding our hands on our hips, and how anyone can do this turn even without much back flexibility. One man said men don't do this turn, and the other man in the group argued that now many many do. The first man still did not attempt it. I was really pleased with my attempts, mostly because Andy had put so much work into my attitude spin ahead of time. Even after looking up at the ceiling, I was able to maintain balance (though not leg position) and remain spinning. Amber told me it was the best one she'd seen thus far (recall, however, I'm in the low group)- which really made me smile. Then she talked about rungs of the ladder- get an upright spin first, then move the leg, then the hips, than the head/back.


After this, we took a zamboni break.
I asked Alissa to sign my skate and she did, commenting that purple was her favorite color, the sharpie color I handed to her. Alissa also told us that she had her new short program choreographed, and that she was keeping her long program, but changing the dress (although it was very pretty, probably wise since the skirt kept getting caught on the back sequins.)

Motown Tango Part 2: Off ice, Transitions, and Jumps

Transitions were to be "style on ice" but the instructor insisted that style is nearly being able to connect things with transitions, and preferred for us to think that that was what we were learning

Jonathan Cassar did the clinic on Saturday, and ran the off-ice clinic. Off ice started very much like a jazz dance class with lots of isolation of the different body parts starting with the head and moving to the feet, and then transitioned into jogging front then back, lots of jumping jacks, stylized jumping jacks, push ups, crunches, and some dynamic stretching of the quads and calves. No static stretching before skating- it is no longer advised. I felt to some extent the warm up was designed to aggravate the tendinitis in my ankles, but they were still holding up, and although I was extremely tired (from a workout that is about equal to a normal workout for me, not a warm up) I was determined NOT to let it show. We then talked a little bit about transitions, and how to connect moves together.

Then we moved onto the ice, where Jonathan was joined by Ben Woolwine (I think that's the name)- who was introduced as someone who would be helping with jumps, but I don't know what sort of "credentials" he carries. I assumed he was a staff pro, but he was not on the DSC wall of professionals. We started just doing swizzles around the rink, moving our arms and playing follow the leader with Jonathan. Then we moved into doing a spiral followed by a jump of our choice. I did spiral-3-turn-toe loop, which I really liked, and when Jonathan came over he suggested I do the spiral, transition it to a catch foot and then do the toe-loop, so I worked on that a bit. Then we did Ina bauers into spins. Because of the direction that I can do a Bauer in, I was pretty much forced to backspin. There were a few people who could do true straight line bauers, but I felt better when Jonathan told us all that a curvy Bauer is perfectly legitimate, and he complimented the combo I put together (bauer-backspin) and suggested I try doing the Bauer after stepping forward from a jump, asked me if I could work on that, and then demonstrate it for the group. I worked on it from waltz jump, and after I was comfortable enough with it, added a RBO spiral to the beginning of the waltz jump. Then the group came back together and I demonstrated the RBO spiral- waltz jump- ina bauer- backspin sequence I had put together. Jonathan told me he liked the toe-loop better (I'm not sure he noticed I changed the spiral though- I couldn't do a toe loop from that), but said to the that it was a perfect example of how a low level skater (at PB I was decidedly among the lowest test, and likely the lowest level jumper) could link moves together and not need to just stroke in between things. Then a Gold level skater did a combo, that was similiar, but obviously better, and ended in a layback, and then a Novice level adult did a similar combo, that incorporated move footwork and an even more impressive layback- and he talked a bit about the progression, but how we all used the same skills spiral-jump-bauer-spin. Then Catherine, a skater from Canada who I knew from skating forums, showed off her gorgeous spread eagle, which I assume she also added a spin too, though I don't recall.

We might have done something else on the "style" or transitions portion of the seminar, but I don't recall, and then Jonathan showed off the spread eagle section of his program, to our delight. He has the best spread eagles I've seen, changing from outside to inside, and riding the inside edge for so long until it forms a tight circle where he lays very close to the ice he is on such a deep edge.






Oops- no photos from skating Saturday. Here is the Sunday group picture. The Saturday group was larger, and did not include the Czisny's.









We then moved onto the jump portion of the seminar. I'm not a jumper, and have never pretended to be. The thing I got most from this portion was probably just the time I spent with other adults. Nothing revolutionary was taught here, and I really don't think I picked up any tips to take home. What I did get, however, was a lot of jumping in. Probably more than I've jumped all year, and I kept at it to the point of exhaustion. We started with waltz jumps, salchow, and then loop. I don't recall if either Ben or Jonathan came over to me at all during the first two jumps, but Jonathan did come over to me during my loop and suggested I curve the entrance to the right (I do a stroke and then a 3-turn in pretty much a straight line. he wanted a stroke, and then a 3-turn in a different direction)- I'll ask Andy and Courtney what they think of that, but I gave it a try, though I'll admit I see no difference right now. We moved onto lutz, and as we spent a lot of time on it, I tried full revolutions, which I mostly landed two footed, nothing was said to me about this jump. We went onto flip, which I also tried full revolutions, after trying from both 3-turn and mohawk, I decided I favored the mohawk entry, and kept at it. I also never landed one, but was told by other adults it was my highest jump (maybe a full quarter of an inch off the ice? LOL) Jonathan did come over and give me some tips about connecting my arms to my entry, but it was very rushed and I don't really even remember what he said right after he had me show him two. Oops.

The last hour of ice was freeskate, however we were all SO tired that Jonathan and Ben stuck around and we mostly just chatted, and then Ben would do walleys and one foot axels for amusement (wow- walley's look hard. Not toe-walleys, which seemed much less impressive). Taking my skates off I was amazed to realize I never lost feeling in my feet, nor did I have any blisters. I had survived 4 hours, jumping for over 2. Going back to the hotel I was a sore as I could ever remember being, Red Jacket summer camp included, and was pleased to realize I do indeed have a left quad muscle- it might be underdeveloped, but I managed to work it out today.

My only complaint about the Saturday clinic was I felt that the higher level jumpers got much more attention than the lower level ones. I've heard this echoed by a few skaters, but it's possible that it was actually the VOCAL skaters who got the attention. There were one or two skaters who were particularly demanding, and they may have monopolized the instructors time, rather than the instructors favoring them. It's tough to tell. Then again, as a 20 something instructor, who wouldn't be fascinated by the 40 year old doing doubles? But even without much individual attention for the jumps, I felt the clinic to be completely worth while, and would go back for this portion again. (Especially if they kept Jonathan for transitions and brought in a different skater/coach for jumps. I've been told that in addition to being known for spread eagles, he is known for spins- which clearly Alissa already has claimed!)

Motown Tango Part 1: Before the skate

I realized this was getting really long, so I'm breaking it into four parts.

Alright. Motown tango- how can I remember everything I did?

Starting Friday- I drove from Iowa to Detroit. The directions I got came from google maps, and were apparently designed to avoid toll roads. I got dreadfully lost after exiting 80 and not being able to find the highway I was supposed to find. After stopping at two gas stations (without maps, but with friendly people telling me how to get to Indiana- um, I wanted to be on a very specific road in Indiana, so it didn't seem like these directions helped, as they were telling me to get back on 80) I found a walmart and bought a map and found at that I did indeed want to stay on 80. Stupid google maps. While being lost I found the Artic Ice arena we skated at for synchro nats. How odd that I would get lost in the only part of Chicago I had ever been to, not like it helped. Due to getting lost I got there too late to meet Kristin at the rink for a tour.

I checked into my hotel, a Candlewood Suites and made myself a dinner of spaghetti shells. The hotel was picked due to it having a full kitchen, and I was very happy to find that it ALSO had an extremely comfortable bed. After a long drive a comfortable bed was very nice.


Saturday- I woke up Saturday morning with the same feeling as the first rehearsal of the ice show "never mind... I'm not going"
I resolved to get there early, and to my surprise I got a text a few minutes before I had planned to leave from Kristin telling me she was already there if I wanted to meet her early. The rink was easy to find, and I got there about 1 hour before the clinic was going to start. Kristin and I got on well immediately and we chatted quite a bit, she showed me the layout of the rink (3 sheets, a ballet room, weight room, nice locker rooms. Only downside is the bathroom is about as far out of the way as it possibly could be). Then while we were talking another woman, who I sort of recognized, came up to me and introduced herself to me as Susan. Susan is an Iowan skater who I've been in contact with online for quite awhile but never met. She was there for ice dancing.

Notice the sign welcoming us all to "Mow"town.


About 10 minutes before the off-ice portion of the clinic was going to start, we were evacuated for a gas leak. This was a MAJOR disappointment, but word came around soon that it would only be about an hour, and we would be allowed back in. Reassured that we would get to skate, I enjoyed the sun and the company. After the sun became overbearing, we moved further away to the shade, where I was shocked to see quite a few ice dancers out without guards on. There was no way to get to this spot without walking on the grass, and at least a little concrete, so short of a fire and immediate need to run out, I sure wouldn't do that. (In our haste to evacuate, haha, some dancers even changed clothes.)

We suggested to the man running the clinic that the freestyle off ice could take place outside, but he thought it would be too hot, so we waited to get back into the building. Alas, the issue was taken care of, and we were allowed back in.

Lazy Monday

In knitting news: I cast(ed?) on for Sunshine, another Cookie A book pattern. Cookie A is without a doubt my favorite sock designer. Not only are all her socks gorgeous, they fit me :) We must have similar feet. For now, St. Moritz is sitting in time out where I decide if going back down to the tighter gauge was a good decision or not.

I met my friend Courtenay today for ice skating and shopping. We skated for about 30 minutes when my tendonitis in my right foot really started to bother me. It was likely because we were mostly doing laps, something I rarely do, and something that mimics walking more than other skating does. Walking does me in too. Anyhow, I hope the tendonitis isn't going to be a reaccuring thing, because I've been enjoying being pain free.

I goofed around and tried to do some figures- just circle eights on all 4 edges. HAHAHA. First off, after coming home I found out that the new tests require you only do 1 circle, and not retrace- so on my forward edges I'd likely be fine, on the backward edges I couldn't get enough speed and needed to toe tap down to push myself through the rest of the circle. When I tried to retrace though, I'd be spot on for just a little bit, then like 4 inches away from my tracing, then back on. I managed to always come back to the same center though :) But for anyone who hasn't done them FIGURES ARE HARD!

Before going skating I had a training meeting. This is the 2nd I've had (and the second company I've done freelance work for since I got laid off) if this is going to be a thing, I've got to find a speakerphone! Ouch my neck hurts, and it can't possibly be good for my shoulders to have to use them to hold the phone in place. I tried to you my hands, but it's hard to do that for that long.

Tomorrow is the EIFSC board meeting. I'm really debating if I should be a board member this year. Membership is due at the end of June- if I don't have a job, I'm not sure it makes sense to pay $75 for a club membership, especially since if I'm not taking lessons I definetly won't test- and that's really the only thing I need the membership for. But of course, if I'm not a member, I can't be on the board...