| Time | Event |
| 7:48a | Week in skating I got to skate 4 days this week. Since we've moved my lesson to Thursday, that might be the norm now. Saturday: The rink was in HORRIBLE shape. The mall is apparently trying to cut expenses and did so by turning off the food court a/c overnight. So in addition to the rink a/c working super hard to cool the food court, it caused incredible fog and condensation in the rink. When I got there the glass was completely fogged up, and there was a row of speed bumps- probably 30 of them? down the right side of the rink- my only guess is that the roof formed condensation, and then it dripped- repeat all night. Awful. There were also two huge drip spots in the back of the rink, probably from actual roof leaking, since it rained the night before. Oddly enough, as the morning went on, the fog got worse. The visibility was about 3/4 rink at 8:00 but only about 1/2 rink by 10:00. And, to add another complaint, the rink opener (sort of- people usually get on the ice way before staff gets there, but I won't- the idea of liability worries me) forgot her keys so she couldn't get into the office and we didn't get any lights during freestyle. It was very difficult to see. Oh- and because the food court a/c was off the temperature was really really warm, so getting off the ice for a rest was like walking into a sauna :( Okay- so rink conditions were horrible- actual skating wasn't nearly that bad. I didn't do any full practice of moves, I wanted to avoid those speed bumps at all costs, so I did everything down the left side of the rink a few times. I had some issues gettting back crossovers big enough (I think I've always done an extra? I hope not) but no major issues. Mostly I wasn't feeling well and had a hard time trying to decide on things to practice. The fog always makes it difficult for me to breathe, so I wasn't being too athletic. Tried a few spins, and just got dizzy. Lesson was with Jessie this week. We started with scratch spins and I had a few nice centered ones, and a few that traveled so badly I had time to write postcards home. I can't tell what I'm doing that makes these different. We did waltz jumps, and I mostly just didn't do them. I just couldn't get off the ice. Then we did toe loops and I want to cry. I can't get my feet to pivot at all. Jessie talked about "picking on the way up" and that's even more frustrating, because then I really don't know how to pull my feet together if my pick can't sit. I hate hate hate jumping and would be happier if I never had to do it again. Then we did some waltz 3s, some back outside 3s and I realized that I like both BO 3s equally. But going forward I hate hate hate one of them. In fact, I'd rather do either BO 3 then my left FO 3. Then we did spirals. My inside spirals are laughable. My outside spiral with my left leg supporting is laughable. Thursday My lesson comes in the last hour of a very long public session. It's probably been 3-4 hours since they cut the ice, if not 6 hours. The ice was very bad. But it is extremely uncrowded and a pretty good time to have a lesson. We started by running the moves test. I got yelled at a bit about no power in power 3s, but otherwise did okay. Courtney went over my warm up with me, and then I asked her if she didn't have anything specific to work on can we do ANYTHING but moves. So we did silver moves- 3 turns in the field. Although I've done these on the short axis, this was my first time doing them on the long axis. I do NOT have the power to be a silver lady!!! But, I did better than I expected, and I think better than Courtney expected. I really need to get my back edge out of the FI 3s to be smoother and more reliable, but my BO 3s were once again quite nice. I do occasionally break at the waist, which will need to be fixed. My BI 3s weren't so good, I don't think I did the left one more than twice, though the right is becoming more reliable. Then we did a few minutes of backspins and I crossed most of them. That spin is SO hard. I think I was doing better with it last december than I am now. Wednesday: Synchro was okay. We didn't do anything new and I still can't do that stupid mohawk. Otherwise the program is pretty fun. I'm having issues with the traveling 3 spoke pinwheel, because I can't maintain the grip in the center. I'm traveling it correctly though. Tuesday Lesson with Andy was mostly good, although frustrating. We worked for almost 20 minutes on backspins and it took me about 15 to cross my stupid foot. Then I actually did a few good ones that got complimented. I guess the good thing about my backspin is it's usually centered. Then Andy had us make up spiral sequences- with one fwd, one backward, and a connecting move. So I had to do my laughable Ina bauer (it just travels in a tight circle) because a spread eagle or shoot the duck is out of the question. Then we worked on inside spread eagles. I got complimented on my great position against the wall, but all my turn out comes from my knees. When I told him that he said "well it's got to come from somewhere". Um, no- when moving, it;'s not going to come from there, so no spread eagles for me. Practice was just for a few minutes because the rink had the zamboni on the ice and running moves on a fairly crowded session was tough. Did each pattern the best I could and mohawks and 3s twice. |
| 3:42p | Blades sharpened :) This is just because I always wonder how often I get them sharpened (I think it's every 8 weeks, but hey- I'm gonna keep track this time) but never remember to write it down :) They didn't REALLY need it, just kind of need it- but with a test in 2 weeks, they'd really need it by then, and this way I have time to get the "bite" off them |
| 9:22p | Decided to make a dress... I got the pattern traced and cut, the fabric cut, and about 1/2 of the dress sewn up. It should be done tomorrow afternoon. It's a cap sleeve, scoop neck dress with a circle skirt. The skirt is a red crushed velvet (well, panne) and the bodice is black spandex. I'm putting a line of red on the sleeves too- to bring the color into the top of the dresss. (I wanted to do it on the neck too, then decided curves are too hard!) I'm not 100% the sleeves will work- but they use so little fabric I can always recut. I also tried my overlock stitch I didn't know I have- and it works perfectly- no more zig zagging for me! The zig zag always causes bunching and I guess I never realized I have this stitch. The only worry now is that each seam isn't done twice- so now I have to worry about rips. I did the skirt with the two rows of zig zags, and of course it bunches- even though I don't stretch while I sew (that makes it bunch BAD, but lots of people tell you to do it)- so tomorrow my lunch hour will be ripping it out. I think it's worth it to resew the seams- it will make it look a lot better. YAY- new dress :) (I am mostly making this to get some more practice in so I can help Courtenay with the synchro outfits- especially if we want them by Christmas. So far I've made 3 wearable dresses, but one totally not wearable dress. So I need all the practice I can get.) |
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