Knee Bone Connected to the Shin Bone....

I know I'm fat; my body does not have to remind me by hurting. Lately, my left knee feels as though someone has taken the kneecap and given it a proper twist. If I hold the knee cap, I can bend it to stand without pain shooting through it. Makes for some interesting subway trips. People look at me strangely when I grab my knee in order to bend it to stand. On a positive note; they do leave me alone. Unfortunately, it's also my landing knee. It only hurts when I keep it in the same position for long periods of time: driving, working, etc. However, I have recently begun putting an ice pack on my knee while I'm working and it hurts a lot less. YAY!!!! Saturday's lesson was interesting in the fact that I got angry at a kid who screamed at me (I really was trying to get out of her way, but that odd change of edge into a jump just caught me by surprise) and landed a jump out of sheer annoyance. I didn't expect to still come across kids who resented adults on free style sessions. This particular little darling only screamed (and yes, I do mean screamed) at the three adults on the session. All of us were in lesson and we were trying to figure out where she was going. I understand she was doing her program, but there seemed to be no rhyme or reason behind the movements. She also has a really bad "flutz" jump. The resulting anger caused me to be successful, although slow, performing the Silver test mohawk MIF, and the forward outside 3 turns. YAY!!! I suppose that sudden surge of success caused me to jump without caution. It also helped that I am no longer performing a loop jump from the dreaded left forward inside 3 turn. YES!!! Mohawks are my friend. Although I land loops from the inside 3 turn, I find that if one thing is off, the jump sort of looks like I hicupped. But the mohawk allows me to ride the edge longer and what a lovely ride it is! The skating club has decided to extend the sessions on Wednesday night until April. I don't know if that's the beginning of April or the end of April. No one has updated the website. It'll all workout in the end. On a non-skating note: I spend a lot of time using my ASL (American Sign Language). So much time that recently, I could not think of the verbal words to describe the barametric pressure and how it effects my sinuses. I was, however, able to sign it without thinking about it. That's good and bad at the same time. I was an English Creative Writing major, so I need my words and forgetting them is not a good feeling. The good is that I was able to express myself in sign without thinking. The other person in the conversation didn't sign, so it meant nothing to her at all. Eventually the words came and I told her. At that point, I don't think she really cared. If it doesn't snow, I'll be on the ice on Friday. What strange weather the east coast has been having lately...

Better Days

Maybe Musical Theatre is not your forte. Bruce Springsteen song: Better Days. Don't actually know the lyrics, but understand the sentiment. Everything makes me sick to my stomach again. I mention it here only because sometimes skating is difficult when you fear your food will make another appearance. Gave up gluten, helped a bit. Probably giving up drinking... I may cry about that one. I've been filling in as the ice monitor on Sunday due to some personal issues the current monitor is experiencing. I have no complaints; it's free ice when I do get to skate. I usually get to skate one of the two sessions; not the entire session, but at least 20 minutes. Today was one of those days. Decided to concentrate on one thing: back spins. So after stroking, all I did was back spins. Imagine my surprise when they started to improve. Yep, a positive thing. I've also decided NOT to do the competition in February. Unfortunately, the competition is on a Saturday, not a Sunday as I thought. For those of you who were paying attention, I'm in school on Saturdays and it's not worth missing a class for a program one minute and forty seconds in length. I'll do the June competition instead, no bigs. Better days indeed!

Transitions

Second skate of the new year. I apologize a lot; more than the average person. It's an annoying habit I need to break. I apologize to Amy when my lesson isn't going as well as I think it should. What I really need to do is turn my brain off. Having decided to compete in a February competition means having to practice my program and accept the fact that people will be watching me. That's not easy, and it should be. I come from a theatrical family a was in the business called show for several years. But I left show business, for various reasons, and now have a hard time dealing with people watching me. However,I am happy to say it is only with skating. If I had that problem with sign language, I could never become an interpreter. Going on... Because the competition is an artistic event, jumps are not as necessary. Good. Not that my jumps are horrible, they just aren't as strong as I prefer. So, there's a lot of footwork in this program, and graceful movements. I excel at graceful movements. What I am really struggling with are transitions. You know: mohawks, brackets, three turns. I can do them UNTIL you put them in a program, then my feet become all thumbs an my legs get all tangled up. When you have a 32 inch inseam, it makes for a very amusing picture. Thus explains why my last two lesson have been all about transitions from one move to another. Doing them over and over and over again until I get it right. Early in my skating career, I learned to do a left forward inside mohawk. I did not learn a right forward inside mohawk until much later. As a result, the right forward inside mohawk is very, very weak. If I think about it too much, I am almost paralyzed and unable to do it at all. That explains the difficulty I have experienced with the forward outside mohawks on the Silver Moves test. The left outside mohawk is almost ready to test while the right looks a mess. Will just have to keep working on them. What I can't understand is the inconsistency of my 3 turns. I came along during the last days of figures, so I did do 3 turns in figures. The 2nd figure test is all of the 3 turns, and I could do them. Now, as with so many other things, if I think about my RFI3 or my LBI3 or my LFO3, my legs get tangled up in one another, my shoulders are up to my ears, my arms are flopping around like a freshly caught salmon and my mouth is wide open. Ugggghhhhh!!!!!! And please, don't get me started on brackets. The last time I did a bracket I took down a skater and I didn't even know her. Sorry kid. I'll keep right on practicing, trying, falling and getting up. To me, skating is like breathing. It's necessary, but sometimes it really hurts and sometimes something just doesn't smell right. I leave you with a quote from the musical 1776 (if you get the chance to see it on TCM, please do. It's a history lesson to music.) "Is anybody there? Does anybody care?"