Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Here I Come to Save the Day

Not really, but I like the sentiment. So here I am at the ASL Symposium at Northeastern University in Boston. I'm working hard on my ASL skills and trying to deal with both the hardest dorm bed in the world and a tablet that moves the curser at will placing odd letters in the middle of other words. My eyes are tired and my head often hurts. I love it. Sidebar: thinking of going into Tactile Signing for the Deaf-Blind. It's harder, but it is a field in need. Back to skating. While I haven't really posted in several weeks, I can tell you that I have been skating. Like an onion (only hopefully better smelling), I have been peeling away at my problem areas in hopes of improving. This has caused more than one day of me limping off the ice when my back decided it was in charge. I have created a pattern for myself that includes an intense warmup, followed by every element of my MIF test, taken out of context. I then repeat it, putting it in context. It's a lot to get through and I admit that it's difficult not to skip those elements that I hate: mohawks. Last Saturday, I have a few decent mohawks that didn't look like I was tripping over my feet. I really need to slow those down to the almost stand-still speed of the rest of the outside mohawk step sequence. And I had three good back three turns. But I think the best was the back spin with several revolutions. I couldn't repeat it, but I have witnesses. To quote The Beatles, it's getting better all the time! Here's an interesting bit of info before my tired eyes give out on me (plus, I have class in the morning and this page is no longer in focus...), while in Boston, I thought, maybe I could skate. The only place apparently open are a Skating Club of Boston sessions. I call and was immediately greeted by a woman who told me it wasn't a public session. I told her that I was aware. She then asked me what level I was; I gave her the information and she said, "ohhhhh..." I mentioned that I saw their schedule online and would only be coming for the No-Test session. She said, they were very advanced. Long story short, I didn't bring my skates. However, the club is having exhibitions on Friday and I plan to attend. And after that attitude, they'd better be good. Well that's it for now. Eyes are totally out of focus, so I have to wait until tomorrow to post this so I can read it again.