Thank You, Henry Ford

Have you ever noticed that just when things are going in the right direction, someone tosses a banana on the ground and hides until you slip on it? There you are, one foot on the peel, the other up in the air, struggling to stay on one foot, trying not to look like a complete idiot (when looking like a partial idiot will do fine, thank you)when you hear the jokester laughing in the bushes. What do you do? Do you throw the peel and everything else at said joker? Or do you try to upright yourself and continue with your day? I am trying the higher road. The "check engine" light came on in my car on my way to work on Wednesday. Rather than risk it, as was suggested by my boss, I returned the car to her parking spot and took the Long Island Railroad. Round trip is $15.25. Ouch. I can fill my tank on $35.00. I decided to take the bus instead. It's cheaper (a 7 day MetroCard for the bus and subway is $30.00) and I have a few more options than the 2 trains that will get me to work and/or home. For the past 2 days, I have been getting up at 5:15am and leaving home at 6:30 to take 2 subways to walk to the bus terminal (5 blocks) to get on 2 buses. With all of that, I arrive at work at 8:45am. Yes, that's a 2 1/4 hour commute for a location 21 miles away. Don't you just love public transportation? As a result, I am unable to get to the rink to practice. This was quite obvious when on Wednesday I was unable to do ANYTHING. When I say anything, I mean anything. Stroking seemed off. My feet hurt, my shoulder hurt. I couldn't balance and nearly fell standing stock still. I couldn't do the simpliest of jumps. My program, such as it is, looked like crap. It is an artistic program, but I really think there should be JUMPS in the darn thing. Amy disagrees. I have done this competition 2 or 3 other times and come in last each and every time. Why? There are NOT ENOUGH jumps in the program. It's that simple. I can be artistic and flounce around until the cows come home, but jumps are what gets you a first place finish. With absolutely nothing working right, I was taught the Dutch Waltz. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate footwork? I've been reading other people's blogs. I know I shouldn't compare myself to anyone, including myself in the past, but everyone seems to be improving while I'm going backwards. It's as exhausting as my commute. I was thinking of video taping myself, but I fear I will just quit the sport all together. It's times like this that I miss the two friends I had who skated: one quit the sport all totally and the other stopped speaking to me. In truth, they have both stopped speaking to me. I mentioned to a skater/coach that my skills were deteriorating. She looked at me blankly for several seconds. I asked her how her family was doing and she proceeded to talk for twenty minutes about her husband and their plans. Wow. Never knew I was that dull or that my skills were that bad in the first place. I am getting votes of "no confidence" on all sides of the table. Not sure if I'll do that competition; it depends on a lot of thing. Mostly time and money. And skills. If you see some lefty jumps just hanging around, looking all sneaky like they're hiding, send them back to me please.

In Sickness and In Health

I've had the flu for three weeks. Just when I thought I was better, it added a gastrointestinal portion that also knocked me off my feet. Being the stubborn fool that I am, I skated a few times with this problem. Funny how many colors are on the ice when you start to feel woozy. Everybody starts spinning, but nobody is moving. My sister/roommate has had it worse. Let's just say many a meal has made a repeat appearance in this apartment. Uggh!

Snow??

NYC is supposed to get hit with a massive snow storm. According to NY1 (a local TV channel), the snow will start at 7:00am. My job took that information and ran with it, closing the office at noon. It is now 3:30pm and it still hasn't started snowing. Insert a photo of me shrugging here. I had two things planned for this afternoon: either a freestyle session or an echocardiogram. Both have been canceled. But it isn't snowing. I should get that echocardiogram; I've been having odd chest pains for over a month. Sometimes they make me lightheaded. Most of the time, they just make me have to sit down. I can't catch my breath, and I feel as though I'm about to pass out. Yeah, I guess should have that test done. But it cuts into my skating time in Long Island!!!!! Not today. The weather channel is still saying that it will be a major snow storm. It's raining here; freezing rain, but rain just the same. Maybe next Friday... I'll go have that test. Why is my body falling apart? Wonder if it's related to my weight. Is everything related to my weight?

Unsinkable

There's an old Broadway (and movie) musical titled "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", about Margaret (no one ever called her "Molly") Brown and how she survived poverty, not being well educated and The Titanic. She was "unsinkable" in both her spirit and her luck. I'm going to remember that unsinkable attitude. Today, after much debate and creative accounting, I have to say goodbye to my Wednesday night session. My 8 session card ended last week, and I struggled to try to find a way to pay the outrageous fee for another 8 session card. Sadly, I can't. Between sign language classes and University classes, there just wasn't enough left over to justify paying over $300 for an 8 session card. That means the sessions are $39 each. I couldn't do it. So, with a heavy heart, I contacted my wonderful coach and told her that I couldn't return for Wednesdays, but would indeed be there on Saturdays. I had to leave a message as she wasn't available. I don't know how she feels about it. I understand that real estate in NYC is incredibly expensive, but a $39 session? Out in Long Island, for the amount of an 8 session card, I can purchase two 10 session cards. While I wouldn't have Amy with me, I'd have the opportunity to practice. That is, if it doesn't snow. I hate driving in the snow. I used to love it, but now that my car is so much lighter, I feel that I will be lifted up off the highway and set adrift into the eastern shore. Back to skating. I'm disappointed, mostly because things were finally starting to click; both on the ice and in my left knee. My knee doesn't hurt when I skate, only when I walk. Or stand. The Sunday skating club (which I am still substitute monitoring for) has an exhibition at the end of the season and I was so hoping to be able to participate. You see, there are some people who don't think I can actually skate. These are mostly parents. Non-skating parents. Because the Saturday session is so incredibly crowded, I'm not sure I'll be able to practice anything other than MIF. I can try. I would like to say thank you to all of you who read this, although, I wish you'd write back from time to time. It makes me feel as though you stumbled onto here by accident and can't figure out how to get off the page. I have a mental picture, very similar to a cat accidentally falling into a tub of water. Both you and the cat are surprised and shocked and can't get out of it soon enough. It's a funny picture. Wish rinks had more public sessions, but they seem to have gone the way of the horse-drawn wagon. The only ones are in the middle of the afternoon and I think my boss would frown on me saying, "See you in two hours; I gotta skate!" Or they're on Friday evenings when teenagers on dates go skating in pants that are either too tight or too loose and they fall down a lot. The teens, not the pants. This will all work out. I used to only skate once a week and somehow managed to keep my skills, so it's not like it's the end of the world. Just the end of Wednesday nights.

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?"