Now I know how Nancy Kerrigan feels...

Went to my weekend rink and had lots of (for the most part) nice empty ice to skate on! Everything was grand... until I had a collision with a young lady that was playing tag with someone and was going backwards (but not looking behind her...) I try to move around her and she ended up going EXACTLY where I was going to avoid her!!! She fell first... but I tripped over her and fell on top of her!!! NOT GOOD!!! I came off with a bruised left knee. Her, a bruised forehead on the right. OWWWW!!! My knee wasn't as bad as how much my heart dropped when I saw the young lady I collided with a nasty bruise on her forehead and majorly crying!!! (Those who know me well know I love kids and have strong "mommy/auntie" tendencies... Long story as to why I don't have my own kids...never mind writing it on a public blog...)

Lucky for both of us, after a brief rest and some ice (and I meant for icing the injury...eh, never mind...you know what I mean...) both of us were back in action!!! This is one case where it was better to "skate it off," because if I didn't I would lose the flexibility I need to walk (which requires some bend of the knee.) Probably the only thing I couldn't really do initially were backspins and toe loops. (Requiring deep knee bend on both for the LFI3.) But eventually I did both of those at the end of the session too! Speaking of FI3's, my RFI3's has improved a bit... then again, just being able to do them is improvement to me!!!

Of course, after I had dinner later tonight, I whacked the same knee again as I was getting out of the car. Car door decided to close by itself... right into the already injured left knee! (OWWWWW!!!) "WHY ME!?!?!?!"

I'm thinking of staying off the ice and the gym on Monday. I just don't want to push it. I want to save myself for my lesson on Wednesday. In fact, maybe I'll just stay in bed all day tomorrow. Don't wanna risk getting my knees hit by a stray door or wall or water cooler or...

Hello Maddah! Hello Faddah...

An online dialog I had between me and a fellow skating who's going to take an ice dance (Cha-cha) test next week. This dialog developed out of the "Word Association Game" Thread in the Non-Skating Section of the skating forum. The purpose of this thread was to post a word or short phrase that associates with the word that the last poster posted...

So we left it at: (word in bold is the word to associate.)

Oracle: camp
jazzpants (me): Granada ("Hello, Muddah! Hello Faddah...")
sk8r1964: Cha-cha (I'm testing that next week, and that's the music! I keep singing that in my head) 8O
jazzpants (me): ice dance (I have an idea for you to think about when you're nervous about testing the Cha-cha. Imagine coming into the test session with a "camp girl" outfit ... and totally freak out your coach by telling her that you're gonna go test in that outfit!!!)
sk8r1964: OMG! I almost died laughing! My coach is a guy (about 15 years younger than me), and he's taking me though my test. To imagine the look on his face if I appeared in that outfit... He'd be and looking to melt into the ice ! Sorry -- back to jazzpants' word.......ice dance

Okay. For those who aren't skaters... the joke behind this is partly that one dreadful thing about doing ice dancing is that you have to skate to corny music over and over again in order to demonstrate that you can "ice dance" in form and music to that particular dance. (It also drives everyone who skates regularly with you up the friggin' wall too!!!) In this case, sk8r1964 had to demonstrate in front of a panel of judges (i.e. test) that she can do Cha-cha ice dances to the Cha-cha version of the tune of "Camp Granada" is. (A bit of history and the lyric to "Camp Granada.") Skating tests are excruitingly nerve wrecking!!! So I suggested the idea of wearing a "camp girl's outfit" to test to ease the tension of testing the Cha-cha...

Evil gal, I am!!! *evil grin*

Catching up on life...

First thing, I'm back!!! And I’m sorry for not posting for a while… but life has been interesting…

I've been off the board partly because I've been sick with the stomach flu. (It's been affectionately named the "Roto Rooter" bug.) For about two days the only thing I was able to hold down was water, broth, liquids... essentially bland watery foods. I lost a couple of pounds very quickly b/c of that! (Extremely effective way of losing weight, but I wouldn't recommend this method.) :-P It took a while to completely recover from this flu! The worst part is that it's now going around the office at my job. Our receptionist was out with the "Rooter bug" from last Wednesday to Friday. She came back Monday from getting over it, but is still kinda ill. :(

Then I tried to get back into my normal routine too soon (i.e. skate, work out at the gym.) Spins were crappy because even though I was well enough to go back to work, I was not well enough to skate. On the Monday I got back from the illness, my stomach still feels like it's swirling around. Last week I tried to keep my 3 days a week workout schedule at the gym, plus pilates and just couldn't do it. Last Sunday I was starting to feel mildly nauseous again and thought "Oh, no! Not again..." I barely had the energy to skate and this went on well into this past Monday night. Currently I'm holding up much better and slowly getting back into my workout routine. And of course, as soon as I got better, the weight came back! Nothing but water weight I lost...

My secondary coach and I just started my new artistic program for this year. This is a change from my usual routine because my primary coach has been doing my choreography in the past and usually it's put together two months before Skate SF (usually it's Halloween weekend, but this year it's the weekend AFTER!) I'm also starting about 5-6 months before Skate SF and with a new choreographer!!! I was going to go with our rink’s top choreographer but after seeing some of the choreography that my secondary coach did with her students, I thought it'd be more convenient to have her do mine this year! I've picked a good safe choice that I think the judges will like. Secondary coach loves this music artist! We are now starting to choreograph this number! It’s gonna be a pretty program… (Of course, I would LOVE for my skating to do justice to it.) *rolleyes*

As for my quest for Adults Nationals 2006 in Dallas... my primary coach thinks that I'm just about ready to take the Bronze Moves test. He's opting for me taking the test in Sept. of this year for a few reasons: 1) to give me the time to get my moves on auto-pilot, 2) to get around the rush for the kids to test to qualified for "Centrals", and 3) to take advantage of the new Adult Moves Test rules, which now focuses on "strength and flow" rather than "power." (I'm skating steady right now, but I’m not fast. If I keep this up, I should be okay under the new rules.) He thinks that given that change, it's much easier for me to pass in Bronze Moves. My secondary coach originally disagrees and thinks I have a way to go. But she just read the new proposed changes that just passed at the Governing Council and see that the bar just got lowered for the adults, much to her relief.

Of course, I’ll humor my primary coach and take the test just to see what happens, because even if I were to address those issues that my secondary coach mentioned (which I am, see below), it will take a while for me to get strong and flexible enough to do these moves. I want to pass both Bronze Moves and Freestyle test this year!!! It’s unacceptable that I would have to sit home while everyone is at Dallas b/c I’m held back again by the Bronze Moves test. I’ve working on Bronze Moves for over 3 years. It (my becoming a Bronze Lady) is becoming a big joke now. I would like to stop laughing about it and start making it happen! :)

I also on a work deadline and had to get thru it. I’ve been typing this in between the times I’m waiting for FileMaker Pro to load up all these files with HUGE amounts of data. (GRRRR!!! SLOW as molasses!!!) My current project essentially consists of doing database synchronization between FileMaker Pro and an accounting system called Macola. BOOOORING as well, but it’s the first of many things to come on this HUGE migration project.

Last but not least, I have started pilates training. My pilates trainer, Mike, is doing his job so far. We’ll see what happens.