I don't think I can do that - my newest bruise isn't in a show-offable place! It hurts, though - I think poor Husband is getting a bit sick of me saying "Ow!" whenever I get up!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

When friends find out that your knees are particulary ticklish(during summer months when rink is closed)
Then (during winter months) they attempt to tickle you only to find that you're gasping in pain

When your friends who skateboard spend lunch gawking at you when you explain that an axel is equivilant to a 540, then said friends come skating with you and decide that it is much harder than it looks after a few stopping lessons

When you walk down the sidewalk you absentmindedly start doing a footwork sequence and your friends who don't skate are like o_O and the ones that do are like "Watch mine!"

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The Axel has been landed...

When you go to try on some clothes and are so thrilled that the changing room is big enough to practice your spiral positions in and has those multiple mirrors so you can check how it looks from every angle, that you spend so long in there doing that, you think you'd better forget actually trying on the clothes.

When you buy a new car and are bitterly disappointed when the number plate reads RE03 - and you really, really want to ask them to change it for RFO3 or RBO3 so it would be a skating term (one of our coaches has the number plate H2O ICE!)

When everything is valued in terms of lesson tickets - eg from this week "Yes we can take the gondola ride in Venice because we are not skating this week while we are here and so saving the exact cost." Or conversely - no I won't buy that new top I fancy because I could have an hours worth of lessons for that. I actually find it quite a useful tool on occasion to see if I really want something by asking myself - am I prepared to give up X hours of skating lessons to buy that? If the answer is no then I don't buy it - except of course if it can be used for skating!

When your son is doing music at school and turns out to be quite good at composing and you don't say 'well done!' you say - 'Couldnt you compose me some programme music to skate to'? And are miffed that he still hasn't done it - surely he could spare the time from 4 A levels, 3 bands, county youth choir and lead in school play to do that!

When your husband expresses dismay at the state of the house and you patiently explain you couldn't do the housework as you had to go skating and he accepts that as normal.

When you attend a Vivaldi concert in Venice and mention to the family that it was Alexei Yagudin's short programme in the Olympics (winter).

When your study wall is covered from floor to ceiling in skating photos, me , the kids, elite skaters I've met.

When you are doing free machining embroidery and instead of the usual doodles or circles you machine in the tracing patterns from a spin or 3 turn etc!

I have to add to mine after yesterday--

went horseback riding for the first time in over 30 years - steered the horse into low hanging branches and couldn't steer him to the left enough and thought to myself briefly that my left edge wasn't deep enough....(totally serious)

then my foot got stuck trying to get out of the left stirrup when I dismounted so I promptly fell two feet onto my rear end, and everyone was worried and asked if I were ok, but I fall all the time so I just sat there laughing.

I am a better skater than equestrian.

We were staying on a boat hotel while we were on holiday, and the stairs up to our landing were very narrow and rather steep. I said to Husband one day, "I do find those stairs easier if I do crossovers down them!"

At least he knew what I meant!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Oh! I recognize that one! I've gone so far as to schedule a lesson for the morning I'm leaving for a convention for a different hobby, to remind myself why I'm not spending money on it. I've let my "personal" credit card lapse because a) my coach doesn't take credit cards so I don't need it, and b) it makes it harder to spend money that I really want for skating.

Rob

Okay, Dianne, you win!

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

When does it usually get cold enough to freeze the ice? Should we start a "Dianne's Deep Freeze" pool?

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I scheduled a lesson the morning before I had major surgery--Had to get jumping out of my system since it wasn't going to be allowed for six weeks after.

Besides, it was a good way to deal with the pre-op anxiety.

You know you're addicted when you hear a break- up song on the radio and you find yourself thinking about your missing axel.

Statistically, the average daily temperature and the daytime high both drop below freezing in November and do not rise above freezing until March so SHORTLY!

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

-when your driving for ten minutes before you realise your heading towards the rink instead of where you were supposed to be goin
-you break your ankle and have to watch the team practice from the sidelines, but you get so upset you end up running round on the ice copying their twizzles in your shoes
-when you dont wear skirts because your skating muscles make your legs look ugly, and yet you dont seems to mind walking into starbucks in the middle of town in black lycra skating skirts and tights
-when you go to a lecture of over 400 people and you sit on the floor in the splits while you listen because you want a better spiral sequence
-when you make a list of the sad things your life now consists of because your so obsessed with skating, and you don't really care....

1. When you stop feeling the sensation of cold after skating at morning ice in the winter for a few years.

2. When your teachers at school stop asking why you missed classed cause they know you were at a skating event.

3. When you will not do even slightly dangerous things because you don't want to get hurt for skating.

Well i think we can definetly give this a medical term for this condition.

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Lets Boogie!

I thought of another.

1. When you understand what your coach wants, at least you think you do, and your body absolutely won't do what you want. In fact, mine has been known to do something that has never even crossed my mind.

Chico

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"I truly believe, when God created skating, he patted himself on the back."

Until recently there was a small supermarket almost next door to the rink, and at least two skaters ended up in the rink when where they'd planned to go was the supermarket..... yeah, right....

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!