Just wanted to give a shout out to many of the fine folks I hung out with at Easterns. To mskater, keep your head up, and follow Davin's advice from right before we left the rink. Remember what happened to Tasha Schwikert in 2000 and Chelsie Memmel in 2003?! They didn't qualify for their respective world/Olympic teams, but circumstances got in the way. You never know what may happen, so if you can, keep training!

Vesperholly and Stormy, it was great seeing you guys as well and enjoying a nice dinner and good skating talk. Vesper, sorry about your music malfunction!!! I agree, IPODs are great to have in such situations... best purchase I've made in a long while.

LoopLoop, I want to keep our "appointment".

Nova, sorry we couldn't have drinks Saturday night. I don't know if I've ever seen you drunk.

As for me, I have mixed emotions about qualifying. I'm glad I did it, but not glad about the way I did it. I know I can skate better so I'll be on a mission from now till Chicago.

And thanks to the LOC for a smoothly run event. Love those scarves!

D

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Whatever!

Ah, it is *quite* a sight--just keep me out of the karaoke bars, lest the Kansas City travesty reoccur (just where is Careygram when I need her). But I was drinking at the hotel bar Sat. night. Folks just kept handing me drinks. I vaguely recall raspberry vodka/sprite/cranberry and some apple concoction.

I hear ya (and I hope you sent/faxed in your form today?). I cannot speak totally for LoopLoop, but I feel like I/we have something to prove, if only to ourselves. Here's to *no* errors in Chicago!

P.S. To all you clueless beeyotches at the Ballston rink on Wed. nights, you have duly been warned! I am installing spurs on my skates should you ruin my focus/concentration/program runthroughs!

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Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

*Opens a Mapquest window to scope out driving time to Ballston rink. Rats! Too far.*

We used to "buddy train" with a friend yelling the "Excuuuuuse Meeeee!" call during the crowded sessions.

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You should have done the new Tuesday 7:15-8pm adult freestyle at Ballston. There were 5 of us last night. I had a lesson and they all cleared the ice when I ran my program. BTW it was a damn good run through too!

I will be there tonight....I'll be looking for those spurs......I used to have a few pair back in my equestrian days!

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Why are you skating so slowly? Get out of my way!

If you skate faster, it makes everything look better!

I have to stay away from that session lest I get recruited for ice dance!

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Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

BWAHHHAAHAAHAA!!!! I concur! Those KREPI clueless skaters make that session feel like FALZE OLYMPIKS!

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Whatever!

Nova and I need adult supervision when we drink together.... And there's karaoke within 50 feet.........."I can see paradise by the dashboard light..........ain't no doubt about it blah blah blah..."

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Careygram

January: Sure I'll compete, quick, send the application
April: I signed up to do WHAT??

Oh Dear

As long as no one sings a Ballad. I always have to leave whenever somebody tries to "Bring it down a little bit."

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Why are you skating so slowly? Get out of my way!

If you skate faster, it makes everything look better!

Haha ... we'll have to rehearse next time we're in Wayne, NJ. We can sing going into our scary side-by-side flying camels (before we scream)!

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Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Yes, our flying camels were vying for the same run way and ONE of us screamed like a girl (guess which one....). Wayne and wine (or vodka nips), you're ON (AFTER we skate of course).

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Careygram

January: Sure I'll compete, quick, send the application
April: I signed up to do WHAT??

I always start out by doing cardio at the gym, even if only for 5 minutes. My gym is gigantic, and there is always room to stretch. So if I am working on my shoulders or arms using the cable station or Nautilus machines, I stretch my legs/thighs/hams in between sets by placing my legs on the equipment and holding the stretch. I figure that in between sets, you have to rest the said muscle, so why not stretch during that downtime?
When I am finished working out, I always use a floor mat and stretch my upper back, hip flexors, quads, groin, and calves.

In front of the TV, I sit on the floor, back against the couch and stretch my legs out. Sometimes I lie on my back and pull my legs in and then to the side. I am crazy about stretching because I value my limberness and I feel that it helps prevent injury. As someone here has mentioned, stength and flexibility go hand-in-hand: Flexibilty on ice is not so great without the strength to maintain the position.
That is my true aim.

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

We'll have to ask Lucinda Ruh there for some spin tips ...

Speaking of alcohol (doesn't it always come down to that? ), after each pair program at Easterns, Kim S. and David G. threw a bag containing nips of Kahlua and Maker's Mark. They deserved the gold for that alone!

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Lucinda Ruh you say? I'd better bring my baggies (Tim knows what I mean by that). I'm not good on "rides" that spin (and spin and spin, especially in the opposite direction!)

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Careygram

January: Sure I'll compete, quick, send the application
April: I signed up to do WHAT??

Thanks, Stephen. I do try to stretch, but can't afford gym membership - I use resistance cords etc, often at the rink, but apart from the barrier (which we all use) there's nowhere really to stretch.

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

Annabel, short of not having gym membership, I recommend getting the Maxi-Flex. I'm getting good stretches with it when hubby is not available. (Haven't seen anything significant yet but...) This is to ADD to your resistance bands, since the resistance bands also does train you in STRENGTH as well.

You can also get Robert to lift your leg when you're doing a spiral to get used to doing a spiral. (Just make sure, of course, you're standing with the ENTIRE foot and straighten standing leg.) I've recruited my (non-skating) hubby to do this. Of course, he's also having fun making me into a wishbone.

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Anyone know when they're posting our results for non-qual events? Or am I just missing it?

Perhaps on the website eventually?

http://www.colonialfsc.com/adulteasterns07/

Yes, Stephen and Debbie doing Karaoke in KC, I remember it well. It was what inspired my comment to Marna - "This is like the Leticia Hubert of Karaoke performances."

Tim

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People dream of flying, birds dream of skating.

I loved Laetitia Hubert!! However, knowing her history, that means that Stephen's and Debbie's singing was either very, very good or not so good. So which is it? Were they actually good or were you having a Simon Cowell moment, Tim?

Frank

Results have been posted

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Tim David's Website

I don't remember, quite honestly. It was a Night of a Thousand Nips ... um *vodka* nips, as that word could have a different meaning, being in a seedy karaoke bar!

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

I prefer to remember that we were great. In fact the more we imbibed, the better we got ; ) I do remember Tim having kind of a pained look on his face though.....

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Careygram

January: Sure I'll compete, quick, send the application
April: I signed up to do WHAT??

In another pairs moment, his look perfectly matched LoopLoop's. And hey, at least we didn't succumb to singing any Sinatra songs!

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

"Strangers in the night...." Ah yes, they were the 6.0 of the synchronized "why us???" look. I think they would have seen the humor had they tried the vodka nips right?

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Careygram

January: Sure I'll compete, quick, send the application
April: I signed up to do WHAT??

Thanks - I will! I haven't been to the rink yet but am considering a moves/spins lesson this Saturday depending on how my back feels. Still vacillating about whether or not to get a x-ray. I have a gut feeling that hard-work and PT are going to be the only way out of this rut:]

Good luck at Nationals - I think you skated great at Sectionals btw and I really enjoyed your program:]

So, I finally broke the news regarding my placement to my coaches last night and they were SO disappointed/upset. I'm at peace with everything but it made me feel horrible to get their reaction - I had no idea that they cared so much?? Really weird for me but I'm just going to take it all in and prepare for a strong season in the new year. Time to get my triples going again:]

-Cheers!