Thread title inspired by me landing on my butt today. Luckily there's an awful lot of padding there and it didn't hurt.

More on my practice for today later when I'm not pressed for time, but I present to you...this week's practice thread.

LOL, quite often when both of my blades are in the air, my bum happens to be on the ice

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--renatele

...or if not there yet, ask again in a millisecond!

Ha! Ha! Ha! Today was a bum on the ice day for me! I don't usually fall but today I had a doozy! Was practicing for the flip jump and landed flat-bladed, and my skates slid out from underneath me....woosh! I hit my sacrum, shoulder blades, elbow and wrist. Attracted lots of attention but I'm ok. I'm sore now but really the part of me that really hurts the most is my bunion (go figure).

Blades in the air: got some great parting advice from my coach (it was the last lesson of the season)...and no sit spins for my final lesson. I need to spend the summer working on:
-pointing my toes
-pointing my toes
-not hunching my shoulders, and
-pointing my toes

Nothing was really spectactular or fairly good today, I think I was still off from taking a muscle relaxer yesterday...I think that affected my balance and timing.

Bum on the ice: skated from 3:30-8:15 pretty much non-stop and man, I am BEAT!!!!! Only had a 20-minute break total for a banana and potty break. The rest was practice, lesson, show stuff, more practice, and me teaching the show girls some synchro stuff. I was going to eat my sandwich during a zamboni session but that didn't work out, so I ate it on the way home (at 8:30).

Our show is Friday evening and Saturday (two shows), last ice is Sunday 2-5 or 6? something like that. Then no ice until mid-August. Should be ok, as I have tons of off-ice training to do until then.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Blades in the Air: Learned how to do a back sit spin today and was totally successful!!!!! Didn't think I would be able to do it since I have struggled so much as of late with back spin. Also, started working towards an axel!!!! I have my off-ice training to do now and on ice to work with. Had a great lesson today, working on refining my power pulls forward and backwards and back steps. So far so good. Spins were pretty good as well, decently centered. Even my sit spin was really low even though I had some difficulty balancing (see below )

Bum on the ice: Inconsistent on my sit spin to bring my legs together. Also still trying to stop rocking on my blade when spinning in sit position, coach suggested some different focuses and it seemed to help.

I'd say today was purely bum on the ice.

One of the other local rinks was closed, so ours was pretty packed. I was already frustrated when I got on the ice because of things going on at home, and got even MORE frustrated in my lesson. I'd have to circle around several times to get a jump in, then fall on the jump because my frustration and desperation to GET the jump in made me rush or just forget technique.

2axels felt like they'd regressed since landing a few last week. As my coach was having me do exercises, the woman who works behind the counter at the rink came up with the phone for me. It was my mom.

I couldn't really hear her, but I heard her say "dropped" and "don't know how low" and immediately knew she was talking about my platelets (got blood drawn this morning).

I gave her a call then got back on the ice to spin for a bit. Rink employee comes with the phone again.

My mom tells me my platelets are down to 20,000 and I can't skate. At this point I started crying on the phone because I'm testing in 12 days and if I were to miss this session, I think any chance of getting my tests done for regionals would be gone. But I guess my doctor said I can do moves. I'll keep working on my FS with singles so I don't fall to keep up my stamina, and hopefully the steroids will get my platelets up quickly.

So yeah, bad skate, bad day.

And I have a horribly, horribly sore throat. I can usually deal with sore throats since the surfing accident which left me with a sore throat and damaged vocal chords for months, but this is just bad. Nice and pus-y too

Ok, in an attempt to be somewhat positive...

Blades in the air
-My spins were fast.

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Youtube Videos

My coach tries to even out negative comments with positive comments, but I think our last lesson ended up with a lot of negative....unless I'm reading her "things to work hard on" list as just negative because of my mood.....I hope you feel better soon and are able to skate your test!

I uploaded my very poor-excuse for a split jump how-to on you tube. If anyone is interested, its here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JeU08TEM6o

I guess I did ok for just learning it. at least the coach that night said I did. Whatever.

We have had really bad storms here this morning and when I went to the gym for yoga (which I really needed to work out the kinks from my fall yesterday) they lost power and closed down. All the traffic lights were out on my way back home so I had to do some creative detouring (i.e. not wanting to make a left turn across the highway). Luckily, we still have power on at my house.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Ibreakhearts, I'm saying prayers for you, hope your platelets get to where they are supposed to be. Skating is very therapeutic, so they need to let you keep doing it .

Bum: I woke up yesterday with a sore muscle in my hip. The more I skate, the more the pain goes away, but then driving in a car to work and sitting all day at work makes it sore and stiff again. Not good, my rink's ISI competition is a week from Friday.

Blades: Great lesson this morning! Got through lots of programs and skated them pretty well in spite of sore hip.

Bum: I was skating my program in a lesson, and the only other adult on the ice cut right in my path just before I was about to take off for my toe loop. I had to quickly shift my path and totally lost my momentum. She saw me coming, she just never yields to anyone, so it doesn't do any good to talk to her or her coach.

Blades: Still landed my flip combination in spite of being thrown off by rude adult skater. Hey, I'm an adult too, but I try to yield and be courteous to other skaters.

Super Blades: After 10 years, my Klingbeils are finally starting to break down. So, after much research on custom boots, I worked with Klingbeil and ordered new custom boots and another set of MK Professional blades. The new boots will be exactly like my current 10 year old custom Klingbeils and I'm really excited. My blades are 2 1/2 years old, so in another 6 months I would have ordered new blades anyway. Also, this way, once my new skates arrive, I can keep my old ones as a backup, which I currently don't have. I need custom boots because my feet are very weird, a half size different, and stock boots won't work anywhere near as well for me.

ibreakhearts, hoping the platelets come up QUICK. Nupogen (sp?), anyone? (my FIL had injections of that all the time during his battle with leukemia).

Blades: Whee, the 6:30 am summer sessions have begun!! I hate, hate, hate getting up at 5:30, but having the ice to myself at 6:30 is GREAT! I get so much work done. Silver moves coming along but yeah, I need another lesson on them. Today some good work with coach on sal & toe loop. She is QUITE determined that I skate ISI3 and, what the heck, skate up to Bronze at some USFS comp in the fall I said, yah, right, and get buried. . . Good spin lesson yesterday, and I'm finally getting aware of when I drop my shoulder into the spins.

Bum: 3-turns are scratchy into sal & toe loop. Oops.
And yeah, I drop my shoulder, lean back, fall forward, go on the pick, throw my free leg around, let my arms go wild--you name it, I've done it on a spin if it's wrong. Spins are just NOT MY THING. Nevertheless, spin coach has been very helpful in finally helping me make some progress.
Now on to 2 weeks off the ice

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"Go wash an elephant if you wanna do something big." -Baby Gramps

I would strongly recommend having your measurements and molds redone. Your feet may have changed in 10 years. From what I have seen, people who get their measurements redone each time when ordering customs tend to have better results.

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Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

First off: does anyone know what this company is: http://www.everything-ice.com/

I have a charge on my debit card from "Everything Ice, Inc." but I can't remember what it's from as I don't remember buying anything skating-related lately. I had thought maybe the place I ordered my soakers/skate guards from had charged and that it was finally to be delivered, but I don't think the charge is correct (it's off by a couple dollars from the amount shown on my account where I ordered) and this place doesn't seem to be affiliated with them that I know of. Anyone familiar and know if they're linked to a skating supplier as well? (I'm nervous because Bank of America called the boi the other day and told him they were sending him a new debit card as his had been compromised by a retailer, but they refused to tell him who the retailer was. And since it's highly possible that retailer might also be somewhere I've used my debit card, I've been trying to watch my account and charges I don't recognize are freaking me out right now)

Blades in the air: Went to the rink yesterday and it went really well. I finally, magically, "got" some stuff I was having trouble with...though whether I'll still "get" it when I go tomorrow, I don't know! And I finally have an app't this Saturday to go get fitted and see if I can find some used skates. Woo!

And, this past weekend I got some elbow pads, yay.

And this weekend, besides my fitting, since the boi is gone I can go skating on Saturday AND Sunday. Which I desperately need.

Bum on the ice: Literally! I did fall once yesterday, but it didn't hurt. Also, the ice was rough (they must've had a hockey game) and there were some students on the ice. I don't mind sharing the ice with people who are actually there to skate (as one girl did after her friends gave up) but I do lose patience with kids who seem more interested in standing around on the ice gabbing, or yakking at their non-skating friends, or skating for ten feet and shrieking whenever they lose their balance before going back to yak at their friends some more. I know it's their school and "their" ice and all, but sometimes I wonder why they even bother. And, I will never understand the reasoning behind "oh look, there's someone skating around on the same circle over and over, so I feel it's a good idea for me to set my trajectory so that I go right through that circle so they have to try to avoid hitting me." I mean, really, you can't skate on the REST of the rink and go PAST me on the sides of the rink to reach the other end, so I don't have to break my beautiful rhythm (or attempt to get into one) to skate around you?? It's not like it's not REALLY OBVIOUS by now where I am going...

Tomorrow is my last day to go skating at my awesome rink; since it's an after-school session, they're obviously not going to have it when there's no more school. Boo.

And, still waiting on my ^*@#&! order of skate guards and soakers. I am THIS CLOSE to just calling them and telling them to cancel my order because I could've ordered and received my stuff from somewhere else three times over now. My guess is after I told the lady to substitute another color of skate guards, she maybe forgot to switch it so they think they're still waiting for a response from me. I'm going to call them tomorrow and ask them what the trouble is. I had thought at first maybe I was waiting for them to cut my skate guards to the right length, but it just can't possibly take two weeks to do that, and if it does, I'll have them just send them along and cut them myself, geez.

Despite things sounding all bad, though, I am having a good skating week.

[Bum]
So, on Sunday, I was doing the Junior Back Power Circles, everything was going well, until I turned forward in the Zamboni corner and tried to stop...well, I hit something and fell on both knees, both elbows and my stomach...needless to say, my left knee is now black it's back to the ice for me tonight!

[Blades]
Skated today and was just hoping that I wouldn't fall on my bruised knee...I didn't!!

Axels were HUGE...had a couple that coach was very excited about...however, I am still pulling out of them early I am working on my take off and delaying everything so that I can get up better which is working for me!!

However,

[Bum]
I can't seem to do a half-way decent axel in my program I need to work on my program in general as it is just not good...

[Blades]
Then.....we did 2toe...coach said that my body WANTS to rotate, but my brain is stopping me...yes, I'm a chicken But I had some pretty good technique...now I just need to start rotating them!

After my lesson I worked on double sals, and they are getting better...I am slowly regaining what I lost when I was on vacay...

[Bum]
We did Choctaws and they are not horrible, but definitely not is wonderful shape...thank goodness coach didn't ask me to do power circles!!

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

Blades: Worked on Power 3's and coach seemed happy with them. Also she said she didn't need to see my toe loop, because she saw me practicing them last week and they looked good.

Bum: Got new turquoise dress today. I've been waiting for this for dress for over 2 months. The skirt is asymetrical and shows my right butt cheek in back. The front is okay so I'm not sure what's up with the back.

The name seems to ring a bell, but I'm not sure why. Anyway, there should be a phone number on your bill on the same line as the purchase transaction. Call them and ask what the debit is for.

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Thanks guys.

I did a quick google of neupogen, but it doesn't seem like they use it just for low platelets, but for low white blood cell count and low platelets.

My doc is still letting me skate, I just can't do anything where I'm likely too fell because with my platelets this low I'm at high risk for bleeding. Soooo lots of moves.

Blades in the air

Skated for an hour today. I usually skate longer but I'm sick with a nasty cold/throat infection too! Worked on my Intermediate and Novice moves. Intermediate felt good, and Novice, well, definitely some improvement.

Counters felt pretty good. The edge quality and flow were definitely improved. Still have a hard time getting good power from the the first cross stroke after the RBO rocker, but again, it's getting better.

FI BI 3-turns felt pretty good. I don't really mind those.

Rocker choctaws down the long axis were decent...I think.

Bum on the ice
Hate hate HATE quick rocker choctaws with the permiter crossovers. I just can't control them! My free hip/leg gets too far away from me when I do the rocker (especially in the CW direction). That's definitely my problem move.

Probably going to put my papers in to test these first time on July 10th. I'm assuming I'll fail, but I'm counting on good feedback. I'm hoping by putting them out in July and getting good feedback, I'll be able to pass in August in time for regionals.

Doesn't look like they can get high enough judges for my June 10th session to test my Int free. All of the other sessions in June around me are booked, so I'm probably going to have to wait until July and be stuck in skater's Int/Novice limbo for even longer. Sigh.

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Youtube Videos

[Blades in the Air]
Did some pretty good axels today! Nice and big I still need to remember to stay in, but I was focusing so much on making a delay of the take off (or at least slowing it down so that I don't rush it), that I couldn't think of anything else

I made some progress with double sals...I started falling!! That shows that I am starting to fight for a 1 footed landing...I even had a few that I landed one footed that were under-rotated, but still it shows that I am starting to work it all out

My knee has stopped hurting if touched, and is now starting to turn technicolor....yay!! It's starting to heal!!

[Bum on the Ice]
I couldn't center a spin to save my life today oh well, I know I can do them, today was just more of a jumping day

[Blades on the Ice]
So, I've been working on double toes, and they are starting to get better, however, I continue to chicken out on the rotation... I know I will figure it out, but I'm being a bit impatient!

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

Blades: ice was smooth again today, yay. (Well, ice there is never completely smooth; there are deep scratches that never really get filled in by the Zamboni but the smaller scratches are smoothed away) I still feel like I'm seeing improvement on my crossovers and edges.

And I realized today how far I've come from the start (and how much further I still have to go, but oh well!). I remember my first or second time skating and thinking, "am I ever going to feel as comfortable on the ice as some people look, or am I always going to be tottering around?" Today I was sweeping around the rink and realized that I am SO much more comfortable than I used to be. Amazing.

Got to see them Zamboni the ice after the session! Didn't watch it all though as I was running late.

Bum: I did fall once, again on my butt, so no owies. Elbow and leg bruises receding, but elbow still sore (though not so much). Not surprising, considering how hard I hit, but...still, ow.

Kids on the ice again...but they seemed to do a fair job of actually skating. One kid made me a bit nervous because he'd tear around the ice as fast as possible and generally fall at least once each time around, but he wasn't too hard to avoid. The only thing that really, REALLY annoyed me was the time two of the girls ended up in a pile on the ice (I don't know if they fell or were just messing around) and at first I couldn't tell if they were laughing or crying, then some of their friends skated over and helped one of them up, but the other was still sitting there (again I couldn't tell if she was laughing or crying) and then the whole group was gathered around her and she still wasn't getting up. I was trying to decide if I should go over and see if she was okay or go get one of the rink people (because again I wasn't sure if she was sitting there just to mess around and was laughing, or if she was crying because she was too hurt to get up), or if they were just messing around. Finally I just ignored it and figured if she was hurt, one of her friends would go get someone.

And it was my last day at the rink for the summer...today was the last after-school skate.

Tried to call on the status of my blade guards/soakers order. Got an answering machine telling me to leave a message and they'd get back to me. Called twice, never heard back. I did reach Everything Ice though and they told me they're a supplier for this place, so that must be what the charge is. Would like to know why it's more than $2 less than my invoice said, though. Not complaining, just curious. Still nothing on my doorstep, though.

And worst of all...I got a speeding ticket on the way back to the office. *sigh*

Sweetie, I am SO, SO sorry. Do they have any idea why this is happening? As for the skating, it's a good time to remember that you have to love it for the process. You WILL take that test and you WILL pass it. It doesn't matter when that happens, as long as you keep working at it. You have to take care of yourself, too. ((((HUG))))

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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

Blades in the air: Had a lesson today and managed to do all my tricks. Even that rarety the double loop. I felt good the whole day. That's what it's all about.

Bum on the ice: I resprained my wrist several days ago

Nope, no known reason, really. So basically I have idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (or something like that, may have messed up the spelling a little bit). My immune system attacks my platelets, but they don't know WHY my immune system is attacking them. As annoying as it is to not know WHY my body is doing this, it's still way better than other causes.

I'm still plugging away on the tests. I'm retaking Intermediate a week from Saturday, and I'm feeling pretty confident. I'm also going to put my papers in for Novice Moves (and maybe Int FS depending on whether or not they can find a third judge high enough to judge me on the session coming up). At first I was figuring, eh, Novice Moves July 10th, hail mary, probably going to fail. But since I CAN'T jump right now and can only really do moves (and spins too, but my moves definitely need more work), I think I might actually be able to PASS in July. Or at least get close. I figure there's nothing I can do but keep trying. Hopefully my stupid, jump loving brain can remember how much I improved by spending 2 hours a day on moves and at least force myself to do 45 minutes of moves a day.

Soooo Blades in the Air
-Quick rocker choctaws CCW direction were actually borderline good today! I decide to try the whole pattern and the speed helped instead of just scaring me.
-Intermediate back power 3s () were better too.
-Did some counters that my coach called, and I quote, "Beautiful turns." That is something I don't think I've EVER heard her say.
-Coach said my power circles were better too. Still a little step-y, but better.

Bum on the ice
-Epic fall on the rocker choctaws down the long axis. I had just finished telling a coach that I actually kind of liked that move. First rocker choctaw was ok, second was a little wobbly, then the third. I don't know if I stepped on my heel or just put my blade down wrong when I did the choctaw, but next thing I knew I was suspened in mid-air for long enough to hear a girl (mid-program run through) go OH. MY. GOD! Then I fell lol. It hurt, but the irony kept me laughing. Skate gods were listening!
-CW quick rocker choctaws are still rough. I know the book says CW direction is usually harder, but everyone I've known has preferred the CW direction in both the rocker choctaws and FI BI 3s. Not me. I prefer RBI 3s and RBI rockers, but throw the whole thing together and I much prefer the CCW direction.

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Youtube Videos

this is for yesterday, i was tooo tired to do anything except eat a little bit and crawl into bed.

Blades: winding down the skating season I hit the public session before show practice. That means skating from 3:45-8:15 pm. So, my stamina is still good, I just save the exhaustion for when I get home LOL!

Worked on toe-loops and salchows (since it's near the end, and I've no more lessons AND a show I don't want to risk falling/injury so close to the show so I'm doing "safe" stuff). Reviewing my video from last time, I was not re-bending after the 3-turn. I corrected that and really got some height on my salchows. Then, I focused on my toe-loop and tried to really hit that toepick into the ice-I have to think "JAB" on that part just to make it happen, which does work for me.

Did tons of 3-turns, really focusing on the 2nd half of the turn and looking down my arm, pointing my toe and trying to achieve nice turn out and not taking too many steps before doing the next 3-turn.

Worked on back crossovers, focus was on PUSH on the crossover, PUSH on the crossunder and getting an even timing. CW is always harder for me than CCW so I did twice as many times around CW.

Bum: spins (scratch/backspin) were not happening at all, but this morning I was slightly congested, more in my ears so maybe that was why.

Saw my coach as she was leaving (she had been doing lessons and choreography for the sho)....we talked about boots (I need new ones), jumps (she told me not to over-analyze mine as they were good, and her synchro skating (she is on a team at U of Delaware).

Blades: I have been working out an off-ice fitness training plan (Sunday or Monday I'll start). I want to incorporate nutrition (I am the same weight and body fat but I want to lose about 2-3%), cardio (intervals), strength, plyo drills, flexibility, and some off-ice jumps. And my dance stuff (which really isn't that much more, mostly ab/core work).

Bum: we have dress rehearsal tonight, 5-???? so this will be interesting.

Otherwise: on a side note, knowing that I need new boots and wanting to know how the pro-flex boots are, I tried an experiment. I put on hubby's (yes they were rather large) cranked them down and had son hold my hands while I did some waltz jumps in the carpeted living room. It was very interesting, and except for something digging into my ankles, I liked the ability to really point my toes and actually land toe-first. Of course, I know if I actually got these sort of boots, I would be doing tons of "TOEPICK" flying! I mentioned this experiment to my coach as we talked and we talked about keeping my same blade (heck yeah I luv my blade) if I do get these boots.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Blades very much in the air. Skated pairs this morning and worked on death spirals and throws. My partner learned the perils of the male in the throw - I smacked him in the face while taking off on a throw axel.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Major Bum: I was lacing up my skates this morning and the lace hole on the right one right at the ankle completely ripped . ISI competition is a week from tomorrow.

Blades: I relaced the skate completely skipping the ripped hole and its corresponding lace on the other side and the right skate actually felt better laced that way - who would have guessed? All spins and jumps were great, and the feel of the boot was very good. Phew, dodged that bullet. Once I get my new skates, I will leave them with the repair guy to fix since I want to use them as backups. Unfortunately, the only repair guy I trust has to keep them for at least a week, and that's not possible right now.

[Blades in the Air]

Did some wonderfully huge axels I felt like I had time to actually pull in and rotate! I think that I had a couple that were clean as well And it feels as if I am starting to land on my toe!!!

Double toes were at 1.5 rotations I'm chickening out and not finishing the rotation, but shoot, who would have thought that I would be doing 2toes in the first place! But, that is better than yesterday when I was only getting 1!!

My knee is turning yellow!! Which is much better than the purple it was a few days ago...

[Bum on the Ice]
Double sals were not as good as they were last night, but, hey, I'll take it.

Didn't do my program tonight (oops )...I REALLY need to start doing that...

Spins were not good again....I don't know what it is, I either have a spin day or a jump day and can't seem to have both!

I need to start really working on my Junior moves...I started today by reinstating my 1 session mandate of moves...In particular, I need to figure out what is going wrong with my pattern on the power circles (I'm doing an extra circle around), perfect that awkward transition on the outside rockers, work on the power pulls in general (I can make it through 1/2 to 3/4 of the pattern before I lose steam), and of course making the corrections to the choctaws...that's doable by september/october, right?

It was laundry night....not directly skating related, but that's always a downer!

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

(((((ibreakhearts66))))) If your doctor knew what kinds of hard falls you can take on MIF, you wouldn't be skating at all! Hooray for ignorance! Hope you didn't bruise too much and that they get your condition under control. Good luck on your next tests.

Blades in the Air:
Finally, all my house guests are gone and I can get back to eating normally and skating! Started my ice dance lesson today with deep, deep FO edges in waltz position, then BO edges in waltz. Coach seemed pleasantly surprised and just had me make a few adjustments such as hips more forward, and lean back more. Then we did very deep FI edges in kilian, followed by foxtrot position. Once again, I surprised him and got several "goods!" I LOVE edges. We ran thru the prelim dances once each, which is what I suspect we will be doing until I can get into a test session. Finished up with some FXO's in reverse kilian, which were declared good. All in all, another terrific lesson!

Bum on the Ice:
All my houseguests are gone and I miss them!!!

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