06/24/06

Well, I decided to come back to FL. I couldn't take it in IL anymore, I was so bored. So I signed up and had my first lesson. I am 4 lessons behind so I get to do two lessons a week for a while. Of course in true jacksonville style, two classes didn't have a teacher. This is normal for the adults, and I still feel horrible for the beginners. it just seems like all they do is crossovers every week for the whole season. Its absolute crap.

Finally the program director takes over the adult class and the freestyle class. I got bored of doing crossovers and the other class was doing one footed spins so I went to ask her if I could join the other class. She looked at me like I was stupid and it was completely out of the question. I told her I was in the Freestyle one level and she was like fine, we are doing spins. Eventually she came over with a "ok, I will work with you now". So I showed her a spin. Turns out the last semester I have been spinning wrong. My scratch spin was so off. I was doing a LO 3turn into trying to spin on the LOE. Apparently its supposed to be a LO3Turn into LIE circles. And once she told me that, i started doing great. Sort of pisses me off that I have paid over $100 for lessons and nobody has ever once pointed that out to me. W.E. I always complain, i should be greatful that I can even have a rink to skate at.

Anyways, there is a teacher for the tuesday classes so I hope that goes well.

i am so glad to be back to the ice.

My summer is ruined

Today I walked around aimlessly around the University of Illinois. I found the ice skating rink only to walk in and find out horrible news. They are closed for the whole summer! I am so upset! Tomarrow I am going to buy roller blades so atleast my muscles won't die. I was really looking forward to working on my skills so that when I get back to Jacksonville, I can start getting ready for a competition. My summer is ruined. I will have to drive over an hour away to get to the closest skating rink and I don't have a car!

This is so cute!

Last Florida skate for the summer

Today was my last skate night before I leave for Illinois. I stayed for the full 2 hours because I payed $8 and had to make it worth it. i worked a lot on my scratch spin and my waltz jump. The scratch spin is very uncentered but another skater showed me a technique where you hold on to your blade guard while you spin to help center youyr shoulders and I am hoping it will work. I am going to work on it in IL. My waltz jump is getting higher and faster. I think this is because my entrence is better, on a right outside edge, I hold my free leg out behind me which give me a lot of momentum when I switch feet and jump.

I started working on my salchow, which has been very shaky. That is getting better as well after I figured out how much a long three turn helps. I wish I could say my toe loop was better, but it has shriveled down to nothing. I can't even get off the ice. I think the problem is that for so long I tried to do jumps in my living room without actually knowing how to do it, and formed bad habits concerning jumps that use the toe pick.

I hope that by the time I get back on a rink, I will not have lost everything. I am very nervous about just walking into a rink where nobody knows me. Then again I felt that way just a few months ago :) I met a girl today who has been skating for 3 years and she does double jumps. I hope that is me one day. I think I have come pretty far in the 4-5 months I have been skating. I will make sure to update from Illinois.

Toodles!

Testing

Today was testing and I passed Adult Basics and now I move on to Freestyle 1. I am very excited. I realize today that I am almost done with freestyle one as well.

I got a rather positive comment a few posts back that I wanted to mention. I have been fairly negative about my rink and the poeple in it, but I am only venting. I am sorry if it does not fairly represent everybody and I am fearful that one day somebody from my rink will come across my journal and that everybody will hate me. :( I realize that there are good children who skate well with adults. I enjoy a lot of the kids at my rink, however (and we all know it) there are also some snotty children at the rinks. I appreciate good parents, but there are also bad ones. My biggest beef is really with the administrators of the skating program. I am sorry if I offended anyone.

I have no idea what to do now. I have a huge nickle sized blister on my heal and today was my last lesson. I have to see what the rink is like in Urbana, Il before I sign up for lessons. Somebody told me they have never seen an adult there, but I am skeptical because it is on a college campus. I will find out in a few weeks. Thanks for reading my blog!

April 24th Lesson

Today I showed up all excited for my lesson like I always do! Unfortunatly our dear coach was not there and a coach was missing from the freestyle class as well. So the director of the skating school comes over and says she will be teaching our class as well as the freestyle one. I was excited because it is not everyday the director instructs the class and I was looking forward to some good tips.

This introduction was then followed by the question "who is in the Spring show?" (The school is doing a spring show that has a disney theme). I said I am not, to which the director replied "well are you going to sign up?" in a rather snood voice. I said "no I will be out of town". After the 4 other adults said no (one said yes) the director then went to the freestyle class and stayed there pretty much the whole time. She did not come back until 10 minutes before class ended. It was like a slap in the face...no wonder the adults don't participate in the shows, no one gives a crap about us.

I felt really bad for the beginners that were in the adult class. There was a guy and a girl and there really isn't much to do at that level when nobody is there to tell you what to do. I was pissed off and I think we should get a free class because of it. Then I said something to another girl about how I thought that the 3 classes after the spring session ends was specifically for the spring show...she started putting me down when the director came over and the director looked pissed off at me.

I am really sick of being treated like I don't matter at this stupid skating rink. Unfortunatly it is the only thing around and I have no other choice except to quit skating. I want a damn lesson, I am a paying customer too and I deserve that much for the amount of money I spend on lessons.

AHHHH sorry...it is also exam week. Eventually I will calm down. Here, have a video.

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

April 22nd Makeup Lesson

Sorry I haven't been updating! I have exams this week and last week I missed class to study. I went to the makeup class this Saturday and found out there is actually an adult class...who knew! They always told me to register on Tuesday because that was the only day I could. Liars. Turns out the same instructor Vicky teaches that adult class as well. So I did that, really just a lot of practice by myself...they sure do give her a lot to do. It's hard to work with adults on a lot of different levels.

Practice was good, I worked on my waltz jump and my toe loop a whole lot. I also worked on spirals and the serpentine. I am very happy I can get my leg level with my back. I was talking to another women who will be in her first competition soon and I got really excited. So I talked to my coach and she said when I get back from IL in the fall we can start talking about a competition that will be good for me! Hpoefully, I will get into doing something in IL, seeing as I will have 2 jobs paying me. I will definatly have time.

I bought a new camera, so hopefully I will have pictures up. I hope someone is willing to help me take them!!