Skating!
I started skating today!
I wasn't sure if I would start skating today. The registration came out rather late, and I emailed my teacher and didn't hear back until Friday. Lessons started today! Woohoo!
I had a half-hour semi-private lesson at 10 a.m. Once again, I am skating with my favorite skating friend Rachel, with whom I've been skating for at least eight years. We skated a duet together at the exhibition last year. It is funny that we skate so well together because we are opposites in so many ways. She prefers jumps; I prefer spins. She skates with courage, and I skate with grace. (Not to say that she is not also graceful and I am not also courageous, but I tend to be delicate on my feet and more afraid of falling than she is.) Even Miss Jackie, our teacher, noticed it, and said, "If I could take a bit of you and a bit of you, we'd have a perfect skater," and we both laughed, because we've been saying that for years.
I was bad over the summer and did not have my skates on once. When I opened my skate bag today, my shimmer tights from the exhibition at the beginning of June were shoved into my skates, looking at me accusingly like, "You claim to love this but it's been three months?" Yes, but I will be skating up to three days a week for the next three months (possibly six, depending on whether I decide to perform in the White Marsh show or not), and so I will wish then for a few weeks of no limping to work on the morning, no blisters, no achey feet, and no waking up at nine on Sunday mornings.
We did all spinning today, no jumps, which is just as well for me, after three months off my skates. It was all very basic: upright inner backs, sit spins, toe spins, upright outer backs, and upright outer forwards. (All this upright yadda yadda refers to the edge on which you spin.) The half-hour went by fast, and then I had free practice, of which I didn't take full advantage because I was feeling very rough and didn't want to get into any bad habits. So I mostly gossiped with Rachel about our respective summers and how things are going at UMBC, my alma mater, where she now goes.
I have a few goals for the year:
-perfect upright outer backs
-perfect upright outer forwards
-become a more courageous jumper, particularly flip jumps
-stretch every day, no exceptions
One of the bad things about the White Marsh program was that we were never taught to spin on edges other than the inner back. And so, now, when I should be equally comfortable on all three, it is a constant gamble as to whether I will be able to do the outer back or outer forward. So I am going to beat these spins to death over the next year, until they are perfect. I can feel them getting better, the more I work, which is a good thing.
I started to gain courage in jumping last year when I fell in love with open flip jumps, which feel like floating. But I need to jump higher and skate faster on my entrances if I am ever going to do an axle or (Eru help me) doubles.
I was innately flexible in my youth and could do splits all three ways without a problem, but I am getting older now, and my feet won't lift over my head anymore without me forcing my poor tight legs to stretch and do it. I can still do left splits. I had a few years when I hurt my leg and my right leg froze and it hurt to do *anything* requiring flexibility on that foot, but I am slowly getting it back and so now need to stretch, stretch, stretch, all the time.
I have group lessons on Wednesday night, and I am ten times better a skater at night, so I am really looking forward to Wednesday.
~oOo~
Today is 9/11 and, while the people who lost their lives on this day four years ago and their families are in my thoughts today--as they are every day--it is a beautiful day, and I feel that I am finally moving on.
Not moving on to forget. Not moving on to ever grow less relentless in my support of those who work every day to see that 9/11 need never happen again. But the sun is shining, I started skating, the Ravens have their first game this evening, and it is my cousin's first marriage anniversary, and I will spend more time today smiling than crying.
Which, were I ever lost in an attack like 9/11, I would want for those who live on without me.
I wasn't sure if I would start skating today. The registration came out rather late, and I emailed my teacher and didn't hear back until Friday. Lessons started today! Woohoo!
I had a half-hour semi-private lesson at 10 a.m. Once again, I am skating with my favorite skating friend Rachel, with whom I've been skating for at least eight years. We skated a duet together at the exhibition last year. It is funny that we skate so well together because we are opposites in so many ways. She prefers jumps; I prefer spins. She skates with courage, and I skate with grace. (Not to say that she is not also graceful and I am not also courageous, but I tend to be delicate on my feet and more afraid of falling than she is.) Even Miss Jackie, our teacher, noticed it, and said, "If I could take a bit of you and a bit of you, we'd have a perfect skater," and we both laughed, because we've been saying that for years.
I was bad over the summer and did not have my skates on once. When I opened my skate bag today, my shimmer tights from the exhibition at the beginning of June were shoved into my skates, looking at me accusingly like, "You claim to love this but it's been three months?" Yes, but I will be skating up to three days a week for the next three months (possibly six, depending on whether I decide to perform in the White Marsh show or not), and so I will wish then for a few weeks of no limping to work on the morning, no blisters, no achey feet, and no waking up at nine on Sunday mornings.
We did all spinning today, no jumps, which is just as well for me, after three months off my skates. It was all very basic: upright inner backs, sit spins, toe spins, upright outer backs, and upright outer forwards. (All this upright yadda yadda refers to the edge on which you spin.) The half-hour went by fast, and then I had free practice, of which I didn't take full advantage because I was feeling very rough and didn't want to get into any bad habits. So I mostly gossiped with Rachel about our respective summers and how things are going at UMBC, my alma mater, where she now goes.
I have a few goals for the year:
-perfect upright outer backs
-perfect upright outer forwards
-become a more courageous jumper, particularly flip jumps
-stretch every day, no exceptions
One of the bad things about the White Marsh program was that we were never taught to spin on edges other than the inner back. And so, now, when I should be equally comfortable on all three, it is a constant gamble as to whether I will be able to do the outer back or outer forward. So I am going to beat these spins to death over the next year, until they are perfect. I can feel them getting better, the more I work, which is a good thing.
I started to gain courage in jumping last year when I fell in love with open flip jumps, which feel like floating. But I need to jump higher and skate faster on my entrances if I am ever going to do an axle or (Eru help me) doubles.
I was innately flexible in my youth and could do splits all three ways without a problem, but I am getting older now, and my feet won't lift over my head anymore without me forcing my poor tight legs to stretch and do it. I can still do left splits. I had a few years when I hurt my leg and my right leg froze and it hurt to do *anything* requiring flexibility on that foot, but I am slowly getting it back and so now need to stretch, stretch, stretch, all the time.
I have group lessons on Wednesday night, and I am ten times better a skater at night, so I am really looking forward to Wednesday.
~oOo~
Today is 9/11 and, while the people who lost their lives on this day four years ago and their families are in my thoughts today--as they are every day--it is a beautiful day, and I feel that I am finally moving on.
Not moving on to forget. Not moving on to ever grow less relentless in my support of those who work every day to see that 9/11 need never happen again. But the sun is shining, I started skating, the Ravens have their first game this evening, and it is my cousin's first marriage anniversary, and I will spend more time today smiling than crying.
Which, were I ever lost in an attack like 9/11, I would want for those who live on without me.