Breakthrough

Well...this weekend it happened. I finally landed a REAL flip! I had been getting pretty consistent with my loops, and I could land flips 1/4-1/2 rotation short (which is alot, I know). Then friday night someting happened and I started doing big, fully-rotated flips. It is officially my favorite jump. Everytime I go I do at least 30 of them.
Yesterday I started trying to work on the lutz, but it just feels awkward and I am having trouble commiting to the jump.
I only have 2.5 more weeks until my competition in Dallas. I am only competing against one other person in compulsories and freeskate. So that's a little boring. I still don't have my artistic routine put together, so I really need to work on that. I guess it's good I'm not competing against anyone in that event. :)

In the past week I've...

landed my loop and my flip!!!! What a week. :) :) :)

Pictures!

Pictures from my first competition can be found here.
I want to buy one, I just can't decide which one.

I really don't update this thing enough. Since I started teaching I really haven't had time.
I skated in my first competition, the Houston Invitational. I didn't do very well on my compulsories. I had been having problems with my scratch spin the week prior, and it just didn't happen. So I got 3/3 on that. I feel like I skated really well on my freeskate. I got 5/6, so I was really disapointed with that. I felt like I should have gotten at least 4th. Oh well, my first competition is out of the way, and I am working hard for the next one. I'm going to be going to the bunnyhop open in Dallas at the end of october. My sister and I are putting together an artistic program for me to do. I'm pretty excited about that.
I started skating in my new skates this week. I love them, they are making a big difference in my skating. I started actually doing a loop yesterday! I am still 3-turnig out of most of them, but this is an improvement over what I had been doing. My flip, I am getting full rotation, but I am still two-footing it. I am also working on a flip-split for my artistic.
These new skates have made a good difference in my spinning. I started working on my sit spin yesterday, and on my next freestyle, we're going to start working on a camel spin.
So I'm feeling good. Hopefully I can start getting full rotation on this loop, and that then I can get the flip. Other than that, I'm looking forward to my next competition, ad I love love love my new skates. :)

loop d'loop

I've decided that I'm tired of not being able to jump. I skate really well, I just can't jump. So yesterday I started serious work on my loop again (even though this should probably wait until I have new skates since the ones I'm currently skating in don't fit perfectly...but whatever...I digress). So I have been focusing too much on trying to land on one foot, but I haven't really been able to get the height and rotation. I've decided to change my philosophy and work on the takeoff, getting height, and getting around. I figure once I make it all the way around it should be easy(ish) to land on one foot. So yesterday I did about a billion. I am seeing progress, I am getting more comfortable with the process of taking off. I switched my entry to a mohawk which i'm feeling better about as well. So hopefully in a few weeks I'll have a loop. Once I get that it's onto the flip.

Slow it down!!!

Well, I spent 3 hours at the rink last night. Although probably an hour of that was spent eating dinner waiting for the crazies to leave. My sister taught me my compulsory routine for Houston (posted below). Overall last night went decent. My scratch spins are going okay (certainly not great). My salchow is okay as well. I'm still way too timid on my toe-loop and half the time I barely even use my toepick.
My biggest problem with my skating is that I'm way too powerful for my own good. When I enter my scratch spins and salchows at the speed I feel comfortable at, the elements fall apart. When I slow down and enter them carefully, they are usually pretty decent. So...now that I know my compulsory routine, my plan is to practice practice practice, but mainly practice slowing it down.
I'm still waiting in anticipation for my new boots. I can't wait to get them. Reidell told my fitter that they should ship the last week in july or the first week in August. She says the usually tell her longer than they actually take, but this is the last week in July and they're still not here. :( I'm really hoping I can get them broken in before Houston.

Compulsory routine:
Stroking towards my right, CCW forward crossovers into left, outside edge spiral. Mohawk, CCW backwards crossovers to landing position. Step onto left forward outside edge, check, salchow. Step onto left forward outside edge, stroke, 3-turn into half-flip. Forward CCW crossovers, mohawk, backward CCW crossovers, switch to CW crossovers into scratch spin.
(sorry these notes suck...this is my first time to write program notes out!)

4 hours of skating!

So I skated for 4 hours on saturday. Let's just say my body was very tired by the time I left. Ever since I switched skates my scratch spin and my salchow have been really off (not that they were that great to start with). So my sister and I worked on those. Turns out I'm leaning too far over in my salchow entrance. I need to keep my upper-body more upright and I can land them alot better. I also need to make sure I check before jumping. For my scratch spin I'm also leaning too much with this, I need to keep my upper body upright in the preparation, then when I step into the spin, I need to concentrate on not dipping my left arm. I also need to kick myself of my spotting habits. I tend to spot the first couple rotations and not the rest. *bad jacki*

I don't know if I posted, but I finally splurged and ordered a pair of silver star boots. I have a pair of proffessional blades that I'm going to put on them. I also registered for the Houston Invitational which is Labor day weekend. I'm hoping I'll have my new skates broken in (I'm hoping to get them by the end of this month) and can wear them for that. I'm also hoping to start learning my program this week. I'm skating to the Days of Thunder theme, and I'm pretty excited. Of course I think figure skating is going to be difficult for me because I am a compulsive counter of music (thanks to my dance background). So I really think everything should have an exact count, and I know it's not that way in skating. *sigh*

In other news, I got a teaching job! I'm going to be teaching pre-cal and algebra I at a local high school. I'm pretty nervous, but excited too.

Well...today I did it. I shelled out half-a-grand on figure skating. I ordered a pair of Riedell Silver Stars. I'm pretty nervous about the arch issues I've had, but I'm hoping that havig a good-fitting boot will solve some of those problems. I also registered for the Houston Invitational. My first competition. Eek! Hopefully Riedell will have my boots in stock and I can get them this week. Otherwise I don't know what I'm going to do about skating.
I went skating today, and I've been working on my power-3's, and have them pretty good. I've got my waltz 3's to the left pretty decent, but my right leave something to be desired. This of course means my waltz 8's also leave something to be desired. My spins have been very off, I can't even get one revolution since I switched skates. I'm trying to not worry too much about it until I get in my new skates.

Okay, well I've skated twice in my new skates. The first time I just skated in them as is. That didn't work...at...all. Ow...arches...achey. :( The second time I bought some insoles. That made a slight improvement, but the arches are still hurting me something fierce. I'm also still having a heel slipping problem, which I know is very not good. Also, I still have these old blades that have barely any toepick on them, so I am scared to jump. So halfway through skating I decided my feet hurt and I wanted to jump. So I go back and put on my old skates...I step on the ice and almost fall on my face. Those blades (Ultima IV) are TERRIBLE, they are so much slower than whatever these ones I have on the new skates are. I was expecting to go somewhere and i just felt like it was slow motion. So I force myself to make one lap around the rink, get off, and put the new skates back on. So I knew these old blades sucked, but I had no idea exactly how bad they were. I really want to make my sister put them on just so she can feel my pain. :) No wonder I had such a hard time with that damn loop. :-p
So now for my third try in the new skates. I have two insoles in there, this made them fit nice and snugly (I've decided that these are still a 1/2 size too big), seems to take the edge off the arches, and seems to fix the heel problem. We'll see. I'm going to skate in them this weekend. Hopefully they'll work out for now. I'm pretty sure that within a few months, I'm going to have to get new boots. But my first priority right now is new blades. Hmmm...proffesional or phantom...I just don't know what to do.

new skates...sorta

Okay, well I bought some new skates off ebay. (I am in desperate need of skates, but I just can't afford to spend $600 right now, so I'm hoping that with this pair I can upgrade the blade and boot individually). They are Riedell bronze star and the blade is supposed to be Double Star, but I really think that it is either Club 2000 or Excel (yuck!). My sister got a pair of phantom blades off ebay that were supposed to be for her daughter, but the person selling them got mixed up on what size they were, so they fit me. So I think I'm going to put those on. Only thing is, they've been sharpened so much I'm not sure they can be sharpened anymore. Hmmm...she's going to find out this week for me. Even if I can wear them I'm sure they have at most one or two sharpenings left.
So onto my new blade delimma. I have always (until this most recent pair of skates) skated on Phantom blades. I love them, it's what I feel comfortable on. I have found some new for $350 from tidewaterice (although I've ordered from them before and it was a horrible experience, so I'm a little hesitent to order again). So that's a really good deal on the phantoms. My delimma is, I"m not sure I want to spend that right now. I could go ahead and get the MK professional (I want to for sure stay with the same rocker as the phantoms so I can easily upgrade later). But they are almost $200. Part of my is like, if I'm going to spend $200 on something, why don't I just spend the extra $150 and get what I want. I am just so indicisive with this.
Onto the boots. Like I said, they are Riedell bronze star, I think they are a couple years old, but they are in great condition. They seem to fit almost perfectly. Perfect length, perfect width in the toes. 2 problems I can see so far: 1) I think they might be a tad too wide in the heal 2) the arches are way too high for my flat feet. So I'm trying to figure out some way around these two problems. I'm thinking bunga pads might help the heal width issue (as well as help the rubbing at the top of the boot). But the arch issue I'm not sure what to do. I'm thinking some sort of insole might help, but I'm not sure. Anyone have this problem? Also, if you do, what brand boot do you wear for low arches?
I figure next time I will spend the money and get new boots, I just wanted to be able to upgrade my boots and blades individually to try to spread out some of the cost.

Okay, I'm not dead, I promise. I just haven't had anything interesting to write about, nor have I had the motivation. The skating has really stalled. I think I am really out of the range of my current skates, but I don't want to spend $500 on new skates. So, I am in the process of trying to get new skates, and it's going slowly but surely. I am probably going to do a competition in Houston over labor day weekend. I am really nervous about the thought of that. It really freaks me out that I am so nervous about a competition. I have danced and performed my whole life, and I LOVE performing. My problem is, I'm not very confident in my skating, so that makes me nervous. I'm hoping that with new skates, I will get a boost in confidence.
I have decided to start taking dance lessons again. I found a studio in Westlake and I'm planning on taking a ballet and Jazz class. Hopefully between this and skating I can whip my butt back into shape because let's face it...I hate running.
Right now, though, I'm not doing anything except working and taking teacher certification classes. I work from 8:30-6 and then I have my class from 6:30-9:30, and then I go home and go to bed only to do the same thing the next day. It is getting really old. Only one more month and I can get back to skating and start dancing again!

Big Oil

Okay, so I am REALLY tired of people bitching about oil prices. This has been a long time coming. Sure we can argue that the oil companies are corrupt and are fixing the price, but whatever. This is just the beginning. Oil prices are going to do nothing but continue to rise (especially as our supplies start to dwindle). We've made our bed, and now it's time to lie in it. All this time, we should have been passing resolutions increasing the fuel efficiency for vehicles rather than letting the oil companies get their way. (many) Democrats have been pushing for increased CAFE standards for years only to be outvoted by republicans. Now Bush is pretending to sweep in with this novel idea...how about we increase fuel efficiency! Bullshit. Okay, that's my rant, this pisses me off too much to write much more. Basically, I'm tired of hearing people who voted for Bush and drive SUV's bitching about oil prices. I only have one thing to say: get used to it.

Discouraged

Okay...so I am completely and totally discouraged with my skating. I keep trying to remind myself that I haven't been able to skate that much, so I can't expect much, but I just feel like I'm at this plateau, and I'm not going anywhere.
So after that day of actually doing at least 50 loop jumps, I haven't been able to do one again. *sigh* And not only have I not been able to do one, they've gotten completely terrible.

So, my sister is going to start coaching me on the wednesday night freestyle session and maybe the saturday morning freestyle. My goal this summer is to get at least 6 hours/week of skating in. Hopefully once I'm able to skate more often I'll start to see some improvement again.
My goal is to take the pre-bronze test this summer and to skate in a competition sometime this summer as well. We'll see, though.

I did it!

So I went skating today to try to get rid of some of the frustration of this week, and I got my loop! Now...don't get me wrong, these loops are small and ugly, but they're a start. I'm so very excited. :) Okay, not much time to write now.

Life update...whining within

Okay, so I've had a crappy couple of days. Yesterday my backpack was stolen from the student union on campus. In it was my wallet and my (barely 2 month old) cell phone. Aside from losing my stuff, I've had a difficult time emotionally with this and I'm not sure exactly why. On top of all of this, I've just been feeling really lonely lately. Literally my only friend in Austin is my husband, and as much as I love him, and I love being married to him, I've just always been the person who needs more than that. To top that off, all of my grad school friends are skattered around the country, and my undergrad friends are in either Houston or Dallas having a great time hanging out with eachother. And I'm terrible at calling people and chattig on the phone, and it's practically impossible without my cell phone.
Okay, I'm going to stop whining and feeling sorry for myself. I'm going ice skating tomorrow to try to relax. Hopefully my leg holds up and it all goes well. I think I'm just going to work on spins and MIF. It turns out (literally) that on my scratch spin I'm turning out my right leg as I bring it in and down (thanks to years of dance, there's really no other way) so I need to retrain myself to turn it in.

MRI

Well, yesterday I had an MRI on my leg, and let me tell you, for the bargain price of $1000 (so generously paid for by my insurance company, thank you) I got to have THE BEST time of my life. No seriously. Why don't they tell you before you go that you can't wear anything metal? Or that you're going to have to lay there for AN HOUR and you're not allowed to do anything, including move? Okay, so I get there and they tell me to take off all metal including my skirt and my bra. Hmmm...so they give me some shorts to wear but tell me my shirt is "just fine". JUST FINE?!?! Excuse me, but it is quite form-fitting, and in case you didn't know, you just told me to take off my bra. Now, I don't walk around without a bra on in my own house, much less the doctor's office. Okay, enough of that, though. So I lay there for an hour (I'm quite sure I moved my leg at least once) and it's finally over. Now I have to wait for the radiologist to review it (you know, the one that only works 1 day a week and makes 1,000,000,000,000,000 dollars?), and then I'll know what the deal is. I'm really hoping for that stress fracture.

Things you have to believe to be a Republican today.....

Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.

Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.

Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.

A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.

The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches, while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.

If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.

A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.

Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy, but providing health care to all Americans is socialism. HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart

Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.

A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense, but a president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.

Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.

The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.

Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.

Leg ouch...

Not much time for me to update, but I went to the doctor yesterday. He thinks that it's either a stress fracture or something to do with my nerve, I'm not sure. So it looks like I'll be getting an MRI to see if it's a stress fracture. Guess I probably won't be doing much skating for a while. My last lesson is tomorrow. I'm hoping that we'll work on spins, but I'm sure it'll be jumps.

New Skates, no skating

Okay, so I haven't done much skating over the past month, therefore not many updates. I have a leg injury, although I'm not exactly sure what it is. The doctor says he thinks it's probably a stress fracture although nothing is showing up on my x-rays. I really think it's because of my skates. I got a pair of skates for christmas, and at the time I wasn't planning on skating more than occasionally for fun. So anyway, they are well below my level, and they've been hurting this one spot.
So that brings me to my recent decision to get new skates. I've only had the current ones for a few months, so I hate to spend the money, but I just can't keep skating on the ones I have. So, now I just have to decide what to get.
Oh yeah, congrats to Kimmie Meissner for such a great skate at worlds! I love that girl, I think that she is fantastic.

Loop

Okay, so a full week since I started getting sick, and I'm STILL sick. *ugh* I have a small eye infection, so I'm not supposed to be wearing contacts, but I find it impossible to skate in glasses, so I put in a pair of my old prescription I had left over and headed to my ice skating class. The contacts sucked. I could barely see anything (my prescription has changed that much), and I still have a head cold.

So this was my first day in freestyle. I worked on scratch spins and sit spins and they are MUCH better. I also worked on backspins which still suck. Then we worked on loops and guess what? I actually did 2 very small very ugly ones. Although, my sister had me doing them with my left foot on the ice, and this coach has me doing them with my left foot off the ice. This way seems much harder, but I guess I'll stick with it since that's what he wants. We also did a couple of half-flips, nothing too exciting about those, though. I think that by the time these 4 weeks are over, I should have the loop and flip. We'll see, though. Okay that's all I have to report now.