jaina

Things making me happy today:

- I'm all registered for Costume-Con
- I hit Premier Executive status on United this weekend, thanks to my first mileage run
- My mama and I are going to go to synchro skating Nationals again this year! A whole weekend of lovely, lovely skating, woo!
- NYE party tonight! Good food and good company, and blusurfer's bringing champagne. *g*

I'm always on the lookout for new skating music for our synchronized skating team. In synchro, it's really important to have music with a good strong beat so everyone can stay together, plus you want a fun theme, something interesting that both the skaters and the audience can get into, and on top of that you want to do something that hasn't been done a million times. (I swear I saw at least a dozen "Chicago" programs at 2004 Nationals.) Last year when we were picking music, I floated "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" as a possibility, because it's a great song, the perfect length to skate straight through (Adult programs are 3 minutes, 30 seconds), and has a fantastic beat that really gets you moving. We ended up not having a team this year, so it was a moot point, but I tucked the idea away for future use.

Synchro Nationals were this weekend, and what did the Adult champions (Team Elan) skate to? Yeah, you guessed it. From usfigureskating.com:

Elán performed to “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” a piece Blasko picked because she “wanted to find something that would us forward in adult skating and not something traditional.”

Yes! Exactly! Damn them! Now we'll never get to do a program to it. :( Pout and double pout.

(Someday, I will post about something other than skating, I swear.)

First day back skating in two months, and I had a spectacular bellyflop-fall in the middle of a block. Thankfully, the girls behind me were able to skate around, and no one ran into me. But I have a rather impressive lump on my left knee and a lovely bruise on my right. (The downside to synchronized skating: your arms are usually otherwise occupied, so when you fall, it's your knees that take the brunt of it.)

Woohoo! Thanks to synchroboards, I am now in possession of two synchro video files-- the Haydenettes short program from the Colonial competition, and their long program from Nationals. The Haydenettes, for those unfamiliar with the sport, are the best team in the United States. Fifteen-time national champions (seriously impressive when you realize there have only *been* Nationals for twenty years) and currently fourth in the world and looking to move up.

So, here I have for you: video, in .mov format! (These are yousendit links, so they're only good for a certain number of downloads. I'll add more if these get used up.)

Haydenettes short (Racecar theme, 40 MB)
a second link for the short

Haydenettes long (music from "Hidalgo," 70 MB)
a second link for the long

Enjoy!

While we were in the dressing room just prior to competing, Mallory was walking around, giving us all skate tape. As I finished winding the tape around my boot, ensuring that my laces wouldn't come untied during our performance, a thought came unbidden to my mind:

"My skates are pastede on yay!"




I blame it on lack of sleep.

We had a very good skate, one fall at the very end, and came in fifth. We actually tied for fourth, but lost the tiebreaker, so no medal for us, but that's okay. We still had a great time. Our Juveniles also came in fifth, which was *awesome* for them, and our Seniors got eighth and had the free skate of their LIVES. I was more emotional after their program than I was after ours. Senior probably would've been seventh overall if they hadn't had a huge crash in the short program. (If you want to hear some of the seniors' long program music, click here and listen to track 14, "Salaam Bombay," and track 2, "Bombay Dreams," starting at about 21 seconds.)

My mom and Aunt Julie came to see me, and julietvalcouer drove down, and so did lily_advance, who also brought Jeremy! Thank you so much for coming to see the show, guys. Cinda, I hope y'all stayed through Senior long, because it was amazing.

I'm very very tired, and I'd like to sleep for about twelve hours or so. Other than that, I'm a happy girl.

The U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships are being held in Lowell, MA next weekend at the Tsongas Arena. If you would like to see me skate, the Adult competition block is on *Saturday* from 1:09 to 2:24 pm. A Saturday day pass is $20 and lets you see the Masters championship, Adult championship (that's us), Collegiate championship, and Senior free skate. Senior is the highest level and the most elite skaters-- the level equivalent of the singles and pairs skaters you see on TV. If you come, please come and sit with Team del Sol! We're very friendly and don't bite. Look for the navy blue and red jackets with "Team del Sol" on the back. You can buy tickets at the door, I believe.

As per this article, the Collegiate and Senior championships will be broadcast on Comcast Network's CN8 channel in the New England and Mid-Atlantic area on Sunday, March 6, at 9 p.m. EST, with a replay on Sunday, March 27, from 12-2 p.m. EST. At some point, there will also be a webcast of those divisions on the CN8 website, possibly at the same time it's on TV. I will let y'all know when I find that out. The USFSA is also doing a live webcast of all the other divisions, but it's more expensive than actually *going* to the competition. Lifetime will *not* be broadcasting Nationals or Worlds this year.

And...that's about it. We have one more practice on Tuesday, but the Seniors are leaving for Lowell tomorrow so we won't have our five double-skaters practicing with us. At this point I'm hoping for top six, and I think fourth is about the absolute best we can do. Whatever happens, I'm going to skate my best and enjoy every second.

Wow. Slept a lot, had a quiet, lazy day, and now I'm mostly recovered from the past four days. Nationals was an absolute blast, but being on my feet for 6+ hours a day was just exhausting. (Waitresses, how do you *do* it??)

The collegiate division yesterday was especially fun, because I got to see a lot of my old teammates. Rachel and Missy are on Miami University Collegiate; I saw them first. They told me that Julia was skating on Bowling Green and Bridget was with Pentagon Inter-Collegiate. I saw them both when their teams came through. Julia was so funny; apparently she'd seen Rachel and Missy and they told her I was here, so when her team came down, she beelined straight for me and basically threw herself into my arms. "Caitlin I'm so glad to see you, I'm so scared, it's my first Nationals!" We were only able to talk briefly, but I'm so glad I got to see her. Little bitty Julia, whom I used to drive to practice every week, is a freshman in college and a good two inches taller than I am! Aie! And then finally I saw Larissa on University of Delaware's collegiate team when they were lining up for the medal ceremony. I saw Missy's mom Carla at the same time; she (ever the hostess) was escorting the president of Miami University and his wife around backstage. "Caitlin! I hardly even recognized you! You look about fourteen!" Um, thanks, Carla.

There were even more reunions yet to come, because I ran into Gilbert and April Chiang, who were also volunteering yesterday. They're really excellent adult ice dancers who used to skate at MIT, and now they apparently live here in San Diego. I sat with them at our dinner break and we had a nice chat.

Overall, it was a really great if tiring experience. I watched a *ton* of skating, I met lots of really great people whom I will hopefully see more of if I can ever afford to skate again, and I saw a lot of teams up close and personal. It was amazing to be that close to so much raw emotion. Teams got off the ice crying if they'd done badly and crying if they'd done well. You couldn't help but be affected when a team had just had a beautiful, clean skate, and they were so ecstatic that they were already screaming and hugging and crying even before they were off the ice. It was pretty emotional at times, but the only time I actually cried was during Team Del Sol's Adult team performance, when I looked up into the stands where the Del Sol fans were sitting, and there was a little girl holding a sign that said "Go Mom!" I just lost it. *That's* what this is about, folks.

Wow. This has been a day.

It's actually been a very long day. But in a good way.

Synchronized skating nationals started today-- well, official practice did, anyway. I had my first volunteer shift, guiding teams to their dressing rooms, then to the ice, then back to their dressing rooms. Was on my feet for a solid four hours. And I have three days of this ahead of me-- eight hours on Saturday! But it was *all* good, because I got to watch a ton of skating, and interact with skaters and coaches and other volunteers and even got fed lunch. *AND*-- and!-- one of the teams I was assigned was my old team, the Metroliners. All of the girls I used to skate with have aged out, but my old coach is still with them. I walked right up to her and said cheerily, "Hi, Amy!" And she sort of did a double take and said, "Oh my gosh, Caitlin!" And we hugged, and we were happy, and she told the whole team who I was, and we did a little bit of catching up. I'll definitely see them more throughout the weekend. I also found out that two of my former teammates are now skating for Miami's collegiate team, so perhaps I'll get to see them this weekend too.

Then-- I checked my UCSD email, and I had a message from UCSD's costume shop manager. (I've been volunteering there once a week since the start of school in September.) She asked if I was going to be here this summer, and did I want to work in the costume shop-- for pay! AAAAHH! How cool is that!? I wrote her back and said that my grad program was year round, so I'm expected to work full-time in lab, but I could probably work out some schedule so that I could also work part-time in the costume shop. Eeeeeee!!!! I would be *so* happy to actually get paid to sew. Foot in the door...

Now I really need to sleep. Long few days ahead.