Skating Dreams

So my body may not have been feeling the competition excitement last night, but my brain apparently was.  In general I’m a pretty average dreamer; with the exception of the month I was on malaria medications while in Ecuador, I generally only have/remember really strange, vivid dreams on occasion.  Last night, however, was a doozy.  I dreamt about the competition all night, but it was like one of those school-nightmares where everything goes wrong.  I kept getting lost trying to get to the rink.  For some reason, I was riding a bike there, and I got that sensation of “I can’t move my legs anymore” even though I knew I was running late, so for a while I couldn’t physically get myself to the rink.  Then I had planned on brining candy for my fellow competitors, but I didn’t have it, so I was going to go out to a Target and buy some, but I was scared I didn’t have enough time.  I couldn’t decide if I should walk or drive (because I had a car again at this point).  And I was convinced that my search for targets had turned up false results.  I don’t remember how this resolved itself.

Anyway, then I started watching the competition only to discover that other skaters were doing big, Vegas style productions, with other skaters backing them up doing circus tricks.  I didn’t have that and got really stressed about that.

Anyway, I’m heading to the rink in a few minutes now.  My goal for the day is to be a good, supportive friend and to take lots of pictures. Hopefully none of the skaters today have bit circus numbers.  But if they do, I promise to write about it!

Vegas so far: lacking in family and skating, though oddly productive

The drive to Vegas was uneventful.  I did it in 3 hours, 51 minutes, 51.5 seconds.  Yes, I timed myself.  You see, I got into an argument friendly workplace discussion with my boss last week about how long it took to drive here from LA.  I maintained that it was 3.5-4 hours, and he said closer to 4.5-5, 4 if your’e driving really really fast.  He thought that it was impossible to do in 3.5.  Of course, I wanted to prove him wrong, empirically.

Granted, there are lots of things in play here, not the least of which is when you go and where in the respective cities you are heading from/going to.  Still, I maintain you can do it in 3 and a half hours from my apartment (In Los Feliz) to my cousin’s house (which is probably 15 minutes closer to LA than The Strip).  I was 20 minutes above my goal this time, but I didn’t leave my apartment in LA until 3:30, which means I hit the beginnings of rush hour on the 210.  I was only going ~25 mpg there for a good 20-30 miles.  Full freeway speeds would definitely make up that 20 minute difference.  And to my parents: I kept it on cruise control at 80 mph when possible, and drove slower when I needed to to navigate heavy traffic.  I don’t think that’s unreasonable for desert freeway, do you? 

Bam. I WIN! LA to Vegas is totally doable in 3.5 hrs. Not like I’m trying to be too competitive this weekend or anything… 

Anyway, I’m staying with my cousin and her husband instead of at the competition hotel.  It’s sort of surreal because I definitely haven’t really gotten the skating/excitement vibe yet.  By the time I arrived it seems everyone else had already eaten dinner, so I just nuked a frozen pizza, holed myself up, and watched some Thursday Night Must-See-TV on NBC. 

Things feel even weirder because my cousin is not actually here at her house.  Her mom (my aunt) is apparently in the hospital, so she flew back to Chicago this morning to help take care of here, so I’m hanging out with my cousin-in-law, who is bedridden and on pain killers from a knee injury, and his mother.

Tomorrow I will definitely be at the rink most of the day, and may see my other two cousins who live in the city, so hopefully the weirdness factor will die down a bit.

On the plus side of things, however, I managed to get a job application done tonight.  I was definitely not planning on being productive this weekend in that regard, so that made me happy!

Anyway, I’m rambling. Good luck to all those who skate tomorrow!  I’ll be there modeling my new LAFSC jacket and hopefully tossing some fun stuff onto the ice after your programs.  Maybe Lauren will even let me have a go with the beanie baby cannon!

I’m hijacking my own blog!

Sooo… I haven’t been so good at blogging thus far this year.  Oops!  Decided to remedy that by live-blogging from an event that I know you will all find absolutely fascinating: The Pacific Coast Adult Sectionals Figure Skating Competition.  Woo!

I had my last practice here in LA this morning and I’m feeling pretty good (wood knocked).  My dress is glittery, my blades are just the right sharpness, and I finally have my official LAFSC jacket (check out the photo below: they wrapped it up all cute for me with a good luck card.  Aww!) I’m packing up the last of my stuff and I will be driving to Las Vegas in about an hour.

Want to follow all of my posts from this event? I’ve created a separate category for them called PCAS2011.