Worth the Wait

Yesterday was lesson day. I had every intention of getting to the rink in plenty of time to warm-up before my lesson, but the fellow who was cleaning our outdoor tile cut himself on our fireplace grate. As a result, I ended up taking care of his cut and encouraging him to go to the ER. He is a firefighter/paramedic and insisted he was o.k, but I was worried that the wound was deep and he would be outside in the near degree 100 temps. That said, after this drama, I headed to Skatetown.

While getting my skates on, I talked with a friend who is also competing in one of my categories at Worlds. She said she might scratch some of her events because she is having real physical problems. She is a lovely skater and funny, lively person. We are doing a "Jump and Spin" tandem competition (she is doing the spinning, believe me), that I am looking forward to. She also skates in the ensemble group.

After working on dance (including the Hickory Hoedown, a dance I love and feel confident doing) for about 20 minutes, Coach announced it was time to do my programs. "Oh darn," - thought I could avoid that and only work on dance. Wasn't going to happen, which I knew in advance. I skated my dramatic program first. Coach didn't say much, but noticed that I had left out my back spiral. Ah duh! What a ninny I am! But she commented she thought the program was better without the back spiral (which was "fine, but not good" as she noted). After this, I skated my technical program pretty well, with the exception of an insipid spin that barely made the required 6 revolutions.

Then, I got the big lecture from Coach. The entire gist was that I needed to skate with more emotion and look less stern. I know she is on target, but I concentrate so much when I skate, that this is my biggest challenge. She went on at some length about this and drove her point home in a direct, but caring manner. We then worked on back spins (coming along slowly). Just before the session was over, I suggested that since we had changed my dramatic program by eliminating the back spiral that I skate it once more, which I did.

Now to explain the title of this post. After finishing my last dramatic run-through, Coach skated up to me and said, "Awesome! That was awesome." I realized that I had waited 11 years to hear this about a program I skated. I nearly jumped off the ice I was so excited to receive this from her. So what was different? I adopted a beatific look on my face that I think reflects the entire feeling of the "Passion" music. I could feel it right down to my blades. I wasn't thinking about the elements; I was listening to the music and enjoying it. Perhaps it wasn't skated perfectly (I think I shortened the big lunge in prayer position a bit), but it was skated with emotion. And, apparently, Coach liked this based on her comment afterwards.

So the "art form" will be to reproduce this at Worlds. I think I can do it if I just "let go and let God," as the expression goes. I am skating this program to His glory and must keep this in mind.

The Worlds schedule has been released. I skate on Tuesday (dramatic), Thursday (technical) and Friday (dance, ensemble, jump and spin). After yesterday, I am finally truly excited about Worlds. Today, I will skate my dramatic program for Jill S and hope to do as well today as I did for Coach yesterday.

So as not to ignore my quilting activities, I am still working on my floral lap quilt. With all our home decorating activities, it's been hard to quilt lacking any degree of peace and quiet. Tomorrow, I am taking the entire day and quilting, despite the chaos surrounding me, particularly right across from the bath adjacent to my quilting room. I want to finish this quilt soon.

Do you know the way to San Jose? Onward we go!