To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive

First, a question: Does anyone have ideas for 60s/hippie things I could use to add character to my skating program to "59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)"? So far I have a tie-dyed shirt and an ending pose with a peace sign. I can't think of much else that wouldn't involve props (which are allowed, but I don't like them) or danger (bead necklace hitting my face in a spin, flower falling out of my hair and creating a trip hazard on the ice).

I didn't skate for all of May due to a combination of work, hockey, pain, and more work, but I'm trying to make up for it this month. It helped that this weekend there was finally some ice that wasn't at the crack of dawn.

Since I missed a month, I axed Freeskate for the August competition and am just doing Light Entertainment. As of today, I finally have all the steps memorized and can do them in time with the music. P has more faith than I do in my ability to make simple edges look jazzy/swingy/interesting, so I replaced some of those with slightly more intricate footwork, and I think we're both happy with it. The biggest challenge now is the spin at the end, which involves first raising the left arm, then switching to raising the right arm while the left goes down and back and touches the blade of my free right foot. I've managed it several times, but it's not consistent yet.

Non-skating things: I wandered back to Tumblr for a while. Same username. Fannish stuff is now mostly there.

Good: I spent most of my lesson on Friday on spins and made improvements in all of them. I'm getting lower in sit spins (with the happy consequence of getting more centered/more rotations).

Bad: I took video today of said sit spin, and...it still looks like I'm perching on a barstool at best. I'm probably past the age/joint health stage of life where I could get a 90-degree or less angle at the knee, but, like, 140 would be cool. I'm at ~160 degrees right now, which might pass the the "recognizable sit position" guidelines for adult competition, but honestly, maybe not.

Argh.

Good: On the other hand, my leg position in layback spins is better, and I can hold it long enough to get a full revolution with my arms over my head, when before I was collapsing as soon as I tried to raise them, so that's nice.

I tried a few combination spins again, and while they're not up to what they were pre-pandemic, at least I'm doing them. I also tried sit-change-sit spins, and can manage maybe half a revolution on the back sit before I lose my balance, whereas before I was completely grinding to a stop by the time I shifted my weight, so...progress? I'm throwing a party the day I get any sort of back spin, I swear.

But first, the album of garden photos on Facebook I finally made public. I update it 2-4 times a month, or whenever I have something new to share.

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After seven years (more or less, with long interruptions), I may finally be making progress on my back spins. For the first time, I managed to spin, very briefly, on the outside edge of my right blade, which is where you're supposed to be spinning. In the past, I was spinning on the inside edge, which inevitably sent me tumbling toward my center of gravity in short order. I can still only manage one revolution at best, but--progress.

The other day I did the most centered forward layback spin I've ever spun. I was so pleased I took a picture of the tracing.



Jumps are still terrifying. I can sometimes, but not always, get off the ground on waltz jumps and salchows, but have not yet worked up the courage to try toe loops.

My three turns are lost lambs and I wish they would come home already. I only have the easiest, the left forward outside. The rest of the forwards I can mostly do when P is watching, and they completely fall apart when she's not. The backwards ones are best not spoken of. I understand what I'm doing wrong, but can't make my body behave.

I worked on power pulls with P today and she had me try some going backwards holding my hands behind my back. Hoo boy, I did not realize how much I was using my shoulders and arms for balance. Nothing like not being able to adjust your shoulders to make you realize you are, in fact, balancing on four millimeters of steel and if you don't put your other foot down right now things are going to end very badly indeed. On the other hand, for the Moves test you're not supposed to use your shoulders to stay balanced and move between edges, only your knee, so it's a good exercise. Just horrifying.

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Although everyone who's going to be vaccinated has been by now, we're all still working at home. I have the impression my department...isn't going back, or at least isn't going back more than like, one day a week. (Let's just say that last summer, we got a survey asking if we eventually wanted to go back full time or only three days a week. Then this winter, we got a survey asking if we wanted to go back two or no days per week.) Or perhaps everyone's waiting for the new semester. I've heard rumblings of a town hall to address this question soon. I'd very much like to keep working from home, so I hope we get to continue it.

My reintroduction to skating continues apace. I moved my left blade inward, and it helped so much I've just done my right blade and hope it works out too. I'm actually using the screwdriver and moving them this time around instead of BF. I've been through so many attempts at new/correct skates, with attendant blade placement tinkering, that I have leveled up to doing it myself.

This week I got my forward inside three turns mostly back (the left was never great, so I'm unsurprised it's only successful about half the time) and did rudimentary sit and layback spins. I also did some so-rudimentary-they-really-shouldn't-be-classed-as-camel spins, which I probably haven't done in over a year. Good direction forward outside twizzles seem...almost better than inside twizzles? This shouldn't really be a thing, but okay.

I still have basically NO PAIN from my skates! *insert Kermit YAY gif* There is one spot at the top of the back that digs into my calves a little, but it seems like regular punching with my ball and ring pliers will fix that. My feet could totally handle multiple hour-long sessions if the rest of my body could (it can't).

I haven't attempted jumping yet, mostly because for structural integrity reasons you're not supposed to when your blades are still on a temporary mount, partly because I'm still pretty tentative out there. I am strongly considering just not jumping anymore. I beat my head against the wall with loops and flips for almost four years. Possibly the new skates will help, in which case I'll continue, but if after a couple months I still don't make real progress, I think that's it for jumping. Means I can never proceed past the first level of adult freeskate, but...eh. I can skate up to the next level at most competitions, and there are Light Entertainment and Dramatic Entertainment options in addition to regular freeskate.

Solo free dance could also be an option if/when I pass gold Moves in the Field. It's basically a freeskate program consisting entirely of footwork, with one spin and no jumps. Hey, spinning and footwork are my two favorite things! I could also get there by taking and passing a few pattern dances, but I am morally opposed to the dance test industrial complex. It's $25 per dance to test, each level has at least three dances, and there are something like 35 dances in all. The hell with that. It also makes my former ballroom dancer self cry a bit to have to follow a specific pattern for each dance rather than having a set of steps you can mix and match as the spirit moves you.

I'm hoping to be with-it enough by the end of the month to start working on a program for one of the local competitions in early August. We'll see how fast it comes back.

Right now, though, I am with nothing because I'm recovering from a deep tissue massage on my abdomen to break up scar tissue and adhesions. I haven't needed one for over a year, but I guess being much more sedentary for three months while I waited for my new skates did not do good things for me. I am definitely sore, but it sure does feel like I can sit up straighter, extend my legs more, etc.

I'd say I knew Tumblr would fail and that's why I never moved there, but really it was that I didn't want to learn a new platform (especially one you couldn't easily have conversations on). Also I was pretty much in fandoms of one at the time everyone moved over there (and from that moved on into no fandoms at all), so there wasn't much incentive to follow.

Anyway, welcome back, everyone. Please stick around; it's nice having more of a flist to read again.

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I'm on month five of Cosentyx. It's been...interesting. I think ultimately it helps the pain about as much as Enbrel, but it's distributed differently (likely because it's a once a month shot instead of once a week). Enbrel was pretty much the same level all the time. This one, it's like week one: I feel AWESOME (to the point where last month it convinced me I could do a huge Christmas shopping trip and then clean house later that day, leaving me with a week of costochondritis, blarg); week 2: I feel good to excellent; week three: I feel okay; and week four: UGH LET ME DIE.

But on the unequivocally good side, I ended the month with several doses of Tramadol left over, which hasn't happened in a long time. (And I will promptly use them up with this week's dental implant implantation, but oh well.)

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I gave up on the revised SP-Teri boots, as my toes and feet never stopped going numb. My last attempt is Avanta, which is run by someone with a history of making orthopedic shoes and skates. If they don't work, I've been offered a full refund. I had casts made of my feet this weekend for them to work from, as Avanta is out in California and I am not, and I should have boots in about six weeks. (Normally it's four weeks, but after seeing photos, the bootmaker pronounced my feet "very, very unique" and said it would take some time to make the boots the way I need.) There was some talk of not having laces but rather straps, or having minimal lacing plus straps, so I can avoid having something press down on the parts of my instep that appear to house the nerve that feeds my toes. Not sure what's going to happen there.

Hopefully one day I'll skate again. I admit it's been nice not getting up early to skate before work, but that's been the only upside.

*blows dust off DW*

I received my new skates a couple of weeks ago. They are hideous, but they fit, unlike the SP-Teris. (Photo. Really not loving the silver plastic sole, although they look better with blades on. I was wary of plastic's abilities vis a vis leather as a shock absorber, but on the tiny jumps I've tried so far I haven't noticed a difference. Mine for some reason didn't come with the bling on the back, which frankly I am thankful for. They also lack the fancy microfiber lining, but I'm okay with that since that sure looks like latex foam underneath and it's not completely covered, which would be bad for me and my latex allergy. I'll stick with the suede lining mine came with.)

I've been gradually working my way up to longer and longer periods without having to take them off from pain or numbness. Today I got up to 25 minutes, which is 15 minutes better than I managed after nine months with the Teris, so. I seem to recall it took a few weeks to hit 30 minutes on the last pair of these, and more than a year to go an entire hour-long session, so I think I'm doing pretty good. The split width has definitely been helpful, as is owning a boot punch and knowing what kind of arch supports and other spongery I need. Jackson lowered the arches on their stock boots, damn it, but I think I've managed the right combination of things to get the height I need. (I cut up a Dr. Scholls insole and stuck a layer over these, which are basically the best thing ever and I have them in most of my shoes now.)

At some point before July I might even get back to taking lessons!

I think I'm pretty well screwed for the competition in early August, though. Between work and breaking these in, I don't see me doing a lesson before the end of the month, and I don't want to spend a $100 entry fee to just do my program from last year, which is rusty anyway because I haven't thought about it since last summer. Feh. Next year, I'm doing two programs.

That's really about it for me right now.

My program for this season. Today I got second out of five. :)

Pre-Bronze Freeskate, August 5, 2017 from Skater on Vimeo.

Skating: I kinda did a flying sit spin today! Okay, there wasn't any much sit, but there was some spin and even a couple inches of fly. I landed on one foot and kept spinning. I'll take it.

I also eliminated the entrance to my nascent back scratch spin entirely and actually got a revolution or two in the right place on the blade, with my weight over my right side. BF has done away with the inside three turn everyone uses to start a back spin and is having me enter it from...the closest I can describe it is kind of a mutated Ina Bauer. Just keep curling around on the right foot, dragging the left foot, and the circle gets smaller and smaller until it turns into a spin. In theory. It works better than the three turn entrance, anyway.

Getting my weight over to the right may have helped a little bit with the loop jump, although I'm still too scared to really pick my left foot up and cross it in front while I jump because you cannot save yourself in that position if something goes wrong. I like having an exit strategy. Except my exit strategy leads to me always landing it on two feet, which is not really the goal. Ugh.

Arthritis: On Monday night, ever so briefly, I thought the Enbrel might be working, because usually I'm 100 mg of tramadol in by 6 PM and I actually managed to make it all the way to bed without needing any (I had taken some that morning). Alas, it was short-lived and Tuesday was kind of hellish. But it was close enough to when I take my shot (Sunday afternoons) that I'm somewhat hopeful it's related to the medication, and as it continues to build up in my system I might experience longer and longer periods of not hurting.

I finally made an orthopedics appointment for the hip bursitis(?) that's been going on for at least six weeks now. It's been low-level annoying for long enough that I want professional help, even if the professional can't do much. Although apparently they can just remove the inflamed bursa in an outpatient procedure if steroid shots and physical therapy fail, so there's that.

Apartment: I now have 15 plants in various containers, not counting some hibernating bulbs, mostly in front of my huge western exposure living room window. I may need an intervention. But they love that window so. My purple waffle started as basically half the size of my hand, and within six weeks was bigger than my head. It's still growing. And it bloomed! So did two succulents. Adorable pink flowers. And my not-an-aloe-but-looks-like one made a baby once I repotted it. And I added a table to my screened-in porch, which has been very nice since the weather warmed up.

Now that the competition's over, we're back to loop and flip (loop, always loop...I swear, I'm throwing a party when I finally land this damn jump on one foot) and footwork. I want to have fabulous brackets, counters, and rockers. After a week, I'm able to do a tiny, wobbly version of the forward outside/back inside bracket sequence from the Adult Gold Moves test.

I think I found next year's program music: this most excellent rendition of "Down by the Salley Gardens" (well, more specifically the part from 1:39 to 3:24, ending with that lovely variation on "and now am full of tears").

Or I may possibly end up doing it as a Dramatic Showcase piece? To be honest, I don't really get the difference between freeskate and showcase; especially at the Pre-Bronze level, where the music is the same length and you just get one fewer jump in showcase. I guess the judging is supposed to be more predicated on choreography and emoting? Except we still use 6.0 judging at my level, so it hardly matters. But basically it sounds like you get to do two programs instead of just one, so that would be fun.

Skate Nashville was fun. I actually had competition in the freeskate. There were enough adults that it wasn't just me in my division!

This means I came in last out of the four of us, but I was expecting that as I knew at least two of the three had more difficult jumps than I do. Oh, well. (One of the five judges had me third, which was heartening.) I was uncontested in the compulsory moves event, which was fun to prepare for because the compulsory moves this year were all things I enjoy and am good at, but was over so quickly that I don't know if I'll do it again in August.

I bought the professional action shots a photo company was making of everyone, so here are some selected photos.




I don't think I'll be trying to do an out of town work conference and a skating competition in the same week again, though. That was very stressful and tiring. (And, unfortunately, this conference next year is going to be Thursday-Saturday instead of Wednesday-Friday, so I really couldn't do both. I'm hoping we'll get a budget from NIH someday soon--thanks, Trump!--and will get to hire someone, and that person can go next year, but I should probably be thinking about a poster I can present, since they have a section for training and educational support posters, and that would get me closer to the quasi-faculty position my boss and I want me to move into someday.)

In fact, it was so stressful that I'm pretty sure it's set off another arthritis flare. I have a previously-scheduled rheumatologist appointment tomorrow, though, so at least relief is in the near future.