OH BOY! (a.k.a. Wrap-Up Blog)
OH BOY! Now that we're on the other side of Nationals, it's so much easier to do many things, namely breathing and smiling! Just kidding about the smiling. I had an AMAZING time at Nationals this year, and I wouldn't trade any of my experiences.
I guess this is just going to be a mish-mosh of memories after I competed!
The novices participated in the Team 2014 seminar, and while there were some times that day we wished we were still in bed, I think we all enjoyed the judging aspect of the seminar where we trial judged/ played technical specialist the Junior OD with Margaret Faulkner and Ron Kravette. Let me say that both of their jobs aren't easy. I found it difficult when I was being a judge what GOE to give an element. What merited a +2? A -1? And GOEs had to be decided on the spot because we didn't have video replay. Being the technical specialist was OK until I realized that I didn't know all of the rules. GO ELYSE MATSUMOTO! She's so crazy -- she knows all of the rules! After a few skaters, being the technical specialist wasn't too terrible. I'm pretty sure Megan Evans, Patrick Mays, and Andrew Korda came up with a new way to get points: + sexy. Later on in the week, + sexy lead to + fierce (with a snap like Tyra). We gave out many + sexys and + fierces later on in the week.
The Mall of America definitely got its share of skaters. I don't know how many skaters actually made it out there, but I had a total of four trips. Well worth it. I had bought so many new clothes in St. Paul that I had to use one of my shopping bags as a carry on and carried on about seven articles of clothes on Sunday. Whoops!
Before I left for St. Paul, I ready Karen Frank's article on what to do in St. Paul. Thank God I did, because I am now in love with those Mini Donuts from the Xcel Energy Center! Who would have thought that a bag of $4 donuts could bring so much joy to my life?! On that note, I never made it to Jamba :[ It was too cold to go outside! Honestly, the longest time I was outside last week was maybe 10 minutes last Saturday (when it warmed up to maybe 30 degrees) when I went to go find some food with some skating friends. We ended up walking around the outside rink and down to Wyld Times for a quick bite to eat before senior FD. Honestly, that was the longest time I was outside.
I never ended up mastering the Sky Walks, sadly. I still found myself making wrong turns by Saturday. I was really hoping the Sky Walks would have gotten easier, but they didn't. On Friday night I thought Senior Men started at 7:30, but much to my dismay they started at 7, which I realized right at 7. I ran through the Sky Walk and actually made a wrong turn at the very first turn I needed to make. I stood in one spot for about a minute before I realized that I went the wrong way. I then proceeded to go back to the hotel, because I forgot I had to wait for Una Donegan and Andrew Korda. We RAN the whole way there (except for one walking spot where the Sky Walk goes underground). Crazy!
On Saturday I was at the rink from about 1 until 9 at night with about an hour break in there to go get food. Ask anybody who knows me, and they'll say that I LOVE to watch skating. Love, Love, LOVE to watch skating. I was so damn sick of watching skating by 9 that night that Lauren looked at me right before Mirai Nagasu and Rachel Flatt skated and said "let's leave?" and I was more than happy to say yes. It was a rollercoaster day! Pairs, Free Dance, Ladies. Did anybody else think that Rena and John were already married? I thought they were.
I guess I should maybe talk about some of the amazing skating that went on this week, too. Standout performances for me include Davis/White's Polka (so amazing!), Bosley/Corona's Viennese, Flatt's Short, as well as Nagasu's short, Chock/Zuerlein's OD, Wingle/Devereaux's OD, Abbott's Short (even thought it was messy), Weir's Short, Navarro/Bommentre's OD, Davis/White's OD, Samuelson/Bates' OD, Belbin/Agosto's FD, McLaughlin/Brubaker's Free Skate, the Shibutanis' FD, Gilles/McKernan's FD, the Hubbell's FD, Maxwell/Traxler's FD. Basically everything that I watched this week was so amazing. It's so hard to say which are my favorites (obviously from this long list. I want to congratulate everyone on a well-skated Nationals, though!
Other fun things this week included not being able to eat downstairs at the rink after Monday (I'm not bitter that they had a make your own cupcake station in the Hospitality room on Saturday), learning how to play Wii in the competitors lounge, meeting bunches and bunches of new people every day I was out there, waking Brad Coulter up when he was sleeping (and getting it on video!), reverse dance lifts with Patrick Mays and Jordan Cowan, "sky strutting" a la Tyra Banks with Megan Evans, celebrating birthdays (Liza!), and calling DAN DONIGAN (YESSS YOU MADE IT IN DAN!) at 2:30 a.m. St. Paul time only to realize that it was 3:30 back home, oh jeez and so many more things!
Tom Collins was a fun party. I loved standing in line for ten minutes to get a drink, and then finish it by the time I had walked away from the bartender! It was fun dressing up, though.
The competitors' party was really fun. I loved the chocolate fountain machine and the photobooth. They decorated one room to look like a club, and everybody seemed to really be enjoying their last night (or one of their last nights) in St. Paul.
Another thing that happened this week was that everybody realized how much of a skating stalker I am. And not just "oh, do you remember the team of ...?" No, I'm really bad. I'm more of "Do you remember that team _____, who wore ______, at the competition ______? They split up two years later, but their coaches _______ only went to work with him. Remember? They got _____ at Worlds that year?" And what's even more scary is that I even know all about my competitors. I think Megan Evans and Patrick Mays loved this a bit too much. BUT thank goodness for Elyse Matsumoto, because she's ALMOST as bad as I am. Almost.
I wear my Team 2014 jacket all the time now. I used to care what I wore around, but now that I have this, everything is better. :] All of the novice ice dancers took a picture together. We were obviously the best discipline in the seminar.
Well I think that's about all I remember. Sorry I didn't update everyday after I finished competing. I was having the time of my life, and not that ice-dance.com isn't important, but I was experiencing my first Nationals! And yes Pilar, it was everything I wanted out of my first Nationals, and even more. Thanks everybody!
Signing out from, where else, Maryland!
PS - Cleveland Rocks?!
I guess this is just going to be a mish-mosh of memories after I competed!
The novices participated in the Team 2014 seminar, and while there were some times that day we wished we were still in bed, I think we all enjoyed the judging aspect of the seminar where we trial judged/ played technical specialist the Junior OD with Margaret Faulkner and Ron Kravette. Let me say that both of their jobs aren't easy. I found it difficult when I was being a judge what GOE to give an element. What merited a +2? A -1? And GOEs had to be decided on the spot because we didn't have video replay. Being the technical specialist was OK until I realized that I didn't know all of the rules. GO ELYSE MATSUMOTO! She's so crazy -- she knows all of the rules! After a few skaters, being the technical specialist wasn't too terrible. I'm pretty sure Megan Evans, Patrick Mays, and Andrew Korda came up with a new way to get points: + sexy. Later on in the week, + sexy lead to + fierce (with a snap like Tyra). We gave out many + sexys and + fierces later on in the week.
The Mall of America definitely got its share of skaters. I don't know how many skaters actually made it out there, but I had a total of four trips. Well worth it. I had bought so many new clothes in St. Paul that I had to use one of my shopping bags as a carry on and carried on about seven articles of clothes on Sunday. Whoops!
Before I left for St. Paul, I ready Karen Frank's article on what to do in St. Paul. Thank God I did, because I am now in love with those Mini Donuts from the Xcel Energy Center! Who would have thought that a bag of $4 donuts could bring so much joy to my life?! On that note, I never made it to Jamba :[ It was too cold to go outside! Honestly, the longest time I was outside last week was maybe 10 minutes last Saturday (when it warmed up to maybe 30 degrees) when I went to go find some food with some skating friends. We ended up walking around the outside rink and down to Wyld Times for a quick bite to eat before senior FD. Honestly, that was the longest time I was outside.
I never ended up mastering the Sky Walks, sadly. I still found myself making wrong turns by Saturday. I was really hoping the Sky Walks would have gotten easier, but they didn't. On Friday night I thought Senior Men started at 7:30, but much to my dismay they started at 7, which I realized right at 7. I ran through the Sky Walk and actually made a wrong turn at the very first turn I needed to make. I stood in one spot for about a minute before I realized that I went the wrong way. I then proceeded to go back to the hotel, because I forgot I had to wait for Una Donegan and Andrew Korda. We RAN the whole way there (except for one walking spot where the Sky Walk goes underground). Crazy!
On Saturday I was at the rink from about 1 until 9 at night with about an hour break in there to go get food. Ask anybody who knows me, and they'll say that I LOVE to watch skating. Love, Love, LOVE to watch skating. I was so damn sick of watching skating by 9 that night that Lauren looked at me right before Mirai Nagasu and Rachel Flatt skated and said "let's leave?" and I was more than happy to say yes. It was a rollercoaster day! Pairs, Free Dance, Ladies. Did anybody else think that Rena and John were already married? I thought they were.
I guess I should maybe talk about some of the amazing skating that went on this week, too. Standout performances for me include Davis/White's Polka (so amazing!), Bosley/Corona's Viennese, Flatt's Short, as well as Nagasu's short, Chock/Zuerlein's OD, Wingle/Devereaux's OD, Abbott's Short (even thought it was messy), Weir's Short, Navarro/Bommentre's OD, Davis/White's OD, Samuelson/Bates' OD, Belbin/Agosto's FD, McLaughlin/Brubaker's Free Skate, the Shibutanis' FD, Gilles/McKernan's FD, the Hubbell's FD, Maxwell/Traxler's FD. Basically everything that I watched this week was so amazing. It's so hard to say which are my favorites (obviously from this long list. I want to congratulate everyone on a well-skated Nationals, though!
Other fun things this week included not being able to eat downstairs at the rink after Monday (I'm not bitter that they had a make your own cupcake station in the Hospitality room on Saturday), learning how to play Wii in the competitors lounge, meeting bunches and bunches of new people every day I was out there, waking Brad Coulter up when he was sleeping (and getting it on video!), reverse dance lifts with Patrick Mays and Jordan Cowan, "sky strutting" a la Tyra Banks with Megan Evans, celebrating birthdays (Liza!), and calling DAN DONIGAN (YESSS YOU MADE IT IN DAN!) at 2:30 a.m. St. Paul time only to realize that it was 3:30 back home, oh jeez and so many more things!
Tom Collins was a fun party. I loved standing in line for ten minutes to get a drink, and then finish it by the time I had walked away from the bartender! It was fun dressing up, though.
The competitors' party was really fun. I loved the chocolate fountain machine and the photobooth. They decorated one room to look like a club, and everybody seemed to really be enjoying their last night (or one of their last nights) in St. Paul.
Another thing that happened this week was that everybody realized how much of a skating stalker I am. And not just "oh, do you remember the team of ...?" No, I'm really bad. I'm more of "Do you remember that team _____, who wore ______, at the competition ______? They split up two years later, but their coaches _______ only went to work with him. Remember? They got _____ at Worlds that year?" And what's even more scary is that I even know all about my competitors. I think Megan Evans and Patrick Mays loved this a bit too much. BUT thank goodness for Elyse Matsumoto, because she's ALMOST as bad as I am. Almost.
I wear my Team 2014 jacket all the time now. I used to care what I wore around, but now that I have this, everything is better. :] All of the novice ice dancers took a picture together. We were obviously the best discipline in the seminar.
Well I think that's about all I remember. Sorry I didn't update everyday after I finished competing. I was having the time of my life, and not that ice-dance.com isn't important, but I was experiencing my first Nationals! And yes Pilar, it was everything I wanted out of my first Nationals, and even more. Thanks everybody!
Signing out from, where else, Maryland!
PS - Cleveland Rocks?!
