November 2, 2005

Hi everyone! I am so far behind again in writing my journal; I thought that I would have a few free moments, but my season is beginning to look a lot like last year’s, so I will try to highlight a few of my summer activities.

In early June, I began choreography with Theresa on my new long and short programs. Even now the choreography seems to be continually changing almost weekly as new information comes to us about the new judging system. We started with my short program (something a little different for me than the usual classical pieces that I like to pick); after my coaches and I seemed comfortable with that, we began to work on the long. This was the first year in a while that I got new long, short, and exhibition programs, so preparing for Skate Detroit was a little rushed. Since this competition was at my home club, I wanted to try to put out my programs there for feedback from the judges who were monitoring me. My programs were definitely a bit rough, but I did get full credit for my opening jump in the long, a triple lutz-triple toe combination.

Amber and I spent the summer training at the Detroit Skating Club and in Canton, Michigan, at the Arctic Edge ice arena, so we decided to stay in the area instead of driving from Ohio everyday. We planned to take a couple of on-line classes at the university in Bowling Green, so that we didn’t have to be back there for classes each day. The on-line classes didn’t work out since they required that I be on campus for some of the class work. We ended up staying at an Extended Stay hotel near DSC and Eisenhower Dance studio where Amber took some ballet classes and was also part of a production of Sleeping Beauty. Three months in a small hotel room with my mom and Amber was definitely a personal space crunch, but it was better than driving over 200 miles a day during construction season!!!!!! We were also near most of our skating friends too, so we could do things with them.

The week after Skate Detroit, I went to Chicago for a couple of days to model for Leo’s Dancewear catalog. That was a lot of fun, and I got to model quite a few costumes. They just sent me a copy of the new catalog; I’m on the back cover, and in quite a few of the ballet, jazz, lyrical, and hip-hop costumes inside the catalog too!

The following weekend, we had our annual Challenge ( Battle) of the Sexes at DSC. I was the captain of the girls’ team, and Charlie White was the boys’ captain. Ryan Jahnke, Parker and Colin Pennington, and Christopher Darling were all skating at DSC for the week, so our club invited them to participate also. Parker and Colin did participate; Ryan had vacation plans, and Christopher had to leave to go back to Colorado. We gave it our all, but we were missing a few of the competitive girls that Saturday. The guys definitely had a lead this year, and they beat the girls’ team. We all enjoyed the “no pressure” competition, though. Right after the competition, my parents and I went to see the production of “Sleeping Beauty” at Oakland University that Amber was a part of.

Since Amber’s feet injuries have prevented her from jumping, she has been focusing more of her time on her ice dancing. She and my parents went to the Lake Placid Summer Ice Dance Competition the following week, in early August. I stayed with the Cassar family so that I could continue to train in Detroit. I am so thankful for their wonderful hospitality and kindness, not to mention that I had a great time there too. They live on one of the nearby lakes, so I was able to go tubing and water skiing with them! It was the first time that I had done either.

I missed competing at the collegiate nationals this year, because it was too far to travel and continue with my training. I was scheduled to compete in Chicago at the DuPage competition the weekend before classes started at the university, though. My coaches, parents, and I decided not to go to that competition because it would be hard to compete there and move back to Ohio from Michigan for school the next day. We were also trying not to overload my competition schedule too early in case something unexpected would come up…and it did. I was assigned Finlandia Trophy and Skate Canada. Within a few weeks, the competition in Finland was cancelled. USFS then assigned the Finlandia team to the Ondrej Nepela Memorial competition in Bratislava, Slovakia. It was a couple of weeks earlier than Finlandia would have been, but I was just happy to have a warm-up competition before Skate Canada. My mom and coach Theresa went there with me. I had competed there as a junior about three years previous to that, but this competition was at another ice arena. My goal was to medal there, which I did, receiving 2 nd in the short program, and 1 st in the long, and 2 nd overall. I didn’t have too much time for sightseeing, but we did watch part of a cultural festival near our hotel. The children were dressed in their ethnic costumes and sang and danced to various folk music pieces. The last night in Bratislava, our team (Amber Corwin, Scott Smith, Nick LaRoche, and I), our team leader (Doug Williams), and some of the coaches stayed up all night talking together. We tried to go out for pizza, but the only thing open was a gas station store. We were all really exhausted by the time we had to take our shuttles to the airport the next day. The trip home was uneventful, except that one of my pieces of luggage took and extra week to come home. It had four competition dressed in it, but at least I had my skates back. I know now to put my dresses in different suitcases!

My training and school schedule seemed to be back to normal (up at 5AM, out of the house and in the car by 5:30AM, and off to DSC or the Arctic Edge in Canton, and then back to BGSU for classes). I try to do a little rock climbing at the university, but most of my free time is spent studying. My favorite class this semester is probably Russian, although I did feel like I was back in elementary school while learning how to write the Cyrillic alphabet.

Two weeks after the competition in Bratislava, normal seemed to disappear. I came home from school on a Wednesday night, and received that all too familiar last-minute phone call from USFSA, “We would like you to take part in the Campbell’s International Figure Skating Classic this weekend.” Michelle Kwan withdrew and I was given the opportunity to compete in her place. I had just gotten back into training after the Ondrej Nepela competition, and we had just changed my footwork again, but the experience would be great before Skate Canada. St. Paul, Minnesota wasn’t too far to travel, and I only had to do my long program. I didn’t skate my best, and I placed fifth. My mom and I took a few photos around the downtown area: of Herb Brook’s statue (“The Miracle” is one of my favorite movies.), and a few of Charles Schultz’s cartoon character statues. I really liked St. Paul; it was a very friendly and clean city. After that, it was off to the airport again. That was my second trip this fall.

The third trip would be to Boston the following weekend for the Saturday show of “An Evening with Champions” to benefit the Jimmy Fund. I didn’t want to miss another Friday of school, so we left home at 3:30am Saturday morning to catch a 6am flight from Detroit to La Guardia to Boston. One of my coaches, Jon Nichols, who recently moved to Boston from Detroit, was there with me for the event. Before the evening show and practice, the skaters took part in a “skate with the stars” session. We got to skate with the children and families that the Jimmy Fund helps to support. On the practice session I got to skate with Katia Gordeeva, Ilia Kulik, Steven Cousins, Jordan Wilson, Kimmie Meissner, Jennifer Robinson, Ryan Jahnke and Ryan Bradley. Ryan Jahnke asked me to be a part of his number, so I learned my part for that also. Kelly Smith had to teach some of us the opening and closing numbers too…sometimes that can be interesting since I am a lefty! This show was also to help me get ready for Skate Canada by doing my short program before a larger audience. I was really pleased with my performance, as it was probably my best short program outside of practice this fall. I would have liked to have taken a tour of the Harvard campus before going back home, but I had to get an early flight out the next morning.

I decided not to skate on Monday, and just rest a little before Skate Canada. I went to classes that evening, and when I got home I received another one of those unexpected phone calls. Sasha Cohen withdrew from Skate America, and I was asked to take her place. Of course I would go!!!!! This would only be my 4th airline in 5 weeks. (At this time I should probably mention that I do not keep a suitcase packed and ready to go!) I had been praying that my mom, Amber, and I wouldn’t have to do so much driving each day to train, but I guess I wasn’t specific enough as to what I really meant. Also, my mom, in joking, asked me what we were going to do for the upcoming weekend, upon arriving home from the Jimmy Fund show. I guess we found out what we were going to do that weekend! Theresa did ask USFS if I could stay home a few days to train before I was off on another plane.

We had an evening flight to Philadelphia , and from there we got a limousine ride to Atlantic City ! That was my first ever ride in a limo! On Friday, I had a practice and then rested at the hotel room before the event that night. My goal for the short program was to place in the top 3. I ended up 3rd, making a slight mistake on my triple flip. Practice Saturday went well, and I felt comfortably ready for the long program event, given the short amount of time there. I drew 2nd in the last warm-up group, and my goal was to place in the top 2 overall. I was really happy with my performance, even though my triple-triple was downgraded to a triple-double, and I fell on the last flip. I ended up winning the long program, but not by enough to take the gold for the U.S. I ended up with the silver medal, and was very excited for that. After I competed, I had time to relax and watch the pairs’ freeskate competition. I train with Marcy (Hinzmann) and Aaron (Parchem), and was happy for them as they also had a great long program. Sunday morning I had practice for the exhibition, and then had a little time to see some of the Boardwalk, and beach. The sun finally came out Sunday too! Then the exhibition….fun, but I was really tired by that time. We had a banquet that evening at the Trump Plaza with all of the athletes, and then I was off the next day to Bowling Green for a day of classes before going to Skate Canada.

Alissa