journal

Thursday, July 12, 2001
Hi Everyone-

I hope all of your summers are going great. Mine is going okay so far. A lot has been happening lately.

First of all, I am thrilled to announce that I've been assigned to Skate Canada and Trophee Lalique. It is a huge honor to be skating against the top skaters in the world, and in the Olympic year. It's very exciting. Although, I do feel a little intimidated to be competing against Alexei Yagudin and all the other top guys. It will be awesome to be around them all though. I'm also excited to see the head to head to head matchup of Slutskaya, Kwan, and Hughes at Skate Canada. It will be so awesome!

Secondly, my programs are coming along quite nicely. As some of you may know, I decided to go back to last year's short program. I really liked the tango pieces I had chosen for this year, but many people were telling me that last year's was better, and I realized that the music didn't really fit too well, so I decided to switch. I love last year's short, and I want to skate it to its full potential, unlike last year when I never skated it perfectly. My long however is constantly improving. I'm just starting to put a few triples in it, slowly building up to full run-throughs. The choreography really suits me, and I can't wait to debut the program. I think it will be different from anyone else's this year. I am so excited about it. I am expecting to be doing full run-throughs by August.

Next week Jon Jackson, my team leader from Junior Worlds, is coming to critique my programs for me. I'm excited to hear what he has to say about them. He's coming in to judges Wissahickon, a local competition, and we asked him to come down to Delaware and take a look. So he is. HAHA Speaking of Wiss, I am going up to watch the Senior Mens and Senior Ladies short programs. I am anticipating the programs of Michael Weiss and some of the other top guys coming in for the competition. It's too bad I broke my wrist and got a late start, or I would have been able to do it, but I'm just not ready. I'll of course be supporting my friends, and mom promised to take me to Cin Cin for dinner. (It's the best restaurant. I suggest a pilgrimage to the restaurant for you all.).

Hmmm......what else.....the sessions at the University have been overly crowded, and I have been in four collisions. All of them during my programs too. It's a shame that I can't even skate full out on my sessions without being hit. I was cut twice and badly bruised twice. Only one though has to be treated by physical therapy and massages. I am no longer skating the high freestyle sessions either because of the risks. Priscilla forbade me to skate them, so I have to do an elite session and two pairs sessions for the rest of the summer. Its pitiful that I can't skate what I'm supposed to. There are even lower level kids on the session who shouldn't be on them, its awful. I think we average 32 kids per high freestyle session. Oh well, sorry to bore you all with that. I needed to get it off my chest. HAHA

That's basically it for now I think. Oh, I did go to the *NSYNC concert in June which promotes the group's new CD, "Celebrity" which comes out on July 24, 2001, GO GET IT! It was amazing, the guys are in such good shape. They bounce around and sing and yell and scream constantly, and so cool. I wish I could sing. Anybody got any pointers? HAHA I just think it'd be awesome to move so many people with your voice and your dance moves, but hopefully I can do that with my skating. The new album will be awesome, lots of ballads. Speaking of music, I'm thinking about using "Complainte de la Butte" for an exhibition number, it's off the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. Let me know what ya'll think!

Well, I've rambled on for long enough. Thank you for visiting, and have a good summer, get tan, and enjoy yourselves!

Love always,
-J

P.S. Kelly is coming August 1, I'm so excited!