04.30.08
Old friends and pain
I’ve been thinking about an old friend of mine lately, so I googled him. Turns out, he’s a pro-athlete, one of Sweden’s best in his discipline and has won multiple international competitions. Good for him! Unfortunately, he’s now injured and can’t compete this season. I feel so bad for him, and I can understand how that’s like. Not the “Best in Sweden” part, but the injury-part.
Speaking of injuries, I managed to get an earlier appointment to go in and see the specialist. Instead of the 9th, I’m going in this Friday. And it’s necessary. My husband thinks I need an MRI, and possibly even more. He has an extensive medical training from the Marine Corps, so he usually knows what he’s talking about. He was even talking about a possible surgery, but hopefully it won’t come to that. I think they will give me a MRI and then give me a brace to I can’t move too much.
I am so tired to be doped on muscle-relaxers, always dizzy, slow, moody and nauseous. Over the last 4 weeks, I’ve dropped almost 11 pounds. just from being unable to eat properly. My husband is getting pizza today, hopefully it’ll go down properly. Thank$ god for Altoids, they take away the nausea. If this continues, I’ll get Preggi-Pops. I just want this whole thing to go away. I want to skate, I want to work out! I want to be able and wake up in the morning without feeling pain and being almost too dizzy to walk down the stairs (thank you muscle relaxers….. not).
We had to go and get me more muscle-relaxers and you know how much they are? $280 for 30 days worth. $280!!!!!! Thankfully my insurance covered most of it, but we still had to pay almost $70. It’s insane!
I just want to roll over and die. Hopefully my husband will by chocolate in the store. God knows I could need it. Preferably like 200 pounds of it. This time, it can’t be solved with a 500 gram Marabou, no matter how much I want it to. Sigh.
Update, added later… He got me gourmet chocolate, ice cream, pizza and soda. He’s good….
04.25.08
Sister and Marine Base
Since when did my sister grow up so fast? My goodness. I just watched pictures my oldest younger sister took of my youngest sister, and OH MY GOD. She looked so grown up! So very pretty! And so skinny!
You have to understand, my sister, now 12 years old (going on 16 by the looks of it…), has always been slightly heavy, and very conscious about it. It’s usually no big deal, but being a figure skater, a little heavy quickly makes you look very heavy next to these super tiny little things. And you can’t really hide behind over-sized clothing either, competition-dresses are tight and minimal. Frankly speaking, you do less well in competition since you look like a heffalump next to these little pixies. I have always hoped for my sister to loose weight, but even skating 5-6 times a week, it has so far not really happened. I have felt really bad for her for a long time.
But now, since Christmas, my sister has grown several inches and lost 9 kilos (that’s almost 20 pounds)! And according to her, she has not been trying to loose. Good for her! I am so proud and relieved. Looking at those pictures, she is really pretty and looks so comfortable with herself! Neither of us sisters are ugly, not to brag, we look pretty good, but looking at those pictures, she will be the prettiest of the bunch!
Today we went down early to pick up our little girl, and I got a tour of the Marine base. We had to get a sticker for the new car so that we can go on base, so my husband took me on a tour. It’s huge! It’s like a city, if you never wanted to leave you wouldn’t have to. It’s very beautiful too, a lot of water around. They also have these ridiculous rules, like you can’t show public affection. If you’re married, you are allowed to hold hands in public, that’s about it. And even then will people look strangely on you… I am so happy he is not in anymore. So happy.
04.21.08
Roadblock
I have hit a roadblock when it comes to Becky’s music. I have probably burned through at least 50 CDs by now, and what do I have? 4 songs. Four. Yeah, I know. I am probably way to picky, but this is what I have! I am trying to follow what the kid wants, and this is what I get. Neither is a movie soundtrack, which is what I aimed for. I have two Broadway, one Ballroom, and one amusement park. I am trying Irish right now and am going to go through 4.5 GB tomorrow. She almost got Celtic Tiger for a second, but it didn’t want to get cut. She’s not got the skills for a Robert Wells yet, or I’d give her like ten of those. Well, well…. On to Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
04.20.08
Sense and Sensibility
I just finished watching Sense and Sensibility, which was, absolutely lovely. It had the oh so dashing and mysterious Alan Rickman (the man with the most extraordinary voice, it’s like hearing velvet speak) and very talented Emma Thompson in two of the lead roles. It also had Hugh Grant playing the most uncomfortable man. I think this was one of Alan Rickman’s few good characters, since he always seem to play the villain in all movies. (Oh yes, I am totally writing this in a very British accent, which leaves me completely confused. I have gotten so accustomed to speaking American English with my darling husband, when I do love the British one very much. I so wish he would still speak his British one….)
I am being completly silly, I know. For some reason I love movies from the Austen era. I think tonight we both wish that we lived in the UK. Which I know we would if only we could have our little girl, but her mother would not let that happen.
It’s pouring down outside. It’s summer now, so we either have very hot and humid, or it’s rain and thunder. Lovely, huh?
Decisions.
I have decided to give Becky my masterpiece. I was (am….) listening to it this morning, and I think she might be able to handle it. It’s tough, but if she can pull it off, she’ll do great in B. I have five songs right now for her, and I might do three more, and that will be it. Right now, I don’t have a single “super-soundtrack”, but all the rest of the CDs I have are soundtracks. All five tracks are good and skateable, and Lena could give them to some other kid if Becky doesn’t want them. Except Epcot. If Becky doesn’t want it now, she’ll want it in a couple of years, and I’ll re-cut it to fit.
Neither of the five are very common music, and they are hard to get your hands on, the new three are regular soundtracks. So that’s what I’m going to do today, cut more music! (But I have to admit, two of the songs I’m giving to Becky, I had two small American girls skate to)
Actually, I think I’m going to leave one of the songs I cut off the CD. It’s not a great cut, and it doesn’t fit Becky AT ALL. Well, well….
04.16.08
Horton hears a who!
Katie – “In my world everyone is a pony, and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies!
Katie is a very adorable yellow blob in “Horton hears a who”. Unfortunately, I can’t find any pictures of her.
04.13.08
Pain and fluffiness
My ribs have been acting up over the last few days. Lots of pain in the evening, can’t sleep, can’t breathe properly and nausea. Usually I only get pain after a really hard workout when my body is completely dead, or when I try to jump too much on the ice. My accident was in September, so I thought that my injury would be all healed now. But no such luck. My husband has been talking about taking me to the clinic a couple of times, but I always just told him to leave it be. I don’t like doctors. But after me crying my eyes out yesterday morning, and painkillers refusing to help, he dragged me down to the clinic.
The doctor told me that it’s the tissue in-between my ribs that are hurting me. They are probably inflamed, and she is sending me to see a specialist at the beginning of the week. She also gave me muscle relaxers to take right before bed. I did. And oh dear…. They made me… fluffy. My arms and legs were tingling and feeling like they’d been wrapped in bubble wrap. They felt light and heavy at the same time. I sort of lost control over my body. I was giggling, very silly and slurring slightly. My husband claimed I was drunk and high. I probably was, I wouldn’t know since I’ve never been either. But the nausea went away, and after quite a while, so did the pain. I slept well.
This morning when I woke up, there was still no pain. I still have a hard time breathing properly, but that’s about it when it comes to the pain part. I do however feel very groggy, and parts of my body feel numb. It’s like my body doesn’t quite want to do what I want it to do. I can’t stand up for longer periods of time without feeling like my legs are going to buckle under me. Showering was hell, I had to get out early, so I wouldn’t pass out or get hurt. The water also felt very funny when it hit my body. Walking down the staircase was an adventure. Writing this post is very hard, since my fingers doesn’t want to hit the right keys. I’m getting almost every word wrong, so I have to write very slow and make sure I hit every key right.
I don’t like not having full control over my body, it’s creepy. My whole body is tingling and feeling slightly numb. I don’t know if I should take those pills again. They take the pain away and let me sleep, but make me totally out of it. I don’t know, I’ll have ta ask my husband when he comes home.
04.12.08
Frustration
Choosing music isn’t an easy task. There are so many things that play in. Most importantly, it has to fit the skater and his or her purpose. Music can easily outshine the skater. As a coach, you have to be careful not to let yourself being swept away by the greatness of the song. I just did that. I cut this amazing piece of music, absolute masterpiece, and spent probably 2 hours on it (it was a nine minute piece needing to be three minutes long). When proudly playing the finished version for my husband he frowned. “No.” He shook his head. “It’s great music honey, very nice, but not for her.” He was right, of course. I was so wrapped up in the sheer awesomeness of the song that I forgot the most important thing. Does it fit Becky? No, it doesn’t.
But to my frustration, neither does 40 other CDs. I have gone through a large part of my collection, and I can’t find the perfect song. I have cut 4 so far, but neither of them is, in my opinion, perfect. And since I am such a sucker when it comes to music, it has to be perfect. While writing this, I am listening to Eragon, seeing if it fits. It’s totally soundtrack, of course.
So why is it so hard? Well, it wasn’t at first. I thought I knew what I wanted her to skate to, and she had a good idea as well. I was going to give her a nice easy soundtrack, something similar to what she skated to last year, and my mother said she liked the movie Bridge to Terabithia. Thank you. Not. It didn’t fit. Not cuttable and not enough melody, mostly warrior like music, or in-between music. So that one was a no-no. Then I spoke to Becky. I want something DIFFERENT this year. Maybe soft music? No offence to my sister, but she is not the most graceful person on the planet. She is slightly awkward, and pulls her shoulders up when she skates. And she wants to do soft? Nahhhhhh….. Well, she’s supposedly the boss, so I’ll have to find her something soft. Neither of the 4 is soft, but I’ll work on it. (So far Eragon sucks. I have one song that might work….. I need about three…)
Another problem is that my sister is in a transition age, between kid and teenager. She turned 12 yesterday. Which means she is too old to skate to many of the Disneys, but too young to do something substantial. (God, this Eragon sounds suspiciously like Narnia… who made it? Is this a Harry Gregson Williams too? Patrick Doyle? Who is he? Ah…. That explains it…Fine, on with it.) As I was saying, she can’t do something too substantial, like Cirque du Soleil, anything warrior, dark, classical or too much character music. She needs something simple, expressive, like SOUNDTRACKS!!! But she didn’t want that, now did she… (No Eragon. CD didn’t agree with me. Next up, Sleepy Hollow. Oh Cathy would love making that costume, wouldn’t she?) Well, well, I am trying my best here.
My current CD-stack adds up to 12, plus a couple of stray songs lying on my computer. I am thinking Broadway… I’ll see what I can find. My husband just suggested that I ask Becky exactly what she wants. Yeah, right. I am not going to let her sign her own death warrant. When I was that age, Lena gave me a couple of CDs and had me listen. I did Lord of the Dance. I know I should trust Becky, but I am the music expert in the family. So I’ll cut her about 10 different songs, and then she can chose. It’s just easier. So on we go.
04.11.08
Hairspray
I am so extremely proud! My husband has managed to get an audition for the local production of Hairspray! If he gets it, and I am convinced he does, he’ll go into rehearsals as early as next week, practicing every night. He’s so excited, and I am too. Just wanted to let the world know….
04.09.08
Quick update on…. yeah, music…
Made two more. These two are more to her liking, but is nothing like she’s had before. Also, they are very much in fashion, since both are inspired by next season’s OD (original dance in Ice dance, for those who need clarification). Both goes with really cute choreography and really cool costume. Though they don’t really feel purple, sorry about that Becky….
