Super Angie...phew!

Whoa! What an amazing weekend of skating I had. I'm sitting at the Vegas airport, totally wiped out, but thrilled to death.

First total props to my previous coaches. I love you all and had fun skating with each of you and I thank you for teaching me and encouraging me. Especially Sheila... you are so beautiful and its from you that I learned my hydroblades and as you know, they are my favorites. You were not only my coach, but my closet friend in Seattle. Miss you and love you!

Those who know me, know that I love skating...its in my heart. I just love it. But I have always liked it MY way. In Katia Gordeeva's book, she says something along these lines--in Russia there is a saying, Don't Reinvent the Bicycle. She then goes on to say thats why US pairs have so many problems--they try to reinvent pair moves. Fast forward to my new coach...Well, with Vassili, you don't do things your way, you do things THE CORRECT WAY. I've never had a coach who was fierce enough to demand that I do things the correct way. Vassili does this, and HOLY FREAKING CRAP--the changes are amazing. For example...when I arrived on Friday, my camel spins were hit and miss...I mean they were "fine" but not anything to write home about. I did one on Sat in the comp, and it was "okay". Today (Tuesday), I was consistent enough on my camels that I was able to do camel, sit, upright scratch. Um...I've NEVER done a real scratch before yesterday, and today, I was doing them and doing them mostly okay. I've never been able to cross my foot on a scratch. Vassili must be magic because he just told me a few different pointers yesterday and BOOM...suddenly crossed feet. Its really unbelievable how different it feels to spin now. I LOVE SPINNING. I mean I go out on the ice and now I'm like--what do I do? Hydroblade? Jump? Spin? Which one? I love them all! Its never been that way. its always been jump, hydroblade, jump some more.

Speaking of jumps...HOLY FREAKING SNOT! Again with the magic. He works me hard. He doesn't put up with crap or being scared (don't read this and assume it means he is rude or mean on the ice. He is not. Sure he cracks jokes, but he is full of love for his students and it shows in how he pushes them). I am working on throwing away my security blanket so I can do a real lutz on the correct edge with the correct take off. I've never had a coach demand that of me before and best of all, he was very proud of me for attempting it. Goal: be able to actually DO IT next time I see him. Right now I'm sort of getting around, or landing on two feet. I kept thinking of that famous winnie the pooh quote, "Promise me you'll always remember: you're braver then you believe, and stronger then you seem, and smarter then you think."--Christopher Robin to Pooh”...so as I was gliding backwards into my lutz corner, scared like you wouldn't believe, I kept telling myself this. And then I would jump. I have a long ways to go, but I'm starting to believe. JUMP!

The best thing that happened today was when he asked me to a flip jump. I went and did it. "Good girl. go do it again please" So I went and did it again and then came up to him. "I'm satisfied with that" "do you want me to do it again?" "Nope, I'm satisfied." WHOA! I did the jump twice and he was happy with it. This feels incredible. I'm beyond proud of myself.

Other highlights: working on axels. Right now, I'm just doing the beginning exercises. Things my body and mind remember from '98..the last time I did this jump. Its a mental game, I remember that. So there I was, standing on the line and I jumped up to do the practice jump thingy (forget what its really called) and after a bunch of tries and tweaking arms and pulling things together at the same time, I did my final one and suddenly I felt this familiar feeling...dating back to 98. Um...I almost did a real axel today and it felt incredible. And it felt so familiar. Makes me really excited to feel that again.

Another highlight: footwork and being told I'm doing good and not to feel stupid about it. I can do it--my coach believes I can.

I'm excited to get back to CO and work hard. I have a competition in Denver on Saturday November 13th. I'll be skating my freestyle program, my Gaga program and then Apologize. I'm really excited to skate these with the new changes. I just hope I can remember everything I learned this weekend. Vassili pushed me like I've never been pushed. It was incredible.

-- Супер Энджи
PS...special thanks to Rick for making all this possible. Thanks honey.