Let's Celebrate, It's All Right!

No more TT Tux for Evan... I am SO happy.


Tanith's haircut rocks.

I didn't plan my vacation right... I thought I'd get to miss out on the stupidness that surrounds nationals. no such luck. Oh well.

The trip was awesome. Aside from my computer not playing well with the internet/my camera/everything else I had a great time. I did end up getting sick for a few days, but all in all it was an amazing and fun trip and I wish it could have lasted longer. I miss unreality already!

I got sick on the plane, and am still a bit sick... I'm praying that I am not coming down with the flu but I don't think I'm that lucky.

Just hanging out with Haille Rae today. She's coming down with a cold, so we've bummed around the house all day. She stole a couple of things that I bought for myself down at Disney and added it to her collection of Disney stuff I got her. I am still trying to figure out how to get it back.

I want a shower in the worst way. I didn't take one last night as I crashed at 8pm... and I've been up with Haille since six... *sigh*

Just as I was laying down to get some sleep my bed collapsed. They had been on risers and, so, I came crashing down (as did Yuka pug!) right along with the bed. It was interesting to say the least.

Today I reorganized my room a bit.. moved some of the smaller furnature and I'm sure Judy won't approve as I've wanted to do this since forever, but oh well. She ticked me off again today so I feel justified in my decision.


I love how with the GPF the people on Golden Skate are counting Evan out. Ok, since when has bubba really made an announcement that he is the one to beat early in the season? Yeah, he's gotten dinged big time this year and yes his programs could be better (Yagudin programs just don't look good on him) but Bradley beating Evan? That'll be the day.

Unless Evan tanks like Johnny in Spokane. But just based on if both skate their best, I don't think so. But whatever. At this point I honestly don't care lol I will be in Disney World when it all goes down and I won't even know about it all until I get home... unless someone calls with updates (I don't have text messaging! *Cries*) lol

Haille Rae and her parents are coming for dinner tomorrow. yay! :)

TTFN

Keegan Messing - Anchorage, Alaska figure skater! - won the Pacific Coast Sectionals today! I am so excited for him! I seriously let out a fangirl squeal and bounced on my bed! I am so happy that he pulled it out. He got a decent score, I think, I honestly don't follow Juniors all that much. Aside from Keegan I guess I could care less lol which is sad, but it's just hard to keep up with everything all the time!

So proud of him! *bounces*

FPl. Name Points SP FS
1 Keegan Messing
Anchorage FSC 176.50 3 1
2 Austin Kanallakan
Los Angeles FSC 161.29 1 2
3 Andrew Gonzales
All Year FSC 154.93 2 3
4 David Wang
All Year FSC 138.64 8 4
5 John Lomazzi
Peninsula SC 134.70 6 5
6 Grisha Fournier
All Year FSC 127.78 5 6
7 Sean Rabbitt
Glacier Falls FSC 127.52 4 8
8 Stanislav Samohin
Los Angeles FSC 125.54 7 7
9 Dan Dang
Portland ISC 111.45 9 9

Shae is untouchable! I'm sorry I said anything! LOL

My frustration is not so much on teh skaters as it is teh choreographers, I'm sorry that didn't seem evident, when it comes to these shows. There's really no variety and no spark. Yes, they're at the mercy of Disson's musical pics, but at least TRY. All group numbers seem to be posing.

I cannot afford to go to the shows like a lot of you can, and I'm glad to see that they aren't as craptastique as they appear on television, but I just feel the quality as a whole just isn't there. I'm all for cheesey (I like Too Hot To Skate, I mean come on!), but I can't just have cheese.

Shae is a lovely skater, I am impressed with what she does considering she's a freaking ice dancer. I just don't think she translates as well on TV - that's just me. I don't like most ladies skaters on TV alone... it just isn't the same.

I'm in a very ranty, jaded, annoyed, pissy place at the moment. I come here to vent. It's not that I don't like the skaters i'm talking about (I'm not a huge fan of Shae's but I do respect her work, and really wish Victor and she would do like Naomi and Peter and at least skate on rare occassions together...), I'm just not in a very happy place... I mean the only thing I have to look forward to for a while seems to be my trip with Erin... which is still two months and 8 days off, and then after 11 nights of that I'll be right back here. and so I'm just taking it out on everyone and everything...

so I'll make a mental note that Shae is off limits from here on out... ;)

So I just realized that in January I will have been a figure skating fan (or Scott Hamilton fan if you wanna look at it that way). That is one long life for an obsession.

Halloween last night was decent. I didn't have as much fun as laster year, but it was an okay night. The house was, once again, a big hit. We already have the theme for next year. It will be Monsters Inc's Monster Mash. Disco Balls and whimsical colors and Monsters! w00t!

Not that I'm planning to be here for it, and no doubt that won't actually happen, but I can dream. I'm getting to where I'm just existing.

Finally a video on Youtube of his skating this season! It's from the J. Curry Memorial. It looks like he kept his LP from last year, but got a new (better) costume!



I LOVE that he starts his program with the 20th Century Fox theme.

why I don't know. He's such a likeable nerd. But, apparently, when Paul is on the tape my DVD player will not record it to the DVDs. Which really makes recording my old compilation tapes difficult because most of them are Stars On Ice related and Paul was a key player in that tour! LOL

Thankfully my DVD player loves Kurt, or I'd be in serious hurt (surprisingly I havent come across my Scotty tapes yet).

I've pulled a muscle in my lower back. I litterally cannot find a position that does not hurt. Small movements send pain shooting up. I don't know how I did it, but I just want to cry it hurts so bad! Ibuprofen is the only thing that makes it managable, but once it starts wearing off it HURTS.

Judy and Gaylord went down to Kenai for the day so I had the house to myself. I was a happy girl aside from the back pain. I made cookies before my back really started to be a bother, and then I've been just being lazy trying not to aggrivate my condition lol. I did write some papers and I'm getting ready to order my free trial of netflix so that I can get this stupid Absense of Malice paper finished. Blah!

Oooooo the Godfather 'complete restoration' will be on Blue Ray Tuesday. whoopie! I hate stupid commercials lol.

Alright, back to paper writing. I am hating my classes right now. Blah!

Guess who is FINALLY watching Kurt Browning's Gotta Skate 6.0.... that'd be me. I finally found which tape it's on and now I am converting it to DVD... because if there was one show that must be saved for all time... it's the Kurt specials because they're freaking above the rest. That's right, I said it, Kurt is king of skating. Sorry Scotty - SOI comes second.

Anyway, I'm totally crushing on him hard. Yes, he's over 40. Yes he's old enough to be my dad (albiet a very young dad lol) and YES he's married with two beautiful little boys... but OMG that makes me love him more...

Is it sad that I want a guy just like Kurt - but who is a Christian? I honestly don't believe that guy exists at this point ha ha!

I love the little fluffy bit with Kurt and family sitting around the table and he's all about being dad to little Gabe. Too freaking cute (I'm ignoring the whole nanny issue at the moment. lol.) There couldn't be a more perfect couple than Kurt and Sonia...

okay, there probably is, but not tonight.

And, yes, I am officially crazy. Or at the very least bi-polar considering last night's post. Ha ha! But hey, Kurt and the gang makes me happy. That's what skating should be. Right there *points at Kurt skating on her TV* He's freaking fantastic. Screw Olympic titles, he doesn't need them. Considering the reigning Olympic Champion's "skating" and really most of the olympic men's champions or at least podium placers can't hold a candle to Kurt. I dare Ilia, Alexei, and Plushy to work as long and as hard and continue to grow as a skater and a performer.

And when they're 40 something have girls 18-20 years younger swoon over them like they're young adults! ;) AND have a smokin hot and talented wife and cute kids. HA!





I seriously need help, yo!



ETA - just for my sister

*hands over drool bucket, napkin, and paper bag* try not to make a mess on my journal, mm'kay?

Especially when it's a professor who I am paying to teach me.

Prof. Arnett can't teach her way out of a paperbag. She is easily distracted, she basically reads the book, she makes no sense, and if she talks about one more disgusting example I'm going to scream.

First week she used baby rats suckling on their momma's 'tits' for an example.
Last week we had to hear about parents beating and killing their children in horrible ways.
This week? So far people spit into glasses and drink their spit.


What this all has to do with the Fundamentals of Oral Communication I have no idea, other than she is a good example of what NOT to do. BLAH!



In other news, Jeff Buttle retired from competitive figure skating and the news hit Golden Skate today. Wow. I'm still shocked, I'm not a big fan of his (he's got nice flow and blah blah blah but I honestly don't *get* what's so great, and he never lived up to the hype that he was the next Kurt. I don't see much in the way of similarities in their skating aside from the basics). Should be interesting going into Vancouver with him out of the picture... not that he was uber competitive in the long run anyway.




Anywho, I think I may pack up and go home at the next break. This is just stupid.

So Anchorage's best figure skater (rather ALASKA's best!), Keegan Messing, is competing at Liberty. I forget that he's old enough to be followed by the USFSA's media now lol so I tend to find out about it after it happens!

Anyway he's had an impressive showing this week, he's second place in the Jr. Division (being Jet-lagged and all!) and he WON the Long Program! w00t! He hit the triple axel and I'm just so happy for him! Not only is he Alaskan and making waves, he's actually a GREAT SKATER and PERFORMER! So I think that's fantastic

anyway the article is here - http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080718&content_id=49448&vkey=ice_news - but you have to scroll a bit to get to where they mention him.

YAY KEEGAN!

considering I've been home a week and had to battle a serious sinus infection, and can therefore remember very little of anything I think it'd just be best to write down the stuff that really made an impact over nationals.

It's not like we don't all know what happened in the senior events, and if you want novice and junior stuff Ice Network is a good source for that.

Ok so going from Jan 21 to Jan 22... my bday was good, no one made a big fuss which was GREAT... lol ok so I made a big fuss but it's my birthday and I'm allowed.

Tuesday had the Jr. ODs and the Jr. Ladies as well as the one and only Championship Pairs Dance practices that we were allowed to see. I slept in and missed most of the pairs practice, but was determined to make it in time for the dance groups. I don't know why I felt so compelled to watch considering Melissa and Denis weren't there, but I guess I'm a dance fanatic now... at least where US dance is concerned (I really don't get the Euro teams).

Heather was talking with Amanda's folks when I got to "our seats" and Melanie was snapping photos, as usual. I don't remember much about the pairs stuff save for Melanie not knowing who Heather was talking to! LOL I think she thought he was the dad of one of the novice men from the night before, but I didn't get that she was talking about Amanda's dad at first. What can I say? I'm dense!

Then the Dance practice started and I went into full paparazzi mode. We had the coolest seats because we sat behind the coaches (many Igor moments throughout the week! among other coaches - Frank Carrol scares me) and I think we all spent more time photo stalking them than we did the actual skaters!

Because they were only allowed one practice in teh main arena they all practiced the CD and then had the choice of practicing the Original or Free Dance. It was such a stupid set up, and I've read and heard that they're planning the same type of schedule for next year (have fun with THAT one, Heather!).

Anyway... I think I went into all sorts of fits when Joel Dear and Partner were skating. They were going to practice their OD so they had that costume on and I was just admiring how CUTE he looked as a little Jewish boy lol. But I kept calling him JOHN Dear, and so that became the running joke of the week, and I've just decided to officially change his name to John, it's just so much easier!

Heather and Melanie were busy trying to get me to see the garter (garder? guarder? lol) on his partner (what is her name anyway? LOL)'s leg. I seriously did not see it until they were almost done with their practice session and I don't know why I had such a hard time. Even most of my photos didn't spot it. But man, once you saw it you couldn't NOT see it lol

The real party began when Tanith and Ben's group practiced, they seriously had all of my favorites in their group. Kim and Brent, Max & Trax, Tan and Ben (of course) and Jennifer and Daniil (though I didn't know they were faves till this year lol)

They were all just so much fun to watch. US Ice Dance rocks my socks!

I will have to say that I was very annoyed that two ice dance teams (one being a favorite of mine) had almost identical costumes for the CD and they just happened to look VERY close to Melissa and Denis' Polka costumes. Tonichelle was not amused and I fixated on that for that part of the competition (one of the teams also had an OD similar to theirs and her costume was similar to melissa's... not AS Similar but still lol)

...gotta cut this short... a friend needs a shoulder and I'm here for her to lean...

...but why is it HIS fault?

I'm so tired of the Fan Wars skating brings. It was barely tolerable when it was MK uberfans vs jumpingbean/baby ballerina uber fans, it's just flat unBEARABLE when it's between fans of a skater that I like and all that.

Yes. Johnny should have won. I booed along with the rest of the audience when the announcement was made that Evan had won the Free Skate and the overall competition. Evan squeaked out just about every landing, Johnny was pretty near flawless. His program just flat flew and was stunning. I am biased towards his LP because Denis had a hand in creating it, but that doesn't negate the fact that Johnny skated his butt off. Evan didn't let the nerves bowl him over like I thought, but he didn't have the skate of his life ala 06's Olympic LP or his 07 Nationals... he Michael Weissed the quad, and every landing had me screaming "land it land it land it" lol.

I'm sure both have said boneheaded comments all week, I'm sure they both could be more civil while in teh media, but if they really do hate each other they have a weird way of showing it. They were both cracking up on the podium, and had no problem 'getting in close' (for being homophobic, Evan sure doesn't mind squeezing in with three other guys for photos ;)) and Johnny didnt seem like he was crying sour grapes, and Evan certainly wasn't gloating (he WAS chewing gum, though, which really annoyed me)...


I just wish fans could give credit where it's due. Evan didn't skate as well as he could have. He wasn't gloating afterwards, he wasn't being a diva, he signed autographs and was very plesant with everyone. The SECURITY people were being rude and telling skaters to get off the ice and pushing people out of the arena.

Johnny was not blowing off people by leaving right after the awards, either. As I said, security had a stick up their butt (all week!) Evan just ignored them and Johnny played nice and left lol. There was a little girl later in the bathroom throwing a fit because Johnny didn't sign her book and the mother saying he had a bad attitude, but in all fairness he had every right to get off that ice if he wanted to. He owes no one, and again he was just following orders ;)

Evan snapped at the security dudes later that night after the exhibition and basically said he would get off the ice when he was done signing stuff for people (he wasn't begging to do it, but there were a lot of us down there bugging him.)

Johnny was great to watch all week, and I'm glad he had his moment, and I'm pissed the USFSA took it away from him.

They shouldn't have been tied, and I think the Judges played it just way too close... I just don't get how it all works but Johnny was robbed (not *majorly* but he should be first)


and now I'm rambling... so I'll stop... but I just wish people would get angry the right way and not attribute things to skaters that aren't so. Evan didn't rob Johnny, the judges did.

...we're taking a break this evening and I think I need to post a real update...

The flight from Anchorage to Seattle was fine. I sat with a mom and her 4 or 5 year old son. They were on their way down to Orlando, FL to visit her parents and go meet Mickey. The little boy was SO EXCITED to go see Mickey (more than the g'parents even!) so it was a lot of fun sitting with him. He wanted me to watch Finding Nemo with him, which I didn't want to do just because I can't watch movies on planes and not get sick, but I pretended to (I've seen it enough to know what is happening) and that made his day, so yay for that.

Then I had a horrible layover at Seattle. No food, no sleep thanks to horrible children who were very fussy and parents who wouldn't take care of their children. So I didn't eat, didn't sleep, just chatted with mom and went to YouTube and watched clips of Ed Grimly lol

I passed out on the plane from Seattle to Minneapolis, before take off I was gone to the world and didn't wake up until the Captain said it was time to land! Three plus hours of deep sleep was all I got until 8pm (MN time) yesterday!

I got to the hotel around 7:30 and check in here is not until 3, and so I had to wait until they had our room cleaned, which didn't happen until sometime after 11. I sat around in teh lobby and chatted with different people who were there for skating. Met a really nice couple of ladies (one's a bit older than I am, the other one is *I think* her mom or maybe even grandmother?) and chatted with them until they went off to the arena. Then I met Brad Hislop, who was a US skater in ice dance (and I think singles) way back when. And we chatted for a good long while as he was also waiting for his room to get ready. He was talking about how the USFSA gives alumni (which I assume are USFSA International team members?) free tickets, but that they're not the best and you don't get a practice pass and so he bought his own set, but they still sent him the tickets.

What got him started on that was I was telling him about Heather and I rooming together and how the USFSA really screwed around with the volunteers and what they got and that she was worried about how she was going to afford the extra tickets she'd have to buy and he basically just offered to give them to her. It was really cool! So we spent the morning bemoaning the USFSA's crappy treatment of fans (and his insider knowledge was very eye opening) and talking about Keegan Messing who is a Jr. Skater from Anchorage, Alaska.

Then when Heather got in I told her about Brad's offer and she was all excited so I tried to find him in the lobby most of the rest of the day but didn't meet up with him. I did meet up with my friend Brittany, and she and her mom took me to lunch at the resteraunt here at the Kelly Inn. It was so sweet. It was an early bday for me, and then Brittany also gave me three Christian books that take place in Alaska! I've already started the first book and it's pretty good. There aren't any big errors so far, so that's good. We Alaskans are pretty particular about that sort of thing lol.

Yes Alaskans have no life. Let's leave it at that, shall we? ;)

After lunch/dinner (we met up around 3 and they left after 6 lol) I went back up to the room and basically just chilled. I chatted online with Jen and Mom and just took a break. Heather had to work so it was just me. I tried to make it past 8 but couldn't hold out and fell asleep, and then woke up when Heather came in and turned on Law & Order SVU - which the TV was already on, but BD WONG is HOT so I had to watch lol

We went back to bed after 11, and then I woke up at 8am this morning. Heather had to be at work at 6am so I had the room to myself and I got up and got ready and headed out to the arena.

Watched Novice Pairs, Ladies, and Jr. Cds. Met up with the two women I met yesterday (Juanita and Vivian) and sat with them until Melanie called and I found my way over to her in between the Ladies and the Dance. Heather got off early and met up with us and then we headed back to the hotel to eat, and take a mini break and then head back to the Arena.

It was a total God thing though because when we came back down from the room right before going to eat Brad was coming in from walking back from the Arena and he went up to his room and got the tickets for Heather. So now Brad is her new best friend lol. He joined us for dinner and we snarked more about the USFSA and just had a great time. He cracks me up.

Then we took in the Novice Men's Final and called it a night. Now Heather is making banners for Kim and Brent and Amanda and Mark, and I'm getting ready to upload photos from today. I have the hiccups and it's annoying so I think I'm done with this whole update lol

Check out my smugmug account to see the pictures!

I love Pirate bloopers lol. Absolutely hysterical. To know that they all are just normal and suck at remembering lines too is great. Johnny Depp has the most infectious laugh too. It's a quite one but his whole face lights up which cracks me up even more...

I'm watching all three Pirates movies today. Why? No real reason, other than I have the time and I have yet to watch all three back to back to back. I've done it with Star Wars - the Original Trilogy - so it's high time my new movie obsession get the same treatment. :)

I'm doing laundry, and once that's done I will finish packing and then get ready to go out to dinner. Since I will be in St. Paul on the 21st Judy's treating me early. :) We're gonna eat Chinese because I've been craving it for a week. I want an eggroll darn it!

I am so ready for this trip like you wouldn't believe. I've over packed my carry on but other than that I think I'm good as far as what I'm bringing. I just can't wait. I'm still so very bummed about Melissa and Denis, it'll just be weird not hanging with Dale and hearing the gossip lol and having Melissa and Denis tell stories on each other. I swear I've jinxed the event. Evan might as well quit now, I'm bad luck lol

I've decided that if I do any sort of 'report' from Nationals I'll only post here, but my main concern is posting photos on my photo site. ( http://alaskanmagic.smugmug.com ) but I have to keep some sort of log not only for myself, but so that my family up here don't think I've disappeared lol

Alright I gotta get my rear in gear. Ta!

...Melissa and Denis will not be in St. Paul, the press release came today.

I kinda figured something was up when both Dale and Melissa did not reply to that part of my email thanking them for their condolences. But I was wearing rose colored glasses just figured they were busy.

The haters have already started with the whole "yeah they're not injured" and "yeay for (fill in team name here)" I know I'm biased and overly sensitive because of it, but it just hurts in a way because I don't go around doing a dance when skaters I don't like get injured and withdraw. I would think as fans we would want our favorites main rivals for a certain color medal to be there because that makes the win that much sweeter. But whatever. Skating fans are shallow.

Guess I won't get to go all trigger happy during the ice dance event save for Tanith and Ben and Kim and Brent... and even then I don't take half as many as I do of Melissa and Denis.

I'm so bummed.... oh well... they'll come back next season and kick booty!

US Nationals is finally getting here! It's taking way too long! LOL I really want it to get here, I'm tired of waiting!


Nothing much to report, still holding down the fort which equates to me being incredibly BORED! UGH!

I think I'm gonna move in here full time with the latest out of GJ it's probably the best idea....

The interview lasted about 20 minutes. She had a few more to go through so she said that she would hope to have a decision by last night and would call me sometime today. So here's hoping I get it. To be honest I don't think I did all that well. I was EXTREMELY nervous (I've never had a formal interview before) and I made a few jokes that I didn't realize what I was doing till it was too late to back out. But i think she liked the fact that I was born and raised on the Peninsula, that I live just right down the street from the place, and that I could make Kenai interesting (She did like my kenai joke, unfortunately I can't remember what I said it's all a blur! LOL) so we will see. I drew a blank early on in the interview... I was that nervous...


other than that I drove around for a while, we had to go get some scrapbooking stuff so I can get my skating stuff done. It's official I am a nutcase 3 packs of Timmy practicing????? WHAT WAS I THINKING? I have 5 photos of Evan practicing and 6 of Matt... and why did I take 9 of Ryan Jahnke?????? LOL bigger question why did I take 10 of Johnny? I've never been a fan of his so I am really confused as to what I was thinking. If any of you know what was going on in my head please say so LOL


I've been reliving nationals this week. Telling mom stories. She thinks we're all nuts, but she was glad that I ran into Heather. (She thinks you're really neat, Heather!) And she didn't freak when I said we upgraded our seats all week. She thought that was cool. LOL Gosh I've had so many remember when's this week... Remember when Peter Tchernyshev sat behind Kat and she practically hyerventalated right there. (We should have let her, maybe he would have performed CPR ;) then again that might kill her so it's a good thing, right?) or remember when Mel had to inform ALL of us that Peter smelled "really good" ? ;) Remember when Hez and Dawn were on the phone being mean to my Mikey???? LOL

seriously though I am so ready to go again. And if I get the job be ready because it's going to be nothing but "WOOT WOOT I'M GOING!!!!" lol for however many months till I get to go! ;)

tonight Kassy is coming over for dinner, she's babysitting our pastor's 5 youngest kids so they'll be here too (oh joy... UGH) Rob is also coming to dinner so yeah we're going to need more chicken. At least that's how *I* feel about it. LOL Dad and duane got home last night. Not sure what time though, because I had a headache and went to bed at 9pm last night! So yeah I am only on here for a few more minutes so I gotta go. I will get on later today I'm sure. Hope all is well with all of you!

-Toni
PS A HUGE SHOUT OUT TO aimzers *HUGS* I LOVE YOU!

ok the VIP seats are $750, and I'm guessing those are the seats that we "stole" ? If that's the case I will be paying over 800 bucks! on tickets alone!

I dunno. The more I look at this the more I'm not sure if I can pull it off...

I wanna go to nationals!

Dad is applying for a job at the VA hospital here in town! Which means more $$ and benefits!!!! and he'll have awesome hours... and he'll be doing what he wanted to do every since getting out of the service... taking people's blood! YEAY!

keep him in your prayers, he really wants/needs this job!

in other news
all of my favorites are really low in the worlds standings so far... makes me mad... very very bummingish.... oh well....

4 months, 6 days till..............PORTLAND, BABY!!!