To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive

My reintroduction to skating continues apace. I moved my left blade inward, and it helped so much I've just done my right blade and hope it works out too. I'm actually using the screwdriver and moving them this time around instead of BF. I've been through so many attempts at new/correct skates, with attendant blade placement tinkering, that I have leveled up to doing it myself.

This week I got my forward inside three turns mostly back (the left was never great, so I'm unsurprised it's only successful about half the time) and did rudimentary sit and layback spins. I also did some so-rudimentary-they-really-shouldn't-be-classed-as-camel spins, which I probably haven't done in over a year. Good direction forward outside twizzles seem...almost better than inside twizzles? This shouldn't really be a thing, but okay.

I still have basically NO PAIN from my skates! *insert Kermit YAY gif* There is one spot at the top of the back that digs into my calves a little, but it seems like regular punching with my ball and ring pliers will fix that. My feet could totally handle multiple hour-long sessions if the rest of my body could (it can't).

I haven't attempted jumping yet, mostly because for structural integrity reasons you're not supposed to when your blades are still on a temporary mount, partly because I'm still pretty tentative out there. I am strongly considering just not jumping anymore. I beat my head against the wall with loops and flips for almost four years. Possibly the new skates will help, in which case I'll continue, but if after a couple months I still don't make real progress, I think that's it for jumping. Means I can never proceed past the first level of adult freeskate, but...eh. I can skate up to the next level at most competitions, and there are Light Entertainment and Dramatic Entertainment options in addition to regular freeskate.

Solo free dance could also be an option if/when I pass gold Moves in the Field. It's basically a freeskate program consisting entirely of footwork, with one spin and no jumps. Hey, spinning and footwork are my two favorite things! I could also get there by taking and passing a few pattern dances, but I am morally opposed to the dance test industrial complex. It's $25 per dance to test, each level has at least three dances, and there are something like 35 dances in all. The hell with that. It also makes my former ballroom dancer self cry a bit to have to follow a specific pattern for each dance rather than having a set of steps you can mix and match as the spirit moves you.

I'm hoping to be with-it enough by the end of the month to start working on a program for one of the local competitions in early August. We'll see how fast it comes back.

Right now, though, I am with nothing because I'm recovering from a deep tissue massage on my abdomen to break up scar tissue and adhesions. I haven't needed one for over a year, but I guess being much more sedentary for three months while I waited for my new skates did not do good things for me. I am definitely sore, but it sure does feel like I can sit up straighter, extend my legs more, etc.

I just finished All Systems Red. Murderbot is my new spirit animal. That is all.

I watched The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina over the last couple of weekends. ( Some spoilery thoughts )

*

I got the fourth iteration of my custom skates back a couple of weeks ago, and they are indeed much closer approximations of my feet than the previous three tries. They actually have enough width in the ball and toes, and enough depth in the toebox, and a wide enough tongue to encompass my massive instep and beefy ankles. I've been able to go progressively 3-5 minutes longer at each session before my feet go numb, so I'm up to 20 minutes as of today. I can't repeat that after taking them off and putting them back on (at that point I only get 5-10 minutes), which is unfortunate, but perhaps I can one day get to an hour.

They were ever so slightly too long, but I fixed that myself by wearing an Achilles tendon gel sock thing, which pushes my foot forward just enough to be in the right spot over the blade. Nicely, it also prevents the back of the boot from cutting into the back of my ankle, as it was doing before I started wearing these.

The blade still feels very weird, but that could be because on my old one, I had BF shave down the drag pick to keep the relationship between pick and rocker accurate as the rocker flattened out, and now I have both pick and rocker back. Nevertheless, I finally managed a spin on Tuesday where I didn't feel like I was inches from death, so. Yay. I have sit and scratch spins kind of back, and I've attempted some laybacks, but no camels. Part of my spin trouble may also be that I'm going at turtle speed for everything due to THINGS FEELING DIFFERENT, so as I adjust to the new skates they may get better. One thing that may get better faster is back spin, because we've mounted the right blade farther in than it was on my old skates, and I could tell I'm actually hitting the right spot and getting my weight over it on my attempts today.

I accomplished weeny versions of waltz jump, salchow, and toe loop today(!) as well. It's been a long time since I jumped, so that was exciting. I don't think I want to go back to beating my head against a wall with the other jumps, at least not until I master back spin, but I'd like to retain these.

*

My right shoulder hasn't really been right since I took a fall about two months ago and wrenched it trying to protect my head. It's now gotten harder to ignore. It might be the AS deciding to attack a new joint, or it might be 34 years of bad posture and sitting in front of a computer catching up with me. I should probably see someone about it, but I know they'll prescribe physical therapy, and as a five-time PT veteran, I have enough exercises I'm supposed to do four times a week for the rest of my life. I don't want more. :(

(On the other hand, I need to continue using a computer mouse to retain gainful employment, so I may have to anyway. Ugh.)

YouTube cooking shows is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think about how to spend my time, and yet over the last week or so I've been devouring much of the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen back catalogue. Not even because I want to make the food--although some of it does look good, and actually somewhat manageable for a normal home cook--but because all of the people presenting are just so...so friendly! As in, I want to be friends with all of them. They seem to be genuinely having fun and enjoying what they do and want to teach viewers how to enjoy it too.

It's hard to choose a favorite, because they all have different but equally nice styles, but I will say the first one I came across was Claire Saffitz's "Pastry Chef Attempts" series where she reverse-engineers junk food like Skittles, Twinkies, KitKats, Gushers, and Cheetos. She spends much of the time being long-suffering and despairing, but tends to prevail in the end. (She is the Eeyore of the group, at least in these particular videos if not her regular recipe ones. I feel like we would get along well.) She's a woman after my own heart, with the whole having gone to grad school in food history before going to culinary school, and is obviously super smart; it's just fun to watch her mind working.

Carla is chatty and mom-ish and doesn't care that she makes mistakes on camera. Andy is sort of the cooking equivalent of Bob Ross, very quiet and gentle. The undisputed star, though, is Brad, with his "It's Alive!" series about fermented foods that takes detours into how-it's-made for things like knives and salt. He is one of those people who would likely drive me to homicide if I had to work with him, but I will watch him be loud and nutty and cook food and have no filter on the interwebs all day. The editing is also the perfect counterpoint, with sarcastic thought bubbles and animations and...I can't even describe it, just watch. One of my favorites is "Brad and Claire Make Sourdough Bread," but really any of them will show you the glory of this series.

...Speaking of Brad and Claire. In the alternate universe where he's not married with kids, I ship it like FedEx. Fic, anyone?

Did not think something like this would pull me back into feeling kind of fannish after a long absence, but there you have it.

I'm not allowed to exercise until the test results come back (and I would assume if it is the tumor I can't exercise until it's gone), so no skating until at least Wednesday. :(

This was not how I'd planned to spend my Wednesday. ( In which I go to the clinic for strep throat, but wind up in the ER. Because OF COURSE I DO. )

You GUYS, these cookies right here are basically what you making cookie butter out of, with a maple syrup crust. Oh man. So good.

So apparently the cost of living in Nashville rose by $9,000 in the last year.

That is not a typo. There is not an extra zero added on to the end there.

It's been real, transplants, but y'all can go home now.