friday evening (couldn’t get in to post at the time, of course) ~
one down, four to go.
pilar competed reasonably well today, but i wasn't worried about her to begin with, now was i? tomorrow, and sunday, will be the days that bring the stress.
in the span of five hours, i ran into two people from my past - first, a small hand grabbed me in the playroom where the previous flight was lining up for march in and a voice said, "hi, cianne!" it was one of b's little ones from gym R last year, one of the few i thought had real talent and who i really liked. she was, however, wearing someone else's suit. i sent a silent thanks to the gods of gymnastics that she has moved on to a decent club where she will get proper training, as she was a sweet little thing. if i knew what mom and dad looked like, i would have sought them out and congratulated them on the move.
then came the "christ on a crutch, you are officially old!" moment, when i ran into one of my ex-athletes who is now a coach. i coached her about five years ago, and the family moved, so i hadn't seen her in a long time. while this makes perfect logical, mathematical sense, it is still unsettling to see a kid i used to coach as (nearly) an adult, doing the moving of the equipment rather than standing nervously back waiting for it to be done. however, both her kids and mine thought the whole thing was fantastically amusing.
off to bed now, to attempt deep breathing in order to keep my hair attached to my scalp. tomorrow is going to be a rough day.
sunday evening (still can’t get in ... typing offline) ~
today went surprisingly well – daniella was the recipient of some sort of gift from the gymnastic gods and placed well. you’ll notice that i don’t say she performed exceptionally well – she did a better job than i expected, but still didn't blow anyone away. still, it’s her first meet and she went home with medals, so we’ll call it a success.
yesterday, tho’.
apparantly the crushing headache that i nursed thru most of the flight last night was the aneurysm that i should now be suffering, in some sort of precognitive way.
noelle and cassandra placed mediocrely (is that a word?). the group was split heavily for awards and so they both medalled, but when you put the scores together as i just did (couldn’t face it last night), it’s not so impressive. had the group been split only in half as it should have been, neither of them would have placed on all four events.
andrea.
andrea was dead. fucking. last. two falls on beam. wimped out on her dismount. crappy vault. watered down her tumbling line because she was whining about her ankle. she was 26th of 26 athletes.
if she scores that badly again next weekend, i swear i will bench her ass for an eternity. her perfomance was absolutely wretched. her scores were terrible. it was bloody awful watching her compete. embarrassing, even.
hopefully, she will kick herself in the ass and i won’t have to do it for her. i was unable to do much last night other than pat them on the shoulder and pick up the score sheets, as the meet ran two hours late and my skull was trying to split open like a watermelon by the time it was all over. i ended up swallowing far more painkillers than is strictly necessary – or safe – because i ran outside in the snow during a break in the rotation and grabbed the first bottle of pills i found in my purse, which ended up being super strength ibruprofen rather than extra strength tylen0l. i ate a couple of thousand milligrams of drugs last night, cuz i was in too much pain to remember there were two kinds of pills in my purse, never mind examine them before i stuck them in my mouth. the fact that i am alive is a testament to the reality of how many millions of painkillers i have swallowed and/or been fed in my lifetime, and what kind of immunity one can build up to such things when one is born suffering body migraines and decides to become a gymnast to boot.
stuck in my head - "molly" by sponge (many great stories about moshing in their tour bus)
currently feeling - antsy about the status of said body migraines, as my right leg is throbbing.