· April 29, 2006

Hi Everyone -

   So many WAY COOL things have been happening that I should tell you about. 

   Fist and best is my new gym and my new coach and my new teammates!  I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!  Mary Lee is the best – she never really yells at anyone and she is really cool to talk to.  Like with Terry, I really couldn’t tell him what I wanted to do because he was the one who always had to tell me what to do – but I was always littler then too.  But with Mary Lee, if we want to do something, well, we can tell her and she will talk to us about it and tell us what she thinks but we are the ones who really get to choose.  We can talk to her about skills we want to do or we don’t like and we can talk to her if we want to take a day off or if we are sore or tired or something.  Plus, this is really different but I do so much non-gym stuff now!  I never thought I’d be able to have such a great life doing stuff other than gym but I do.  We always get to do different things together.  We went to a special show of “Stick It” before it even came out in theatres.  Jac and I get to do this dance/show with Dominic – oh that will be cool.  Dominique Moceanu, TASHA SCHWIKERT!, Jamie Dantzscher, and Jeanette Antolin are all going to be in the show too!  I am so excited – I will get all kinds of pictures with Tasha and everyone and Dominic is going to get us a suite at a hotel to stay in and I will get to play cards all night with them and stuff!  Well, I hope I am in their room anyways, I’m not too sure about that.  At Christmas time, Mary Lee had this huge stocking filled with little wrapped presents.  Well, anytime we did something good, we got to pick a prize out of the stocking.  And for Easter, we had an Easter egg hunt and we got little coupons that said things like “get a day off conditioning”, “get an afternoon practice off”, and that kind of stuff.  Plus, now I get home from gym at 6:00 PM.  At Flytz, I never got home until 9:00 or 9:30 and it seemed like I never had time to do anything other than gym.  I even have Wednesday afternoons off now.  I still miss Terry and my old tramp and Bob though, no matter how good everything else ever is!!!

   Oh, I got my hair highlighted!  It is really cool.  I did blond and red stripes highlighted.  I actually had to go twice because the first time I went after morning class and the red didn’t show up at all.  So, I went to afternoon class and then had to come back in the evening and get the red done more.  It was a long day at the salon!  It kind of looks like a skunk on top but that’s what I like about it! 

   Well about the American Cup.  I didn’t even think that I was allowed to compete, but I guess Martha wanted to see how I’d do.   Well, it was okay.  I did not have my best meet but I don’t think I did too bad either.  I guess I did okay with what I had but I didn’t really have anything new to add to my routines yet and we were still playing with them to get the best score with the new code.  Anyways, I didn’t do good enough to make it to finals so that was kind of bad.  I didn’t know what to think – I guess I think that it kind of isn’t fair that I tied for third best and some other people got to compete and I didn’t but also we knew the rules when I went.  It was fun though because at least I had Jac with me and we got to share a room together.  The banquet was pretty fun – it was at a place like Dave and Busters. 

   Now PAC – that was the best!  I got to stay with Tessa and we had so much fun!  The hotel had a welcome for us and that was nice.  We couldn’t go in the water though because there was this disease from all the floods that eats your skin and the water was contaminated – someone even died.  I ate so much pineapple – it was great!  I did some shopping but I wish we had more than just one day.  And I have some really great pictures that I need to send to Morgan to put on my site.  I got to see Nathan and that is always good!  He is a really good gymnast from Canada and is super nice but I only get to see him at meets. 

   Okay and now the best – NEW YORK CITY!!!  I finally found a break from meets to spend a couple days out of town.  My best friend went with me.  We got to stay in the Presidential Suite at the hotel because my dad had lots of hotel points.  We had our own room and bathroom and my parents had their own room and bathroom and my brother had the pull out couch.  We all had TV's and we had a kitchen and dining room table.  We had a great hotel and room!  Oh, and we got this little wooden photo album when we left the hotel – first time we ever got a present from a hotel!  Oh, and Tiffany – did you ever actually take that robe???  Well, of course the hotel wasn’t the best part of the trip – PURSES!!!  Wow – now that’s a reason to go to New York!  Everywhere we went, there were so many great purses – Coach, LV, Prada,!   My favorite is the patch Coach and my gold Prada.  It was kind of scary the first time we went to Chinatown because we had to follow this lady down a bunch of alleys and then she took us up in this deserted big building and we had to go up FIVE flights of stairs (she wouldn’t let us take an elevator).  Well, at the top of the stairs we went into this room and there was about 20 people all sewing stuff in this little, hot room and then in the back there was this other room and it was packed with purses!   Well, we went into a lot of buildings like that and into really small rooms and the people all had walkie-talkies and “secret” knocks on the doors before we could go in.  It was so weird!  A lot of places even had parts of walls that would come out and you go through the hold into this little closet area to see the purses.  I got lots of really cool purses and pink Coach sunglasses and a pink Coach watch.  And I got just about everyone’s birthday and Christmas presents done, so guess what you are all getting!  We also went to see the Phantom of the Opera and that was really good (but long!).  And we went to Times Square.  It was raining bad all weekend so we never went to Statue of Liberty or Central Park because nobody wanted to walk around the parks in the rain.  I’m going back to NY to go to Central Park though because Terry and I always said that we would go to “Central Perk” because we both love “Friends” so much and we have to both go there and get some coffee.  Oh, and Toys-R-Us – well, it is four floors high and has this huge Ferris wheel in the store that Tiff and I got to ride (the M&M car of course!).  I have great pictures from New York too that I have to send Morgan.

   Oh, Mary Lee got us into this health club and we get to go twice a week and do yoga and pilates.  It’s kind of neat because it’s different from just staying in the gym every single day doing the same things.  They have trainers and weight machines and you can do therapy if you need it with a therapist.  Oh, and we don’t have to wear a leo – we get to just wear shorts and t-shirts.

   One of the things that is so cool about Cincinnati Gymnastics is all the leos!  I swear I didn’t even know anyone could get so many leos!  It is neat because every time we go to the ranch or a meet or something, we get matching shirts and shorts and leos and stuff!  Like every week, Mary Lee hands out more stuff to us! 

   It is going to be really weird in a couple weeks because Cincinnati has their banquet and it will be sad because at Flytz they would have said that I was a part of the gym for 10 years but now that I have to start over, well they will say I have only been a part of the gym for a year.  I can’t believe that I am going to a banquet for another gym besides Flytz.  But, anyways I love my banquet dress that I just got and I found the best pair of shoes at Journey’s that I want to get to go with the dress.

   So, next on my list to do is GET SOME NEW SKILLS BEFORE CHAMPIONSHIPS!  I am so tired of always competing and not getting to work on anything new!  I might put my hecht back into my bar routine with my hindorff and work an endo.  My front giants aren’t too good and since I need a front grip, well, we decided to try it in a stalder position.  I was thinking of doing a release out of my front giant, but maybe not since it’s not too good.  On beam, I have to do a double back because Martha won’t let me do my 2 ½ anymore (it’s too sissy I guess since I’ve been doing it for like 5 YEARS!).  I’m not sure what I will do new on floor yet but I am working on a front full out of my front double full.  On vault, well, the goal is always to some day get a double! 

   Well, maybe I’ll write again soon after the show if I get to stay in the same room with TASHA!

   Bye, bye