I just finished watching U.S. Junior Men's short programs and since there's a twenty minute break before senior compulsory dance (which, for those of you who will only watch compulsory dance on TV, Universal Sports will be showing at 9 PM ET), I figured I'd pop in to say hello and ask myself why I intend to watch compulsory dance. I mean, I don't even know how to spell compulsory.
Lest, I feel understimulated, I have the Australian Open on TV now. And earlier today, I had the Europeans Pairs Freeskate on streaming Bulgarian TV while also watching the junior men. At one point, I had the sound on for both of them, but that proved a little much even for me.
Then the Bulgarian feed went away, and I never could get the Turkish feed to work. So it was all junior men for a while.
When I'm not watching inaugurations and skating, I have been working. I'm still wildly resistant to work, but once I get started, I'm enjoying myself. In fact, when I stopped writing today, so I could watch Europeans/US Juniors, I kind of wished I was still working. I'm not by nature a contrary person, but that was pure contrariness.
For those of you keeping score, I'm on page 132. I'm not going to hit my fantasy number of 150 this week, since tomorrow the skating starts in the morning and then never ends, but I do know which two scenes come next, and they're both really good ones, at least in my mind. I'm not quite sure what happens after that, but I'm assuming by the time I'm ready to write it, I'll figure it out.
It absolutely does not count as a spoiler (I have spoken) to say there's a character named Charlie in B3. I needed a last name for him, and I considered naming him Charlie Davis since that's the name of the John Garfield character in Body And Soul. But then I decided I didn't want to picture John Garfield every time I wrote about Charlie, so I searched for other names that worked with Charles/Charlie.
Names for characters are so important to me, and I regret not using more ethnic ones, but once you name a character O'Hara or Budanov, readers will make associations with them which may or may not be what you want to convey. And there are spelling issues to contend with. The same New York Times article which mentions Budanov also refers to Isa Khadzhimuradov.
Isa I could spell.
I ended up giving Charlie the last name of Rutherford, in honor, I thought, of Rutherford B. Hayes (I don't like Charles Hayes, because of the Z/Z sound, and besides, Charlie Hayes used to play for the New York Yankees and caught the final out in the 1996 World Series). Then I realized my Rutherford association is Lumpy Rutherford from Leave It To Beaver.
You know, Wally Cleaver seemed like a socially apt kid. It's remarkable his two best friends were Lumpy Rutherford and Eddie Haskell. Now there's something I didn't worry about in my peak Live It To Beaver years.
I sense compulsory dance is about to begin. Since I can't possibly wait until 9 PM, I'm off to watch in a tiny box on my computer screen.
What can I say? It beats working!
7 comments:
Your posts are always so entertaining!
As you know, I'm teaching your two books to my tenth-graders. Well, one of my girls has undergone cancer treatments for a brain tumor twice and now something is growing again and causing her headaches and blurred vision. To help her, I volunteered to tape LAWKI for her to listen to. I figured it would be easy enough. Wrong! It took me forever because I kept choking up and having to pause the tape recorder.
The first time I read it, I was fine, but, now, I feel like Miranda is part of my family and so many scenes brought tears to my eyes and throat.
You know what my favorite scene is? The tulip bulbs! It took me a couple tries to get through it and it's not even sad.
I'm just an old wuss!
Good evening Linda Jacobs-
I love the tulip scene too. I remembered reading a movie magazine article about Audrey Hepburn that said during World War Two she and her mother ate tulip bulbs to stave starvation. It made a real impression on me.
Please say hi to your student for me and tell her she'll be in my thoughts. I may have written about courage, but she's truly demonstrating it.
I know I'm a few days late in commenting on this post, but the senior men skated today, and I couldn't help but think of you. I knew you'd be watching. So...
Wasn't the senior men's event wild? I don't think anyone would have predicted that top six order! I know he's not a favorite of yours, but I do feel sorry for Johnny.
(Deleted the other post because of a wayward "so" that made no sense where it was!)
Good evening Reading Fool-
Johnny Weir's been named first alternate to the Worlds team, so that's something, I suppose.
I'm really happy that Jeremy Abbott won. He reminds me of Paul Wylie.
Two months, and I'll be in LA for Worlds!
Abbott could do a heck of a lot worse than to be compared to Paul Wylie. (::gulp:: When the camera panned to Paul at one point, my first thought was, "Gee, he's looking older." On second glance I changed my mind, but it was strange for a moment.)
You're going to Worlds? That'll be some show! Who are you rooting for? Maybe you can post about it when the time comes. I'm hoping Carolina Kostner doesn't medal and Mao Asada does. (I guess it's time for me to go look at the results of the European Championships.)
Hi fellow skating fan Reading Fool-
I actually like Carolina Kostner, because I have a fondness for the taller, gawkier skaters.
But Mao Asada is my favoriate of the current women. I love how she just floats over the ice. I like Yu Na Kim also, and even though I've never cared for Joannie Rochette, I think her free skate this year is absolutely brilliant.
Worlds will definitely be a lot of fun. If I can master the laptop my sister-in-law gave me, I'll be blogging from there.
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