This is the journal of




EVA VOLATIL




January 16
I woke up this morning with a bit of a cough, but it went away quickly. I think it was just my body reacting the the cold air at the skating rink last night. My workout today actually went really well. I did some visualization excercises, and I think that helped. I didn't do WONDERFUL, but I was more solid than I have been for a while. So long as I can keep this calmness for the meet, everything is going to go fine. Unfortunately I tend to have problems staying calm in meets, especially on beam!! I'll do my best though *fingers crossed*! I'll try to do as well as I did in practice today, which isn't the best i can do under normal circumstances but for right now will have to be good enough, and it shouldn't hurt the team score any.
Tonight Marissa and I are going to be shut ins in our room and not let anyone else in and we're just going to play games and watch a movie and act goofy (life we always do) and we may even plan some sort of fun prank for the trip! I'm SO GLAD she's going to be coming to the meet, She's finally doing well after a very disapointing season. And as much as I love my squad, it will be nice to be away from most of them for a few days. Marissa and I are gunna go visit her family that lives in the area, which will of course be nice. It's good to have small breaks away from the Topo troup at times! And I'm sure Texas is MUCH warmer than Indiana is right now, which of course will be a wonderful change!
But so i'm going to go do my run, condition, tutoring, afternoon workout thing and then dinner and girls night in YAY! I probably won't write again until tomorrow.

January 15
There's a meet coming up and i'm getting SO NERVOUS!!!!!!!! I made the team no problem, but I think I'm still a little too shaky to actually do well and I'm worried I'm going to mess up and embarass the team. I hope that doesn't happen!! It would really really suck. Anyways today I'm going to eat lunch with Marissa, she tends to start feeling abandoned if I don't eat lunch with her very much. And she's like my best friend at Topo so I don't want her feeling bad! It's gotta suck cuz I'm so busy now a lot with my squad, we're all so close. And I guess we're a little cliquey cuz we tend to do things as a squad and not with other girls. Not that we don't LIKE the other girls, just we like our squad a whole lot and we have a lot of fun together. It's a new thing for me to have such a supportive squad! There's been very little friction in the gym since we've been back, and it's really nice to be back to Topo having a nice friendly everyone gets along with everyone atmosphere. Ok so there has been SOME trouble but not like before, so it's all good.

****************************

So even though there's a meet coming up and I REALLY should work out extra this afternoon, I'm not going to. Because Jennie is having her 16th b-day party and we're all going to an ice rink! It's going to be SO much fun! I haven't ice skated in AGES and I'll have to rent skates but it'll be fun. I'm hoping I won't fall, for some reason it's so much more scary than falling in gymnastics. Oh yeah, maybe cuz its ICE? It's HARD when you fall on it! In gymnastics you may fall from higher but you have PADDING to cushion your fall. This is why I'm not a figure skater! I know some of the girls here are real good at skating though so at the very least it'll be tons of fun watching them. Gotta go, i'll write more later!

*************************

The party was so much fun!!! I only fell like 5 times, LOL. I'm not a very graceful skater, but as i suspected some of my teammates are and it sure was fun watching them glide around like it was the most natural thing ever! Maybe I'd be better at it if I wasn't so afraid of falling, because you gotta fall sometimes and if you're too afraid to fall, then you're too afraid to try, and you can't get anywhere if you don't try!
I just remembered that this weekend is IFGA worlds! I'm sorta sad that I'm not going to be able to compete, since we aren't an IFGA gym anymore, but my friends at Vega Twisters are going, and I hope they do well! I'll have to have someone tape the meet for me so I can watch it when I get back from my meet, which as I mentioned earlier i am SO NERVOUS ABOUT! Agh, not the nervousness thing again. Ok I'm going to go relax and sleep.
Night Night!

January 14
I completely forgot! With all the excitement of Legolas Greenleaf day, I forgot to check the roster of who's being sent to the Texas Fliers invite. But Lois announced it this morning before workout started, aloud to everyone. I MADE THE TEAM! So did Marissa which makes me very happy and proud. She didn't have the best season before and so i'm glad that she's got a chance to start this one off on thw right foot.
I am however sad cuz only Jess and I made it from Lilly Squad. Only 2 of us! Isn't that aweful? Every other squad had 3 or 4 girls chosen. Luckily there's another meet next week, I'm HOPING that more Lilly girls will get sent! Of course there's probably only going to be the usual 6 sent, So only two of us wouldn't be too bad, but it would be real nice if we could make up half the team! I'm pretty certain Jess and I will make it, but I know Dominique has a good chance too! She has a good strong work ethic and even though she's been struggling a little bit I know she's got a good chance of pulling together.

********************************

Welp, it was freezing cold out today so I kept my run to only a mile. It was completely frigid! YIPES! The cold was biting at my face and i had a terrible headache by the time i came in. But once i warmed up it went away (thankfully!!) So i guess it wasn't too bad... although from now on I may check a thermometer before I go out for my run and skip it if it's that cold! I can always do something else for an endurance workout.
My tutor's here though, so i gots ta go! bye for now!

January 13
HAPPY LEGOLAS GREENLEAF DAY! It's been a great day, very very busy which is why I haven't written at my usual times. The day went really well, and those of us who participated had a lot of fun (those who didn't had a lot of fun giggling at our expence but I really don't mind).
I managed to find a green leo just fine, and I did wear my ears during practice. Which worked out well until floor, which was my last event. Then one of my ears fell of during tumbling. Not so bad though, made it through most of the workout with no hitch so the last event it falling off i didn't much care. I just took the other one off and glued them both back on after my shower. They stayed put the rest of the day, even through the afternoon workout but i did take it sorta easy and skipped vault and only did dance for floor.
I of course didn't have time for my conditioning and my run (although I did fit it a few extra minutes of stretching) and I cut my tutoring short (again, luckily my tutor doesnt mind so much). The cutouts were sorta funny, I was taking pictures of everyone standing next to them looking all short as usual. The cutouts had both Legolas and Gimli... a lot of us are more Gimli's height LOL. That was fun, I did that during lunch. Then after lunch we set up the targets for archery. We had someone show us the basics and it was alot of fun! I royally suck at it however, I only got one bulls eye. Even some of the girls who thought Legolas Greenleaf day was a silly idea did the archery though, cuz archery in itself is a lot of fun.
I tried to learn some elvish so that I could teach other girls but I didn't have a chance to learn much. All I could really do was tell them about pronunciation really, but hey as I learn more if anyone else wants to learn to that'd be cool.
My watered down workout went pretty well. As i mentioned, the ears stayed on. I also maneged to be pretty elvishin my floor routine. I wonder if we're allowed to wear rubberears at competitions? They helped me a whole lot. The music I have almost could pass as modern day elf-ish music. So it could work really! I dunno I suppose I could always just imagine I have the ears on, that could work. Time for bed now though I'm exhausted! G'night!

January 12
So tomorrow is Legolas Greenleaf day and I am very excited! I tried out the ears and they seam to be pretty solid so I think they'll be able to stay on through preactice. We'll see though, We could have elf ears falling off all over the place and it could be disastrous but I'm pretty confident there won't be much trouble.
I'm really glad it's the weekend though, I still need to work VERY hard today because tomorrow coach is choosing the team for the Texas Flyers invite and I really want to be on the team! So I have to work my hardest today and tomorrow and do my very best. Luckily I've been improving steadily, so I think I'll make the team. Especially since half of us are being sent! That's encouraging. Hopefully a lot of girls on the Lilly Squad will make it. I'll be so sad if they don't! But so it's time for a squad lunch (I love my squad!) So i gotta run!

********************************

Lunch was great, and my run wasn't bad and neither was my stretching/conditioning. I'm, really glad I've started stretching some more because it's really helped me gain back my flexibility fairly quickly. I'm still not at 100% but I'm improving nicely, and i'm not inflexible enough anymore for it to hurt my gymnastics TOO badly. Strength on the other hand is coming back rather slowly, which is a problem for vault and especially tumbling. It would also help bars if i could get my shoulders back to being a bit stronger. But that's why I'm working on it... That way I can get back in tip top shape ASAP!
That's it for today I'm afraid, i'm going to go kick butt in an extra workout and I'm sure i'll be too tired/lazy to write more later. More tomorrow, LG day YAY!

January 11
I can't really write too much today cuz I have a LOT to do! There's a meet coming up soon and I have to work my butt off so I can make the team and also so I can do WELL at the meet! I know coach Soyon will be a BIG help, she really is quite motivational and I like how she can point out your weak spots without making you feel like a failure. She's got this plan to get Lilly close as a squad and supportive of each other but we SO are already so I think we're all on the same page with that one. I know what she means though, about not wanting us to get to the point where we are only rooting for ourselves, cuz it HAS gotten to that point before. Luckily right now we're all so happy to be back at Topo (and some happy to be here for the first time) that we aren't as self absorbed as we had been. Also I think that all the girls here have gotten closer and gotten past many old rivalries and such, and I know I'd grown especially close to the girls in the Lilly squad and a few others before squads were even announced. I was so happy when they were with who's on the Lilly squad because it's all of the friends I have at Topo that could possibly fit onto one squad with me. That of course leaves about a whole other squads worth of girls I wish i could also have on my squad, but such is life. But it's now time for lunch, and then of course my run and conditioning! I'll write more tomorrow.

January 10
Have I mentioned how much I love the Lord of the Rings movies? I'm so glad I'm going to get to read the books for school! That's going to be awesome. I'm sure there were TONS of things that they had to leave out of the movies, and I would most certainly love to read about them and see what the things they left out were.
Speaking of tutoring, next week I'll be starting a new psychology subject, adolescent development. It's basically an extension on child development, which as I said was rather boring but I'm hoping adolescent development will be more interesting since I'm an adolescent! You never know tho, it could be even more boring! I guess we'll see. My tutor has been drilling me like crazy with grammar and such, and I really am not enjoying that. I like to talk and write the way I like to talk and write and that's that! So basically it's pretty much all in vain. I've decided that everything I will ever know about grammar I learned in elementary and middle schools and now it'll be hard to get me to learn more. So I'm trying to convince her to let me learn more french instead. We'll see how that goes! Ups... time for lunch! The Lilly Squad is eating together today. It's bound to be fun!

*******************************

Lunch was good, as well as my run. I actually ran 2 1/2 miles today, so that was good. My conditioning and extra stretching also went well and I can feel my strength and flexibility improving daily.
Legolas Greenleaf day is soon, and I got the ears and cutouts today! I'm going to have to borrow a green leotard from someone, which won't be much of a problem. Someone's bound to have an extra, and I'm sure plenty of people won't cares its Legolas Greenleaf day so they'll just wear a normal leo anyways. I really am looking forward to it though, So so much!

**********************************

Tutoring went well today. I convinced my tutor to let me do less grammar and more french. Something about learning french should help me with english grammar anyways as she points out the similarities and differences. All I care is I get less grammar and more french WOO! Plus I have the weekend coming up, two whole days without actual tutoring (just some extra studying. No biggie) But I'll be using the weekend to finalize Legolas Greenleaf day, of course. I'll have to test the ears and make sure they'll stay on. See if they'll stay on through a workout or just between them. I hope they stay on throughout! That would be so cool, can you imagine a gym full of girls with pointy ears and green leotards doing gymnastics? It's too bad we aren't allowed to wear our hair down, since Elves have that gorgeous long straight hair, but oh well. Between workouts! of course. Anyways I'm getting tired so I should get my butt in bed!

January 9
Hello hello! Todays morning workout went pretty well. Nother extraordinary, but some small improvements. I worked a LOT on beam and on tumbling on floor, and I plan to do more of the same this evening after my tutoring. I am determined to kick my butt consistently and well for as long as it takes for me to get back in top shape. I'm going to stretch after my run today, and before the rest of my conditioning. I figure that's a good place for it. I'm also going to stretch obviously before every workout but after as well. Hopefully my flexibility will come back quickly.

*************************

Brrrrr!!!!!!!!!! today was exceptionally COLD! I couldn't believe it when I went for my run. I also almost completely forgot that I'd moved my tutoring up an hour so I could go see the two towers. I realized it when I got in from my run and was doing my stretching and I saw my tutor walking through the front door. I convinced her that it was imperative for me to stretch and condition during my tutoring because i was out of shape, and she went with me because a lot of todays stuff was in discussion form. Usually I also take notes on what we discuss but today instead i just taped it on my little mini tape recorder and i'm going to take the notes tomorrow.
Two Towers was AWESOME! I loved how funny Gimli was, and of course i enjoyed my favorite charachter Legolas! I can't wait for LG Day. What else did I like in the movie... welp the orcs scared the crap out of me, but that's nothing new. They're just so UGLY and vile looking and YUCK! The battle scene was great though... and i absolutely adored the tree beards! Those were so awesome! I so can't wait for it to come out on video/DVD, and hopefully I'll get to go see it again!
But, since the movie was three hours long, i didn't get back here till 1/4 of 8 and I still insisted on doing a 2 hour long workout then, so I am tired and I really need to be getting to bed. Tomorrow, as always, is a very busy day, and I get to start it out with my NEW squad, the Lilly squad (YAY! I'm so glad to be on the lilly squad again!) I'm back on the Lilly squad and I'm on it with Vada, and I'm actually pretty close with almost every girl on the squad. There's no one that I clash with, so I'm very happy about that. But yeah it's sleep time now! Night night!!

January 8
Today is the day of the intersquad and I'm so nervous! Excited, but nervous. I know I'm no where near in top shape, and many of the other girls here are doing very well. A lot of them didn't get lazy or take time off, unlike me. I've been working hard on improving my skills but in just over a week there wasn't much I could do. I hope not to fall, and not to fall on my HEAD specifically on floor. But I know I'll get points off for my difficulties on bars and beam, as well as my low tumbling on floor. Vault I think I'll do well in, or rather was well as I normally do which doesn't tend to be WELL so much as not rotten. My light workout was nice, my body is happy with the rest i think, and also it's giving me time to make up for the time i lost on my schoolwork yesterday by working out in all my spare time. I'm going to skip my conditioning again today, however I will go for a SHORT run, probably only a mile or less. I don't think it's wise to skip that two days in a row, since thats my only real endurance workout.

*************************

Well, i went for my short run and took a short nap and then dug my competition leotard out of my bag and realized it doesn't come CLOSE to fitting me anymore! So now i have to order new leotards. I should have realized, since I only have about 3 workout leos that fit, and those are just the ones i got in celebration of coming back to Topo. Can we tell i was lazy, since I didn't even NOTICE my leotards didn't fit anymore? I guess that happens when you aren't wearing them! So anyways I was running around like crazy trying to find one i could borrow, and suddenly i hear Marissa yelling at me. She had an extra I could borrow, a brand new one since she'd also grown over the break and was only an inch shorter than me. It's a bit snug, but nothing compared to my leo! Luckily my new leos got ordered today and they said it should take only a week to get here. But so it's getting close to meet time, and i need to do some relaxation so I don't bug out completely!

********************************

Well, the intersquad went about as well as I'd expected! I finished in 11th (tied for 11th actually) but i'm not disapointed. I actually did better scores wise than i thought i would, except on vault, even though they were all low. Vault I scored a little lower than I'd expected but I did have more trouble with the landing than i'd expected! My beam routine of course was shaky, I couldn't connect my mount so I lost valuable points there, and my back series was so wobbly i nearly fell off (i managed to stay on though! barely!) Floor, i managed to not hit my head on the tsavdaridou but my tumbling was of course low, and i went out of bounds on my last pass (i had competely not paid any attention to that problem of being taller! UGH!) Bars of course I had a bunch of form breaks and trouble with hitting handstands, so basically i didn't have any BIG screw ups but i had a lot of things that just chipped away at my score. I felt pretty good actually though, it had been so long since I'd last competed I forgot what a rush it can be and it's gotten me newly motivated to kick my butt into hugh gear! Speaking of which, i should get to bed early so I can get plenty of rest before i kick my butt tomorrow. G'night!

January 7
Today I actually have very little time to write. The intersquad is tomorrow and I have so much left to clean up that I decided to skip my run and conditioning and 2 two extra short practices. I figure I can skip vault, that's the most solid and I did fairly well on that in this mornings workout. Bars i need to work on a few minor things, and that leaves floor and beam that need the most work. I am determined to get my beam mount connected and to not land my tsavdaridou on my head. Tose are what I'm the most worried about, but I also need to be more solid on my back tumbling series and all my tumbling on floor could be higher. It's just been so LOW. So I'm going to concentrate on that quite a bit!
Also January 13th is going to be unofficially Legolas Greenleaf day here at Topo, because I said so, and because the 13th is Orlando Bloom's birthday. Jenna and I were trying to come up with some ideas, and I have some little things to take care or like getting pointy rubber ears for everyone. This is likely to take up what spare time i have left after my workouts.
Nothing really exciting is going on with tutoring. I may ask if I can read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, but I'm really not sure. I have some other things to read first and they seam like awefully detailed books to read. We'll see though. I know they would be quite interesting though! Anyways i have to run to lunch so i can meet some of the girls for an extra workout!

****************************

Welp, I talked to my tutor about reading LOTR and the Hobbit and she said she'd try and work it into my curriculum so yay! I won't start reading them right away, but i will eventually. My extra workouts have left me quite tired though, and I need to be weel rested for the intersquad tomorrow so I can't really write much more right now. We had a team meeting trying to figure out how squads are going to be divided up, coach asked for suggestions and we had some and we'll see soon how she decides to do things. Hopefully we'll find out tomorrow! Thursday a group of us are going to see Two Towers (finally!) and i'm very excited about that! But now I need to get myself plenty of rest! G'night!

January 6
So, I will start off with the begining of my book about Marissa.
Part I, Marissa Farts -Marissa, As I have told people, farts in her sleep. Sometimes as I lay there trying to sleep, she'll just fart REALLY loud and i can't help but giggle. And then I can't sleep for a while cuz I got all hyper from giggling. However, this is not the only time that Marissa farts ohhh no! If you pay VERY close attention when she is on bars, she farts a little fart every time she does a cast handstand, right when she hits vertical. Someone should tell the judges to put up a microphone by the bars, cuz they'll know for sure if she got vertical or not by whether or not she farted. Butttt... don't tell I said that. I think she's a little embarrassed, and it's a new thing since we came back to Indiana. Maybe it's just a phase, who knows! And in any case you have to pay REAL close attention. Unless she's sleeping. Cuz then they're loud farts.
Enough o! f that for now. My mom sent me the first LOTR movie, to hold me over until i can get out to see the new one. I'm probably going to watch it with whoever wants to watch it this afternoon or maybe right after dinner. I went to see it with my family last christmas, and I missed getting to see it with them this year because I had returned to Topo by the time they went to see it. I heard this one is even better than the first! So I really can't wait to see it.
*****************************
Look at that I went and didn't say by... Atler sorta DRAGGED me to lunch so I had little choice but that's ok i'm back! I found some people to watch Fellowship of the Ring with, and we may go see Two Towers soon too. Now though it's time for my run and my conditioning, and stretching.
*************************
That was a great movie!! That elf guy...oh my goodness he is such a cutie! Ok so I never saw what the draw was with that whole guy thing, but i think now i got it.! he is so cuuuute! I heard he doesn't really have blond hair and blue eyes but that is just fine with me! One of these days I'll have to look up and find a picture of what he really looks like. And I think i need to read the LOTR books now! Maybe start a group of us and learn Elvish that would be fun and it would drive Lois nuts cuz we could say stuff to each other and she'd have no clue what we were saying! I'll have to discuss this with people I think! But since the movie is so long, it is now late. I'll write about more tomorrow (like tutoring and stuff) I promise!

January 5
DAMN GROWTH SPURT! and DAMN COMPUTER!!!!!
I hate my growth spurt I absolutely positively HATE IT!!!! That and my recent laziness have made my gymnastics TERRIBLE. You can really tell, everyone else is doing SO MUCH better than me and I'm struggling like crazy! It makes me want to CRY. I haven't even missed a workout so far or anything but I'm still only 17th in the rankings, out of 20! It's rotten! I've been in the top 5 at this gym i can't even count how many times and now I'm struggling just to keep up! Oh great there i go crying!! Good thing Marissa isn't here right now so I can shut the door and no one will know the difference. I don't like crying and most of all I don't like it when people know I'm crying. I hardly ever cried before this whole puberty thing hit. Damn puberty! Why can't I stay wee little forever? It's just plain NOT FAIR!!!!! I think during my run today, when i get way out into the middle of the woods, I'm just going to SCREAM my bloody head off for a while, and hopefully that will! make me feel better.
Now on to why I hate my computer. It's simple really, just when I had started to write this entry the thing crashed on me. Not that this should suprise me, computers all seem out to get me. Any time I'm on one, it crashes. So I tend to avoid getting on other peoples computers! I swear it's nothing I do, people have even watched me and said it was nothing I did, so it must just be that computers in general do not like me.
As I mentioned before, tomorrow i start back with my tutor. It'll be nice to see her, and I hope to impress her with how much i learned sitting around reading all the time at Cascade Locks! At least my brain didn't go soft, even though my muscles all did! That will be good. Since I got ahead in math and I was allowed to start elective coursework, I chose psychology and I finished a whole intro psych textbook and one in child development. The one in child development was MUCH more boring, but still pretty interesting. It had a lot of dry facts, that I really have no need for right now. It'll come in handy though when I'm a LOT older and I have kids! But enough about that because i am HUNGRY so I'm headed to lunch!

**********************************

Wow did that run help! I was planning on doing a mile and a half, and i ended up running 2 and a half cuz it was just so theraputic. I didn't actually end up screaming, cuz just running in itself made me feel a LOT better! And then of course I did my usual conditioning, and amazingly I wasn't too tired or sore after it. Soon I think I'll be able to start my extra afternoon workouts, I should be able to at least by the day after the intersquad. That way I can use the intersquad to see what I need the most work on and I can concentrate on that in my extra workouts. I really am determined to do well this season, especially since it's my last year as a Junior. Sort of scary! I've been an elite for just over two years now, but it seams like so much longer! And before I know it I'll be a SENIOR, wow! That is, if i can make it through this growth spurt! Not only has it effected my timing and my technique, it's also effected my flexibility. I should get into an extra stretching routine to gain my flexibility back! I think I'll start that right now, and once I start back up with my afternoon workouts I can just include it with that.

********************************

I had forgotten how good stretching feels! Especially toe touches, the straddled kind. Those are the best! Also splits aren't bad. The only stretch I REALLY don't like are bridges. They didn't used to be so bad, but shoulder flexibility is one thing that hurts a bunch as you get older, which of course I am finding out the hard way! Most people don't notice it, because either they just plain never checked their shoulder flexibility or they didn't slack off with their working out and stretching. I suppose part of this is just from slacking off, but I know a lot of it is from growing. Thats the thing with growing, muscles just get stretched. So they get tighter. Because muscles have the same number of muscle fibers, they never get more. So when you grow, the muscle fibers just stretch out and get tighter, and so especially if you aren't stretching every day you lose a lot of your flexibility, which is exactly what I've done and exactly when I had to try and reverse now!
Ok so Marissa is looking at me like I have 3 heads because I've been spending so much time writing today, so i may as well go and be social. And by the way, MARISSA FARTS IN HER SLEEP!

January 4
My workout today didn't go so badly. I've noticed some weaknesses in bars that I hadn't noticed before, that were caused by my growth spurt. I'm having trouble getting quite to vertical on my cast handstands, which also makes it hard to pirouette! I'll work on it though and hopefully I won't have trouble on it for long.
I had a lot of fun doing my conditioning with Sammie yesterday. She's really nice, and not much like her sister but that's just fine with me! We ended up making snow angels/devils when we were done with our run. Of course i ended up being damp for the rest of my conditioning, since i dont change between my run and my conditioning. It was a little annoying, but not too bad.
We're planning a ski trip, Sammie mentioned how she liked to ski and wanted to learn how to snow board so i found a ski area not too far from here where we can do both as well as go tubing. So we've got a trip planned for a week from today, and it looks like most of the girls will be going which is exciting. I might even ask coach Lois to come along!
other than the ski trip there's lots of other things going on! Closer to the end of the month is Alana's ballet, which I'll be going to. Also coming up soon is Jennie's birthday and she's having a party at a skating rink, so of course i'l be going to that too! Plus Sammie is supposed to be getting a tape from Alana with Alana and her Pas de deux partner so I'm going to watch that with her and some of the other girls.
It's SO nice to be back here. It's odd not rooming with Vada, since we've roomed together for quite some time now, even at Cascade Locks, but I am with Marissa and I know we'll be getting ourselves in some trouble soon enough! I can't wait! Anyways lunch time, and then time to do my run and my conditioning, as always.

January 3
Hello journal! Thanx mostly to those new showerheads, i am not quite so sore today and I have much more energy. Enough to up my run to a mile and a half i'd say!
In other news, I miss Alana like CRAZY, but I may as well get to know her sister Sammie. It'll be very weird, because I always used to call Alana 'DeBrinski' mostly cuz i was afraid I'd spell her name wrong, and now there's another DeBrinski! I'll just call her Sammie though and keep calling Alana 'DeBrinski', since I'm sure she'll be here to visit sometimes and I'll be going to see her dance soon.
I start back up tutoring with my old tutor on monday. It'll be nice to be back into the swing of things again, and I was doing correspondance through another tutor with this tutor, which got to be a little confusing. My family and i decided it would be good to keep the same person in charge of my education so there wasn't a discrepancy, and that caused a little friction with the other tutor who was used to being his own boss. He didn't like feeling like a babysitter i guess, since really all he did was give me assignments my old tutor had assigned and he made sure i did them and he reported back to her on my progress. It's much better here with my old tutor and no middle man!
Anyways, i should get to lunch so I can do my jog and my conditioning. I want to try and get the run in before it starts to cool down even more outside (like it's not already cold enough!) So time to bundle up for my run! Oh, and there's Sammie maybe i'll get her to run with me. More tomorrow!

January 2
Well I sure was right about being sore today! OW!!!!!!!! I didn't even want to get out of bed! But I dragged myself up for workout and I made myself work hard. I need to get myself back in shape! I hit my head on the tsavdaridou a few times. Bad habit to be back into! Let me tell you, i'm lucky I don't get permanent damage to my neck by doing this. I'll start putting some extra padding on the floor for them, until I start doing them better.
My shower after the morning workout felt GREAT on my muscles. There's these new massaging showerheads and they are WONDERFUL! I'm really going to enjoy those, let me tell you that much! They were a great surprise, I wonder if anyone else has noticed them? Who knows.
I think I'm going to take a short half hour nap after I eat lunch, and then I'll start my conditioning routine up again. All I did of it yesterday was the run, and I only ran a mile as opposed to my usual 2. I'll probably stick to 1 again today, since i'll also be doing all my pushups and situps and all that fun yuck.
It was SO weird waking up here today though. Like waking up in a dream almost. A GOOD dream of course! I'm so glad to be back here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's great it's almost better than being at home! (well, it IS winter, not exactly swimming season at home haha)
Anyways time for lunch, Marissa is getting all huffy waiting for me I should probably go.

January 1
First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I can't believe it's 2003 already! It really is great to be back at Topopolilly. No where else keeps me as motivated as I get here. I went to train at Cascade Locks but spent most of my time in my room reading. I got SO lazy, and out of shape, and on top of that i had a growth spurt and grew to 4'8"! I grew almost a half a foot!
My workout didn't go too badly today, considering I am terribly out of shape and I'm getting used to my new height. Bars is oddly the event I'm having the least trouble getting the hang of, I'd think my height would make a bigger difference there. Speaking of bars I got this annoying rip today. UGH! I hate them, they always make me so lazy on bars! But at least I have the least work to do in that event.
I'm so used to doing nothing, I am going to be SO sore tomorrow! At Cascade Locks I kept up my daily run, but for the most part that was it, so I have a lot of making up to do. I don't see myself doing well at the first intersquad, but I'll just have to keep working hard so i can do well after that. Today I'm only going to do a mile run, since I'm still tired from my workout. I'll start my conditioning back up tomorrow, and then in a week or two I'll add my afternoon workout. Of course I won't do bars in my extra workout until my rip is better, which it should be by the end of next week but by then I'll probably have a rip on my other hand. They always come in twos for me it seams.
I should get going now, I haven't finished unpacking so I should probably get to that. I'll be sure to write more tomorrow!

Read Eva's older entries