{"id":2175,"date":"2012-10-26T15:45:53","date_gmt":"2012-10-26T15:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/2012\/10\/26\/mel-s-skate-canada-blog-brought-to-you-by-insomnia\/"},"modified":"2019-03-23T18:32:22","modified_gmt":"2019-03-23T22:32:22","slug":"mel-s-skate-canada-blog-brought-to-you-by-insomnia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/mel-s-skate-canada-blog-brought-to-you-by-insomnia\/","title":{"rendered":"Mel’s Skate Canada Blog: Brought to You By Insomnia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"blog2-hd\"So I accidentally fell asleep at 10.30 p.m. last night and since this fall, my body has learned to accept sleep in no longer than 5-hour intervals, I was wide awake at 3.30 a.m. I\u2019m sure that I will feel pretty awesome by the time the short dance rolls around tonight!<\/span><\/p>\n

I was working on this when I passed out over my computer last night, so I figured that I might as well finish my blog. I had a good day at the rink yesterday, despite being exhausted and cranky. Seriously, I apologize to anyone that had the misfortune of speaking to me yesterday. I promise I\u2019ll be well-caffeinated and back to my usual self today! Anyway, I was especially happy that I was able to see all of the short and<\/i> free dances. I don\u2019t think any team did full run-throughs of both dances, but I got some good glimpses.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have to mention Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir first, since I had definitely been a bit of a skeptic in regards to their Carmen<\/i> free dance. Friends, I am not a skeptic anymore. Even just seeing pieces of that program from the \u201cwrong\u201d side of the rink, I think that program is going to be incredible. I can definitely the influence from an outside choreographer\u2014they have a lot of new movements in this piece\u2014and the lifts are mind-blowing. I hope they don\u2019t get with an illegal element on their first lift, though. From my angle, it looked like Scott supported Tessa above his head on the first toss (yes, I said first<\/i> toss\u2014they have more than one in the first lift), but again, I was sitting directly opposite the judges, so perhaps the arm positions look different from the front. Anyway…no other problems and no signs of the previous injury from the Olympic champs. I liked their short dance, too, although I had trouble picking off moments for photos, since the portions that they did were constantly moving in closed holds. Good for the choreography score…not so great for photos.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I think that the field is quite stacked here in Windsor with a lot of solid teams. Based on the first practice today, I thought I saw a couple of groups outlined, but in the second practice, the teams who seemed a bit weak early in the day finished the day much stronger, while a few of the other teams struggled. The second practice had more mistakes than the first, including a couple of falls, but it didn\u2019t look like anyone was hurt badly. Cappellini & Lanotte came down on a curve lift, I think, although I saw them hit the lift earlier in the session. Hubbell & Donohue also took a tumble, but besides that, I thought that they looked really sharp in their FD practice. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"blog2-gg\"I watched the second practice for almost everyone else in the competition, only skipping the second group of pairs to charge my batteries and get caught up on submitting dance photos. Everything is a bit of a blur, so the standouts that I can remember were Gracie Gold, Nobunari Oda, and Meagan Duhamel & Eric Radford. Gold hit nearly everything, including some HUGE triple-triples. I was very impressed with my hometown girl! Oda looked great in his SP run-through. It was like he was saying, \u201cHey, my teammates may have swept Skate America last week, but I\u2019m still in the running, too!\u201d And Duhamel & Radford weren\u2019t perfect today, but they just looked really strong, and something about their free program really connected with me. <\/span><\/p>\n

After practices ended, I headed to my hotel. I\u2019m not staying downtown at one of the official places, so I was a little worried to see how my hotel would turn out (it\u2019s not one of the usual chains), but it\u2019s fairly nice inside. I was upgraded to a mini suite because the hotel is having a busy weekend, the guy at the desk told me, so I have a kitchen area and a little table, as well as a couch and coffee table and flat screen TV. I am loving the \u201890s walllpaper! Of course, I was too tired and cranky last night to go to the grocery store, so the kitchen has remained empty and I doubt I will actually use it, but I am appreciating the extra space.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, as with most hotels built before the past decade, the only 3-prong outlet is behind the bed, so I\u2019m still stuck sitting there to get any work done, which means that it\u2019s a lot easier for me to nod off while working, as I did last night around 10.30, thus beginning the cycle of 4 a.m. insomnia.<\/span><\/p>\n

So let\u2019s close with some fun facts about Windsor, shall we? <\/span>When I lived in Lansing, Michigan, I think I shopped at the Devonshire Mall in Windsor more often than I shopped at home. I\u2019m still not sure why we were so enamoured with Windsor, but whenever my best friend and I needed something to do, one of us would say to the other, \u201cHey…I need another Canadian political science book (or a new Roots sweatshirt, or a taste of Swiss Chalet). Wanna go to Windsor?\u201d I\u2019m surprised the border guards kept letting us through without suspecting us of something. Anyway, during those two-and-a-half years, I learned a lot about Windsor, and it\u2019s time for me to share this knowledge with all of you.<\/p>\n