Landing

My alarm clock goes off at 5:45 a.m.
I stare at the time for a minute and realize that I've only been asleep for three and half hours by now.
Don't wake up.

Ten minutes later...
"Angie you need to get up! You have to be on the ice in a half hour!"

Another five minutes...
"Mom left and I'm going pretty soon, are you up?? You need to get up! I'm not going to be able to come make sure you're awake because I need to leave now."

Now, I'm awake. And very, very late for skating.
This happens every Monday and Wednesday morning. I've been trying to battle something that feels like insomnia, for the past couple weeks so that doesn't really help me as far as waking up in the morning to go skate.

Still, I get up, throw some tights and a dress on, put my hair up in a very unflattering up-do, grab my keys and skates, and run out the door.

When I get there it's about 6:30 on the dot. No time to warm up, so I run around the warm-up area a couple times and stretch one leg as the other gets a skate on.

From there the session goes like this:
6:35-I'm on the ice and skating around to warm my legs up a little more
6:45-I've done all my singles (and probably laughed at myself for stumbling through them because I'm still half-asleep)
6:55-All my good solid doubles are warmed up and now it's time to go on to my not so good ones...
7:00-Joleen comes over to see what I'm working on and to start my lesson
7:05-By now we've done all the easy doubles and she asks me if we're going to do double flips and lutz's today. My answer? Yes. Not only because if I say no, she'll get mad or give me that disappointed-coach-look, but because today, I'm going to land one.
7:10-7:30- Fall. And fall. And keep falling. But I keep getting up, because I will land the next one. And if not that one, the one after that. By now I'm pretty bruised. My tail bone feels broken and I have an ice burn all the way up my arm and leg. I didn't land one.

That's the typical story. In fact, that is the story of my morning ice routine. But on some, very good days, things go a little different; I do land one. I land a double flip. Just one. If I'm lucky, it'll be two in one day soon.

One of those very good days was today. I landed a double flip! Nothing feels better than doing something that is actually really scary, and finding yourself landed straight up, with your leg checked out and not toppling to the ground for the hundredth time. I look over to my coach and she's beaming! She gives me a hug and her next question is:
"So, shall we do some double lutz's now?"

By the end, I'm always happier than when I got there (even if I do have a few more bruises than before). Even on a few hours of sleep, skating can change my attitude for the rest of the day. I love it; I love my parents for getting me out of bed in the morning to go do something they know I love, I love my coach for always making me feel like I can do anything, and to be quite honest... I love falling, because that's what makes landing that much better.