I forgot to set my DVR. I wanted to watch the finals of the figure skating team competition, and I just never turned on the TV to figure out what I needed to record. I didn't want to do it, but I've caved in and downloaded the iPad app. It's clunky and you cannot escape watching the same seven or eight ads over and over and over and over... Also, the best part, the narration by Tara Lupinski and Johnny Weir, isn't on the pure figure skating feed. Just like the summer Olympics that I watched the same way, this has an Australian woman doing all the voiceover. I want Tara and Johnny, but beggars can't be choosers. At least I can back up and watch what I missed right away. I've already seen comments on Twitter about how the women's singles went, to the extent that someone landed a triple axel, but I have no idea who won the team medals yet. I have to hide from Twitter now until I make it through the next few hours of replay.
One of the journalists I follow, who claims to have disdain for skating in general, seems to have found a new respect for the sport. He started saying positive things before I cut myself off from the feed. I saw him say that if ever he skated, he would have performed to Ace of Spades by Motorhead, which I found funny. In a head-to-head Quiplash game matchup, where my daughter and I had to choose the song that would be the absolute worst to pairs skate to (where neither of us knew the other had the same question to answer), we both wrote the same answer. And ever since, we both now actually want to see some pairs skaters perform to Du Hast by Rammstein. I'm not picky. It wouldn't even have to be competition. I'd accept an exhibition performance. Before I die, I want this to happen. Who knows a pairs skater to suggest it? Anyone? Maybe if I start an internet petition I can catch someone's eye. It has to be on television, though. I don't tend to go to skating performances in person. I only ever did it once, in college.
It's kind of weird, sitting in my dark living room at night, watching skaters land these amazing jumps on narrow blades of steel, while I'm soaking my aching feet in hot water loaded with Epsom salts, pure magnesium flakes, and a clump of baking soda to help soften the skin. I can't imagine how much punishment these athletes dole out to their own feet (and to the rest of them when they hit the ice unexpectedly). I remember when I used to try to ice skate, just a few loops around the rink. My ankles were never strong, and I always bent them so my blades were canted to the outside. It was awkward, ungraceful, and in a very short time, incredibly painful. Even when I was six or seven years old, I just didn't have the stability to make it work. I live vicariously through these people, who can do things I always wanted to do and never found the strength and balance to make it happen.
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