Thursday Night - At The Hotel After Day of Travel

I woke up at 4:10 this morning after first waking up 3 hours earlier because I forgot about the different time on my phone again and set the alarm wrong. It's the second or third time I've done that but I just don't feel like erasing my home time. It makes me feel good to have that time on my phone. I'll have to change it now though as I am in Milwaukee where it is an hour earlier than New York and two hours later than Cali.
  Everything went smoothly this morning except my smooth peanut butter, which they didn't let through security!!!! AHHHH. My peanut butter is like my pride and joy of the food world. But I mean seriously - I can take sharp steel razor blades capable of being a serial-killer's weapon; I can take a steel bar from my sharpening jig; but I can't take peanut butter! so instead of checking the darn peanut butter, I deposited it in the garbage. I tried asking the supervisor if I could cut a deal, but she was not having any of it. So I had to wait in security all over again. Gotta love traveling now. I also could not get internet without paying so I could not write in here like I said I would. I read a ton today - more than I have in a long time, maybe ever and I also fell asleep in some of the most inventive positions. I had about six and a half hours to kill in the airport and only about five hours of sleep last night. My slippery cell-phone snuck out of my pocket in the shuttle from the airport to the hotel so I had to have the driver come back and drop it off but also had to pay for the fare twice. tsk tsk tsk - these things happen I guess. It's alright. I am all settled in the hotel now.
  

  Tonight Edin and I had dinner at the hotel. I got a little of the history of the whole situation in Bosnia. Like a typical ignoramus, I had absolutely no idea about just how bad it was. The Genocide was massive when Serbia was Ethnically Cleansing the Muslims out of Bosnia. Around 2 million were either killed or forced to take refuge elsewhere. I don't understand why we learn about WW2 up and down, backwards and forwards, but not a word was ever mentioned about Little Bosnia and Herzegovina defending itself from the Orthodox Serbians on one side and the Croats on the other. All Edin had to say was quite a lesson, one which I surely will not have again in High School unfortunately. Adding to the intrigue for me was the fact that when I played gigs with Mark Judelson  (http://www.storiesofpeace.com/), The Open Window was about the war in Sarajevo so I already had a slight connection to the history. I never would have been opened up to the Genocide that happened there and the history that goes back had I not come into contact with Edin through skating. That is a lot of what makes this whole thing so great and why I am so lucky to be in this position in L.A. - because characters full of new ideas, lessons and stories come to L.A. to be with Wilma.

  - I will try to post some pics of the events here as they come.

Eve Of Departure - September 29th

I am done packing, done planning rides, check-ins, coordinations and what not, and done thinking. My brain is fried, as my mom would say. I have to wake up tomorrow morning at 4:15 AM because though my flight does not leave until 12:10,  I am catching a ride with Jean and Edin who's flights leave at around 7.
  I am not to emotionally up or down before this race. I don't feel like I am skating that fast, and especially not with the confounded foot problem. Maybe in Milwaukee there will be a doctor or orthopedist that can look at it.
I will just take this meet as it comes and enjoy this crazy sport. If not, I think I will be disappointed and frustrated. we'll see. I am looking forward to skating in my first America's Cup and maybe finally receiving my category 1 skinsuit.
  I will write much more hopefully tomorrow whilst laying around.
 A demain

Tuesday Morning - September 28th

Is there such a thing as a sun burp?

  It has been one of the coolest summers in So Cal and lately had been cold after the sun went down. All of a sudden its the hottest day ever recorded at 111 degrees Fahrenheit! 
The previous high was in 1963, when it was a measly 103. Today the sun has excused itself and it is a frigid 96. bbbbbrrrrrrrr I'm freezing.
  All last night it was hot, staying in the 80s. It was probably hotter in our room as the dark walls basically collect the heat and insulate the room. As Edin pointed out, "you could fdy an eg on dees valls, man!" 
  It feels very strange to wake up in the dark and go outside and have it feel like a hot balmy summer day. This morning, I didn't have to jog long before I was warmed up. We did all speed this morning, except myself. I tried, but I was sooo slow! I think I went to hard in the warm-up relays, as I felt pretty good. Then I did alright in the next warm-ups, but I was not able to recover, and by the time I did, the foot situation was too bothersome to skate very well. I did do some 9.4s, but I should be able to do much faster in all out relays. I am sure I can. I have before! Yesterday I did a 9.1 following Edin. 
  Edin is teaching me Bosnian, which sounds like a mix between Russian and Italian. He is a very funny guy. During our long hours here in "the room" we have separated the room into two territories - his is the village and way up in the sky soars my bed, a towering mountain range. Whenever I come down from the mountains and enter the village I must provide ID. Its serious business.

Monday Morning - September 27th

If yesterday was unbearably hot, today is even hotter. I am trying not to move at all, laying here in our room, reading, writing, going on the computer and talking with Edin about deep things. This morning's practice was up and down. I skated through the pain with the blister and it actually was much better than I expected. I am optimistic that it is the right thing to do and that the blister is on the mend. Of course as the session wore on, it got more and more painful, but so does everything. It is not a cut anymore but a scab and you know how scabs are very sensitive?
  Anyway, this morning we did 2x 20laps very slow and technical, then relays then one more 20 lapper. There always seems to be something annoying in the rink. If its not the ice being bad, its the figure skaters music on the other rink coming through the speaker system over and over. This morning they decided to PAINT exactly when  WE got on the ice  and we all got headaches and became dizzy. Yet Wil kept us on the whole morning and no one seems the worse for wear. This morning there was a great moment I had where we did the 3 lap part of the relay and Edin and I were on the track. He passed me and I sprinted to stay with him until we pushed the next teammates. we did 9.3, 9.1 lap times after he passed and it felt really great. I followed his exact steps and was very close and it really felt right - like real short track. I hope to have more of that soon and just keep dropping the tenths on the lap times.

  I am happy to be training again. I feel contented and not antsy, as I felt often when home and not training on the ice. I am also happy I was able to skate on the blister and hope it keeps moving forward.

One skate on one skate off

Last night Jon took a quick snapshot of me with one skate on. I was heat-molding it to the new bump I have on my foot from the blister's side-effects and I was dying of heat. I retreated to the kitchen for a cool blueberry break and Jon snuck up behind me. lol

"The Room"

Looking in at our room.

Hurricane Cledin

We are trying our best to keep it somewhat organised, but we are failing.

Locker room - 6:30 am.

From left to right: Sir Edin, Andrew, and Casey

Hey everybody. Ive been trying to upload pictures/get the internet to work on my computer so I've been sort of pre-occupied. I also am trying everything to get the blister situation better. I heat-molded the skates tonight with a huge lump of mole-skin over the spot to exaggerate the lump on my bone. I actually feel better about it after this round of heating. I skated Friday and the blister/bone was just not feelin that - noo. It got all red again and much more sensitive and the scab that is forming is all untidy and messed up. I thus did not skate in the club race Saturday but watched instead. Edin has moved into the house and is in my room. It is tight - comically so - and I have been taking pics and trying to post them but I keep on getting distracted with something or having something stop working. tomorrow it'll happen, though I am not holding myself to a promise. It has been so hot here. Today it was in the high 90s and tomorrow we are entering the 100s I hear. The house gets so hot, it's impossible to concentrate on anything much. haha. That's part of my problem. The room is a very dark blue and  this does not help, as Edin pointed out, as the sun comes in and both makes the stuffed small room even hotter and insulates it greeeattt for the night.

  I am out now. More tomorrow. U all are asleep anyway in New York. goodnight.