Below are the 5 most recent journal entries recorded in jandoe's LiveJournal:

Tuesday, April 19th, 2005
4:29 pm	Monday... Well haven't been to the gym since last Monday. Wednesday had to work and get ready for my trip to San Francisco with my boyfriend. We were there Thurs-Saturday and came back Sunday. Monday I totally wasn't in the mood for the gym, but I forced myself to go. Had an ok workout, except for my step aerobics class it kind of sucks on Mondays cause the instructor is choreographing the routine as we go. I don't know what's wrong with me lately, I just don't feel motivated to do anything. I only work cause I need the money and have bills to pay. Who doesn't. But I'm procrastinating with school and skipping a lot. I don't even study for tests, I just wing them. I've been lucky and have gotten by with Bs. I think out of the 3 classes I have I've got 2 Bs and one A. And I was excited when I first joined the gym and looking forward to getting in shape for skating lessons. I don't know why I just don't ever feel in the mood to go to the gym, but I still make myself go. (Comment on this)
Monday, April 11th, 2005
9:27 am	Back to the gym... Was going to take a pilates class by a new instructor in this new class offered Friday evenings now, but I was very exhausted on Friday... Overslept and missed the 7:30am aerobics step class Saturday. Bummer. I'm in boring class right now. Going to try and get atleast 4 hrs of work in, then it's pilates and step aerobics at the gym after not going for 4 days. Been comparing prices and checking schedules for skating classes at the 3 rinks in my area. 2 of the rinks the class semester starts too early for me. I know I won't have the money or time. I think they start end of this month. At the 3rd rink it's $118 for 8 weeks of classes and you can sign up anytime. Quite costly for a class that's ONCE a week for ONLY 30 minutes... That seems like my only option though... I won't get to go to the gym Friday & Saturday this week either. My boyfriend and I are taking a short little trip aka mini vacation. He's had almost the past 2 weeks off and goes back to work next Monday. Then goes on deployment 2 weeks after that... It feels too soon, I don't feel ready to handle it. But I suppose who is ever ready to handle something like that. I won't let myself think about it much. I hope I don't cry too much when saying goodbye. Hopefully at first it will just feel like it usually does when he leaves for a couple weeks. And I'll busy myself with work, school, the gym, & soon skating. And hopefully I'll just get into this busy routine and 7 months will fly by AS IF they were 2 weeks... (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 6th, 2005
3:06 am	NYC Ballet class cancelled... Well it wasn't cancelled per say... it seemed like it was just a special class for only a certain amount of time. Now it's been replaced with a spring training boot camp class. :-p I've been looking at my options of rinks. I think I'm going to end up going to this one that's not too far. It's in an area I'm not too familiar with and that is not known as a good area depending on what part you are in. There is an upscale and a downscale part. I was looking over the schedule and it looks like classes are during the day which will make it more comfortable for me to drive to them. The semester is currently in session and ends on the 23rd of this month. I'm interested in starting in May after my boyfriend has left for his deployment. Plus I have to save up some money. Everything seems so disorganized in my head right now. Where and when will I be taking skating classes? Will I be able to fit a ballet class into my schedule? And I still need to take care of admissions for the computer technical school I want to apply to. I believe it starts in June or July. There's a lot of time management to do. Anyways, the gym on Monday went okay. Got to work on my stamina since I haven't been to the gym in a year and a half. I'm not as sore from pilates this time. Just my abs and back, but it'll probably only last a day. (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 3rd, 2005
6:10 pm	Recovering from sore muscles Well since Wednesday, my first day back to the gym in about a year and a half, I've been limping around the house with sore calves. Must've been from that pilates class. I was hoping to have made the cardio step class again on Saturday morning but my calves were still sore. Of coures TODAY they are fine. I hope my calves aren't going to get all sore like that again if I take the pilates class again on Monday. I would hate to miss the Wednesday classes. Plus there's a class on Tuesday called NYC Ballet, a type of excercise class incorporating ballet stuff. Thought it'd be fun to try and good to learn in preparation for figure skating classes. Was even thinking it'd be a good idea to sign up for ballet classes. My college is offering beginning ballet classes this summer. It's only a 5 week class though. But better than nothing. I really need to work on developing my flexibility, coordination, & balance. I was messing around these past four days at home just trying to balance while holding a spiral position and do a simple lutz jump on the floor. I definitely over rotate when jumping. And as for even a simple split jump, which I know is done in ballet and incorporated in figure skating, I can't even do that. Can't get any height or spread my legs apart very far. I've got a lot to work on. I feel pretty confident that I'll be able to keep busy while my boyfriend goes on a 7 month deployment. Hopefully working on my fitness and preparing and taking skating classes will make it more easy to pass the time and not miss him so much. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 30th, 2005
11:12 pm	First Entry! Well I've decided to document my progress on my newly decided goals in a livejournal, although I've never been much for journals. I've always shared things with friends and that was enough for me. But this new goal in particular is kind of embarrassing to share with anyone at the moment. I've come across others on the net with the same desire as me, documenting their progress, probably because they too are embarrassed, are more of a journal person, or want to document the developments of their attempts at acheiving said goal. First of all I'm not really one for giving out personal info on the net so I have elected to go by the name Jan Doe. I don't really like the name Jane that much, I'd much rather prefer Jan if I'm going to be a Doe. ;-) I'm currently a full time student at community college majoring in Computer Information Systems, hoping to eventually get into networking. So far I have taken the 101 class, QBasic, and this semester Visual Basic, Programming Logic & Design, Microsoft Excel, & just recently started an SQL class. I'm 21, but this is only my 2nd semester being a full time college student. I also took 2 semesters off previously. This summer I'm hoping to transfer to a computer technical school in hopes of attaining a degree in a year, year & a half so that I can get a job with a decent income. Now that I've finished introducing and telling a little bit about myself time to talk about this said goal. I want to become an adult figure skater. Atleast that is the term deemed to figure skaters that start skating when they have already reached adolescence or adulthood. I am not passionate about anything in my life right now except my boyfriend. I have no talents or anything I am dedicated to just because I'm passionate about it. I have tried to suppress this desire to become a figure skater thinking I'm too old and it's too late to learn. But upon searching the internet I have found that it can be done! Even if I turn out to be incapable of doing it I want to atleast give myself the chance to try and decide if it's for me or not. I roller skated and roller bladed as a kid. Didn't know any tricks though. Skated in circles at the roller rink just like everyone else. At the age of 14 in my freshman year of high school, one of the finals for one of my classes was to do a project on a winter olympic sport, it being an olympic year that year. That was back in the days of the short lived Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski battle. I fell in love with Michelle Kwan and figure skating. I taped every skating competition. My grandparents took me and my sister to see Michelle Kwan perform when she came to our city and I was able to snap a picture of her afterwards and get her autograph. The seating was not the best, but that made up for it afterwards. I remember when she first came out to walk down the path of fans waiting. I started yelling "MICHELLE!" as loud as I could and holding out my program for her to sign. She came straight to me first!!! I was in such shock the only words I could mouth were "Thank you so much!" Then she went across the way to sign more autographs. I went for $5 group skating lessons at the roller rink in my city. The only thing I really learned was to jump, by bringing my knees into my chest and spreading my arms out when I released them back to the floor. And also a two foot spin. I felt pretty silly in a class with a bunch of little kids. I attended the class only about two times and practiced a little on my own. I scraped my knee practicing the jump I'd learn and I couldn't get much momentum on my spin. I was practicing spinning once on the four square courts of my old elementary school when I saw someone watching. I think I might've known the person but can't remember now. But I was very embarrassed and tried to act distracted like I didn't know they were there. I don't remember practicing after that. Then my friend invited me on a trip with her to visit family, who lived in a city with a prestigious skating rink that many famous figure skaters had trained at. I was able to visit the actual private training rink and watch girls doing jumps for about 5 minutes. They were very strict and didn't allow recreational skating there or watching unless you were a parent. So they actually gave me and my friend a break. So we settled for the recreational rink. My friend clung to the edge while I started skating around. My first time skating on ice. There weren't many people on the rink and so I tried to teach myself to skate backwards at one end of the rink. I was slightly successful. Didn't do it very long and obviously I was not going at anywhere near top speed. I watched a guy doing a scratch spin in the middle of the ice enviously. I even saw him perform a single, don't remember the type of jump, although he didn't get much height. But it was still something he could do that I could not. I went ice skating again maybe once or twice at the rink back in my city, although it was kind of far. I investigated skating lesson costs but being a mere 15/16 year old I did not have the means to afford skating lessons. I think I might've asked my parents about it but most likely they told me it was too costly. I also skated at a temporary rink set up for the Christmas holiday. It was very small and wet. Being so wet made it pretty slippery. I took a pretty big fall and my pants were soaked. After a few years I became busy with work, college, & boyfriends and stopped watching figure skating and stopped thinking about it all together. I watched the movie "Shall We Dance" recently starring Richard Gere. A remake of the original Japanese version which I have also seen. I didn't expect the remake to be so good. Although it's about ballroom dancing and not figure skating, it's very inspiring about having passion & determination for something. Almost made me want to go out and learn how to ballroom dance heehee. But then I thought about figure skating. I can afford lessons now & have a viable means of transportation. The only problem now is time. I will not develop a skating career that's for sure so I must have a job to pay my bills & skating lessons. And I must go to school in order to get a more successful job with better income. Plus my plans to transfer to a technical school. Technical school is a lot more compressed and requires a lot of classroom hours. We'll see what happens. For now I have taken what I consider the first step towards my goal. I joined a gym today. It would probably help to be in shape right? I didn't think I would join just like that, I simply called to get membership rates. I had been a member of this gym 5 years or less ago but stopped going because I became busy with school, work, & boyfriends. And I was not seriously unhappy with my body. It certainly isn't perfect but I'm content with it and not obsessed about losing tons of weight or having the perfect body. Anyways, the gym said since I had been a previous member they would waive all sign up fees and I would just have to pay the $30 a month! Sign up fees can be costly. At the last gym I went to it was around $300 just to open a membership. I got lucky and only had to pay $150 because I worked at the movie theater across the street and traded passes for a membership "hookup." ;-) So before I knew it, I was in the office at the gym signing paperwork and charging $30 to my card for the first month. I was interested in taking this particular instructor's aerobics class which I had enjoyed in the past. My timing was perfect, there was a class tonight. I also decided to take her pilates class an hour before the aerobics class. Pilates is not as easy as it looks! It's definitely a workout, and I have about zero pilates experience. So I don't think I looked too graceful or that my form looked too great. I tried my best though. By the end of class I felt done, but stayed for the aerobics class which is actually a step class that has a lot of incorporated dance choreography since the instructor has a dance background. That's what made it so fun. You felt like you were dancing! Back when I used to take it I was pretty good and did all the advanced alternative moves instead of the basic ones. I was able to mostly follow along with the choreographed routine tonight. Had trouble with a few of the moves but finally figured them out near the end. Had to stick mostly to the basic moves instead of the advanced ones. I did ONE advanced one though. :-) I'd say I did pretty good for being rusty. But now I can feel the burn in every muscle of my body. I'm definitely tired! (1 Comment |Comment on this)