Non-apologies

I hate it when people spend lots of time apologizing for not blogging, so I'm not gonna do it.

Suffice it to say I haven't been doing much domestic activity lately, so there hasn't been much to share.  It's been an unreasonably cold and grey winter here, and, probably in an attempt to bring warm, pleasant, hey-let's-go-out-and-DO-something weather to the region, I've been spending a LOT of time on my athletic hobbies of late.  One--swimming--is going VERY well.  I love my instructor/coach and the venue is very supportive--when I take class it's only other adults in the pool, and we have a great time. I think I am improving by leaps and bounds.  Every week I can tell I am a stronger swimmer than the week before.  I look forward to class and am reluctant to leave, and that's heartening and surprising for a person who decided ten years ago, after struggling for a year to swim competently, that she perhaps simply didn't like water.

The other--skating--well, I WAS making a great deal of progress this year but have had to change locations and instructors, and I'm not really making much progress right now.  The things I need to work on are very difficult to practice at public skating, and I'm still not far along enough to be eligible to skate during Freestyle hours.  I think I am rapidly approaching something of a crossroads with skating now--I've been doing this for several years, and I think I should perhaps be farther along than I am.  I am trying to decide if I should push forward to private coaching, but even finding out any info on how to do that is more difficult than it should be.  Or deciding whether it's worth it.  If I don't want to ultimately start testing*, then it might not be.  But I don't know if I want to test without more consistent instruction and getting over the hump on a few more elements.

It's very hard to get good consistent instruction, especially as an adult skater.  Folks tend to assume you're only on the ice to keep from being completely bored while your kid is in lessons, which is not my situation at all.  It's true that there are a lot of people in the classes for that reason initially, but in my experience the vast majority of those people want to learn, too!  Without a clear path to progress, though--adult classes so often feel like an afterthought, even though there are official curricula just like in the kids' classes--many of them simply fall by the wayside when a session ends or kids start the next season's sport or work gets busy--they don't have much incentive to keep pushing.  end rant.

So that's where I've been--at the skating rink or the pool, most days of the week.  I'm not apologizing for that, though I do worry some (hopefully without cause) that my domestic skills AND my writing skills are deteriorating.  I've only made one thing in the past month--a little near-instant-gratification clothing project that I'll show soon. 

*in order to participate in US Figure Skating Association competitions, you have to pass a battery of tests to demonstrate proficiency.  The tests are divided into levels.  Each level passed makes you eligible to enter certain competitions.  (You can go here for more info.)