Spins, Jumps, Moves

It was very foggy this morning! Wow... As usual, the 7 a.m. time slot, on the ice at 6:45. Today's lesson:

• Stroking -- continuing to work on improving posture, we did CW this time (last couple of times were CCW). I feel really dumb but Sonya says I look much better holding my head up :-).
• Spins -- a couple of two-foot spins and then on to one-foot. Working to get a softer knee on the step forward, and to actually step onto a FO edge. My prints these days are more like spiral (like a seashell) than the curlicue that they had been -- when I pointed this out to Sonya she grabbed her marker and drew a snail into the "shell". Who says we don't have fun in our lessons?
• Back Russian stroking (back perimeter XOs) -- this is a Bronze move. We worked on it for just a little bit; Sonya reminded me of the correct placement of the BXO. I need to get a bigger lobe on the left foot. These are fun!
• 3-turn pattern -- bleah! Wow, these were really not so great. Even the R side was not too great. We'll need to work on this more.
• Step forward from BXO -- we worked on these briefly, in part because of the judge's comment about not finishing my BXO pattern appropriately (I think. This occurred to me later, it's not something Sonya mentioned). I really wanted to bring the foot out and then step forward, but Sonya made me actually do it right from the BXO (so the foot is behind and you have to bring it out and open the hips). Eeep, this was a little scary. More practice required.
  
• Waltz jump -- we had not looked at this in a looooooooonnnnnng time. The first one was not so great but the second one had a reasonable amount of spring to it. We worked on getting a softer knee and holding the LFO edge a little bit before the jump. Some progress though, and Sonya seemed happy with them (for now at least).

When I got on the session I started playing my holiday mix CD. During my lesson we got to the point on the CD where Adam Sandler's "Chanukah Song" was on, and I whined at Sonya that I'd put that song on just for Tay and she wasn't even there! (she has the lesson right after mine) Lo and behold, 5 seconds after I say that, who do I see getting on the ice but Taylor. I had to laugh, it was pretty funny, it was like she was waiting for her cue! Ha!