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Julie's Experience

Here is my more complete report on my experiences in Hamilton. I will type up until it's time to watch more skating at 9:00 LOL. I may also remember other interesting events or sightings, and post when they surface LOL.

Wednesday

I arrived at the hotel about 12:30 on Wednesday. I started to see skaters, coaches and skating commentators right away, starting with Sale and Pelletier. Jamie is one of those women who always look put together. The two of them were checking in as I headed for the elevator and my room. As I walked down the hall, I spotted John Zimmerman, who was always alone! I never saw Kyoko in the hotel, but I did see Tamara Moskvina several times.

I changed into a suit and heels to try my luck at getting into the arena, but I chickened out at the sign on the security door which read: Be Prepared to Show ID, or some such intimidating phrase. I knew I would see skaters if I returned to the hotel, so I just sat in a good place and the parade started. Steven Cousins, Sarah Hughes with Robin Wagner, Jennifer Robinson, who did say hello in the elevator, Lu Chen and Emanuel Sandhu went by in the general direction of the arena. 

Then at about 5:45 I looked up from writing notes and there stood Alexei and Tatiana, talking to one of the hotel bellmen. (yes, my heart started beating faster LOL) Alexei was wearing a dark grey sports jacket and lighter grey slacks, with black shoes and a yellow tie. I didn't catch the color of his shirt, darn it! He and Tatiana headed out of the lobby, into the attached mall, and turned toward the arena, which was situated at one end of the mall. After about 5 minutes, they came back into the lobby and walked up to the desk, where a man joined them and walked back out in the same direction once again. I think they must have either taken a wrong turn in the mall, or lost confidence in the directions they had been given (it was quite confusing in that mall LOL), but the man went out with them and took them all the way to the arena (I peeked LOL)

Alexei came back alone about a half hour later, carrying a cup of what looked like coffee, and I didn't see him again until the next day. This time he scanned the lobby, looking in all corners; luckily I had a smile on my face .

The other skaters whom I then saw were Todd Eldredge, Yuka Sato and Jason Dungjen, and the Wirtzes. Rosalynn Sumners, Josee Chouinard, Paul Wylie also walked through the lobby.

It was skate fan heaven LOL.

I will post this now before AOL shuts me down again, and come back with a bit more until it is time to go watch more skating at 9:00!

Julie

Thursday

Well, I was up early because I knew Laurie would be arriving early on Thursday, so I went down to wait in the lobby, and the airport bus got there in a very timely fashion at about 8:30. While she tried to get some sleep up in the room (after being up all night on the plane trip) I decided to stake out my corner in the lobby. And the first one down for the day was Tatiana, who headed out to the mall at about 9:00. Shortly thereafter, Tamara Moskvina took the same route.

The parade of skaters began with Jaime Sale, who picked up three coffees and a bag of pastries in the coffee shop and went back upstairs. she must be really nice LOL. Then Steven Cousins went in for his morning goodies.
At about 10:30, a man with a lot of paperwork to study sat down across from me. He was obviously waiting for people to join him, but I decided not to try to engage him in conversation, as he seemed unapproachable, you know what I mean? Well, finally his assistants joined him, and their meeting began right there. It turned out to be a producer of some kind, for the Sears Open TV coverage, so I got to hear the three of them laying out the program! The first thing the man told his assistants was that "Yagudin and Orser are the first to skate". There was discussion about the rest of the men's programs, including the plan to interview Alexei, possibly in costume. Then they discussed coverage of the pairs, with a S/P interview, of course, this being Canada LOL. There was the layout of the women's segment as well. I heard someone mention that there would be a practice session at 1:00PM.

The only other comment involving Alexei was that "we need lots of Yagudin, Eldredge and Orser" LOL. Because Dei Lynum was mentioned, I realized this was the ABC Sports producer. I expect the coverage will have some very good fluff on Alexei, at least I hope so!

The skaters who were walking through the lobby increased in number, Paul Wylie, Brian Orser walking his dog, Josee Chouinard, Sale and Pelletier, and then.......!!!! Alexei at about 11:20. He was alone, and wearing a white cable knit, V-neck sweater and jeans. He walked out into the mall, turning right into the shopping area, not in the direction of the arena.

About 5 minutes later, Tatiana and Tamara bumped into each other in the mall, and went into the coffee shop for a Russian gabfest LOL. Alexei must have spotted them in there on his way back, and gone in to join them because all three came out into the lobby together.

Alexei went upstairs, I guess, but came back in about 10 minutes, this time with a red cozy-looking jacket on, and went back out into the mall. He likes to be warm LOL.

Meanwhile, Todd Eldredge was observed walking into the mezzanine restaurant with sunglasses on. About this time, I saw Klara arriving, at last LOL. I went up and introduced myself, and almost immediately, there was Alexei behind us, talking with Tatiana. She was shy, and didn't turn around fast enough, and zip, they were gone.

Klara and I went for something to eat, and when Laurie joined us, we discussed how to get into the practices which were supposed to start at 1:00, as I mentioned. I wish I could report that we had no trouble getting in, etc, but alas, that is not the case.

So I will close this installment, and just to whet your appetite for the remainder of my report, LOL, I will now announce my newest keepership: all visible lines caused by underclothing, that are revealed by tight outer clothing.....got that LOL? This will be clarified in the next segment, I promise!

I have some time this morning 'cause it's snowing and blowing outside, and my planned sales trip for today has to be rescheduled. Good thing, given the weather out there!

Where we left off was trying to come up with a plan to get us into the practices. This is a major challenge, unless one knows someone, no surprise there LOL. We spent some time working on it but had to be content with more lobby watching, until it was time to get ready for the short programs. The arena is a smallish one, and the ice looked very good. No strange problems like "crunchiness" there. Our seats were in the 8th row that night. The arena was about 2/3 full, and we could have moved down closer, but we were content.

Laurie has given you wonderful reviews of the actual skating and the Alexei-watching we could do, because of the fact that he likes to come out and watch the ladies skating. So there he was, Klara spotted him first, and he seemed relaxed except for an incident where a man went down to him to ask for an autograph (no doubt for his daughter LOL), and Alexei signed it without smiling or conversation. Well, this was before he skated, so the man took his chances...

It was a great night of skating, and since it was my first time seeing world class skaters in competition, I was completely enthralled. I look forward to catching ABC's coverage on the 17th. We held up the banner, which had miraculously arrived thanks to Anna and the others, when Alexei came out to warm up, when he took the ice, and when he finished his skate and was taking his bows. He looked right at us as the bowed and waved to our side of the arena (across from the judges). I enjoyed waving to him as I held up the banner. BTW, as we waited for the evening's skating to begin, I had "made friends" with the fans behind us. I told them we would be holding up the banner for a few seconds, and that it was important that Alexei see it, and they had no problem with that.

In the bar, back at the hotel......

Well, we waited in a strategic location, in which we could watch everyone as they entered the bar. No Alexei, but we did spot Tatiana, Todd, Richard, Rosalynn, Tracey, Brian, LuLu, Paul, Jennifer, Dei and the Wirtzes. I also got to meet Amy Salamey, who is so experienced with comp-attendance LOL. She will have some awesome photos of this event. Nicole sat with us too, and amused us with her descriptions of her trip to Skate Canada.

Friday

The next morning Laurie and I worked again on the strategy for practices, but given the resources we had at hand, we could see it wasn't going to work this time. And believe me, we worked on it! We later learned that some of Todd's fans had managed to pull it off, thanks to a friend in the media.

Klara arrived back in Hamilton, and the three of us got through the rest of the afternoon. Some of the time was spent in the lobby, hoping to catch a glimpse of Alexei, but not this time LOL. We conversed with Shopper (Anne), and some others. This was cool, to exchange news of sightings of our favorites!

At the arena that evening, we had seats that were less than utterly desirable, back in Row 19. The lesson to be learned here is to get seats from the venue, not Ticketmaster if it is at all possible. But again, the people behind us were gracious about the banner, once I explained what we were going to do.

Alexei looked like a Roman Emperor sitting behind the judges during the ladies free programs! This time he was much more relaxed and conversational. I like it that he is so comfortable with the judges and officials.

Even thought we were higher up, when he took his bows after the interpretive free skate, he did look up and see the banner, bowing and waving to our side, and I like to think, to us too!

Klara had a plan that evening. She had brought the cutest gift to give to Alexei, and before he skated, she spotted a seat that was vacant, and on the aisle. She moved there so that she could get down to the boards right after he skated, and do what she planned to do. We watched avidly, because at first, Alexei skipped over her section of people waiting there, and skated along to about midway on the side. He worked his way back to the K&C area, hugging fans, collecting gifts and flowers, and finally got to Klara at last LOL! So not only could she hand him the present, but she got a nice hug too. Lucky girl!

Then Laurie and I quickly made our way out, and all the way to the hotel bar, aiming to get a good table where we could see everything.

We managed to get a table just outside the bar proper, mainly because the music was blaring that night, and in order to talk without screaming, you had to be outside LOL. We were soon joined by an elated Klara, and also Nicole who had brought in her many albums of skater photos. She knows her way around too!

After about an hour or so, Laurie spotted Alexei!!! There he stood, cute as ever, smiling and happy....the Sears Open champion! He wore a black short-sleeved shirt and khaki pants. He had gravitated to the table that was just one over from ours, and lucky me, I seemed to have the best view, mostly unobstructed! He socialized with the skaters there, who wanted him to join them. Todd, Richard, Rosalynn, Lu Chen, and Paul Wylie were visible to me, but there were others behind a large pillar. Before he sat down, Laurie urged me to approach Alexei, and believe me it didn't take me long to grab my calendar, a pen, and hand my camera to Nicole to set this whole encounter up!

I called softly "Alexei" twice, then he heard me and turned around. I pointed to my name on the calendar, and said, "This is me, Julie". He immediately looked up, smiled, and replied, "Oh, this is nice, I really like this, thank you very much!" My reply to him was "And we like you in it! We will be doing another one for 2002."

I then tried to get the pages to turn to June, my month, for him to sign it. But they wouldn't cooperate LOL, and he stopped me at July of 2001, and said, "this is good!" Well, I handed him the pen, and he signed there. Then I asked him if he would mind if we had a photo. Klara was on his other side, and Nicole, bless her, tried to get my camera to work, which was not happening either, we'll never know why! She then grabbed hers and did the job. Gosh, it was nice to stand there with his arm around me. He has such a manly scent, no cologne that night. I told Laurie that all my senses had been stimulated by this LOL: sight, hearing, touch, and smell! Well, not taste, but 4 out of 5 isn't bad!

Whew, I was relieved that I had achieved this little triumph, and when I sat down again, I looked at the page he had signed for me. Too funny, he had spelled my name "July"!! So it's my unofficial nickname now!

Well, this evening was far from over, because after this, he did not sit back down with the others for some time. No, indeed, he did something infinitely more interesting LOL. He leaned over the table, way over. I don't know why, but I was frightfully glad he did, because with my unobstructed view, I saw that cute cupcake butt, posed to the side (think "bump and grind" LOL), and that's when the new keepership was born, which I will repeat here:
"All visible lines caused by underclothing, that are revealed by tight outer clothing!" Are boxer shorts worn under tight khaki pants by a fashion plate of a 20-year old champion athlete with the perfect body?! I think not, and there is your answer, I hope! OMG!

Due to consideration, I didn't try to photograph this, and I doubt it would have shown up in a photo anyway, but I will always cherish the thoughts and mental images he provided me with that night LOL!

Whew, OK, more stuff that I wanted to mention. He spent some time sort of squatting down next to the table occupied by some of the judges. This was right next to us! We would have loved to have heard what the judges had to say to him, and vice-versa, but thanks to the blaring disco tunes, we heard not a word. Someone walking by almost knocked Alexei backwards, but like Peter Carruthers would say, due to his strong lower back, he saved himself LOL!

Well, there wasn't another Alexei sighting by me, even though Laurie, and at times Nicole, and I were trying to be in the right place at the right time. We had our breakfast in the hotel dining room on Saturday, and again saw S/P. Tracey Wilson was there, Rod Black and his wife and baby, which caused a gushfest, 'cause he's a cute baby LOL. (Rod Black does skating commentary with Debbi Wilkes for Canadian TV)

I had the luxury of being able to decide to stay one more night, and because of the possibility of seeing the Canadian broadcast of the event we had just attended, I did just that. At 2:00 in the afternoon, the short programs came on, and that show was three hours long! Then Laurie and I headed out for some dinner, together with Nicole, who also decided to stay for the broadcasts and had joined us in our room.

By this time, all the skaters were gone, so it was with much hope that at 7:00 we tried to get the next listed TV skating broadcast, the Cup of Russia, but the hotel did not have that particular station. So then we trooped down to the bar for a drink, and we began to create the wording for that wonderful keepership. It took several attempts, we laughed a lot, and I had a great time performing that little composition task.

Soon it was 9:00 and time for the broadcast of the interpretive free programs. Once again, we were able to relive the previous night's competition. We agreed with most of the judging, but disagreed with some too. That's what makes the fan world lively LOL.

By 8:00 the next morning we had all gone our separate ways, but I have some stunning memories, that thrill me every time I think of them. Alexei in his glory days, what a deserving champion. And he deserves all our love and support, which is why it is a joy to give it.

I probably will come up with a few more highlights to share with you, one funny one comes to mind....after the TV producer had finished his meeting and left the lobby on Thursday, and just before Klara arrived, Frank Carroll came over to my seating area, and pulled his chair around so that the back of it was towards me LOL, then sat down to read his newspaper! I was pretty sure by his body language that he didn't want me to engage him in conversation !

Julie