First Alexei sighting....
Kim and I arrived late Thursday afternoon; Janice wasn't due to arrive until late Friday afternoon. So Kim and I pretty much hung around the lodge for most of Thursday night. It was raining off and on, and because of the outdoor rink usually looking like a lake, and the construction going on in the indoor rink (the Zamboni entrance was all jack-hammered up so the Zamboni had no access to the ice), the skaters had a rough time trying to get practice time in. On Thursday night, we saw Sasha Cohen, Lucinda Ruh, and some of the professional skaters practicing. No sign of Alexei or Steven Cousins. We still weren't too alarmed about the weather because it seemed pretty sporadic - there would be a downpour but then the sun would come out. But we were getting a little concerned because the weather forecasts kept calling for more rain.
On Friday morning, we went out to the outdoor rink, which was flooded, so we checked out the indoor rink. We saw a few of the professional skaters, and Ari Zakarian (who I was surprised to see because I hadn't seen him there when I was in Sun Valley in July). Ari looked very busy coaching a young skater, so I decided not to go ask him if Alexei was here. No sign of Alexei, and we were starting to wonder if he was here or was even coming. The rain stopped for a while, and the Zamboni driver cleared off the water from the outside rink, so the skaters were able to practice the afternoon practice session at noon. About 2:00 p.m. or so, Kim said to me that she thought Alexei had arrived. He was standing pretty far away from us, surveying the rink from the rail in front of the lodge - we were sitting on the bleachers at the east end. She said she spotted him because of his broad shoulders, LOL...I thought she was extraordinarily calm for someone having a heart attack,
LOL...
I swear, it turns out he had just arrived in Sun Valley, but there is no way someone just stepping off an airplane from such a long flight from the east coast could possibly look that good, so he must have checked into his room and freshened up first, LOL...He was wearing a beautiful gray ribbed sweater and black slacks, his gold jewelry was gleaming in the sun (the sun was out at that moment, dontcha know!), along with his highlights. He held up his cell phone and dialed a number, and then flicked his left hand through his hair. He looked like he had just stepped out of the pages of GQ magazine, not a hair out of place, and he couldn't have made a more spectacular entrance if he had staged it.
He watched the skaters for a while longer - Sasha Cohen seemed to catch his eye - and then he sauntered over to the backstage area where some of the skaters were sitting down, and gave Ari Zakarian a big hug, greeted his other friends, and then he and Ari strolled back to the lodge and sat down at one of the outdoor dining tables to order food. Leonova and Khvalko joined them shortly. Kim and I decided we had watched enough skating from the hard bleacher seats, and we also thought it might be a good idea to take a table outside the lodge and "watch the skating from there." We also went into the bar and brought out drinks so we'd look like we had a reason to be there besides watching the scenery. We were actually trying to be unobtrusive and inconspicuous, but I guess we failed, because we did have to walk by Alexei to go into the bar to get the drinks, and he looked right at me when I walked by him. I felt I had no choice but to say "Hi!" as I walked by - it seemed ridiculous to pretend I didn't know who he was when obviously at some point in time I was going to give him my gift and get my calendar autographed, LOL. But from that point on, I think he knew he had fans around, LOL...We didn't see anyone approach Alexei or seem to have a clue who he was (other than skaters, of course) the whole time we were there except after the show. And when he paid the bill and he and his friends got up to leave, he turned around and looked straight at us, LOL...Oops! That was embarrassing!
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Sasha Cohen practices while Alexei watches at a distance |
Second Alexei sighting...
On Friday night, Janice had arrived and we all went out for the Friday night dress rehearsal. Of course, it was raining steadily at that point. There were no spectators out there and we saw just a couple skaters rummaging around in the skate shop next to the rink. Alexei arrived, completely bundled up from head to toe in a hooded parka, looking like Nanook of the North - but we knew it was him because he pulled down the parka hood to run his hand through his hair, LOL! He then put on a baseball cap and never removed it, LOL...and it was one pathetic picture of a morose and glum looking Alexei peering out under his wet parka hood, looking at the "lake" that was supposed to be a rink he was supposed to perform on the next day. A couple other skaters put tentative toes onto the ice like, "See? It's not so bad, we can skate on this!" - as their blades dipped three inches under water, LOL...they finally gave up and went to the indoor rink. Alexei did tentatively go out onto the ice there, stroked around for about a quarter of the rink, did some single line footwork down the middle, and then decided he'd rather go chat with Ari by the boards. A little later, he made another stab at it - stroked a bit, did another footwork sequence down the center, and gave up in disgust.
He and Ari Zakarian finally went off to the lodge lobby to chat, followed shortly by other skaters. So, of course, we decided that the lodge was our place to be, as well. And as luck would have it, the bar was full and so lots of people were spilling out into the lobby to have their drinks out there, which we did. This time, he didn't spot us - we were getting better at this, LOL....he still looked cold, though, still bundled up, even though he was sitting close to a fireplace. Now we were getting seriously concerned about the rain. It looked like it was getting worse, not better.
Third Alexei sighting...
Around 6:00 a.m., the downpour woke me up and it did not let up for hours. Kim was totally depressed, and I was thinking it looked pretty grim. I asked one of the employees if they were going to cancel the ice show because of the rain, and he said they had canceled it once before due to rain. He didn't think it looked promising, either. We all went out to the scheduled afternoon practice. Of course, not a spectator to be seen or any skaters. But we went to the indoor rink, thinking the skaters *had* to practice if the show was going to be on that night. And sure enough, they were there. They had somehow gotten the Zamboni on the ice even though they were still working there.
Alexei looked dressed to kill in a tight black T-shirt and black pants, black jacket - no gloves - perfect hair, LOL. No baseball cap today. I think he forgot his gloves because he always looked like his hands were cold and every so often he would blow on them or try to cover them by pulling the arms down on his jacket. But he looked very serious, very focused and ready to skate. I think he definitely knew he had to practice - bad ice or not - if he had a chance in heaven of getting through his programs that night. Most of the other skaters were there, including Steven Cousins this time. We were just about the only spectators - everybody else was either a skater or a coach or was a Sun Valley staff person. Alexei practiced for about an hour, starting with warming up, stroking around the rink at the speed of light. His first jump attempt was a single loop-single loop-single loop combination. Wonder if he is going to do something with that. He then worked on triple toes and triple loops, along with a few double axels. He also worked on his spins, specifically sit spins and scratch spins. He also did a lot of footwork sequences. He did not run through any of his programs so there was no way to tell which programs he was planning to do.
We stood by the boards and I took photos and notes while Kim and Janice videotaped. Steven Cousins came over to the boards to say hello to us and was very nice. The Sun Valley staff lady who runs the backstage after show action came over to us and said, "That was Steven Cousins - he's eight time British Champion!" LOL! Like we didn't know.... Sasha Cohen came over to us and asked if she could borrow one of our umbrellas. I figured she needed it because the roof was leaking and she was getting wet, LOL - but she told us she was planning to do "Singing in the Rain" tonight with it. We figured she was kidding and just wanted to goof around with the umbrella. Alexei seemed wary of her umbrella and kept his distance, LOL...he just stuck to business and worked hard on his elements, occasionally glancing over at the welder working on the Zamboni entrance. Sometimes he looked cold and miserable, sometimes he laughed and joked with Steven Cousins about the condition of the ice, and sometimes he looked every inch the king of the ice.
After the practice, we went up to the lodge where someone was asking one of the staffers about the ice show. He told us and them the show would go on, even if they had to stop the show for a bit if it started raining too hard. He said they had never canceled a Sun Valley ice show due to rain. We felt somewhat reassured that the ice show would go on that night since they were still selling tickets to it and they seemed so adamant that it would go on. And while we were sitting in the lobby, Alexei walked in and the staffer was reassuring him the ice show was definitely going to happen. Alexei didn't look too convinced,
LOL...
Fourth Alexei sighting...
About a half hour before the show was due to start, we went to the indoor rink to see if the skaters were warming up. They were, and Alexei was there and working hard, and looking very grim indeed. I think he was concerned that he hadn't had one single minute of practice time on the rink he was supposed to perform on that very night. We also now had an inkling of at least one of his programs, because he went over and started his "Gladiator" music, even though he just played a few bars of it. Then the Sun Valley staffers shooed all the spectators out of the rink and we went to sit in our seats in front of the outdoor rink. It had stopped raining, but it was very, very cold.
Onwards to Laurie's show review!
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