Official page Results! Reports!

Since I didn't write a review, I think it's my duty to at least write some tidbits...    I arrived Sunday evening, the day of Alexei's birthday. I took a taxi to the hotel, and within minutes I spotted Sharpie, who notified Laurie and Julie of my arrival. It was great meeting the girls, and after I got up to my room to leave my luggage, I went down to the bar where they told me what had happened at the practices etc. They also told me about the flowers and the balloons being delivered, making me wish I was there a couple of days earlier, but there were no airplane tickets available.    Of course I didn't want to go to sleep without seeing Alexei, but he didn't appear at the bar at all that night. However I did see him for a minute while waiting for a friend in front of the elevators on some floor of the Hyatt. I wished him "Happy Birthday," and while he was walking into the elevator I noticed he was limping. But he was in a good mood, and smiling.    I arranged with Laurie and Julie to meet the next day at the rink (Monday), and we sat together for the men's qualifying. I only watched Alexei's group, because I'm not a morning person either! I ended up sitting with the girls most of the week, since two of the ladies sitting beside them only showed up for the last couple of groups, and not even in all disciplines. When I couldn't sit with Laurie and Julie I sat with Heather, or a friend from Italy. I only had to go to my assigned seat once! (that was for the ice dance, LOL)    The men's SP was the best memory of the trip. I'll never know how many times I shouted "OH YES!" while waving the banner with Laurie and Julie. We were screaming so much that people around us joked about earplugs, LOL. The funniest part was when, after all that cheering, a lady turned to me, pointed at another woman who sat next to her and told me, "Excuse me, but this lady wants to know if you are related to Alexei Yagudin..."    No need to say that we were after that! Guess we made quite an impression on her!    Tuesday night I saw Alexei when he came back to the hotel, with his foot bandaged. He could hardly put any weight on it, and I thought, "If this is the price for that - admittedly incredible - SP, then I'm not sure if it's worth it." But he's such a fighter, and didn't let anything get to him.    We were all disappointed he didn't get first place at the SP (can't believe the judges gave it to Plushy on presentation!) and we tried to figure out who could finish in front of Plushy at the LP, in order for Alexei to win, LOL! Our dream didn't come true, but Alexei seemed to deal with it very well.    For the men's LP I couldn't sit with Laurie and Julie as the ladies came to claim their seats, but I didn't want to go up to the balcony either. I was lucky to find an empty seat at the judges' side, and not too far from the ice, so I took that one.    I was really looking forward to see Todd again, since I had enjoyed his two performances so far. He skated very well, and the crowd loved him! I was very happy for him medalling and he seems to be such a nice guy.    Me and Julie went to Skatefest after the LPs, and we saw Alexei in a very good mood there. By now you know how he cracked us all up during that looong anthem, by catching imaginary tears, putting his hand over his heart, looking at his watch, looking at the sky, blowing kisses to the audience and generally being adorable When it was over I heard a lady saying that she though he was very sweet and that made me smile all the way back to our hotel.    Ice dance is my second favourite discipline so I totally enjoyed myself on Friday. I went down to where Silvia, one of my friends from Italy, was sitting (she had a seat in the 2nd row!!!) and we watched the medal ceremony together. We shouted to Baby and Mauri to turn towards us for pictures, which they did, we waved Italian flags while they skated around the rink, and they came to salute us at the boards later    On Saturday I went to the Gala practice which was hilarious! S&P were playing with the crowd during the pairs practice, and Plushy did... "his stuff" during the men's and ice dance practice. I found him funny, but in a ridiculous way. I didn't mind him stripping etc, but I didn't really care for it either. I laughed and that was it. Gwendal came close to where we were sitting more than once and distracted us, LOL...    On Sunday I got invited to the banquet, which was really nice! We watched a video about the World Championships at the big screen, and I want a copy of that!!! Among other things, it had clips of either a single skater, or a pair, or ice dance couple, holding up a bunch of signs with short messages written on them. They held the first sign in front of the camera, then threw it away, so that the camera would show the second sign and so on (I hope that at least some of you understand what I'm trying to describe....). Well, among these skaters was Alexei too. His signs read: If I could change one thing in the world I would make everybody understand What it feels like To fall 100 times And stand when most needed    Needless to say I left an "Awwwww" at that, which I'm afraid was overheard by Nikolai... He was sitting at the next table...    Anyway, the video was over, and they awarded medals to the winners, as they always do. But when Alexei's turn came they said he had gone back to New York for treatment. So I didn't get to see him again. The food was great though.    Monday morning I saw Laurie at the lobby and we played "spot the skater" Later I caught the shuttle bus to the airport with Ivan Dinev sitting right behind me. I got the same plane with the Italians, the British, the Bulgarians and the Germans. But I slept for most of the trip, so nothing interesting happened there.    That's all! If anything else comes to mind, I'll tell you about it! Anna