.a trip to lala land.

To say that December 14/15, 2002, was the best night of my life might be cliché, but gods, I can't think of a truer statement.

Having bought tickets for the Hallmark competition in Columbus three months ago, I thought we were lucky just to see Alexei skate, considering the problems with his hip. But he had decided to skate anyway, coming in second in the technical portion of the competition due to his injury.

After frantically showering and taping skating at Mel's house, we all piled into the car - me, Mel, Rob, Leslie, and Emmy - and left for Columbus, all five of us screaming obsessively 'We're going to see Alexei!' The ride took an hour and a half, and we got to downtown Columbus in plenty of time to walk two freezing blocks to the Convention Center to meet up with fellow Alexei obsessors who post at the Alexei Yagudin Discussion Board.



These girls were all great. I had so much fun. We sat around for two hours before the show, eating and talking about Alexei. Laurie gave us all big buttons that say 'Proud Fan of Alexei Yagudin', which we displayed with pride for the rest of the evening.



We headed over to the Nationwide Arena about a half hour before the competition's evening artistic session was supposed to start. We skipped most of the way. Programs were three bucks, so we all bought one and headed to our seats. The arena wasn't completely full, but the crowd was great that night, and the five of us must have made almost as much noise as the rest of the audience combined.

This was the interpretive program of a pro-am competition. The pairs competiting were: Pang & Tong, Shen & Zhao, Sato & Dungjen, and Sale & Pelletier. The men: Takeshi Honda, Todd Eldredge, Michael Weiss, Alexei Yagudin. The women: Maria Butyrskaya, Sarah Hughes, Yuka Sato, Irina Slutskaya. There was a six minute warmup before each discipline.

The pairs judging was a little wonky. Sale and Pelletier won, of course, but most people thought that the Chinese pairs were severely undermarked.

After pairs, there was a thirty minute break; then NBC began to broadcast the men's and women's portions of the show live across the country.

We were soooo excited. People around us could tell after the six minute warmup that Alexei was 'our man'. We couldn't shut up about him.

He was skating slowly in practice. We were worried because we could tell he was hurting - but he still landed two clean triple toes and triple axel.

Seeing Alexei live is a religious experience. Live skating is ten times more powerful than watching it on television with the commentators blabbing away. It's much easier to get sucked into the program.

First was Takeshi Honda. He did really well, and the crowd loved him. The music was great.

Todd Eldredge was next. There were quite a few Todd fans there who wouldn't shut up, and it got a bit annoying, but he skated well. I didn't like Michael Weiss's routine, even though it was a crowd pleaser. It was a little too showy and Leo-esque - lots of flips and jumps and not enough real skating. But he received fairly high marks, and I think a lot of people expected him to win - until Alexei skated, that is.

It was the best version of 'Overcome' I've ever seen. He was in all black, as usual, and he was passionate, emotive, and perfect. Even with his hip hurting, he executed two perfect triple toes and a triple axel. He really felt the program, moreso than any other time, I think. He WILL overcome. He was brilliant.



As soon as he finished, the crowd was on its feet for a standing ovation. Everyone loved him. We were screaming, 'Alexei, we love you!' Em's sister said she could hear us on television.



When his marks came up, the arena exploded. Mostly 5.8s for technical. By this point I was making a complete ass of myself, but I didn't care. When his 6.0s for presentation came up, I shouted 'YEAH!' and pumped my fist. The crowd gave him another standing ovation. It was wonderful. I drank a whole bottle of water and I wasn't even skating. We amused the hell out of the people sitting around us. We were all breathless when he finished.

After Alexei, it was all downhill, but the women were nice. We wanted Yuka to win, but we were like 'She won't win'.

SHE WON! It was so cool. Sarah fell on a triple lutz and Irina skated well, but her marks were just lower than Yuka's.

There was an awards ceremony, and another standing ovation for Alexei when he skated out. The guys weren't given flowers [sexism, blah], so Sarah Hughes gave Alexei one of her roses and he was sniffing it. It was adorable.

All the skaters did a victory lap, and there was more howling and screaming 'ALEXEI!' on our part. Not sure if he heard us, but who gives a fuck? It was fun as hell.

We filed out of our seats, basked in the afterglow for a moment, and stared at a silent interview on television with Alexei afterwards. Having nothing better to do, we decided to go to the Hyatt Hotel with the rest of the Alexei gang to sit at the bar, chat, and wait for skaters, most of whom were staying there.

We sat there for hours, drinking beer, eating chips and cheese sticks, and talking with Laurie and the gang. We got there around 10.30 and stayed until 2am, because we knew if we left too soon we might miss a chance to see skating types. We were right.

Tatiana came in the door first. We were all, '... um, guys. It's Tatiana.' She walked on to the elevators while we were still in awe.

Sale and Pelletier walked by, but I must have been thinking about something else because I completely missed them. Todd walked past us to the bar. Emmy and Rob said, 'Hi Todd, you did a great job.' He said thanks.

At long last, around one in the morning, Alexei came down from the elevators. He was in blue sweater, grey sweatpants, and tennis shoes, and he talked to Maria who was sitting at a bar table, leaned over the railings, and called someone on his cell phone. He's ten times more beautiful in person than on television, and it was hard not to stare. We were just like, 'Um. Um. Um. Uhhhhhhhsklfjskdf. Shit.'

He went over to the bar, ordered a drink, sat down, and then went back to the elevators. We were all afraid that we'd missed our chance, but we didn't have to fear - he came down again. This time it was too much for us to resist. He was drinking a mixed drink and talking to Tatiana's assistant coach, Maria. He looked relaxed enough. Eventually, Leslie, Rob, and Emmy took programs and went over to him and asked him to sign them. He did. Leslie got him to sign mine. 'To Holly. Alexei'. I usually don't like autographs, but... having a memento of the evening is nice.

As Leslie, Em, and Rob ran down the hall to phone Em's sister in their excitement, I went with Jamie [one of the board girls] to give him a big thing of cds, and he talked to us for five minutes. He was so sweet. He was like 'Woah, this is all for ME?' At one point he pointed straight at me, looked me in the eye, and said something in Russian. I've never wanted to speak Russian so badly in my life.

He sat behind us for about a half hour total, during which we were all in complete La-La Land. We wanted to get a photo, because Jamie and Suze had asked and he had complied, but we didn't want to be locusts and we were all confused as to what to do. We didn't want to bother him again, but as he got up to leave, we realised we had nothing to lose.

He walked by. I said, 'Alexei?'

He turned.

I said, 'I really hate to bother you, but would you mind taking a picture with us?'

'Sure.'

All five of us piled around him, and he was quite bemused at us making fools of ourselves trying to figure out where to be in the picture. Maria took Leslie's camera and snapped a photo. He put his arm around me. His sweater was soft.



When the picture was over, I said, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. For everything.' Which is all I've ever wanted to say. Emmy congratulated him on his win, and he said thank you, and then he walked back to the elevators. We had a group hug. 'WE DID IT!' we were shouting, unaware that he was still standing a few feet from us and knew we were being complete idiots because of his presence.

Then Em and Rob went down to the last table and met Sarah Hughes, who signed their programs, although Rob said he made a complete ass of himself in front of her, saying 'We didn't want to bother you, but then we changed our minds.'

Finally, we said goodbye to Laurie and the gang. Jamie got all of our emails and I told Laurie I'd scan our picture for her. I love the Alexei girls. They're all awesome.

We skipped outside, hugging each other and saying 'We just met Alexei Yagudin.' We walked the blocks back to the parking garage and didn't even feel the cold.

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