- Joined
- Mar 14, 2007
- Country
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So I'm sure yall are all waiting with bated breath, or you'd probably not be reading this thread, about my cool experience in the suite. First of all, the suites are on the 2nd floor, no one is allowed up there unless they have a suite ticket. They treat you like a big deal. There are people just sitting around waiting to help you find stuff. I had emailed Brent to ask him if 7:30 was the earliest I could get in the suite and he said yes, Little Ceasars would have control of the suite until then. Well one of the nice helper people went and checked and said I could go in, there was food already, which was awesome since i had not eaten since breakfast. I don't play games of buying 1 cop of popcorn for $7 or whatever the heck Little Ceasars sells food for. So we had hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken wings, toppings for burgers and hot dogs, salad, popcorn, fruit plate, potato chips, 3 kinds of wine and 3 kinds of beer, and soda. It took Mirai a bit to get there as she was on Ice Desk. So I was eating, and one of the USFS people, not Brent, a lady, asked me if Mirai was my favorite skater. I said NO, I loved Mirai, but GRACIE is my favorite skater. So I got to have a 10 minute conversation about Gracie. This unknown USFS person says Gracie is really serious about coming back and is working very hard. I told her I feared she would quit after Rostelecom, and she said that would have been easy to do, but she didn't. We discussed how she is getting her jumps back! Yay! So anyway, back to Mirai. We went to watch the first group. There were about 6 tvs in the room, comfortable chairs by a fake fire, then those danged 6 foot chairs I can't get up on because I am too short, then 2 rows of stadium seating. View was really good, but of course very far. Mirai showed up during the first group, then she talked to us about the Memorial fund and how she wanted to be a skater who gave back. We then moved into the area with the comfortable chairs at the back so we could hear her better and that was when the Q&A happened. I ask about a billion questions of everyone I meet, some people like it and some people hate it. I tried very hard not to monopolize the conversation while at the same time realizing a bunch of people, well a few, were living vicariously through me. So Mirai comes off as a little reserved and someone who thinks very carefully about everything she says. She said she was nervous about Ice Desk but she ended up liking it. She's now thinking she wants to do more commentary in the future. She doesn't like to say bad things about other skaters but she knows sometimes you have to. She's still in school, she says she is a perpetual junior. She's studying International Business. She is rehabbing from her surgery and hates physical therapy. (I did not ask ALL these questions, I'm just trying to remember what she said so I don't forget anything). I did ask her about "Dancing with the Stars" and she was VERY careful with that answer. She said her partner was a lot harder on her than he appeared, the show is heavily edited and they have a storyline to push. She didn't quite put it in these words but I got the feeling she felt they had portrayed her as some kind of well, not evil, but not very nice person. She had a hard time dealing with Tonya Harding. She said it was a good thing that she was banned from figure skating, but she was glad she met her because she wanted to see what being around such a person would be like, or maybe to understand why..something like that. She did like the movie and thought Margot Robbie did a good job, but said it was a movie and they could spin it any way they wanted to, just like DWTS. Oh, something I *never* knew. Before she started skating (at 5) she was a golfer, and apparently a pretty good one for a 4 year old. She said one day it was raining outside, so she couldn't golf, and her mom decided to take her skating.
She took 2 learn to skate lessons and told her mom that is not what she wanted, she wanted a coach. LOL. A little girl asked how old she was when she first competed, I don't remember the age, but she said she was Peter Pan and she was awful. I asked her if there was video, LOL, there is but it is on VHS somewhere, never to see the light of day. She said she loved competing when she was little and kept coming in 4th and thought she was the best, looking back on it she wasn't very good at the time.. Lets see..I asked her what she thought of Alyssa's skate and she said she was very juniorish but good for her for landing the triple axel (she said it more eloquently but I'm tired and trying to remember everything). Lets see....I asked how it felt to land the triple axel at the Olympics. First of all, she talked about the press and all the questions and she was thinking "I don't know, I just want to skate, not be answering all these questions." Then she said she went out there and almost tripped over her own feet (I didn't see that, did you?) but she was like no, you've worked too hard to go down this way. Then she said after she landed it Alexa was like "You did it girl" and she was thinking no, I have one more jump. She finally said even though she didn't do as well as she had hoped in the individual event, a medal is a medal and she's glad she had it. I asked her if she had brought it and she said no
Lets see...some of yall will be quite interested in this I think as we have discussed this on the board before. I don't know how the conversation got here, but she said something about how not everyone can go to worlds/Olympics and there should be a different path to aim for if one wants to and she thinks it should be collegiate skating, not in it's current form, but like gymnastics (BTW, we both love UCLA's dance). Then the ice resurfacing was over, we (or I anyway) went to watch the next couple of groups. Then we had picture/autograph time, and at the instance of one person (you know who you are, girl) I allowed a picture of me to be taken with Mirai. It will be going in the vault next to the VHS tapes never to be seen. I also took one of her by herself. My nail game was stronger than hers, but she had me beat in every other category. I have red white and blue nails and she had no polish on. She signed an autograph card and a program for me (they gave out programs as well, which I think are at least $15). So, if any of you have questions please ask quickly before I forget the answers. Oh, and just because I felt moved to tell her this, I asked if she knew what the skate radio people said about her last year. She said no, and I told her they said "If anyone deserves to win an Olympic jacket it is that young girl." She said she didn't know and she seemed pleased. OH, and she and Adam really are as good friends as they seem and they did climb a roof and eat in and out. Ok, I think that is actually all.
She took 2 learn to skate lessons and told her mom that is not what she wanted, she wanted a coach. LOL. A little girl asked how old she was when she first competed, I don't remember the age, but she said she was Peter Pan and she was awful. I asked her if there was video, LOL, there is but it is on VHS somewhere, never to see the light of day. She said she loved competing when she was little and kept coming in 4th and thought she was the best, looking back on it she wasn't very good at the time.. Lets see..I asked her what she thought of Alyssa's skate and she said she was very juniorish but good for her for landing the triple axel (she said it more eloquently but I'm tired and trying to remember everything). Lets see....I asked how it felt to land the triple axel at the Olympics. First of all, she talked about the press and all the questions and she was thinking "I don't know, I just want to skate, not be answering all these questions." Then she said she went out there and almost tripped over her own feet (I didn't see that, did you?) but she was like no, you've worked too hard to go down this way. Then she said after she landed it Alexa was like "You did it girl" and she was thinking no, I have one more jump. She finally said even though she didn't do as well as she had hoped in the individual event, a medal is a medal and she's glad she had it. I asked her if she had brought it and she said no
Lets see...some of yall will be quite interested in this I think as we have discussed this on the board before. I don't know how the conversation got here, but she said something about how not everyone can go to worlds/Olympics and there should be a different path to aim for if one wants to and she thinks it should be collegiate skating, not in it's current form, but like gymnastics (BTW, we both love UCLA's dance). Then the ice resurfacing was over, we (or I anyway) went to watch the next couple of groups. Then we had picture/autograph time, and at the instance of one person (you know who you are, girl) I allowed a picture of me to be taken with Mirai. It will be going in the vault next to the VHS tapes never to be seen. I also took one of her by herself. My nail game was stronger than hers, but she had me beat in every other category. I have red white and blue nails and she had no polish on. She signed an autograph card and a program for me (they gave out programs as well, which I think are at least $15). So, if any of you have questions please ask quickly before I forget the answers. Oh, and just because I felt moved to tell her this, I asked if she knew what the skate radio people said about her last year. She said no, and I told her they said "If anyone deserves to win an Olympic jacket it is that young girl." She said she didn't know and she seemed pleased. OH, and she and Adam really are as good friends as they seem and they did climb a roof and eat in and out. Ok, I think that is actually all.
