I’m going to be sticking in bed all day. I hate to do that. But I got blasted bad with either a stomach bug or something like food poisoning last night and have only enough energy today to lift the remote control, flit through some channels, reminding myself of why I never watch television, and fall back asleep.
Was fine one moment, making plans with H.o.p. to make a little dinosaur today, and then whap, down she went. And came out of it with a seering headache.
Television is awful. Who can stand to watch this crap? So depressing. Though I have been thinking about how much moolah it takes to be a top contender at the Olympics and today saw a segment on a show about the figure skaters outfits costing $3000 to $4000 each. That’s $40,000 worth of figure skating outfits for one skater they mentioned, over the past few years. I don’t remember which skater because I was only briefly awake after falling asleep after watching five minutes of a Roseanne Barr rerun. May have been one of the Hughes sisters. Was wondering who picks up the bill for this stuff. Was thinking about those outfits last night while lying in bed after being blasted with whatever it is put me there because I turned on the television to give my misery some background music (as it were) and so was watching the women’s short program, internally rooting for everyone because I don’t know anything about any of them and have no favorites, watching through my fingers when they jumped because I’m such a wimp and needed some kind of barrier between myself and the falls.
I liked it that the top Russian woman in the short program wore pants. I hadn’t realized that before it was against the rules for a woman to wear pants. Whatever for? Why wouldn’t a woman figure skater be able to wear pants???
I don’t care if what a figure skater wears makes them look like they came off a Mardi Gras float. I like Mardi Gras. For all I care they can go out in nothing but prismacolor full body make-up and a g-string. I don’t care. The costumes give me something entertaining to think about if their performance doesn’t blow me away, the mechanics of the costume and what it’s supposed to do with the eye. Last night, despite my misery, some of the artifacts on the costumes had me wondering about what kind of optical illusion a design might be trying to create that might help their chances. I in particular thought about this with one of the Japanese women who had the glittering high neck costume, a glittering bar extending down from the high neck over the torso.
I did like the pants on the Russian skater. The pants caught my attention.
I liked Miki Ando’s costume. Can’t find good pics of it but it had a cute green something on the skirt that reminded of Japanese street fashion’s idea of a bow. She’s a pop star dressed up in figure skating attire and for some reason I liked this with her.
Every time a commentator talks about “the long road” a teen-age athlete took to get to the Olympics, I want to…well, I don’t want to do anything, I just think, “Ah, c’mon.” Teen and ‘long road” equals success does not a real equation make.
The commentators go on about it all like athletics is all about the prime examples rising to the top, like anyone with a small patch of ice and a ragged set of skates (or skis or what have you) can make the Olympics. But, seriously, how much does this training cost? I look it up and see it costs between $30,000 and $50,000 a year for a figure skater to compete at the national or international level. Below is an estimate of average costs:
* Skates = $1,400
* Ice time = $5,000
* Coach fees = $15,000
* Choreographer fees = $2,400
* Music = $270
* Costumes = $1,200
* Practice clothes = $825
* Off ice training (ballet, gymnastics, etc.) = $5,500
* Travel to and from the practice rink = $600
* Food and lodging at competitions = $5,000
* Travel expenses for coach = $9,000
* Hotel and tickets for family at a competition = $6,000
* Photography and videotaping = $275
* ANNUAL TOTAL = $43,470Source: http://www.skatersupport.org/
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And then there’s the cost of training to even get to that level.
Seems very few aspiring athletes are going to be able to manage this.
I suppose I should instead be posting about Sasha Cohen. So here goes. I liked the skirt of her outfit. I want a tablecloth just like that. She kept reminding me of Lesley Ann Warren dancing in Victor Victoria. Which isn’t a bad thing. I liked Lesley Ann Warren dancing in Victor Victoria.
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