I said, "Thank you, I worked very hard on it." She said, "I can tell you did." Some ladies came up to us and asked, "Are those seats beside you eight and nine?" I replied, "No, seats four and five, after I double checked. Of course while I double checked, the Advanced ticket forms fell off both of the seats. I said, "Oh no, the forms fell off those seats." My mom asked, "Can you get them ?" I said, "Yes, I can, grandma can you hold the poster?"

She joked with me when she said, "Of course Suzanne, I can hold your poster , I am taking your bed tonight." I chuckled and bent down to the floor , then I got down on my hands and knees and I picked the forms up from under the seats and I gently placed them back on. A while later on, my seat mates came along and we let them in , they slid past me, but I fell down onto my seat, while it was still folded up !

Oh my that was an interesting experience. I finally got seated and I told the ladies and little boy behind me that we had five more minutes until the show. However, people were still arriving and taking their time getting to their seats. But, I noticed some of the crew members pushing out this huge silver circular object a little ways out from the black skating tunnel. Each year I also noticed the empty on ice seats , most of the people were seated in those sections , and I still could not get over those empty seats! Then I noticed that all of the rows in front of us were only half full ! I thought, Yay , Alexei will see my poster really well ! That was also nice because, my dad could sit in front of us. I was tempted to sneak into the row behind the on ice , but the security guard was standing right by them. I decided that I would be on the security guard's good side this year.

Then all of the sudden the lights dimmed and thunder crashed , while lightning flashed all around. The cast came out one by one , but I really can not tell you who came out first . Because, if I may be honest my focus was on spotting Alexei . My dad said, "There's Alexei." I said, "I don't know, I am looking for him." Because I thought my dad asked me, "Where's Alexei ?" However, my dad said, "No, he is in the striped shirt." I was like , "Oh yeah, now I see him." I smiled and clapped for the rest of the cast . The cast all gathered around that silver, circular object, and this voice spoke above us, and it told us that it had seen all of the wonders of the universe, and that it had been on so many wonderful journeys etc. Then it asked, "Who am I ?" I wondered who it was, and then it answered, "I am your imagination of course."

I thought that was really cool, and I discovered that the big , circular, silver, object actually moved, like a merry go round.  Because all of the ladies sat on it , and the men pushed while I am assuming the ladies had their legs out . That was a very neat effect as well, that happened while the cast skated to Pure Imagination. I loved the lights, they reminded of this show I saw at Sea World last summer. Jamie Sale, David Pelletier, Anton Sikharulidze , Elena Berezhnaya, Kyoko Ina, and John Zimmerman were all so graceful as they seemed to flow across the ice. Then the music changed over to , Let Me Entertain You . Alexei certainly entertained my section when he flew up into a dazzling triple Axel and landed the jump with out any problem. yelled, "Wooo, Alexei!" He smiled too, I loved to see him smile. He seemed very happy . I already knew that the show was going to be amazing. I stood up for Alexei as well , when his name was announced. Todd Eldredge had very nice spins , one was a very fast scratch spin at the end. Orlando gave Todd a very warm reception. I gave him a standing ovation, with each year he seems to improve more and more.

While Todd left the ice, I realized that the rows in front of us were still empty!  Some late arrivals found their seats, but not around us. The security guard was still there though, so I did not try anything. A strange fortune teller came out onto the ice, and she peered into her crystal ball. She was very funny when she said to this man sitting on the ice, "I know that your ticket does not match the number on your seat. Shame, shame on you."  Then she told us that we were going to see a wonderful show with beautiful women and handsome men. Then she got hyper when the bottom of the crystal ball said, "Property Of Ice Capades, 1979."
She skated off the ice as if she were very upset and she exclaimed to Ekaterina Gordeeva , "PROPS!" I thought she was funny and very interesting. Ekaterina Gordeeva skated out further on to the ice, she was very graceful and moving , yet very energetic as she skated to the music of Awakening. I gave her a standing ovation as well. I felt that she did a wonderful performance. Two guys came out, and I could not tell who they were because they were in the dark, I thought I saw Steven Cousins and maybe David Pelletier came out with him. Anyway, they had this black , magic curtain with two ends that folded. Kyoko Ina was waiting out on the ice in a red skating dress. She went inside the curtain and the two men folded the ends, then she came out wearing a black sparkling dress!  The audience was amazed and astounded , I know I was. Then John Zimmerman joined her and they skated to the music of Harder to Breathe, a new song by Maroon 5. I really enjoyed the music , and some of the lifts they did were amazing. At one point , he threw her into a triple throw jump , she flew through the air! Then she made a perfectly smooth landing. At the end of their performance, I jumped up and gave them a standing ovation.

Michael Weiss was next to perform, I never really got into Metallica and Led Zeppelin. Actually , when he skated to his Led Zeppelin Tribute in last fall's broadcast of Skate America, he scared my brand new six month old parakeet. I wanted Petie to get used to and even to like watching figure skating on the television , so that I could watch the competitions and special shows. Petie was enjoying the skating and he calmly watched, until Michael Weiss came out dressed in that weird out fit and that loud music startled Petie.  My poor little bird hid in a corner of his cage and would not come back to his perch until that program was over. He did skate a very clean program and got the crowd going when he skated on his heels , with his Freedom blades. I clapped for him out of respect and I gave him a small "Woo."

After he went back into the skating tunnel , I turned my attention to the men that came out. Steven Cousins came out wearing a striped shirt , some dark colored or gray pants, and an old fashioned cap like the news paper boys in big cities used to wear. I was a little confused about the different costumes, but I still liked Alexei's much better . He came out wearing a long, sleeved light blue shirt. I want to say he also wore tan pants , but don't quote me on that. Some of the other guys wore the same costume as Alexei. I had seen pictures of this performance and I was really looking forward to seeing TKO live! Steven Cousins, Todd Eldredge , David Pelletier , Alexei Yagudin , and John Zimmerman threw fake punches at each other. As if they were all champion boxers. I loved the sound effects that followed the guys as their fists were punching each other.

To Be Continued!

 Alexei gave some powerful blows, but he still ended up knocked out on the ice, Awwwww. Steven Cousins was the winner at least from what I believe. He went by each guy and made sure they stayed down. I also thought it was cool, how the guys that fell down formed a line. The guys got up and we all clapped and cheered , then the guys had so much action going on , I could not keep up with who did what. I do remember Alexei laying on the ice and all of the guys were pushing him along and he rolled , then they whisked him underneath their legs. Before they all exited back into the black skating tunnel, each one carried a box over to this dolly , but I really could not tell because my seat was soo far away. They stacked each box on top of the other. Alexei acted like he could not lift the box, because it was too heavy. I chuckled at that, because he was such a funny guy. I had no idea how she got in there, but the door opened and out came Sarah Hughes! I thought that was very clever, she skated a very moving perfomance to a song called Raindrops Will Fall . She was graceful and beautiful out on the ice. I really liked how she bowed with finesse, and waved to each section, that was very nice.

Then David came out with Steven or maybe it was Todd. I really can not remember just like I could not remember last year ! Anyways, the poor soul had a rotten umbrella it looked like lightning had struck it at least one hundred times! The umbrella was all tattered and torn, and the rain was coming fast ! I did not know how this was done , I guess David knew how to do magic, he either shook it a couple of times or waved his hand over it. He gave it back to the guy with him and his umbrella opened up like brand new. Then the rain came down just after the two of them had their umbrellas opened up. The audience yelled and clapped for them , that was a cute transition number. At this point, I also found out that one of my seat mates was an Alexei fan too! I told both of the ladies about how I was a member of his Official Website. They both thought that was pretty cool, and I thought that it was awesome I could yell for Alexei and not hurt their ears LOL. Actually , that was what one of the ladies was afraid of doing , hurting people's ears ! I thought that was funny .

Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikhaurlidze flowed out on to the ice, and skated a very moving performance to music called If I Could . The performance was filled with passion, and romance. One lift they did, nearly gave me a heart attack! Elena was in the air , and she just did a free fall and that scared me half to death ! However, Anton caught her before she hit the ice . That was astounding , I really enjoyed the thrills and the chills these two skaters provided. I gave them a standing ovation and loudly cheered for them. I did remember the next transition number , Todd Eldredge , Sarah Hughes, Elena Berezhnaya , and I think Steven Cousins was with them of course it could have also been David Pelletier . Anyway all of them came out with these silver balls attacthed to these red strings. They were also wearing red outfits.
They attempted to hypnotize all of us. This deep male voice said, "You are getting sleepy, very sleepy, by the time you wake up you will buy Stars on Ice t-shirts for all of your family and friends." Then they came to the next section as the voice continued, "You are very sleepy, so sleepy that when you wake you and your friends will never ever laugh at the word Salchow. Yes, Salchow ." The skaters put their heads down after he said that. Then they came to our section and the voice said, "You are getting sleepy, so sleepy that you won't even pay attention to what is going on down on the other end. You will not care about what the men on the other end are doing."

Well after hearing that, I looked and I saw a white ribbon , and a figure hanging in the shadows. I knew in an instant that the dark figure was Alexei. Alexei started Passion by coming out of the ribbon, he had on a nice tight, black tank top oo la la . The black pants were a nice touch too, I watched in absolute awe , while the music to Passion played on. Alexei twirled up in the air, hung upside down , with only his feet wrapped around the ribbon. At one point, I had to cover my eyes when he began to free fall, I saw his feet quickly wrap themselves around the ribbon again when I uncovered my eyes. His head was inches from the ice ! He came down on to the ice and astounded us all with his grace, power, and his beauty.

He flew into another triple jump and he landed the jump near my section . I was thrilled at that , he had a slight hand down on the ice , but I loved him anyway and I still thought he was pure magic. When he went back up into the air, he did three flips forward one right after the other. His strength was clearly shown , he was a true inspiration on ice. Yet, he was still so far from my section when he did his bows, however, that still did not stop me I felt like I was chasing a distant dream. I held my poster up and I yelled as loudly as I could, " I Love You, Alexei !" He turned away, but I still wanted to try, as I held my poster up again I yelled even louder, "I LOVE YOU, ALEXEI!"

He heard his name and he turned to my section again, but I don't think he saw my poster. I had a few more tries, the show was not over yet and I held on to the hope I had in my heart. We all yelled and cheered and I remained standing until he had left the ice. The rest of the cast came out , and they all made a formation that resembled a roller coaster. These cool rollercoaster sound effects boomed out over us. I felt like we were all going for a ride. I really thought it was cool how they skated together to form the rollercoaster. On the imaginary hills, they lifted their arms up and yelled, "Whoo!" I knew that I would have been screaming and I would have hung on to safety bar for dear life if I was really on a hill. My rollercoaster riding days were over, the older I gotthe more I valued staying on safe ground.
Then they acted like a magic bus , and the songs that played were Who Are You, My Generation, they all kind of danced to that very cool. Behind Blue Eyes, and Magic Bus , and I believed at that point Alexei cleverly sneaked back in for part of Magic Bus and he stayed with the cast to finish with Love Reign O'er Me. The cast all had their red umbrellas again and as the song played , I said, "Just don't rain on us." The two ladies beside me laughed and then the rain just poured down on the cast ! It had rained so much there were puddles left on the ice! I gave all of them a quick standing ovation before they quickly skated for the black skating tunnel.

To Be Continued!

 Part Three: Intermission, Then Back To The Show!

Todd Eldredrege came out and said, "Hey Orlando, are you having fun tonight?" We all shouted, "Yeah !" He said, "We are going to take a quick break then we will begin the second half of our show, once we are ready back here. You saw some magical things, men flying, rain falling inside . You don't want to miss the next performances , we will have even more exciting things to see. All of the cast of Smucker's Stars on Ice really enjoy coming to Orlando. You all are so great not only are you loud, you are certainly loud and enthusiastic, but over the past three seasons, you have helped raise two hundred and fifty-thousand dollars, that is going to The Boys And Girl's Club Of America, so you can help them discover the joys and wonders of reading."

I was very touched by his compliment , I always did try to be loud and proud , and I also felt very excited to be contributing to such a worthy cause by helping the funds for books to be met. I am very passionate about reading myself, and reading inspired me to write and to imagine, and to always dream.  During intermission , I sat back and I enjoyed the music , some of the songs that played were, Wendy, and California Dreaming . I sang along with California Dreaming for a little bit. I sang, "All the leaves are brown , and the sky is gray, I went for a walk on a winter's day." Then I listened to the rest of the song, and I enjoyed the goofy weather forecaster . One of his lines was, "Now, for the extended forecast, f -o-r-e-c-a-s-t-tttttttttt." I laughed at that very funny , ha ha ha ha ha. I was also very happy to see the Zamboni again YAY! I watched in astonishment as the water puddles magically vanished into thin ice . Ha ha ha, just kidding.

Once the ice was cleared and every one was seated, the lights grew dim. Alexei came back out for Mr. Blue Sky, the music was very cool and interesting and different. Sarah Hughes, Steven Cousins , Todd Eldredge , David Pelletier, and John Zimmerman joined him. I did not quite understand about the umbrellas, because the song was talking about blue sky and sun shine.I guess the guys needed the umbrellas as props for Sarah Hughes to go under . Maybe they thought swords were too dangerous, again I am just kidding. Over all, this performance was very fun, upbeat , and sweet especially at the end when the guys formed a heart with their umbrella handles Awwwwwww.  I also liked how each guy did this fancy twist like turn once Sarah passed under their closed umbrellas.

I could not remember the next transition number, my memory was just so foggy, and who really paid attention to them? I tried, but some times I was too anxious for the next act so, I really did not pay close attention to each one. Unless Alexei was in one, then my eyes are glued to the transition act.  Anyway, I am sure it was either funny or entertaining . Ekaterina Gordeeva came out once again and skated to a sultry song called Heartburn. She showed off her sexy side , and her flirtatious side , she had amazing jumps and I also think she performed a nice Russian split.

Then Steven Cousins came out after three ladies in red skated around with red feathers. They reminded me of birds, I am sorry, but I did not remember who the ladies were, I liked last year's description of the acts and how they included the titles of the transition numbers and the skaters that participated that really helped me write my review and jog my memory. Anyway he was way down on the other end and he had his shirt off for a few minutes , and then he skated out on to the ice and he put on a white under shirt, I would not really call it a tank top. I watched him, but my mind was trying to figure out how I could show Alexei my poster, because. so far the skaters did their bows over to the left.  My section was like close to the far right, I really felt like I was a million miles away.

His performance and song was called Come Back To Bed . The song was moving, and heart felt and Steven did a great job , I clapped for him at the end. Then Steven stayed out on the ice , he was given this fancy , red silky robe rich guys wear when they wake up in the morning. He was just reading his newspaper, while Elena Berezhnaya , Ekaterina Gordeeva, Kyoko Ina , and Jamie Sale came skating out dressed in pretty , poofy like house wife dresses. They all smiled and batted their eye lashes at Steven. He just completely ignored them . While the performance Step-Sisters went on, the ladies tried their hardest to impress him and get some attention. They skated to a song that talked about staying young and beautiful . When they had it with his treatment, the house wife dresses came off . The women had little black dresses on now that were very sexy. Guess who decided to see them now , yep Steven. I was proud of them when they piled their frilly , girly dresses on him. He fell down , and I thought that was funny .

The song they skated to at that point talked about how sisters do it for themselves. I firmly nodded my head in agreement with that . I usually could leave my problems and cares at home, however , during that song my mind brought them up. I thought of the job that I still had to look for, and the college I had to find, so that I could finish my associate's degree in Early Childhood Education. Most importantly , I wanted to start taking steps to get out and living on my own . I knew that I had to do it for myself. After that empowering number, Todd Eldredge came out with a small insect , with a very big talent . However , tragedy struck and I could not help thinking about some news my sister in Indiana told my dad. I just happened to overhear and then my dad filled me in. My sister's cat jumped into the dryer . She closed the door and well, the cat lost all of it's 9 live's. Poor cat, and poor small bug that had amazing talent , may you both rest in peace. Todd was heart broken, and Michael Weiss was torn up yet some how he found the strength to carry on. He skated to a well known song called Faith. Yes, some members of my section were singing along to Faith. He skated very well and the performance was energetic, I clapped and "Woo'ed."

Then the tiny insect had some mourning skaters come give him their respects. But, Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze certainly livened things up again as the music was pumping , to a Dance Mix. Anton was a big rap star with all of the right moves, he was very good. I believed that he could be a big rap star , or maybe just dance in a rap video. Elena came out and strutted her stuff, I enjoyed both of their talents very much. Then the music changed to a French or an Italian tune and the two changed costumes and the the tempo. Then we went back to the disco days, over all this performance was a show stopper!

There was a funeral for their little star , before Alexei came out. Then Alexei came out and he put on his shades, and stood behind two of the ladies. I really could not tell who they were because all three of them were in pitch, black, darkness. The lights came back on, and Alexei skated out a little more towards the middle. I shouted as loud as I could, "YOU MAKE ME WANT TO SHOUT, ALEXEI!" The ladies that were beside me, but moved in front of me, chuckled they liked that. I also believed that I was the only one yelling out to Alexei. I did not hear much yelling going on before the numbers. Alot of "Woooo's " , but not much words. Of course maybe I imagined I was the only one . I was not going to let distance stop me . He was very funny , his back was facing us and the voice said, "Hey you want to dance?" Alexei swiveled his hips and then he moved them all around. Then he did this really fast turn or spin and when he faced us, he acted like he was very, very, dizzy.I laughed and then Alexei skated way over to the other side and as Shout played, he did some fancy , fast movements with his feet.
I also saw his high Russian split jumps. Then he skated over into the on-ice seats that were waaaaayyyyyyyyyy over clear on that end. I could not see, but I knew from a picture I had seen , that he had laid down on two ladie's laps , I could see his legs sticking out LOL. 


 To Be Continued

The crowd went crazy , at that point. He stood back up and blew them or one of them a kiss.  Again I was in the paw paw patch . But, from what I observed he seemed to blow the kiss flippantly, at least that is how I saw it. He went over to a corner and another on-ice section and did a perfect triple Axel or toe loop, but then again I really could not see the jump up close. I do know that he landed his jumps clean.

After that, on "A little bit softer now, a little bit softer now" Alexei like walked down on his legs as he went lower and lower , then he slowly rose when the music continued to get louder. He did skate in front of my section when we all sang, "Hey, Hey, Hey, " While we sang those words and repeated them again Alexei did a "raise the roof " motion with his hands. He was a character and at the end I tried to stand up , and hold up my poster, and shouted, " I Love You, Alexei !" However, the two ladies stood up in front of me so I tried to step over to where they were not blocking my view. But, he was already facing the section across from mine. I noticed that there were some banners, I might experiement with that next year . Like scan a picture of my poster and blow it up and some how transfer it on to the banner hmmm. ;)

I was the only one with a poster again that year as well.  During the transition number, I watched some one walking through all of the on -ice sections, and then I noticed the security guard with a lit up wand kind of thing. When he shown the light on the person's face, I realized it was Alexei ! I know I should have made a bee line for that tunnel that was right by me , and I should have said, "Can you look at this please, Alexei I made it for you." Yeah then the security guard would have been like, "Get back to your seat!" Then he would have embarrassed me in front of Alexei . No, I stayed glued to my seat and behaved, besides Alexei walked pretty fast to the stairs , so he was in a hurry. I understood that too.

After Alexei passed by my section and into the lit area of the tunnel, and I could not see him any more I turned my attention to Jamie Sale and David Pelletier , as they skated to a moving song called Who Wants To Live Forever . The performance was flowing and very moving. Sarah Hughes skated to one of my favorite songs, Over the Rainbow. She was very graceful and lovely. Todd Eldredge was very moving as he skated to Forevermore. Then before I knew it the finale, Dream On was upon me. I loved the costumes and the choreography. Alexei was wonderful and I loved his hair, he had it my favorite way again light, natural brown awwwwwwww.  He shook hands with the on -ice section that was near my section, after the cast was snowed on, the snow was bright and beautiful. I saw a railing and I quickly made my way to it.

However, he was already with the cast . I stood there and shouted, "The OWS Loves You, Alexei !" I did that for my scrapbook team. The cast bowed their heads , I saw my last chance go up in smoke, but I still tried again with my poster during the waves. I even blew Alexei a kiss, but before the lights went back up of course. Then the show was over , I couldn't lie I was very sad that Alexei could not see the poster. Last year the seats and timing were perfect. This year was just different , but I loved Alexei and the cast and Imagination. Before we went home, my mom wanted a COKE and we were amazed to discover that all of the fast food places around the TD Waterhouse Centre were all closed ! Only the drive-thrus were opened, finally after some more driving, we found a Burger King, we talked about the show. We also talked about the show in the car, and we discussed how we all felt that Alexei should have skated more than Michael Weiss , that was just our humble opinion. Later on we finally made it home and I finally went to sleep.

While I worked on writing my review the next day, I remembered a transition number I really liked and that I thought was sweet.  Anyway, I remembered that Sarah Hughes was waiting on the ice, and Todd came out with white flowers and he gave them to her. She held them and he stood beside her , and this voice said, "She loves me, She loves me not. She loves me" Todd picked off the petals one by one and he got really excited when he thought the last petal was going to be, "She loves me!" But, the last petal was , "She loves me not." He looked so sad , then Sarah skated away from him with her back turned to him .
She did some magic and the flowers were like new again and red . The voice exclaimed, "She loves me!" Sarah smiled sweetly at him and the two skated off arm in arm to the tunnel . Awwwwwwww. I just can't recall which performance that followed, or what came after the transition number. But, I just thought that I would add that in.

The Review For 2006 Will Be Posted Soon!

Stay Tuned!