Stephen Raymond - Rants, Raves, and Randomness!

After 4 days of traveling I have finally settled into my new surroundings in Orlando. It all started Monday after a few tearful goodbyes. I loaded up DMT GLD, and headed to Ohio to visit my friends Derek and Kristi at their gym in Cinci-nasty. I showed up in time to watch the elite athletes workout, then afterwards we headed to a little sports bar called "Putters" to eat junk food and watch the uneven bar finals. (I ordered deep fried pickles in case your wondering, which later I would regret after a serious case of IBS occurred) Anyways about the gymnastics...I have to say Nastia truly deserved to be olympic champion on that event. I am not just saying this because I am American...I love Nastia and her Kommie self, but I actually like He Kexin too, and think her routine is far superior than Nastia's when she hits it. However she did not hit that night. There were a few missed handstands, a form break on the release move, loss of swing in her hect to high bar, and she looked drunk when she landed her dismount. I'm sorry but they once again crowned the wrong champion. Nastia scored higher than He in both rounds of the team competition, and since they have the same degree of difficulty it should be a no brainer! Nastia had one tiny mistake, and to the untrained eye you couldn't even tell. On top of that she had a clean dismount. I just don't get it, seems like the judging was a bit off the entire olympics. Hmmm maybe they will change the code of points like they did after the Athens fiasco we'll see.

So after that we got to Kristi's house, and I love her house...it reminds me of the house I grew up in when I was a kid. Her house is on about 5 acres of land, and you take this little dirt road down to her house. It's cute, there is even a little barn and everything. We stayed up late and facebook stalked pretty much everyone we knew in USA Gymnastics. Good times! I got about 5 hours of sleep and woke up and headed down to my second stop, Alabama.

It seemed like I was on I-75 for an eternity. I must of made about 20 pit stops to relieve my overactive bladder. I think all the Mt. dew I was drinking had something to do with that : ) Finally I made it down to Huntsville, and stopped by the Matrix Gym. This is where Joy is grooming her next group of up and coming trampoline stars. It was great to see Joy, and watch her work with her team. I got to see all the drills and exercises she does with her team, and it got me super excited to get down to Florida and start working with my new athletes. After practice was over I went over to Joy's house, and met her two HUGE dogs! They were very friendly and liked sniffing my crotch haha! We could barely keep our eyes open as we watched Shawn and Jonathan compete in the event finals. I was tired from driving all day, and she was tired from working all day. It was time for bed. I got a good 8 hrs in, which felt so good! We stopped for a coffee in the morning and then I got back on the road.

It took about 10 hrs for me to get from Huntsville to Jacksonville, which is where my mom lives. I was a little nervous since I was heading straight in the direction of tropical storm Fay :/ The rain wasn't so bad, but the wind was a little bit crazy. Fay was sending DMT GLD in and out of lanes like whoa. Thank god I had all my junk piled in the back for extra weight, or I'd be all over the place! I haven't seen my mom since I first left for Michigan and that was two years ago. So it was good to see her. Spending the night in my old bedroom was a little strange, being that it's been about a decade since I've been in there! My stay was short and sweet, because I was super anxious to finally get to my final destination.

I drove the last leg of my trip through the worst of Fay. It only took 3 hrs to get from J-ville to O-town (I know i'm so street) But I made all in one piece. I unloaded my car, and got all situated in the place I will be staying till I find my own place. I miss all my friends back in Michigan, but I'm so excited for this new chapter! Katie is coming to visit next week, and Steven, and Sandy shortly. Can't wait!